Welcome to the Grid here at Magny-Cours, France! We again have what looks like an exciting race set up for us again. Not only at the front of the grid but also in the midfield. During yesterday's qualifying 10 drivers were covered by only a couple if tenths of a second. That was yesterday however, as we know in FV - anything can happen! So let's see who we can find and what their thoughts are for today I'm sort of in the middle of the grid at the moment, just out of the paddock area. Lots of people here. France is very passionate of course about racing, Grand Prix racing originated here. Who do we have over here, we can see Alexandre Caron, the President of the Virtual French Racing Association, talking to series owner Nic Morely. I will see if I can get in here. He is currently talking to someone else... Ok I don't think we are going to get in there. Let's move on, see if we can find someone. Oh, I think I have spotted someone. Thierry Xylander, how are you today? "I am very good thank you" Now Thierry, yesterday produced your best qualifying performance since Germany last season, do you think you’re getting more used to the car, finally? "Maybe. But I haven’t been that far off Sergio most of the season so far to be honest, it’s just that this incredibly close field really does magnify any slight difference that you have to your teammate and ends up looking much worse than it is. I haven’t been looking at the gaps in positions too much, I tend to focus on the timing data" Whilst you may not look at the difference in positions, it’s clear that many of the media have been doing just that and have got on your back quite heavily recently, some even calling for you to be dropped. How has this affected you and are you worried for your seat? "To answer the first section of your question; I’ll be honest it’s not nice to come under such scrutiny but as a Formula Virtual driver, I think you really have to accept it as part of the job. And for the latter part of the question, no I am not concerned. I am confident in my own abilities and rate myself quite clearly above any potential replacements the team might have lined up for me - I am the best choice for the number 42 car" Ok, well we'll see how that works out. Have a good race today! Let's see who else we have. Now I can see Dylan Lopez, team principal of Lopez FV team. Had a big drop off in performance yesterday. Let us see I we can get a word with him... ok the mechanics have just told me that no one is giving comments at the moment, strange as Elroy Wagner just walks past me. Ok, let's keep looking. Here is a man who is always up for a chat. Lucas Wilson. Lucas, how is the new home in Malibu? "Haha, it is lovely thank you. It had got a great view and the Walmart is just down the road. What else do I need?" Well you enjoy that. Only one driver in the race as you are now back in Q1, is the team optimistic that you can drag yourself out? "I think we have to Optimistic Neil, if we let negativity cloud our thoughts then we end up in a downward spiral. I know that in our team we can push out of this and become even stronger than ever" Let's hope that works out for you. Enjoy the race today! Ooh, now we may have to run Geoffrey the cameraman because I definitely want to ask this guy a few questions. Yakumi Takahashi! Outstanding performance yesterday. You had a fantastic lap to put yourself 11th on the grid. Tell us about that, did you know it was a good one? "Ah yeah! It was a pretty good lap out there, it only took me seconds to get onto my team to tell them that! It was a golden lap in my opinion" Well it was great to watch yesterday. Now, you have a chance of scoring points today. If Arrow score points, that could be huge for the constructors championship. What would that mean for you and the team? "Scoring points would be really great here! we're on the harder compound so its a battle of strategy today. I will see what I can do as that would be really good for us at the team." I think your engineer wants to check something with you. I will leave you to it. All the best out there "Thank you" There seems to be more activity at the back of the grid. So I will keep walking down there. Jean Reno I can see, famous French actor. He seems to be having a good time talking to some of the officials here today. I think hanging around near that pit wall is Kiara Thunder, let see if we can make our way over there. Of course Kiara, parachuted into that Franklin seat only a week ago at the last race. So nother driver to return to FV, nice to see you again Kiara. You've been in Indy since your Holmqvist stint, how much did you experience differ there from Formula Virtual? "There's definitely a lot more pressure to succeed in Formula Virtual, and you're really scrutinised for every little thing you do or don't do, so I'd say that's the biggest