Round 9 thoughts from the Top 3

FIA Formula 3: Nikola Tsolov, youre the race winner Here in the feature race at the Hungaroring, your third win of the season and a great result for you and the team today how are you feeling right now?

Nikola Tsolov: I'm feeling really relieved and happy because I think that race particularly was quite important for my career and into the future. It hasn't started super well this season so the more I show my potential I think the better it is going to go for me and everyone that is supporting me.

FIA Formula 3: Starting from P2 you overtook your teammate at the start, from there was all about tyre management and making sure that Laurance van Hoepen would stay behind you?

Tsolov: Yeah I think the start was the key to the race so that's what I had in my head before starting the race. I think the only chance I had to win the race was to do a good first lap which I obviously did. My reaction time was good, launch was good and then that was it I just managed the race from then on.

FIA Formula 3: You were told on the radio that van Hoepen wanted to overtake you so you had to be careful, did that change your approach to the race?

Tsolov: At one point in the race I felt that he was catching me a lot into T1 breaking, so my engineer just warned me that he might try a move although I thought he was still too far back. Then I just move my breaking point by 2-3 metres which is just enough to stay ahead and not give him the opportunity to pass me.

FIA Formula 3: This is a great result knowing that you are going to be missing the next round in Spa, first of all what will you be doing next week, will you come to the track and secondly how are you going to prepare for the final round this season in Monza after the summer break?

Tsolov: Well, I think that I am not coming to the races, I’ve got another race during that week in the championship I actually got banned for doing. I wish the driver that's in my seat the best of luck and I hope the team does well and keeps pushing up to keep the second position in the Championship. A big summer break for me, I'm going to fully focus on preparing for the last round and for what comes next year.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations, Laurens van Hoepen, P2 today from pole position on the grid it's your strongest results in Formula 3 yet it's a disappointing one somehow how are you feeling right now?

Laurens van Hoepen: Yeah it’s bittersweet I would say because in the end we had a strong weekend with pole position, I even scored some points in the sprint and then P2 in the feature which is a whole lot of points. I definitely wanted to win this one just because it's so hard to overtake here so if you do a good start, after it's just managing the tyres. In the end I didn’t have a good start which then compromised the whole race. I was pushing back on Nikola but in the end, he was too strong. The dirty air is such a big factor here that means it is really hard to overtake.

FIA Formula 3: What did you learn from this race? It's disappointing but often in disappointment you get to learn the most.

Van Hoepen: For sure when I am in a situation like this next time I will do some things differently especially with choosing what clutch map to use. But I think a positive of this race was just staying behind Nikola and really managing the tyres well which I think I did. In the end I still had a lot of tyres left to push but in the end the Safety Car came which was a bit of a shame.

FIA Formula 3: Looking at the big picture it's been a really strong weekend for you here at the Hungaroring. Does it feel like everything is clicking better and better?

Van Hoepen: I think we are learning step by step and every weekend we are improving. So, I think everything is going well and we just have to keep improving until the end of the season in Monza. We have been close to very big results already before this year, but they didn’t happen because of some mistakes or some unlucky stuff, so now to finally get a Feature Race podium is very nice.

FIA Formula 3: We are heading to Spa-Francorchamps next week, what can we expect from you there?

Van Hoepen: Well hopefully more of the same I guess, that's the goal. It's the goal to obviously win there this time, so yeah, we will work extra hard for that to make sure that happens.

FIA Formula 3: Noel León, P3 from fourth on the grid today at the Hungaroring for the Feature Race, your best F3 result to date. You managed to gain a position and then it seemed like it was more about managing the rest of the race. How was it from the car?

Noel León: Yeah, super happy. Of course, the weekend has been really strong. A strong Free Practice, Qualifying and yesterday in the Sprint Race we made a mistake with the clutch map, so we lost a lot of positions. I knew we had a strong car, so for today we focused a lot on the start, and we gained a position, so super happy with that. Of course, I am happy with the result but the ARTs they were a little bit stronger than me, so something to look at but I am super happy with my best result in F3.

FIA Formula 3: From outside the car, it felt like a race of waiting for something to happen, which did not necessarily happen. How was it for you from the car? Was it tough?

León: Yeah, it was tricky to be honest because seeing last year's race there was so much deg. So, we were expecting degradation but in this case there was no degradation in the race. So, it was a full push race, obviously it was tough for the tyres and for the drivers but I think it was the first race we didn't have degradation so I was happy to push on all the laps.

FIA Formula 3: Looking at your results today, what does that mean going into the final two rounds of the season?

León: I am super happy because finally I got it done on the Sundays. I have been so close to getting good results but then things haven't gone my way. But this gives a lot of confidence for Spa, and we have a good car so I am really looking forward to Spa.