Ghiotto, Bernstorff and Ocon look back at Hungary qualifying

Luca Ghiotto qualified on pole today for the first GP3 race from Hungary, which takes place this evening. Following the session, Ghiotto, Emil Bernstorff and Esteban Ocon spoke to GP3Series.com and the journalists in attendance.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the press conference for the GP3 qualifying session in Budapest. Joining us today on pole position is Luca Ghiotto from Trident, in second place Emil Bernstorff for Arden International and in third Esteban Ocon from ART Grand Prix.

GP3 Series: Another pole position for you today Luca, you’re back on top after missing P1 in Silverstone. How was the session for you? It didn’t look easy…

Luca Ghiotto: “No for sure it was not.” (Laughs). “Since yesterday in Free Practice we could see it was really tight. I knew I would have to do everything perfectly to get the pole today. With two minutes to go the team told me I had one last chance to do it and I just tried to improve a bit everywhere. Luckily I had a good lap. I took pole by a little margin and in the end it was a good session for me. We also had a good strategy in this session after we made a mistake in Silverstone so I need to say thanks to Trident. We chose the right moment to exit the pitlane and I had time to do everything.”

GP3 Series: Traffic must have been quite heavy on the short track especially at the end, how difficult was that to manage?

Luca: “I didn’t have any particular issues with traffic but I think that was because I always went out in the right place with no cars in front. I just had to slow down twice and back off my pace a little. I know this is a track that can create a lot of traffic but for me it was ok.”

GP3 Series: You were telling us earlier that you find this Budapest track quite challenging and you weren’t sure you would be able to master it as well as you have done others. Why do you think today you were able to make it work?

Luca: “Normally I am not so quick in a track with faster corners , like a karting style circuit. So I was not so happy yesterday evening. But we improved the car well. I didn’t drive on the limit. I wasn’t risking everything for the lap. I just drove to the potential of the car and did everything well. That was key to do a good lap even if I didn’t like the track so much.”

GP3 Series: What will it take later today for you to transform this pole into a win?

Luca: “Let’s see! For sure this will be the hottest race of the year. We’ve never raced before at 38 degrees, or like 55 degrees track temperature. Nobody knows how the tyre degradation will be.” (Laughs).It could be quite surprising in the race. First of all I need to make a good start and then we see. But honestly, I don’t know what to say about this…” (Laughs again).

GP3 Series: Thanks Luca, good job today. Emil, P2 today…so close to pole, how are you feeling?

Emil Bernstorff: “Yes it was! I was second in Silverstone and now second in Hungary so it’s getting closer and closer each time. The car was really good and the session was also good. It was a bit tricky due to traffic. I got a little bit held up by Esteban on my first push lap. I only had one push lap to go with. I had quite a good one. So I didn’t really get two push laps in a row…but second is still really good.”

GP3 Series: Did you feel you had the car to make pole position today if you had been able to manage the traffic a little bit better?

Emil: “Yes I think so, when you are just three hundreds off you can’t really say anything else!” (Laughs). I’m sure there were three hundredths in there somewhere.”

GP3 Series: Starting from the front row is still good, are you worried much about tyre degradation in the race?

Emil: “Yes to some extent. We don’t really know what’s going to happen. It could be like Austria or it could be like Silverstone so let’s see what happens.”

GP3 Series: Good luck Emil. Esteban P3 today, not quite where you would want to be starting from…how was your session?

Esteban Ocon: “It seems we were struggling much more than yesterday in Free Practice. The car was quite difficult to drive. I had only one push lap on my second set as I did a big mistake in corner three. Not an easy session and we will have to see how the race will go. But for sure it is not where we want to start.”

GP3 Series: In what way was the car different to drive compared to yesterday’s free practice session?

Esteban: “We don’t know yet. We will have to analyse. But I couldn’t do a perfect lap. To put everything together here is pretty difficult and if you are not confident with your car it’s even more difficult.”

GP3 Series: But still, we know you like the track and have a strong record here…

Esteban: “Yes for sure.” (Laughs) “It is my favourite track.”

GP3 Series: So what can we expect from you for the race?

Esteban: “I think it will be a good start again and then see where we are. It will then be managing the tyres like the other races. Especially here it’s going to be hard to overtake.”

GP3 Series: And your thoughts on the tyres for the race ahead?

Esteban: “As Luca said, we have no idea how the tyres will be as we have never drove at that temperature before. It will be an interesting race!” (Big smile).

Aaron Rook (Autosport.com): You’re doing a few installation laps here, is it hard to swtich the tyres on here?

Luca: “No, I think honestly it is really easy. On the end of the out lap, I would say the tyres are really there. No I don’t think it is a problem. It will be more of a problem to save them then to warm them up.”

Aaron Rook (Autosport.com) You had a really good race in Silverstone Emil, fighting for the lead. Are you hoping to do the same today and take the lead at the first corner as it’s quite a hard track to overtake on…

Emil: “Yeh we’ll see how it goes. I want to overtake on the start as that’s the easiest place to do it. It is a little harder to overtake here than Silverstone but if you have the pace difference then it is possible. We’ll see.”

Aaron Rook (Autosport.com) You were down in P7 before your last run, how did you find that extra bit of time?

Esteban: “I was down there because I couldn’t really do my first push lap. I didn’t know it was really my last lap as my engineer didn’t tell me, I think as not to make me do a mistake. So I was really on the limit.”

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