Matt Parry secured a podium finish in race one at the Hockenheimring, but confessed to being surprised by the driving of Nyck de Vries during the race, with a robust manoeuvre seeing the two drivers bang wheels at the hairpin.
De Vries held position as a result, with Parry following the Dutchman through passed Charles Leclerc onto the podium on the final lap as the Monegasque driver struggled with extreme tyre degradation.
Without the wheel banging, Parry believed he had the pace to finish second, but the podium finish coupled with a seventh place in Sunday’s second race consolidated the Koiranen GP driver in fourth place in the standings heading into the mid-season summer break.
“I think we optimised the position and we had incredible race pace,” said Parry on gp3series.com. “We were able to catch up with Alex [Albon] at the end of the race as we had been saving our tyres in the middle phase.
“I got a little bit lucky with Nyck and Charles fighting so I was able to catch up with them. I felt if I had been with Antonio [Fuoco] I could have challenged for the lead. I don’t know that for sure but I felt we had a similar pace to him.
“I think the team did a fantastic job. I’m actually a little bit disappointed with the result, I think we could have got second place quite early on, or at least third when I was battling with Nyck.
“But I wasn’t shown the respect by him that we’re meant to show each other. I felt like I was pushed out by Nyck quite a lot and I’m quite disappointed with it. I don’t expect that from him. Maybe we will see with the stewards what will happen.
“I want to thank Koiranen GP for a fantastic job in the race. We struggled a bit in qualifying but we definitely pulled it out of the bag. It was a nice last lap!”
