Thoughts from Vandoorne, Sirotkin and Lynn

GP2 Series: Welcome to today’s press conference following GP2 Series feature race at Red Bull Ring. Joining us is Series leader and race winner Stoffel Vandoorne from ART Grand Prix. In second place we have Sergey Sirotkin from Rapax and in third place we have Alex Lynn from DAMS. Starting with you Stoffel: another feature win for you and did not look easy to get. How was it from the car?

Stoffel Vandoorne: Yeah it was another good result for us. I’m really happy and proud about it. It was not easy: I really had to fight hard for it especially around the pit stop time. First of all, I locked up in turn 2. I had a massive flat spot which really compromised my run on the option tyres in the beginning. I could barely see anything because of the vibrations. Still, I managed to pull a little gap to Sergey which was important. I tried to box quite early. We did not have a great pit stop. The pit exit as well and the outlap was really difficult with the prime tyres to get them up to temperature. I fell behind Sergey and Nobu. I quickly passed my teammate and then I had to put a great fight with Sergey. It was close at some point, but it was really important for me to get back into the lead and go and catch the others. By the time I was in the traffic, I knew Alex was driving really competitive latpimes so I had to try and make my way through. It was not easy: the drivers were quite difficult to pass. On a couple occasions, I almost ran off track and came close to a crash. I just managed to stay on track and once I got clear off them, the pace was really good. The prime tyres worked really well for us. The balance of the car was really good as well. For me, it was just to try and manage the gap to Alex. I thought he was going to fight for P2 or P1 definitely depending on how big the gap was going to be after the pit stop. I tried to push really hard and in the end I think we won with eleven seconds on Sergey. It was a good race for us. We will see what tomorrow brings.

GP2 Series: You think this win today has taught you more than the previous ones?

Stoffel: I think it was one of the hardest of the season because I had to battle my way through the field. It’s always a good feeling when you manage to do that. It’s difficult to overtake. Today showed that we were capable of doing it and it’s a good feeling to come out on top after that.

GP2 Series: You’ll start from P8 tomorrow and tyre degradation here is quite low. What are your expectations?

Stoffel: We’ll see how we get on. Our pace today was really good so we should carry that forward to tomorrow. There are a lot of quick guys in front of us as well so when everybody is driving behind each other and is within reach in the DRS zones it’s going to be very hard to overtake. We will see. We still have to manage the tyres a little bit tomorrow. The last laps could be quite interesting. We should be in for another good result tomorrow.

GP2 Series: Great job today.

Stoffel: Thank you.

GP2 Series: Sergey, P2 today. That’s your best result in GP2 so far. We’ve seen since yesterday that you’re quite quick on this track. How was your race today?

Sergey Sirotkin: We’ve been quick straight away on this track, yes. The race was not easy: we had a good pace. I was struggling maybe a little on the supersoft tyres. We tried to pit early. On the prime tyres, I had to fight with the other cars that had started on different compounds so that was quite tough. It was not easy to overtake them quickly without losing a lot of time. We knew that we had to be quick in the last couple of laps because the guys on a different strategy could have a good pace on the supersoft in the end. But the race went quite smoothly really except for the couple of laps when I fought for P1. Apart from that, everything went our way. The tyre degradation went under control up to the end even if we had to fight our way through the field. We’re very happy with this result. We were quite good during the winter season, but after that everything went upside down in the first races. So we came back stronger in Monaco and we kept working in the right direction for this round. We’re closer now. There’s much more to come, I’m sure so I need to thank the guys at Rapax for the massive job they’re doing.

GP2 Series: Like you said, Monaco and here we’ve seen a difference in terms of performance from the first two rounds of the season. What have you changed exactly?

Sergey: Well, I mean, we were quite good during the pre-season test and we didn’t even show our true potential then. We expected much more from the first races, but because of some reasons it all went upside down. We just worked harder and made sure that everything would come our way again. Our results in the first two rounds were not due to bad luck. Since Monaco, we’re quick straight away from free practice. It’s important to be one of the quickest from the get go and keep the momentum through qualifying as well. We need to make sure we make no mistake which can affect the weekend.

GP2 Series: What are your objectives for tomorrow’s race starting from seventh?

Sergey: If I do the same start as we did today, it’s quite possible that I can fight for the podium. It could be better to have a longer run after turn 1. It could have helped today as well… Tomorrow is going to be a long race staying on one compound. We need to make sure that the tyres will stay alive for the last few laps. I’m really looking forward to it.

GP2 Series: Well good luck for tomorrow.

Sergey: Thanks.

GP2 Series: Alex, P3 and a different story for you. You started on an opposite strategy than Stoffel and Sergey. What made you decide to start the race on Medium tyres?

Alex Lynn: Honestly, we thought it was the fastest way to the end of the race. I still think it was. To be honest we were very surprised to see Stoffel and Nobu on the front row on the option and same with Sergey on the option. We thought we were in for a good result right from then because we knew our pace was strong on the prime and on the option. It was just all about making the passes, getting into the front and then being able to put fast laps. It was not quite enough to do a bit more but you know ninth to third after a very bad start as well, that was quite a good recovery.

GP2 Series: You stayed out for over 30 laps on the Medium tyres. How did you manage to keep them alive for so long whilst keeping a strong pace all throughout ?

Alex: To be honest the car was flying! We were quite unlucky with the qualifying yesterday. We should have been much higher than that. But even from free practice we knew that our pace on the prime tyres was really strong. So that’s why we needed to exploit it even with all of the fighting I did in the earlier laps, the tyres still had a lot of life left. In the end because I think the car was so fast and I was in tune with my car it allowed us to go that long and still having the pace.

GP2 Series: And then on the option tyres, you had a great pace – you got fastest lap, but unfortunately, you could not catch Stoffel and Sergey.

Alex: Yeah, the option was taking longer to switch than I anticipated. Even leaving the pitlane I was really surprised how little the tyres were switching on. But, you know, from what we had I think third place was a good result. It’s just a shame I could not start higher up.

GP2 Series: It’s an even better result considering how Monte Carlo unfolded for you…

Alex: Yeah Monte Carlo was a difficult story. This weekend was a lot more normal regarding the pace that we should have. I’m just ruing not making the best of qualifying yesterday and I think we could have been in for a better result today.

GP2 Series: What about tomorrow?

Alex: I think we’re feeling very optimistic. We did a lot of overtaking today. The pace was really fast so I think with a  clean start we could be looking not too bad…