Théo Pourchaire said that he went “over the limit” at points during the Monaco Feature Race, as he tried to get past race winner and FIA Formula 2 Championship leader Felipe Drugovich.
The Frenchman lined up in P2 and trailed Drugovich throughout the race, putting immense pressure on his title rival during the closing laps. Speaking during the post-Feature Race press conference, Pourchaire gave an insight into the extreme effort behind the wheel:
“It was quite hard physically, especially for me because I was pushing a lot. I was sometimes a bit over the limit, but I wanted to push and put the pressure on Felipe.”
The young driver made everyone in motorsport stop and take note when he took pole position in Monaco in 2021, following it up with a Feature Race victory.
He provided the only overtake during this year’s Sprint Race as he went up the inside of Doohan at Mirabeau, but couldn’t find an opportunity to take the race lead in the Feature Race.
“Of course I wanted to win in Monaco… but Felipe did a good job, he didn’t make any mistakes. I was putting a lot of pressure on him, I was almost crashing into him at the hairpin, the front wing was almost touching his wheels.”
The ART Grand Prix driver is second in the Championship, and had to think about the season as a whole when calculating the risk around the narrow streets of Monte Carlo:
“At one point I wanted to go for [a move at] the Nouvelle Chicane, but I was bit too far back and I think we would have made contact and crashed if I went to overtake.
“I had rear locking, the tyres were struggling, the car was moving everywhere so the only option for me was to put pressure on Felipe and wait for him to make a mistake, but he didn’t.”
Despite the Sauber Junior driver’s best efforts, Drugovich extended his Championship lead by a further seven points. However, Pourchaire remained optimistic when talking about the rest of the season:
“The Championship is very long and I know I have the pace to win it. I think I can do better; I’m not at my best. In Barcelona my team mate was faster than me and that’s not normal. I can’t accept that.
“I’m confident that for the rest of the Championship we can win many more races. The next one is Baku, and we’re already focused on it.”
*Image credits: Formula Motorsport Ltd
