Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“Q1 and Q2 were very smooth; I was happy with the car and there were no problems. In Q3, the first lap was brilliant up to Turn 12, then under braking I slightly locked the front which was no issue, but it was very weird as the inside front just kept locking and never came back. Going into Turn 13 I was turning to the right and the wheels started turning again and then the same thing going into Turn 14. I locked the inside wheel very easily, the car didn’t seem to stop, so I lost time. On the second run I got confirmation in the first turn there was a problem, as I hit the brakes and went straight - I lost the ability to stop the car and the inside wheel didn’t do what it was supposed to. In Q1 and Q2 we were on top of the game, but in Q3 we were not, so it’s quite frustrating. All weekend I have felt very good, particularly today. Third is still a good position; I’m on the clean side of the grid tomorrow and it’s a long race. It’s difficult to make up places now with the new regulations, but we’ll see what we can do.”

“It was a decent performance today and sixth place gives us a good opportunity for the race and we will aim to move up the field from there. I would have liked to have been a little further ahead of course. The car is feeling reasonable this weekend and although there is a very narrow set-up window, we have pretty much got there. It’s clear that we have made some progress with our aero upgrades and everyone at the factory has done a good job, so thanks for all their hard work. I am on the dirty side of the grid for the race tomorrow but it should have cleaned up now and it’s only a short run to the first corner. If I can have a good start and first lap, then we have the potential for a strong race.”

“In terms of finding a good balance and getting a clear lap, today was one of the best qualifying sessions I’ve had all year. My lap was as close to perfect as I could possibly get it. “But we’re still nearly four tenths down in the middle sector. Compared with Barcelona, I don’t think we’ve made a huge step, but we’re making small steps forward to close the gap to the front. “Tomorrow, I’m going to do everything I can to get a sensible start, get round the first corner and then challenge Mark [Webber], if I can. But I’m on the dirtier side of the track, so that may make it a bit harder for me. And the Red Bulls still have a performance advantage over us, even if it doesn’t show from today’s times. But we’re going to catch them – and then, hopefully, you’ll see Jenson and me up there, with the Red Bulls trying to split us. “We’ve got to keep pushing; the guys back at the factory are doing an incredible job, even though they’re under immense pressure. We all want to win, we’re taking nothing for granted, and we’re edging closer all the time. I really do believe we’re the best team out there, and, once we make that next step, I’m sure we can move ahead of everyone. But until then all we can do is be as close as we can and apply maximum pressure. And that’s exactly what we’ll be doing tomorrow.”

“Today went well. We had a problem during practice this morning so I went out late for the first prime run. It meant I was therefore a little on the back foot going into qualifying, which wasn’t ideal preparation, but we refocused and got ready. Some new parts were bolted on to the rear of my car about four minutes before I went out for Q1, which was a great effort by the guys to get them on in time. It’s a great position to start tomorrow’s race, but each event is unique and has it own challenges. We know the tyres get a hard time round here, so it should be an interesting race – I’m looking forward to it.”

I’m pretty happy with my qualifying session because seventh position is about what we were expecting after free practice. The only issue I had was with the soft tyres because I didn’t feel totally comfortable on them today and so I couldn’t find those final few tenths that I needed to be higher up the grid. However, my lap in Q3 was good and we can’t be too disappointed with this result. It’s also nice to see Vitaly up there with me in ninth and I think we will have strong race pace tomorrow, which means we should be able to score some good points.

“Nothing strange happened: twelfth place is what we deserve from what we have seen today. I did not have enough speed and, when there are nine drivers within half a second, as happened today in Q2, it takes an instant to be either fourth or twelfth and in my case it was the latter. I don’t think I could have done better today: I did practically the same time three times. Tomorrow will be tough and we will be racing defensively, but we will try and get the best result possible. I don’t think today’s weather, with slightly lower temperatures, had an influence on this result. Already in Q1, we realised we were not competitive at the highest level and that it would be difficult to get into Q3. The car balance is okay, as it was yesterday when we were quicker.”

