What the drivers said after Vallelunga’s first race
Norbert Michelisz (1st overall)
“I’m incredibly happy. My start was good, but Mikel was slightly better, and we were side by side entering turn one, and again at T4. Of course, we try to leave each other the necessary space not to lose positions and race hard. I’m very happy with how it worked out, and very happy from the race from lap 2. We were pushing like hell, but the pace was good enough to stay out front so we cannot have much better days than today I guess.”
Mikel Azcona (2nd overall)
“It was very challenging today, but a very positive race. It was very intelligent driving for the team to bring both cars home after a long race. In these conditions it’s very challenging for the driver and for this tyre. We saw in this race that some cars had issues with the tyres, so we decided to release a little bit and look after them. With P1 and P2 we bring home big points for the standings; it was an excellent driving from Norbi and congratulations to him. I am happy for him and the team and it’s the maximum we could achieve. We finished the work from yesterday, now we need to make sure we score good points in the race this afternoon.”
Thed Björk (3rd overall)
“I was struggling from my starting position because I lost Vervisch from the start, he was clearly faster. It was tight in the first couple of corners, then I was driving flat out as fast as I could, but we are clearly lacking some speed. At the end of the race we got the third position, so I’m really happy to get more points, very important for the team and I. From P8 for race 2, I can hope there is a lot of action going on and I can pick some positions up, that’s my hope.”
Kobe Pauwels (1st in TCR Italian Festival)
“It has been great. Yesterday in qualifying we were unfortunately in P11, so just missed out on the reverse grid pole for Race 2. We were desperate to make it up in the race. We had a good start, won two places, then unfortunately one of our cars ahead had an issue, so it was P8 in the end. From then on just after the start it was all calm and relaxed, I just tried to cool down the car and tyres, look after the brakes and bring it home for a result I’m really happy with.”
Picture: WSC Group
