FIA Formula 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference for today’s qualifying session here in Spa-Francorchamps: joining us from pole is Charles Leclerc from PREMA Racing, in second place we have Nicholas Latifi from DAMS, and in third is his teammate Oliver Rowland. Charles, congratulations on another pole position in a very tricky session: how was it for you?

Charles Leclerc: I’m very happy to take the pole after the last race weekend in Budapest, which was a hard one to take as we had the pole and we got disqualified, so it’s very good to come back on top in qualifying, especially in the rain. After free practice this morning we did only 2 push laps, so we were pretty unsure of what to wait for in qualifying, but in the end it all went pretty well. I’m looking at tomorrow’s meteo at the moment and it’s saying rain, so we’ll see how it goes but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.

FIA Formula 2: We haven’t had a wet session all year, and this is a tricky circuit at the best of times: how do you approach a session like that?

Charles: It’s actually the first time in the wet for me in a Formula 2 or GP2 car, so it was tricky! I just approached it like every other session and tried to push as much as possible: I knew that in the past I was quite good in the wet so I wasn’t worrying too much, but looking at Oliver and Norman and the other drivers that have had other years in GP2 I was a bit worried that I’d have a bit to catch up to them, but in the end it went well.

FIA Formula 2: There was a moment before the red flag where Markelov was looking pretty good and was purple in sector 1: were you worried about that, or did you have more in reserve to cover it?

Charles: I think we had some more time, but it was the perfect time to go out in this session when he improved, and I was a bit scared that he would finish this lap because it was just before it started to rain again, so the track was the driest possible at that time. Luckily he didn’t finish that lap because of the red flag, and then it started to rain again, so that was okay.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations. Nicholas, your first front row start of the season: are you satisfied with your job today?

Nicholas Latifi: For sure I’m pleased, and it’s also my best qualifying in Formula 2, and GP2 last year. It was quite a tricky session to manage, on the outlaps and even the laps to the pits it felt like ice out there, and I thought there was something wrong with the car! I was near the top of the timesheets for the whole session so relative to everyone else it was okay, and we were relatively lucky as well with the timing because I did one push lap less than everyone else on the first set and pitted earlier for the second set, so when I went out it started to rain quite a bit, especially in the second sector: I had to push quite a bit straight away and not warm up the tyres so much, which is a big compromise, but I was still able to improve a position and move ahead of Oli.

FIA Formula 2: You’ve been quite closely matched with Oliver this year, and the gap today was just 0.086s: are you enjoying that battle?

Nicholas: Yeah, we’ve been pushing each other quite hard from the beginning of the year in practice, qualifying and especially the races, where we’re both quite competitive. It’s great for the team to push everything forward, and it keeps each of us sharp, not having a teammate who’s way off the pace.

FIA Formula 2: Oliver, it’s your third top 3 qualifying result in a row, but did you think there was a bit more out there for you today?

Oliver Rowland: Yeah there was. It was quite important to be in clear space, and it took a while for me to feel comfortable and the car to feel good in the first run, but I think on the last 2 laps I had traffic and I made a mistake, so I didn’t really do a lap. When I came in I was looking forward to getting back out and making a proper lap, but then the rain came and the red flag came and we didn’t have a chance. I’m a bit disappointed as with the rain I think it was probably a chance to fight for pole, but at the same time I’m there for the fight tomorrow, and this track can be pretty interesting when it comes to the race.

FIA Formula 2: We saw a bit of action from you after the red flag when you were trying to make some space: talk us through what happened there.

Oliver: I was a little bit frustrated because I couldn’t go because of the engine temperature in the pitlane, so I had to wait: we’re at the top of the pitlane which is an advantage because you can get out, but because of the engine temperature I couldn’t queue up. I was out tenth or something and the spray comes a long way back, so you want to be as far forward as you can go: I fought through Eau Rouge with 2 people and was quite close to the wall. I wanted to get past and it didn’t work out that well: on the lap I got a false neutral and lost all the gears and went straight, which wasn’t ideal. To be honest to be third after everything that happened was a bit of a miracle.