pitman

You won at Silverstone. Which moment was decisive for your victory?

When Florian retired right in front of me, I realised I had a chance to win. From that moment on, I gave it everything I had. I was under constant pressure from the drivers behind me, but I drove an almost faultless race and was absolutely delighted to take the victory.

A brief review of the race: Having qualified in P2, I went into the race under quite a bit of pressure. That pressure increased even more when Florian retired. I was determined to make the most of the opportunity, but Simone, Elia and Ali made it as difficult as possible for me. It was an incredible race.

You gained 5 places, from P22 to P17, at MEX - F1 1970 - R1 - Mexico. How did you make so much progress?

Oh, this was a rocky start into the championship.

Due to a few sponsor commitments, I arrived at the track quite late. As a result, I had very little time to practice and had to start from a long way down the grid. The start was good, but on the first lap, I was a victim in two situations and very unlucky in a third and as a result found myself a long way behind the rest of the field before the race really started.

Since I had the pace to run with the midfield and didn’t make any further mistakes during the race, I was at least able to limit the damage somewhat.