Romain Dumas, No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid: (15 races: overall victory 2010, class victory GTE 2013) “The target in Le Mans, obviously, is the race and not getting pole position. But, of course, it is always better to start in the front and it also gives us another point for the championship. We did some laps in the wet and our car is good in all conditions.“
Neel Jani, No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid: (7 races: qualifying record lap and 5th place overall 2015). “Last year the pole lap was a real banger, this year it was different circumstances. It was so difficult in traffic yesterday, but obviously I was the one who lost the least. It was all about working around people. Today’s conditions were very poor with all the water and dirt on the track. However, I’ll be the start driver and I’m very much looking forward to it. Last year I started from pole as well, but then we were the unluckiest of the Porsches. The team did everything in every detail to prepare for 2016 and I hope for some more luck this year.“
Marc Lieb, No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid (10 races: 5th place overall 2015, class victories GTE 2013, GT2 2010, GT 2005). “Even under these conditions practice and qualifying went very smoothly for us. We have managed to improve the car, learnt a lot for the race and put in good lap times for the grid position. In any regard, we fell well prepared.“
René Rast, No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA-Nissan: “The quick laps I did were good ones but it is hard to tell how much quicker we could have gone because of the weather. I am satisfied we are on pole position so we have the best possible start for the beginning of the race. The G-Drive Racing team was excellent again and it is nice to show what we can do, but the big test comes this weekend.”
Roman Rusinov, No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA-Nissan: “It was a great team effort to secure the pole position. Rene showed he was in a different class with those times and we are all really proud and happy. But of course this is a very small part of what we have to achieve. We know there will be some very strong competition, but so far we have shown good pace and consistency, so we enter the race with additional confidence.”
Pedro Lamy, No.98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage: “I was very happy with my lap in last night’s session (Wednesday). We were really close to be on pole, but the time in qualifying is not so important for the race. What is important is that we have a good and balanced car. It’s a little difficult as we weren’t able to test as much as we’d like due to the weather, but this is a good start to our weekend.”
Quotes from team press releases, photo of Porsche pole winners courtesy of ACO
