What The Drivers Said: Pre-Event Press Conference

André Lotterer – No.6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963

“The aim is always to win, but in this championship, it’s not so easy. We’ve had a strong season, and even when we’ve not necessarily been as fast as the others, we’ve been able to compensate with good strategy which has given us confidence that whatever gets thrown at us, we can extract the best out of it. The result from last year gives an indication that we’ll be quick here and placing first in FP1 was a good start, so hopefully we can score some important points for the championship and finish in front of our competitors – that’s the key.

“I guess [it will be between Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari again]. A lot of other cars have been catching up, but it’s mostly been those three who perform well. In the end, that’s who we need to be ahead of.”

Jenson Button – No.38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963

“I think I’m probably more well-known here for Super GT than Formula 1. I never won around here in F1, but it’s awesome to be back. I love racing in Japan. It’s been five years since I last raced here. The support for the sport is massive and it’s lovely to see the passion for it here from the fans.

“Last year’s result and performance shows the car works well at Fuji. It’s a very smooth track, which I think is a positive so we have no excuses. I think on our side of the garage, we’ve done a very good job of maximising what we have. The pace has been there, and while we’ve been unlucky, there’s definitely an opportunity to fight for a podium in the next two races.

“This is a very special category. I don’t think there are many categories around the world where you have so many different manufacturers and so many different teams that have the possibility to win races. It obviously depends on the track and whether you get it all together, but as we saw at COTA, not many people get a whole race together. It’s very difficult in this sport, with multi-class racing. There were lots of little mistakes made by different people and I think if you can maximise a weekend, you have a really good chance of scoring some big points, even if you’re not the quickest car on the track.”

Kamui Kobayashi – No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid

“We had a great race at COTA up until [the penalty]. We struggled in qualifying and starting P9 obviously wasn’t ideal, but we showed quite a strong performance in terms of consistency and pace in the race and our strategy worked really well. I was a bit surprised to get the drive-through for not respecting yellow flags, but that’s how it is, and then we tried to catch up again to the #83. I think we had stronger pace, but obviously it wasn’t quite enough to take the win. We scored more points [than the #6 Porsche], which was great for the championship. Hopefully we can score some more good points this weekend.

“It’s hard to say why we have been so strong at Fuji. My first win in LMP1 back in 2016 was here, which was the only time Toyota won that season. It’s obviously our home race, and we get a lot of supporters coming along to cheer us on, which definitely brings something. I think this year the level of competition is even higher, so winning in Japan isn’t going to be easy. I keep saying to my team-mates as well, we are staying in the Fuji Speedway Hotel because we won last year at Fuji. We all prefer to stay there so the drivers are really feeling the pressure to win again. The threat of staying somewhere else next year makes everybody very motivated!”

Marino Sato – No.95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo

“This was supposed to be my first time racing in Japan until I got a last-minute call to race in the Japanese Carrera Cup at Fuji last month. I have very limited experience of driving round here, but it’ll be good to race on home turf. A lot of my friends don’t usually get to see me racing!

“Back in Qatar, we weren’t really thinking about fighting against all these guys for the podium or even race wins, but with every single race we’ve made really good progress, of course with the help of McLaren but the entire team has really come together. We’ve had at least one car always fighting for the podium since Spa, so I’m really pleased with the job the whole team is doing and we finished FP1 here in first place, which was a really strong start to the weekend. I’m looking forward to further improvements over the remainder of the season.”

Klaus Bachler – No.92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3

“We have quite a good lead [in the championship], but with two races to go, there are still a lot of points to fight for. Our aim is to maintain our lead and hopefully even extend it a bit before Bahrain, because as we all know, so many things can happen. We saw that especially this year at Le Mans, where we had a good chance to do well but we had a technical issue, and seven hours before the end, we went from P1 to P14. This can happen at any track, but definitely, I would say, our strongest points this season have been our consistency, our strategy and our overall package. With five podiums from six races, it’s been quite a good season so far.

“I don’t have so much experience at Fuji. I drove here once, but that was a long time ago. To be honest, FP1 wasn’t so good for us; we were fighting a bit with the balance. This track is not so easy in terms of finding the right car set-up, because you have a long main straight but then the last sector is so tricky. You also have to double-stint on the tyres, so if the balance is not great and the tyre wear is too high, you’re going to struggle at the end of your stint.”