Sebring 12 hours : Reactions of winning Audi drivers.

Tom Kristensen broke his own record for victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring by winning his sixth success, while the driver crew scored a third win overall. Dindo Capello (#2-P1 Audi R18) “It looks easy if you watch the gap in the last 30 minutes. But until they got the problem, it was not easy. It was one of the hardest victories. For sure traffic was a big, big problem. Every lap, every corner, you have to be focused to not make a mistake or make a stupid maneuver. We were careful, we finished with just little scratches on our car, nothing serious. It was one of the keys to our success today. [talking about retirement] “Just talking about retirement doesn’t mean I wont lose focus on the races at hand. Its also good I have teammates that are focusing all of the time. I have to be careful and have to be fast but not take too many risks, I don’t want to destroy their results. We have won so many races together, when we won I was so happy to equalize the results of Tom, then I remembered he was my teammate and he kept one ahead!”

Allan McNish (#2-P1 Audi R18) “We’ve been racing this car for nearly a year, the first time here at Sebring. It adapted very, very well. The car is built for LE Mans, but the rigors here are what makes this track and the race so difficult for the engineers and the drivers. The R18 goes to its retirement after a victory. Sounds like a good way to send it off after 2011. We are looking now at the next race in the World Endurance Championship. We had a great run from start to finish. The work starts here. [during the last stint] I had Howden in my head the last time. All the attack situations. I heard some noises at the beginning of the race, which was more scary than at the end. But we have a very good history of finishing races at Audi. We know going in that we have a chance at victory. As drivers, we can be thankful for that, because there have been times in our careers where that wasn’t the case. [about the closed cockpit car] “The closed car doesn’t have the vision as an open car, the regs are in such a way and with the big tire we use, it takes the down force loads we require. The closed car is apparent it is more efficient. The advantage is the speed in the straights, especially with the small restrictors. It’s difficult to describe what it’s like, we’ve done a lot of testing so we’re used to it. But this race with 60-some cars, and the speed differentials was a great test again for us. We had to be very precise in traffic to make sure we made decisive maneuvers but not take excess risk.”

Tom Kristensen (#2-P1 Audi R18) “I think Sebring being old is part of the heritage. To come here every year, you can think we are a little crazy. The speeds we have between the cars, early on there were more cars driving, but the speed differences now make the challenge. What you see theses days on the track, it makes you want to come here. It was amazing to come here and celebrate the team effort. It was a great car prepared by Team Joest. We are celebrating 60 years here, but we are also celebrating sports car heritage. The next step, is we’ll bring the hybrid car. Later we have the 80 years at Le Mans, it is a very important year, 2012. We are happy to finish first this race of the year. [worring about he 3] “We had some small things to worry about, but the 3 never crossed our mind. We focused more on the keys like keeping the corners right with the way our restrictors are set up. [challenging moments] “It was pretty much every lap. So you have to keep doing this every lap. Lap after lap, you have to make sure that he knows you’re there. The key is to look for the rhythm, you’ll never find it, but looking for it will allow you to find it!”

Photo : SEBRING (FLORIDA, USA), SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, SEBRING 12 HOURS, TUESDAY 13th MARCH 2012, PRIVATE TESTING. Tom Kristensen beat his own record for victories at the Sebring 12 Hours

Photo : JEAN MICHEL LE MEUR

Fonte: http://www.lemans.org