Fahrerstimmen – Tag 1

Although today was quite tough with the weather, it was great to end up on pole. In Q1 and Q2, the gaps were small in between cars and we ended up using quite a few of our tyre sets. When we lined up to go out for Q3, you could see the sky was black. As we went out, the first sector was alright but the rain started coming in; the wind picked up and changed direction in the middle section which made it difficult to drive but the Team told me just to keep pushing. I have never experienced something that has had such a big influence on car balance, but ultimately it was still a great result and sets us up well for Sunday. For the Sprint race tomorrow, we will try and do the best we can as I think it will be close in the Sprint Shootout.

It was a good qualifying. Q1 was smooth, we only used one set of Softs and put in a solid lap with a car that felt great, after we had made quite a few changes to the setup after FP1. In Q2, we pretty much just put a lap on the board.
Then came a strange experience. In Q3, the wind change was really sudden, there was no grip from sector two onwards. I didn't know what to expect in terms of balance once I entered a corner, but I kept it tidy so P2 is not bad considering.

It was a good result today – the car felt pretty good throughout the whole session so I’m very satisfied. With both cars starting from the second row, we will be aiming for a podium on Sunday but I think that the race will be tricky. All the teams are very close and it is difficult to know exactly where we stand. We were fortunate when the rain came but we also made the right calls – both Fernando and I were able to get our Q3 laps in early before the rain started to fall. The points are awarded on Sunday, so let’s see what we can do from a good starting position.

We needed that qualifying result today. We have experimented a little in the last few races and we were seeking a good result for both cars here in Brazil. I think we proved this weekend that we have understood a few things about our car in recent races. I hope we have a clean weekend starting with a good Sprint tomorrow. We have a very good position to start the race from on Sunday, so we are looking forward to that. Hopefully that is the last of the rain, and we will go again tomorrow in the Sprint.

P5 is never going to feel that great. I did the best I could though and hopefully we will have a better race on Sunday. The car was showing signs of decent performance, but we did seem to be a couple of tenths off the guys right at the very front. We made a few changes ahead of qualifying and it did seem to make the car a little nicer to drive. In general though, it wasn’t particularly fast. Having said that, the conditions and circumstances at the end of Q3 have maybe put us slightly further back than our true pace would have showed. It is difficult to say with any confidence though. Over the rest of the weekend, I think we’ve got a bit of a battle on our hands. Overheating with brakes and managing tyres will be important but if we can use our strategy to progress forward, then we will do that.

Not at all the result we wanted. We showed strong pace in the dry, but we just didn’t do a good enough job of getting on track at the right time with the rain coming in. A real shame, it’s pretty disappointing for the team as it’s a big opportunity missed today. A tough start to the weekend but we’ll do our best tomorrow in the Sprint to score positive points.

I am very disappointed as I was feeling good in the car, but we missed a good opportunity. The storm arrived very quickly, the wind picked up a lot and it caught me out during the lap. I tried to keep it together but it was extremely tricky and the lap was not good.
We were one of the last cars in the queue in the pitlane and every second counts in these situations. It is what it is and now it’s time to focus on tomorrow.

The weather today was absolutely crazy! I’ve never seen it change so drastically as that during Q3. I was really disappointed with my final push lap. I was sliding around and had no grip. I didn’t see that much rain on my visor, but I was one second off and I wanted to pit for new tyres as I was confident that I would be last. We ended up P6 though which, whilst the lap was disappointing and frustrating, it’s not a bad place to start. The team did a great job, and the car has been performing well here. We also know race pace is more important than single lap pace here. We will still be aiming to get on the podium. Aston Martin have been quick today, and will start ahead of us, but I hope our long run pace is better than theirs. I expect there to be multiple pitstops during the race on Sunday, so it’s all to play for. Let’s see how we perform over the rest of the weekend.

It was very unfortunate today, I think we had the pace to qualify in the first two rows at least. We were on for P3, P2 maybe, my lap was very close to Max’s until the last corner but we had Piastri spin at the end of the lap and I had to back off. I also think we went out a little too late, the rain picked us up and the track temperate was cooling quickly. There are so many ifs but it is just the start of the weekend and there is still a long way to go, the positive is we seem to have very strong pace. I am looking forward to tomorrow now to see what we can do on Sprint day, I think we have some good opportunities to race from here.

