Round 10 Post Qualifying Press Conference

FIA Formula 3: Hello and welcome to the press conference of the top 3 qualifiers here in Monza. In third place we had Noel León from PREMA Racing, in second is Ugo Ugochukwu also from PREMA and taking pole position is Brad Benavides from AIX Racing. Brad congratulations, your second Pole position of the season, that must have been the perfect qualifying session for you today.

Brad Benavides: Yes, I was definitely over the moon. Unexpected this time, pretty much like all the other qualifying sessions that I’ve done well in this season. It’s the last dance of the Championship so definitely glad and humbled to be able to do it again here for that reason.

FIA Formula 3: You say unexpected qualifying performances but you have had a fair few of them, certainly in the second half of the season, just how good did the car feel today?

Benavides: The reason why I reiterate that it was unexpected is because, Spa was coming from P22 to the moment that it went up to pole. For example, Austria it was something similar that occurred and here, I am not fully aware of where I was in the standings before I went up to pole but my engineer didn’t sound too happy when he was telling me the information and data. I could guess I wasn’t doing too well and then all of a sudden one last hail mary on that last push and then it was pole. That’s why I say it was unexpected. Definitely as an end result, we could say that out of the last seven rounds, I have been on the front row three times now. I guess it’s not that unexpected anymore.

FIA Formula 3: The last time you were on the front row was pole position at Spa, but you didn’t get to start that race, with a good forecast on the horizon here in Monza, just how much are you looking forward to Sunday now?

Benavides: Funny enough both my engineer and my teammate was saying that there was a zero percent chance of rain by the way guys if you haven’t noticed. I think for Sunday chances are it won’t be raining, so far at least. Definitely excited for that.

FIA Formula 3: Congratulations, good luck for the rest of the weekend. Ugo P2 for you, quickest in Group A, do you feel that you could do no more than that today?

Ugo Ugochukwu: Yeah it was a good session overall, it’s been a good day. Pace was good also in Practice so going into Qualifying I had good confidence to get a good result. It was a tricky quali session we were waiting in the Pit Lane for a long time, and I was starting to get a bit worried. It was a one lap shoot out basically in the end, very high-pressure moment because there was no room for mistakes or track limits, or traffic could really ruin your quali. Really happy just to get a clean lap in, P2 to is really good and puts us in a good position for both races. Hopefully can come through in the Sprint and score more points there as well.

FIA Formula 3: There was quite a chunk of time between the fastest times in Group A and the fastest times in Group B, is that all on track evolution do you think or are there any other factors to that?

Ugochukwu: Yeah hard to say. I think obviously Brad did a really good job. He pulled it by quite a margin so he definitely made the step compared to the others. I’m sure with a second push lap, everyone would have easily improved in our group as well. Hard to say now obviously. In the end I topped my group, so best I can do there.

FIA Formula 3: You have had some big results this season, certainly in the second part of the season but only 16th in the Standings going into this weekend, what is the aim for the final two races of the season?

Ugochukwu: Just do the best possible job that we can, see where we end up. I am sure it is very close that area from P16 to P10 so it would be nice to finish up there. We will take it race by race, focus on the Sprint Race, over the weekend score a few points, you can race and overtake around here so that’s good. Then try to go for the win on Sunday.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you, Noel P3 today is your best qualifying result of the year, what made the difference today?

Noel León: I am super happy with the result, finally putting it all together. The last few qualifying’s I have been fast but just didn’t manage to put it all together. Or I have been unlucky with yellow flags and traffic, a lot of things. Finally now we get it right, P2 in my group so really happy.

FIA Formula 3: How did you find the short session with the two groups and having so little margin for error on your runs?

León: To be honest our group was much better than the first group. We did three push laps. I knew that something could happen so obviously the first push was quite important. We were P2, but still when I saw that we could do a third push I got a good tow, finally we put a good lap together and I was able to go P1 until Brad crossed the line.

FIA Formula 3: You were on the podium at Silverstone a few months ago, given where you are starting are you confident you can fight for that again this weekend?

León: Yeah for sure I am confident, the car feels good and I know how to race here in Monza. We will try our best to score some good points and hopefully a podium.

FIA Formula 3: Thank you, well done today.