Thed Björk (winner): “It feels very good to be here, so a big thank you to my competitors and congratulations also. With what Mikel (Azcona) did yesterday I managed to beat him with just two hundredths, and he has more kilos in his car, so I think that was the winning point today; that I could start just in front of him. Big respect also to Mikel because he is a good fighter, but he gave me the respect today, so I am happy with where I am sitting and to win. But as Norbie (Michelisz) said, tomorrow is a new day, and he´s leading the standings and I am starting down in P10. But it´s nice to have a victory in Macau. I know it´s not over yet but I am very happy.”
Norbert Michelisz (2nd): “I need to start with two things. Firstly, thank you very much to my teammate Mikel and also congratulations to Thed. My start was good, and I could immediately pass Yann; and this was very important. Because being behind Mikel made it possible to apply one of the strategies we had agreed in case of different scenarios. I was hoping for him to catch Thed… but in the end we scored very good points for the Driver´s championship. Here in Macau is never easy. You can do everything right and you can still get unlucky, so I don’t think it´s time to think about points in the championship. I think I need to stay focused, and we also need to improve the car a bit because today I was pushing but I felt that Thed had the edge on me.”
Mikel Azcona (3rd): “I am happy with my start, as I did my best on the launch. I could not fight against Thed, as he was stronger than me, but I tried my best and then after the red flag I had Norbie and Yann behind me, so I was thinking of the championship and we swapped positions. The strategy worked perfectly and anyway I am happy for this podium despite the extra 30 kilos on this challenging track.”
Martin Cao Hong Wei (1st in TCR China): “Luckily I was able to avoid the Guerrieri and Ehrlacher as they went wide into T1. Macau is Macau, it’s a big roulette. Pure lap time wise I was a bit better than before today, and now I’m ten points in front in the TCR China championship, so tomorrow I just need to stay on the track and hopefully we can secure the championship. What’s good is I’m starting at the front row of Sunday’s race, but not so good is that behind me there are a lot of World Tour drivers who are not in the championship fight, so they have more freedom to play. I don’t have that privilege, so I have to be careful and manage my pace.”
Zhang Zhen Dong (1st in TCR Asia): “I was very lucky on the first lap as everyone crashed very heavily and I was very lucky and passed there. After the red flag, I talked with the guys around me and told them I just want to finish the race, I don’t want to attack you. I’m sorry about what happened to Max (Hart), but this is Macau… Tomorrow, I hope I can make another magic job for the team, as last year we were almost 1-2-3 here, let’s see what we can do.”
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
