2022 Round 2 post-Feature Race press conference

Thoughts from Drugovich, Verschoor and Daruvala

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to the top three finishers of FIA Formula 2's Feature Race here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Finishing in third place, Jehan Daruvala for PREMA Racing, in second place, Richard Verschoor for Trident, and winning his fourth race in FIA Formula 2 our winner, Felipe Drugovich for MP Motorsport. Felipe, very well done that was a very confident victory from you, just how pleased are you with both your performance and that of your car?

Felipe Drugovich: Well, first of all, thank you. It was not only a perfect race but also a perfect weekend for me, P1 in Free Practice and Quali, a podium in the Sprint Race and a win again now, so I'm really pleased with my performance and also with the team. They did an amazing job, the car was awesome every session. I think it's difficult to repeat weekends like this, but we will try to do it every round this year. I'm really happy, this gives a lot of confidence to me and the team.

FIA Formula 2: Dealing just with the Feature Race itself it looked very smooth from the outside, what was it like on the inside, any dramas at all?

Drugovich: Not at all. Procedure-wise it was quite smooth, no problems with the car or whatever, but Richard was pushing me quite a lot in the first stint and also towards the end of the last stint as well. This track is quite tiring, so we were pushing quite a lot and at the end, we managed to come out on top but it was never so easy let's say.

FIA Formula 2: How much confidence do you have right now, you're leading the Championship, it's been a very, very good weekend?

Drugovich: Yeah a lot of confidence, I think it gives me all the confidence that I want, but we need to keep our heads down. It's going to be a long Championship so we have to just try to focus and work to improve even more.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, well done. Richard coming to you, a great job by you again, your second podium of the season on your first visit to this daunting Jeddah Corniche Circuit, is this one of the most satisfying podiums of your career?

Richard Verschoor: At the moment it doesn't feel like it because physically I was drained. The race was really nice, I was happy to be able to keep up with Felipe because I know they had a quick car and Felipe was really quick around here. As a rookie for me on this track I think we did a good job, I felt comfortable in the race today so looking forward to ever coming back here.

FIA Formula 2: Felipe was just saying you were applying pressure on him at various points in the race including at the end. Did you think you could challenge him for the win?

Verschoor: Definitely, I think I just made a bit of a mistake myself in the beginning. I started pushing a bit too early and I caught him a bit too early and I just wasn't close enough to pass him straight away. I was very close, but not close enough, then the lap after I was too close in Sector 1, so I lost over a second and lost the DRS so it wasn't really well judged from my side. Then I think we lost some time in the pitstop or maybe around that range, maybe my pit entry or exit wasn't great so we lost some time there and was never close enough in the end.

FIA Formula 2: Great job by you, well done Richard. Jehan coming to you, 14th on the grid to third, how do you begin to sum that one up?

Jehan Daruvala: Yeah I think it's very satisfying I knew that PREMA has a really good car, they had a one-two last year. I was really down Friday night after my Qualifying session. I was a bit surprised, shocked to be honest, about where I was. The next day when I came to the track they told me something was broken on the rear of the car so it explained a lot of my troubles, so it put me mentally in a good place for the races. It made me believe again and to come out from the two races in seventh and third was damage limitation after Qualifying, so I'm really happy and to be third is the maximum we could have done today.

FIA Formula 2: Was that your expectation coming into this race, did you think you could get onto the podium?

Daruvala: No, honestly I didn't think so. There were a lot of quick cars in front, so I thought I can just try to move forward as fast I can. We thought there were going to be a lot of crashes and Safety Cars, so to survive to the end. There was literally none so it makes it even more satisfying that in a race without any incidents and Safety Cars I still managed to come from 14th to third so definitely a lot of positives to take and we can build on from here.

FIA Formula 2: Well done to you.