difference." You used hards in Britain, that didn't go so well, same tyres for this race though. Are you hoping that overtaking will be difficult today? "Yeah, we took a gamble for both Nick and I, it worked really well for Nick on the extras, but less so for me. But the temps look a lot hotter here so I'm hoping it's a better call. I think overtaking could be difficult, so having drivers like Ledesma and Takahashi further up the grid on hards could really play into our favour. Here's hoping anyway!" All the best Kiara. Got about another 6 minutes left before the national anthem so I might start making my way down to the front of the grid. Will Ingram and Arthur LaPierre seem deep in conversation. I think I have spotted Nick Forrest, team principal of North Star Racing and Gabrielle Garcia. Let us try and see if we can get Nick. Nick, quick word? "Sure" A great qualifying session for the team yesterday with eighth and ninth. Do you think this circuit suits the North Star particularly well? "I think it's a bit tricky to gauge that, given we were a bit further from the pace in practice. It does seem to be a track that rewards good aero work, does Magny-Cours, but the key part was that we got our timing right. It's a fairly short lap around here, there was a lot of cars tripping over each other in the session, we found our guys some clean air and they pulled it out of the bag" You’ve split your strategy with Johan on the hards. With the terrible memories of Japan in mind, is it a worry in the back of your mind that the hards could be a risky gamble? "Yeah, thanks for bringing that up again(!) There's always some degree of risk, but the temperatures are looking to be a good deal warmer here than they were back in Fuji, and we're not on our own with choosing the Hards this time, there's a few other teams seem to have gone the same way. Overtaking is a lot more difficult here as well, and the race back in Kyalami showed that Johan can defend his position very strongly, so being the highest starting runner on the Hards, I think he can get another good result for us this afternoon if it all goes smoothly" Enjoy your race Nick. I'm going to try and nab your driver for a second here... Gabrielle, a fantastic qualifying for you - as well as your teammate - sees you line up on the grid ninth. Do you feel like you’ve started to turn a corner this season after a tough start? "It's starting to feel that way. The car is a little more difficult to drive than last year, and it has taken me a bit longer to get on top of it than Johan, but I think we are in a good place to fight for more positions from here and be scoring some more points in the upcoming races." After van Snelheid and Ryan, you’re the highest placed medium tyre runner. Do you feel it’ll be crucial to get past Johan early and keep the likes of Xylander and Giodano behind? "It for sure will be, the tyres are probably going to be a bit difficult to know which is the best choice, but I'm hoping I can pass Johan quite early and build a gap to the others before the pit stops happen, then start chasing down the guys ahead of me." Looks like the guys are heading down for the Narional Anthem, think I've got time for two more if I can find them. Might have to run again, I just seen someone. Here we go. Ahmed Cheema of Cheema V Prix. Ahmed, Things haven't been so rosy for Cheema lately, both drivers well down the order for today's race. Any explanation as to why? "Simple answer? We don't know. If you want a longer answer, we've been updating the car but they haven't been as effective as expected. We're working on fixing that, I'm confident our guys back in Dublin will find a solution" Kinnumen outqualified Milkovich yesterday, starts 4 places ahead, something he's done quite often recently. Are you regretting loaning him to Westwood next year? "The reasons for that go beyond performance, so no, no regrets. It's not a massive surprise anyway - Tumo is a quality driver like Nikolai - and the gaps have been minuscule." Have a good race today Ahmed. Ok, all the drivers heading down to the front of the grid. Anyone else I can nab quickly? Let's have a look. Ah, I think we may be able to get Adrien Simon. Adrien, you are behind your teammate, both Downtons and both FIRST's. Was their a problem with your timed lap or were there some set up difficulties? "We got caught up in traffic on my fast laps, just really unlucky timing - the pace was definitely there to challenge Enrique and I think to take pole, but it is what it is and I’m looking forward to an interesting race today - the car feels as great as ever so hopefully I can do some things with it." Thanks Adrien, I hope you have a better race. Well that's about all the time I have. So now I will hand it over to Bradley & Lilly in the commentary box.
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