“I am quite happy with my qualifying today and I really think that we have made a step forward. If you consider that this is a track which is aerodynamically demanding, you can clearly say the hard work of our guys paid off and I would really say thank you to them. What happened in turn eight was that it was my last go, the fast lap before was a good one, so obviously you try to push even more, especially as on this lap you can win time. I went out a bit wide and off it went. In my view, the side I am starting from tomorrow is an advantage as it is much cleaner. I have tried practice starts from both sides and felt my side was the better one. As for tomorrow’s race, I will certainly try to have a good start and try to achieve the best result possible.”

“Fourth is not too bad, but the final run was a bit frustrating: being the last car on the circuit can be a good thing, because it means you have the cleanest track, but there’s obviously more chance of somebody going off, and that’s what happened with Michael [Schumacher], who was ahead of me on my final lap. And when there’s a yellow flag, you’ve obviously got to back out of it. “So I just came straight back to the pits, because my final run clearly wasn’t going to be any quicker because of that. The lap wasn’t perfect, but it’s still pretty good to be fourth. We’re on the dirty side of the track, but we’ll see what we can do from there. “The only performance issue I’ve really had all weekend is through Turn Eight – I was losing three tenths to Lewis there because we were running the car too low. That was my fault – I wanted to run the car low for the rest of the circuit – but it’s just a little bit too low through Turn Eight. Obviously, the car will be heavier at the start of the race tomorrow, but we’ll be going slower, so it won’t be pushed onto the track as much. We’ve got to hope that will help. “Nevertheless, we seem to be closer to the Red Bulls than I expected this weekend, so that’s a positive, and I reckon we can challenge them in the race.”

“We were slower than our main rivals, so we will have to work very hard to get back to fighting for the top places and there can be no doubt about that. Even if this is a track I like very much, today I could not do any better than eighth place. The team and I cannot be pleased about it, but we have to react calmly and analyse the reasons that have led to this situation. Now we will concentrate on tomorrow’s race: it will be tough but we will try and do our very best.”

It feels really good to have made it into Q3 and to be starting the race from ninth. So far it has been a really smooth weekend for me with no problems and my engineers and mechanics have done an excellent job to give me a car that I feel really happy with. The car is easy to drive and we have managed to improve the performance with each session, so I knew that we had a good chance to be in top ten today. It’s going to be a long race tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to a close fight with the cars around me and hopefully scoring some more points for the team.

“I am not particularly happy, because again today, Q3 was out of our reach. I expected a bit more than fourteenth place, as in the morning we were ahead of the Saubers, so I was hoping to qualify eleventh, but they got ahead of us this afternoon. The track changed a lot from yesterday afternoon to this morning, but not so much in between today’s two sessions. It will be a tough race so let’s wait and see what we can do. In free practice, our pace over a long run was good, which is a positive sign, however, overtaking is not so easy here.”

„Insgesamt sieht man einen Fortschritt. Die Balance des Autos war gut. Optimal war sie mit den härteren Prime-Reifen, so konnte ich aus der weicheren Option-Mischung nicht die letzte Portion Grip herausholen. Meine letzte Runde war nicht toll, ich habe im letzten Sektor Zeit verloren. Ich glaube, dass unser Auto im Rennen sehr konstant sein wird, darauf lassen die Longruns aus den freien Trainings schliessen. Ausserdem ist es sicher ein Vorteil, dass mein Startplatz auf der sauberen Fahrbahnseite liegt. Auf dieser staubigen Piste hier ist das tatsächlich ein grosser Unterschied.“

“I think there was more potential to do better, especially on my last lap, but I was held up by De La Rosa at Turn 7 who was on the outside of the corner which meant I had to change my line, which cost me a couple of tenths. However, it was a valuable experience as I am still not a hundred percent tuned into the tyres and I need to learn more. I had to park the car at the side of the track at the end of Q2 because I decided to do one more lap than planned on my final run, when I thought I could improve my time.”

„Ich freue mich, es zum dritten Mal in Q3 geschafft zu haben. Vor allem nach der Enttäuschung von Monaco ist das sehr wichtig für das Team. Wir können an unsere Leistung von Barcelona anknüpfen. Für mich lief es am Samstag hier viel besser als am Freitag. Das liegt an Abstimmungsänderungen und hängt mit den Streckenbedingungen zusammen. In Q3 konnte ich nicht angreifen, weil kein frischer Satz von den weichen Reifen mehr übrig war, die hatten wir alle verbraucht. Wir arbeiten unverändert hart, und es beginnt sich auszuzahlen.“

It was tough going today. On my second run in Q2, I picked up some oversteer at the exit of turn 7 which put me off line and unfortunately cost me my lap. We are pushing really hard at the moment and trying to squeeze all we can out of the car but we still have plenty of work to do. A lot can happen in the race so I’ll be giving it everything I can.

