Victor Martins finished Saturday’s Barcelona Sprint Race in third place, just managing to hold off Dennis Hauger behind.

The race started behind the Safety Car as a rolling start due to the level of standing water still on the track. By Lap 20, the circuit was drying enough for the drivers to change to slick tyres.

Luckily for Martins and the rest of the front-runners, this is also the same time that the Safety Car was deployed to recover a stranded Juan Manuel Correa.

“Honestly, I felt that P2 was for me today from what I did throughout the whole race. In the wet we had good pace, not enough to catch [Fred] Vesti but enough to kind of manage the gap and be happy with the race overall.”

“I also, in some part of the race, in the middle of the race, I wasn’t pushing 100% because I knew maybe we would end the race on the wet and [the tyres] will degrade a lot. I think I was okay managing the pace, happy with the car and the grip I had”.

“In the end, I don’t think I was in the position to be able to pit straight away [under the Safety Car] at the same lap as Théo [Pourchaire] and it made for sure a difference… I did the restart and felt straight away that the tyres were not in good shape really, at all. In the end, it’s a matter of balancing the risk… with the cold tyres.”

Image: Formula Motorsport Limited