FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to the Press Conference with the top three drivers after today’s FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race in Azerbaijan. We are joined by race winner George Russell for ART Grand Prix, in second place is Sergio Sette Camara for Carlin, and in third is Nyck de Vries for PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing. George, starting with you; after coming so close to winning yesterday’s race, does today feel a little bit like redemption for you?

George Russell: Yes, slightly. I knew I had incredible pace over the course of this weekend and after Bahrain, obviously we saw what happened yesterday and I was extremely gutted to lose out on the win. I had the worst night’s sleep of the year last night just thinking about what happened, and if there was anything I could have done differently. I was really disappointed that we threw away a win, and after Bahrain when we stalled on the grid and had nothing to show for it. Easily fastest yesterday, so I knew that today – even starting from P12 – we could win the race and that’s exactly what we did. I’m incredibly happy, delighted to get that win and have something to show for it rather than ifs and buts.

FIA Formula 2: You mentioned where you were starting. It was also a chaotic start and you made a lot of positions, just talk us through that opening lap.

George: Yes, it was very tricky because a couple of rows ahead of me, two cars either stalled or made a terrible start, so I had to fight my way in between two of them. I also had Sean Gelael in front of me, who as he was directly behind them he really had to turn to avoid them. So it played out very nicely for me. Obviously my starts in Bahrain weren’t great so we did a huge amount of analysis on that. I was just practising in the garage, trying to hold the clutch in the perfect position, trying to do everything I could just to work on that. I think we made up for it, and made a great start today.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations; Sergio, coming to you. You led for a long time in today’s race, but were you feeling the pressure as George started to close in?

Sergio Sette Camara: Yeah, I had a slight problem there with my lock-up. I had a four second gap, but I knew it would close really quickly with George doing 57.5s, 57.6s, and I couldn’t go below the 58s. And my engineer communicated to me that Latifi would lose P2 to George, and when he did I knew how much George was closing in. I had to do the switch; brake a bit later, push a bit more here and there, but that switch isn’t easy on a street circuit like this. With the long straights, your brain gets used to braking in the same place, and I was really on the limit, and I had to step up if I wanted to keep P1. When I tried to do it, I forced it a bit too much and made too many mistakes, and that gave George an easier time to get the position. But I still think, four seconds was the difference, he would just push more as well. So I think P2 was the best we could have done today, it’s hard to say, but I’m still happy with the 12 points, and I’m always finishing ahead of my start position so that’s really positive.

FIA Formula 2: George talked about not having something to show for the weekend. Do you think your consistency will be crucial in a title fight this year?

Sergio: Yeah, consistency is really important; I’ve never really built a championship in my life, I’ve always been inconsistent and that’s something I really wanted this year: to have more consistency and arrive at the end of the year with something to show, like George just mentioned. It’s always horrible when you have the potential and you don’t have anything at the end of the season, and that’s how a lot of my seasons have gone and I wanted to make this season different and I’m managing to do it. It’s just round two, and you have to remember how long the championship is, but we’re on the right track and I want to keep it like that.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations. Nyck, coming to you: similar to George, you gained 11 places up into third from your starting position, are you pleased with the recovery today.

Nyck de Vries: Yeah, quite relieved actually. Similar to George, we knew we had a lot of potential, but potential doesn’t count when you can’t turn that into results. Our first three races of the year: we were second in the first race in Bahrain, leading in race two, yesterday we were running second, so we are there and I’ve no doubts about our potential, but as long as you can’t turn it into any results then it doesn’t count. So I’m very relieved that today everything started falling into place, although the pace was not as good as yesterday. I struggled a little bit more, but nevertheless we did a good race, we stayed calm, waited for my opportunity. I’m happy that we could bring back home a podium and hopefully we can start our championship from here, because the season will be very very long.

FIA Formula 2: You also had to overtake Nicholas Latifi, just talk us through that battle for third place and the last lap when he was trying to snatch it back at the line.

Nyck: Yes, it was a bit of an elastic effect, with five or so laps to go I started to push a little bit more and ended locking up twice going onto the main straight. So, I lost some distance there so I had to push a bit harder to catch up. Once I got DRS, things became easier. It was still a problem going into turn three, but I knew that if I could have him behind me before turn 1 then I knew it would be ours.

FIA Formula 2: Well done; George, just finishing with you. You mentioned having something to show for this weekend and the pace that you’ve shown so far. Do you feel that this result really kickstarts your title challenge?

George: Yes, but I think in this championship anything can happen and to go on what Nyck said, there’s been a huge amount of potential. It’s a hugely competitive championship; we’ve been really quick this weekend and we were last time in Bahrain, but we could turn up in Barcelona and be nowhere. I think we’ve seen across the board in qualifying, we’ve had three different teams in the top three each time, all the drivers are really competitive and all the teams are really competitive. So you’ve got to bring your A-game to every single race. I’m feeling really good, we’ve been comfortably the fastest in three out of the four races this season so we’ve got to capitalise on that.

