Round 5 Post Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to Monte Carlo, where it's time for our Formula 2 post Feature Race press conference with our top three finishers in third place, Sebastian Montoya for PREMA racing in second, Leonardo Fornaroli of Invicta racing, and your race winner today, Jak Crawford for DAMS Lucas Oil. Jak, congratulations, it was a crazy race today, and you said after getting out of the car you couldn't quite believe it. Has that sunk in now that you're a race winner here in Monaco.

Jak Crawford: No, I mean, this has been the craziest race of my life. I've been, honestly, so lucky today to avoid the crash at Turn one and obviously coming in at the right time for the Safety Car and to get it right. I mean, when I woke up this morning, it was not what I had imagined the race being. I can't think the team enough just for giving me good pit stop and we were quite competitive, just to be close up there fighting for the podium anyways. Wow what a day honestly. so I was one a day.

FIA Formula 2: You are you had a great bit of a luck driving up to the final stages of that race, slowing just enough at the Pit Entry to make your stop, just talk us through your thinking because it turned out to be a race winning decision for you.

Crawford: So I saw when we were still green, I'd seen the crash on TV, and I was entering the last sector, so I was literally in Turn 18, right before the Pit Entry. I'd slowed down like two three seconds to see if I could go in before the safety car or VSC. I was thinking it was going to be a Safety Car, and then it didn't go. So I just kept going, and literally, as I just passed, they put VSC and then I did the same thing the lap. I saw the crash, I was like, this could be a Safety Car, I told the team on the radio, “be ready, be ready in case a Safety Car I'm just going to pull in,” and I did the exact same thing, slowed down right before the Pit Entry, and I saw Safety Car flashing on the board I pulled right in. Barely made it into the pits but oh my gosh, it was, I mean, the craziest two laps ever.

FIA Formula 2: And that worked out quite fine. You're now up to fifth. the Drivers’ Championship going into Barcelona next week. How important is this result for your season?

Crawford: Yes, super important. Especially since, qualifying didn't go great this weekend. So to come out with a lot of points, more than 30 points in the weekend it is huge. And as well, going to a track we did really well at last year in Barcelona. 'm very happy that this turned out well, and looking forward to Barcelona next week.

FIA Formula 2: It's a double win this weekend for DAMS with Kush Maini your teammate winning the Sprint yesterday. You must be elated within the team.

Crawford: Yeah, after qualifying we were a bit down, because we didn't maximize our full potential. With Kush starting on Pole yesterday, and me getting the win today. It's huge for the team as well, especially since we had quite a rough start to the year, to get this result, even though we got super lucky. It's just huge for the team.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, and. a great weekend for you and DAMS, Leo, moving on to you, a hugely tough result to take as you led from the restart. You look to have it all under control, from within the car after a great drive. How was it before the safety card?

Leonardo Fornaroli: Yeah, of course, it's very very disappointing to miss the win today. I got lucky in T1 that Dunne and Martins crashed, and I didn’t get any damage and I took the lead of the race. Then, when the racer re-started, everything was going well, I was feeling very good with the car was just trying to manage everything, don't do any mistakes and arrive at the pit window with good tires, so I could push properly. Then we just got very unlucky with the Safety Car. It took a whole lap to put the Safety Car. I tried to slow down, also before the pit entry, but I can’t go one kph, and also I didn't want to get any penalties. I just got the Safety Car approaching T1 so nothing we can do about it. It's very disappointing. But P2 is still a great result. Good points. And we move on, we look forward.

FIA Formula 2: During your pit stop, we saw just how committed you were to just dive in front of then Arvid Lindblad, how was it from the car?

Fornaroli: Of course, it was a super important pit stop, also knowing what happened in Imola. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic and lost three positions. So it was very important to have very good pit and go out in front of Seb and Arvid. And luckily we did so, with the pit stop everything was amazing, but unfortunately, we were was already P2 but I will take it.

FIA Formula 2: You said that you were now looking forward. You're still in the top three in the Drivers’ Championship and have a great chance to bounce back right away in Barcelona next week. Is that what you need after a day like today, to bounce back quickly next week?

Fornaroli: Yeah, I needed this result also after Imola, which was a very unlucky race too. So it's nice to have good points now. I will try my best to achieve also good results in Barcelona.

FIA Formula 2: Well, thank you very much. Leo Sebastian, thank you for waiting from P5 to the Pit Lane to P2 to P4 and then back to the podium. It's been a wild day for you, just talk us through it?

Sebastián Montoya: Yeah, that's pretty much my day. Yesterday in the Sprint we had a couple of things to work on, and I had a good confidence in the team last night that we could get on a podium today. I had a good feeling last night, I don't know why. And then this morning, as well, everything was quite clear. The car felt quite good on the laps to the grid. Then I stalled on the Formation Lap like Imola. That car just shut off due to a technical issue, and I was in the Pit Lane again. And then when I was leaving the Pit Lane, I just saw the yellow light flashing, and I saw half the grid stopped, and I just creeped on by. And honestly, when I got to the Pit Lane, I was just kind of surprised. I didn't know what happened. And I'm really thankful that it was a rolling start, not a standing start again. And yeah then I was behind Fornaroli, that was nice. And then the Safety Car, I tried to slow down as well as Jak did, but he barely made it. And as Leo said, you can't really slow down a lot more, especially because you don't want to risk a penalty for going unnecessarily slow. And then when I was getting to Turn one, I saw the Safety Car racing to get in front of Leo. And I went, Okay, that’s interesting. And then Arvid passed me in the Pit Lane, and when I asked what position we were and we were P4 I was not very happy about that, but coming from the Pit Lane, obviously it's not bad. And then I get out of the car, I just say thank you to the team for the amazing job they've done and then they told me I’m P3 so it was a roller coaster today. But no we're really happy. I'm extremely grateful. We've been working really hard with the team. It hasn't really been the easiest season but we have had a lot of speed. I'm really happy with the steps we've done this weekend. In qualifying, we were quite strong. The car was in a good window. We worked a lot with the team to keep improving. And after last week being in the Pit Lane and this week being in the Pit Lane again, I'm extremely thankful. I'm extremely grateful for this.

FIA Formula 2: It's a maiden F2 podium for you today. How proud are you to achieve this in Monte Carlo?

Montoya: I’m extremely happy because it's been an absolute day. Yeah, as I said, it's honestly incredible. And after it kind of went up and down, this year I've been a lot more consistent with the speed. In Jeddah we were quick and Imola we were quick, Australia we were quick and after last week, not really being able to maximize, obviously, going from the pit lane to the points, it was a good drive, and the car was really fast, so to be able to bounce back and finish on the podium here in Monaco is incredible.

FIA Formula 2: It’s your third consecutive points finish, are you beginning to get into a rhythm at this point in the season?

Montoya: So it's the third race in a row that I got points. It's a fourth race in a row that I finished in the Top 10. Yeah, the point is to just keep doing what we're doing. It's been, as I said, a difficult season so far, up and down, here and there, the team, obviously, we have a lot of speed. We showed in testing that we were really strong, and it hasn't been, let's say the results that the team have wanted, but this weekend's been really positive for us. Mini was on podium yesterday. I'm on the podium today. Last week we were really competitive. And the goal is to keep working like this and keep moving forward.

FIA Formula 2: Well done congratulations.