Press Conference Room, Circuito do Estoril, June 26, 2021

In attendance:
Esteban Guerrieri (ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport), pole position
Tiago Monteiro (ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport), second position
Néstor Girolami (ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport), third position

Q:
Esteban, you pulled out a great lap for pole position. Talk us through it.

EG:
Thank you very much. First of all, congratulations also to the guys, to Nestor, Tiago and Attila [Tassi, fifth fastest qualifier]. We’ve had a very strong weekend so far. Obviously we push each other and we learn from each other, and that’s a very important part of our team. Our mechanics and engineers did a great job, so thank you to them. Talking about the lap itself, it was a very good last sector actually. That was the key to the lap because sector one and two were OK, but sector three I messed up with big oversteer and I had to recover somehow and I went to the last sector and attacked quite a bit. It just paid off because it’s very risky the last two corners to mess up with some understeer and stuff like this. But I knew if I wanted to be up there I had to [take] risk and it paid off. So really happy. I send this great result to my family, my son Milo who is new in this world since a week, so I’m very happy about this of course and to all my friends and family in Argentina for supporting over there in Latin America.

Q:
When will we see Milo at a race track?

EG:
Hopefully soon! But at the moment he has to grow up a little bit more and feed up to get bigger!

Q:
Tiago, our home hero. It does seem to be that final sector that is catching people out here, doesn’t it?

TM:
Yes, but first of all congratulations to Esteban and Néstor. The whole team did a fantastic job and yes, I think it is very good that Esteban has it. When I had my first baby I won the next race, so maybe it is a good charm for tomorrow.

EG:
So if you overtake me tomorrow you’ll let me go?

TM:
I will let you go at the last corner! It was really a team effort and as he said we are pushing each other hard and it is paying off. It’s funny, we didn’t talk about it yet, but what Esteban said about his lap is exactly what happened to me. The first and second sectors were decent but not amazing. The third sector I made a mistake in corner seven.

EG:
I think we all did.

TM:
Oh my God, there must be something there. And I also tried to recover in the last sector which was decent, not as fast as Esteban but really close. It was a good lap, we had a strong package and by pushing each other we managed to do that. So the front row for my home race, I can take it and accept that. We can win from here and so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Two long races and it will be very interesting. We don’t have the public but we could see some people around the track cheering, so we have a little bit of the atmosphere of the Portuguese fans.

Q:
Bebo, all four of you in the top five which is going to be interesting. Which of you will be quickest off the line?

NG:
We’ll see tomorrow! I’m very happy. First of all congratulations to all the team and also to Esteban and Tiago. They did a fantastic job. I’m happy with my result, especially after FP1. We had a difficult one which delayed a little bit FP2, we couldn’t go out for some time so we missed a little bit of track time. So I’m happy with this P3. I think tomorrow we have a very good opportunity to score points, especially after a good start to the season at the Nürburgring where the pace was very good in the races. But as Tiago says 15 laps here in hotter temperatures, it’s very important to have a good balance in the last corner which is very long and it will destroy the front tyres quite quick, so let’s see how it goes. But it looks very good for tomorrow.

Q:
The weather forecast says it will be around 32 degrees tomorrow.

NG:
You’d like to be in the swimming pool, right?

Q:
If you can race really quickly we can all go to the beach… That would be great!

NG:
So far I think we did a very good job. I have also to thank all the team, all the mechanics, René Münnich is supporting us as well. So all the Honda racing team, this year we are doing very well and it looks really well for Honda.