After 29 laps of intense battling and overtaking moves, here we have the three podium finishers for the press-conference . Race winner Redspeed’s Robin van Brenk, second place finisher of GRIDline Racing Nick Oldenhuis and third place finisher Malcolm Rice, driver and team owner of Rice Racing.

van Brenk chasing Oldenhuis and Rice

Q: First of all, some questions for you Robin. This was a well deserved victory. Pole position, race fastest lap and at the end your maiden win in GrandPrix Online, this surely must have been a dream debut.

RvB: Yes, I was really surprised with my pace. Never thought I’d managed to win my first race in my official debut, surely a dream come true.

Q: You finished with about a ten second gap to your rivals, did this race felt in any way easy for you?

RvB: Before the race I thought I wouldn’t win, because I am not a driver that can pass other cars very well. Especially after my terrible start. Some drivers made a mistake ( Pieneman outbraked himself in turn 6 red. ) and I managed to pass the leader. I just needed to concentrate on my laptimes, in that way you might say this wasn’t a hard fought win.

Q: After a fantastic debut, what are your expectations for Malaysia? It’s a different kind of track compared to Melbourne, do you think you have what it takes to grab another win?

RvB: Malaysia is a really technical track, I know I’m not at my best there as I’m not the best technical driver. It all depends on qualifying, so we’ll see what happens. I don’t think I can repeat my performance from Melbourne, but I surely will do my utmost best.

Q: Thank you Robin, on to you Nick; Two second places so far, you must be pleased with those kind of results.

NO: I’ve got mixed feelings about this race though, ofcourse a second place is good, but I thought I could grab a win here. After qualifying on a third with Malcolm behind me I thought I could go for a win here. In the first laps, my rev limiter was messing me up, jumping on two times, so Malcolm and Robin were able to pass me. After that I was close to Malcolm, but never really saw a gap where I could pass him. If my rev limiter wasn’t acting up, I’m confident I could’ve taken a win here. So mixed feelings indeed.

Q: About your battle with Malcolm (Rice), it surely must have taken you to the limit.

NO: Yes, Malcolm had superior topspeed on the main straights on me, so passing him there was really hard for me. If he didn’t make a mistake on the last lap, he would definately had finished infront of me. Malcolm is a fast driver and I respect him very much. He was just unlucky, I’m sure next race I can be the one loosing a few points on him on the last lap.

Q: Any expectations for the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix?

NO: Due to other commitments I’m not able to race in Malaysia unfortunately, so my arrows are on Spain, a track where I had good results in the past and looking for my maiden GP-O win there.

Q: Thank you Nick. Last we have a few questions for our third place finisher, Malcolm Rice. Malcolm congratulations on another podium finish, still leading the championship after two rounds. What are your thoughts about this race?

MR: Setup was not as good as in Bahrain so i knew i would have a harder race in Melbourne so was pleased with a podium finish and really enjoyed the racing with Robin and especially Nick.Second set of tyres seemed to go off quicker than first and struggled a lot towards end of race with grip under braking.

Q: You looked promising during to extend your lead over your main rivals, as Pieneman made an error early in the race, and Oldenhuis wasting valuable time in the pitstops. What went through your head when you noticed you gained over 4 seconds in the pitstops over Oldenhuis?

MR: Was really suprised that i had extended my lead over Nick after pit stops and tried my hardest to pull away in the laps after stop but he was just too quick and was gaining on me almost every lap.From then on i was always driving with one eye on my mirrors to see where nick would try to pass.

Q: With two races done, the field goes to Malaysia, what are your predictions for that race?

MR: I think that Sepang will be just as close as Melbourne was with nothing to chose between top 5 guys especially in quali.Hope to find a more stable race setup there and hoping for a podium finish again.

Q: Thank you all for your time and good luck in Sepang!

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