Richelmi, Ericsson and Frijns discuss their session

GP2 Series: Welcome to todays post-qualifying press conference here in Nurburgring. Joining us poleman Stephane Richelmi for DAMS. In second place, we have Marcus Ericsson also from DAMS and in third we have Robin Frijns for Hilmer motorsport. Starting with you Stphane, maiden GP2 pole position That must feel really good doesnt it?Stephane Richelmi: Its very exciting. On top of this, it is only the second pole position of my career. Last time was in Formula 3 Italy, almost three years ago. Im really happy with this result! Now we have the race tomorrow. It is the biggest job, but for sure we know that the car is very fast. Marcus and Robin are also very fast. We have to score a lot of points tomorrow.GP2 Series: You were already fastest in the first part of the session, but you took pole on your second stint. Tell us how your session went.Stephane: With the Super Soft, we thought we could have only one push lap, but it turned out that a lot of drivers could improve on a second push lap. I pushed straight away. That got me P1. Then I did not manage to improve again on my first stint. I saw that Marcus was four tenths ahead of me so I knew that I had to give more on my first push lap. We changed the car a bit for the second stint and it worked fine because on the first push lap on my second set of tyres, the car was a lot better so the tyres worked quite well.GP2 Series: Speaking of the tyres, how were the super soft compared to the Medium tyres?Stphane: For sure the Super Soft have a lot more grip that the Medium which we used this morning. Because of the grip of the F1, everyone could do two good laps. The degradation was quite big.GP2 Series: DAMS are quick in qualifying. You scored your first podium finish this season last weekend in Silverstone. What are your expectations for tomorrows race?Stphane: I expect a good start. The key will be the tyres. IN Silverstone, we had a pretty good strategy and we could have won. Tomorrow we will need to think about the best option. And we will also have to take into account Sundays race because in Silverstone, we started with the medium and except for my mistake on the first lap, for sure I could not have hold the pace of the guys in front so we have to think about everything. But then the car is good. If we manage to stay P1 and P2 on the first lap, I dont see a reason why we should not finish the race in the same positions.GP2 Series: Having your teammate on the front row, does that make it safer for you?Stphane: I mean Marcus is not a crazy driver, sure hes my teammate, but I know that no matter what, he will be careful. If he takes a better start than me, he will go for it, but if Im ahead, he will not try something stupid. Im pretty confident.GP2 Series: Good luck for tomorrowStephane: Thank you.GP2 Series: Marcus, pole last week. P2 today. Youre quick in qualifying! How was your session today?Marcus Ericsson: It was good. I was P1 on the first set. I could not improve on the second set, but I still finished P2 and its 1-2 for DAMS. Im really happy for the team. Once again, they give us a fantastic car. Its my fourth front row in six weekends. I cannot complain on that. Were really strong, but its a new day tomorrow and we will see how it goes.GP2 Series: What was missing today to be on pole again?Marcus: I made some small mistakes, but then again Stphane drove the lap better and did a better job than me so he deserves to be on pole today. Im really happy for him.GP2 Series: In last weeks post-qualifying press conference, you told us that taking pole position was pointless if you cannot transform it with a win the next day. What will be the plan for tomorrow in transform to make this front-row start into a podium finish?Marcus: Its always the same story. All five feature races this season Ive had some kind of an issue: sometimes its a drive through, or something else. Ive never had a feature race without a big problem causing me to finish outside the points. Its really frustrating especially since I showed that I have the pace. Its tough times, but Im a tough guy so I will power through and make a good job tomorrow.GP2 Series: Can you reveal anything about your tyre strategy for tomorrow?Marcus: I dont know anything at this point. We need to look at the data and discuss together what the best solution is. But, all I know is that both me and Stphane will be very strong.GP2 Series: Good job Robin, welcome back to the press conference. P3 today. Thats much better than last weeks qualifying results. What made the difference today?Robin Frijns: Well last weekend we had a decent good car and I had traffic twice and then the rain came so I was not able to put it in the top 5 although I definitely had the pace for that. If I had finished a normal proper lap, I would have been there, but here, it was dry for the whole qualifying session and everybody had a clear lap. To be on the second row is quite a good start to the weekend. The race is long and everything can happen so we will see.GP2 Series: Youve been quick from the get-go today in Free Practice. What was missing for you to start on the front row tomorrow?Robin: Well for me it was the second time only that I drove on the Super Soft tyres. First time it was in Monaco and I dont really see that at as a track. Ive discovered the super softs now actually for the first time really. We have to drive a bit differently. I made some small mistakes because  for me theres quite a gap between the super softs and the medium tyres. You know I made small mistakes and it put me on P3. The DAMS boys made a good job today.GP2 Series: Yes and P3 for a rookie with a new team, thats not too bad at all! What will be key for tomorrow?Robin: I dont know First we have to do a normal start and hopefully keep my position or make up a couple positions Then we will see after that. The medium tyres looked quite well this morning. We still need to work quite a lot because after Silverstone we had some issues with the tyres after the first race. Hopefully we will learn from that. We will see after the race tomorrowGP2 Series: If you dont make up positions at the start, do you know where you could overtake?Robin: In World Series last year, there was no possibility to overtake here. But this is GP2. Everything is possible!