Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

This is where we are at the moment. We are the fourth best team out there so seventh place is more or less where we expected to be. We struggled slightly in warming up the tyres, but otherwise I am quite pleased. Strategy-wise, we are looking good and I’m not worried about our race pace. If you look at Malaysia we were pretty strong in the race even though the tyres are a challenge, both hard and soft. We’ll have to see how everyone around us looks in terms of fuel. It would be good if, after Australia and Malaysia, things would go a bit more our way tomorrow. I must say that, for me, today’s surprise was Alonso.

It was a hard qualifying for me and I'm a bit disappointed with the results because after this morning's practice session I believed we had the pace to be at the front. But somehow, just as in Australia, the grip slipped away between this morning and this afternoon. Something was missing after that, the car wasn't there any more and I had to push hard even to make it into Q3. Still, I was happy with my final lap and in the end P6 is a reasonable place to start. Tomorrow should be a good race and there could be rain so that could mix things up.

Into Q1, Lewis bolted on a set of options and blasted out two fast laps – a 1m36.381s and a fourth-fastest 1m35.776s, declaring himself extremely satisfied: “They were pretty hardcore laps!” he said. “They were almost beyond the limit.” For the second session, Lewis once again underlined MP4-24’s pace by setting sixth-fastest time (1m35.740s). Into Q3 for the first time this year, Lewis ended the day ninth fastest (1m38.595s) but pleased with the progress achieved by the team this weekend. “Step by step, we are moving forward,” he said. “And thanks to all the guys back at the factory for doing such a fantastic job and for churning away on all the new parts – every little bit helps us catch the leaders. There’s still a long way to go but this definitely feels like the start of the road to recovery.”

Our car feels good around here but there were a few cars quicker than we expected in Qualifying today. You could see in Q2 that the Red Bulls were very strong in the high-speed corners and we knew then that we would have a fight on our hands. It’s going to be interesting to see how the different strategies work out in the race. Of course we would rather be on the front row of the grid but we will give it our best shot in the race tomorrow and see what happens.

Obviously I didn’t have the new parts that Fernando had, but it’s still disappointing not to make it into Q2 as the car was working well this morning and we had made some improvements overnight. I know it will be a tough race tomorrow, but hopefully we can make the strategy work so that I can move forward in the race.

The first run in Q2 was pretty good, but on the second, I made a mistake going into Turn 9 which kept me out of Q3. I had a bit of traffic on my out lap which meant I didn’t get the tyres up to the right temperature. We must try and get through these two difficult races, bringing home a few points, working in the meantime on the development of the car. Not having the KERS is definitely a handicap in my case, especially in qualifying. This is another area where we must work, to go back to using it as soon as possible.

Satisfied with his balance in the morning session, Heikki started qualifying in a confident mood, setting a 1m36.646s lap early in the session – it was enough to place him 14th and meant he was able to abort a later lap and move into Q2. Into the second session, he once again attacked, setting a 1m36.032s despite locking his left-front on the entry to Turn 11. It was enough to place him 12th after a later attempt was again abandoned following a delay in the middle sector. “We’ve really improved our car this weekend,” said Heikki. “It was unfortunate we couldn’t go any faster in Q2 but I am glad for the team that Lewis made it into Q3. While 12th position doesn’t truly reflect my pace, it’s clear that we’re heading in the right direction. With the right strategy and some better luck in the opening laps, I’ll be aiming for my first points of the year tomorrow.

The car is as competitive as it was in Malaysia and we’re still making progress, so this result is a shame. I really hope I can do better in the race, but we first need to look at our data and see what was going on with the car and try to resolve it. We’ll do our best to get a good strategy in place as you never know what can happen in a Grand Prix.

Of course I’m not happy with eighth place but, given our current potential, we have to settle for this. We got everything out of the car but we had no more new tyres for Q3 and therefore, it’s already something to have put quite a few of our competitors behind us. The problem is still the same, we are just not quick enough. The car’s handling isn’t bad, but as I’ve said before, we are giving away a second to the best. I hope we get some developments quickly but, in the meantime, we try to do the best with what we’ve got. I hope we have a good race and pick up a few points. I don’t know where we might have been if we had the KERS: at some points it gives you an advantage, but in others it can be a disadvantage. It would have been useful to run it on at least one car to understand the situation better.

I had a good qualifying session today but you can see how F1 can progress so quickly. Whilst we were surprised to see that the Red Bulls were quite so fast, it makes for great competition at the front. They will be tough to beat but we believe we have a good strategy. Both Jenson and I know the way to the podium here so let’s hope we can repeat that tomorrow.

