Round 4 Post Qualifying Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Hello and welcome to Monte-Carlo for our post qualifying press-conference. Our top three finishers today, in third place we have Mari Boya from Campos Racing, second is Roman Bilinski from Rodin Motorsport and finishing in P1 is Nikola Tsolov also from Campos Racing. Nikola, your maiden pole in F3, it must feel like a long time coming?

Nikola Tsolov: Yeah, finally in three years, I've managed to do it, and it's a great place to do so. I think it's the most important one as well. I'm a bit speechless. I'm really happy and it feels a bit surreal, to be honest, but let's see how it goes on Sunday.

FIA Formula 3: We saw you at the back of your second to last attempt. Was that a decision made in the moment or preplanned by the team?

Tsolov: No, it was really in the moment. I think in my second last push I had a rear lock in the second sector, so I had to abort the lap, which then made me go out of sequence, but I still managed to find a gap to push on the next lap and then it was kind of all or nothing, to be honest. Obviously, I took it a bit safe around where I had the rear locked, but overall, a really good lap. Crossing the line, I knew I would be P1 at the time.

FIA Formula 3: That's probably the most important pole of the year. How excited are you for Sunday?

Tsolov: Yeah, for sure. I think on Sunday it's just important to get a good start and then manage my race from then on. I think it's going to be high degradation, but at least we have the Sprint Race to learn from tomorrow.

FIA Formula 3: Thanks Nikola. Moving on to you Roman, it’s your best qualifying result of the season and what a place to do it. How happy are you with that?

Roman Bilinski: Yeah, definitely it's a very good result for myself and my team also with Callum Voisin being P2 in the group it is a massive improvement. So thank you very much to Rodin. For myself, it's very nice to be starting on the front row in Monaco. I'll be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit disappointed not to get the overall pole, but I think as a rookie, it's a good job. Thank you very much to everyone that's helped me.

FIA Formula 3: There was a Red Flag towards the end of Group B, did that take away the possibility of pole for you?

Bilinski: Yeah, definitely, it doesn't help just for the tyres, they cool down, you go out of rhythm, you lose a lap and things like this. So, it definitely didn't help, but in the end, I just had to maximise what I could for the group, and we did that, so it was a good result.

FIA Formula 3: With only one car ahead of you on Sunday, how are you going to approach the launch and how can you make it better between now and then?

Bilinski: Yeah, I just need to look back at the race starts. We had a practice start yesterday at the end of Free Practice. We'll look over this again, see what we can do better. And then I think it will just be managing for a race, doing the best we can and let's see what can happen. You know, Monaco is a chaotic race, so let's see.

FIA Formula 3: Thanks Roman. Mari thanks for waiting, P3 today, how to you reflect on that Qualifying session?

Mari Boya: Yeah, I am quite happy to be honest, really nice to be top three here in Monaco. I think that the team did are really good job also with Nikola, we are one and two, all missing just one 10th. It's a bit frustrating that, but still, I will take it for sure. I haven’t looked at the data yet, but I know in myself I think there was a bit more. So, it's a shame but still it is really nice and it's really a special place. So happy with this and clearly, we are improving a lot in qualifying sessions as well. It was the point I was missing the most and after Bahrain we knew what to work on and clearly, we can see the results coming.

FIA Formula 3: Just how good was the lap around here? It seemed very intense.

Boya: It was a good lap, but I know one place in Sector 2 where I missed a bit still, but I'm happy. The rest of the lap was quite good. I was surprised to improve in the last lap I didn’t expect that the track would get that fast, but happy with the improvements and let's go for the podium, or who knows, maybe the win on Sunday.

FIA Formula 3: Qualifying is usually the decider for Saturday and Sunday, do you think there is still something you can do during both races?

Boya: Yeah, we will have maximum focus on the start, I think this is the place where we can gain the most, so for sure, still plenty of opportunities. Let's take them and also from the Sprint Race, just trying to understand more about the car and to be more competitive

FIA Formula 3: Well done Mari, congratulations everyone.