2022 Round 1 post-Feature Race press conference

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to the top finishers of the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race here at the Bahrain International Circuit, in third place, Juri Vips for Hitech Grand Prix, in second place, Liam Lawson for Carlin, and taking his third win in Formula 2, our winner, Théo Pourchaire for ART Grand Prix. Congratulations Théo, another memorable win for you, but this one looked far from easy?

Théo Pourchaire: Yeah this one was not easy with the Safety Car at the end. I had a lot of stress, it was a one-lap race to the chequered flag so it was not easy. The strategy was very good from the team, the pit stop as well, and I think it helped me a lot because I think Juri was a bit faster than us on both compounds. It was a bit of luck to win today, but also we did a great job so yeah, I'm really happy, a big thanks to the team, to Sauber academy and to my family as well.

FIA Formula 2: You had some work to do after the start, tell us what happened when the lights went out?

Pourchaire: Yeah, I struggled a bit. Since what happened in Jeddah last year I'm not super, super, confident at every start. I need to work a bit on that. It's not easy I have some images in my head of what happened and it's difficult, mentally it's difficult, but I will work on that. It was not very bad, I was P4 after the first lap, which was ok, but next time I will try to improve that I will try to do better starts, better first laps, and I know I can do it.

FIA Formula 2: And before we move on, a quick word from you about the incident with Jack Doohan just as he was coming out of the pits. Can we get your thoughts on what happened there?

Pourchaire: He touched me, right, because I thought it was very close and I felt a bit of something. I was really scared of having a puncture but no, on cold tyres it's not easy. He tried to brake really late and really hard so I think he had no fronts. I left him a lot of space, but I think it was a close call, anyway.

FIA Formula 2: Thank you, Théo, Liam coming to you. Your second podium of the weekend, a very strong performance from sixth on the grid.

Liam Lawson: Yeah the race was quite good, start was really really good actually. To be honest, I thought I was going to grab maybe P2 in the first corner but Jack squeezed me and I had rubbish all over my tyres. I went into Turn 4 next to Théo and I thought maybe I'll brake late but when I turned I just had no fronts, so I had to yield from that one. We struggled a little bit on the primes to be honest. Wasn't as fast as I would have liked, but we had a good pitstop and it got back us out in a good position on the options. The car was fast, I just used up a little bit too much trying to catch up. I had quite a slow out lap on the option and dropped back a little bit once the car came in I started closing in but I just used up a little bit too much. Happy with the points, but obviously a little bit disappointed not to grab the win today.

FIA Formula 2: Well Théo's already mentioned that one-lap sprint at the end of the race, how aggressively were you thinking at the restart?

Lawson: To be honest I was probably close enough to go for a look, and I thought about it, but the Safety Car was so slow and I had no brake temperature so I didn't want to go and send it and have no brakes. So I basically played it a little bit safe there, obviously a lot more to lose. I think having confidence on the brakes maybe I could have gone for something.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations to you. Jüri coming to you, you did everything right today, you made a great start, you were leading comfortably, and then came the pitstop. How do you sum it all up?

Jüri Vips: Well I think you just did. Very disappointing today obviously, easy win, by far the fastest on both compounds, and just a silly little error at the pitstop that cost us the easy win today. It is what it is, we have another race coming up in a week so it's alright.

FIA Formula 2: How good was the car today, in the bigger picture was it one of the best cars you've ever had in Formula 2?

Vips: A Formula 2 car even if it's nice, it still doesn't feel great on a race run, but I guess everyone else just struggled more than me. It still doesn't feel great to drive, but I know when you're so much faster it feels better than others. I think it's probably the best we could have done with the car setup today. It was very nice.

FIA Formula 2: Tough luck today, but you're on the podium. Jüri, thank you.