As customary, the top three drivers of the Australian Grand Prix gathered in front of the media representatives of all the world for the post-race press conference. Today, the top three are Mark Wicks (Woods Racing), Laurentiu Albu (Belami Racing) and Mal McKee (Synergetic Motorsport).
Mark Wicks (ENG) - Woods Racing - Renault
GPVWC Media. Congratulations, Mark a hat-trick to mark your first win in the GPVWC! How was your race?
Mark Wicks. Thank you! Yeah, it'ss been a long time coming hasn't it, so long in fact I thought it was almost never going to happen! But what a relief and a reward it is, and to do it in a commanding style of Pole, Fastest Lap and the Win is terrific. I can't say a big enough thanks to Ollie and the team, the guy's a total dude for letting me drive his cars, for nearly 3 years now, makes me feel old! My race though started fairly well, I had a tricky get-away off the line now that Launch Control's been banned, and I dropped back behind Scott. After the first couple of laps it was clear we were much quicker then the rest and pulled away. I kept close to Scott for the opening stint and passed him in the pitstops when I had clear air. From there on I never looked back and concentrated on getting past the backmarker's who were pretty slow (and pretty crazy), and bringing home the victory. It's great to be on the top step of the podium at last and Melbourne is a fantastic place to achieve it.
GM. You had some scary moments due to your steering problems, and at one point you had a close contact with the wall. Did you ever think your perfect weekend was going to slip through your fingers?
MW. Yeah, a couple of times if I'm totally honest! The first half of the race went really well, Scott was a threat but his retirement helped me relax and believe that maybe today was the day it would happen for me. However on my in-lap for my second stop I came up behind a couple of backmarkers fighting each other very strongly, they changed lines suddenly and I had nowhere to go, clearly they werent checking their mirrors or observing the blue flags. I had to take evasive action and caught the wall, losing a front wheel, my heart was sinking and was yelling at the car, luckily I could pull it out of the gravel and was just one corner from the pits and my crew who were already waiting ready for me; they did a great job to fit a new wheel in such a short time, they saved my race. The incident though must have damaged the steering and from then on I had numerous scares on turn-in at corners where the car just didnt want to turn. I just prayed for the car to hold together and see it to the end and thankfully it did! They build these Woods strong.