Round 12 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to the press conference of the top three Sprint Race finishers here in Baku for Round 12 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. In third place we have Alexander Dunne from Rodin Motorsport, in second place is Luke Browning from Hitech TGR and taking his first win in Formula 2 is Dino Beganovic also of Hitech TGR. Dino, congratulations, your first win in Formula 2. Just talk us through how it feels because it wasn’t the most straightforward of wins with those Safety Car restarts?

Dino Beganovic: I think that we knew we had good pace from yesterday and today was all about executing it well. I think it was all very much under control at all times after Lap 1. Then we just settled into our pace, tried to manage the tyres a bit and be ready for a Safety Car as you never know here in Baku. I think all the restarts were spot on. It was a very good race from inside the car, also good communication with my engineer. It is also great to have Luke doing 1-2 for the team and also Alex in P3. A 1-2 for the team is always very good.

FIA Formula 2: How good does that first win in Formula 2 feel right now?

Beganovic: It’s very nice. It’s been a more difficult season than expected. Especially the first and mid part of the season but then in Monza we saw a big improvement and after that it has been very strong with the pace. It’s about execution and we did that well today. Not very good yesterday but we responded well today so it feels very good. I’ve looked forward to this for a long time. The next thing is obviously a Feature Race win which is the main one to win.

FIA Formula 2: We saw there was a bit of rain falling towards the end of the race, was it enough to feel in the car or were you calm throughout?

Beganovic: We were getting some spots on the visor and it was a bit difficult to tell how much it was raining and if it was affecting the driving. It was a bit tricky in the last sector to understand when it was drying. With the white lines as well, they are quite slippery, just taking it a bit more careful there and it was fine. But it was very tricky conditions out there today. I think everyone can speak to that. With the wind picking up very much today compared to yesterday, and also the spots of rain made it a challenging race from inside the car but well executed.

FIA Formula 2: You and your teammate looked to have great pace today, do you think another strong result tomorrow is now on the cards?

Beganovic: I think we had a good reading of what the car was going to do today from yesterday and again we can learn from what could have been better today for tomorrow. I am confident that we can be in the fight tomorrow as well. We usually make a good reading on Sundays as well so I am confident that the team and us can do that.

FIA Formula 2: Well congratulations, Luke, coming to you, another podium for you this season. You gained a few spots at the start but talk us through your race from sixth on the grid.

Luke Browning: First of all I just have to say that Dino did a fantastic job today. It was great to see the level of control from him. I think he has a lot of bad luck this year, just being sat next to him he has been very quick a lot of the time. The execution for whatever reason, to be honest often outside of his control, has been tough so it is really nice to see him and both be on the podium in fashion like that for Hitech it is really nice to see. My race today was interesting to say the least. Once again just staying out of trouble served me well. I was just taking caution, just used the pace in the middle of the race when I needed to. There was a time when I passed Montoya that I thought, right I need to get a gap now, and I did. Then the last five or six laps I was just chilling and waiting for the race to end. It all went well, as Dino said, that is probably one of the toughest conditions I have ever raced in and that includes the wet. I love the wet and to me the non visibility is not an issue. But today’s wind with how unpredictable it was, was super tough, the intermittent rain in the last sector. I went through one lap and had no grip and then the next lap it was completely fine. It was just evolving so fast. I would not have liked to be the first one through there I was very much gauging it from Dino so that was nice to have.

FIA Formula 2: You said you were chilling for the last five or six laps but it’s been mentioned that there was a lack of grip on the white lines as rain started. How much chilling did you really do in those final laps?

Browning: Enough to guarantee that I wasn’t going to lock up and go straight on anywhere. I think that’s it. The breaking here is just so easy to get wrong. For me it wasn’t worth the risk with the rain coming down. I just bought it home. I had my engineer, he is just fantastic, he gave me some perspective in the middle of the race with the gap behind and Dino in front, he said “Luke just bring it home, no risk” and that’s what I did.

FIA Formula 2: You’ve closed in on our Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli with this result and it seems like you’re gaining important momentum at a crucial point in the season?

Browning: Yeah I just tried to not focus on the Championship. I know that sounds daft, the pressure of it is high but you’ve got to be able to, if you’re going to have a career in this, then you have to be able to understand that the pressure is going to be constant and deal with it. I love it, I think it is fantastic and I think that I am only here because of consistency that I have managed to pull through the middle of the year when maybe we weren’t the fastest or it wasn’t going so well or I didn’t have the pace to keep with them. But I managed to scrap a couple of points here and there or I managed to keep the position that maybe I didn’t have the pace for. When we really had the pace like Monza for example I was able to get the most out of it. Continuing that form towards the end of the year is the plan and we will just see where we end up

FIA Formula 2: Thanks Luke good job today, Alex, thank you for waiting, P3 for you after an up and down race. You sounded a bit frustrated on the radio afterwards but overall, a good race for you?

Alexander Dunne: Ah not really. I mean it wasn’t bad, I think generally it was relatively, I wouldn’t say chilled because of all the Safety Car restarts I had a lot to think about and a lot to focus on. But I was pushing the whole race but ultimately it just came down to a silly mistake in Turn 1 when I broke a little bit too hard and snatched the front left. I think that then unravelled a lot of the hard work that I have done which made the end of the race a bit difficult. Apart from that it was a fairly controlled race. I wasn’t really putting myself in difficult positions. I think we made the right moves at the right time but just that one mistake was quite costly.

FIA Formula 2: You made some great moves into Turn 3 in that race, how tricky is it passing there?

Dunne: It is very, very difficult, we had a lot of Safety Cars so quite often the brakes weren’t at their optimal temperature throughout the race as they cool down during the Safety Car and heat back up when you start driving. I think there were a lot of things that were difficult, and we had to manage but I think everyone managed it pretty well.

FIA Formula 2: You too looked to have strong pace in that race, what do you think is on the cards tomorrow with strategy coming into play?

Dunne: We will have to wait and see. I think my pace at the end was massively limited by the flat spot, my front left was down to the canvas. I thought that my front teeth were going to fall out due to the vibrating of the wheel, it was really bad. The pace looked strong and if you remove that element the pace is probably even stronger. At the same time, I imagine that a couple of people around me were being a bit more relaxed than I was as I was in a difficult situation with the front left. I was 100% for the last five laps. We will have to wait and see. For sure the pace was strong, the pace was strong in quali as well and we are always quick in the races so we will have to wait and see how it unfolds.

FIA Formula 2: Well done to all, thank you.