Thoughts from Stoffel Vandoorne, Nobuharu Matsushita and Pierre Gasly
GP2 Series: Welcome to today’s press conference following GP2 Series qualifying session. Joining us is Series leader Stoffel Vandoorne from ART Grand Prix. Also with us today we have Nobuharu Matsushita also from ART and Pierre Gasly from DAMS. Starting with you Stoffel: another qualifying session, another pole position. This is your seventh in GP2 and that’s a record for the Series. How does it feel?
Stoffel Vandoorne: It sounds pretty good I would say. Today was another good day for us. It’s good to be back on pole position after missing it out in Monaco. Practice was quite good this morning. I felt I had a good pace. I had a bit of bad luck with traffic and we tried different set ups as well. We knew the direction to take in qualifying this afternoon. Everything played out pretty well. On the first run, it was about learning about the supersoft tyres. It’s the first time we have them here. It was a bit new for everybody. We could do more push laps than expected. For the second run, we tried to put everything in place and it was good enough for another pole position.
GP2 Series: You had to work hard for it though. You secured it at the end of the second stint. Were you worried at any point during the session?
Stoffel: I had a good position after the first set of tyres and I knew I had a bit of traffic on the first run. I felt that if I could put everything together, I could manage pole position. I knew there were a lot of quick guys out there and it’s always very close on this track. I needed a clear lap, to bring the tyres up to the right temperatures and I knew I could do it without any mistake.
GP2 Series: Obviously, starting from pole is the best place to start from for tomorrow’s race. What are your expectations?
Stoffel: Yes, starting from pole is always the best place so we will see where we’re going from there. I need a good start and then manage the tyres. It’s not going to be as hard as some other tracks, but still the supersoft might be a bit tricky on long runs so we will see how it’s going to play. First I need a good start and then I can control the pack. If it rains, it will also be nice. I like driving in the rain. We’ll see what happens!
GP2 Series: Congratulations and good luck for tomorrow.
Stoffel: thanks.
GP2 Series: Nobu, P2 today. That’s the same result you achieved in the first round in Bahrain. How was your session today?
Nobuharu Matsushita: It was really great. It’s my first time on this track. The free practice was a bit difficult because I couldn’t push compared to Stoffel. During the qualifying, I knew that I needed to attack 100% and then I could achieve a great result today. P2 is not so bad I think! I think what I did not manage in Bahrain during the race was managing the tyres. So for tomorrow, I have to do a better job to score some good points and finish on the podium.
GP2 Series: What do you think made the difference between you and Stoffel today?
Nobuharu: I think I did a big mistake at turn 6 on my lap before my best lap. I think if I had been able to put everything together, I could have finished closer to Stoffel. Also in Sector 3, I was missing quite a bit. I don’t have enough experience I think.
GP2 Series: Still P2 is a great result. Good job today.
Nobuharu: Thank you.
GP2 Series: Pierre, you finished third today. How did your session go?
Pierre Gasly: It was okay although it was a bit difficult because we had a tricky free practice. We had a fuel problem so I did not get a lot of mileage on track. And after that, as Stoffel said, it’s the first time we’ve used the supersoft so we discovered a bit on the first stint how they were. It was pretty good for us. We had a good pace today. I’m really happy with the car. On the second stint, I went out on my push lap as I lost the brakes. During three or four laps, I had to cool down the brakes. I was really worried. I almost wanted to pit at some point because I thought it would not come back. On the final lap, it came back and I gave everything. Finally I could find quite a lot of time and I could recover quite well on that final lap. So yeah I’m very happy to be on the second row, but I think today we had the potential to do more. It’s always frustrating that when you know you have the car and everything in your power to be on pole, but to miss it because of a small problem. But at least, we know that the potential is here and now we’re focused on the race. We’ll give these guys (Stoffel and Nobu) a tough time tomorrow!
GP2 Series: We should expect you to fight for the win then…
Pierre: Yeah exactly especially because at the beginning of the season the degradation has been quite difficult for me to manage. As Stoffel said, on this track, the degradation is not that high so I should be able to score some good points. We need to find a good strategy and keep the pace we had in qualifying. Then it should be fine.
