Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

I would prefer to be on pole position of course, but second is still a good result and it’s great for the team to have a one-two and Seb did a good job. It was a good battle – with about 800ths between us in the end. I wasn’t mega-concerned about the weather today, as it’s the same for everyone and whatever happens, happens! I think tomorrow will be enjoyable – but I would prefer a dry race, as the track can get slippery with intermittent conditions.

I am pleased with the way qualifying went. You always want to be on pole, but third place is still a good result. We knew the Red Bulls were very strong, but we are close to them and can count on having a good race pace. Our aim is to get to the finish, not making any mistakes and getting a good result, maybe making it to the podium. Of course I want to fight for the win but it is not worth taking risks as it is too important to bring home points. After yesterday’s free practice, we were not worried because we knew our work had only focussed on being ready for Sunday’s race. Anything can happen here and we must be ready for any eventuality. A new engine? Yes, it brings luck to change it…But joking apart, it was part of our engine management plan to have a new unit for this race.

We had a reasonable qualifying session today and I am ok with the outcome even if I was a bit handicapped by traffic, especially on my final quick lap. We made some changes with the car after practice this morning which did not work out perfectly. But in general I would guess the ranking that we see now reflects the situation well and our performance is probably the maximum for our car at the moment. Anyhow, we still have a lot in hand for tomorrow’s race, and I am on the clean side of the grid for the start. As we all know, a lot can happen over the course of a race.

This is a great result for the team. It’s obviously Mark’s home race here – but he got pole in Germany, so it’s kind of a revenge! But, it’s a long race tomorrow. We made a good step with the car ahead of today’s qualifying and the final session was all about if it would rain or not, so we waited a bit at the start. My first lap in Q3 was the quickest and it was spot on until the last three corners. I was on the edge through Turn 14, but then I lost a little bit in last corner going on to the main straight. It was a very good lap up until that point though and the result says it all. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

It was a disappointing qualifying today as I had made really good progress during practice with my engineers but didn’t do the best job when it mattered. I made a couple of mistakes on my best lap on the option tyres which cost me three or four tenths. There was more in the car today so it’s always frustrating when you don’t get the most out of it. It’s not typical for me to make such mistakes in qualifying. But that’s the way it goes sometimes and sixth position is still a good place to start. We should be stronger in the race and anything can happen tomorrow.

After our strong performance yesterday, this morning the car didn’t work as well as we’d expected. We lacked grip, and it looks as though the cars ahead of us here have more downforce. Nevertheless, qualifying this afternoon was good. I felt pleased with the car on every lap except the final one in Q3. I don’t know whether it was the wind picking up, but I didn’t feel the car was working quite as well as it had in the first two sessions. I didn’t have the balance I’d had previously - there was a lot more understeer in the car - but it only cost me a tenth or two. So, the best lap we probably could have done was a 1m24.4s - which is still half a second off the pacesetters. We’re not there yet, but this is an improvement because we’re a lot closer to the front than we were in Bahrain. I’m happy with the performance of the team this weekend. We pretty much got the best out of the package we have at the moment.

Today was a surprise - I wasn’t expecting to be out in Q2. I felt I got as much as I could out of the car, but I just couldn’t get the grip from the tyres. On my first run in Q2, I was held up by traffic, so I wasn’t able to do a quick lap. I pitted early, got a clear lap, but still struggled to find time in the final sector - even with new tyres. I don’t know what the reason for that was. So I didn’t have a great day, but it’s encouraging to see Jenson doing such a good job. Hopefully, we’ll both have a good race tomorrow.

It's not disappointing to start tenth but it's not entirely satisfying either as I felt we could have done better. All the same we made it through to Q3, which was another great effort from the team, and we got the maximum we could have in the earlier sessions. I made two runs in Q3 and neither were particularly great as the soft tyres didn't seem to get up to temperature. We've had a good pace through the weekend so we have a strong platform to go from but let's see what will happen on Sunday. At this stage I don't want to make any predictions.

Not the qualifying I was expecting, going into this Grand Prix. Ever since the temperature dropped, I have always struggled to find the best way of getting the tyres up to temperature, while yesterday morning for example, when it was hotter, the situation was much better. With today’s temperatures, I had no grip, which is not particularly encouraging. Let’s hope it’s a bit warmer tomorrow. In FP3 I really found it difficult, but come the end of qualifying I still managed to get a reasonable result. It’s definitely not ideal in terms of looking for a win, but all the same, I will try and bring home a good number of points. This race is very tough, partly because, as we have often seen in the past, anything can happen here.

Really disappointing today. There was so much traffic - it was just impossible. Pretty much every lap I had some problem, particularly with the Williams of Hulkenberg and the Sauber of de la Rosa who don't seem to be able to use their rear view mirrors. In all the sessions, on all of my runs, I struggled to finish a proper lap. I had green on the first two sectors but then got held up in the last sector, sometimes in the last corner. It's a shame as I definitely think the pace was there to make it through to the top ten. I think we need to find a solution to this as there are so many cars and too many different speeds. If it's like this here, I don't know what it will be like in Monte Carlo, which is even tighter.

