Interviews by Sergio Álvarez; spiritual guidance by Diego Merino.
FRI, KEY DRIVER QUOTES, QUALIFYING
Q to Felipe Drugovich (Pole, 1:40.422), Richard Verschoor (P2, 1:40.648) and Jack Doohan (P3* DSQ after qualy, 1:41.024): “These new video screens installed around the track to aid drivers’ visibility in blind corners (ahead of Turns 13, 16 and 19), have they improved things for you?”
FD: “Um, it didn’t really change (anything) for me because I wasn’t looking at them so no. It was pretty much the same.”
RV: “I didn’t know about it to be honest!”
JD: “I think if you’re looking at those screens you ain’t going fast enough!”
SAT, KEY DRIVER QUOTES, SPRINT RACE
Q to P2 & P3 finishers (Vips, 47:58.653 and Hughes, *DSQ later, 47:58.711 respectively): “During your fight for P2 on the final lap, did you take into account the positioning of the DRS detection zones around the track in order to play with your gap?”
Vips: “Well, the DRS detection is just where you turn into the last corner so if I didn’t take it into account I’d be further down, yeah.”
Hughes: “Thinking about what happened last year in F1 and that being said, I also didn’t want to give Juri half a car or a nose ahead so he could hold it around the outside. It’s an interesting one, I think Juri sort of touched on it earlier: you have it in your mind but you have to also play the occasion the time you can’t plan it. In hindsight, maybe if I braked even earlier than I felt like I already did, I might have held it but you can’t plan for every scenario and we just do what feels best at the time. That being said, I’m not very happy that I finished third and Juri got me on the line.”
SUN, KEY DRIVER QUOTES, FEATURE RACE
Q to Jehan Daruvala (P3, Feature Race, 47:56.843): “How much in control did you feel over the final laps of the distance in relation to Hughes? Did you think he was a real threat for your podium position?”
A: “I had a bit of a scare with four or five laps to go because normally for the gearshifts I have a beep and my radio stopped working so I lost electronics. I came out of Turn 10 and I didn’t shift up, I was waiting for the beep and I already hit the limiter, I thought there was something wrong with the engine and then the next corner again I hit the limiter so that was a bit of a scare, I think I lost one and a half seconds over a couple of laps. I went from… I did a 45 (1:45 lap) on one lap and straight away I realized that there was a problem then with the radio and whatever electronics to control that. Then I kind of put my head down and did a couple of high 43s (1:43 lap) and honestly I was in control. I saw no one ahead of me and for me there was enough gap behind to not take any risks so I just brought the car home. Going from 14th to 3rd itself was a big result and there was nothing more to gain in the front, I had more pace but there was no need to risk.”
iberianmph.com 