Endurance: Marc VDS BMW wins the French Blancpain Endurance Series at Magny Cours

Bas Leinders – “I got a good start and managed to move up to third behind Ortelli and Salaquarda, who were having a real battle at the front. I didn’t want to get too close, but I didn’t want to hang back and let them think that I’d back off if they tried to block either. I pushed and that meant I was close enough to capitalise on mistakes from both of them to take the lead. Battling for the lead at the start of the race was good fun, as was fighting my way through the traffic; I like traffic! I’m happy to have handed over the race lead to Markus, and that he and Max were able to defend the lead until the end, to give the team and BMW Motorsport a first win in the Blancpain Endurance Series. Let’s hope it’s the first of many!”

Markus Palttala – “This was my first race in the BMW, so at the beginning of my stint I was still trying to learn the car, which allowed the Ferrari to close on me. At the end I was able to hold him off and hand over the lead to Max, so I’m relatively happy about that. I have to say a big thank you to Bas, to Max, to BMW and to the whole team who did a great job today. As for still being in with a chance of winning the championship, well, it’s nice to know, but it’s not something I’m going to be thinking about ahead of the final round at Silverstone.”

Maxime Martin – “My two teammates did a great job before I jumped in the car, which made it much easier for me. When I joined the race I didn’t really know where we were in terms of position, so I pushed hard for a few laps just to be safe. After that I just tried to keep a good pace, stay consistent with the lap time, and try and maintain position. After the safety car I pushed again, just to make sure, but anyway, there were quite a few cars between me and the car in second place. I’m happy; this was only our second race with the BMW and we took our first win in the series. It doesn’t get much better than that!”