Dillmann, Razia and Valsecchi discuss their race

GP2 Series: Tom, congratulations! Fantastic result today but those last three laps must have been so hard... How was it from the car?Tom Dillmann: At the beginning I had a really good pace. The car felt great so I was pushing and I had quite a good gap, but in the last seven laps I starting to struggle with the rear tyres. And I saw Razia getting closer and the last three laps he was in my gearbox. I had quite a lot of pressure but I kept cool and at the end, I won. It’s great.GP2 Series: Razia made a couple of mistakes as well...Dillmann: When you are alone, it’s always easy to push, but once you are close to someone, you start to lose downforce and you start to make mistakes. I was really careful to have a good exit all the time and he had no chance to overtake me and it worked well.GP2 Series: You had an okay start, good enough to keep the lead. How was it for you?Dillmann: Yeah, the start was okay but Ericsson had a slightly better one. I took the inside to block him and then I took my line and it was fine. I saw he was fighting with someone at the beginning so I could make a gap.GP2 Series: You had a great race pace today, but clearly lost some of it towards the end. Was that due to tyre degradation?Dillmann: Yeah, it felt really good. Maybe it was because of my lack of experience that I pushed a bit too much at the beginning and at the end, I lost quite a lot of pace. Maybe next time I have to keep the tyres alive a bit longer, but it worked well today.GP2 Series: GP2 race winner. How does that sound?Dillmann: It’s great because the start of the season has been difficult so far. To finally leave Bahrain as a winner is great. I think the season has started for me now. In the races I showed that I can be quite fast and I know how to overtake, but in qualifying, we have had some problems, especially during free practice and because of that I could not really learn the tracks. Then in qualifying, it was really difficult. But now we go to tracks that I know so it will be different. It will be still about the guessing game regarding the tyres because we’re going to Barcelona now with another compound, so there is still a lot to learn for a rookie, but we will see.--GP2 Series: Luiz, P2 today. A great result, but you were really close to an easy better one. What was missing?Luiz Razia: It can always be better isn’t it? I think we have done a good race though. At the start, I was squeezed on the first corner which was the trickiest part of the race. Then I overtook Ericsson. My car was not performing really when in the middle of the race. But then in the end I think Dillmann lost a bit of pace because of the rear tyres and we had a little bit left and we caught him. But I think it was too late. I really tried on the last three laps, but I also had tyre degradation and I was not able to overtake him. He did a good job and made no mistake.GP2 Series: It’s still a good result in terms of the drivers’ standings. We’re headed to Barcelona. What could change there?Razia: I think we need to keep working hard to keep the good rhythm. We have been in the top five since Malaysia and we need to keep that because the championship is going to be long and the European races will be another story because the tracks are so different. We hope to keep the same level and we will see who will be first by the end of the season.GP2 Series: You seem to always have a good race pace, but you’re missing a bit in qualifying. What can you change in that area?Razia: Yeah I think our qualifying were compromised here. We should have been in the top three each time but because of traffic we were unable to achieve that. You know, you have only one good lap on the tyres and if you get traffic on that lap you can easily lose two or three tenths which is what happened here. On the data we saw that we were three tenths quicker on qualifying yesterday but on the last corner I got a car that made me move on the dirty part of the track and lost time there. I hope to get everything right in Barcelona and in Monaco next month.--GP2 Series: Davide, P3 today. Another great result. Today was all about overtaking and moving up the field. How was your race?Davide Valsecchi: Yeah it was a really hard race because I had to fight all race long. We had a good start. It was not fast but I was a bit lucky in the first corner because van der Garde span besides me and I could avoid him. But then it as a great race. I was stuck behind Haryanto and I was not able to overtake him. Then Gutierrez surprised me and passed me! Then I could finally overtake Haryanto. Then there was Ericsson with some problem on the front rose and he was not easy to pass. It was a hard race but at the end, I overtook him and six laps before the end I caught up with Gutierrez and I passed him for the podium. It’s a great result.GP2 Series: By the time you reached third place the leaders were too far away, but you did have the pace...Valsecchi: Actually, when I got third, they were nine seconds in front of me and because my rear tyres were not so good then, I had to be careful. But Dillmann and Razia were really fast and I think Dillmann especially deserved the victory. Maybe if I had been in Razia’s position, I would have been a bit more aggressive because two laps before the end, for the win, I would have pushed hard to take the victory, even if it meant I made a mistake and missed the corner, but you never know! I was not there today.GP2 Series: Still P3 is a fantastic results. No win today?Valsecchi: (Laughs) But today was a great race you know. I had to fight. I was in the pack. So it was good fun! I really hope to go to Barcelona and to be performing well and fight with the top drivers. We’ve worked well so far and we will try our best to stay in the top 5 or 6 and have a good race there. It will be another story. You never know. The only one who’s been competitive in all the races so far has been Razia. We will try to be good in Barcelona and stay consistent too and keep fighting.