Round 5 Post Feature Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 2: A very warm welcome to today's F2 press conference, following the Feature Race here in Barcelona. With third on the road it’s Alex Dunne for Rodin Motorsport, in second Nikola Tsolov for Campos Racing and his first victory for Rafael Câmara for Invicta Racing. I'll start with you, Rafael. You had a good start, but you had a lot to do still. It didn't go exactly as you wanted into the first corner, but this whole race felt like everybody had something to do. You had to fight for it. 

Rafael Câmara: Yeah, I think the start was.... we missed a bit, obviously losing the position, going to P2 was not ideal, but I just keep it cool. In a way it was good that we were able to stay in the DRS zone and not really use the tyres. So once Alex pitted, I was able to extend quite a lot and be in a good pace as well. So it was good to stay some laps behind, saving the tyres and after that I was also just trying to extend as much as we could to avoid the traffic. And yeah, doing that very well after the pit stop, it was not great. Maybe it could be a bit better as well. And then honestly, when I saw that it was quite far, I was wondering if we were going to make it or not, but the pace was looking very strong and we were able to go lap by lap, get the lead. And then after that I was just managing the tyres.  

FIA Formula 2: This is your first victory, your third podium of the season. Are you starting to feel now that everything is starting to click for you?  

Câmara: I think since the beginning of the season, things have been very good. Obviously the last two races did not go our way. Montreal, I think it was a bit of a stupid mistake on my side. Monaco, in a way, I was just taking a bit more margin in that lap and obviously trying to fight with Nikola, was too late. So two mistakes from my side that obviously could be easily avoided. But yeah, I think there are a lot of positives in these two weekends as well. Even the other races were looking very strong. So I think since the beginning of the season, I've been quite confident that we have good pace and we have a good chance to be there in the fight. So I think we just need to keep working the same way, head down, working hard. We know how high level this Championship is, so we keep doing our things and hopefully we can be there in the fight.  

FIA Formula 2: Thank you, and congratulations also. To Nikola Tsolov in second, a lot of different types of strategies out there. That means that for you, you had a lot to do come the end of the race.

Nikola Tsolov: Yeah, for me it was the alternative strategy. Obviously starting in P5 we were taking a little bit of risk to do that, but I just woke up with a feeling this morning that I have to do it and take it because ultimately it should be the faster strategy. And then yeah, we had a good start, which was surprising considering the compound we were on and then just trying to stay clean and not get passed and not lose too much time with the other cars around. So to be honest, most of the race was just trying to manage the grip in the tyre and everything. So at the end of the race coming into the Soft tyre, I knew I had to push a little bit more than what I thought to get past these guys. And then as soon as I got Alex, to be honest, I wasn't thinking I was going to reach him. But as soon as I got him, I just knew I had to just manage my tyres to finish the race because there was no way we could catch Rafa. He was too fast for us today.  

FIA Formula 2: Provisionally you're in the lead of the Championship now, so a huge weekend for you.

Tsolov: Yeah, it's good. I'm mostly happy because I don't think we particularly had the pace this weekend. We were really struggling on the Hard compound particularly and then we just had to maximise our points, which we did better than ever. Double podium for us, which is good. And I think weekends like this, they make the Championship in the end. So I'm looking forward to get our pace back and hopefully fight for a little more. But this is the best we could have done this weekend.  

FIA Formula 2: Very good. And Alex, you were on a different strategy, you had a great start. You led the race but were you confident at any point that it was going to work for you?  

Alex Dunne: Not really. No, I mean, I knew going into the race that beating Rafa was going to be really hard. I think my only opportunity really was to have a good start, get past him on lap one and then just try and hang on for dear life, more or less. So no, I knew already at the end of my Option stint, I had to pit quite early and he was already, I think if I did one more lap, he probably would have overtaken me with the DRS into Turn 1. So I kind of just wanted to get in, change tyres and then try and focus on doing a good stint on the hard. So no, I felt we were going to end up being second quite comfortably. Until quite late in the race, I didn't realise how close it was with Nikola. So no, overall, I think this weekend we haven't really had the extra pace that we tend to have sometimes. So I think to come away with the podium is not too bad. 

FIA Formula 2: And given the battle at the end of the race, is this exactly what you've been speaking about here in the press conferences lately, about taking the points where you can? 

Dunne: Yeah, I think we were starting to build a bit more momentum. We've had three podiums in a row now in the Feature Races, which is nice. So I think we're building a little bit of consistency and we're starting to bring home points all the time, which is nice.  I think I had a little bit of a fight with, I think it was Joshua Dürksen an Gabriele Minì when we had a bit of traffic. So the race got a bit more exciting at that point, but then for the rest of it, it was pretty chilled and pretty calm. And I tried my best to just look after the tyres and manage the pace. So yeah, I think coming into this weekend, I think Barcelona is probably one of our weaker tracks usually during the year. So to still come away with what we have, I'm not too disappointed. 

FIA Formula 2: Thank you all.