Quotes

Bradley Ellis – No.21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, 1st: “My race was hard – I got into the lead on the first lap, but the Ferrari got past me again. Then I had my Matech team-mate, Thomas Mutsch behind me – I let him past, because he was obviously quicker on some parts of the track. So I followed him and we made it up to first and second. I was following him and doing the same sort of pace, although I made a couple of mistakes. I held off the Dodge Viper behind me, then pitted and handed over to Alex. It wasn’t easy – conditions were greasy and I was pushing very hard. I’d prefer it to be either fully wet or fully dry.”

 

Alex Mortimer – No.21 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, 1st: “My stint was fairly easy – the car was fantastic. We had a small braking problem, but nothing major. After the pit-stop the Dodge and Ford were in front of me; I could close the gap, but we were in traffic, and I ran out of laps to get past them. It’s a very good all-round car – the braking is fantastic, it has a lovely engine and the chassis is very good. In the wet, it’s very well suited to this circuit – it was excellent. I’d like to say thank you to the team, and my family for travelling out here – and my girlfriend, because it’s her birthday!”

 

James Ruffier – No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3, 2nd: “It’s been a good weekend for us. We’ve been a bit lucky, because we had a small problem during the driver change, trying to restart the engine. The car was really good, although we’ve got a small problem with the brakes that we’re trying to find a solution for. Compared to the Ford GT, we still have a lot of work to do, but the car is generally very good. The Corvette is consistent but we would like more performance over one lap.”

 

Arnaud Peyroles – No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06R GT3, 2nd: “This weekend, it was difficult staying on the track – I discovered that yesterday, when I spun on the green flag lap! I needed to do good times, and keep it on the track, but it’s not a great car when the track is wet.”

 

Ian Khan – No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, 3rd: “I messed up yesterday – that was all my fault, and today we made a team error. Under the circumstances, we’re very pleased with finishing third – especially because it means we still lead the championship. It cost us one place, and it could have been worse, so I’m pretty happy.”

 

Thomas Mutsch – No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, 3rd: “It was a great race – very busy, with a lot to do. We have to dedicate this win to our mechanics – they worked all night to repair the car after yesterday’s crash, and we had to get some parts in from Germany to repair the roll-cage. They got the car fixed just in time, so this result is down to them.”

 

Frédéric Makowiecki – No.10 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9, 4th: “Monza is not usually a good track for the Aston Martin, because its top speed is slow compared to our rivals. I’m really happy for Hexis Racing because the team did a good job. The race was difficult at the beginning on wet tyres, but I was able to be sixth when I handed over to Jean-Claude. We had a big fight with the Morgan, Porsche and Corvette, and we were all sliding around – it was good fun!”

 

Jean-Claude Lagniez – No.10 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9, 4th: “I’m very happy for Fred – I think he’s one of the best drivers in the Championship. The track is very difficult, but my ‘day’ job is as a stunt driver, so it was good for me! When it rained, it made it very difficult, because the wet tyres were very worn.”

 

Jose Manuel Balbiani – No.5 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 GT3, 6th: “My race was hard, but I think it was tougher for my team-mate! The car was pretty hard to drive, but I was able to catch the cars in front. It’s a good result – we started well down the grid, finished fourth and picked up some points.”

 

David Ashburn – No.6 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S, 7th: “My race was terrifying – race in wet tyres, on a dry track, is not fun.  Obviously the left-hand corners are most important on this track, so I was doing all I could to keep the tyres on the left of the car as cool as possible – at one stage, I think I had two wheels on the grass!”

 

Richard Williams – No.6 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S, 7th: “That was really hard work – the conditions were incredibly difficult to predict. We started on a brand new set of slicks, which seemed to melt on the first quick lap – with hindsight, we’d probably have been better on a scrubbed set. After that, it was a real struggle, it was just a case of keeping it on the track.”

 

Luca Pirri – No.19 Matech GT Racing Ford GT, 14th: “We started well down the grid, which wasn’t ideal. Jürgen drove a very good stint and handed over to me in sixth position – but at the end of his stint, he didn’t see the pit board calling him in, which is why we missed the pit-stop window. So then I had to do a stop-go penalty. It’s too bad, because we could have scored our first points of the season today.“

 

Hans Knauss – No.14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, 17th: “It was a difficult race, because of the changing conditions – but it was fun being on slicks when it was raining! I’m very happy with this result. The conditions were really difficult – at the Lesmo corners it was raining, but at the other end of the circuit it was dry – you had to adjust your braking points on each lap.”

 

Dominik Kraihamer – No.14 S-Berg Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, 17th: “It wasn’t easy to drive, because I had wet tyres on a dry track. When the tyres overheated I had understeer and oversteer, so I was trying to find the wet patches to keep the tyres cool. It was a good race – I enjoyed it.”

 

Jacques Laffite – No.30 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 GT3, 26th: “My race was terrible – the dashboard wasn’t working. So we had no information, we had to guess when to change gear, the car didn’t have much grip. Yesterday was okay, but we were sliding too much today – the good thing is that we finished.”

 

 

2008-05-18
Subscribe:   Subscribe with small images:   Subscribe with medium images: