Lynn, Vandoorne and Pic discuss qualifying in Hungary

Following today's GP2 qualifying session, the top 3 Alex Lynn, Stoffel Vandoorne and Arthur Pic spoke to the lovely folks at GP2Series.com about their feelings following Friday's qualifying.

====================================================

GP2 Series: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to today’s post-qualifying press conference. Joining us we have on pole position Alex Lynn for DAMS. In second place, we have Series leader Stoffel Vandoorne from ART Grand Prix and in third place we have Arthur Pic from Campos Racing. Starting with you Alex, congratulations on your first GP2 pole. How was your session?

Alex Lynn: Yeah I think we always knew it was always going to be difficult trying to manage the traffic in Budapest. After free practice, we felt that the car was very strong and I was driving well. We knew we had some work to do to be able to find the speed to match Stoffel’s somehow. In the second run, we managed the timing really well and I put together a really nice lap. Luckily it was enough today. We managed the timing right. I think it was the real key. If we had it my way, we wouldn’t have done it like this. To be fair I have to say thank you to DAMS because they decided to do this strategy with both cars. I think it really paid off. Whether are not we will see more people doing it, I think not because Budapest is quite a unique situation. Everybody is always trying to stay in synch with each other on the same lap. I think today was a bit of a one off that we caught right.

GP2 Series: Coming back to the pits and watching the others try and better your time, how confident were you?

Alex: When I did the lap, I was quite confident, but you never know how that’s going to play out. I mean Lello was able to go quicker, and Stoffel…I mean it’s a horrible feeling to watch the others come across the line. Luckily it was enough! This strategy allowed me to maximise my potential which in the end is what we’re always trying to do. There are always four or five guys who are in contention for pole position and it all boils down to such small margins. And you need to put everything together at the right time. On the first run for example, I was far from maximising what I could do because you have the traffic and everything like that. So when we made the decision to go in the middle of the session, it was all about just maximise everything that we could do. We achieved that.

GP2 Series: And of course, starting from pole, you’re aiming at the win tomorrow. What will be key in the race?

Alex: I expect it to be a really hard race, but I’ve always been confident in my race pace. It was always just about if I could stick out on the front, it makes our lives a whole lot easier. The last few feature races, I’ve always been confident in the race to move forward so tomorrow it’s all about doing the bit I’ve always found a bit easier than normal so hopefully it will be a good race.

GP2 Series: Good job today.

Alex: Thank you.

GP2 Series: Stoffel, you were on a mission from free practice and things seemed to go your way. Eventually, you are P2 after qualifying which is a good result, but not the one you were going for. How was your session?

Stoffel Vandoorne: Yeah at first I felt quite disappointed because after practice we had a really good pace. I had quite a good first run in qualifying being provisional P1 and then as Alex said, it was all about timing. We went out with a bit too much traffic around us it was difficult to heat up the tyres. So it was difficult to get a good laptime on the second run really. It’s like Alex said as well when you’re fighting for such small margins, everything has to be perfect to put a car on pole. But, we came really close today. It was not even two hundredth. It’s always disappointing to get so close. Obviously it’s four points I didn’t take today. But we’re still starting from a good position tomorrow. Everything is still possible. It’s going to be a long race. It’s going to be probably a hot race as well so… Yeah we’ll see what happens tomorrow and how the strategies will play out.

GP2 Series: We saw that you were competitive on both compounds today. How different were they?

Stoffel: It’s difficult to tell because we didn’t do that many long runs. I felt quite comfortable with both compounds any way. I know how to manage the tyres from last year as well here. As you know, it’s really hot here now. I think it will be the main key during the race: to keep the tyres cool.

GP2 Series: You’ve scored a podium in every single feature race this season. We can expect more of the same from you tomorrow we guess?

Stoffel: Yeah I will try to go for the win as I usually do. Hopefully we put everything together tomorrow and we’ll see where we end up.

GP2 Series: Best of luck for tomorrow.

Stoffel: Cheers.

GP2 Series: Arthur, welcome back to the press conference. It’s been a while since we’ve had you with us. Happy with P3 today?

Arthur Pic: Yes I am. The session was quite hard like it always is In Budapest. To manage the traffic is pretty difficult. You try to do your best when you find a clean lap. I did that on my last lap. I made quite a big mistake in sector 1 so I think I lost one tenth, but that’s the way it is. When you have only one lap to set your best laptime, it’s hard to do the perfect lap. But I am happy to fight for the top in quali because since the beginning of the year, it was quite difficult. I’m happy to be here and I will do my best tomorrow. For sure I’m a bit disappointed because the car was good enough for pole today, but on the other end I’m happy to fight for pole position. It’s good to be on the second row though.

GP2 Series: You won here last year in the feature race. What will it take to repeat that?

Arthur: Tomorrow I will try to fight for the win. I think the tyre degradation will be the main issue because it is very hot. With the DRS it is a bit easier to overtake so if you manage well your tyres I think you can make a big difference. We’ll see how it goes.

#gp2 #hungary #feeder #formula #GP2