Thoughts from Colombo, Iwasa and Caldwell

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations to the top three finishers in Race 1 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship here at the Hungaroring. Finishing in third place Olli Caldwell for PREMA, in second place, Ayumu Iwasa for Hitech Grand Prix and taking his first win, our winner Lorenzo Colombo for Campos. Lorenzo, huge congratulations, it's a list of firsts for you. Not only your first win in Formula 3 but also your first points as well, describe how it feels?

Lorenzo Colombo: I think I cannot I feel much better than at this moment because scoring the first podium, the first win, the first points, and the fastest lap points all in one is just the jackpot. I am mega happy about the race, I just managed it in the best way I could. Maybe the start was a little bit poor from my side we still need to understand what happened there with the team. We can improve maybe the start. Afterwards, when I made the move on Jonny unfortunately, he had a technical problem or something but I was already ahead so I think I deserved this one and I managed it quite well by the end.

FIA Formula 3: Talk us through the battles with Jonny, it got pretty close between the two of you on the opening lap. Did you touch at Turn 2?

Colombo: Yeah, we did touch. I think there was not enough room left for me, I had two tyres on the curb already so we had a little touch. Fortunately, no one else was involved in that accident, we didn't lose any places so in the end, it kind of reset the race from that point. Of course, in the first laps, everyone wants to keep the positions here because it's really important to be the first guy leading so you can set the pace and it's really hard to overtake. So, I understood the point of view of Jonny to be really aggressive to defend his position, but we did touch yes.

FIA Formula 3: Then that slam dunk, that dominant overtake for lead. Talk us through that moment?

Colombo: First of all, in the first couple of laps with DRS I needed to understand exactly how much effect I could gain from it, and the effect was quite big at the end of the straight to I just need to manage the gap from the last corner. I think Jonny also did a mistake in the lap that I overtook him, so that gave me a really good chance to overtake him just past Turn 1. I think once I saw the situation there I said "this is the time I need to go for it" and it finally worked, it was really good late-breaking in Turn 1 around the outside. It was a really good move I think.

FIA Formula 3: Very dominant performance by you Lorenzo, I don't want to pour cold water on your day so far but you are being investigated for the safety car restart, in terms of your gap to the safety. Can you talk us through the restart, from your point of view?

Colombo: When the safety car switched off the lights, I said that was my time to create some gap from the safety car and let it go in order to not create any mess around... in order to be close when I wanted to restart. We still need to see what happened there with the team because I got no communication from my team at least. Of course, we can see what happened there but talking about the race I think I didn't damage anyone, I didn't make any mess. So I don't know what to say about this I need to see with the Stewards and also maybe learn for the future what to do. Maybe I could have done it in a nicer way, yes of course. We will see. It's always good to learn and improve, and like everything else not only in driving but all around, the rules respecting everything, to be more clean as a driver and more professional of course.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you, Lorenzo. Ayumu coming to you. Many congratulations as well, your first podium in Formula 3. How important is this moment for you?

Ayumu Iwasa: I think this is a good point for the first podium, but I wanted to catch the leader but I didn't have good enough speed for the whole of the race to the end. I have to improve my driving and the car, everything. During the race, I had some mistakes, and I was struggling a bit, especially with oversteer so we have to improve to the next race.

FIA Formula 3: How difficult were the conditions out there today?

Iwasa: I think the conditions were getting worse because the temperature was getting higher so yeah the car was moving a little bit towards the end. I think the car was not too far off, so that's a good point but yeah still I need to improve.

FIA Formula 3: Well done Ayumu. Olli, great job by you as well, very close to Ayumu at the end as well?

Olli Caldwell: Yeah I managed to have a good last lap, I think Ayumu made a small mistake in Sector 3 which helped but throughout the majority of the race once everyone's tyres started to go off it was quite difficult to follow. I think we saw even with people who had DRS to the car in front it was very difficult to catch, with DRS, without DRS just because of the nature of the track you've got to make the moves on the first few laps. I was pushing as hard as I could but with the temperature going up and the tyres getting worse it was difficult, so it was about maintaining the tyres and not making any major risks.

FIA Formula 3: Olli this has been a good race for you in terms of the Championship, you're now up into second place just behind your teammate?

Caldwell: I mean it's the first race of the weekend, it's only a sprint race so Sunday's race will have more points. I'm not too sure where anyone else finished but I think we're seeing that the Championship is changing every race so it's good to be there, for now, let's see where I am at the end of the weekend. Hopefully in the same position.

FIA Formula 3: Great stuff, well done to all three of you.