Present:
José María López, Citroën Total WTCC, first position
Sébastien Loeb, Citroën Total WTCC, second position
Norbert Michelisz, Zengő Motorsport, third position and top Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy winner
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, fifth position

Q:
Congratulations José, you’re leading the WTCC standings by 63 points following your sixth victory of the season. It was a dominant performance but how difficult was it out there for you?

JML:
I would like to congratulate Sébastien, Norbi, Tiago and everybody involved in the race. To run here for several laps was very demanding. Maybe from outside it looked easy but there was a lot of things to do, especially the start. We didn’t know how the car was going to react in a different part of the track and I had a bit of doubt about that. But it went in my favour and actually the place where I started was very good, probably better than the outside. Then I pull away but it’s very quick and the heat was there. You can hear and feel the car was suffering on the track because of the bumps and kerbs and everything and sometimes if you relax a bit you can have a mistake and it happened to me a few times. We had a moment with Seb at the chicane on the first lap, it was very demanding, not easy at all and I am very happy. It was very important for me. I would like to enjoy it a bit more but I am already thinking about race two because starting at the back here must be very hard. There is still one race and one battle to go.

Q:
What can you achieve in that second race?

JML:
I don’t know. First you don’t hit the wall and try not to do any contact. What I saw is everything was decided on the start and afterwards it was very difficult to overtake. We will see, I don’t know. I cannot plan for the second race because everyone will think the same. To avoid contact is important, there is not so much space if someone is stuck in the car. My main objective is to finish the race. If I can catch some points it’s okay. I know Yvan is starting at the front and for him it’s a good opportunity to get some points back. We will see. If I can get at least five points it will be perfect.

Q:
How much punishment did the car take out there, particularly with the heavy braking?

JML:
A lot, a lot. It’s the first experience we have here and I was asking myself in the race maybe it’s a bit too much camber and the car will not make it. At the same time you’re doing 220kph, 230kph in the fast corners and you don’t really know how much the car suffers. In the street circuits overall the car suffers much more on the kerbs, the driveshafts, the engine, the heat, the brakes. It’s very hot and I could feel the heat from the car, it’s very demanding.

Q:
Turning to you Sébastien, José mentioned an incident between you two at the first chicane – was there an attempt by you to overtake?

SL:
Not really. Like in Le Castellet when I was behind Ma and hit the tyres, José went a bit wide in the chicane and I was behind him and following his line and I was very wide too and we were really close from the wall. But for me it was not possible to attack him. I was for sure hoping to attack him, to make a better start and to take the lead in the start but as soon as I saw he took a very good start also I couldn’t do anything. For the rest I tried to keep the contact but when you are behind the car you have the slipstream that makes you understeer more so I understood that I could not keep the contact and finally José was a bit faster than me. I just pushed for the race to try to have a good gap to the third. I couldn’t do much more. Keeping concentrated was not easy and the set-up was really hot in the car, really demanding.

Q:
That second place means the gap between you and Yvan Muller in the championship is only 19 points. What does that mean to you?

SL:
That means like José said also Yvan will have a good opportunity to take some good points in the second race. I am starting far behind. We will see. For sure I hope I can finish the weekend by taking some points and we will see what happens in this race. A lot of things can happen in this kind of race in the town between the walls. We will know more this evening.

Q:
Now José’s victory was the 30^th for Citroën in the WTCC and there is probably no better person to talk about Citroën success than you given what you’ve achieved for them in the WTCC. What do you think of the performance of the car given the dominance in such a short space of time?

SL:
It’s really incredible. I was confident that Citroën was able to do a good car because I always had a good car in WRC. I can really trust to the team because I know they know how to build a racing car. They are always concentrated on every detail, they try to do everything to perfection every time. To win so many races after two years is for sure surprising and impressive and I just say congratulations to the team for the job they did.

Q:
Turning to Norbi, third place, top Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy points and the leading Honda finisher. How pleased are you with that performance?

NM:
Of course I am quite happy. From the first moment I fell in love with this circuit. Not just because of the layout but also because of the atmosphere. After qualifying, finishing fourth, I knew there was a chance to get a podium finish. The key moment was the start. I knew that Hugo if he stays in front after the start it will be quite difficult for me because we have a better race performance compared to the Chevrolets or the LADAs but it’s very difficult to overtake on a street circuit. I focused a lot. I had a really good standing start. I also Tiago and Gabriele were able to overtake Hugo and from that moment I really concentrated on not doing any mistakes during the race. It was quite difficult like José and Seb said because of the heat, the car was really suffering so I just tried to focus and not relaxed too much.

Q:
When you say the car was really suffering, what exactly is it experiencing?

NM:
You have a lot of slow corners where you have to accelerate and the wheelspin on the chicane after the fast part you feel the tyres are getting a big punishment and also in the second part of the race you have a very fast section between Turns 8, 9 and 10 and then the amount of understeer increased from lap to lap. The tyres on my car suffered the most compared to the other cars.

Q:
And what about you, how hot was it inside the car after the first race?

NM:
After the punishment we had in Argentina it’s not really a big problem because there the temperature was four or five degrees even more than compared to here. The circuit is more demanding I would say so it was quite similar to Argentina, quite tough.

Q:
A lot of people wanted to see you a bit to the other side of the podium here today but still fifth place is an excellent achievement at a very tough circuit. Tell us about that race for you Tiago?

TM:
Well done to everybody here and good job because as José said it was very difficult for everybody. It’s a very demanding track. Most of the track is fun to drive but it’s really demanding for the car and the driver. I’ve heard so many stories about this track and now I can understand why everybody is so excited about it. For me, as for everybody, the start was crucial, a good start but of course very narrow. I could gain one position but that was it and after that I tried to push hard on the first lap to see the rhythm of everybody but obviously very narrow and very difficult to overtake. Very quickly you get into a certain rhythm and try to think about the tyres because it’s really demanding on the tyres, the dampers really struggle, it’s hard and bumpy braking on the kerbs. It’s tough for everybody for sure. There was not much to do really after the qualifying but I’m happy with the fifth position and the points we scored today. Now we need to focus on the second race.

Q:
Can you improve the car set-up for the second race – is there anything you’ve learned from this race that you can carry over into race two?

TM:
Very much. It’s the first time we do so many laps on those tyres especially with the heat we have around so I have learned a lot and I have already discussed with my engineers. We will be changing quite a few things, it’s the same for everybody. We’re discovering everything here, how the grip level increases and how the car behaves during the race. I will make some changes to try to fine-tune even better my car.

Q:
Normally we would have the second race right after the first but we’ve got a bit of a gap because of the live coverage of the Tour de France on Eurosport, what will you be doing now – do you get a chance to relax or is it all just work, work, work for you?

TM:
Unfortunately not! I think it’s been done on purpose like this so we can do more activities. There are so many people here and they deserve it. The fans have been amazing this whole week. The more activities we do the more tired we are and we have to prepare for the race. But without the fans we can’t race. We’re here for them and we give them a good show. I can only thank their amazing support through the week. I’m going to be busy for the next few hours for sure.