IT was a disappointing start for James Walker in the first two races of the 2005 Formula Three season, despite racking up his first points.

Racing at Donington Park yesterday, Walker, who is driving for the Fortec team this season, qualified in eighth place on the grid for both events but finished tenth and eighth.

‘It wasn’t a terrific weekend,’ Walker admitted.

‘It was really disappointing, but I had a bad start in the first race and dropped back to 14th, although I did get back up to tenth.

‘In the second race I had a much better start and moved up to seventh but was overtaken on the last lap and finished eighth.’ Walker was six-tenths of a second off the pace for pole position.

In the qualifying sessions he had gearbox problems, which meant that he had to hold the car in gear at times while steering with one hand, and although the problem was fixed for the actual races, it meant that he started much further back on the grid than he had expected.

‘After having such good results and being fastest in pre-season testing, it was all very disappointing,’ Walker said.

‘It was doubly frustrating because we’ve been on the pace all through testing, but we couldn’t get the car to turn into corners and couldn’t get the power down early enough on the way out of them, so I was losing time everywhere.’ Nevertheless, he said the results were certainly an improvement on last season.

‘We’re testing at Thruxton this week, and the weekend after next we’ll be racing at Spa in Belgium,’ he said.

‘It’s a circuit I like, having raced there last year.

There will be a few of the F3 drivers going who weren’t there last year so I will have the advantage – and I intend to use it.

‘I am determined to do better next time out and hope I’ll be able to cancel out the first two races by the end of the season.’