Round 10 Post Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Good morning from Belgium, where it’s time for the Press Conference for the top three finishers in today’s FIA formula 2 Feature Race. In third place we have Jak Crawford from DAMS Lucas Oil, second is Gabriel Bortoleto for Invicta Racing and your race winner is Isack Hadjar for Campos Racing. Isack congratulations, I see you smiling there, beating two of your closest title rivals in a pretty straight fight today. Was that a special win for you?

Isack Hadjar: Yeah, I felt like I drove the perfect race. I didn’t have an amazing start but still on Lap 1 I managed to make the move on Gabriel and clearly on the Option after every Safety Car restart, I felt a lot of pace and that’s how we managed to overtake Paul before the pit stop. He managed to undercut really well, we had a bit of a slow stop, and he overtook us and two laps later we got the move done again. That just showed we had really good pace, so I’m really happy, really happy.

FIA Formula 2: You had to be patient at times as well, getting those moves done, working your way back to the front. How early did you feel you had it all under control or were you nervous right to the flag?

Hadjar: For me it was only the last three or four laps that I knew I was probably going to win. Before that, there was a lot of doubt. Gabriel was catching me, and we had the cars that hadn’t pitted yet, I had lost some time behind them, and once I cleared them, I kind of recovered the pace again but he was still pushing me, and I got the tyres back again in the last few laps and it helped me massively.

FIA Formula 2: I think this win means a big gain in your Championship lead too, I think it’s 37 points now heading into the break. How good does it feel to have a few weeks away from racing now with that advantage?

Hadjar: It’s the best way to go into the summer break that’s for sure. You know 37 points in F2 he can have an amazing weekend, and I have a poor one then the fight is on again so we can’t really rely on that, and we must keep doing what we do which is maximising our opportunities and that’s what we did today, so I’m happy.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, well done today. Gabriel, second place for you this morning. A really controlled drive out there as well, how happy are you with your performance?

Gabriel Bortoleto: Very happy. I mean me and my team we did a great job with the car. I had a failure with the throttle going to the F1 pit lane, so basically, I didn’t warm up the Softs for an entire lap because they came on 5Okph from our paddock to F1 pit lane. So, basically, I had not temp in the Softs and then we almost lost the pit exit because of this problem. The team managed to do a great job by changing the piece that was broken there. I managed to warm the tyres as fast as we could, the situation I had no brake temps, anything so for me to start with the Softs I had very poor temperatures, so I think Aron and Isack they had pace advantage for quite a bit of time just because I didn’t have the temps on the tyres yet and then after that when we pitted for Mediums I think at the beginning it didn’t look so strong but then the balance came towards me and I think Isack and Paul were fighting a bit, so it was good because then I could catch up and I was quite fast at that moment of the race. So, quite happy with my performance, everything that happened before the race, so we take the points from P2, and we go to Monza.

FIA Formula 2: Isack mentioned that he was a little be nervous with the speed you were coming at towards the end of the race. Did you feel like the fight for the win was on or did you always feel that it was going to be tough to bridge that gap?

Bortoleto: To be honest I thought I was going to win at some points because it was quite clear that I was much faster for like two laps. I think I caught them for like a second a lap when I was flying. But then I was a little bit too far, de ja vu from Imola, catching Isack and then when I caught him, the guy puts the pace on and I couldn’t get past, so I just stayed in the DRS, and at some point, lost it and just stayed in the DRS. A shame that I couldn’t overtake him earlier with the traffic when we caught the old Primes but as I said we take the P2, and I am happy with it.

FIA Formula 2: You are up to second place in the Championship, I mentioned to Isack, but do you feel like you’ve built up a big momentum recently to get yourself into second place and his clear main challenger?

Bortoleto: Definitely. I think this is the second race in a row that I should finish P2. If it wasn’t for the last Safety Car in Budapest I think on track I would have finished P2 behind Victor, so I think we are consistently there in the Feature Races, good car in Quali, good car in the races so more steps to improve here and there like always and like every other team. So, we keep working on that we try to get to get that advantage we know we can do it in Monza and the rest of the year.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you very much, well done today. Jak on to you now, thanks for waiting, third place that didn’t really look likely in those final couple of laps I must admit. How do you feel after that one?

Jak Crawford: Honestly, I don’t feel very good, it was quite a bad race from me. I feel like I performed quite poorly, had some pace at some point in the race I had really good pace and I caught Aron so quick and then I made a few mistakes, and I had a few lockups and I had a massive snap and I had the opportunity at the top of Eau Rouge and from there I hurt my tyres so bad I didn’t recover. From that point I thought I could pass Aron in a split second and then start chasing the top two, who I think I was faster than at the time. Quite a disappointing race from my side to be honest but still good points.

FIA Formula 2: It’s like you could read my notes because I was going to say what was missing because you looked like you had the pace at times. Was it just your driving or was there any thing else with the car that was part of that?

Crawford: I think maybe we didn’t quite understand how the degradation in the race was going to be and what was needed. Just missed a bit of pace I think overall but usually we’ve been quite strong on top of degradation management, I think I didn’t quite execute to my best to be honest.

FIA Formula 2: Hungary was a frustrating weekend for you. Aside from that you’ve had some really strong results in the Feature Races since Spain when you sort of picked up again. Do you feel like you can still get in the mix with these guys and fight for the title this year?

Crawford: Obviously, the gap is quite big but the next two races are Monza and Baku which as everyone knows can be a bit chaotic at times so of course anything can happen, but I think I need to keep being realistic and I think the top three is a little bit more realistic.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you very much and well done today.