Present:
José María López, Citroën Total WTCC, first Main Race
Tiago Monteiro, Honda Racing Team JAS, first Opening Race, second Main Race
Mehdi Bennani, Sébastien Loeb Racing, second Opening Race, WTCC Trophy winner
Nicky Catsburg, LADA Sport Rosneft, third Main Race
Rob Huff, Honda Racing Team JAS, third Opening Race

Q:
Congratulations to you all, but also a fantastic two races we’ve had here at the Slovakia Ring. José, if we start with you as the winner of the Main Race here today. José, what an incredible spectacle that was, watching live on TV, watching on WTCC Premium TV but obviously the fans in the grandstands and I guess for you in the car. That must have been an incredible moment for you winning that race.

JML:
Yes. First of all, I congratulate the guys here. Everybody did a very good job and I think there was a very good show for people because of the race we did, and it was very clean and very nice. Congratulations Nicky, a very good race, also Tiago and Rob and Mehdi, and the team. They did a fantastic job again, they gave me a very quick car but mainly a very strong car. Everything was going normal, I think the start was very important. I think it would have been a different story if I didn’t pass Yvan in the start. It was a good start and the first two laps I managed to pull away a bit from Nicky, and then, I don’t remember but I think it was lap three in Turn 9, a big vibration, a noise of metal started to come from the left-rear. At that point, immediately I said on the radio something’s broken, it’s over. In the straight the noise was gone and then it came back in the last corner and I had the LADA next to me, and again a big noise. We went onto the straight and he passed me. I just kept going, every single lap, every single metre, every single corner I was turning to the right, I was thinking it’s over. I tried to calm down and come back into concentration. I was asking how many laps to go, I just wanted to finish. And then I saw Nicky was suffering from the tyres and my car, taking off this little problem, it was quick, so I say ‘OK, I go for it’ and if it has to break it will break. I passed him and managed to win. It’s a gift. Just to finish the race is a gift. Winning is amazing. Congratulations to Citroën and all my mechanics, this is a very strong car. Sometimes these things happen, today it happened to me, I was a lucky guy. I saw the rim from the car is destroyed. The brakes were going down. It was quite tense. When it’s like this you enjoy it a lot. So yeah, very happy. Thank you.

Q:
Winner of the Opening Race, Tiago Monteiro, also leading the World Touring Car Championship by a single point from José María López. Tiago, congratulations on winning that first race today. Talk us through that if you could.

TM:
Thank you. It was definitely an amazing weekend, for my car and our team. The start again has been very important. A very good start, and right behind Mehdi from the beginning. As I said before, I was pushing really hard from the beginning. The Citroëns are still very, very strong and Mehdi was driving very well. No mistakes. I really was trying to find a weak spot but it was tricky. I was able to find a way in corner 8. It was close to the end you know, and the degradation was not as big as we were hoping for. So we had to go for it and try. It was a pretty clean, nice pass, and after that only two two laps to go. So very good and of course Rob joined us on the podium so for the whole team it was a great first race.

Q:
And obviously in the second race, another podium visit for you Tiago. A very good weekend.

TM:
Definitely. Amazing. I mean, starting P7, I was definitely looking for some points. I knew I had a good car, in the first race the car had been reacting very well, the degradation was smooth, I would say. Again, a good start and took some opportunities, and then it was a very, very interesting fight of course with Nicky and Pechito. You’re always hoping that you’re there now and we knew we could do it. Nicky at some point disappeared and was very fast, I thought we were going to lose him, but then of course the degradation started very heavy on his car. I could see also Pechito had some issues with his car so I was really trying hard. I thought I could take this second win of the weekend. I knew there was a problem, I wanted to take advantage of that, you know, sometimes it happens to me as well. I can’t complain. Overall it’s been an amazing weekend definitely. Tough qualifying yes, but we recovered in the race. My team-mates had some issues and we need to analyse what happened, but we learned a lot this weekend and we know the story might be a bit different from now on so we have to take advantage of all the opportunities, but today we’ll just enjoy this great time here in Slovakia. Thank you.

Q:
Turning to you Mehdi next, not just winning WTCC Trophy here but finishing second overall in the Opening Race this weekend. A great drive. Not quite enough to win that race but still a great performance. Can you just talk us through that first race please?

MB:
Very close, but we had a good fight with Tiago, a very clean one. We know that we are heavier than the Honda cars, so I was thinking when I will lose the traction, lose the grip. But it was going well until the last two or three laps when I lost the front grip. I know that Tiago is on my back, I don’t want to go somewhere very dirty to destroy his race and destroy my race too. So I was thinking only to have the best move, to not lose any time because I know that Huff will catch us also, and to give him an opportunity to take the lead. But he deserved it and he had very good driving.

Q:
You’re joined here this weekend by a number of journalists from Morocco. What message do you have for them because your home round of the championship’s getting very close, just two races away from now. What do you say to those journalists that followed you this weekend?

MB:
It’s big support. Every time I’m here I look around, there’s lots of Moroccan fans and they are supporting me. Many thanks to them because it’s something new for us, motorsport in Morocco, so it’s since 2009 when we go on the professional side with one world championship race in Marrakech. So I think we are going on a good way and I hope to see soon more Moroccan drivers in international championships.

Q:
Rob, from the highs of a podium in the Opening Race to I guess a bit of a low in the Main Race, not finishing. Can you just explain what actually happened in that second race please?

