Rinaldo Capello (Infineon Audi R8 #2)
“Of course, our victory is overshadowed by Emanuele´s accident. It would
have been an exciting fight until the very end. Today the track was very
slippery and coming through traffic was the deciding factor. This time I was
a little bit more lucky, I was able to take the lead after a few laps and to
defend it until the end of my stint. Depending on the traffic, I could move
away from Frank or he closed in on me. It was a difficult race.”
Tom Kristensen (Infineon Audi R8 #2)
“Concerning the set up we kept what we had yesterday in qualifying and it
proved to be the right decision. It was a hard race especially to keep the gap
to Emanuele. He had bad luck with the accident and I am really happy that
he is okay. In the race you couldn’t keep any rhythm because of all the traffic.
After I did the quickest lap time I knew I could respond in case it would
become really close. In the end I had a very good and tough fight with
Johnny right to the limit. The team told me on the radio that they would like
to be one lap in front in case another yellow comes. That was not easy, but
it worked out. Johnny went right to the edge. After the race we both said:
Great racing!”
Frank Biela (Infineon Audi R8 #1)
“Our series of bad luck continues. The car is good, the team works
superbly, at the moment we simply have no luck. Thank god Emanuele is
okay, that´s the most important thing. We had a little oversteer today,
presumably because it was hotter than during the previous days. Despite
that we were fast. I just had an unlucky situation one time in traffic, that´s
why Dindo was able to pass me.”
Emanuele Pirro (Infineon Audi R8 #1)
“The accident happened just before my second scheduled pitstop. I wanted
to lose as little time as possibile on my way to the pits. I came on the dirty
line and crashed into the tyre wall. It was a heavy impact, but I am okay.”
Johnny Herbert (ADT Champion Audi R8 #38)
“We weren´t as competitive as we were hoping. But second place is a good
result for Champion Racing. Of course it is unfortunate with Emanuele, but
it is the way it goes sometimes. It has become more difficult for me in the
championship with Tom and Dindo winning.”
Stefan Johansson (ADT Champion Audi R8 #38)
“We have to be happy with second under this circumstances. We had a
fairly eventful day. We tried to play strategy when we stopped earlier for
refuelling hoping to fall in the right window which we did not. Then Johnny
got a stop-and-go. But anyway we did not have the speed to match the
´works´ cars so second place is acceptable.“
Ralf Jüttner, Technical Director Team Audi Sport North America
“Today the most important thing is that nothing serious happened to
Emanuele, the rest is irrelevant. This was quite a fright. There were no
television pictures, but the impact must have been very hard. Until the
accident it had been a great race. Our cars were absolutely equal and
Cadillac was also able to stay close to us for quite a long time.”
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Sport
“Again this year Mosport was the race which cannot go without an accident.
This time it happend to Emanuele. After the first medical check by the race
doctors I had the chance to talk to Emanuele. He told me he is quite okay
and is sorry that he had this accident. Mosport once again offered mixed
fortune for us, on one hand our two ‘works’ Audi R8 sportscars were in the
lead until the accident, on the other hand the bad luck because of
Emanuele’s accident. In the end we managed the victory, our customer
team Champion caught second place and Cadillac proved that we always
have to consider them serious competitors.”
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