Present:
José María López, Citroën Total WTCC, first position
Tom Coronel, ROAL Motorsport, second position and fastest WTCC Trophy driver
Rob Huff, Honda Racing Team JAS, third position
Norbert Michelisz, Honda Racing Team JAS, sixth position and leading local driver

Q:
We’ll start with José María López, pole position number 16 in the WTCC, congratulations on that achievement. Please talk us through your lap because that looked very impressive out there.

JML:
First, congratulations as always to the guys here. Tom did a fantastic job, Rob and Norbi. I always like to try to thank the team because without them I wouldn’t be here, the 16th pole position is also because I have the best car on the grid. So again they’ve done a fantastic job. As a driver we never know how it’s going to be in Q3. Especially as, and I think the other drivers will agree with me, the track conditions were much more different from last year and it was difficult to understand exactly the car, the setup. As it happened in Slovakia I arrived in qualifying without knowing my real potential. We put new tyres on always in qualifying, we didn’t want to use them in free practice because it’s what we always do. The qualifying is all about confidence, I put the new set on and I felt really confident with the car. I felt like the car was going its way along and I just tried to make no mistakes. Q3 is about confidence and no mistakes, I did a mistake but I managed to do a good lap, my best one from qualifying and again, thanks to the team and everybody who was involved, who worked. It’s still a long way tomorrow but it’s always good to do pole position in Hungary.

Q:
Turning to Tom Coronel, second place, front row of the grid in a privateer Chevrolet. Congratulations Tom. What happened, how did you manage to achieve such a good time?

TC:
Well I’m still dreaming I think. I still have to wake up. We saw some potential and somehow in Hungary it’s always going well, I think I have something special here, just the twisty with the corners, the big braking points. We saw the qualifying already in Paul Ricard. I don’t think we have the strong pace yet for the race, but we wait and see. I think we are different to the factory drivers as a privateer, this year we have new stickers on the car and that’s the development. Let’s wait and see what they will do in the race, maybe they are faster than last year. Normally here you make yourself quite wide, I think that’s quite important. Last year I remember I had José and Yvan behind me and I said ‘ah dammit, there you go the Citroëns’ because you know they’re faster, but then I started to go left, right, left right and I thought ‘OK, this is OK’. So to be honest I’m very confident to keep them behind if I make a reasonable start, because in Paul Ricard they left without me and that’s not what I plan for tomorrow.

Q:
Turning to Rob Huff, position number three here in Hungary for the Main Race tomorrow afternoon. Pleased with that performance, or could you perhaps have gone slightly quicker, was anything holding you back?

RH:
I think every time we’ve gone out on the track today, we’ve improved the car, we’ve got quicker and quicker, and as José says, you never quite know what you’re going to get in qualifying where the new tyres are concerned. The car was fantastic, absolutely awesome. In run two in Q2 we made the best lap of the weekend and was pretty pleased to come out of Q2 in P1. Of course that gives you the confidence that in Q3 you can do it again. So we changed absolutely nothing and I arrived at the first two corners and had quite a different car underneath us. So really we just lost a little bit of time at Turn 1, a bit of time at Turn 2. The lap that José pulled out was pretty amazing. Yeah, we lost a little bit but ultimately it’s my best qualifying of the season, I have to be happy with that and we’re moving forward well with the car. To come here with 70 kilos, I think we thought we were going to really, really struggle, I’m sure in the races we will, but ultimately the winter testing we’ve done has shown that we can carry the weight on new tyres, especially here in Budapest.

Q:
Turning to Norbert Micheilsz, you were heading for Q3 but it wasn’t quite your day. How are you feelings after that qualifying session? Disappointed?

NM:
First of all, yeah, a bit disappointed I have to say. Everything went well until qualifying. I was quite confident to get into Q3, even before starting the session, but then I lost this confidence from the first timed lap. I don’t know what went wrong, maybe I was pushing a bit too hard in front of these people. This can happen. I have to check the data. I have to say congrats to Rob and to Tiago as well. Just from the feeling, my lap was quite close to the maximum but they still managed to do a better lap time than me. Of course congrats to Tom and Pechito as well because the performance they did today was just amazing. In general I have to say we expected to struggle before the weekend but like Alessandro [Mariani, Honda Racing Team JAS Team Principal] and like Rob said, with 70 kilos finishing third in qualifying and being like two or three tenths off pole position just shows the progress we did throughout the winter. So I have to say I’m a bit disappointed for today but tomorrow is another day. Most of the points you can score tomorrow and I’m quite confident for the rest of the season as well.

