GP2 Series: Jolyon, congratulations on your win today. You did not make your life easy though with a slow start from pole. What happened?
Jolyon Palmer: I don’t think I could have made that race any harder if I’d tried. I got an issue at the start with the anti-stall and then bogged it. I lost four places I think and after a few corners I was in fourth and managed to pass Calado on the first lap and then a couple of laps later I got past Leimer for second. I put in a good four laps to be second. It was a good salvage.
GP2 Series: You had an amazing an amazing pace today. You pitted three laps later than your teammate who also changed only two tyres. You did not seem to have the same tyre degradation though….
Jolyon: Yes, we were on the same strategy and I knew it was going to be quite tough on the tyres. Definitely it was the best strategy I think. During the first half of the race, I killed the tyres a little bit trying to pass the cars to make up for the lost ground at the start. But we’ve been quick all weekend and I knew if we could put our head down, we could put some really good laps. The car was really good. I could pass Felipe and pull away for the win. He pitted a little bit earlier so my tyres had three laps spared which makes a bit of a different. Then, really, I was trying to be as careful as I could whilst going as quick as I could. So it’s always a balancing act. Maybe he pushed a little bit too hard early on. I was just worried that the front right could go because there were 28 laps. The track is pretty hard on tyres so I managed and in the end I was struggling a little bit, but the job was done..
GP2 Series: We could hear your team on the radio telling you to cool down. What was going through your head as you were still pushing?
Jolyon: From the pitwall I can imagine they were quite nervous that I was putting in the times, but I was confident that in the car you can feel a lot more what is going on with the tyres so … I thought I had a big gap to third. I pushed as hard as I could and made as many qualifying laps as I could and see if I could get a win. If not I would have finished second. The car was really good and I made no mistake.
GP2 Series: What about tomorrow?
Jolyon: I have some new fronts and some new rears… Easy way it will be a struggle, but considering the pace we’ve got, it’s possible to get some pretty good points.
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GP2 Series: Felipe, second today. But it looked like you could have finally gotten that elusive win you’ve been chasing all year. How are you feeling?
Felipe Nasr: From my point of view, I did a very good job. I had a great start, I pushed hard in the first stint and built a very good gap. Everything was going perfectly well at that point. I then started to feel my front tyres grain a little bit. But we never ever had an issue with that in any other track this year. So, I pitted and changed only the rear tyres and I think that’s where we got it wrong. We had the time to change all four tyres and still have kept the lead. Halfway through the race, I could see that my front tyres were giving up. I was trying with the rear because I’m pretty could at saving the tyres, but there’s nothing you can do. I just started to lose the pace and I was just basically trying to finish my race. For me, it was the toughest race for me inside the car…
GP2 Series: Your teammate did not seem to struggle with the degradation as much as you did. How can you explain that?
Felipe: Well, he was on the same tyre strategy and he did not have problems with his front tyres. I was surprised with that because all year I have been pretty good on preserving the tyres. I think that’s one of my strengths. But there’s nothing you can do here if you don’t have good front tyres. I think that’s how I lost the race. We had enough time to change the four tyres, but it’s easy to say now… If I could turn back time and do it again, we would have changed all four tyres and gotten the win.
GP2 Series: But during that first stint, couldn’t you feel like the front tyres were degrading a bit too fast than anticipated?
Felipe: Actually, they seemed fine because we had a similar case this year where the front tyres they degraded a little bit, but never that much and here it never stopped and just kept on going worse and worse. I was surprised I could manage to finish the race because there was nothing left in the tyres. There was a big flatspot. It was very difficult.
GP2 Series: Looking on the bright side, you managed to bring it home and score some extremely precious points. You are third in the standings now. It’s far from being over.
Felipe: It’s really not over. I mean, we have another race tomorrow. It will be a difficult one with the degradation. Hopefully we can maybe score points if we can. But, I still at the same time, I do think about the championship, but I still want to get a win this year so I will do my best.
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