Qualifying went quite well for me and I’m happy with the way things went. We went through Q1 and then I put a good lap in during Q2. I was pleased with my lap in Q3 but there was a bit more there which we missed out on due to traffic. I think we can achieve a better result tomorrow than we did in Bahrain. Eighth is a nice result, but I know everyone in the team aims a lot higher. I’m sure we will get there, but right now that is the limit of the car.

I am reasonably happy with today's performance as I don't think I could have done much more and I was unable to improve on my second set of soft tyres. I am very happy to be twelfth as eleventh was too far out of my reach as I was about five tenths off Hamilton. I hope we can come up with a good strategy for tomorrow, because if we do, then hopefully, I can finish in the points.

I think I got the maximum that was possible from qualifying today. I had to push hard because the car was not easy to drive and I think we lost some performance in the colder conditions. For the race tomorrow the weather could play a big role, but I don’t care if it’s wet or dry. Hopefully we can fight for some good points.

Ich hatte erwartet, heute etwas besser abzuschneiden, weil das Tempo im dritten freien Training recht ermutigend war. Ich habe alles versucht und wäre fast abgeflogen, aber wir haben es heute einfach nicht in Q3 geschafft. Nichtsdestotrotz haben wir uns gegenüber Bahrain verbessert. Die Positionen sind zwar dieselben, aber der Rückstand ist kleiner geworden. Ich bin recht zuversichtlich für das Rennen.

I think my performance was quite okay, especially with the harder tyre. Maybe if I had got more out of the soft tyre I could have improved a place or two. But because the track is not so long, the times are all very close. I am quite happy with what I did today, as I am getting closer to my team-mate's performance which is one of my objectives. But there is still plenty of room for improvement.

I’m disappointed not to make it out of Q1 because the car has been competitive all weekend. Qualifying is a new experience for me and I’m still learning: it’s very busy out on track, it was difficult to get a clear lap and I didn’t put my three best sectors together when it counted on my final run. The times show I had the pace to be in Q2, so of course I’m disappointed not to have reached my potential. The car didn’t not feel as well balanced today, either, in the different track conditions. It will be a tough race starting so far down the field and the track is narrow so it’s difficult to overtake, but I will try my best to get a good result tomorrow.

I’m disappointed with qualifying and expected more. The target was obviously to get into the top ten, but I didn’t get the lap together and this is the result. This is my first qualifying here; it’s not an easy circuit to learn and it’s very narrow and quite bumpy. It will be difficult to get into the points tomorrow from P15, but you never know what could happen if the weather turns.

Wir sind auf jeden Fall noch einen Schritt entfernt vom Top-Ten-Qualifying, aber doch ein Stück näher dran als in Bahrain. Wir werden hart weiter arbeiten, um das Auto für die Zukunft zu verbessern, und morgen wollen wir erstmal hier um Punkte kämpfen. Ich will unbedingt ein gutes Rennen zu Ende fahren und punkten. Ich habe im Qualifying alles versucht, und mit meiner schnellsten Runde war ich auch ganz zufrieden. Es war sehr schwer, in dem dichten Verkehr eine freie Runde hinzubekommen. Vor allem in Q1 waren natürlich viele Autos unterwegs und noch dazu mit unterschiedlichen Geschwindigkeiten. Ich versuche natürlich, niemandem im Weg zu sein, aber das klappt nicht immer, obwohl mich die Ingenieure von der Boxenmauer gut informieren, welche Autos gerade in meiner Nähe sind.

It was a good run this afternoon. I got a good lap out of the car and out of the tyres and in general the car feels much better than it did in Bahrain. We have progressed with the set up, and as a team we are really stepping forward. Our aim for tomorrow is to make sure we stay ahead of the other new teams, and finish the race with both cars. I'm so happy with Lotus, and feel I have the chance to show what I can really do.

I had a problem with the seat which meant it wasn't easy to drive, bouncing around in the car, so it was a difficult qualifying session. I'm pleased for the team though, as both cars are ahead of the new teams and we're performing really well. It's good to see that we have quite a big gap to the other new teams on this track and we're very satisfied with that - we're confident for tomorrow and we'll do our best to try and finish the race again.

Today was a mix of a very good session in the morning and some problems in the afternoon. In P1 I was just looking to get the first feeling of the track and everything went as planned. This afternoon was a bit more troubled and as soon as we went out we experienced some problems with the telemetry box and I lost the rest of the second session. Not the perfect situation to go into a race weekend at a circuit that is new to me, but we will keep our heads up, fix the problem and go for it tomorrow.

It has been a tough day for sure. We had a gearbox oil leak this morning – a new problem which arose and we had to spend a lot of the day fixing it. This afternoon I managed to get back out on track at the end of the session but it was frustrating to lose so much track time. I think we will be playing catch-up in the morning so we have to hope things go our way in time for Qualifying.

I was one of the early starters and joined track with a set of soft tyres. I wanted to make it through Q1 and I did. I am very pleased with this result for our second Grand Prix. We are not too far from the top runners.I haven’t made any significant errors. It’s a great way to start my F1 career!

It’s been a bit of a difficult day, stopping on the circuit this morning with an hydraulic problem after we solved yesterday’s fuel pressure problem and then we did a good job with the team. We continue to learn how the car reacts to set up changes. We left early in the session as we were afraid that it would just start to rain. To finish where we are on the grid is okay in the circumstances, and the goal is to make it through the race tomorrow.