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Radio Le Mans Interviews - 22:00-00:00 Olivier Panis - Team ORECA-Matmut # 6 "Yes, it's true that I hit a cat. I saw him but couldn't do anything and hit him; I think he died. The car is undamaged and the team is cleaning it up at the moment. "It's really nice to be here. The circuit is pretty fast in the dry and I'm looking forward to getting back into the car later on." Ben Devlin - Bruichladdich Radical #26 "So far, we've just been going through the drivers and getting everyone qualified. We've been checking a few things and getting some installation laps in, in the first session. Gunnar is in the car at the moment; he hasn't had much running in the car yet, but is doing well. It should be good." Darren Turner - Aston Martin Racing #009 "It's okay at the moment. I know some other teams are putting faster times in, but we're just working through the tyre plan - there's no panic just yet. It's nice to have the glory of pole in qualifying, but last year we qualified way down but still came through; so it's not that important. "The priority is to get the balance sorted and then if there's time left in the session, we may go for a quicker one." Christian Fittipaldi - Team Modena #59 "We've certainly had our share of problems today. We stopped early in the first session and now we've got an engine problem that's stopped the car out on track. Hopefully, we'll get our bad luck out of the way before the race - last year, it was the other way round. It's very frustrating, but let's turn the page and look forward to tomorrow." Stefan Mucke - Charouz Racing Lola #10 "We had downshifting problems with the gearbox, but evrything is fine now; the team has fixed it. Hopefully, we can now go quicker in the later session. We just want to find a set up for the race and don't care about lap times at the moment." Ray Mallock - RML "We're still trying to figure out what happened (with Andy Wallace's crash). Unfortunately, all the data was lost from the data logger. We've replaced a lot of parts in the last hour and a half - left hand suspension etc. - but Tommy's just been out for a lap and has reported back that the car feels fine. The guys have done a great job turning things around so quickly." Warren Hughes - Embassy WF01 #45 "Not too bad so far. The boys on the team have worked very hard since the test day. They were prepared for every eventuality and had things covered in case the worst happened; and it did. Everything is calm at the moment and things are running to plan. "The Porsche Spyders are an unknown quantity in a 24 hour race, so it may still be a case of a result based on reliability for the class. We've got a mega team; the preparation is fantastic and we've got a chance to make it to the end if we get the rub of the green." Jonny Kane - Embassy WF01 #45 "I went out on qualifiers at the start of the second session and thought that I'd go quicker on the second set; but I hit traffic and lost the best of them. P5 is pretty respectable first time out and the car has run faultlessly up till now." John Neilsen - Team Essex Porsche Spyder # 31 "Yes, we are smiling. the first night pracrice always seem to be dramatic every year - crashes, oil, etc. - but it's Le Mans; that's what it is. "Porsche is about sportscars and this is sportscars at its best. It's a great car to drive; not only quick, but hopefully reliable too." |