Mikel Azcona, 1st: “The start was the key. My main goal was to keep the first position on the first corner, and from this point it was not easy because Yann was pushing. His pace was brilliant, especially in the last sector, where he was way faster than me. But in the first sector I was faster, so I was trying to maintain the distance. I had to push quite a lot, and I was afraid of the front-left tyre because there were some punctures behind me and I was having to jump over some kerb because Yann was pushing. It was not an easy race. Very hot, very demanding, but I’m happy to bring this pole position and victory to the team, with good points for the championship.”
Yann Ehrlacher, 2nd: “It was a good race. We knew that starting from P2, expecting a win was only possible if something happened to Mikel. He did a very good job. We know that we have a big speed deficit in the straights compared to the Hyundai, so we are very happy to finish this race and score big points again. Let’s see how we will do on the reversed grid.”
Norbert Michelisz, 3rd: “A difficult first lap and a very difficult race, because of the heat and because of the extra weight. It was not easy. I know that from the outside it looks like a steady pace, but we had to do our best to save the front-left tyre to get through the whole race distance. As you could see there were some punctures. The target was to maximise qualifying in terms of points in race one. I think we managed to do that so I’m very happy about it.”
Picture: WSC/Fastclick-AvensImages
