Round 9 Post Sprint Race Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Good morning from the Hungaroring where it’s time for the press conference with the top three in the FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race. In third place we have Charlie Wurz from TRIDENT, second is Ugo Ugochukwu from PREMA Racing and your race winner is Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak from Campos Racing. Tas, congratulations your second win of the season and that did not look easy, just how tough was it to pace things out there today?

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak: Thank you very much, it was a tricky race overall I think, this year with the Mediums it is very hard to manage the tyres especially on a track where degradation is a big thing. I tried to manage the best I could, I saw Ugo in P3 mid race coming very fast so I just tried to do the best I can. At first I was trying to keep Hedley in the DRS so he could find it harder to overtake him. In the end I kept pushing and I think we managed the race pretty well and came out with a win.

FIA Formula 3: How hard is it to balance pushing and using up some of those tyres and saving enough to be able to defend when someone is coming to attack you later in the race?

Inthraphuvasak: It was kind of a guess from me how hard to push in the beginning and I think I did quite a good job to be on the safe side of things so that I had tyres in the last few laps. After the Safety Car restart, we managed to pull a very big gap in the last lap so I think we did quite a good job.

FIA Formula 3: You certainly did and its two wins in three Sprint Races for you now, just how happy are you with your recent form?

Inthraphuvasak: A bit disappointed yesterday with Qualifying honestly, left a lot on the table and I think we had a lot of pace coming into the weekend, P4 in practice so disappointed with twelve in quali yesterday, but I think I took good opportunities today and the past few rounds have been really good for me. I think for the past four or five qualifying’s before the break we have always been inside the top 12, so really positive, so trying to do better in Monza and get on the podium for the Feature Race.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations on the Sprint victory today. Ugo P2 for you, a great climb from sixth on the grid but I imagine you were cursing your luck with the late Safety Car there.

Ugo Ugochukwu: It was definitely a little bit frustrating there to be honest it was pretty difficult to pass in the dirty air. Tas was doing a good job through the middle sector, it was tricky to get close but obviously the Safety Car made things more difficult, only one lap at the end with no DRS is almost impossible to overtake around here, but never the less it’s still a really good race. Yesterday I was a little bit disappointed with the quali position because I felt there was definitely more in it, I got a bit of traffic on the last run but really happy to show today the pace we had and really good points. Looking forward to tomorrow as well because on a track where it’s usually tricky to overtake I felt I had good enough race pace to make some good moves and that’s really positive.

FIA Formula 3: I was going to say you were making moves out on track there, certainly down into Turn 1 we saw some good ones, how fun was it knowing you could move forward today?

Ugochukwu: Yeah it was really good, I thought in the middle of the race when I got into P3 I might struggle with tyres here but I managed to keep the tyres quite well until the end and it was really good I was able to make up some positions and just maintain at the end, obviously I struggled a little bit following behind Tas, my front left was quite grained, so we will see if we can improve on that a little bit tomorrow and hopefully it will make overtaking even easier for us.

FIA Formula 3: Theres a chance of rain tomorrow morning as well, what would you prefer conditions wise? Would you like it to be dry given the pace you have shown today or wet for a bit of chaos.

Ugochukwu: Dry is definitely the safest option for us as the pace was really good today, I would say that would be the preferred one, but we will see. I’m looking forward to whatever the weather brings, even wet conditions I’m sure the pace will be good as long as we get a proper Feature Race in.

FIA Formula 3: Fingers crossed, but well done on second place. Charlie thanks for waiting, third for you. You wait all season for that podium and then two come along in two race starts. Just how pleased are you with that drive?

Charlie Wurz: I think again it was really well executed I managed to save quite a lot of the tyres at the beginning and then at the end really push and go for it, but super happy how we executed the race and managed it. I think that was really positive and to get two podiums two races in a row is super positive and I think we’re making great strides forward and I think this weekend we have been really fast. I messed up the last lap in qualifying but none the less I think the pace has been really strong so to finish on the podium is nice and it was not easy because to overtake into turn one everyone is expecting that so I tried to invent some new different places to overtake which I managed to pull off so super happy with that, Looking forward to tomorrow.

FIA Formula 3: Speaking of overtaking into Turn 1 though you got the move done for the podium on the last lap for the restart, did you have a plan in mind for that one or was it just taking advantage of what was in front of you?

Wurz: Yeah I mean I always plan to try and overtake the car in front, but I managed to get a really good launch, I mean I had also graining on the front left so we knew I was expecting the last corner on the restart to be quite tough, but I managed it quite well and I had a good exit and managed to get down the inside of Hedley. Super happy with that, and once I got that move done, I was a bit more relaxed on the last lap, and it was a nice way to finish the race.

FIA Formula 3: I mentioned your podium as well last weekend at Spa, getting the big results towards the end of this year I imagine you don’t want this season to end right now?

Wurz: Yeah exactly I feel like we’re getting a really good momentum at the moment , my pace is getting stronger and stronger every round and I feel in a really good position but in the end you just have to try and maximise the races that we have and do the best I can.

FIA Formula 3: Well congratulations today, thank you very much Charlie.