Victor Martins’ Monza Weekend in his Words

Victor Martins and ART Grand Prix left Monza with their heads held high after achieving a podium finish and solid points return on Formula 2 is return from the summer break.
The Frenchman talked through his weekend at the Temple of Speed, reflecting on each session before also previewing the Round 12 action set to come in Baku.
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“Practice was actually not that great I would say because in the end we didn’t have a lot of laps on the board and I think heading into Qualifying it was all about getting a good FP, being prepared because of all the Red Flags that can happen and all the tricky moments that you need to adapt to and sometimes you only have one lap. So, FP is really important and I will say in terms of pace and car performance we were clearly there, it was just a bit messy, I didn’t get enough clean laps, but it was still okay.
“It was an important session to get a feel of the new track, the new tarmac, in the end, it has changed a lot but in terms of driving not so much. It was quite tricky because there was a lot of dust and the track was really dirty so it was quite challenging in some areas, it changed quite a bit compared to previous years but it was fine. I think I adapted quite well to it.”
“It was a bit funny actually, a lot of things happened but I was quite unlucky I would say until the end. I made one mistake at the start of the session which didn’t allow me to put a time on the board and it was all about getting a clean one at the end on the second set.
“We managed to come out with a P5 which is good enough to have a good weekend but overall I was a bit frustrated because with not experiencing the grip and a good lap at the start of quali it does not put you in the best rhythm for the end of the Qualifying, so I took that as a positive to get P5 with what happened during Quali.”
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“Yeah, I think I had a good start, which put me on the right foot at the start of the race just to look ahead and keep looking forward. I think with the pace that brought us to P2, we could have got more but I was a bit too hungry to get P1, but I did a few little mistakes that were costing me a few tenths at some point and then a few moments with some drivers put me in a bad position to be close to Bearman to fight for P1. So, in the end it was a good race again, good points, fastest laps in the end which is what I wanted.”
“I think I only remember maybe 50% of what happened. It’s a bit like every day I think I will have something that will come in my mind, like this happened, but I don’t remember everything that happened during this race. I had to defend, I had to attack, I did many overtakes, I got overtaken, I mean it was a crazy race.
“We were a bit on the back foot I think, I didn’t get a good start but then there was an incident at Turn 1, so I went out off came back at P8 or P9, so lost a position because of the incident and then got unlucky with the Safety Car because I pitted two laps before and I was around P15 and then I tried to make progress with the pace I had and then I managed to come back to P4 which was really good and then I think we were lacking a bit off performance here and there and then we managed to get P6 but it was still a nice race and we showed what we were capable off.
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“We are putting things together. I think the overall package is much stronger now than before. We learnt a lot from the start of the season and what we have seen for the last four rounds and I would say the details are now being put in place, and we can see it’s paying off. I think we will for sure keep working hard to continue with this momentum, I am hundred percent sure of this.”
“I am really confident because I know the track, what my strengths are, what my weaknesses are and what I need to improve from last year and with the performance we currently have I will have everything in my hands to fight for podiums in both races because there is a lot that is happening there also in Baku, so really looking forward to going there.”