oneGP F1 Post-Race Interview
- Wisniewski - Congratulations on the victory. You qualified 1st and finished with a commanding lead throughout the whole race.
Q: You had a good start and managed to open a gap early on in the race only to have a safety car called to the track. What was going through your head at that point? Were you worried about the restart on cold tires?
"Absolutaly not, actually it was the most perfect moment for SC to come. while making some trining stints I noticed tyres were way too hot from 5-10 lap, and I lost almost 1 sec per lap comparing second stint. When i talked earlier with Evilpimp i said that SC in 7th lap will literaly save us
And it really did, i just cooled tyres and used oppurtunity to make good times on proper tyre temperature when SC was gone. Also i had staregy for rather early pitstop also because of tyres, so i was only concerned if after pitting i will end in middle of "fight zone". FOrtunately not, everything was went really smoth and i didnt even lose a big gap beacause it was only 5 sec lead or so. If it was 33 lap it would be rally a disaster, for a moment there was a probability, only then i was really concerned to lose 25 sec lead
all in all it was relly fortunate
"
Q: In your opinion, what was the most difficult part of the race?
"Even if I had 1 sec advantage in qualy I knew that it wont be that hard to overtake me in T1. Long straight after start really allowed 3 cars to go concurrently in T1.
In race i went really to fast in first corner, so i was immediately overtaken by "lamerr", i managed to force thru but "majorchrille" somehow lost control trying not to hit me and produced really a big crash. Again i was fortunate, because it could be me, then "lammer" went to wide second later and everything went good for me after that. So first two corners were were horrible for me
"
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- StormCloud - You had a brilliant drive at KY2R. Up from 13th to 2nd and you had the best start to the race, overtaking 7 people during the collision at turn 2.
Q: During the first stint you were racing very close with Deutchel, running similar lap times. You seemed to be a bit faster but could not complete a pass. Can you describe the difficulty of overtaking on KY2R?
"I did not do any serious practice for this race and it was a late decision to drive - so late I almost missed qualifying! There are a couple of good overtaking spots at Kyoto but it took me while to remember which gear to take some corners so I didn't have the speed in the right places to overtake Marcel, who I know from OWRL is a very consistent driver"
Q: In your opinion, what was the most difficult part of the race?
"The lap before my pitstop when I looked and saw I had 0.9 laps of fuel as I passed the pit entrance before starting my inlap!"
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- Deutschel - You also had a good start, jumping from 5th to 3rd while staying ahead of the carnage at turn 2. Congratulations on 3rd place and getting to the podium on your teams entrance into oneGP.
Q: When Stormword exited the pits ahead of you he started to open up a gap. Was there a point when you decided to play it safe and settle for 3rd?
"Yes, i know him very well and his is usually faster than me. that i could hold him until the pitstop was imo because of the tricky track. i know the points were overtaking is possible very well and tried to avoid to give him a draft on the oval parts. so i knew he would drove faster in first stint, i hold him up. so i knew, that it is nearly impossible to overtaking him on track again and played safe for the podium."
Q: In your opinion, what was the most difficult part of the race?
"Nothing special than an hour event
you need to keep cool in first laps and keep the concentration high over the race duration. really hard for me, was hitting the right time in the qualy-session and with storm in the neck, was not as stressful as it perhaps looked. it was like racing a well known buddy, so the close racing is very predictable
that was big fun for me."
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That's the end of the first oneGP post race interview. Thanks to the top 3 for quick responses to my questions and congratulations to all who finished. This was one of oneGP's largest and most successful races. It was also a difficult track where the best place to pass someone was in the pits. We hope to see everyone in the next race.