Bird, Richelmi and Dillmann discuss their race

GP2 Series: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the post feature race press conference in Silverstone. Joining us today, winner of the race Sam Bird for RUSSIAN TIME. In second place, we have Stephane Richelmi for DAMS and in third we have Tom Dillmann from RUSSIAN TIME as well. Starting with you Sam, congratulations for a beautiful win today. To be fair though, it looked like your start was a bit slower than your rivals. What happened?Sam Bird: Absolutely. I got a little bit throttle happy at the start and got a little of wheel spin. Having said that, I would not have been in a position to take the lead at the exit of Turn 2 had I had a good start. So, actually it paid out ok for me. It was a bit of a saving grace that we did not get the best start. After that, I was able to control the race as I wanted. It was very good.GP2 Series: So to be clear, you mean that your poor start put you on the inside of Turn 2?Sam: Absolutely. I was able to position my car how I wanted to get the best drive out to Turn 2 and grab the lead from Marcus and Stefano. From there on out, before the pit stop, I was able to really control the race and really pull a very big gap to the people behind me. I could pit when I wanted to. And, from there on, just control the race how I wanted. I got some traffic in the middle of the race which held me up quite a bit with other cars on other strategies. Obviously, we are fighting for positions at that point of the race so there is no blue flags, but at that point I am not racing against them, so I had to be careful around them and not make any stupid moves because theyre defending for their position. They could quite easily take me out. I just bided my time, lost quite a bit of time, but still, track position was mine. And I took the car to the finish.GP2 Series: You had the exact opposite tyre strategy from your teammate. Looking at the drivers at the top of the grid, you had a similar oneexpect for Stphane hereand it looks like it was the right one to win todaySam: Yeah. Its the one that most people use if theyre starting up at the front because its kind of known its the safest. If youre on the first few rows of the grid, normally you go Option/Prime, then the further you go down the grid, you get people starting on other strategies. We saw obviously Stphane doing a different strategy and Tom trying something different as well and both worked beautifully for them. However, my strategy worked well for me. It means that Im in a very good position to score some more points tomorrow which is perfect as because the main two championship rivals have not scored today.GP2 Series: How was the tyre degradation for you because sure, you could control the race a lot, but you did have a lot of traffic after your pit stop?Sam: The front left tyre was an issue because it was very overworked throughout the race and under a lot of stress around this circuit. I can speak for everybody the fact that the understeer got more and more as the race went on.  Think its clear to see on everybodys car. However, we will work Tom and myself with the boys back at RUSSIAN TIME tonight to make sure we have a better racecar for tomorrow.GP2 Series: It is a fantastic result for newcomers RUSSIAN TIME today and youre closing in on the Series leaders in both the teams and the drivers standings after todaySam: Ive got to say thanks to the team because we are getting better and faster and improving all the time. Theyre working exceptionally hard. As I said to you, they are the first people coming to the track every day and the last ones to leave. Probably tonight, it will be the same because there is a real energy around the team right now. They really want to win. I am delighted for Tom because hes been as quickest as me for most of the year, and he deserves a podium and Im sure this will be a snowball effect for him to real push on and grab many more podiums and probably wins from now on.GP2 Series: What are your hopes for tomorrow? Because both title rivals will be starting from the back for once That must be a really good opportunity for you.Sam: I want to be able to capitalise on this situation. These guys do not DNF very often. Felipe has a run now of seven or eight races in a row where hes been in the top 4. That stopped today. Weve able to capitalise with winning and the same for Stefano. Hes been in the top 6 every single race. Today was the today he did. And we won. So tomorrow we need to capitalise on this and score as many points as we possibly can and hopefully we will be closer in the championship going to Nurburgring.GP2 Series: Thank you Sam. Good luck for tomorrow. Stephane, what a race for you today! You had a daring and aggressive strategy today. Starting on hard tyres, how was it from the car?Stephane Richelmi: From the car, it was not really a problem, because everyone in front of me was on Medium and I started on Hard tyres so of course I could stay out longer than them. I was a bit faster than Nasr but not able to overtake him. Then, everyone pitted and I was then able to push and build a gap. We wanted to stay out a bit longer and take even more risks because we know that with this strategy, were in danger for tomorrows race. We knew the risks, but starting P5 today, we aimed for the podium and the win. Unfortunately, I could not stay any longer and we stopped in the middle of the race I think. I was then in a bit of traffic like Sam. I want to congratulate him because I think he had a better strategy then us today for sure and I was not able to win. He built a good gap. I was getting closer at the end, but I was not able to catch him. Second today is still very good for the team. We deserve. We will see about tomorrow!GP2 Series: You had also a busy race fighting positions with Stefano. It was a nice fightStephane: Yes, it was a clean fight for sure. I had the advantage because my tyres were almost new and he had already six or seven laps on his. He had to defend, but he did it really well. He was not going off line, he made no mistake either. So when I saw the possibility to overtake him, I went for it and succeeded. But then, my goal was to catch Sam but he was too far away at that point. But I liked this race. Its a good result.GP2 Series: It is, but like you said, tomorrow will be challenging for youStephane: It will be tough, but we know since we decided to go for todays strategy that it will be the case and now I have to deal with it the best I can. Sure, it will complicated tomorrow, but I still hope it will rain. The forecast is saying it will be dry, but were in England after all! The Sprint Race is quite different from the feature race. I will try my best to push in the first lap and gain some positions and then I will manage my tyres. Everyone around me will know I will be suffering, but you never know. Collecting points is better than nothing. Tomorrow I just hope to score some more.GP2 Series: Thank you. Tom, youre back on a GP2 podium today. How does that feel?Tom Dillmann: Good! Its been a tough beginning of the season because the pace was always there but I could not transform it into points and results. That was quite hard to take. Finally a good result today. Even to be ninth on the grid was a bit disappointing because I had a yellow during my fast lap. Without it, I could have been on the front row as well, so finally that bad run stops today and I hope that from here we can keep the momentum and win my first race this season.GP2 Series: You had the opposite tyre strategy from Sam today. Why did you decide to go for it?Tom: I knew I had the pace, I was definitely faster than ninth. The goal was to have a clear track. I knew the guys that started on Medium would pit quite early and then I would be free to do a string of fast laps. I also knew that the guys who pitted early would be stuck in traffic when they rejoined the track, so once I did my pitstop, I was already sixth and then with the fresh tyres, I could pass the others.GP2 Series: It did look like you could slice your way up the field quite easily until you reached  Stefano ColettiTom: Yeah. Coletti was hard to pass. I thought it would be a bit easier because I thought he would be more careful as he is leading the Series, but he was defending well. In the end, he was pushing so much to keep me behind that he made a mistake so I could capitalise on that. Its great for the team: P1 and P3 today. Its forty-two points in total because I have the bonus points for fastest lap. My number one goal is that the team get the title. Thats my number one goal.GP2 Series: And tomorrow could bring you even more pointsTom: Yeah. I still have a set of new prime tyres. With the pace that we have, we can gain positions. I will start sixth so With a good start and a good first few laps, I think we can hope for another podium.