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to the Press Conference with the top three drivers after today’s FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race in Azerbaijan. We are joined by race winner George Russell for ART Grand Prix, in second place is Sergio Sette Camara for Carlin, and in third is Nyck de Vries for PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing. George, starting with you; after coming so close to winning yesterday’s race, does today feel a little bit like redemption for you?

George Russell: Yes, slightly. I knew I had incredible pace over the course of this weekend and after Bahrain, obviously we saw what happened yesterday and I was extremely gutted to lose out on the win. I had the worst night’s sleep of the year last night just thinking about what happened, and if there was anything I could have done differently. I was really disappointed that we threw away a win, and after Bahrain when we stalled on the grid and had nothing to show for it. Easily fastest yesterday, so I knew that today – even starting from P12 – we could win the race and that’s exactly what we did. I’m incredibly happy, delighted to get that win and have something to show for it rather than ifs and buts.

FIA Formula 2: You mentioned where you were starting. It was also a chaotic start and you made a lot of positions, just talk us through that opening lap.

George: Yes, it was very tricky because a couple of rows ahead of me, two cars either stalled or made a terrible start, so I had to fight my way in between two of them. I also had Sean Gelael in front of me, who as he was directly behind them he really had to turn to avoid them. So it played out very nicely for me. Obviously my starts in Bahrain weren’t great so we did a huge amount of analysis on that. I was just practising in the garage, trying to hold the clutch in the perfect position, trying to do everything I could just to work on that. I think we made up for it, and made a great start today.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations; Sergio, coming to you. You led for a long time in today’s race, but were you feeling the pressure as George started to close in?

Sergio Sette Camara: Yeah, I had a slight problem there with my lock-up. I had a four second gap, but I knew it would close really quickly with George doing 57.5s, 57.6s, and I couldn’t go below the 58s. And my engineer communicated to me that Latifi would lose P2 to George, and when he did I knew how much George was closing in. I had to do the switch; brake a bit later, push a bit more here and there, but that switch isn’t easy on a street circuit like this. With the long straights, your brain gets used to braking in the same place, and I was really on the limit, and I had to step up if I wanted to keep P1. When I tried to do it, I forced it a bit too much and made too many mistakes, and that gave George an easier time to get the position. But I still think, four seconds was the difference, he would just push more as well. So I think P2 was the best we could have done today, it’s hard to say, but I’m still happy with the 12 points, and I’m always finishing ahead of my start position so that’s really positive.

FIA Formula 2: George talked about not having something to show for the weekend. Do you think your consistency will be crucial in a title fight this year?

Sergio: Yeah, consistency is really important; I’ve never really built a championship in my life, I’ve always been inconsistent and that’s something I really wanted this year: to have more consistency and arrive at the end of the year with something to show, like George just mentioned. It’s always horrible when you have the potential and you don’t have anything at the end of the season, and that’s how a lot of my seasons have gone and I wanted to make this season different and I’m managing to do it. It’s just round two, and you have to remember how long the championship is, but we’re on the right track and I want to keep it like that.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations. Nyck, coming to you: similar to George, you gained 11 places up into third from your starting position, are you pleased with the recovery today.

Nyck de Vries: Yeah, quite relieved actually. Similar to George, we knew we had a lot of potential, but potential doesn’t count when you can’t turn that into results. Our first three races of the year: we were second in the first race in Bahrain, leading in race two, yesterday we were running second, so we are there and I’ve no doubts about our potential, but as long as you can’t turn it into any results then it doesn’t count. So I’m very relieved that today everything started falling into place, although the pace was not as good as yesterday. I struggled a little bit more, but nevertheless we did a good race, we stayed calm, waited for my opportunity. I’m happy that we could bring back home a podium and hopefully we can start our championship from here, because the season will be very very long.

FIA Formula 2: You also had to overtake Nicholas Latifi, just talk us through that battle for third place and the last lap when he was trying to snatch it back at the line.

Nyck: Yes, it was a bit of an elastic effect, with five or so laps to go I started to push a little bit more and ended locking up twice going onto the main straight. So, I lost some distance there so I had to push a bit harder to catch up. Once I got DRS, things became easier. It was still a problem going into turn three, but I knew that if I could have him behind me before turn 1 then I knew it would be ours.

FIA Formula 2: Well done; George, just finishing with you. You mentioned having something to show for this weekend and the pace that you’ve shown so far. Do you feel that this result really kickstarts your title challenge?

George: Yes, but I think in this championship anything can happen and to go on what Nyck said, there’s been a huge amount of potential. It’s a hugely competitive championship; we’ve been really quick this weekend and we were last time in Bahrain, but we could turn up in Barcelona and be nowhere. I think we’ve seen across the board in qualifying, we’ve had three different teams in the top three each time, all the drivers are really competitive and all the teams are really competitive. So you’ve got to bring your A-game to every single race. I’m feeling really good, we’ve been comfortably the fastest in three out of the four races this season so we’ve got to capitalise on that.