Thoughts from Matsushita, Vandoorne and Sirotkin
GP2 Series: Nobuharu Matsushita GP2 race winner. How does that sound?
Nobuharu Matsuhita: It sounds amazing. It’s my first year in GP2 and also my first time on this track. I had no experience compared to most of the other drivers. It’s a good feeling to be able to win today.
GP2 Series: You started from reverse pole today and remained in control of the rest of the pack until the chequered flag. How was it from the car?
Nobuharu: The car was just amazing from the beginning until the end. On Friday, I made a big mistake in qualifying. I had a flat stop so I couldn’t attack. That’s why I qualified P21. It was my worst qualifying result of the year. But yesterday, I made a great recover and today I could start from P1. The car was just amazing. I made a good start and after that I only had to control everything until the end.
GP2 Series: There was a huge drop of temperatures between yesterday and today. How did this affect the tyre management?
Nobuharu: It’s true that it was huge, something like 20 degrees. In Silverstone, we also had a gap between the Saturday and the Sunday in terms of temperatures. We learnt from this. And today, I just worked on the set up a bit and it turned out that we got it right because I had no issue managing my tyres.
GP2 Series: Looking ahead, next round will be in Spa. This will be another new track for you. What are your expectations?
Nobuharu: I have already worked on the simulator to prepare for this round. Also, it will be a home race for Stoffel there. I know he will be really quick. I will learn from him and try to beat him. This win is a real confident boost. I need to keep on pushing.
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GP2 Series: Stoffel, P2 today. Another podium finish to add to your season tally. How was your race today?
Stoffel Vandoorne: Today was first of all a really good team result: ART 1-2. It’s always nice to have a 1-2 finish for the team. It feels good to go into the summer break with that kind of result in the pocket. I remember winning the sprint race here last year. It’s a good feeling when you can finish that first part of the season with a victory. Even if I didn’t win today, it’s still a very good team result. This weekend was quite good for me. Even after some struggle in the race yesterday with some mistakes, I think today we recovered quite well. I started from P4. I had a good start today. I was in P2 at turn 1. I pushed really hard on my teammate at the beginning then decided de drop back a little bit and go for fastest lap in the race. It’s always good to score these two bonus points. The tyres were a bit tough to manage today, but we still managed to hold. The top 3 finished quite ahead of the rest of the pack. Overall, it’s been a pretty good weekend for us. It could have been a bit better, but if we look at the standings, we can’t really complain…
GP2 Series: Next round will be at home for you in Spa. Last year you did pole position…
Stoffel: I came very close to the victory last year and just missed out two or three laps from the end. Hopefully I will be able to take my revenge and win there this year. It would be a really good feeling to win for the fans and for the home crowd.
GP2 Series: With Rossi failing to score points this weekend and Haryanto moving up to second place in the standings, is this something you keep a close eye on?
Stoffel: Of course we look at what the others do, but we mainly concentrate on our own job. I think that’s worked out pretty well since the start of the season. The good thing is that we keep on scoring quite big points every weekend. That’s the main target for the remainder of the season. I want to win some more races and then we’ll see who will challenge us in the end.
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GP2 Series: Sergey, another third place today. It’s been quite a good weekend for you…
Sergey: Yes! We definitely were not expecting this after our qualifying. Of course, we worked and analysed why we could not qualify better. We found some performance after that, but we did not think that we would have that pace during the races. Our car was really good straight away. I had a good start. I gained some positions. Then, I was just managing the pace and the gap in front and behind. I saved my tyres. With seven laps to go, I started to push and I caught Stoffel, but this is a demanding track and when you stay too close to the car in front, you start destroying your tyres. Actually that’s what happened with me. After two laps I lost some grip. It’s not the easiest track to overtake people. I didn’t want to risk these important points for us and there was no real opportunity to overtake Stoffel. That was the right decision to finish the race third and take the points.
GP2 Series: That’s two more podiums before going to Spa…
Sergey: Yeah. Now we go back to Italy with the team. We will analyse all the data of the first half of the season. I really like Spa. I think it suits our car better than this one in Budapest. I will be driving there better than I was driving here I think. My goal is to finish higher there than I finished here.
GP2 Series: So you will not shave your beard during the summer?
Sergey: You know that as long as we’re getting good results, I will keep it (Laughs)! I promised you that I will shave it for the Prize Giving ceremony. I will keep my promise
