Q & A with Jacques Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve: Well it has been 11 years, so yes it has been a long time. It is a great feeling, and it's great to see the top step. You have to try and remember where it is, so that you can get the champagne shower again. It's a great feeling, to get back to the winning circle.

Q. Is it difficult to learn to drive this car?

JV: It's actually not such a difficult car to drive, because it is not so different from a Formula One car. Okay so it is a little bit slower, but it still drives like a proper race car. You can push, you can be aggressive, and that makes it fun.

Q. We have seen you get better and better over the weekend. Do you feel you are where you want to be coming into Le Mans?

JV: The long run I did on Friday was very good. The race was a little bit tougher. We kept the tyres through the first pitstop and they didn't like that. So from that point I decided not to take risks. We were in the lead and the key was to keep that, because the chances of safety cars was quite high and every time you made a gap you would lose it again anyway.

Q. But the more time you spent in the lead, and the more time you spent in the car, do you feel you got to grips with the traffic?

JV: Oh yeah. The traffic wasn't a problem. I think it just depends how much risk you want to take and there was no point in taking huge risks.

Q. You have always been synonymous with Spa and you looked like you were having fun out there.

JV: The car is a lot of fun to drive. You can push it hard and slide it and it is great. It's a proper race car. It reacts well. It doesn't do anything nasty, if it gets sideways you can feel it coming. You know you can catch it and it doesn't surprise you with weird sensations.

Q. Does it make you want to do more?

JV: Well there is Le Mans. But there is no point being three drivers for 1000km races every time so that's really in preparation for Le Mans.