Imola was obviously a very successful weekend for me. Going there, I wouldn't have thought I could finish third and fourth but the team worked together really well all through the weekend, and my first Italian result of the season is a testament to the teams strength.

We didn't really know where we were with 70 kilos of success ballast, as we have never driven as heavy a car before. The tyres we had for first free practice were old; at the beginning of the session, we were miles off. But during the session, we managed to improve the balance; at the end, we were eight tenths off Gabriele Tarquini, and the balance felt pretty good already. We knew we were going to hit the set-up window.

To get the car dialled in to the weight, we had to play with the balance quite a lot. Not only had we never had so much weight onboard; we don't normally have so much weight rear-ward either. It took some time to getting used to it.

We suffered quite a bit from instability at the rear to start with. But once we hit the sweet spot of the set-up, one good thing that came out of it was that the corner weights were absolutely spot on.

Before qualifying, I said to myself: If we we could get P6, I'd be very pleased. But then the team pulled all the stops and set us up for a very good slipstreaming train.

Nicola Larini drove at the front, Alain Menu in the middle, with me in the back to give me the best tow possible.

This enabled me to qualify fourth, just beside Alain. At the start of race 1, Rickard Rydell braked very early and slowed Alain behind him right down so I went round the outside of Alain to take third place behind Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell.

We already knew that James Thompson was massively quick, though: his prediction time in qualifying would have earnt him pole easily but he didnt manage to put his best sector times all into one perfect lap.

It was clear, though, that Thommo was flying. At the end of race 1, when I was trying to defend third place against him, he pushed me all the way. I was a little upset about that because I knew he had a good pace, so he could have passed me cleanly. But in the end, there's nothing to complain about, as I was still very pleased with fourth.

For the second race, we changed the car's front end slightly to give me more front-end grip. This worked very well. I was in a position to challenge Joerg Mueller for second. I had a huge advantage mainly under braking. The BMWs were really struggling with their gear ratios. But just as I caught up to him, the chequered flag came out.

After Imola, we're now only 19 points off the the championship lead. We moved into fourth place, as best of the non-Seat drivers, which is almost a championship in itself this year.

If we manage another good weekend like this next time out, who knows what might still be possible come the season finale in Macau.