Driver quotes from Round 8

Christopher Haase (#26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS) - winner
"My start was no so good, I lost a few places in the first lap.  Our aim was to get some points and there was a lot of danger at the start so I slowed down to keep on the track.  Once again the car was good with our team doing a great job.  I think we had a little problem with the tyres, we didn’t have as much grip than we did this morning but maybe this was due to the temperature, but it was a good race."

Christopher Mies (#26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS) - winner
"I saw that the Corvette was coming out of the pitlane so I was in second place and then I saw the Aston Martin in front of me, he did a mistake in the last corner and I used the slipstream and overtook him at the end of the start finish straight.  In the middle of the race we had no traction control, so it was a little bit difficult for me, but we had a good gap to the second placed car.  It was hot inside the car, and a lot of work, but we are very happy about winning this race and to be the championship leaders.”

Diego Alessi (#17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R GT3) – 2nd Place
"I think the start was the key to our race.  I managed to find a good hole at the braking at the end of the straight, where I gained three or four positions.  This was important because it allowed me to stay away from the trouble, which I saw behind me.  I set my pace without pushing too much and Luca (Pirri) did a fantastic job at the end of the race. Today we really did the best job we could with the car.  It is still very difficult to fight for the championship, we are over 20 points behind and it wont be easy to recover this. But it has been a good day."

Luca Pirri (#17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette Z06R GT3) – 2nd Place
"Our objective at the pitstop was to do a good driver change to be as close to the Audi as possible, which we did, going back on track just one or two seconds behind.  However the tyres weren’t so good, I was a little bit too optimistic on the first lap and I landed in the gravel, really destroying my tyres.  It took me two laps to get the tyres to work better but I had huge vibrations for the rest of the race.  I then tried to push as much as I could and I’m happy to bring the car to the end and being the first Corvette."

Steffano  Gattuso (#8 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430 Scuderia) – 3rd Place
“We had a very good race because we started in 17th position and this is a very good result for us and all of the team.  During the race we had a lot of problems with the gearbox, so this is a very important result for us.  This is a very good track, I like it very much, and the Ferraris were very fast here.  We had a problem with the engine this morning which lost us second position, so to finish third today is a very good result.”

Marco Holzer (#12 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S) – 4th Place
“It was a great race but on the start I lost I don’t know how many places.  I was between two cars and they hit me on the straight so I braked and lost some time.  However I took them back and I was fighting hard with the BMW.  Then I handed over to Niki and it was perfect, he did a very good job, so did the team and we finished the two races in P8 and P4.”
 

Jens Klingsmann (#25 Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3) – 5th place
“It was a very difficult race for us, we had a little incident when we touched a little bit with the Porsche and I think we had something on the rear, maybe a flat spot and the car was very hard to drive, it was ten seconds off.  I knew it wasn’t possible to hold him behind me at the end but we finished the race, which was good.”

Walter Salles (#1 Matech GT Racing Ford GT) – 13th place (top Ford)
“I think it was a case of friendly fire in that race.  This is the second time we’re out due to an unfortunate incident with car number two and it is really a pity because we are supposed to part of one team.  Thomas (Mutsch) was in a good position, in 4th place, and he was knocked off the track and had to change the tyres.  We had a power issue in the first race, the throttle would only work at 90% and we lost a lot of power.  In the second race the engine was perfect but the rear suspension was damaged  and it was sideways everywhere, it wasn’t a pleasant drive at all. A real pity.”

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