What the Drivers said after the 6 Hours of Monza

Matthieu Vaxiviere, Alpine Team ELF, No.36 Alpine A480-Gibson – Hypercar Winner

“We really enjoyed these battles; it is what we want to see. It was a great race and we had a nice fight today.

“We are all doing the same lap time but not in the same way. But we enjoyed it and the start, we had the Peugeot behind us and it was really nice to have all these Hypercar altogether.

“I think we just did a perfect job with the strategy and the guys in the pit stop as well. It was really, really smart so I'm more than happy about this race and it's really a good victory for all the team and all my teammates.”

Tommy Milner, Corvette Racing, No 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R – LMGTE Pro Winner

“You can see on the crews’ guys faces just underneath the podium how excited they were, and I think how for us at least how unexpected this win was. 

“We could see I think pretty early in the race that the podium was possible but based on the pace of the Ferraris and them going a lot longer than us, on at least one occasion if not two while we were trying to save some fuel, it looked like for us that second place was really kind of it.

“Nick (Tandy) was given a fuel number and was told to push quite hard to kind of close the gap if possible. So, the combination of things there and us putting some pressure on them early on in that last stint made it so that they couldn't save a lot and so we are P1.

“It is super special to be here at Monza for the first time at a  racetrack that I've always wished I could race here so to be here the first time and stand on that podium is quite a story obviously and to see the see the fans and our crew guys just below us was very cool.”

Rui Andrade, Realteam by WRT, No.41 Oreca Gibson - LMP2 Winner

“It is an incredible feeling and the start was decent and it was a solid start and we stayed out of trouble. Then obviously it was a hectic race with lots of full course yellows and safety car which made a big mess but we did a good job in the end especially with the team and the pit stops were spot on.

“It's a very special feeling obviously. I couldn't be here without my sponsors, so it's very important not only to need to get this result we're doing this for a reason. I’m the first Angolan to win a race in WEC, so it is unbelievable for me really.”

Harry Tincknell, No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 – LMGTE Am Winner

“It was slightly chaotic to be honest, in terms of strategy. Seb (Priaulx) found when he got to the Iron Dames car it just wasn't possible to overtake, as it had a straight-line speed advantage, and was also just taking the air away back in the middle sector where we were strong.

“Then, actually it started to kill the tyre. I kind of felt the same thing and I got on to the back of Rahel (Frey) and I just couldn't find a way past. I was on the radio saying, ‘let’s look at strategy options on the car, undercut or overcut, whatever.’

“Then a full course yellow came and it was kind of what do we do now? Do we save the fuel or do we just push to go for 'the splash' and we did two or three laps to save a crazy amount of fuel.

“I said, 'I don't think this is going to work guys' and we quickly switched to just pushing and trying to build a gap, and I think we got the gap from 25 seconds or something that meant that then I come out in the lead. Despite a lot of discussions every single decision we made was the correct one today.”

Steven Thomas, No.45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson – LMP2 Pro/Am Winner

“We did it basically because our crew is as good as they come, and these two guys sitting on either side of me, Rene (Binder) and James (Allen) are so fast.

“We won Le Mans and that was our first victory, so I said 'guys, we just got to keep doing it.'

“Now we've won again and we're leading the championship,  it's a really great feeling because it's such a team effort at Algarve Pro.”