Nicolas Lapierre Q&A
Nicolas Lapierre crowned a promising rookie year in Formula 3 by scooping the biggest prize of all - the Macau Grand Prix. Although he needed Japanese champion James Courtney to hit the wall after a puncture, Lapierre was there when it mattered to keep going France's fine record of Macau victories. Jonathan Noble caught up with him after the thrilling race in China
"Yeah I know for a rookie it is difficult and the first time I saw the track I thought it would be very difficult for me to do something here. The track is very long and very difficult but the team gave me a fantastic car which I was very confident with. We had a good strategy with the tyres, used two tyres in the last race, and I think it was a good way to have a result. To win was good."
"I hoped it would help. This win is very important for me. I will now see what happens in the future."
"The team was very good, they know the track very well too. They gave me some advice and [former winner] Tristan Gommendy was here to help me on the racing line and everything about this track - which is really, really difficult. That helped me a lot."
"That is Macau. You know the first race I was very calm. When James Courtney overtook me I did not push. The most important thing was to start on the front row for the second race and during that heat I had a good start and with James it was hard. I tried two or three times to overtake him but he was very quick in a straight-line. After that, I tried to put pressure on him and he crashed. It was good for me."
"No, no, no. He was very quick and then suddenly he crashed."
"At the beginning I did not know who it was because I saw a car crash and, after I saw it was James, I was very happy. If he had stayed on the track it would have been very difficult to overtake him because he was quite quick in the straight-line. But Fabio Carbone was at this moment quite close. I knew I had to push a lot until the end of the race because here in Macau you must push to stay concentrated on the track so you don't make any mistakes. That is why I pushed until the end of the race. I was disappointed for him, because it is very hard, but that is Macau."
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