GP2 Monaco - Race 2 - Press conference

Monaco winner Jerome d’Ambrosio: how does it feel?

Jerome d’Ambrosio: It feels awesome! Winning in Monaco is really nice, and as you can hear I’ve got less voice than this morning! [laughs] I’m really happy: it’s great for the team, and I think they really deserve it, they’ve done amazing work over the winter without being rewarded as we thought we would be. In Barcelona we had to adapt to these F1 conditions, and we reacted pretty good: we still have some work but we are going in the right direction, and also from yesterday to today we were better, and it feels just great!

You set it up with a storming drive yesterday, and today you made it look easy: was it?

Jerome: It’s not, it wasn’t! It’s never really easy you know, it’s Monaco and you have to push, and at one point I saw Giedo losing a bit and so I decided to push hard, before the safety car, and built up a gap. I was quite happy with this, and then the safety car came out and so I thought man, I’ve got to do it again! [laughs] On the last 4 laps Giedo came back, maybe he saved his tyres a bit for the end, I don’t know yet, but it’s good: that’s in the book, it’s over, I’ve got it. It feels good: I’ve had pole, in Asia, I’ve been second and had some good races, but I haven’t been winning and this is just great, you know?

I was about to say you’ve saved your first win for Monaco: how much of a difference does it make getting that first win here?

Jerome: You know you have these special circuits: you have Spa in Belgium, you have Monaco, and getting a win here is always very special, and very different. So it’s great.

What does the result mean for the team going forward?

Jerome: It’s a boost for the team, so it’s great: it shows we’re on the right track, and we need to continue to work because we’re maybe not the best yet, but we’re on the way to becoming it.

Giedo, P2 and a nice podium here in Monaco: happy with your day’s work today?

Giedo van der Garde: Yeah! Considering qualifying was a bit of a pity for us, we were all the way quick and were there but at the end we were one of the first to finish the session so we were 12th. I think I had a good day yesterday, a good race and I was the only one who overtook, and today we started third and I think it’s a good position to finish on the podium, but you never know. I made a really good start and passed Razia but then I was blocked by d’Ambrosio: for me he was really, really slow but in the end it’s very, very hard to overtake here. But I think we took the most out of it here, we got some points, and now off to the next one.

You looked much faster, certainly, but it’s d’Ambrosio: he’s hard to overtake anywhere, especially in the place like this…

Giedo: Yeah, but yesterday it was possible! [laughs] But today he knew where my strength was and he adapted to it today, and somehow he did well to defend, but that’s life: it’s very hard here to overtake so I’m pleased with the second place, and now go to the next one and score some more points!

A good weekend for the team, a win and a second: how does this leave you and the guys for Turkey?

Giedo: Turkey is a good circuit, I like it, and the team were reasonably strong there last year, so we’ve got to work hard together: the team did really well this weekend and I have to thank them a lot, and now we just have to work hard and keep pushing until the next one and see if we can score another ten points or so!

Jules, P3 after an amazing drive today: how was it for you from inside the car?

Jules Bianchi: It was a really difficult race! I did a really nice start and was P4, and then I did a mistake in corner five and Valerio overtook me, and Pastor also, so I was P6 and I waited because I knew that Pastor had a drive through. When Pastor came in the pits I tried to push but I saw that Valerio was really hot, and really on the limit to overtake Razia, so I just waited a bit and then he crashed! Then I pushed again to overtake Razia because I really wanted to make a podium here in Monaco: it’s a bit special for me because I was born in Nice so it’s really close to my family, and they were here, so it was really important to make a good result. Also for the championship, because in Barcelona we did a good qualifying but race incidents meant no points for the race, and that was a bit difficult. So we did a really good job this weekend, the car was really good and we improved a lot in race two, because race one was okay but we missed a bit of time in the corners.

What is it with you guys that makes your cars look so good in race conditions?

Jules: I don’t know what is the difference, but for sure the car is really fast and we can save the tyres really well which is really important. We are working a lot with the team, we still have to improve some things, but we are in the right way.

And it’s a nice way to get the championship underway for you, with a podium in your home race…

Jules: Yeah, but it’s the most important thing to come back in the championship because I had only 2 points before coming to Monaco, and everybody knows in Monaco it’s really easy to crash so it was important to score points, and we did it, and I’m really happy.

Turkey is the next race: any predictions?

Jules: We will try to do our best in qualifying and see what happens in the race, but for sure our target will be to make pole position.