McNish commented on missing Capello and the challenge of Toyota at Silverstone

Audi's Scottish star Allan McNish is back in a diesel R18 for the 6 Hours of Silverstone, having raced the e-tron hybrid at Spa and Le Mans. “It's the first time I've driven the car since the post-Sebring test, which is quite a long time ago. So for Tom and I to jump back into it so quickly and get back in to the feel of it, I was quite pleased,” he said before qualifying on Saturday.

This past weekend of the FIA World Endurance Championship, McNish commented on changes to the R18: “Also, there's an engineering change on our car: we've got new engineers that I've never worked with before, so there's a little bit of understanding, give and take and learning about when things happen and how they want them and stuff like that, so I'm pleased how that's all fallen in to place.”

Discussing how he and Kristensen are adapting to 'life without Dindo Capello', he remarked: “Dindo brings a dynamic that's very very good for Tom and I. When we first joined up as a trio in 2006, Dindo was very important, because Tom and I have got different personalities. We're quite strong in our feelings towards things, and Dindo is a really good counterbalance in the middle. I think I've understood Tom more than he's understood me over the years. We've grown a lot closer – not to say that Dindo hasn't been a critical part of that, but he's eased us into it. The years that we've spent racing with him will help Tom and I to work as duo now. I've seen Dindo a lot over the last four or five weeks. He may not be racing with us anymore, but he's certainly not going to be far away from us, that's for sure. He keeps in touch.”

McNish believed that the Toyota TS030's long-run pace would be a significant threat in any of the long endurance race despite it being a couple of tenths off the pace over a single lap in qualifying. He proved to be correct when Toyota placed second at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, and set the fastest lap.

LMP1 podium: race winners Andre Lotterer, Benoit Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler, second place Nicolas Lapierre, Kazuki Nakajima, Alexander Wurz, third place Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen

Photo by: xpb.cc