When I turned onto the main straight at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, I could see a small puff of white smoke out the back of my car. I thought nothing of it, dismissing it as a small amount of oil being burnt through the exhaust. 

Next time around, I looked up to see the smoke again, but it was a lot more this time. It was apparent that some oil was leaking from somewhere and burning on the exhaust. The flag marshall immediately showed me the black flag, and I had to leave the track.

When I got back to the pits, smoke was billowing from under the bonnet, and on further investigation, the power steering had burst a pipe and sprayed power steering fluid everywhere. I cleaned it up but couldn't quite see where it was leaking from.

Often, when you lift your bonnet in the pit lane, many co-drivers are willing to help fix the issue. Some of these oitlane mechanics had experienced this issue before and suggested that I disconnect the power steering. Another driver suggested that the easiest way to do this is to cut through the power steering belt.

With the help from the pitlane mechanics, I was able to continue on the track, but I had to wrestle with heavy steering for the remainder of the day, which was much harder than I thought.