What the drivers said after the 6 Hours of Silverstone

Gustavo Menezes, No.3 Rebellion R13 Gibson - 1st overall (following disqualification of Toyotas)

“I’m absolutely ecstatic. I haven’t felt this happy for so long. It’s my first win since COTA last year, and it feels very special. Having spent some time living in the UK during the earlier stages of my career, Silverstone is something of a ‘home’ track for me and it’s a great feeling to take my first LMP1 victory there.

“Obviously it wasn’t the ideal way to do it, but ultimately, winning a race is winning a race, no matter how it comes and we will grab this result with both hands. All the boys at Rebellion have worked so hard to get the whole LMP1 project off the ground and to develop the car to the stage where it is now, and they really deserve this one-two finish. I’m immensely proud of everybody involved in the programme.

“The race certainly wasn’t without its dramas and setbacks for us, from the contact at the start to the safety car appearance midway through that threatened to derail our podium challenge altogether. That was hugely frustrating. I was in the car at the time and making in-roads in the battle for third, when the leading Toyota went by to lap us literally seconds before a Full Course Yellow was thrown, which left us virtually a full lap behind the two cars ahead. After that, I had no choice but to get my head down and push like hell, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

James Calado, No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo - 1st LMGTE Pro

“It’s great to win a home race finally in the four or five years of being here. As Alessandro [Pier Guidi] said, we knew that on pace alone we were going to struggle as we just don’t quite have the speed to compete with the Porsche and the Ford and even the Aston Martin is now up there.

“So, we had a long three hours in the truck last night discussing what we could do to do something different. So saving fuel and making the best of Full Course Yellows was our only hope. Some people will say we were lucky but what we did, we did on purpose.

“We did have some issues as Alessandro lost 10-seconds with a fuel issue, but the team did an amazing strategic job and the car was at its full potential and to get the win is a bonus but we have to be realistic moving on but also positive so we are looking forward to the next race.”

Ho-Pin Tung, No.38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA 07 Gibson - 1st LMP2

“At the start the ByKolles car didn’t really move and I had to come out of the tow and I got a drive-through penalty unfortunately, so from that moment on we had to catch up.

“The pace of the car was good and the turnaround has been phenomenal by the team who have worked really hard. We are really happy and in the last stages of the race it was quite tight as we got caught out a bit by the safety car which was a little disadvantage, but there was a nice battle to the line with Jazeman [Jafaar]. We managed to stay on top so we are very happy.”

Julien Andlauer, No.77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR - 1st LMGTE Am 

“Actually my opening stint was quite bad and there were some mistakes as I didn’t manage the tyres well but on my second stint it improved. The pace was good and it made driving easy so I just had to be smooth and get across the line. We were a bit lucky with penalties for the Porsche [Team Project 1] and the Aston [TF Sport] but we did the job. Christian [Ried] and Matt [Campbell] did a great job and we are very happy for the result.”