Christian Mansell finished his first F2 qualifying session in the Top 10 and is set to start from reverse grid pole tomorrow in the Baku Sprint Race.
The new Trident driver finished off a fantastic day for the Italian outfit, with Dutch teammate Richard Verschoor securing pole position for Sunday’s Feature Race.
The Australian was overjoyed by his result, and speaking after getting out of the car, he states he was delighted to have provided the team such a positive result around a circuit that is entirely new to him.
“Pretty outstanding I have to admit. I’m just very speechless to be honest. I’ve never been so excited for P10 in my entire life. It’s such a positive start to my F2 campaign and I can’t thank the boys and girls at Trident for giving Richard and I a great car today.
“He’s on Feature Race pole and that shows the potential of this car, and I’m really happy to be part of this organisation, it’s really cool.”
Mansell had little time to prepare for his first race weekend in F2 after his successful Formula 3 campaign, finishing fifth.
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He says new teammate Richard Verschoor has provided him useful words of wisdom that have appeared to have prevailed following the pairs qualifying performances.
“He’s been helpful to be honest, been supportive, said about doing certain things ‘do this, don’t do this, that won’t work,’ stuff like that because he’s a very experienced driver in Formula 2.
“He’s kind of the perfect teammate for me at the moment. I’ve learned a lot from him and a lot from the team, so it’s been an amazing day.”
Delving into the actual lap itself, Mansell believes he could have accomplished a faster time but didn’t want to falter due to overexcitement or enthusiasm, and just get a strong result on the board for the weekend going forward.
The Australian says those balanced performances could come as he gains more experience in Formula 2, but he wasn’t dissatisfied with this first qualifying result in a wholly new car to him.
“Sketchy! I still felt like I had a little bit left but I couldn’t extract it because my brain was saying no. I still don’t have the experience and there’s a few things I look back on in the lap and say ‘ah I could’ve done this or this,’ but that’s just part of the learning process. I’m already on the pace so hopefully I can do an even better job next time.”
He then turns his attention to tomorrows Sprint. He said it was more important to gain experience in the car over any result.
While he would obviously love to take his maiden win in his first race in Formula 2, he decided that maximising the cars speed and full potential would be more valuable, and also stated that Sunday’s Feature Race would be much the same.
“Whatever happens, I’m not too fussed. I’m here to get the maximum out of myself and the car. Whether that’s P1, P2, P10, or P20 – I’m not going to go into tomorrow thinking I’m going to win or obsessing over it. I’m just going to let whatever happens happen, and I think that’s probably the healthiest approach you can have.
“It’ll be the same on Sunday. Try and score points and maximise the package. It’s obviously a very strong car around this circuit and I’ll have had a bit more time to think about stuff. I hope I can do a good result for the team and myself.”