Ecstatic Piquet Surprises Himself

The Team Brazil driver had gone into the weekend in a bullish mood by saying he could qualify in the top three, however after taking pole he secured a maximum points score with both race victories and the fastest lap of the day.

Piquet, who made a daring move in the feature race to overtake Australia's Will Power around the outside of Surtees corner to take the lead, told Autosport-Atlas: "I knew he was braking very early there because all the laptimes showed I was catching up on braking.

"I knew I would be competitive, but I didn't know I'd be this good.

"I didn't think it was possible to overtake at Brands Hatch, but I did it. Maybe leading the whole the race would have been less fun than doing what I did. I dropped positions at the pitstop and it was an amazing race.

"Power made a mistake and I did a perfect corner," the Brazilian added. "I went to the inside but he blocked the inside and then I went to the outside and it worked. I braked very late.

"I didn't know I could do it but because I had had such a bad exit - I knew I had to try because I'm I was much quicker around I tried the outside."