Vips: “The momentum is very good at the moment”

Jüri Vips believes that the “momentum” is very much with him in the wake of his second win of the season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The Hitech Grand Prix driver romped to victory in Race 1, with arguably the defensive performance of the season. The Estonian spent almost the entirety of the race with the dazzling red PREMA of Jehan Daruvala in tow, but fought off multiple attacks on his position to cross the line first.

The intensity of the battle wasn’t lost on the Red Bull Junior, who discussed the war of wits between them, saying: “If you watch the live stream then you will have seen how close it was. I think four or five times we were side-by-side and it was a case of whoever breaks the latest gets the lead. I wasn’t going to let him by.

“Whenever we got side-by-side I had the inside - I released the break and didn’t give him any room, which I think was good racing - it was very close. He clearly had the better pace and it was just really, really hard work, but in the end, very satisfying to keep him behind.”

It is for this reason that the F3 Championship is such a great proving ground for young racing drivers, pitting them against one another in identical chassis, forcing them to battle it out at close quarters.

Asked whether he had ever had to battle that hard before, the 18-year-old continued: “I don't think so, not for the lead, never in my life. Sometimes in other cases, but never for the lead like this.”

Having won twice in as many rounds, Vips is one of the Championship’s in-form drivers and a fast emerging antidote to the early dominance of the three PREMA drivers. Hitech have grown into the season and now appear to be matching the pace of their Championship rivals.

“The thing is, from session to session it varies so much because you kind of have to predict the set-up you are going with,” he continued. “You cannot leave the car the same all weekend, because the track evolves.

“You have to adjust the set-up accordingly, so sometimes we get it better than them and sometimes they get it better than us. I think that we are getting way closer than we were at the beginning of the season. We are consistently near the top now and I am very happy with that.”

Attention now switches to Race 2 on Sunday, where Vips will start P8 on the reverse grid, with the aim of eating further into the PREMA drivers’ Championship lead.

Now sitting third in the standings, Vips is optimistic that his title bid can continue gaining pace, saying: “I’d like to hope so, that is what we are aiming for, but yeah, there is still half the season ahead, so, a lot to play for.

“The momentum is very good at the moment and we have been doing an amazing job, every session has gone perfectly since Red Bull Ring, so we would just like to continue that.

“Honestly, there are no aims for Race 2. I just want to try and take the maximum out of it. The goal is to be ahead of the PREMAs because we need to close the gap.”