2020 F2 Spanish Grand Prix Feature Race Press Conference

The Formula 2 Feature Race was full of twists and turns. Prost International were lucky enough to attend the Press Conference after the race with myself asking the Top Three drivers on the day questions about the Race.

Question for Nobahuru Matsushita- What a race from yourself up an astonishing 17 places from your qualifying position. What was the thinking behind the strategy and did you feel like your were going to win the race after the Safety Car?

“So my strategy was prime and then to move onto the option tyre. It was pretty clear because I wanted clean air from the first stint so I could have good balance going into the car.”

“It is always a bit 50/50 as I was P18 and it was not easy to decide but I think my pace was good and the fastest from the drivers on my strategy and we didn’t even think about the Safety Car. We was lucky in that sense and I have to stay happy.”

Question for Robert Shwartzman- Fantastic start, moving past Callum Ilott in Turn One which put you in P1. Felipe Drugovich passed you for a net second place. Did you feel like a potential podium was slipping away from you and also how was the tyre degradation out there?

“Tyres were good. I made a mistake into Turn One which effected the next six push laps of the race. It’s definitely  not a good thing to have a big lock-up because the car was unbalanced and pieces of tyre were just falling from the front left.

“When we changed it to the prime set, the beginning was quite okay but the issue for me was that Callum [Ilott] was getting the cars in front that was on a different strategy and weren’t as fast.”

“He was getting them on the straight and using DRS to get past them and I was fighting them after that’s so I had to wait and stay behind for longer.”

“My rear tyre temperature and my rear deg was quite high which meant I struggled a lot with the rears. There was a lot of fighting in the field as I found myself behind Nobu.”

“The DAMS guys were also at it so Felipe [Drugovich] caught up and he had better tyres so he used that advantage and got passed me. The Safety Car came out, he didn’t pit and I did so I jumped him through my pit stop so the Safety Car actually helped us for once.”

Question for Guanyu Zhou- You started P3 and you ended in third. We talked about your straight-line speed and the lack of it. Did you think you would end up third after the last lap chaos?

“Definitely not P3 but I knew that there would be chances because I saw people defending for position on the final lap on the straight.

I knew that [Yuki] Tsunoda didn’t pit so his tyres had a higher deg and Callum [Ilott] was unable to get past him. My engineer told me to be smart and to take my opportunities so I was waiting for that final DRS Zone.

I saw there were two cars on the inside and Callum in the middle and I went really deep on the outside. I am happy to be where I am and I wouldn’t have thought I would be here at the start of the final lap.”

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