Jordi Gené (1st): “It’s always good to start quickest, but I did a lot of work in the simulator and my car worked well. The car has no problems, although I’m sure that all the others will be fighting and things will get closer. The Honda looked particularly good in the testing; I know that if I’m quick, all the other SEAT cars will be like this so I think qualifying will be very close. Pepe (Oriola) is always right there with me and perhaps Stefano (Comini) didn’t push himself in testing because of his injured leg, but I know that if he needs the speed he will have it.”
Gianni Morbidelli (3rd): “I really enjoyed the test – the track is very quick and very nice to drive so I had some fun. The car looks quite good, we have to work a little but we are heading in the right way. We can be happy with the first two hours because it doesn’t look as though there is a big difference in terms of reliability and handling. We are focusing on the engine temperature at the moment and we have to understand what happens when we follow other cars because the temperature is already very high and so it could be a problem in the races when we follow.”
Mikhail Grachev (9th): “It was pretty easy compared to Singapore because it’s not so hot here and inside the car. It’s a completely new track for me, but I think I got used to it pretty quickly. Overheating was an issue for us in Singapore and so we kept a close eye on that and not on the top speed. As a result, I know we can go a little bit faster but we are currently at the bottom of the top ten. Every time, we have areas we can work on – we will get together now and discuss what we have to do to improve for tomorrow.”
Alain Menu (12th): “I think it went okay, but really what we did today is what you do with a brand new car when you go testing for two days. It was all about learning about the car and improving it – the way it handles, for example, it’s better now but it could be better still. Hopefully we can make another step forwards for tomorrow. It’s a front-wheel drive Touring Car so you need to get the front end to work and at the moment it doesn’t work the way it should. My personal goal is to get into Q2 tomorrow and if we succeed in improving it tomorrow we can possibly achieve that.”
Fernando Monje (Campos Racing):“We are pretty happy, because the car ran with no problems. Hugo (Valente) was very cautious and despite this set the 13th fastest lap. We saw that his ideal lap time would be half-a-second faster and this would place him around the seventh, eighth position. Our goal is to get into Q2 tomorrow and possibly aiming for pole position on the reverse grid for Race 2. Hugo liked the car very much, as it reminds him of the previous generation of Super 2000 machines.”
