What the Drivers Say.... After Round 11

Paul van Splunteren
nr1 Prospeed Porsche 911 GT3 R
“Pole helps. The guys from Mercedes let us through by making a little mistake yesterday. Of course, if I had been third, I don’t know what would have happened. Today, here, the qualifying was great, I had a fantastic lap and I’ve never driven so fast here before. The start was relatively easy; I know the track, I know where to be on cold tyres as well, and I think that helped on the first lap. I had a decent first lap, and everything was a matter of trying to preserve the gap for my codriver here. I managed it, and then it was just a matter of doing a clean in-lap, a good pit stop, and Max took over and we just managed to maintain what we did.

“It was a really fantastic feeling this morning, with qualifying going well, because I really had a lap that I was proud of, we had a fantastic car with the team, the Porsche likes the cold weather, and I could capitalize on that, and Chris Frankenhout came to tell me I was on pole, and that was a very good feeling. I also had the increased pressure of not screwing up in the first lap, because when you lead you‘re not allowed to screw up. For me it’s great because we have a lot of guests this weekend, so these are important sponsors or partners, and also to finish like this, for the team, after the hard first half of the year. This second win here means a hell of a lot to the team, to Rudi and his guys at Prospeed and our partners and to us.”

Maxime Soulet
nr1 Prospeed Porsche 911 GT3 R
“To be honest, after my qualifying, I thought this was going to be very hard. But Paul brought the car in with a gap and I kept the gap. At the beginning I had to push really hard to make the gap a bit longer, and then it was really hard on the tyres as I pushed so hard at the beginning. I just had to keep the distance between us for it to be all right. The whole team is happy for this win.”

Michael Lyons
nr38 Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 Italia
“In British GT we’ve enjoyed a bit of success and finished 3rd in the championship, and it’s been a good year for the guys, this being Scuderia Vittoria’s first year it’s great to have so many wins and podiums. Last time in the Ferrari at Silverstone, we had a good pace in qualifying but some issues in the race. It’s great to have the opportunity to be so far up there at the start. I had a good pace, but it’s very difficult to overtake around here, so I was focused more on keeping good laps, watching the gap and looking after the tyres, so that Felipe had a good opportunity for the last half of the race. It worked out really well. We only knew we were coming here last Sunday, so it’s great to be able to pull it all together so well. I had a hard time here in free practice yesterday, it’s my first time here, I think we were about 20th. This is a great result for me to look to the championship next year.”

Filip Salaquarda
nr38 Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 Italia
“After today’s qualifying which didn’t go very well and I was quite slow, stuck in traffic and I made some mistakes, I’m really happy to be here, in the top 3. I have to thank Michael for his good gap in the beginning. I had to push, but I was struggling with the front tyres. It was becoming better and better, I saw the Lambo behind me and tried to push a bit more, but I think I overheated the tyres and I was struggling again, so I’m really happy I kept the gap and finished 2nd.”

Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof
nr24 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600
“The start was really good, we didn’t have any trouble, and the pace was really good and we could just go with the flow. I didn’t attack so that I could save the tyres for the end of the race, then all of a sudden, I was getting into the rhythm and out of this corner, uphill lefthand, there was just no engine; I couldn’t accelerate, shift up or down, nothing was happening for 4-5 seconds, standing uphill. Then all of a sudden it came back on for me. I tried to catch up, having lost 2 positions, and then could get back into the rhythm. Then we had another problem with the brakes. But I can’t complain, we’re in third place and Albert did an amazing performance at the end. I was just standing there for 20 minutes, dying on the pit wall until it was over, and I think he made an incredible effort with the lap times he pulled, so consistent and so fast.”

Albert von Thurn und Taxis
nr24 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600
“It was a fun race, it was really good and exciting to see that the times were so close to each other. There was one pace, the whole pack was moving. I think that despite the bad luck with our electronics and our brake issues that we’ve carried over from qualifying, we really managed to get a good run. I tried to take the Ferrari, but I didn’t even make it close! I pushed a little bit in the beginning, but my rear tyres didn’t make it. It’s a great feeling to be back on the podium.”

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