Find here all the pictures from the 2017 WTCC Race of Argentina

FIA WTCC Race of Argentina, 14-16 July 2017
FIA World Touring Car Championship 2017, Rounds 11 and 12 of 20

Briefing Room, Circuito Termas de Río Hondo, 16h45, 15 July

Present:
Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, DHL Pole Position winner
Norbert Michelisz, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, second position
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, third position
Esteban Guerrieri, Campos Racing, fastest in WTCC Trophy
Néstor Girolami, Polestar Cyan Racing
Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Team Volvo Polestar, WTCC MAC3 winner representative

Q: 
DHL pole position number two of your WTCC career making you the fifth different driver to qualify on pole this year. Congratulations for that but what a spectacular finish to your lap that was?

NC:
The lap was definitely good. The whole day went very well already in FP1 and FP2. We noticed we were quite fast. We made small improvements to the car and the team did a really good job with that, which showed in qualifying although it wasn’t easy, not at all. Q3 the lap was close to being the fastest that we could do. The last corner was obviously spectacular to go onto the grass, which meant we gained a little bit of time there but I’m happy with pole position.

Q:
And by qualifying on pole that’s five important points for the championship. What are your thoughts on that having closed up to the top two drivers?

NC:
That’s very nice. The championship is so close and every point counts. Five points for qualifying is really good for me. After that we scored many points compared to Honda in MAC3 so so far the weekend is perfect us. But now we just need to do it for another day tomorrow and hopefully win some races.

Q:
After taking pole for the last two events you didn’t quite make it to the front this time. Talk us through your lap?

NM:
The lap in Q3 was okay. We were struggling with the brakes so we had to change discs and pads before Q3 and I wasn’t really confident braking for Turn 5 and braking for the last corner. In the end even the perfect lap it would have been difficult to beat Nicky. In the end for me that was the maximum today. I was really looking forward to maybe be three times in a row on pole but it was not really supposed to be like that. Anyway congratulations to the team because they did an amazing job. The car felt really good from the first moment of Free Practice 1 and I was really happy for Tiago finishing on third because it’s important points of the championship. Of course congrats to Nicky and Volvo as well.

Q:
Turning next to Tiago Monteiro. You’ve obviously missed out on pole position here but you’ve extended your lead in the world championship. Does that make up in some way for not being on pole here?

TM:
It doesn’t make up for pole position because pole is pole and that was my aim to get it. I knew it was going to be tough but we thought we had the car, we were strong and very close to the Volvos all weekend so far. You need to nail a perfect lap, which I didn’t do. It was a good lap but I got a bit greedy in the last sector maybe and didn’t quite make it in the last sector. But it was still an okay lap, P3 is my best qualifying here, even though I’ve had good results I was never strong in qualifying here so much better of course. Norbi was fast all weekend again and it’s great to have two Honda cars on the first two rows. For the weekend it’s quite positive. We’re good on race pace and, again, today’s points are important but small and hopefully tomorrow we can score some good ones.

Q:
Turning next to Alexander Murdzevski Schedvin, Head of Motorsport at Polestar. Another WTCC MAC3 win here, the fifth of the season. What does that say about the performance of your cars and the effectiveness of your operation?

AMS:
In motorsport the closest you can come to a team effort is really the MAC3 concept and it started with a lot of hard work in the Free Practice sessions. That led to our pole position and finally to the MAC3 win, especially to Bebu [Girolami] who is our secret weapon on this track doing a lot of additional work, which is not so evident because everybody is looking at his result alone. But he’s doing a great job for the team as you can see from the job we’ve done today. We’re really happy about the promise of the team and to do well on this track… we really like being in this area with a lot of local effort put in behind the race. Two weeks ago we were with Tiago in Portugal, which was completely amazing and you think you cannot top it. But you come to Termas de Río Hondo after 36 hours in the plane. You wonder why is the world so big but when you finally land you meet all these people who are living and breathing this race weekend. It’s absolutely worth it and we’re happy that Bebu and his team-mates could bring some joy today.

Q:
And just a quick word on Nicky’s pole lap. What were you thinking when you saw him crossing the line on the grass?

AMS:
Well the WTCC organisation has criticised us a little bit for being very Swedish and very holding back on our emotions. Obviously we tried to step it up a little bit. We didn’t really manage to do our original plan of a 360 but it was good enough for TV. No, it was a very exciting last corner and good enough that he had already passed the finish line before he went for some fairway driving. It was extremely exciting and for us, in our second year in the championship, this was the closest qualifying we’ve been through so far so we’re really happy with the pole.

Q:
Turning next to Esteban Guerrieri, fastest WTCC Trophy and for the second year running punching above your weight by making it through to Q3 as a privateer. Are you satisfied with how well you’ve done today?

EG:
From my side it was a quite positive Saturday. When I come to my home race I want to be 100 per cent and when you are in Q3 try to go for pole. Finishing fourth is not the best because I am starting fourth and seventh for tomorrow. But it was the goal to go for everything rather than trying to finish P10. I couldn’t imagine doing that racing here in Termas. Also the car had a good potential, we were P2 this morning and we knew probably the Volvos were very strong with Nicky. For us this race is quite clear to understand how we are standing. It’s quite clear to see Volvo and Honda are really strong and have improved from last year. Our competition last year was Citroën – we were similar on times but this year we were half a second quicker. Even though my times are slower than last year, probably seven or eight tenths but the track is different and I was talking with Norbert that there is a difference in the track somehow. I also didn’t feel good on the braking, my braking performance was not there compared to last year when looking at the data. Overall I’m very thankful to the Campos guy for putting it all together with a very limited budget. We are doing so far so good and we will see tomorrow what happens in the race. Obviously they are battling for the championship and we are there to see what is going on so it will be an interesting one.

Q:
Turning to Néstor finally, despite your best efforts it wasn’t quite enough for Q3. Just explain your lap if you could?

NG:
In my case it was a good lap but not enough to be in Q3. We struggled again with the front grip, we have a vibration as in Portugal. A little bit less but we couldn’t find the problem so we need to push hard. The team did a fantastic job to find the problem but still the problem is there. We don’t know what’s going on but we will try of course to sort the problem for tomorrow and be competitive because we need to be competitive as a team. I need to help the team win both championships so I am really looking forward to finding the problem and being competitive. I know really well the track, everything is fine, I feel the support and I am sure we will find the problem and maybe we can be in the podium tomorrow.