Norman Nato admitted that he was forced to concentrate on defending from Oliver Rowland during the Feature race at Silverstone on Saturday rather than attacking for the race victory, with Charles Leclerc able to better manage his tyres early on than the Frenchman.
The Pertamina Arden driver has hit a good run of form in recent races, with only one failure to finish inside the top seven in the past six races, and he secured a third podium finish of 2017 on Saturday.
Nato was forced to watch Prema Racing’s Leclerc pull away in the early stages, and from there on, he focused on holding off the challenge of DAMS driver Rowland, which he managed by seven-tenths of a second.
“For me, my job was to push and build a gap to Oliver,” said Nato on fiaformula2.com. “I think the race was good. I just damaged a bit my front tyres at the beginning of the stint as I was trying to push straight away after the pit stop.
“But it’s a good result for us today. We keep improving which is the most important. At the beginning of the race, I was able to follow Charles. I thought I should push to try and fight him for the lead.
“After lap 4 I think, I struggled a bit on my tyres. I had to calm down. I saw Oliver coming closer. I told myself to not be stupid: Charles was already a bit too far. I told myself to wait for the pit stop, change to new tyres and see what we could do from there.”