Present:
René Münnich, first Super 2000
Petr Fulín, second Super 2000
Norbert Nagy, third Super 2000
Niklas Mackshin, first Super 1600

Q: René, congratulations on an excellent achievement on what is your ETCC debut. A very late, dramatic pole position as well, can you talk us through your quick lap please?

RM: Yeah, thank you. The quick lap was a lap like all the laps before but the most constant without traffic. All the laps before there was somebody in my line, I was getting crazy in the car because always my lap was destroyed by somebody. This lap was just a free lap, not the best lap maybe but it was good enough for the pole.

Q: How much experience of the car did you have before you came to this track?

RM: I drove this car already last year. I like the car, it’s nice to drive and we did some testing with it, not so much, I don’t know. It looks like it fits on me a bit.

Q: Tomorrow there’s obviously two races, what do you think you can achieve?

RM: I have no idea. First we have to start the race and then we’ll see after the first corner. I don’t know. If everything’s running well before the first corner it can be good.

Q: Turning to Petr, so far this weekend it’s been very good, lots of quick times. Qualifying wasn’t quite a pole position in the end. Talk us through your session, did anything not quite go right or go wrong?

PF: It was very difficult because we have had both cars for three days, so it’s a learning experience with these cars and we wanted to improve our setup yesterday and the weather conditions were changing. We used our litres of fuel so that’s why it was not possible to try again [for another lap]. Also I would like to congratulate René because he showed to everybody in the last lap the potential in these conditions.

Q: Obviously a complete contrast to last year when we had 27-degree temperature here. It’s a little colder and a little wetter. What do you know about the conditions tomorrow?

PF: To be honest I don’t know what I can expect concerning weather for tomorrow. Everybody sees that strong wind can change the weather during a few minutes, that’s why it’s a very difficult question. I would like to have clear conditions, at least for example 20 minutes before the first race, wet or dry, and no crazy preparing one minute before.

Q: Norbert, a very good performance. Tell us about your lap please.

NN: It was a surprise for me because we completed our last year with our car, but we found a very good setup for the dry setup.

Q: What about the race tomorrow, what result is possible?

NN: I don’t know because there’s a lot of TCN2 cars in the ETCC now and I don’t know to race with this more powerful car. We will see.

Q: Turning to Nicklas, our reigning Super 1600 champion and also on pole position here in Super 1600. How satistied are you with that performance?

NM: I’m really happy to repeat the results of last year again. It was really difficult to decide rain or dry. In the first laps it was really hard to drive but in the last laps it was dry and I pushed really hard for the pole position and I’m really happy.

Q: This year there is more competition in Super 1600, more cars. How tough is it out there for you?

NM: Yeah, it’s really tough. Two more drivers really fast and I’m looking forward to the season. I hope I have really big fights with the Peugeots and Ulrike. This year will be really hard for me.

Q: Finally turning back to René, a busy weekend for you, it’s not just ETCC but also WTCC, how are you finding that? Is it a difficult transition going between the cars, are you getting tired yet, having to do so much running?

RM: No I’m not getting tired yet. I thought about trying to drive the F3! I think I’m too big to fit into those cars. I think it’s good coming from the Chevrolet to the Honda, but the other way is a little bit difficult. The Chevy was not really a good qualifying for me today, I expected a little bit more because I was already here two years ago, we tested a lot with the Chevy and we know we can be quick on tracks like this but nothing was working today. I don’t know, maybe for the Chevy it wasn’t good that I was driving the Honda but for the Honda it was good to drive also with the Chevy.”