GP2 Series: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference for today's press conference here is Monza: joining us from pole is Stoffel Vandoorne from ART Grand Prix, in second place we have Arthur Pic from Campos Racing, and in third we have Mitch Evans from RT RUSSIAN TIME. Stoffel, congratulations on your second pole in a row: I guess you must be getting the hang of this qualifying thing...
Stoffel Vandoorne: Yes! It's a very good result, second pole in a row, and I couldn't have done a better job today. Thanks to the team for giving me a great car over the last couple of races: we've really improved over the last races, and I'm glad it's paying off at the moment.
GP2 Series: Is this an indication of coming to terms with the series itself, or circuits you enjoy, or something else?Stoffel: I think it's just the whole combination, how I work together with the team. We struggled after Bahrain, had a couple of bad races, and then got our heads together, worked on the set up and my driving, and I think we've pulled everything together. I'm happy to see the results are paying off over the last races.
GP2 Series: We saw what happened in the feature race last time out: can you go one better this time?Stoffel: I hope so! I'm on pole again, I was leading a lot of the race in Spa at my home track, and Marciello won the race, so I hope I can win the race at his home circuit now! [laughs] Which would be amazing: I think we just need a good start tomorrow, and then we'll see what happens.
GP2 Series: Are you in a position where you're thinking of points?Stoffel: It's difficult to say really: you're always thinking of points, and points are always important for a championship, so whatever comes tomorrow we're always going to go for the maximum amount of points.
GP2 Series: Congratulations. Arthur, congratulations on P2 today: you were quite clear in the car that you were looking for a bit more, but it is your best qualifying result, so can you be happy with the result today?Arthur Pic: Yes, we are satisfied with the result today, although a bit frustrated because we were fastest in practice, I felt the car was also really good in qualy and we were fastest for a while but then we found some traffic and I didn't manage to put all the sectors together, but sometimes that happens. It is always good to be in the front row.
GP2 Series: You were fastest this morning, were leading for a long time in qualy and looked like you had a bit more but for the traffic: what do you put this great pace down to today?Arthur: I think here the car set up was really good, in free practice and also in the first laps of qualifying, the car was really fast and I am always happy to drive in Monza: it's one of my favourite circuits. It was going right for me here, and I hope we can continue like this now.
GP2 Series: You've been pretty consistent in bringing home points, but now you're qualifying further ahead here: what can you get out of the race tomorrow?Arthur: For tomorrow the goal is to finish on the podium: to be there we need to have a really good start because it's a bit of a weak point for me, so I will try to have a good start and then I think we will be competitive during the race. If I'm in the first 2 after the first chicane, it should be okay...
GP2 Series: Congratulations. Mitch, P3 today and you're quite consistent with the last event as well, but there are such small margins here: are you happy with this result, or do you feel you could have had more?Mitch Evans: I think I got the maximum out of the car today: the balance shift was quite big between free practice and qualy, which was a shame because it felt a bit better in practice, but I'm still happy with third. We can still fight from there, and with a few little tweaks I'm sure we can be stronger, but congratulations to Stoffel on a great job today: it's always tight, but we'll see what happens tomorrow.
GP2 Series: How were the tyres today?Mitch: They were fine: I did find a bit of a balance shift between the compounds which we didn't react to very well between the sessions, which made the first set a bit trickier. We made an improvement for the second set, but it wasn't enough but it was reasonably okay.
GP2 Series: Everyone is so close on the timesheets: how will that affect tomorrow's race?Mitch: It's going to be close, it's going to be really close. The tow isn't as effective as it is in other classes here in GP2, so it's going to be important to have a good start and be in the top three through turn one, and then race it out from there: I'm sure we've got a good race car, we were quick in Spa in the races, who knows what the weather is going to do but we'll give it our best shot, that's for sure.
GP2 Series: You're starting from the right place for it, at least: congratulations.
