ETCC - 2017 Race of Most - Post-race press conference

09.10.17

FIA ETCC Race of Most, rounds 11/12 of 12, 6-8 October 2017

Present:
Petr Fulín, Křenek Motorsport, third position Race 1, first position Race 2
Plamen Kralev, Kraf Racing, first position Race 1*, second position Race 2
Norbert Nagy, Zengő Motorsport, second position Race 1**, third position Race 2

Q:
Petr, based on the provisional results you are the ETCC 2017 overall winner. Tell us through your first emotions right now?

PF:
No one really knows how many titles I've won, so I think the most important is the life itself. I enjoyed this weekend, it was great for us and we gave a good show for everybody. I would like to thank my team who did a good job and prepared me a good car. During the first race today I was leading and somebody pushed me and from that time I felt the car was not really working properly. In the second race I enjoyed it too much! I had a bad start and I had to overtake some drivers. Concerning the incident between Stefanovski and Schreiber - it helped me, but after that I just managed my gap to Kralev.

Q:
How did the constantly changing weather affect your strategies?

PF:
To be honest, I watched Norbi and Christjohannes – it didn't matter what decision they take – I just had to do the same as them...

Q:
Plamen, winner of Race 1 and second in Race 2. We saw a lot of action, how was it from your point of view?

PK:
It was very interesting also for us and finally we found the right set-up, I think, and now we are competitive. It was a very difficult first season and I had a gap of five years without driving. And then we had a completely new car, nobody knew anything about it, how to set-up this car, and it was really hard for us to find the right set-up that would be competitive here in ETCC. That's why we are very happy with the final results here in Most. I think we still have work to do on our set-up and car, but now we have direction how to improve it and the performance.

Q:
Do you think you can carry this improved performance into next season?

PK:
Yes, sure, we think we just need to improve from now on.

Q:
Concerning the action packed races - how do you feel about the racing today?

PK:
To be honest, they were both crazy races. When you are inside the car you don't have much time to think about the consequences. You just do what you think is best to do inside the car. I tried not to hurt or hit anybody as I know the guys are fighting here for the title and I didn't want to destroy anyone's championship. But I'm also a racing driver and I always try to race and use every possibility to overtake. I made a very bad start in Race 1 but my start was good in Race 2 and I enjoyed both of them.

Q:
Norbi, you finished second in Race 1 and third in Race 2. In the end it's not the coveted ETCC trophy, but you're still fantastic second in the championship. There was a lot of racing also on your side today, talk us through it, please.

NN:
It was a very difficult weekend. The first race was not so hard, just the first few corners and after that I just had to protect the car and drive it to the finish. In Race 2 because of Schreiber's bad start I lost many positions. It was the most difficult thing that I had to overtake a lot of cars, while caring about mine as I needed to score a lot of points. At the end of the first race - when I saw Stefanovski's driving and Kralev's driving [standards] I told myself - oh my gush, I have to protect the car and I don't care about the position - I just need to score a lot of points. And that was the case - second in the championship is better than in the previous year and so I'm happy with that. I have to try to be a champion next year!

Q:
What were the best and worst moments for you this season?

NN:
The best moment was that we found the problem of the car - because of my previous bad starts. And the worst [moment] was the accident in Portugal, because we had to rebuild the whole car. But overall I'm very happy with my year.

Q:
Let's finish with you, Petr: we are in your home country, you had a lot of guests and fans here in Most. Do you have any final words for them?

PF:
I did an interview after the podium and I thanked a lot for the support. We expected a little bit more [people] but probably the weather is also the reason [for lower spectator numbers]. But I think that Most showed that it's able to organize such event as FIA ETCC. Also the other drivers had a nice schedule here, with a good party yesterday and they enjoyed the weekend. I hope for the future we can do it again [here in Most].

*Subsequently demoted to fourth position
**Subsequently promoted to first position