Giovinazzi, Sirotkin and Marciello discuss the race

GP2 Series: Antonio Giovinazzi, GP2 race winner. How does that sound?Antonio Giovinazzi: Amazing! I still can’t believe it. I’ve been smiling non-stop since I crossed the finish line. It’s a lot of emotions. I would like to thank PREMA Racing and my sponsor Jagonya Ayam. The car was as fantastic as yesterday. I freaked out at the start of the race when I dropped to P5. I thought that I might have lost the race. I didn’t think I’d be able to pocket a win before the end of the season so I’m more than happy to score these points for the team and for me.GP2 Series: You really had to fight hard for this win after a poor start from pole position. How was it from the car?Antonio: The race was really hard. I had a bad start. To drop to P5 was not part of the plan. Then the tyre degradation was higher than expected. After the pit stop, I had a better pace on Medium tyres. I was able to overtake Marciello and I was feeling really good in the car. Then we had quite a few safety cars which is difficult to manage here with the long straights and the technical corners.GP2 Series: You reclaimed the lead just before the final safety car period which lasted for quite some time. What was going on through your head?Antonio: The last safety car was really long. From the car, it felt like it was out forever. Honestly, lap after lap I tried to remain focused on the win and found a line where I should be at the restart in order to not let Marciello overtake me. In the end, I managed it quite well I think. I closed the door to Marciello and lew to my first win!GP2 Series: You will be starting from P8 tomorrow. You mentioned yesterday that the start was crucial on this track. What are your objectives for the sprint race?Antonio: We saw today during the feature race that overtaking here was quite easy. It’s a thrilling track so my objectives are obviously to pocket some points again. Starting P8 is not that far; our pace is really good, the car as well so I think we can be good challengers for tomorrow’s sprint race. Maybe we will be back on the podium!--GP2 Series: Sergey, P2 today on the finish line! It’s been an eventful race from start to finish. How was it for you?Sergey Sirotkin: It was not easy at all. We didn’t have the easiest start. I was behind Giovinazzi and he didn’t have a good start so I was a bit stuck behind him. I was P8 after Turn 1 which was not that bad when I saw other cars had crashed together. After that, I was fighting with a Racing Engineering car at Turn 5 and even if we were side by side, I think he didn’t see me. Luckily I realised it quite early so I started to lift off but he still touched the left part of my front wing. So it was a good thing that I did not continue to overtake him. After that, it was still not easy at all: I had trouble with the left front wing and I got damages in the full aero so it created problems with my brakes because I had air coming in on the left side of the car. It was under the safety car that I struggled a lot. After the pitstop, I pushed a lot to overtake and bring the car back in the points. I was quicker than at the start of the race so it was easier for me to overtake. I was at the right time at the right place. Under the last safety car, I struggled again with the brakes but I managed quite well the re-start. And I had a good fight with Oliver (Rowland): we were side by side, almost touching slightly and that was really fun! In the final stages, for two laps, I was getting ready to overtake Marciello. I got him in the last 15 metres!GP2 Series: What does this result mean to you after two disappointing feature races this season?Sergey: To be honest, I’m happy with the result but I don’t want to content myself with P2 or P3. It’s good if we always are in the Top 3 to score some points but I want to start winning again. There is no doubt that in Barcelona and Monte Carlo I had the pace and I was in a good position, but I couldn’t make it to the podium. Today, I was not the quickest but I was at the right place at the right moment. And at least, we have pocketed some points.GP2 Series: We saw today that Baku was an unforgiving track with no margin for error. You will be starting from P7 tomorrow. What can we expect from you?Sergey: (Laughs) To win again! At one point during the race I was P12 and I finished P2 so everything is possible on a track like Baku. As you have a lot of possibilities to overtake, I think it will be possible to take another podium tomorrow.--GP2 Series: Raffaele, P3 today. You led the race several times and at some point it seemed that you were in the best position to win it. What happened?Raffaele Marciello: What happened is that there were a lot of safety cars… I knew there would be some but I didn’t expect that many. I managed to build a good gap but with the safety cars, of course, it ruined everything. We were not lucky today. It’s also really difficult with the long straights to close the gap and to stay behind your rival. Giovinazzi was too fast for me. But still P3 is a good result and we scored some more points for the team.GP2 Series: You lost P2 to Sergey Sirotkin on the finish line. Were you surprised by it?Raffaele: No I was not. When we were under the last safety car, I saw Sirotkin getting close to me. He was just behind so I knew that he would overtake me on the final straight. But at least, we made the show…GP2 Series: How was the tyre degradation today for you?Raffaele: It was a bit too high; we didn’t expect that much. And we didn’t have much grip either. But now that we have one race under our belt, we know more about the track conditions. So we are going to analyse the data with the engineers and make sure everything is ready for tomorrow’s sprint race. Hopefully, we will be able to score some points again and maybe be back on the podium.GP2 Series: Today was your second podium in a row. You will be starting from P6 tomorrow. What are your goals?Raffaele: The Top 5 is my target for this season. But with all the possibilities to overtake here, I am sure we can do something good. Hopefully we won’t have as many safety cars as we had today and we will be able to manage the grip and the tyre degradation. I’m looking forward to racing tomorrow.