Nikita Mazepin didn´t have the chance to improve from the last position in today´s qualifying session. MotorLat had access among other selected media to a brief online meeting with the Russian driver where he shared his thoughts and feelings with a selected group of journalists.

On his qualifying and how close was the gap to his teammate Mazepin said “Unfortunately, I haven´t put a lap totally together. We´ve obviously seen the gap to cars outside was quite big. I wasn´t looking to take small margins. I was looking to make big steps forward because I think as we are team players it doesn´t really matter who´s in front of who as long as we are behind other teams. So I was trying to get ahead but that wasn´t enough and it resulted in a little bit of that time left on that lap”

When asked by MotorLat if he was expecting a close battle with Mick Nikita said “we are very close in the starting grid and the straight up to turn 3 is quite long and let´s see what´s happening there."

About the strong pace Williams showed today and if he will be taking more risks Mazepin explained “…risks are hitting walls and consuming spare parts in a team which hasn´t got much spare budget is not good and that´s definitely not what I´m doing but there´s a lot of different approaches and in a race it´s a bit more equalizing because there are so many gaps with the current tyres. If you over-push the first part to gain on the cars that are quicker then you will lose with the other 68 laps or so. It´s a normal approach to the race.”

About his home race and the change of venue from Sochi announced this weekend Nikita explained that “it was unexpected. I think Sochi is a fantastic facility and I think a lot of drivers have their home races but I was one of the most fortunate to have an amazing place to host a home event and looking at what St Petersburg and the government of the city is building there it seems the level is not going to be any lower and I´m looking forward to it.”