Next weekend……
“I am really looking forward to next weekend at Navarra. It has been a very good year for us at Marc VDS Racing Team and if we are honest we could have gone a long way to winning the title at Nurburgring but for the incident.
“WRT Audi are our rivals for the title and I think that unlike Nurburgring where we had a small advantage with some of the faster corners, they will have an advantage at Navarra with some of the slower corners. They have always been fast there so we must try and get that back to a nice level for us next weekend. Whatever happens I’m hoping that the title will be won by the fastest car/trio after a fair fight on the track.
On the grid penalty for Navarra……
“In Quali 3 at Nurburgring we had Maxime (Martin) in the car and there was an incident with the #2 WRT Audi, which had Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel. Maxime had been on a quick lap when he came across Laurens and it appeared that not much room was given to our car. Maxime got a bit ‘hot about it’ and the next lap when Maxime ran a little wide at the first corner there was a collision. It seemed that Laurens genuinely did not see Maxime and he appeared to apologise for it from the cockpit. Then after the race we get this penalty and it was a big surprise. But we have to live with it even if we are not happy with the decision.”
On that Nurburgring incident……..
“When the accident happened I could not understand how he had hit me there. I was very angry about it. Then afterwards I saw the footage and I think he (Lunardi) was breaking too late and moved to the right, to the outside. I took my line to the right also and there was no space left. If I had seen him and what was happening to my right then obviously I would have not chosen to go as far right for the line. Whatever happened he wasn’t going to overtake me there. He made a mistake, we crashed and I ended in the barrier. It’s not something I want to blame him too much for at all and in fact I have heard very different opinions from people about the incident. To be honest it was probably a ‘racing incident’ and now we must just forget about it.”
On title pressure…………
“It’s not every day that you are fighting for a title and that it is all on that on race, so it feels special going in to next weekend. Of course there will be pressure at Navarra but as a team we will approach it the same as we do every race. The guys at Marc VDs are ‘on it’ and they are ready for Navarra. We know what we have to do to win. We will for sure follow more what the opposition is doing. That is natural but in a sense we maybe now are the underdogs with the grid penalty so this may take some of the pressure off a little.”
“What I am concerned about is that the Navarra track is smaller than a lot of tracks we go too. With the amount of cars on the grid it will be really tight and I am sure there will be more contact during the race than usual just because of the nature of the circuit. Traffic management will be a big responsibility and role for us all next weekend.”
On being an honorary Belgian…….
“I have lived in Belgium for 8 years now so I feel a part of me is actually Belgian despite being very proud to race under the Finnish flag. I consider Belgium as a second home and I have raced with a Belgian team for almost a decade. It is a great time for Belgian motorsport as there are many teams and drivers racing at International level. It’s funny that this year all the Blancpain Endurance Series races have been won by a Belgian team except the one that was held in Belgium!”
Source : Blancpain Endurance Series