GP2 Series: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Friday’s press conference here in Barcelona. Joining us poleman Stéphane Richelmi from DAMS, in second place Jolyon Palmer also from DAMS and in third place Stefano Coletti from Racing Engineering. Starting with you Stéphane, congratulations. Talk us through your lap…
Stéphane Richelmi : Well, it was a tough qualifying session. We had the soft tyres which we did not test in free practice. Fortunately, I had a good traffic management so I was able to have a clear lap. I pushed as much as possible and managed a good lap. It was a good lap but I thought there was room for improvement. I was waiting to see what the others would do. I was looking at the tower and I could see my number staying at the top. I was happy.
GP2 Series: You were one tenth ahead of your teammate today. Everyone was quite close. What makes the difference in a session like this?Stéphane : I mean it’s a matter of putting everything together. It was the first time that we put the soft tyres today. The track was slightly different in free practice even if the weather is the same. Everything is changing. We had to adapt the set-up of the car. We know we only have one lap to push. We have to find the best compromise between pushing and staying on the perfect line. My lap was good enough to be on pole today. I was scared that Jolyon would go quicker because since the beginning of the season he’s always on top, but it’s my turn today. I’m really happy to be there and I’m even more pleased to see my teammate in P2. It’s really good for the team and there’s a friend of my in third position so it’s really good.
GP2 Series: We saw what Jolyon could do in Bahrain. What can you show us tomorrow?Stéphane : We showed in Bahrain that we had really good potential in the races. My first race was very tough but then in the Sprint Race we could really show our pace. Here, we will have to manage a good start. It will be a long race after that. It’s a tricky track to overtake. We’re not allowed to make mistakes. Keeping the tyres alive will again be key. We’ll see. We have to find the best strategy.
GP2 Series: Jolyon, P2 today. Are you happy?Jolyon Palmer: I’m pretty happy, yes. It’s frustrating to be so close to pole and not get pole, but I think Stef did a really good lap so he deserved it today. Hopefully I’ll be able to fight him for the win tomorrow.
GP2 Series: On your last lap, it looked like you had the pace to get pole, but obviously did not. What happened there?Jolyon: I had a little bit of traffic in the second sector. It was not the end of the world, but it was not ideal. I think I lost a little bit there. And then, I had a little bit of a moment in the hairpin. It was close, but really I could not quite put it all together. So, second today…GP2 Series: You’re leading the Series at the moment. Will you be thinking about that tomorrow?Jolyon: Not really. I just want to go for it, try and win the race. The guys who are close to me in the standings have qualified further down today so hopefully I don’t see them on the track tomorrow. I want to fight for the win.
GP2 Series: Stefano, P3. Great job today. How did your session go?Stefano Coletti: It was quite a difficult session actually. I mean I had a huge moment on the first set of tyres in turn 3 and I damaged my tyres so I was something like P14 when I came in. I did not really know what to say to the engineers about the car as I almost put it in the wall and my tyres were dead. I did not know how the care would behave. So I just said “put the new set and let’s go”. And I tried to do a lap without any mistake and be at the limit…
GP2 Series: How were the tyres after that?Stefano: In qualifying, there was only one lap where you could do your time. On the second set, I could put it all together and my engineer asked me if I wanted to do a second lap, but I told him that the tyres would not last for a second push lap. So I came in. But anyway, we knew coming here that the DAMS would be very difficult to beat in qualifying. Our aim was to be in top 4. Job done and now we’ll work for the race tomorrow. For sure I’m going to try to go for the win. We showed that we have a great pace in the race. Let’s keep it this way for tomorrow and we will see what happens.
