Paul Ricard Qualifying: What the drivers say - News from FIA GT1 World Championship - Official Site

03/07/2010

Paul Ricard Qualifying: What the drivers say

Andrea Bertolini, Vitaphone Maserati No.1

"This is great, the balance of the car was good, I actually felt it in Free Practice yesterday and was hopeful. In this afternoon's Qualifying Race the good balance of the car will help a lot with tyre degradation. So yes, I look forward to this afternoon and I'm happy with the car, thanks to all the team."

Michael Bartels, Vitaphone Maserati No.1

“With the qualifying system this year, it is very important to get to Q3. If you have the possibility to always get to Q3, the race weekend develops in a different way, because if you start in the middle of the grid, there is a big danger for an accident in the start, and it’s difficult to overtake. As we saw in Brno, it’s not so easy, all the cars are very well balanced by way of performance.

"I think this pole position with the lap time in the end that Andrea set in Q3 is due to the fact that I don’t think there are many people in the world who know the track better, and the line like Andrea. I looked through all the data yesterday, and I couldn’t find that line, so it’s a very brilliant drive here."

Peter Kox, Reiter Lamborghini No.24 

“First of all I want to congratulate Michael and Andrea on their lap. We have a fantastic car and we’re very happy with this position. It’s the maximum it can put out and we’re pleased. I think the team has had some time to work on the car and they needed the time as I shunted the car quite heavily in Brno. They did a fantastic job. I think all four Lamborghinis are reasonably competitive. That is good for the manufacturer. It shows as well how close the championship is. It’s always important to be in the front.”

Christopher Hasse, Reiter Lamborghini No.24

Michael Krumm, Sumo Power Nissan GT NO.23

“I found it a bit more slippery than yesterday. I had a very good Q1, the time was good, but I was hoping for more from Q3. But it wasn’t to be. I pushed it a bit too hard and overdrove a little bit, and small mistakes add up. 

I want to say thank you to Peter, because Q2 I think is the most stressful and I’m glad I’m not doing it but Peter is, and there’s a lot of pressure to get to the last 8. I really appreciate it every time. The team has done really well. We’ve done some testing and found better set-ups and we’ve shown that today both cars are in the top 5 which is a great result for Sumo Power GT and I hope we’ll come back after the qualifying race, which is a completely different story as usual.”

Peter Dumbreck, Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R No.23

“I didn’t cope very well with the pressure in Q2. In the first lap, the tyres weren’t ready, in the second they were already over the peak. I just didn’t get it right and made a couple of mistakes and they add up. I came away with a lap that I wasn’t that happy with, but I was still P3.  I know I’ve got to improve.”

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