Meine erste und schnellere Runde in Q2 war das Maximum, was ich aus dem Auto herausholen konnte. Die Runde war wirklich gut. Auf eine Verbesserung hatte ich nur gehofft, weil die Strecke ja im Laufe des Qualifyings stetig schnellere Runden zulässt. Aber mit diesem Satz Option-Reifen hatte ich einfach nicht den erwarteten Grip, wir müssen schauen, woran das lag. Ich habe das Top-Ten-Qualifying zwar nur um eine Hundertstelsekunde verpasst, aber man sieht, dass wir generell zu langsam sind. Wir hoffen, dass uns ein Aerodynamik-Update, das wir für den Großen Preis von Spanien bekommen, hilft. Jetzt müssen wir erstmal das Beste aus unserer Situation machen. Für morgen gibt es eine gewisse Regenwahrscheinlichkeit, das wäre natürlich super. Wir werden uns jetzt sorgfältig eine Rennstrategie überlegen. Weil ich nicht unter den ersten Zehn bin, kann ich jetzt meine Benzinmenge frei wählen.

Die Reifen haben keinen Grip aufgebaut, und das Auto war sehr schwierig zu fahren. Ich hatte insbesondere Schwierigkeiten mit der weicheren Reifenmischung. Nach dem heutigen dritten freien Training habe ich das nicht erwartet. Der Unterschied zwischen der weicheren und der härteren Mischung war heute Morgen größer. Zusätzlich habe ich in Kurve zwölf einen Fehler beim Anbremsen gemacht, der viel Zeit gekostet hat.

I am really happy to be in Q3, as it’s more than I had expected. I don’t think I could have got any higher up the order. On low fuel, the car was very good, but we didn’t have any new Options left for Q3, so I had to do three flying laps on the Prime, so considering that, we can be satisfied with this. The team worked really well, doing a fantastic job to improve the car a lot since the start of the season and today it worked very well. Now, I am very much looking forward to tomorrow’s race

I made a mistake, it’s as simple as that. I tried to optimise my line to take Turn 8, but I cut the apex too much and got on the marbles and the dirt on the left side and so the car never really turned in. Because of the dirt on the tyres, the next few corners were a disaster, losing me around half a second. Yesterday had been very promising but for whatever reason, today it didn’t work out. When you see my team-mate did two great laps, you can understand that the potential is there. Tomorrow, I will see what I can do, and even if it’s hard to make up places here, I’ll keep pushing.

What a result! The work that’s gone into this from the team, especially over the last few weeks, has been incredible. It would have been good to have both cars on the front row, but Fernando did a great job. I was expecting to be a little bit tighter in the end, but we’ll see how the fuel loads pan out tomorrow. We’ve done a good job. Q2 was strong for us and the car is behaving well, with a lot of grip. I’m doing what I can to give the youngster (Seb) a hard time, we’re pushing each other hard and it’s working very well!

I’m very, very happy – it’s unbelievable. It was a bit last minute! I only had one run in each qualifying session but, as you can see, you don’t need more! It wasn’t easy, we had a problem with the car and had to run as little as possible. The car was really quick though, Mark had two runs in each session and was always up there, so I didn’t have any concerns. Still, if you have only one lap, you can’t make any mistakes. I’m really happy – we made it to pole position in the end! This morning wasn’t ideal, but it seems the less I run in the morning, the better it is in qualifying! A big thanks to the mechanics, who have been working very, very hard, basically all night, and thanks to all the team back in Milton Keynes too. We made it! I’m looking forward to tomorrow, it’s a long race and there’s a long way to go, but we have the best starting position.

We knew it was going to be difficult here today. We couldn't find a balance as we don't have enough downforce just yet. This is our main issue and why it is very difficult to drive right now. Although today was tough, we should be more competitive in the race as the pace on Friday over longer runs was better. Our goal now is to finish without any incidents. We know our car is reliable so maybe we can pick up some places like this.

Today it felt better than yesterday but it was still tough. We are lacking grip aerodynamically, particularly in the slow speed corners. This race might be tough but we know there is another step to come in Bahrain so the aim here is to get to the finish. We need to have a good strategy and try to do what we can.

The car was quick this morning in P3, but we only had three laps to test the new parts we’d fitted to the car. This afternoon achieving the front row of the grid is a great motivation for the team. It is unbelievable and the first time that I’ve seen such an incredible effort. The team has been working 24 hours a day for the past few weeks to produce these parts and today it was time to deliver. So a big thanks to Enstone and to the engineers and mechanics here who didn’t sleep much last night to get the car ready. Also, three Renault engines are in the top three so a big thanks to the engine team in Viry. We can be happy with today’s result and we’re looking forward to the race tomorrow and hopefully scoring some points.

This morning I had a gearbox problem after three or four laps in free practice so we lost a complete session. So I was short of track time heading into qualifying. The car felt different from yesterday and it was already really tricky to drive in Q1. I couldn't string a lap together and I knew it would be difficult to get into Q3 because the times were so tight. It felt slippery, I couldn't quite feel confident with the car and on the last lap I made a mistake so that was that. With our penalty it means we are starting from the back row so now we just have to hope for rain tomorrow.