Round 7 - Silverstone - Driver quotes

James Thompson – VX Racing – 1st place

Can anybody stop this man from keeping his title? Today's win for James was flawless.

You had it easy there, didn't you?

Yes, but I'll take it as it comes. We've all had problems; we've all lost races because of those problems before.

But you have to give credit to out engine builders, Sodemo, because that was our Achilles heel last year, and even though some people may have been quicker than us in the race, you've got to make it to the finish line!

Yvan Muller – VX Racing – 2nd place

A good second, you're only a few points behind James. Are you still in the Championship?

Yes, it was a good result for me this weekend. I was not too far behind, there was not a big gap from me to the leaders. Considering the weight penalty I had on the car I think it was a good result. I didn't expect better before the race to be honest.

Colin Turkington – MG Sport and Racing – 3rd place

Your first podium of the year. It's been a long time coming.

It's great! We haven't had the best start to the situation – we've had good pace in the race, good qualifying but it just hasn't worked out. It feels fantastic now to get on the podium for MG.

Can you tell us what happened at the end with Warren: he slowed and you caught him up and then all of a sudden you came through on your own.

I'm not sure. He seemed to have a problem round at Luffield, I was sorry to see him pull over to the side but I'm glad I got to the finish!

If he hadn't pulled over then would you have tried to pass him?

That's a difficult question. I'd have to assess how his car was going compared to mine, but we'd have to get both cars to the finish.

Paul O'Neill – VX Racing – 7th place

Paul O'Neill at Silverstone After four third places in a row, it was down to earth for Paul O'Neill as his Astra struggled to adapt to the Northamptonshire circuit. On his way to plough through the data in the hope of finding out why, Paul spoke to us.

I know you're just off to look through the data but do you have any idea what the problem was?

Don't know! There was something wrong with it yesterday in qualifying – the set- up sheet was wrong and there were different things on the car that shouldn't have been on it. I struggle with different set-ups so I need my own, James and Yvan can drive with anything they want.

In the race everyone was just passing me in a straight line, I just couldn't get the power down. You'd expect that car to just get on with it and fly off but we really struggled. I think I should have been up there but I wasn't. We had a few handling problems yesterday, hopefully we'll get them sorted out for the second race.

We'll have a nice light car for the second race but my confidence is blown because I don't know if it's the car or if it's me. I'm hoping it's the car but if we don't find anything it'll be playing with my head! It's annoying when you see your team mates fly off into the distance when usually you're in front of at least one of them. But the team will sort it out!

Dan Eaves – Team Halfords - DNF

What do you have to do to get some luck this year?

I don't know! Everything seems to go wrong just at the wrong moment. We were on to a good finish there, first and second in the independents, and it all went to the dogs.

A driveshaft pulled out once, then it popped back in somehow. But then it pulled out again and that was that. It's an easy fix but we don't know why it happened. It's not really an issue of fixing it, but finding out why it happens.

David Leslie – Team PSP – DNF

Leslie and Reid make contact in the pits With the Protons not on the pace so far this year, every mile of running is precious as the team searches for a better set up. But for David Leslie, his race was short lived after a pit lane incident saw MG's Anthony Reid released by his team at the worst possible moment...

After that pit stop I guess you're not a happy bunny? What exactly happened?

I was coming into the pits and as I turned in an MG [Anthony Reid] pulled out and drove into me, unfortunately he broke my steering and took me out of the race.

People make mistakes; they make mistakes all the time. These things happen, I don't believe anyone's perfect. All you can do is penalise them so it sharpens their attention and they don't make the same mistake again. But it's nothing that can't be fixed, the team's working on it now.

Before that you'd already sustained some damage early in the race.

That was from Tom Chilton. He decided to dive up the inside and give me a bit of a wallop.

Matt Neal – Honda Racing – DNF

Touted as the man most likely to take the fight to Vauxhall, Matt's season has been dogged by bad luck. It was no better today, as Matt saw a healthy lead turn into a non-finish just 4 laps from the end.

That was your race: what happened?

We had a drama with the PI [data logging] on the grid and I had no instrumentation at all, no rev counter, no nothing. I think I was living on borrowed time, and then it just stopped. That's about it really!

At least this afternoon you'll start nice and light. Is there any strategy you can try to cut your way through the field?

I'll be at the back though, that's the problem. Oh but we're going to be pushing! I'm gonna be there! The car suits me, but to be honest I have no idea what pace we were doing because I had no instrumentation. I thought we could have had two wins today, I really did.

Is the Championship still a realistic prospect?

If we'd have won that one then I think yes, but now… I've got more chance of getting on the next space shuttle, haven't I?

Gareth Howell – GA Motorsport – 9th place

Welcome back! A bit of a mixed weekend so far – good qualifying, but it all went a bit wrong in the race.

Thanks! Yes, I was very pleased with qualifying, only a couple of tenths off the top five. I'm still getting used to the car, even in the race. I got off the line well, had some good battles with Gavin, Anthony Reid, Tom Chilton – although he gave me a bit of a side swipe so let's not talk about that!

Then, completely my fault, I cocked up at the pit stop. I didn't have my foot on the brake for long enough. I forgot that you really should have your foot on the pedal until the car hits the floor. By the time I shuffled my feet around, we hit the floor and I stalled the bloody car! It probably looked like it was the team's fault but it was nothing to do with them: the wheel was spinning so they couldn't get the tyre on.

How does it feel to be back?

It's awesome! I'm really really pleased. I hope I can be here for the rest of the year but I want to get this weekend out of the way first. It's in the hands of the gods at the moment – well, the money people – but we'll see if we can get out again for the next rounds.

Rob Collard – Collard Racing – DNF

Rob Collard in practice Rob was out of action at Thruxton after a first-lap incident with GA's Gavin Pyper saw his Astra wrecked. Now re-built with the help of Triple Eight, the car was starting to look good in round seven.

As soon as the green light went I made up a couple of good places, but by the time I got to Copse corner the misfire that I'd had yesterday in qualifying re- occurred. So I dropped back down the order but stayed out for a few laps to see if it would clear. Unfortunately it didn't so I came into the pits and changed some electrical sensors and gave it another try, but it didn't cure it.

For the second race we've got all new electronics, so hopefully it'll be ok this time.

When the car is running it seems to be on the pace, so you must be pleased with its performance?

Absolutely. We've had a couple of setbacks recently [that's an understatement!] so we weren't quite on the pace in qualifying yesterday, but at the other rounds and races we've been quick.

You had that infamous "incident" with Gavin Pyper at Thruxton, have you spoken to him at all this weekend?

Erm, no. I've purposely kept away from Gavin. I don't want to any re-occurrence of anything like that. What he did was wrong. He knows it, I know it, and I think everybody else who saw it knows it.

Are you still planning on running the second car later in the year?

We're still hoping to run the Clio, but that's not definite yet.



Thanks to all the drivers for their time.

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