What the LMP Drivers said on Sunday at COTA
Reactions from the LMP drivers after the 6 Hours of COTA, round 6 of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Timo Bernhard – No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team - 1st
“We knew it was going to be hot because it was starting in daytime so we knew it was to be a little different because of that. We thought in qualifying that they (Toyota) would be much closer to us and maybe a chance to beat us, but actually it was the other way around and the first few laps were a big surprise to see the different strategies from the first stint. It was an interesting race and it was a really close fight and we had to be smart.”
Andre Lotterer - No.1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team - 2nd
“It was exciting and no one really drove conservatively today, everyone was pushing hard and it was fun and it was nice to see that we could battle the Toyotas. I had a fun fight with (Jose-Maria) Lopez. In these cars you can override the boost and we did this and had a good battle. Less so with Kamui (Kobayashi), I think he just tried something that didn’t work out there."
Sebastien Buemi – No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID, Toyota Gazoo Racing - 3rd
“To be honest after qualifying I wasn’t expecting to be in a fight with Porsche because we seemed far away. On the old tyres in the middle of the race I had a really good stint. We had to be aggressive in traffic to stay in the fight and I pushed as hard as I could. In the end we were just missing a little bit of pace to beat them.”
Nicolas Lapierre – No.36 Alpine A470 Gibson, Signatech Alpine Matmut - 1st LMP2
"The pace of the car today was amazing. We could really push and open a gap to the opponents and we had a good strategy from the beginning of the race. Obviously the Safety Car hurt us quite a lot but in the end we didn’t panic as we knew we had the pace. We had a bit of drama at the end when we had to change the rear box (bodywork) but they did great and we are all very happy and proud of the team.”