Palmer, Coletti and Richelmi talk about their race

GP2 Series: Jolyon, a hell of a weekend for you after lining up last on the grid yesterday to winning the race today: how does it feel?

Jolyon Palmer: Unbelievable! It’s a weekend I’ll remember for a long time, I think: Friday was obviously extremely disappointing, but we all did a really good job, put it behind us on Saturday, and planned how we were going to come back from it. The race yesterday went nearly perfectly, really: the car was good, the strategy was good, and then today starting from the front it was a bit easier, and we just had to control the pace. Coletti was quite quick but I was just managing the gap and took the win.GP2 Series: At the start you had an okay get away and had a little fight with Sorensen: how was that for you?Jolyon: Yeah, the start wasn’t great, they don’t tend to be at the moment [laughs], but for me it was an okay one and at least it allowed me to take the lead back in turn one around the outside of Sorensen, who raced very fairly, and from there I had clear air ahead and could look after everything, and then it was just controlling the restart after the safety car, and then keep my head down.GP2 Series: It’s a shame you had the problem on Friday, but does this fightback answer any remaining critics about your ability?Jolyon: I hope so. It’s been a weekend of massive lows but it ended in a perfect way, so I think for the championship it was massive because it could easily have been damaging for the points but in the end I stretched out the lead, which I couldn’t have expected at all! [laughs] Everybody has done a really good job, and it’s huge: hopefully in Sochi and Abu Dhabi we can just bring it home now.---GP2 Series: Stefano, P2 today after a great drive: how was it for you?Stefano Coletti: The car was really, really quick today, the team did a great job and gave me a perfect car to drive, and I did a really good start, was sixth by the first corner, and a great restart where I took two cars at the first corner, and step by step made my way through the grid. Then I started to attack Palmer, but in the end it was just not possible.GP2 Series: Was it just a case of running out of tyres in the end, or something else?Stefano: No not really: I think it was just that the gap was too big when I actually arrived in second, and I tried every lap and in the end I still had some tyres, but in the end I was eight or nine tenths behind and I almost went off a few times trying to catch him, so I just said okay, let’s stick with second and bring some points back home.GP2 Series: It looked like it was a lot of fun for you today: did you enjoy it?Stefano: Oh yeah, it was a really fun race today: a lot of overtaking, and I was able to overtake which was a good thing, because sometimes it’s frustrating when you’re quicker but you can’t overtake, but today was the opposite: as soon as I arrived with someone I was able to brake later and overtake them, so I was very happy about that, and very excited!---GP2 Series: Stephane, P3 and a solid podium for you: how was the race from your seat? Stéphane Richelmi: It was a good weekend for me after a few races in a row with some struggles, so it’s good to enjoy the podium. Today the race was fun because I could overtake some guys at the start, and I was up to second when the safety car came out. I thought okay, I can put pressure on Jo because of his championship, but he went really well at the restart and made a gap, and I struggled a bit with my front tyres for those two laps. Then I had Stefano in my mirrors and I pushed, but maybe at this point I didn’t want to hurt the tyres.GP2 Series: I was going to ask were you protecting the tyres, because Stefano came up to you fast…Stéphane: I was driving, pushing for sure, but maybe not exploiting everything in the car. And then Stefano outbraked me and I said compliments to you [laughs], because it was a really good move and I had to avoid him a bit because he went a bit deep, but he did a really good move. Then it was really hard to follow close, but here there are little corners but it’s easy to make a mistake on the brakes, but I still think it was a pretty good race.GP2 Series: A 1-3 for the team is good for the team: how important is that after a weekend like this?Stéphane: For sure it’s good for the team: Friday night was very difficult for him [nods to Palmer] but we’ve both finished well, and it’s good that Jo keeps the lead [in the championship], I think even increasing it, and for me it was important to make a good race too