Shanghai: What the drivers said after qualifying
Below is what the drivers said during the post qualifying press conference at the 4 Hours of Shanghai, round 3 of FIA WEC.
Bruno Senna – No.1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R13-Gibson
“I think the car really comes to life on low fuel and new tyres. Last year was amazing to drive the car in qualifying here. Last year we were about three seconds faster than today, which is a bit strange. Today the car was gripping better and I felt I left a bit on the track unfortunately, but when you are losing three seconds it takes a bit of getting used to.
“We know the degradation for the tyres is very high here, so we need to make sure the tyres are surviving the double stints. We know the Toyotas will have a strong race with regards to tyre degradation, we saw that their average pace so far has been quite flat, so I guess they don’t have the peak pace but their average pace is strong. Hopefully we can deal with traffic as well as them.
“The Ginetta is obviously very fast. If they are in front of us it will be very difficult to overtake as they are about 10kph faster than us on the straights and we are not much faster than the LMP2s so traffic management will be very important tomorrow. Hopefully we can finish where we start the race.”
Allan McNish, three-time Le Mans champion, gives us his analysis on the LMP1 fight between @RebellionRacing and @Toyota_Hybrid during the qualifying session. #WEC #4HShanghai @allanmcnish pic.twitter.com/dWU7HCxl8v
— WEC (@FIAWEC) November 9, 2019
Kevin Estre – No.92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19
“To be honest my lap didn’t feel that special and I think that was the key. It was very hard here to put a lap together - also for us it is a huge gain on new tyres and low fuel and I just tried to drive without making any mistakes.
“It may have been a mega lap time but in the car it didn’t feel that special. I am really happy for our side of the garage as we haven’t had great qualifying so far this year, our last pole was Sebring. It’s cool but it is going to be a very long race tomorrow as tyre degradation is high here. It’s good to start first but it’s going to long and the long run might be different than qualifying.”
Nicolas Lapierre – No.42 Cool Racing Oreca-Gibson
“My lap was ok and because you have just one lap here, it is a matter of not messing it up. Most important today is that I am very proud of the team because it is the first time in the WEC and it is the first pole.
“My team-mate as well didn’t know the track and it was a great achievement for everyone -we are happy and looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
Egidio Perfetti – No.56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR
“Obviously it is great to get our first pole of the season and we hope to get lots more. It is a bit strange how we ended the last session but we insisted on continuing with another set of tyres and the track helped.
“Possibly the track was too green for us earlier and I think I managed to get a bit more settled and that helped us to me more comfortable today and not to worry too much about the set-up. Then it was a matter of not pushing too hard and putting the sectors together.”
Tomorrow’s 4 Hours of Shanghai will get underway at 12h00 local time.