RH:
Yeah, a little bit of a bittersweet weekend. We had a great start in race one which put me straight into P3, and then watched a great fight between Tiago and Mehdi. Unfortunately it just didn’t have the legs in the last two laps to be able to get Mehdi. He didn’t make any mistakes at all and I have to say he’s driving very, very well this year and fully deserves the wins that he’s getting. In race two, we just bogged a little bit off the start and I think we had three Hondas going side-by-side into Turn 1. I got a little bit of a knock from the inside and that just put me into a bit of a slide and I think I just tagged the back of Tiago but we survived and all was going pretty well. Again, I had probably the best seat in the house for race two, to watch these guys at the front fighting it out, obviously congratulations to everyone on the podium, a fantastic weekend by Tiago and a strong run from Honda. We’re racking the points up and that’s what we need to do, but with 80 kilos difference at the moment, it’s all to play for effectively. Of course we’re going to go into the next race with some weight which is going to hurt, but I’m hoping we can deal with it pretty well.

Q:
Turning to Nicky, a fantastic result this, let’s make that point firstly because a podium for you and your first in the WTCC. You led the race, so close, what actually happened towards the end of that race?

NC:
At the end of the race I just struggled with my tyres, and then I saw Pechito closing in and I was just hoping that he would leave me in P1 because he has won enough! But he didn’t and I understand but I’m very happy with the podium. Obviously I would have loved to be on P1 but I think P3 was not bad for us today.

Q:
What does this say for the rest of the season though because obviously we’ve seen a great performance by the whole team this weekend in terms of pace?

NC:
It’s a bit difficult to say because obviously the weight will play a role. But I think it’s clear, everybody can see we’ve made a clear step. It would have been better if we had scored a bit better in the first two events but let’s see now from Budapest where we are. I think it’s going to be more difficult.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q:
Aleksandar Babic (Serbiaring.com): Pechito, what was the problem on the rear end of the car, and also to Rob, what was your problem that finished your race too please?

JML:
I’m not sure. It was from lap three. I just saw the car, the rim is broken, it’s a miracle to have finished. It’s very close to breaking the rim and losing the tyre actually. I don’t know, we need to check. Apparently maybe the roll-bar or something, callipers probably, I don’t know because the pedal was far gone as well but I didn’t lose the brakes. If I’d broken something in the brakes I would for sure have not finished. We have to check, but now we don’t have to look back, the important thing is we managed to win. It’s still a tough championship, Honda has made a fantastic job this weekend, Tiago is first in the championship, so now we hope the game changes for the next race, we’ll see what happens with the weights and then it will be the time for us to try to catch up because I think if I’m not wrong they are in front in both championships, so they really took an advantage from this weight and they did it very well, Tiago and all the drivers. We’ll see what happens in the next race. As I say, I don’t like to complain too much. It was a big problem, it was hard from inside because I didn’t know what was going to happen but in the end I finished and that’s the important thing, and we won the race and we got the big points. That is the important thing.

RH:
Mine is a much shorter answer. I got a puncture.

Q:
Aleksandar Babic (Serbiaring.com): This will be for both Honda guys. This weekend, although you’re leading the championship and congratulations for that, leaves a taste of unfulfilled promise, especially in race two. Am I correct?

RH:
No, I think on the whole we’ve performed very well. Unfortunately both myself and Norbert got punctures in race two otherwise we would have had again another strong weekend, as we had in Le Castellet. In race one we finished first, third and sixth. I think ultimately we’re doing a very good job with the car, we’ve been scoring the points, and unfortunately at some point in the racing calendar you need to expect that you’re going to have a bad weekend, and I hope that race two today was my bad weekend done and dusted. Ultimately we still scored very good points in race one, we scored 15 very valuable points and got one point for qualifying, and the fact that Tiago has a first and a second this weekend, I think it’s been a while since anyone’s done that, so I think that shows huge promise and we’re definitely not delivering a non-promise.

TM:
Yeah, I cannot really agree with you either. We showed that we improved a lot and we never forgot that we have 80 kilos difference of course, but it was never going to happen that we could be dominating. As we know from last year,  Citroën have a very strong package and a very strong advantage. We wanted to close that gap and we knew we were going to close that gap, but we never really said we were going to start dominating it, dominating the championship. I think we actually went in the direction that we were hoping for, which is taking some wins if possible, scoring some points, take advantage of his beginning of the championship, and yes, as Rob say, if it was not for his puncture we would be scoring even more points. Those things happen. I think performance-wise, internally we are quite happy with all the work we’ve done this winter.

Q:
Aleksandar Babic (Serbiaring.com): If there were two punctures in the Honda garage, does that mean that was a too aggressive setup?

RH:
No, my puncture came from contact with Yvan earlier on. For sure it damaged the sidewall of the tyre and it eventually gave. It created a vibration in the car. Correct me if I’m wrong but Tiago is leading the world championship in a Honda, and Honda are also leading the manufacturers’ championship.

Q:
Pietro Casillo (TouringCarTimes): The question is for Rob, it’s very simple. You had a few issues with your car until yesterday. Have you solved those problems and is it now time for you to start developing your own setup?

RH:
Yeah, I hope so. You’re right, on both Saturdays of both weekends I’ve had problems with the car. Not major problems, just little niggly things that have stopped allowing me to develop some of my own setup of the car. And literally I’ve done both weekends on the base setup as it were. So yeah, the car today was very good and no problems at all so I hope to start next weekend with a blank piece of paper and I can go in my own direction.