Regalia, Ellinas & Harvey talk about Race 1

Welcome to the GP3 Press Conference for Race 1 at the Nurburgring. Firstly we have Facu Regalia; race winner for ART Grand Prix, second place goes to Series leader Tio Ellinas from Marussia Manor Racing and third is Jack Harvey for ART Grand Prix.GP3 Series: Starting with you Facu, your first win in GP3. This must feel absolutely incredible; it literally swept you off your feet!Facu Regalia: Im really happy for myself, my family, my followers and the team for sure. The team is amazing, the 20th victory for ART Grand Prix in GP3. It was the best car Ive ever driven in my life in a complete race from lap one until the final lap. The aim before the race asI discussed with my engineers was to push really hard at the beginning until mid-race and to push again at the end if I needed. I made the fastest lap early on, I was pushing really hard after the safety car as we had great pace. I feel really happy; we really deserved this result and have been looking for this since Valencia. We were always really close and here was the opportunity to be at the top and take my first victory in GP3.GP3 Series: You achieved all of your targets today, what will your goal be tomorrow?Facu: For sure its not going to be the same tomorrow starting from P8. Our target will be to win though. If I do the same start tomorrow, I will have a lot of possibilities to do well, so I need to pass a few drivers at the beginning. I think the car will let me fight at the front and I need to finish in front of Tio to try and recover points in the championship. We are already up to second in the championship.GP3 Series: Weve reached the midway point of the Series this weekend, youre currently second, your objective must be pretty clear: to win the Series?Facu: Yes for sure. After Barcelona I was a bit disappointed with the standings, but now I feel Ive clicked into place. I started the championship afresh in Valencia and weve been very consistent since then. Now with this victory, pole and fastest lap, its been a perfect day. Tomorrow I will try to recover positions, thats my aim.GP3 Series: Good luck with tomorrow Facu. Tio: starting P2, finishing P2. It didnt seem as though you had the pace to compete with Facu today?Tio: Facu was very quick, as were ART Grand Prix whove done a great job on their car. I would like to congratulate them all, also to Jack who was really quick. For me, I started with used tyres, whereas Facu had the advantage to start with new tyres. He was able to push from the beginning and disappeared to be honest. For me with my car, I was struggling a little with under-steer, so I was at my limit in the corners. I was trying to defend from Jack so he didnt overtake me. From there on, I was trying to keep P2 and bring points home.GP3 Series: How hard was it keeping Jack behind you and managing the tyre degradation today?Tio: The first seven laps were ok for me, as I was struggling with under-steer more or less. It seems that every race the tyres are changing so much. On the car we have to change a lot of things just to make it go well, depending on the compound. For me, theres nothing more than that.GP3 Series: You keep the lead of the Series, Regalia has closed in on you, but you still control the championship. What about tomorrow, you will be starting in front of Facu?Tio: I have to be consistent. I was a little conservative in Valencia and Silverstone and we started one round in P6, so we didnt get it right. Its just the overtaking when you are behind someone. Youre pushing to a point and then you get under-steer. Thats why I think in previous races we havent had much overtaking. Barcelona was ok, but in the other races its just been following each other.GP3 Series: How do you analyse the fact that overtaking seems to be a little difficult this year in GP3 compared to last year?Tio: The car is five seconds on average quicker than the previous car but I think we need to make the tyres more suitable to the GP3/13. If we use another size of tyre, maybe a bit bigger, maybe another compound, I dont know what will happen. Maybe then the racing will be different if theres more tyre degradation. This is my point of view.GP3 Series: Thanks Tio, hopefully you can find a few solution of overtaking tomorrow. Jack: P3 today, as we have just discussed with Tio, its a good result, more points, showing you have the pace but then you were stuck behind Tio. We know Tio defends very well, but can you explain how you didnt manage anymore opportunities to overtake him?Jack Harvey: I think its quite simple really. I think Tio was struggling with the car and then because of this, because its medium-to high speed corners, you cant really get close enough as you lose down-force. So you gain on the entry, but then he pulls away on the exit. Its quite simple in the end. I took a cool down lap as you could say, so then I could push again and catch him. Its because I was running in more clear air that I couldnt give anymore.GP3 Series: How was the tyre situation for you, racing so close behind someone?Jack: I think one thing we found this year with the car, the tyres and the package is that if you run too close to somebody it really ruins the tyres, so quickly. Ok, so Facu started with the new tyres, but it was the same for us in Silverstone and the same for Conor in Valencia. If you can stay at the front with really good air, no traffic, the tyres last quite a long time. The car felt pretty good, so I dont think tyre degradation was a really big problem. Im sure Tio was suffering more as I was pulling away from the guys behind. I just couldnt get past. Anyway it was a good result for the whole team. Facu takes his first win, first it was Conor, then me and now Facu, so all of us have won in a short space of time. Im sure tomorrow we can push to be on the podium again. I think our pace was good, so I will look forward.GP3 Series: Lets backtrack a little and discuss the start of the race, you started P4, how was it for you as you were third by the first corner?Jack: I had a decent start; I was pretty close to Tio going into the first corner so maybe I had a bit better start than the guys in front of me. I got up to third before Turn 3 and that was pretty much the most exciting thing in my race. After that, it was a bit like cat and mouse. One lap he would pull away, next lap, I would catch him up. It was a good result. Third is better than fourth so we have to be happy today.GP3 Series: More good points for you today?Jack: The team have always been fast but for me my first two races werent great. Silverstone was good, as was here. Were on a good path forward.GP3 Series: Lets discuss tomorrows Race, how do you think the tyres will handle?Jack: I think the tyre situation will be the same, for me at least. I didnt have new ones today, so I think we may have learned some good things in preparation for tomorrow. I think we need to look to make a better start and be a bit more aggressive. I think starting sixth we should push to be top four at least. Third wasnt bad and to take a podium or even a win, whatever is possible we need to do the best race we can.GP3 Series: Thanks Jack, good luck tomorrow. .