Round 10 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Hello again from Budapest where were now joined by the top 3 finishers in today’s FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race taking third place is Jak Crawford for DAMS Lucas Oil, second is Alexander Dunne for Rodin motorsport and your race winner is Josep Maria Martí for Campos Racing. Pepe congratulations your third win of the season and it looked like a real fight out there at times.

Josep Maria Martí: Yeah I mean I only really had two moments were I was doubting that I was going to win, first was when Arvid launched into T1 and then when I decided to go skating into T5 in the last lap. Other than that, the race was pretty chill, I was pretty much in control the whole way, I knew what pace to run and more or less what I should do to defend from the guys behind, just had two small moments.

FIA Formula 2: Talk us through that fight with Arvid and how your teammate pushed you and trying to manage your tyres at the same time what was that like? We heard a few radio messages between the two sides of the garage.

Martí: I don’t know which ones were heard, but I was just looking in my mirror and I saw Alex was like 1.5 behind us and Arvid was literally on my gear box most of the race and we know it is a deg race so I wasn’t really worried in that sense. I knew if Arvid was wanting to push a lot in the beginning and then I knew it was going to be okay for me in the end. But then when he made a move he was trying to move into turn one and I recovered it well in T2, I think it was fair racing and part of the race.

FIA Formula 2: Well let’s look at the overall picture now, that’s three top five finishes in a row for you going back to spa as well, do you feel like your bringing yourself into this title fight?

Martí: I would hope so, obviously is quite late into the year which doesn’t help, especially in F1, everything happens in summer, it’s not where I want to be at the moment not where I want to be winning Saturday races I would much rather win two Sunday races than three, four, five Sprint wins. We have some stuff to work on, other teams have gone forward quite a lot at the beginning of the season and now I think we find ourselves where everybody is quite matched so it’s quite hard to do everything well. On Friday even when you have a perfect day you’re not likely going to be on pole position so its quite tough now F2.

FIA Formula 2: Well it might be a bit but it’s great for us to watch. Alex second place for you today starting from P2 just talk us through that fight with Pepe on the final lap from your perspective.

Alex Dunne: I think Pepe made a bit of a mistake into T5 and I kind of had my hopes up a little bit, hoping that there was an opportunity but no I think he defended it pretty well I tried to go around the outside of thirteen and there wasn’t quite enough room to make it happen, I think that’s just how it goes that’s racing. It was a fun battle I think I managed my tires through the race, I thought it was maybe going to be more interesting between Arvid and Pepe but in the end Pepe managed his pace well and I tried to do the same from third.

FIA Formula 2: I mentioned at the start that you finished second but you had to retake P2 from Arvid there, you were very committed with that move into turn one. How on the edge was that one?

Dunne: Not very to be honest, I felt like that’s something I have always been good at through the year, going in late on the brakes and making those types of moves, I felt like the pace was strong but I think Arvid was kind of pushing quite hard and being stuck in the DRS of Pepe but not quite enough to be able to overtake. To be honest I got bored of just sitting there saving tires the whole race so I pushed two laps to try and get close and I saw an opportunity so I just went for it.

FIA Formula 2: Speaking of pushing, looking after tyres all the things you have learnt today going into Sunday from P9 what do you think is going to be possible in the Feature Race?

Dunne: It’s very hard to say to be honest I think tomorrow there’s potential for a third weekend in a row for it to be wet, so I’m not sure how that’s going to shake things up. I think in the dry our pace obviously is strong in terms of race pace I think in quali we missed a little bit it was very difficult to put it together but I would say our pace was really strong today so if its dry I think we will be able to move forward but I think there’s a lot of people around us as well who are also fast so I think It will be quite difficult to be honest.

FIA Formula 2: Thanks very much for that, Jak thanks for waiting a familiar seat for you P3 again after qualifying there yesterday is that better than you expected starting from P8?

Jak Crawford: Yeah definitely, definitely waking up I didn’t think there was a podium on the cards just as the nature of the race there probably wasn’t going to be a lot of deg, everyone was going to be saving of course its very tricky to pass on this track. I made a great start and got up to fifth after lap one which is kinda what started it, and then I knew it was going to be the last five laps trying to find any opportunity I could. Obviously I saw the opportunity with the fighting between Arvid and Victor to pass Victor and then I had to save up everything until the last lap to pass Arvid and with the DRS. It was a very good race, very happy with the pace as well so yeah ready for more.

FIA Formula 2: Arvid’s name is coming up a lot in this press conference but how tough was it to find a way past him in the final stages there for P3?

Jak Crawford: I’m not going to lie it was a bit rough at times, it felt like he was just swerving everywhere I went but its how it is I guess, I knew once I saw he was defending really hard I was going to have to wait until the end when he was really pushing to the limit of his tires and I was catching him like three, four tenths in the last corner every time so I knew If I was kind of close I could get a good exit of the last corner and always be attacking. Unfortunately in the best lap I had there was no DRS activated so I had to wait until the last.

FIA Formula 2: We mentioned the fact you qualified P3 for the tomorrow’s race as well. This result today must give you real confidence going into the feature race.

Jak Crawford: Yeah for sure, we had great pace, of course it’s going to be a very different race tomorrow with strategy involved. It was looking really promising, I think even the car can be more suitable to conditions tomorrow. So very looking forward to tomorrow where we can hopefully fight for the win.

FIA Formula 2: Thanks all.