Sébastien Ogier: “I have to agree to do less and be more patient”

Sébastien, how does it feel to have reached this milestone of the first race in Endurance ?

It hasn't been a smooth ride for us. We've had a tough week. The Prologue didn't go too bad, but we struggled a lot with the settings from Free Practice onwards to find confidence and performance. We still have to work to reach the car's potential. Personally, I made mistakes during my first stint. I flattened a front tire trying to push too much and that forced us to make an additional stop. I had a lot of trouble with the brakes and the balance of the car. The second stint went better, it was clean and much more consistent, even if it still lacked a little speed. I struggled to do more with the sensations I had in the car. It should be remembered that this was a first step with a lot of practices which will serve as starting points. I'm not going to say that I'm satisfied with my performance this weekend, there are ways to do better and that's our ambition.

What are you going to focus on for the next round at Spa?

It will mainly be the piloting. We're going to analyze all of this cold turkey: what I did well, what wasn't so well and try to find ways to do better next time. In particular, I tend to want to do a little too much, especially on the brakes. The LM P2s have generally been very degraded (in terms of performance. Editor's note) in recent years according to what other drivers say, perhaps the idea I had from the start is a little too much high. So I have to agree to do less and be more patient. It wasn't a disaster either and I wasn't expecting an exceptional performance this weekend, although I would have liked to do better.

Did the circuit driving go well?

It was nice ! I was starting to deal with the traffic quite a bit during my second stint. I enjoyed the experience of riding at Sebring. It's really an unusual circuit and I enjoyed it.

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