Pirri and Von Gartzen keep the fight alive

Luca PIRRI – nr 18 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z06R GT3, 1st:

"Italians are very close… so Diego Alessi and I had quite a hard explanation at the first corner, just like in Monza! I made contact with him, then I got distracted and I spun at the first hairpin. I lost a lot of places; I had to calm myself down and fight to get back to the top positions. I had to recover from a bad start, under huge pressure. But the car’s handling was really good. I was worrying about the tyres because of my spin, but in fact it was OK. I was recovering place after place, and I was second when I gave the car to Jürgen. He did an excellent stint, and this time, we were very good in the driver change. We have to keep on like this in the second race!”

Jürgen von Gartzen – nr 18 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z06R GT3, 1st:

"I took the lead, and then it was not so hard in fact! It was just difficult to wait for the chequered flag… I saw I was quicker than the Ascari, so I had to wait for the right place to overtake him without any risks. Then I went smoothly with the car to the end. Luca did the best job  today. After his spin, I thought it was all over for us, but he never gave up. For the second race, we have no choice, we have to win!”

Jonathan LANG – nr 32 Team Berlanga Ascari KZ1R, 2nd:

"It was an interesting start… One of the Corvettes went off, so I took the lead. Then I was pushing hard, and trying to make a gap between myself and the other Ascari. I kept my concentration, concentrated on the tyres, on the fuel, and then I came in. We were quite slow to change drivers, which cost us few seconds. It is nice to get Ascari’s best result on such a track, right at the end of the year. I hope we could win tomorrow.”

Rory BERTRAM – nr 32 Team Berlanga Ascari KZ1R, 2nd:

"We are really pleased to be second today. I saw Jonathan in first position, so I got nervous before getting into the car. It was going well at the beginning, the car was really good but I saw that the Corvette was mush quicker on the straight line. So I had to let the Corvette go. It was a good race, I did my best to get back in first position but that was not possible today… but tomorrow you never know !”

Gilles VANNELET – nr 38 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430, 3rd:

"It was really hard. I started from last position, so the first laps were just incredible. I do not know how many cars I overtook! My goal was to give the car to Henri in a good position, but also to keep the tyres and the fuel! Most of all, I wanted to avoid an accident. I did what I could, then Henri pushed hard to get this third position. It will be hard tomorrow, but we are ready.”

Henri MOSER – nr 38 Kessel Racing Ferrari 430, 3rd:

"I had no choice at the end, I pushed because I wanted to overtake those two cars. I knew the Corvette was in front, and as Jürgen von Gartzen is a really really good driver, I knew he won’t do any mistakes. I had to push hard until the end, in order to score as many points as we could. I saw those two cars in front of me; my car was really really good, really well balanced until the end, so I took risks to pass them. At the end it was more difficult as my engine started to lose power, it was overheating… Anyway, starting from the back of the grid and finishing third is really good. We are four points in front of Pirri and von Gartzen. We are going to race with our heads tomorrow, and if we had the same car as we did today, we could do a good job. We also want to congratulate Pirri and von Gartzen, they did a perfect race today.”

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