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WEC - What the Drivers Said…. Qualifying

23.07.16
WEC - 2016 6 Hours of Nurburgring
FIA, Motorsport, Mobility, Road Safety, F1, WRC, WEC, WTCC, World RX

Andre Lotterer - #7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18

“It was a bit strategic but pretty much straight forward with the drying conditions.  From the second lap we saw some improvements so we targeted to do three laps. In my case t went according to plan, I didn’t have any problems with traffic.  We have a good car, so we were confident, we were quick in FP3, we could try slicks quite early, so I went out with confidence.”

Marcel Fassler - #7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18

“It was definitely better to go later in the car because the track conditions were improving at that time.  We just tried to do our programme which we decided before and, obviously, it looks like we made the right choice. Andre set the fastest time just before he handed the car over to me.  My first lap was very fast too but I caught a bit too much traffic in the last corner, which was a pity.  The car is really great, we now have a really good car for this weekend.”

Roman Rusinov - #26 G Drive Racing Oreca 05-Nissan

“At the beginning of the session we didn’t know which tyres to run because we have a very good intermediate, but we went with slicks.  It was a little bit tricky because it was wet in the first sector and then we had a lot of traffic.  The team did a very good job and since the beginning we have done everything right.  Rene did a fantastic job as usual, the car is good; we just need to transform our speed into the victory.”

Rene Rast - #26 G Drive Racing Oreca 05-Nissan

“We did change, we stuck to our dry set up.  The conditions were similar in FP3 and we knew the car was good in these conditions, so we just stuck to it.  We knew it was going to be slick tyres from the beginning of the session because we asked some of the GT drivers, so we went out on slicks and that was the right decision.”

Marco Sorensen - #95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8

“It’s been a while, it is nice to be up here again.  Of course we would like to be here a lot more often.  This qualifying really worked out for us with the weather conditions, wth it being quite wet at the beginning.  When Nicki did the intermediate tyre run, which are working well on our car, and that time was already to quickest.  We made a late call to change the drivers again and get Nicki back in for a slick run.  That call meant that we have this pole position thanks to a great lap from Nicki.”

Nicki Thiim - #95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8

“We are definitely closer to Ferrari and Ford.  As we know we have been struggling all year for some pace but Aston Martin have been pushing a lot and you see the result now.  As Marco said our tyres worked really well in those conditions but I really think we made a good step.  We are there or there about, it’s still a long way to go tomorrow so let’s see.”

Khalid Al Qubaisi - #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR

“It was good to have the practice in FP3 in similar conditions, which helped a lot.  The team did a good strategy call by sending me out first on drying wets and saving Patrick with the slicks at the end, which worked really well.  The strategy call really did it for us.”

Patrick Long - #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR

“Mixed conditions have been good for us; wet conditions have been the best.  Silverstone and Le Mans in the wet Porsche seems to be strong but this pole is more down to strategy as Khalid said.  We took a chance by starting with our AM driver, where a lot of our competition started with their PRO and Khalid did a great job keeping it on the island, pushing hard and keeping his head down; it was a monster effort from him.”