FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to the Press Conference of the Top 3 Qualifiers here in Spa-Francorchamps, in third place is Roman Stanek for Invicta Racing, in second is Ritomo Miyata for ART Grand Prix and taking Pole Position is Alex Dunne for Rodin Motorsport. Alex congratulations your second Pole Position of the season and by over 0.4 seconds today, just how satisfied are you?
Alex Dunne: Yeah I think it was pretty good. I think for me the most satisfying thing is the fact that I was four tenths clear in Free Practice as well and in both sessions, I was purple in all three sectors. It shows in terms of general speed there was not a whole lot left out there which is always nice. In the end to be honest my pole lap was a bit messy, I think there were a few places where I could have gained a couple of tenths. In general, still very happy. With the margin we have, it shows that we are in a good place.
FIA Formula 2: A really impressive margin and at such a special track here at Spa-Francorchamps being the longest lap on the calendar, just how hard is it to get everything right over a lap, even if you did have a big margin?
Dunne: It is tricky, there’s a lot of areas where you need to have very high confidence and really be comfortable with being on the limit, I think that’s what rewards with lap time around here. I think my second lap or Run 1 was a really strong lap and probably I think my last lap wasn’t quite as good as that one. I think in general if I put the best of qualifying together it would have been really strong, but it was still strong anyway so I don’t think I can complain.
FIA Formula 2: A great performance today and it leaves you just 12 points off the Championship lead with the two points for Pole Position, does it feel any more significant today as well to not have any of your main Championship title rivals beside you on the sofa?
Dunne: Of course. I think it’s always nice for me. I’ve said that a big thing about F2 is maximising your weekends when the other people may not quite have the pace. I think that is what we did today. The people around us in the Championship, I don’t think any of them are in the Top 10… and I am on Pole so I am exactly where I need to be.
FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, Ritomo moving to you, second place it is your best qualifying performance in Formula 2 so far, just how pleased are you with your lap?
Ritomo Miyata: Yeah, finally we could do a really good job. Before we couldn’t push because we had an issue and before last weekend or so we didn’t have good performance. But this weakened since Free Practice we had confidence, finally finished P2. It’s really good.
FIA Formula 2: It seemed like a very strong team performance as well with Victor Martins in fourth place, was it a case of getting the set up right today?
Miyata: Yes, to be honest we always tried to improve the car performance, for sure driving as well but especially this weekend, both cars were in a good position. Qualifying is really where you need to get a tow so we always tried to get maximum pace and performance. Both cars were really good.
FIA Formula 2: You will be starting from the front row on Sunday but it could be raining looking at the forecast, what is the aim for you going into the Feature Race?
Miyata: For sure everyone wants to finish, not crash, no Safety Car it would be good. From my side, first we want to get a podium, of course if we can win the race it’s the best but I think the best finish in the Feature Race, maybe it’s P7 or P8 around there, so we want to get our first podium. If it’s raining then it will be a tough race, we need to always try to do our best.
FIA Formula 2: Thank you and well done today, Roman third in each of the last two Sprint Race’s and then third in qualifying here, are you pleased with todays performance?
Roman Stanek: Yeah, after Free Practice where we struggled a little bit, we didn’t really have the pace to fight for the top 3, we made some improvements. I also tried my best to improve the driving. It was messy but in the end we put everything together and I think we could be happy with P3 today.
FIA Formula 2: I think this is your best Qualifying performance in Formula 2, it is certainly your best of this year, it is also your fourth straight top 6 qualifying result, what do you put that consistency down to?
Stanek: Well I think it took a little bit for me to understand the car, in the last two years I was driving for a different team but kept working hard. I still think we can improve a lot. In the last three or four rounds the qualifying was always good and a key point in Formula 2 is to qualify always in the top 6, top 8 because anything can happen in the races. We have to keep the momentum and now it’s time to improve also in the races. In Silverstone we did the wrong strategy, and I boxed for Soft tyres which was not the way to go. There was a little bit of a miss understanding so we lost a lot of points there. But happy that I have a good chance again to score good points.
FIA Formula 2: The team has both cars in the top 7 today, you mentioned bouncing back from Practice, just how tough is it to get the downforce and all the settings just right here?
Stanek: It’s more up to the engineers and what they do but also our feedback is very important and I think we did a good job from Free Practice to quali, we were obviously not so quick but think in quali we improved. In Formula 2 in general it is all about the details and the maximum performance you can get from driving and from the car. Happy with P3.
FIA Formula 2: Congratulations, well done everyone.