De Vries, Deletraz and Ghiotto discuss the Le Castellet sprint race

FIA Formula 2: Welcome to the FIA Formula 2 Championship Sprint Race press conference at the Circuit Paul Ricard. Joining us are: race winner Nyck de Vries for PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing, in second we have Louis Delétraz for Charouz Racing System, and in third place, Luca Ghiotto for Campos Vexatec Racing. Coming to you, Nyck: not only was that the first win of the season for you and the team, but it was also a remarkable comeback after a difficult weekend at Monaco. How does it feel to be back on the top step of the podium?

Nyck de Vries: It’s a relief, I think we deserved this more than anyone after a difficult time, although we always had the pace I think that was our main drive forward because, as long as you have the pace, things will turn around eventually. We were already unfortunate this weekend in qualifying, because we were on a very good lap but unfortunately we got a throttle pedal safety mode, so that caught us out. Yesterday we just stayed on track, stayed out of trouble and got some points, and today we were patient, managed the tyres and eventually secured our first win. I’m very happy, it’s a big relief and we got very good points, both races points for fastest lap, so it’s a very good weekend.

FIA Formula 2: We saw great pace from you throughout today, and some really good move. How was the tyre wear and grip for you?

Nyck de Vries: I tried to manage my tyres from the start, because I knew that the race was going to be quite long on primes, so I tried to not push too much at the start of the race but to stay within DRS range so I didn’t lose the pack in front of me. But I realised we had quite a bit of margin and pace so I tried to get past them as soon as possible, because when you’re in clean air it’s just easier and you get more grip back. So it was a smooth race for us.

FIA Formula 2: Coming to you, Louis: it’s your second consecutive second place in a sprint race, and an excellent start. Can you talk us through it?

Louis Deletraz: It was an excellent race, P2 and I got a lot of points. At the start I was able to pass [Tadasuke] Makino straight away, and then I was behind Nicholas [Latifi]. I felt we were quicker, so I just dived in at the chicane. Thinking back, I think I pushed too much at the start and took a lot of life out of the tyres, and that’s why we struggled in the end. I think we can be happy with our performance.

FIA Formula 2: Was it tyre management that slowed you down in the second half of the race?

Louis: Yeah, and we had a bit of understeer and it got worse and worse, so I lost the front tyres basically. When you lose the fronts, you lose the rears, and in the last few laps I had Luca coming close. Luckily I had a big margin which I’d created before, but yeah, we saved P2 and it’s been a very good weekend with a lot of points in the last two events. So that’s great.

FIA Formula 2: On to you Luca, it was also a great start from you and you were in the mix immediately. How was it from inside the cockpit?

Luca: Yeah, I mean most of it was done in turn 1 because I was P4 straight away. I think I managed too much in the beginning, because Nyck just passed Louis and went ahead with a big margin and I probably could have pushed a bit more at the beginning, maybe to give me a better chance to attack Louis as well considering how small the gap was between us on the last lap. It was a clean race with points, and to be honest it’s always tough to say I could have pushed more or less, but at the end it was good.

FIA Formula 2: We saw in the tricky conditions yesterday you span quite a few times, and you’re still coming away with two podium finishes. Is that a result you expected from Paul Ricard?

Luca: Well yesterday I was told…I finished P4 and then P3 after Merhi’s penalty, I couldn’t believe it considering what happened in the race. It was probably the most crazy race I had in my life. We spun twice, but we were quick in the first half of the race when we were driving on a wet track with slicks, so I was able to gain time back after I was last. Considering the pace that we had, and the time we lost with the two spins, it could have been much better but it could have been much worse! Leaving with two third places, I think that’s more than enough for this weekend.

FIA Formula 2: Coming back to you, Nyck, it was an excellent pass you made for the lead – could you talk us through it?

Nyck: Well, obviously Louis didn’t have DRS and I did, so he tried to defend it but it was very tough so I was a bit later on the brakes to get past him. It’s thanks to DRS, really.