2021 Round 1 post-Sprint Race 2 Press Conference

Thoughts from Piastri and Zhou

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to the top three finishers of the FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race 2 here at the Bahrain International Circuit. Taking his first win in Formula 2, Oscar Piastri for PREMA Racing. Oscar, many congratulations you've won in F2 in only the second race of the season, can you describe your emotions right now?

Oscar Piastri: Regardless of whether it's the second race or the last race I complete in F2, that's got to go down as the craziest race I've ever had, and the craziest victory I've ever had. I can't thank the team enough, obviously the pit stop at the end was the right move. Then I made some good moves and put myself in a good spot, and here we are on the top step!

FIA Formula 2: You say it was your craziest victory, just how tricky was it to keep a cool head amid all of the on track excitement?

Piastri: When I was on the hard tyre it was pretty easy to keep a calm head because I was going backwards! But once we put softs on and I came out eighth I knew there was only four or five cars ahead of us that had also put softs on. So, I knew we were in a good spot and then I passed Nissany and Boschung straight off the race start. After that I could only see a couple of cars ahead, I don't know what happened to Juri but clearly something broke and then the win was in sight with two laps to go. I could see that Zhou was struggling after almost pulling off the softs the whole way. I managed to get past Zhou, then had to deal with Christian so it was an Apline sandwich. It was pretty crazy, I'm still processing it to be honest.

FIA Formula 2: And was it a clear decision for you to pit for the soft tyre?

Piastri: Not really. My engineer asked me how my tyres were going and I said they were pretty good and then next thing I knew I was coming into the pits to make a stop. I didn't really know where we were going to come out, but obviously the team had a much better idea of that than I did so I just trusted them. I think PREMA showed again today why they're such a great team, it's strategy calls like this that they are known for so I have full faith in them now, I can tell you that!

FIA Formula 2: Great job, well done Oscar. Guanyu, it was a brilliant race by you as well just how disappointed are you to have lost out to Oscar on the last lap?

Guanyu Zhou: I think I did everything I could for the whole entire race. I had a perfect first few laps to get to the lead, and then as soon as I was in lead I started saving the tyres because I knew the hards were going to become a little bit better in the last ten or twelve laps. Actually, the pace was good the whole way and then the Safety Car came out. I was asking the team who had pitted for the softs and they told me everybody except for my teammate behind me. I knew that I had six laps where I had to do the Qualifying pace every lap, give it 100% and survive until the last lap. Obviously, the DRS on the main strait is powerful, and with 20 laps older tyres and no traction out of the exit. In the end, good points but a little upset about the results as the win was definitely in our hands without the mess in the last laps. I think we did the best we could with doing 23 laps on options.

FIA Formula 2: And when you'd been told that everyone was pitting behind you, did you think about pitting yourself?

Zhou: Definitely not, because we made the strategy call to go with options on the grid and only two other drivers decided to do that. I knew if I went on hards, that they would take a while to get to temperature, so I'd rather survive with options and the pace actually wasn't that bad compared to all the guys behind me on new tyres. Oscar and Christian were a little bit faster, but I think it was the correct decision to stay with the same tyres.

Following the revised results, Christian Lundgaard was not available for quotes.