Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the press conference following Race 1 in Monza. Joining us is race winner Jake Dennis from Arden International, in second also from Arden International is Jack Aitken and in third is Jake Hughes from DAMS.
GP3 Series: Jake, your first win in GP3 Series, it must be an exciting day for you?
Jake Dennis: Yeah, I'm really happy. I knew I had a good chance after qualifying. I felt really good in the car and the race runs from Friday looked really positive. I pulled off a pretty decent move on Leclerc to get into the lead.
Jack Aitken: Some may say fully decent...(Laughter from all).
Jake: That was sort of the winning move as the battle we had meant I had to pull off the manouerve and I pushed quite hard on the next two or three laps to create a gap. As soon as Jack got into second, it was back into full race mode. It was an intense race, not like Spa. Generally, I'm just really happy. It was such a great job from everyone at the team and Racing Steps Foundation. It's the least they deserve after a tough start to the season. Now we can progress, third in Budapest, second in Spa and the win here; so we're getting some good points on the board and working our way up the standings. I will do the same tomorrow. Jake (Hughes) did it today and got on the rostrum.
GP3 Series: From the outside it looked a relatively easy win, but as it was your first one, it never is...how was it?
Jake: It was tough for sure. Jack was putting on a lot of pressure on the start. I made quite a big mistake in T1 which put a lot of pressure on me going into the next chicane. He was generally, there, or thereabouts all race but I could see in the last 7 laps he was starting to struggle with tyre deg then.But then they said Hughes is coming so I couldn't chill out. For the last 2 laps I could relax and enjoy it. I'm extremely happy. The first win in the Series is great and a big relief. Given the year I've had I was waiting for something to happen in the last two laps to take the win away from me. (Laughs). I brought it home.
GP3 Series: Can you tell us about this bet now?
Jake: On the track walk, if me and Jack made the podium in Race 1, the engineers would have to shave off their beards, which are pretty extreme. My engineer is pretty tanned so he's going to have a nice, white line. If we lost, we would have to wear lipstick to the Abu Dhabi Prize Giving Ceremony.
GP3 Series: Great job Jake. Jack P2 today, I guess you were hoping for more but is that the best you could have got from today?
Jack: I think like Jake mentioned, it was quite a tough race. We were expecting it to be a little easier, especially after we had got past Leclerc and made relatively easy work of him. We were quite strong early. on. Then the other Jake (Hughes) decided started to pus. i maybe could have had a go at Jake a bit earlier but the plan was always to have a bit of a gap because when you start fighting around here you lose a lot time. I did end up losing a bit of time in the dirty air. We could have had more and realistically it was a great result for the team and lots of solid points.
GP3 Series: It's a tricky one when you have to battle your teammate for the lead...
Jack: Yes exactly.Jake: Especially with our bet! Jack: I knew what was at stake!
GP3 Series: How were the tyres?
Jack: It's not really the same tyre degradation that we're experienced at previous rounds. You can still be doing quick times near the end. The fastest lap was posted near the end so any mistakes you make can be punished.
GP3 Series: Jake, P3 today, in some respects you had the drive of the day?Jake Hughes: I was entertaining from my side. I dropped one place at the start. Unfortunately my teammate broke down in the middle of Ascari. I was stuck behind him and lost another position but sorted it out before the safety car. I don't think I've had a better race car in my life. I really enjoyed it. I set the fastest lap four or five laps in a row. It was ridiculously easy, it was almost unfair. (Laughs). Do you want to keep interrupting me Jake? I had so much speed to attack into Parabolica and Turn 1. Some of the moves were on the limit. Some of the ART boys were very fair on me and there could have been an accident if they had turned in on me. After Spa I have to say this is all of DAMS' work. We qualified on the front row there and we scored no points. What we did today is a minimum of what we would have done there in both races. Today just confirmed that to me so a mega thanks to the team.
GP3 Series: You looked on incredible form in the closing laps, what do you put that down too?
Jake: I don't know. From my side we've always had a good car in the race. We just struggled with our qualifying form but we seem to have fixed it since the summer break. These boys had new tyres, so me coming from P9-P3. I caught Jack but my rear tyres died near the end and he defended well. I could push like I was in qualifying.
