2022 Round 1 post-Sprint Race press conference

Thoughts from Verschoor, Daruvala & Lawson

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations to the top three finishers of the Sprint Race of the FIA Formula 2 Championship here at the Bahrain International Circuit. In third place, Liam Lawson for Carlin, in second place Jehan Daruvala for PREMA Racing and our winner, Richard Verschoor for Trident. Richard well done to you, undoubtedly you made a great start. Talk us through the crucial points in the race?

Richard Verschoor: Thank you, I think the crucial moment was the start, obviously, the start was really good. I was leading into Turn 1, then I tried to save the tyres because the guy behind me was pushing quite a bit and I had to cover him. Then luckily the gap was there after the safety car, I think it was 1.2 seconds and then I just managed it from there basically.

FIA Formula 2: You didn't even know you were going to be racing until so recently, does that makes this win even more special?

Verschoor: Yeah definitely, I am really really grateful to all my loyal and new sponsors. I have like seventeen partners at the moment, so I worked hard over the winter to get it all to happen. It makes me more proud to win today.

FIA Formula 2: To add to the fairytale, of course, Trident returned to the top step for the first time in the modern era of Formula 2. That must mean a lot to them, and you?

Verschoor: Definitely, every time I come to the workshop I see these nice trophies of all their Formula 3 wins, but I don't see any Formula 2, so finally they can add one.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, well done. Jehan, you fought through from fourth on the grid, a lot of positives for you to take from this race?

Jehan Daruvala: Yeah definitely a lot of positives to take, first race of the year in P2 so definitely a good start. Obviously a bit of mixed feelings, I think we had the pace to fight for the win. Unfortunately, at the start of the Virtual Safety Car, I mistimed the restart so I had to break on the straight and then I had a big fight with Ralph for a couple of laps. In the end, it was a good start, with a lot of positives to take, we have a bigger race tomorrow where a lot of points are up for grabs so I'll learn from what I did today and hopefully correct them for tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: Tell us a little bit more about the tyre performance today and how you can take that knowledge through to tomorrow's race?

Daruvala: I think we can take a bit, but if I'm honest it's not going to be a lot because from what we saw from testing I think the average lap time will probably be three to four seconds slower for the entire race. I was quite surprised looking at my dash to see the times we were doing, the option tyres hung on for pretty much the whole race so I think that's a positive, but we have a lot to look at tonight and we will see what the best option is for tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations. Liam, coming to you now. There wasn't a quiet moment for you in that race. How tough was it?

Liam Lawson: Very, very tough. Immediately from the start, well I thought it was a decent start, but Ralph went past all of us and immediately was in second. I went really wide through Turn 1 and I think I was fourth afterwards so it was an ok start. Then from there, I had Felipe behind me who was quite fast throughout the whole race so I was just waiting for him to drop off, he never seemed to drop off so I was constantly defending. I had a big lock-up into Turn 1 which I think definitely didn't help for the rest of the race because I had massive vibrations but a very eventful race, happy to take the points.

FIA Formula 2: Many congratulations to you.