What the Drivers Said… Hyperpole Press Conference
The pole position holders for the Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo are Kamui Kobayashi, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing, for the Hypercar category and Sarah Bovy, #85 Iron Dames, will head the LMGT3 grid.
HYPERCAR: KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Q: Kamui, First pole position of the season and the 24th front row lockout for Toyota, a terrific record for the team. Tell us about that lap because it was all about tyre strategy and getting the best out of your Michelin tyres. Was that the crucial element in getting this lap for you today?
HYPERCAR: KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Q: Kamui, First pole position of the season and the 24th front row lockout for Toyota, a terrific record for the team. Tell us about that lap because it was all about tyre strategy and getting the best out of your Michelin tyres. Was that the crucial element in getting this lap for you today?
Kamui Kobayashi: “It was a challenge to how we built up the tyre speeds. It's been quite cold in qualifying and obviously very difficult to get temperature in the tyres. We tried to build the temperature as much as we can. My first set of tyres, which is before Hyperpole, didn’t have enough temperature, but in the Hyperpole, I was allowed to, to do my best lap in one lap earlier, than the qualifying. So that was the main success for the pole position. Of course, the car has been amazing through this week. I think we take everything out of it and it's a phenomenal job from the team.”
Q: You've got experience of Interlagos, mainly in Formula One, but in terms of racing in sports cars, what is it about this place that makes it such a challenge for you as a driver?
KK: “I think the first thing that I can say is Interlagos is quite a small track for endurance races, because we have quite a lot of cars on the track. During practice we see a lot of marbles on the track, which makes it narrower than what you expect. With the marbles you cannot go wider. I think that's challenging but everybody has the same situation.
“The six-hour race is a long time for this short track, because it is quite a lot of laps per stint. I think we will have a lot of drama, but hopefully, we're going to have a smooth race.”
Q: It’s quite unusually cold here at Interlagos. Is that going to help or hinder? Is there a bit of bit of both in terms of how you switch the tyres on tomorrow?
KK: “I think the track temperatures is similar for everybody. So, if we are struggling, I think everybody is struggling as well. No mistake is key, because it’s so hard to overtake on this track, because I think the marbles will make it difficult because I feel I can drive only one line. So, obviously, in the race when you are overtaking it is going to make it challenging for everyone.”
LMGT3: SARAH BOVY
Q: Sarah, congratulations on your second pole position of the season, the eighth for the Iron Dames. I guess there's an extra element of satisfaction doing it at such a famous track as this?
Sarah Bovy: “Yes, it's legendary. I mean Interlagos; I've seen images of the circuit. Of course, recently with Formula One, but I'm a big fan of Ayrton Senna. I’ve seen all the archives of him winning here and everything.
“Coming here and doing a good qualifying lap it's a little bit of an homage to one of my idols. So, yes, it's feels very special, and I will remember it forever.
“Obviously, it's a good position to start the race for tomorrow and that was also important. Now I really hope we can make a solid race; the competition is going to be very strong. I don't even think that half of the job is done. I really think that tomorrow we will have to fight, but we are ready for it.”
Q: The sectors are very different, they're quite unique. If this is the car feel stronger in one particular sector, or are you pretty consistent throughout?
SB: “I haven't seen the sector split, so I don't know exactly if we were faster everywhere or not. I think we have a good balance in general, I think we found something. The thing is that the grip in general is a bit low and still the deg is quite high. So, it's not really like the track configuration, it's more like the grip level that is changing, and you need to be to adapt, lap after lap. That's one of my strengths, so I was I was happy that today I could use it to go and get that position. But I hope tomorrow during the race, I can do the same on the longer stints.”
Q: The temperature is going to be a little bit higher tomorrow, which is going to complicate things, I guess because this is going be really critical?
“I think that's the beauty of it, isn't it? We have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow. Like with the rain in FP1, we don't have so many laps on the tyres and you don't really know if you can bring the tyres to the end of their life, if you should be conservative, if you can push or not.
“So, as I'm taking the first stint, we're going to see what happens, But I think that's one of our strengths. We always prepare for the race more than the qualifying, so I know that Michelle and Rahel have really worked on the long stint, and they were really finding some solutions so that we can have a competitive car on the most consistent level. I hope that even with the high temperature it's going to be okay, but it's going to be the same for everybody anyway.”
