Qualy Quotes: What the drivers said after Fuji qualifying
Thoughts from the pole-sitting drivers across the four classes for the 6 Hours of Fuji.
Kamui Kobayashi #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid
It’s a great feeling to be on pole position at our home track. My lap could have been a little better, but it was good enough. Our GR010 HYBRID is fast here and we showed that performance in qualifying, so I am very happy. After Le Mans, winning at Fuji Speedway is our second priority and the team has worked hard behind the scenes to get us in this position. It was a big challenge coming here for the first time with the Hypercar so thanks to everyone for their effort. The fans have been unbelievable so far this week and we expect a lot of spectators and guests again tomorrow. We will do our best to win so we can celebrate with them.
Michael Christensen #92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19
I'm happy with the lap. There was a small mistake on the first lap but the second time I was able to optimise a bit and get everything together and get the pole position, which is good for tomorrow. It's very important that we get every point that we can as it’s a tight championship.
Antonio Felix da Costa #38 JOTA Oreca 07 - Gibson
Sometimes we're left wondering where the three or four tenths are missing but today that advantage came to our side. You need everything to work in the car to be there. I'm not four times quicker than any of the guys that were out there in quali today. So many thanks to the team for giving me the car, and the tools for me to be able to deliver like that. For the championship there are still a lot of hours to race, and still a lot of points to play for. We are 20 points ahead now. But that feels like it's nothing, so I think we’ve got to keep on the same mentality. Do our race, the way we've been racing, the last few years as it's been working out well for us. I think we've got the team to always work out the best strategy and bring us home and good. I think so we've got a few things on the table to try and work with tyre management tomorrow, not only on the driving and setup side, but also on tyre strategy. We'll look at that tonight. I think it is going to be a little bit warmer tomorrow and a little bit harder to manage the tyres. But that will be the same for everyone.
Ben Keating #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage
I'm very grateful to have gotten the poll by less than a tenth of a second. I feel very good going forward in the race, because I know that we have a car that we that will consistently be quick and competitive. I knew it was going to be very tight. After the win at Le Mans, we had a pretty nice buffer leading the championship but then after the incident at Monza we saw that shrink down to seven points. I was sitting in the pit lane getting ready to go out and qualify and I was thinking about how much that one point would make a difference in the championship. We made a few changes to the car before qualifying and that always makes you a little bit nervous. But you know, in the LMGTE Am category, we have reward weight and there's a silver lining in that Monza incident in that we had 15 kilogrammes taken off of the car, and Sarah, who qualified second had 10 kilogrammes added to the 85 car. And I think that that 25 kilo difference is probably the difference in the in the lap time. So, she was really quick at Monza and she's really quick again here so it's a fun battle. For the race, I'm hoping I'll just have a nice, clean, consistent run up front. If I happen to be in the lead, then great. If I happen to be, you know, somewhere in the top five, it's fine. We'll be able to race forward, I think in the longer runs with the car. We think we have a really good consistent race car. I, if that's what you want, you know, I wasn't quite sure how we were going to end up in qualifying.
