Hubert “really proud” of home race win

Stood on the top step of the podium, with the home national anthem ringing in his ears, overlooking a crowd plump with the blue, white and red French flags, Anthoine Hubert added a second helmet to the Le Castellet cabinet collection.

Displaying his carefully penned signature on the right-hand side, and a dedicated circle on the top for former French Grand prix winners, Hubert’s stylish limited edition helmet will now sit proudly amongst fellow French home race winners. It will be his second in the collection, having won there in GP3 last season.

“I'm really, really happy,” he elated. “I'm really proud. It was such a nice feeling to hear La Marseillaise on the top step and see all of the French flags around the track. I saw them yesterday so I was really motivated to get that win today.”

Rewind two days and the likelihood of victory in Le Castellet looked bleak. The 22-year-old had just qualified in lowly 15th and appeared off the pace in his home country. A strong drive in the Feature Race would turn his weekend around, with an eighth place finish earning him reverse grid pole.

“It's true that Free Practice and Qualifying weren't that good at all,” he conceded. “We were missing some pace and in qualy I also had an overheating engine, so that didn't help us.

“So yeah, the weekend didn't start very well, but today the car was really good. We managed well and I had a good start. The race just seemed a bit long laughs. I just wanted it to end! I'm really, really happy with this win.

“In the end it's such a great feeling after a really bad start to the weekend - to go away with a win and 19 points I think is a really great achievement for sure.”

The BWT Arden driver survived an assault from Jack Aitken at the start, having seen the Brit surge through the pack from sixth to second, and he later had to deal with fellow rookie Juan Manuel Correa.

Having intelligently managed his tyres throughout the race, Hubert had the luxury of drawing more from his car where necessary, although he admitted that he had to resist the urge to attempt the fastest lap, which could have been a step too far.

He explained: “I was just trying to keep the gap, which was a bit more than two seconds, to Juan Manuel. I had to respond to him when he was putting in a bit more effort and trying to catch me, but it was quite comfortable, so as soon as I was told that he was catching me a bit I just pushed a bit more.

“That was good. In the last few laps I was just trying to make sure I did not make any mistakes. I tried to push a bit more to see if I could maybe get the fastest lap but in the end I thought it was better just to make sure I won the race and leave those two points.”

The Sprint Race victory leaves the in-form Frenchman seventh in the driver’s standings, just two points behind Luca Ghiotto ahead of Round 6 in Spielberg.