Present: 
José María López, Citroën Total WTCC, first position
Yvan Muller, Citroën Total WTCC, second position
Mehdi Bennani, Sébastien Loeb Racing, third position, fastest WTCC Trophy driver
Ryo Michigami, Honda Racing Team JAS, leading local driver

Q:
Turning to José first, your sixth DHL pole of the season and the 20th of your WTCC career. Your team boss Yves Matton has just described your performance in qualifying as “incredible”. It looked sensational from the outside but what was it like inside the car and how satisfied are you with that lap?

JML:
As always I have to congratulate Citroën, putting four cars in Q3 and making a 1-2-3 is a fantastic achievement for the team and in this situation it’s important for the championship. And congratulations to Mehdi and Yvan and everybody who was in Q3 and did a good job. From my side I was surprising when I was watching my time. I think it was about confidence and I had a little more confidence in the car than the others in Q3. The fact that I knew Yvan didn’t improve his lap in Q3 gave me a little more confidence and you don’t maybe have the pressure when he doesn’t improve what he did before. This was a key and that’s why sometimes it’s important the position you get for Q2 because it maybe gives you that advantage. And then it was just pulling together the last lap and being more confident, quiet because I knew I only had to try to do the same in did Q2 but a bit better. I was watching, the car was good, the track was improving and I had a fantastic car today. I had everything I needed. It’s teamwork, it’s not only me, it’s my team Citroën and everyone involved working very hard and thank you you to them.

Q:
Turning to Yvan next, second position here at a very hot Twin Ring Motegi. How was it in the car for your and how was your lap – did anything go wrong for you out there?

YM:
Inside the car it was very hot for sure, hot in every sense of the word. I am quite pleased with my lap. Of course I am a bit disappointed I am too far from José but José is far away the best driver so far. Probably I could do a bit better than what I did, especially what I did in MAC3 because I was more pleased with the car in MAC3 than I was in Q3. We have to analyse this but I am pleased we put four Citroëns in the top five and we couldn’t expect better than that.

Q:
Turning to Mehdi, great to see you back in Q3. But what was more satisfying, fighting with these guys for pole or scoring another point to increase your lead in the WTCC Trophy?

MB:
For sure it’s a great result because in qualifying we are trying to be the fastest. When I asked the team about what is our strategy, to fight for ninth or 10th but they said we are here to perform so try to do your best. At the end if your are five, six or seven, because for the last few races we have been P6 or P7 and every time it’s worse because you are thinking you could be able to start on the reverse grid pole or seventh position but the team strategy is to perform and to learn because our focus is to learn for the future. For sure to be here close to Yvan performance, I was too much surprised, but then José found another way to drive because he was around one second quicker than us. It’s unbelievable and congratulations to him. It’s also a good lesson that we are in a good position but we also have a lot of things to learn to stay on top of the car and improve our driving style. It’s a good position but the races tomorrow are another story. I have to have a good start and to fight against the factory drivers in front.

Q:
Before we turn to Ryo-san, back to José please. Your championship lead is now 120 points. Can you give us a few words about the title situation heading into tomorrow’s two races?

JML:
We are in a good position. I know if I don’t lose 10 points in comparison with Tiago and 13 or 14 with Yvan I could be crowned three-time champion tomorrow and that’s pretty amazing. But it’s still a tough start in the reverse grid [race]. We will see but for sure I won’t do what I did last year in the reverse grid, which was not to finish! I will try to score points and if I can secure the championship it will be fantastic for me, the team and everyone. Let’s keep the fingers crossed.

Q:
Turning finally to Ryo Michigami. How would you summarise your first day in the World Touring Car Championship – you were very close to getting through to Q2?

RM:
When I was asked by Honda to join the WTCC and I was very proud and I also want to really thank Honda here for asking me to join them and for trusting me. It was only about two months ago and I was pretty worried and tense about my performance this weekend. We had a test in Barcelona and then at Okayama this week for the final test. I knew it would be difficult, it’s a type of racing I am not used to. Everything went well in the test, I learned a lot about the car and I was confident but once I got here and saw that all the drivers and how they use the tyres and how their lines are different it was all very new for me and very difficult to adapt and get a good result right away. The image I had of how I had to perform and seeing the others I realise that I had to adjust a couple of points. My engineer gave me tips on how I had to do it but you can’t learn that in one day so it’s been a bit difficult. It was a difficult qualifying of course but I will start the race from the back, which is good because I will have the chance to see the world’s top drivers driving their best and I will probably learn from their lines and try to implement that in the final race and hope for a better result in the final race.