Q:
So not too cross with your team-mates for denying you that Q3 spot? Surely you had an agreement before?!

NM:
No, we have a really good atmosphere. Of course, at home, I would love to be in front of them in qualifying but like I said, tomorrow we will have one race where I can start ahead of them and still I think with a good start it can be possible to get on the podium in the Opening Race. Of course in the Main Race it will be more difficult starting from P6 but still I think we have a good car, not only for qualifying but also for the races as well. I think it’s going to be all about the starts tomorrow.

Q:

Turning back to José, pole position for tomorrow’s Main Race, but in the Opening Race it’s row five. How much of a challenge will that be for you and what’s the strategy going to be?

JML:
It’s difficult to know but we know here that it’s very difficult to overtake, and I believe with the new Tarmac that it’s even worse because out of the line there is no grip at all. As a racing driver you always go there and you think you can overtake, otherwise you don’t start. You believe you can do it. We know it’s a difficult track. As Norbi says, most of the points you score tomorrow so we will see what happens. I know my best position is in the Main Race. I will try to move forward, try to bring back the car and see what happens.

Q:
A final word to Tom Coronel, a WTCC Trophy pole position as well as P2 on the grid, which is obviously an excellent effort. You work very hard to get your budget to race in the championship, how satisfying is it when you achieve this kind of result?

TC:
You need to take these moments of fame when you have the feeling. I knew there was the possibility, even in Q3 when I made the big oversteer and I made a few mistakes, ‘come on, come on, don’t give up’. You knew know because you’re always fifth so at least your risk level is maybe a little bit higher. You could see with the team a big explosion of emotions, because yesterday we were calculating where we should be and it’s easy, you have five Citroëns, they are faster so that’s sixth, then you have three Hondas, so you’re ninth, then you have three LADAs so you’re 12th, then you have René Münnich, he made 20 days of testing, we one, so he should be in front, Filippi… so I should be in front of the safety car. And now it’s the opposite. So I’m still dreaming, unbelievably happy, trust me. I got this one, they cannot steal this one from me anymore.

Questions from the floor:

Q:
Question to all (Péter Vámosi, Vasnépe, Hungary): Rain is expected tomorrow, what do you think about this?

TC:
No comment from me, I never test in the rain!

JML:
It will make things more difficult for us for sure but as the years go, you just go and it’s the same for everyone. We will see what happens tomorrow, if it rains it rains, you have to do the same job. Of course the risk in the rain is always a bit higher, we’ll see what happens.

NM:
Yeah, it’s very difficult to add anything to that. We don’t know how the asphalt will be when the track is wet so I guess we will have to wait and see.

Q:
Question to all (Péter Farkas, Origo.hu, Hungary): There was no rubber on the track before you drove on it yesterday. How serious has the track evolution been in the last couple of days because you were the first to drive on it? And are there any concerns anywhere on the new asphalt? I heard something about Turn 3, there remains a bump or something.

TC:
No, I think all the Tarmac is for everybody the same. For everybody it’s maybe a little bit of a surprise, so I don’t think there is anything for anybody here. We are fast learners because we always have to inspect it to feel where the grip is, but you saw when those vacuum cleaners, those formula cars, because they throw everything up in the air and they put big rubber down, every time you go in the corner it’s ‘ooh, maybe a little bit earlier full throttle’. So the grip level is improving and we’re already how many seconds faster than last year? Two seconds? So nearly three seconds faster, so you see the grip level is already a lot better. Of course, by experience, you have a few bumps where you know to settle the car and now you know it’s new asphalt because the bumps are not there, so that’s the difficulty but it’s for everybody the same. They learn fast where the grip is.

RH:
What more to add? Other than I think the circuit did an amazing job. It’s no small feat, completely relaying a whole new circuit with all new kerbs and getting it ready in time. I think there’s been cars here every day this week and absolutely zero problems with the track, I think it’s very impressive.

Q:
Question to all (Péter Farkas, Origo.hu, Hungary): How about the new kerbs, especially at the chicane?

RH:
I think as a racing driver they’re much nicer than the sausages that we used to have. It’s kinder to the car, and as Tom says, we like to cut and we’ve got a good margin there we can cut. It feels nice and sort of fluid, it’s nice in a touring car to fly through there.

Q:
Question to all (Péter Farkas, Origo.hu, Hungary): Are the improvements because you can cut the kerbs or because of the new asphalt mainly?

NM:
I think it’s 50 per cent from the new asphalt and 50 per cent from cutting the chicane more, you have a bit more possibilities to attack Turns 8, 9 and 12, so for me that’s the points where you gain the most of the time.