On the podium in Barcelona in front of his home crowd, victory in Magny Cours… the young Repsol driver Javier Villa is having a dream season in the difficult and demanding GP2 Series.
What two great races at the weekend in France, the first with a spectacular comeback included, and the second, what can I say! How were you during them; nervous, calm, controlling the situation, worried about being overtaken, did you feel strong..?On Saturday I had a good race. We were very fast from the start. Then with Sunday, starting second, I felt stronger. You could see that things could go well, that I could go fast from the start. There were difficult moments, because it started to rain a bit before the start, but luckily it dried out and we could get a move on, setting the pace throughout the race until the end when it started raining and. It wasn’t much, just a lap and a half, but luckily it stopped and I finished calmly.Have you seen the race since on the television? What did you think?Really good. There wasn’t much trouble during the race, it was quite clean; I could keep moving and in this case, as I could go quickly, everything turned out perfectly. Saturday’s was more thrilling, because with the problem in the pit-stop with the team opposite, I entered in 11th place and left in 17th; to finish 7th, pushing the two in front and setting good times, I think that’s really good.What did you feel up there on the podium?Once I crossed the finish line it was over. You get out of the car, hug your parents, the team, the happiness of all those who were there… everything was much more relaxing.Third in Barcelona, first in Magny-Cours… Will we keep seeing you on the podium in the rest of the season?Well let’s take it one step at a time. As we said at the beginning of the season, being among the first five is a good result. There are seven or eight drivers who go really fast; if you are among them you are demonstrating that at any time you could have another good race again.At the start of the year did you see yourself with any chance of winning a race?I went onto the track with that intention. I was going very quickly in the pre-season and we saw we could get good results. In this case the opportunity came up and we took advantage.We’re still not even halfway through the season, what are your objectives from here to the end of the year?The same as they were at the start: to be up there from the start, among those five drivers and putting in a strong challenge. Where do you think you could end up in the general standings at the end of this season?Who knows? You have to take one race at the time. There will be good races and some that are not so good. One step at a time and calmly.What do you need to improve to be among the best?We need to find a way to have a car that is competitive from the start. We have been to circuits where we had never trained, and often we don’t manage to get the car perfect. At Magny-Cours, between the free practice sessions until the race, the car was quite different. We have to try to get the car set up so that it works well from the first round.Who do you think are the strongest drivers in the category?At the moment Glock and Zuber, driving with iSport are going really fast. Filippi and Senna are also really competitive.You are now in England. Have you really had time to savour the victory?Yes but not much. We celebrated when I got home, but immediately we had to start preparing the next race.How have you been received by your friends, family and friends?Really well, they were all really happy and it was a great experience. But that’s all; the race turned out well and nothing else.
