Imola Sprint Race Press Conference

GP2 Asia Series: Welcome to today’s sprint race press conference. Joining us winner of the race Dani Clos at Racing Engineering. In second place we have Fabio Leimer at Rapax and in third place we have Giedo van der Garde at Barwa Addax Team. Starting with you Dani, congratulations on a fantastic job today. It must feel really good after a difficult qualifying session on Friday...

Dani Clos: It was a positive day today. After Friday free practice we were hoping to have a good qualifying but things did not go as planned. And yesterday we were starting from a position that was not helping a lot. We were able to do a good race and start today from P2. I had a pretty good start today. And after that, the job was to be constant and to hold back Fabio. Nothing else... It’s really positive for me because I have not done much mileage on this car during the Asia Series. I crashed in Abu Dhabi Race 1. This is really positive for the team and me. We have more mileage and more data and more things to work with.

GP2 Asia Series: You had a really good pace yesterday and today. What went wrong during qualifying exactly?

Dani: I had traffic with my first set of tyres and then there was a red flag that stopped me in my lap. With the second set of tyres, I only had one clean lap and I could not put everything right. Things happen. It was one of my worse qualy in GP2, but you learn from these things and I hope it will not happen again. I will work on it.

GP2 Asia Series: Do you think that one of the keys to your win today was managing the tyres?

Dani: This is a big thing. We don’t know the Pirelli tyres that well yet. They are a bit different to what we were used to and we just need to run more with the car. And today we did and we are more comfortable with it. The management of the tyres was really important today and I think I did it well. I kept a good pace and maintained the gap with Fabio whilst making sure I could end the race with the same set of tyres.

GP2 Asia Series: Now that the Asia Series is over, what is your goal for the main Series?

Dani: Well, my goal is first to do a good test session at Silverstone. And then do the same during Barcelona tests and then in Turkey. My goal is to take things race by race and do the job.

GP2 Asia Series: Thank you Dani. Great job today. Fabio, good to see you back in the press conference room. It’s been since Barcelona 2010 if I recall correctly?

Fabio Leimer: This feels really good. I am very happy with the result today. The weekend was a bit like the same as Dani’s: we were fast in free practice but then in qualy we had problems and we started at the back. I expected more about qualy but in the GP2 it is very difficult because when you have to start from the back it is very difficult to overtake and my aim was to finish in the top 8 in order to be able to start from a better position in the sprint race. Yesterday was quite a good race. We did a perfect pitstop strategy and I finished sixth. And for today it was really important to make a really good start. I tried to overtake Dani but he was quite quick at the start. I am quite happy with this second place though. After the start, it was a normal race. Nothing special happened. I tried to push for a few laps but it was never possible to overtake Dani and then I was struggling more and more with the front tyres. I am really happy because it’s been a while since my last podium. It was in Barcelona last race. In Abu Dhabi, it was also quite hard for me and now I am really happy that I can have a podium in the Asia Series for the team.

GP2 Asia Series: You will start next Series with Reigning Champions Rapax. Does that put any particular pressure on your shoulders?

Fabio: I think yes, I have a bit more pressure this year than last season because the team won both titles, but in the end everybody knows it’s quite different from last year: we have a new car, new tyres. I think that testing in Silverstone and Barcelona will be very important to get as much mileage as we can in order to learn more about the tyres and the car. We need to be prepared even more before the main Series.

GP2 Asia Series: Thank you Fabio. Giedo, another podium finish today. You finish third in the drivers’ standings. Happy?

Giedo van der Garde: I think we had a really good start again today. I was very excited because I think I passed three or four cars in a row. You know your braking points in the first corner and I was braking already quite late and when I saw the guys braking later I thought to myself that it was going to be a disaster. I managed to come out without crashing so I am quite happy with that. After that, I lost a bit at the beginning and in the middle. Grosjean was a bit quicker and was trying to attack. In the end, we struggled a lot on the back straight, downhill, we lost a lot of pace. The car was handling not too bad in the end. I was catching up the leaders in the end again. I think I was one of the quickest today so...

GP2 Asia Series: Today’s podium seemed to be a bit harder to keep with Romain putting race-long pressure on you...

Giedo: Yeah because he was always quick on the straight line and he caught me up there. I think it was a matter of concentration and I am very happy to finish again on the podium. It is nice of course to be in the Top three in the championship. But we have got another load of data today that we need to analyse and then I’m looking forward to the start of the main Series’ season.

GP2 Asia Series: Looking ahead, what are your goals for this season?

Giedo: It’s going to be a very thought season. There are a lot of competitors. A lot of quick drivers. It’s just a matter of being there all the time. You have to be constant and in the top five in every race. This is our goal. It’s going to be a tough fight, but we will go for it.