SPEAKER_00 0:00

Dan congratulations. An incredible opening race to pole. Yeah. Which I said to a couple of the drivers, it almost felt like a race three.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Did it? I honestly, you know, obviously from my point of view, I thought it was fairly kind of calm. It was it was kind of stretched out a little bit at the front. There was there was enough room to breathe and and kind of do your own thing and manage the race. So I didn't try and look at what was happening behind, but it's never easy. The thing with this place is everyone knows it doesn't go straight for long. There are no straights. But yeah, from my side I got a great start. Ultimately, I'm in a bit of a sandwich of boost uh between Aaron and and um and Cook there. Shame what happened to Aaron, but ultimately I benefited, and then yeah, just a matter of managing sort of where we could deploy and to keep Cook behind. You know, he has got 20 seconds to my seven, it does make a difference. I thought we did a good job of being quick in the right parts of the track.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

You'd laid down a good marker in the first session uh as well for that, carried that through into the the race per pole, which means you must be in a good place inside your own head, is what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

For the race, ultimately we're in a very good place. I think it's um you know, I know I know how difficult this championship is, and I know how it can switch and turn. I think I've got a real good package today. And I think if we turn all the boost off, I think we'll go in, we can go and win. The question is, I've got to overcome quite a deficit compared to the two, you know, the guys at the front, especially Cook. So um, you know, I've just got to make sure that hit my marks and do my job. It will be tough, it will be tough because that car's clearly quit this weekend. There's no doubt about that. You know, they were they were first and third there before Aaron's penalty with me in the middle. So it is a fast car with all the button. Um, you know, I've got to do my absolute best to manage that. It's just the way it is. Sometimes you think, oh, give me a break, but you know, it's just the way it's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. You know, I think we are we are strong. There's a reason that we've only got seven seconds, that because we're P4. And you know, ultimately I want to go from here in the top three, and I want to go from way from here, hopefully having a good grounding to build the second half of the season on because um there's no doubt it's not been quite as strong as I would have wanted, but I think there's a lot of races still to come, six rounds to go after this, um, and I think if we can have a good one here and get away and reset, I think we'll come back out and um and really get on song for the second half.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

You said to me previously that finishing where you had finished and therefore having the reduced boost and not enough to get on the podium and and the sort of pendulum was swinging and never quite in your favour. Does it feel like already this weekend it's swung in your favour? It of course it's swung in my favour.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I think we have to, like I said, we have a very fast car, and there's no doubt about that. Like I said, when when no one presses the boost, I could see it on the opening lots behind the safety car. You know, we are very, very quick. You know, basically trying to, if I could, I would have drove driven through Aaron, but I can't. So, but then you know he can press four times to my two for 20 seconds to my seven, and I can't, by the time that gets underway, it gets hard. Obviously, tomorrow I can't remember what the split is, maybe I have four laps and I'll have ten or something, I can't remember, but that's quite an offset. You know, I've got to try and I've got to try and maximise what I've got. But I am in clean air, I can run my own race. Um, and ultimately let's see if we can put the car to good use. We know that round here it makes a difference being in clean air, we know the brakes take a hammer in. Um so let's use that clean air and try and get away. First job, get off the line. Yeah, really cracking session, down well done. Thank you, mate. Cheers, buddy.