Frank Biela (Infineon Audi R8 #1)
“Before qualifying I had quite a lot of pressure, on one hand because I
needed the point for the championship, and on the other hand because I
had to defend a series. I could manage both, five pole positions out of five
qualifying sessions I drove. The race tomorrow will be difficult, but the most
important thing is to finish the race because we still have a chance in the
championship. Although especially on this race track something can
happen on every lap and at each corner."
Emanuele Pirro (Infineon Audi R8 #1)
“Congratulations to Frank and to Dindo. Their times are almost the same. It
really was an incredible qualifying session on a very difficult racetrack and
under difficult conditions. This is a different race weekend for us - we share
the event with the ChampCar Series. So far we compare very well with
them. We proved that our speed is not much slower than the speed of the
ChampCars.”
Rinaldo Capello (Infineon Audi R8 #2)
“In the second last lap I was four tenths faster than on my fastest lap.
Unfortunately there was a slower car in front of me in the final corner. This
year I simply had no luck in qualifying winning not even one pole position.
Especially here I needed the extra point for the pole position because it
was my last chance to close up to Tom in the championship.”
Tom Kristensen (Infineon Audi R8 #2)
“Miami is a great city with a lot of love for life. It´s fantastic to have a race
here despite the track not being quite perfect yet. It is very narrow and
slippery. But the people did a great job in a very short time. Because of the
big heat the race will be very hard for the car, especially for the brakes and
the engine. It will be also tough for the drivers and you may not make any
mistakes.”
Johnny Herbert (ADT Champion Audi R8 #38)
“I am happy with the qualifying result. I did not really expect to beat the
‘works’ cars. We pushed them and to be seven tenths behind them is not
bad. For the race, the positions in qualifying are totally irrelevant. The traffic
will be a big nightmare. It´s going to be a very, very hard race.”
Stefan Johansson (ADT Champion Audi R8 #38)
“This is the most difficult track I have ever experienced. Because of the low
speed you get stuck behind other cars for a much longer. In practice I did
not have a single clear lap. The track is too narrow to pass in many places.
Because of that, the race will be very exciting and hectic and there will be
many incidents.”
Ralf Jüttner, Technical Director Team Audi Sport North America
”Qualifying was a foretaste for tomorrow´s race. Frank and Dindo had an
exciting fight which was decided by just nine thousands of a second. This
track is extremely difficult. The tarmac is changing all the time, one section
is especially slippery. Despite that, our cars worked well here from the very
beginning.”
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Sport
“This was an exciting qualifying with a great result. We are almost as fast
as the ChampCars which shows that the R8 is working very well here and
that our drivers do a good job. However, Dindo and Frank slightly touched
the wall damaging their cars. This may not happen in the race. It will be
decisive to do 2:45 hrs without mistakes and without big risks. But if you
are too careful, you can loose five, six seconds in one single lap.”
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