Sao Paulo post race press conference: what the winners said

Hypercar: Brendon Hartley

no8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010-Hybrid
“So, this was the first time taking the race start for a long time.  I think Seb has done every single one since I've been in the team. I did lock up into Turn One, but I decided to go straight. I didn't want to have a mix up with Mike (Conway) starting on the front row.  Then it was very hard with time management.  We decided to do the double stint directly; try and get it out of the way.

“But car #7 was flying and they had less deg. I hit a wall, or fell over the cliff, so to speak and I was losing two or three seconds per lap on the second stint.  We called in early but that was the idea to try and get rid of that time, but we were definitely a bit slower than car #7 today. 

“Sorry for them that they had the issue, but I'm really happy that we had a trouble-free race. We made no mistakes; we've done a really good job to bring it home in first place. It hasn't been the most straight forward start to the season for us, particularly after the Le Mans finishing fifth when we felt we had a good chance to win.

“So, it feels great and for the constructor’s championship, it's also a very good.” 

Hypercar: Ryo Hirakawa

no8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010-Hybrid

“It was not an easy race. We were suffering quite a lot with the tyre deg. So, I needed to manage the tyres. I had a chance to change the tyre on the right-hand side for the second stint, but I needed to manage the tyres quite a lot.

“I was very happy that I could extend the gap to the car behind. I think I did I did an okay job. This was our first victory of the year, so happy for that.”

Hypercar: Sebastien Buemi

no8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010-Hybrid

“First of all, thanks to my teammates for the good job. Yesterday was a bit of a special day in qualifying, I didn't do qualifying for such a long time and today I finished the race, which was kind of nice. They’d done most of the hard job before.

“The tyre degradation was really odd and as I was in the lead, I was trying to look after the tyres as I was a bit concerned of a Safety Car, and then I thought I'm not going to use all the life of the tyres in case of a Safety Car. So, I tried to look after them, just to make sure in case of a Safety Car we would still have good tyres to go to the end and fight the other guys.

“Luckily, we just had the Full Course Yellow, which obviously we maintained the lead and then I gave everything in the last few laps. But at the end of the day, I'm really proud that we finally won our first race of the season. I think Car #7 was obviously extremely fast today and it's a shame for them not to score more points. 

“Now we go to a different track, a track we've never been with the Hypercar. So, I can't wait to be in Austin and it's going to be hot, so I guess the tyre degradation with be the same.”

LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin 

no92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 

“We had a very good qualification. We were happy with P2 as Sarah (Bovy) was too quick for us. Our tactic was very clear as our main competitors in the championship were behind us.  At the start it was important to stay away from other cars because if there was an incident at the start it would have resulted in contact with the barriers.  We maintained our P2 position.  The second step was to take new tyres on the right side only

“I could drive a bit more committed, but it was not good for tyre degradation, so we were happy with the seven second gap.  After 60 minutes of second stint, I could see which corners I was quicker than Sarah (Bovy) and it was the turns 8-9-10 section and I passed exactly the section where we had the advantage.”

LMGT3: Joel Sturm 

no92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 

“For me it was pretty good as I found a rhythm to manage the tyres and, in the end, I think I did it quite okay. Compared to the other cars we were setting quite a good pace.  Of course, the Aston Martin at the end was really quick, but in my stint I think I did quite okay.

“I'm really happy for the whole team, especially after Le Mans having the heart break which was not easy for everyone.  So, I think this is a great way to come back” 

LMGT3: Klaus Bachler 

no92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 

“It was a hard stint to be honest. I had two and a half stints, and the Aston Martin was really quick. I gave everything and I tried to manage the tyres as well as possible. I saved them a bit in the beginning, and I hoped the Aston was losing speed at the end of the stint, but that was not really happening.

“I know we have such a great team behind us so I knew when they stopped for the last time that we had good chance to win because the team is really good in in the tyre change strategy.

“This was the hardest race this season for me, and I gave everything and I'm really happy and proud of the team that we manage to come back. We are now leading in the championship again.”