We didn't get the most from qualifying today and should have been in a better position. We have been struggling with the grip since the start of the weekend and had a pretty similar issue to Barcelona. We don't seem to have the right balance or get the tyres to work, particularly at the rear of the car. We are trying a couple of things and once it is sorted we will be competitive for sure, so it's not worth dwelling on today. The new switchable rear wing has been a big step forward so we can be pretty confident about the race. So although it's disappointing for now, tomorrow we should be able to move up the field and do as much as we can.

In a way, we did well to achieve a good balance on the car for qualifying, but we are suffering with our top speeds here. The track doesn’t suit the car as much as Monaco did so we are struggling a little bit more than normal. We are far away from where we want to be, but Williams are fighters. We need to keep that spirit up and keep pushing to get to where we want to be.

"I'm pretty pleased even though it was a bit of a difficult day. I had a minor problem this morning which meant I couldn't really use all the time available to focus on setting up the car, so I just got in and got on with it. In quali I used both sets of hard tyres and it felt like the track was quite slippery, particularly in the braking zones, so I changed my driving style a bit and think I did quite a good job to be best of the new teams. I think we are catching up with the guys ahead, even though we are still a bit off. But we will have another big step when we go to Silverstone, and we're also now working hard on next year's car, so we're definitely going in the right direction."

"It was good out there today. On our first run we went with the soft tyre which was probably the wrong choice as it wasn't working quite as well as yesterday, but the second run on the primes was good. The car felt particularly stable around the high speed corners and the balance felt great so I'm happy. Jarno did a better time today, but I'm pushing hard - I'm always pushing to the limit and am looking forward to the race tomorrow. I feel confident, and hope we can close the gap again to the other guys ahead."

“After a difficult opening day here yesterday, we really managed to turn things around for ourselves overnight and because of that we were able to have a much stronger day today. The difference in the car since yesterday was like night and day, so I have to thank the team for that. The car was performing well in Free Practice this morning and I was very motivated going into Qualifying, because it’s great knowing that you have a car that will give you the chance to beat the immediate competition. I had a great second lap and felt that we had the car bang on for my final lap. Unfortunately I made a mistake in the first sector and that was that, but I’m much happier with the car and looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

“Despite the improvements that we made to the car set-up overnight, today has been very frustrating for me as we had an issue with the engine. Timo was able to demonstrate the true potential of the package and so it was disappointing for me to end up so far away because of the problem. I hope we can look forward to something more representative tomorrow and have a good race because I think we can have a good day.”

“The qualifying was good today and the lap was quite decent. We still have our best performance in qualifying. We were close to the Virgins and could split them. Maybe tomorrow we have an interesting race. The car balance was better and we progressed on that. The car was good and we managed to find a compromise in the setup and so the car was good to drive. It gave me a lot of confidence today and I could push. I felt quite comfortable in it and and hopefully we can keep this for the race and then fight more with the other teams. It is going to be a very tough race, for sure. Depending on how everything is going. You can rest a little bit on few laps and then you can push harder again. It will be a long and tough race tomorrow with 58 laps. It is this first anti clockwise circuit of the season and not easy for anyone. But we are all fit so we are fine.”

“We seem to have a straightline deficit to Bruno which is costing us about four tenths. It's been a tough choice on which tyres to use and unfortunately for me, the prime tyre that we used wasn't the right one as Bruno found a chunk of time on the option tyre. The guys are looking into the straight line issue for tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. Certainly as a team this weekend we're more competitive than we have been all season and are closer to Virgin so let's see how tomorrow.”

This morning I couldn't do any running because of a hydraulic problem on the car and as we had some problems yesterday as well, I didn't really know what to expect out there in qualifying as I hadn't done so many laps before. All the same we had a good balance on the car and I was quite happy with the final lap time. We were very close to Q3 again, just under a tenth, so I think it's all open for tomorrow. Eleventh on the grid, and the good side as well, I think we can be very confident. It will be a tough race with the heat but I think we have a good chance to score some points again.