Driver Quotes for Round 10

Christian Hohenadel
Nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3
 “It means a lot to me to be the European Champion. It’s the most famous title I’ve won in my career, so I’m very happy. I’m very proud to drive the car with Daniel, because he did a very good job this year. I think it’s very important for the team and everybody. It was very hard this year. It might look easy from outside, but we’ve worked a lot, we’ve thought a lot. We have done a lot testing and stuff. I think the whole team, the drivers, everybody has done a very good job. It looks so easy, but it was hard. My goal in the race was to keep going; staying in my position, or losing one or two places didn’t matter. There were a few slower cars in front of me, and the pressure came from behind. We did an early pitstop and Daniel did the rest.”

Daniel Keilwitz
Nr101 Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R GT3
 “I’m very happy. I can’t believe it now that we’ve won the championship. I’m so happy, as this is the first title of my career. Christian was a good partner this year. He did a very good job, the team did a very good job. We worked hard for this goal and now we’ve done it. I’m very happy now. The next target will be to try and win the team championship as well. At the beginning I was being really careful, because I knew the French team was behind us, and I knew I only had to finish the race. The team told me on the radio that we were out of the race. Then I began to push and I think I  made it to first position because our tyres weren’t as worn out as the others, as we were careful at the beginning with the tyres. I’m very happy with every win.”

Marco Holzer
Nr61 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R
 “I got a really good start today, I got from P5 to P3, then I stayed in my position until the pitstop and then I handed it over to Paul and then we finished 2nd today. I’m really happy, the car was fantastic this weekend, especially with our first win of the season yesterday. I think this weekend has also been good for the championship for us, as we’re now third, coming up from P6 before the weekend. It’s been good for Porsche and for Prospeed.”

Paul Van Splunteren
Nr61 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R
 “Initially I thought the ne99 Ford was as quick as me, but then I had some more speed in the car, and the team told me to find a good spot and take it easy. And I thought there was the best spot to do it. I thought I was clearly next to him. But maybe I underestimated the visibility that these guys have in their Fords GT. So maybe he didn’t count on it that I’d try that right away.  So we both touched, and it wasn’t hard, it was just a nudge, but it spun us around hard, which was also very sad for me, and for Marco who was a little sad that he didn’t get first place because we were capable of winning. But that’s how it goes, and it was a very difficult spot to judge. After that I had some problems to get up to speed again because of the clutch. Then tried to survive and stay second. I couldn’t keep up with the Corvette. In the last 10 minutes, our tyres were just going off. I just had to try and do the best. Coming home with P2 and P1 is a great result for the team. The car was great, even though it was having a hard time in these temperatures. I’m very happy to have been 1st and 2nd, and I think it’s been my best result ever in a European championship. Marco’s used to winning, but I’m not, so I’m very glad.”

Matthew Bell
Nr23 United Autosports Audi R8 LMS
 “I didn’t have a great start. I spent the first lap going backwards. I was having a bit of trouble with the handling of the car for the first two laps. I think I lost three places or so on the first lap. Then I managed to get it together and the car started to come to me a little bit. I managed to catch up those who’d gone past me and I managed to catch up with the Corvette and the Ferrari on the straight and held it there for a while. It was pretty good. Towards the end of the stint, I really started to struggle. I pulled away from the Corvette and he reeled me back in pretty quickly. I lost touch with the cars in front and spent my last 5 laps of my stint defending. It felt like the tyres had gone off a bit, so I was worrying by the time I handed it over to Zak. This position is something we’ve been working towards all year, but we’ve never quite got there. It’s a team achievement, ‘cos we’ve had a big struggle this weekend up until that race. We rebuilt the whole car last night to get to that point. To be top Audi is a credit to the team. Zolder will be another challenge, another track I haven’t been to, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Zak Brown
Nr23 United Autosports Audi R8 LMS
 “It’s great. It’s what we hoped for at the start of the season, and it wasn’t looking like we’d get here. Richard Deans, who runs the team, really all credit to him and his crew, and the engineers. Audi’s been really responsive. We’ve had some challenges this weekend and they were there for us every time and I just couldn’t be happier. I had a lot of fun out there. I think they were going off a little bit and in a few more laps, I did have a spin at the start, so I probably kicked myself for a while about that, because that may have cost us a step or two on the podium, but we’re very happy, it was a fun race, and we’re really looking forward to Zolder. I raced there about 18 years ago and I think I remember it, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

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