P10 in qualifying this afternoon. Q3 was obviously not very good for us, especially with the session ended early because of the weather. I’m not sure what really happened with the grip, but we just struggled a lot, which is a shame as we had good pace. Things were looking alright until that point but anyway, we will try again tomorrow and see what we can do in the Sprint.

Being honest, the morning was difficult to read because a lot of people didn’t run the soft compound, so it wasn’t the real picture. I think before this weekend if you had told me we’d get P11, I would’ve taken it. It was a clean session, with clean laps, and there was nothing left to give.

It went well. We had good pace on that second run in Q2, but I got traffic from one of the Ferraris which is unfortunate. Having said that, I don’t know if I would’ve been fast enough for Q3, but at least I would’ve put in a better lap. Overall, I’m happy and we’ll try again tomorrow to see what we can do.

My Q1 lap was very good but I think as a team, we know we’re struggling, as it’s so easy to overheat the tyres. Corner after corner there’s no way for the tyres to rest, so as soon as you do one corner quickly, you lose it on the next as a result of overheating. There’s a lot to learn and Sunday is going to be a big management race with the tyres not enjoying this kind of circuit. We’ve saved a set of Softs, so hopefully that will help us tomorrow.

It’s really great to be back driving here in Brazil and at such an iconic track in Interlagos. It’s been a busy day with only one Practice session ahead of Qualifying, and it certainly felt like a quick turnaround. After going through Q1, we had a tough last run in Q2, just missing out in twelfth place. I do feel like we maximised everything today and that’s all we had and I’m sure there will be opportunities in the race on Sunday. Now, our focus turns to Saturday and the Sprint where more points are up for grabs. We must take the learnings from today and apply them for the rest of the weekend. I’m sure there is more to come from us.

It’s always disappointing to be out in Q2 but there is plenty still up for grabs this weekend. I lost some time on my second push lap in Q2, mainly due to an upshift issue, so that is something we need to investigate. It would have been close to reach Q3 so we will certainly assess what we can improve next time. In general, I would say we are lacking a little bit of pace here but we do have our eyes on Saturday and Sunday to score points, so I’m certainly looking forward to that. Tomorrow is the final Sprint of the year. We will aim to fix some small details ahead of the Shootout and then give it our all to come away with points in the Sprint Race.

I feel like we didn’t maximise our package today. I didn’t have clean air on the last lap, which affected my lap time. Our pace hasn’t been on it today, so we’ll have to look through what happened and see how we can improve. It’s not an easy weekend because we can’t massively change the setup of the car anymore, so it’s about extracting the performance from the car for tomorrow and Sunday. We’ll do our best to improve as much as possible.

It’s frustrating because we were definitely faster than what we showed, and there was the potential for Q2, and maybe even Q3, but we didn’t get it right on the last lap. I didn’t get the tyres in the right spot for the start of the lap, so I came too hot into Turn 1, and we lost a chunk of time in the first Sector. From then on, the lap started to spiral a little. On the other hand, I’m happy with the improvements I found in the car compared to the morning. I'll have a look tonight at how we can extract the performance for the remainder of the weekend.

We haven’t been able to make it past Q1 today, which is quite unfortunate, as we think our pace could have allowed us to get into a better fight. Unfortunately, margins are so small that any minor difference can have a huge impact in terms of position – and we saw that today, when we missed the cut for less than two tenths. Starting from the second-to-last row on Sunday surely isn’t ideal; we have some work to ahead of tomorrow, but we have seen before how unpredictable races can get here: with a decent start and an aggressive strategy, we could still have a chance to charge through the field.

I felt like I was driving well and we had the car in a pretty good place today. I had the pace in Qualifying but I made a little mistake in turn 10 on the last lap, which cost us Q2. I’m disappointed but there are positives to take out of today. We haven’t been the quickest as a team here, so it’s not easy - those small mistakes put you straight out - but we’ll work to do better tomorrow.

Unfortunately, we struggled more than usual today: it’ll be crucial to do our homework overnight to find more performance ahead of tomorrow’s Sprint and, most importantly, Sunday’s race. We gave everything but we never felt we had the speed to gain more time and make the cut for Q2. Hopefully, we can make an improvement tomorrow already, although it will be sort of a standalone day. Starting from the back on Sunday will be challenging, but if we make the right calls, we may still be able to get in the mix.