GP2 Series: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference for Saturday's feature race here in Barcelona: joining us today are race winner Johnny Cecotto from Trident, in second place we have Jolyon Palmer from DAMS, and in third place we have Felipe Nasr from Carlin. Johnny, congratulations on your race today: a great start, great strategy, and probably one of your best drives, would you say?
Johnny Cecotto: Yeah, it was an amazing, amazing race! I've won a feature race before from P17, but that was a bit of adverse conditions, and to win a race in GP2 from so far back in normal conditions is just incredible! As you said the start was really good and after a lap I was in P6, and that was the foundations for such an incredible race!
GP2 Series: It was the right strategy, but you had to run all those laps after the others pitted like qualifiers to make it work: how hard was that?Johnny: It was very hard, because from lap 7 or 8 I was just by myself, and it was difficult to drive at the pace because you never know if it's enough or it's too much, but I made my pit window and Dillmann was behind me on a similar pace, but I was a bit more consistent than him. But then the tyres were at the end and I had to come in: I maybe had one more lap but I think it was the right call, and when I came out Felipe was very close and we had a good battle for half a lap. Two laps later I managed to overtake Jolyon but I thought we were P5 or 6 because there were cars in front of us and I didn't know they had to pit: I was pushing really hard to catch them and the team came on the radio and said "calm down, you're already leading the race!" [laughs] I had fresh tyres and I just had to conserve them, which was quite easy at that point, and the team kept saying "slow down! Keep calm!" but I had enough tyres to battle at the end if I had to.
GP2 Series: Trident are a very popular team in the paddock, although they haven't had a lot of luck recently: what does this win mean for them, as well as for you?Johnny: It's an amazing feeling, the car was really good, really consistent: we knew from Friday we had a good car, but on the single lap it wasn't too good. We lost a lot of positions in qualifying because of that, but we made them all back in the race! [laughs] The team did a fantastic job, they are really happy, I am really happy, and I have to thank them so much for their hard work. I am finally back here on the podium: it was over a year since I was on the podium, so I really needed it!
GP2 Series: Congratulations. Jolyon, so close but so far: you weren't very happy on the radio today, but how do you feel about your race now?Jolyon Palmer: I'm really happy with the race that we did, because the strategy we had wasn't the best one, but we got the best out it we could get. I'm pleased as well that we could keep Felipe behind me, because he's normally strong on the tyres. After the start I had some contact at the first corner, which didn't help, so we did as good a race as we could.
GP2 Series: We saw the first corner incident from a few angles, but how was it from the car?Jolyon: It was pretty hairy, to be honest! [laughs] Coletti and Evans both wanted to be in the lead out of turn one, so did I, but I realised before that that it wasn't going to happen, all three of us. They came either side of me, and I thought it was going to be quite a big crash but actually it was just a bit of a clip on the front wing, so it didn't really effect my race, but it effected theirs a lot more.
GP2 Series: After that I assume that you were being advised of the gap to Johnny, and you were just trying to manage that for when he pitted?Jolyon: Yes, but there was nothing I could do, to be honest, and it's really the most frustrating thing: to me it's a little bit strange, without being disrespectful to Johnny, to have someone not within a second all weekend and then to win the race so easily: it's a strange thing, and we drove a really good race, but there was nothing I could do when he was four seconds a lap quicker than me, so I had to let him through and concentrate on the race for P2.
GP2 Series: But you did manage to hold Felipe at bay, so there are some positives to take from the race?Jolyon: I am quite happy with the race generally, and keeping Felipe at bay was great, it's good for the championship although I'm not really thinking about it, and you could see where the others were so it doesn't look too bad. Overall I'm happy with the race, but I'm just frustrated that it wasn't a win.
GP2 Series: Congratulations nonetheless. Felipe, a strong result or P3 today: how was the race for you?Felipe Nasr: It was a good, solid race, I got away from the first corner where everything happened, and then there was a safety car and it was all about tyres, and to make sure we could get them to the end of the race. With the strategy we had we did the best we could: maybe if there was no safety car it would have been a different story, even though we had drivers like Johnny on a completely different strategy. It happened as well in Bahrain, we had a safety car which could have changed the whole race. I was quite happy with the car, it was quite easy to look after the tyres, so I'm thinking about tomorrow already and I think we can come out with a really strong weekend.
GP2 Series: Hindsight makes it easier to see these things, of course, but are you surprised that so many of you guys, other than Johnny and Mitch really, went with the soft tyres first but that it went the other way?Felipe: It's difficult to say: if there was no safety car then maybe it would have been completely different, and maybe the guys on prime had to do more laps on those tyres and you don't know how they would end up. But anyway, the team did a great job to get two cars in the points, it's great for the championship, and hopefully we can get a clean race tomorrow and hope for a good result.
GP2 Series: You had a good fight with Jolyon at the end: we've heard his side, but how was it from your car? Could you have got him with more laps?Felipe: Yeah, it was good: it was close in the end, my tyres hung in until the very last lap, but it's a difficult track to overtake on, so when I follow him for too long it takes a lot out of the tyres. But in the end managing the tyres was pretty good, the car was pretty good, so it was okay.
