ETCC: Magny-Cours: Saturday qualifying quotes

Jorg MÜLLER -- BMW Team Deutschland, pole position
"The gearbox problem is not that bad here. In Valencia we were always between second and third gears, and we had big problems with acceleration between the corners. It's a lot better here. The weight handicap helps as well. Two Alfa Romeos are on 40 kilos, and I'm just on ten. In Valencia, I was on forty and they were on zero, so that's a difference of about 70 kilos! Once you're on pole, you want to win the race, but this will mean a lot of weight for Hockenheim, which is one of my home races, and I would like to win there as well. It's gonna be tactics over the whole season, as the ETCC will be decided only at the end of the season, like last year! For tomorrow, I expect to have tougher races than last year, when I claimed two almost easy victories."

Dirk MÜLLER -- BMW Team Deutschland, 2nd
"This is a great result for BMW Team Deutschland. One-two is really good for the motivation. It was quite a close session, and it was impressive how times went down during the course of the qualifying. I was struggling a little bit with both, the tyres and the car set up. I didn't get much speed from the new tyres. It was not a big step from free practice to qualifying. We need to find out the reason for that. I'm looking forward to the races tomorrow. I think we're going to have a good car. The grip level of the track is not as high as in Valencia, and maybe the Alfas have problems with that, in addition to the ballast. I hope that Jorg and I will manage to avoid having a collision at the start. We're experienced enough not to crash into each other, and we really need to collect points."

Frank DIEFENBACHER -- SEAT Sport, 3rd
"It looked very good for us the whole weekend. The car was very good even when we started in the wet conditions. I'm really looking forward to the races. We had some troubles with the shift mechanism, also in the third lap, which was my fastest, I had a problem with upshifting from first to second, and from second to third out the Adelaide hairpin. I stuck into the limiter two times, so it was my mistake. But anyway, we're very happy with third position which is the best result for SEAT in the ETCC so far, and we hope to do even better in the races."

Gabriele TARQUINI -- AutoDelta Squadra Corse, 7th
"Everybody was concerned about Alfa's excessive power after Valencia, and we just slowed down. It was our choice-- To be serious, obviously after our results in Spain everybody is asking what happened today. Valencia was a special occasion: the track suits our car very well and all the fastest BMWs had ballast onboard, while we did not. Here it is exactly the opposite: we are overloaded, they are lighter and the track suits them better, as we saw last year. The 40 kg make a lot of difference, and the more the car is competitive, the bigger is this difference. I expected to be behind them, maybe not so much. Tomorrow we have to adopt a different strategy: aiming to score as many points as possible. Maybe Augusto (Farfus), who has only 10 extra kilos, may threaten the BMW guys for the points positions."

Michele BARTYAN -- Oregon Team, 10th
"I am really pleased with today's result. I could not aim for any better: I' m in the top-ten overall, on pole position in the Independents Trophy, and my best time is very close to those of the AutoDelta drivers. This means that we have worked well, and now let's see if we manage to do a couple of good races. The previous races were not so lucky for me, and therefore I'm obsessed by which tactic I should adopt tomorrow. Should I attack to break into the point positions, or keep a conservative pace to finish both races? I have to be clever and stay off the incidents. My goal is to finish the first race in the top-eight, and start the second ahead."

Kurt MOLLEKENS -- BMW Team Belgium-Luxembourg, 13th
"I'm bit disappointed with the result. I hoped to be inside or at least around the top ten. I did it on the first set of tyres, setting a time for ninth position, and I was quite satisfied with that. I was hoping to find another three or four tenths on the second set, which would be normal, since it's my first run on the new tyres. But I didn't have the same grip, and I don't know what was wrong. So I couldn't set the time I hoped for. It would have been better to be ninth or tenth because from there you have a chance to get inside the top eight, starting from the front in the second race. But it will be very hard to achieve that from thirteenth."

Jordi GENE - SEAT Sport, 15th
"After I topped the first practice session this morning, I'm disappointed with my qualifying result. I don't know why I had such little grip; maybe it was something to do with going off earlier in the day. Our priority now is to find and fix the problem. After my pace this morning and Frank's performance in qualifying, we could have had all three cars well up the grid. Still, tomorrow is another day!"

Jan MAGNUSSEN -- Peugeot Sport Engineering, 16th
"It was a little bit better than Valencia. The position has only improved a little, but the lap time is a lot better. This will be the last meeting for us with the three-door car, and we are confident that the four-door car is a better-built car, which should enable us to make another step forward. We're much comfortable with the tyres, now that we know them better. We gained what we thought we would gain, and we are where we thought we were going to be. The plan for tomorrow is to attack as much as I can, which is normal when you have to start from the 16th position."

Stefano FINI -- JAS Motorsport team-manager
"Obviously we could not aim for any better than the 17th position we have achieved today, as the Accord is on its first race meeting after we shook it down briefly in Adria. We are currently two second off the pole position, which is not so bad for a brand new car. We have some teething problems, which have to be solved, as it was expected. The car has good potential, and is not suffering from any technical problems; it only needs a good set-up. Today it was a positive day for us, as the car ran regularly and we have learnt a lot."

Sebastian GRUNERT -- RS-Line Rotpukt Sport, 22nd
"My position is not so good. Honestly I expected something more than being in twenty-second place! We had a problem with the gearbox. I hope that I can make a good start in the race and recovering a few positions. It's a new track for me, I've never driven here before, but I like the it, and the car is steadily improving."

-fia/etcc-