Round 11 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: Welcome back to Monza where it is now time for the top three finishers in the FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race. Third is Joshua Duerksen from AIX Racing, second is Arvid Lindblad from Campos Racing and your race winner is Leonardo Fornaroli from Invicta Racing. Leo congratulations, a win on home soil, just how special does that feel?

Leonardo Fornaroli: It’s super nice. It was a great race. I am happy we showed really nice pace. Unfortunately, yesterday we had an electrical issue in the qualifying, so I couldn’t do my run. Happy we showed that we are quite quick. It was not easy when I found myself P1, I had Arvid behind basically the whole race. He was in DRS the whole time. I had to drive perfectly without any mistakes, otherwise he was going to catch me. We manged to take it, and I am happy with this one.

FIA Formula 2: Speaking of Arvid, it was only one lap after you took the lead that he was following you through and was on your tail for the rest of the race. At what point did you feel comfortable that you would be able to keep him behind?

Fornaroli: Only on the last lap when I saw that he went out of the DRS. Through the whole race he was always at the same distance to me. We had the same pace basically, so we fought very hard. It was a funny race.

FIA Formula 2: With this result you extend your Championship lead to nearly a full race victory, do you think you can even add to it a little bit more tomorrow with where you are starting?

Fornaroli: Well I hope yes. It is not going to be easy because I am going to be starting more towards the back. But I will give it my best.

FIA Formula 2: Well done today. Arvid, it’s your first podium since Spain, how pleased are you to execute that race today and get this trophy?

Arvid Lindblad: Yeah, very happy. It’s been a very difficult past few rounds. We have struggled a lot for speed but very grateful to everyone at Campos. They worked really hard over the summer. I already felt from the first lap of Free Practice that the car was a bit more normal again, a bit more like the beginning of the year. I think that was shown yesterday and again in the race today, really good speed throughout. Just happy to be fighting for wins again.

FIA Formula 2: As Leo mentioned you were right on his tail and in DRS for most of that race, but you never seemed quite close enough to fully send it. Was there any area that you felt slightly lacking to be able to make that move?

Lindblad: In the beginning when I got into second, I didn’t feel like I had the pace to take the lead and drive away. So, I was trying to wait and build a bit of a tyre delta to go towards the end. But I think we started degrading at the same point so when I wanted to try push to take the lead, I was struggling a bit with the tyres. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to.

FIA Formula 2: You mentioned the tough run of races since Spain and trying to resolve some of those issues. Do you feel like you can maybe pull yourself back into tittle contention with the races we have left, what is your target for the rest of the season? Lindblad: My target for the rest of the season is just to try and win some races. If we are fast and we are able to win races, then that enables us to be back into the Championship fight. But I am not thinking of it going that I want to be in the Championship fight. Obviously, it would be nice, but I am just taking it race by race and trying to execute every session to the maximum. Then we will see what happens. I am just very happy to be competitive again this weekend. Looking forward to hopefully a very good race tomorrow and then we will take each weekend as it comes.

FIA Formula 2: Well done today. Joshua third for you today, your first points in six races, just how pleased are you with that result?

Joshua Duerksen: It has been a long time but very happy to be honest. Last year we were strong in Monza so we knew that if we do the same thing as last year, we will be strong again this year. Qualifying was of course chaotic, but I am just happy to be in the top 10 as the qualifying in Monza are very volatile. You can be P1 or PLast in one lap. I am just happy to be in the top 10 as of course it would give me a good chance in the races. Starting today in P4, didn’t have the best of starts but then slowly I was recovering the places, fighting with Dino Beganovic at the end. We were just pushing really hard. Making some mistakes, I think I could have overtaken him on track, but we were just pushing hard for me to overtake him and him to keep the position. Just really happy that we got a nice result again for the team.

FIA Formula 2: There seemed to be a lot of action out there in that race, even for a Sprint. Talk us through some of the fights you had but in particular the pressure you were trying to put on Dino.

Duerksen: When I tried to overtake Meguetounif he was defending a lot, so we lost a lot of time to the guys in front. There was a big gap. I had to push like qualifying every single lap just to try to cut the gap. Of course, the other guys had DRS, so they were going away, I didn’t have the DRS so I had to gain this time on the corners. Lap by lap I was slowly catching them until I got into the DRS. Just trying to fight and trying to overtake him. The tyres were starting to drop as well, so it was making our lives a bit more difficult. Monza always creates great action, you can always expect a lot of overtakes and a lot of action here in Monza.

FIA Formula 2: Today is your fifth point scoring result of the season, but three of those have been podiums. What do you put the fluctuation in form down to?

Duerksen: For sure I want to be more consistent, that is key. Just to get points and be on top of the Championship. We are just pushing really hard. I guess we are still finding the limit of what works just perfect, but we are pushing hard. By pushing hard, it is obvious that at some point you will make mistakes. Then there were races where we just didn’t have the pace at all, and we didn’t know what the issue was. For sure it is one of my targets to be more consistent and for sure we are working on it.

FIA Formula 2: Well done today, thank you very much.