Bob Neville: Team Principal, RJN Nissan:
“I don’t think we can win, no. I know that we have a good car, obviously, because we’ve won already this season. And of course the car was perfectly reliable over 12 hours at Bathurst, but the Audis are very strong here. The BMW is strong as well. I think the race will be between Audi and BMW, but if we can finish in the top six, then I will be really happy with that. The trouble is that you know that you can lose half a lap with the safety car, but because Audi and BMW have more cars than we do, then they won’t ever be disadvantaged.
“The hardest thing at Spa is keeping out of trouble. Looking down the entry list I think it will be better this year, but you still need drivers who can keep their wits about them and not get involved in anything. Having a clean run is the most important thing.”
Guy Smith: Bentley Team M-Sport:
“Spa is a different kind of race, strategically, because of the 65-minute rule. You still have to save fuel as much as you can when you’re out there, because if you can save fuel it makes a big difference to the time you spend in the pits.
“The other thing is to work out when you want to pit in order to be in the best possible position at six and 12 hours into the race, because you get points according to the car’s position at those times. We’re currently only a point behind the Nissan guys in the drivers’ championship, so we need to make sure we don’t make a pit stop just before six hours or 12 hours have elapsed!
“The car should be reliable, but we’re not as quick as we’d like to be. But it’s such a long race – we just have to go out there and drive; do the best we can and see where we end up after 24 hours.”
Joe Osborne: 888 BMW:
“We’ve got a new engine and gearbox in the car which we ran in during the Bronze Test on Tuesday and a new race engineer, too. Everyone ups their game for Spa so you need to do something to keep in touch. We’re looking pretty good.”
Mark Lemmer: Team Principal, Barwell:(Team Russia & Ecurie Ecosse BMWs):
“It’s been a pretty frantic week for us after the British GT round here, getting back to the workshop and fully rebuilding the cars. Pro-Am’s not getting any easier, that’s for sure, especially with all the factory drivers popping up in the Ferraris for this race.”
Yelmer Buurman: Black Falcon Mercedes:
“It’s looking pretty good – if we have a clean run and everything goes well I think we can aim for the top five, but probably not more than that.”
Matt Griffin: AF Corse Ferrari:
“We have Davide Rigon in the car for this race along with the two Bronzes, which is good for driving strategy.”
Olivier Pla: RJN Nissan:
“It’s my first time in the GT3 after five laps at the test day and it’s definitely different to what I’m used to. The track is always crowded and there are drivers of many different levels, but it’s okay.”
Nick Catsburg: Marc VDS BMW:
“I’m happy, the car feels good. It’s hard to see where people are really – one person does a 2:20, then everyone else does. I’m not sure if the new Audi will be hugely quicker – they always play this game – and in fact the old one could be faster.”
Rob Bell: Von Ryan McLaren:
“It’s great to be here again, the race is mega, it continues to get bigger it seems. The car ran well at the test from what I hear, but I wasn’t driving it. I think we’ll be in the mix, the reliability of the car will be key, but you never know. The biggest thing for me is the Balance of Performance – it hasn’t swung in our favour. The old-spec Audi R8 has been given a restrictor break, which is strange considering it seems to win all the time in the Sprint Series still. The 650 is becoming such a good car and the race at Silverstone showed that. You know you’ve got a good car when you manage to win with only two of them on the grid in a field of 60.”
Alvaro Parente: Von Ryan McLaren:
“The track in the first free practice session was so green, especially compared to the test day. It’ll get a lot faster as the event goes on, so we’re trying to improve our setup so we’re ready for some fast laps.”
Christophe Bouchut: GT Russian Team Mercedes:
“It was my first laps in the car today. We still have some setup work to do before we’ll be happy.”
Jean-Karl Vernay: WRT Audi:
“The Balance of Performance is better for us now so I think we can do well and fight at the front. I did two laps on new tyres, but the traffic always makes it difficult.”
Michael Lyons: Kessel Ferrari
“We’ve added Andrea Piccini to the car for this race. There were a couple of candidates, but the team felt he’d be the most solid choice as a former overall winner of the race. He was in the car during first practice, I’ll go in for the second session and we’ll decide who does qualifying.”
SE, SK & PT
