Thoughts from Lawson, Daruvala and Beckmann

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to the top three finishers of the season opening FIA Formula Race at the Bahrain International Circuit. In third place, David Beckmann from Charouz Racing System, second place Jehan Daruvala for Carlin and winner, on debut, Liam Lawson for Hitech Grand Prix. Liam, what a tremendous start to your Formula 2 career.

Liam Lawson: Yeah it's not bad, it was a pretty good race! I think it was mostly down to the start we had a really good launch and once I got the lead, I tried to figure out where the balance was going to go and after I got that figured out it was just about managing from there. Jehan came really strong midway through and because he was a lot faster I honestly thought he was going to get me, so I was preparing myself for as much defensive as I could and he pressured me all the way to the end. The couple of Virtual Safety Cars that we had definitely helped cool down the tyres a little bit and I made a gap on both restarts as well. I'm really happy, a massive thanks to Hitech, and to the team, for giving me the car.

FIA Formula 2: Liam what does this mean to you personally?

Lawson: I think will hit me a little bit more later on, because I am speechless at the moment honestly. It’s awesome to win races, but the end goal is the Championship so it's a good start but it's a very long way to go.

FIA Formula 2: Very high temperatures out there today, both ambient and track, just how difficult was it to manage?

Lawson: Very hot, one of the hottest races that I've ever driven in. Definitely a change, but physically not so bad it's more that because of the heat the tyre management gets really hard. The drop off was massive, we were all sliding around at the end of the race so that's the hardest part about the heat.

FIA Formula 2: Great stuff and many congratulations to you. Jehan, coming on to you now, second place and just less than a second behind Liam at the flag. Was there a point where you thought where the win was 100% on?

Jehan Daruvala: It's never going to be easy, to win in Formula 2 but when I was coming behind Liam with ten laps to go, I thought that if I keep at this pace then I'd probably get him at the end. To be fair to him, he did a very good job I tried to use my experience from last year on the tyre management but he managed everything as well as he could. He didn't make and mistakes and I ran out tyres towards the end as well, but I gave it everything and I pushed for the win and I'm still happy with second.

FIA Formula 2: Well, well done with that you showed a lot of pace in the race today, that must give you a lot of confidence for the remaining two races this weekend?

Daruvala: Exactly, we have been strong in Bahrain in the recent past, so I'm looking forward to using my experience tonight and hopefully be back up on the podium.

FIA Formula 2: Good luck with that, and David coming to you. Another rookie on this first podium of the year. Give us your thoughts in the immediate aftermath?

David Beckmann: I think it was a good race, I didn’t start too well but I think many people on the grid weren't in the best position. Except from Liam, who was quite good, but he even said it was not perfect. In the first race of the season there is still potential, but yes, I'm really happy. It was a tough race and I also made some mistakes, I was pushing a bit too much in the beginning behind Theo and destroyed my tyres a bit. I am still happy that I could maintain P3 because Robert was pushing me a lot in P4. I'm also happy that everything went smoothly with the car for the first race, so Charouz did a great job.

FIA Formula 2: And David what's the biggest lesson you've learnt in Race 1 that you can take forward into Race 2 this evening?

Beckmann: I think that I over-pushed at the beginning, I immediately locked up in Turn 10 and stuff like that hurts the race a lot. Especially when you have no pits stops in the Sprint Race so you have to maintain these tyres and keep them in a good shape. I think I have to take the experience, do a bit of a better job with the tyre management and also with a better pace and maybe I could fight in the front more.

FIA Formula 2: Well done, thank you David.