André Negrao: “It’s up to us to be there at the right time”

How do you feel before getting behind the wheel of theAlpine A480 for your first stint?

I feel good, much better than after these decisions which somewhat spoiled the happiness of our great qualification. It's a 24 hour race, anything can happen. We need to reset our brains and refocus on the race. It's the night that scares us the most, because with the low temperatures the LMP2s should be even closer to us. But at the risk of repeating myself, it's a very long race, we have an excellent car, a good team and a good strategy so we can do very well. We have to accept that it will be harder than we expected but I am convinced that we can have a very good race.

An obvious complicity with Nicolas lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière © Thomas Fenetre / DPPI

Are you especially concerned about traffic management?

Yes… At the start of the race it should be fine because the higher temperatures than expected are rather a good chance for us. However, at nightfall you will have to be extremely careful. But a great team entrusts me with a great car, equipped with great tires so it will be fine (laughs)!

André knows that the race will be long © Germain Hazard / DPPI

We can guess that the excitement of the race took over the disappointment.

Bien entendu ! Si on se contente de ressasser les problèmes, autant ne même pas prendre le départ de la course ! Je préfère être optimiste, prendre le départ de la course et donner le meilleur de moi-même car nous avons tout pour aller chercher un beau résultat. On sait que les Glickenhaus peuvent avoir des problèmes en course et les Toyota n’ont pas été épargnée par les pépins techniques à Spa et même ici durant les essais. Personne n’est intouchable, à nous d’être là au bon moment.

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