James Thompson Q&A

"It's great. I had a couple of laps in the wet at Varano before coming here and it's fantastic to be back in it. I've really missed the tyre warmers in England - it's such a good feeling to get out there and give it a really large lap straightaway. I'm enjoying it actually, and it's nice to be competitive straight off."



"I'm still a little bit rusty, I think you always need mileage in these things. The car is fantastic, although I'd like to set it up a little bit more to my liking. But it's done the job and team has been great, they've really given me good confidence. It's taken me a little longer than I thought to re-acclimatise, to be honest, maybe because I was driving the Astra just last weekend at Donington."



"Well, JAS have prepared it very well. Handling-wise, as you can tell from our 1-2-3 on the grid, it is fantastic. It would have been interesting to see what I could have done in this car last year [in the BTCC]. I think it might have been a different story, championship-wise."



"It's a different kettle of fish. The Super Tourer is obviously a lot faster. It's not just the weight, but it's the brakes and acceleration. In terms of the grip levels from the tyres, the new [BTCC] cars have a very high grip level compared to their weight and horsepower. The tyre is, I think, an inch wider. You notice the Super Tourer's tyres are right on the ragged edge all the time, which I think is great, I like to drive a car on a knife-edge. Without wanting this to sound like a criticism of the BTCC, those cars are much easier to drive than a Super Tourer. I think the BTCC formula would be great with this much power and little less weight, maybe. If they did that, the cars would be as quick as Super Touring, probably quicker because of the higher grip."



"It's great, really nice to come out here and join in. It's a bit like a BTCC reunion because I've seen all the Prodrive boys [running the Ferrari 550 in the FIA GT series], Alain Menu, Rickard Rydell, Peter Kox, David Leslie, Matt Neal, Gabriele Tarquini - half of the old school is here! It's nice to be racing in different scenery, and as much as I love racing in England, it's a different atmosphere."



"I've really enjoyed my year in Britain this year. The team [Triple Eight] and Vauxhall have been really great - Vauxhall has always been like a second family to me! I feel I didn't get the results that I believe I can achieve. Perhaps I need something slightly different to what we have from the car at the moment. I like coming over to race in Europe, but I also love racing in England. It's a matter of putting the right package together for next year. It's not that I'm desperate to come and race in Europe, but I feel that if my career is going to blossom, then I need to do that at some stage."



"It was their first year and I thought, 'OK, take the rough with the smooth.' But it's fair to say that they couldn't run four cars competitively then. We didn't get the equipment we needed. I was hoping it was going to get better the following year, but I didn't get chance to find out. It gives you a bit of a downer, so I'd had to pick myself up this year and it's been a rebuilding process for me in the BTCC. That's why coming over here this weekend and proving myself on the European stage, given the equipment and the right team behind me, is very pleasing."