Timo Bernhard – Porsche Team
“Another pole for Porsche, but Audi pushed us much harder this time and it will be a good race, a good battle for sure. The most important thing is that we got the point for pole position to get us closer to the #7 Audi. My lap wasn’t perfect but we were still very quick. If the rain comes tomorrow it will be interesting to see how the strategies go and it could open things up.”
Photo: Drivers of the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard.
Loic Duval – Audi Sport Team Joest
“We’ve been working hard since Le Mans to bring something new, and we have done. We’ve never been this close to Porsche so we are quite happy. This is definitely not a track that suits our car so it seems to be a good day for us today.
“For the #8 Audi I think P2 would have been possible if we had not suffered some problems yesterday and this morning, so we lost a lot of track-time, so no qualifying simulation. So at the end of the day it is quite positive.”
Sebastien Buemi– Toyota Racing
“We did the best job we could. In all honesty we are a bit away from where we hoped to be; we looked closer in practice. But that is just qualifying and our focus has been on the race. We will stay positive and see what the weather brings us tomorrow.”
Julien Canal – G-Drive Racing
“When I left the pits I knew I had a good car. We had different set-ups between the cars in Free Practice so we found a good solution. It was a very good lap and it is the first time I have been so close to my team mate. He worked with me and showed me on the camera his lines so it was very good fun.”
Photo: The G-Drive Ligier JS P2 Nissan in pitlane
James Calado – AF Corse
“Firstly it is a great result for Ferrari. The priority is to win the manufacturers championship. We race and there are no (team) orders, until we get them. It is our first pole and we are always improving, so we did fantastic laps and Davide did a great job, so fingers crossed for some dry weather tomorrow.”
Photo: A delighted James Calado and (behind him) Davide Rigon of the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
Fernando Rees – Aston Martin Racing
“I don’t think we could have gone much better, we did the maximum really. And it was better than what we expected. We had a good car on the long runs yesterday, so I think if we can keep with the Ferraris in the first 10 laps then it could be interesting.”
Stefan Mucke – Aston Martin Racing
“Qualifying was ok but we still need some more straight-line speed. The 20mm restrictor break makes some difference but it is very minimal. We have a good race set-up and on used rubber the car feels good. We used the Free Practice to check this and I have some confidence for the race. Of course the weather looks like it could be wet for some of the race which means that it will shake things up. We hope to capitalise.”
