Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“Sebastian did a good job. We have pushed each other most of the weekend, but he put Q3 together well. The tyres are the gold thing around here – you need to get them just right, understand them and then nail the lap, they can be pretty sensitive at times. We’ll see how we go tomorrow, it’s a long race and I’m in a good position to get some good points. The first three seconds of the race can be crucial and can deliver 70% of the result.”

“It was a very good day for us. We have felt comfortable all weekend and I think we were able to improve overnight also. I said on the radio to the team on my in-lap, “Mark and I were pushing hard to finish first and second, but this is your moment, enjoy it – you built this wonderful car’. It’s a pleasure to drive and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It was quite a difficult session today. I didn’t have a good run in Q2 on the option tyre and didn’t feel 100%. There’s not really much you can do to the car between Q2 and Q3, just little trims, but it worked quite well and I had a lot of confidence in Q3. I was able to go quite a bit quicker, so it was a good step. I’m happy to be on pole; hopefully we have a good start tomorrow and a good race.”

“I am pleased with my qualifying lap and with the performance of our car, as I don’t think I could have done better today. The Red Bulls proved to be very strong and the gap to them is certainly a surprise. Having said that, we have to remain focussed on our work and try to do the maximum, aiming at getting on the podium. We must bear in mind that the leaders in both championships are behind us on the grid and our aim is to make up ground on their points total. The start will be very important. Usually at this track, starting on the clean side brings a clear advantage, but this year we have seen good starts from the dirty side and bad ones from the clean: it will be vital to do everything as well as possible and then we will see where we are at the end of the first lap. At that point we can also decide whether to have an attacking race or to manage the situation. The circuit is very demanding for cars and drivers and you must not lose concentration for a moment.”

„Wir hatten gehofft, der Spitze heute näher zu rücken. Heute Morgen im Training sah es deutlich besser aus, aber in Q3 fand ich einfach nicht genug Grip. Außerdem setzte mein Auto seltsamerweise stark auf. Meine beste Runde im dritten Qualifying-Abschnitt war wirklich langsam – eine halbe Sekunde schlechter als in Q2. Morgen im Rennen wird alles vom Start und von der ersten Runde abhängen. Wir müssen uns also darauf konzentrieren, gut loszukommen und einige Positionen zu gewinnen.“

“When you are gapped by over a second in qualifying, there is always something to think about: the way in which they make their tyres work on the first lap is especially incredible and their aerodynamics help them so much in some corners, especially in changes of direction. In the race, the situation can be different, but clearly we cannot claim that we will be quicker on track. However, overall, we have to be pleased with this result because, all the same, we are ahead of everyone else. I did not produce a perfect lap: with these tyres you have to drive extremely precisely because you can easily run the risk of going off the ideal line. The start will be very important and, unfortunately, I am on the dirty side of the grid: let’s see what we can do. The race will be very long and as always, anything can happen. What did I feel today, thinking of events one year ago? During qualifying, I did not think about it for a moment, as I had too much to do in the car, but now, I can tell you it’s a nice feeling being here having completed qualifying! Today, Professor Robert Veres was in our garage, one of the doctors who looked after me when I was in the AEK hospital and I was very pleased to have him here with me.”

“I’m happy with today’s result. I was relieved to get into Q3 – it was very close – and I feel I pulled every last drop out of the car. So I’m satisfied with the job we did today. “Obviously, we’ll have to work hard again tomorrow – but, all things considered, it’s a good place for us to be starting from tomorrow: it’s on the clean side of the track, which is a positive, and it’s a long haul down to Turn One. So anything’s possible. As I say, I’m quite happy. “Our car is the best it’s ever been at this circuit. And we’ll stay focused for tomorrow: I need to get as good a start as I’ve been getting for the past few races, stay clean, get around the first corner and keep moving forwards after that. “It would be great to make up some places off the grid because it’s very hard to overtake around here. But we’ll do the best job we can. I’m ready for it. Bring it on!”

„Ich glaube, wir haben heute sehr gute Arbeit geleistet. Ich bin sehr glücklich, Q3 erreicht zu haben und mit Platz sieben sogar vor Robert zu stehen. Denn das erste Ziel jedes Rennfahrers ist es, den Teamkollegen zu besiegen. Wir wussten, dass der Renault R30 hier sehr gut sein würde. Ich war bereits in den Trainings sehr zufrieden mit der Balance. Vor uns starten sehr starke Gegner – um einen von denen zu schnappen, müssen wir sie pausenlos unter Druck setzen. Im Rennen wird das Überholen allerdings nicht einfach. Die einzige reelle Chance dafür besteht am Start. Ich werde so oder so mein Bestes geben, um noch Plätze zu gewinnen und ordentlich Punkte einzufahren.“

“I’m pleased to be starting from sixth place as we didn’t think we would be that far forward today, so it’s an unexpected and pleasant surprise. We are a long way from the front which is a concern but we took everything that we could from today and I am happy with our performance. We did a very good job with the set-up which meant we could get the best out of the car. Hopefully I can have a good start and our aim as always is to make up a few more places and get some decent points again.”

“In practice this morning, the car was working pretty well and I felt quite happy with it. We were still some way off the top two teams, but the overall pace wasn’t too bad. “This afternoon, I still felt pretty happy on the Prime tyre, and ended Q1 seventh-fastest. But I just couldn’t find a balance on the Option tyre and I struggled for grip with it. “The good thing is that I’ll be starting on the clean side of the track. Normally, that can make you up a place or two at the start, and there’ll be lots of opportunities into the first corner, which is always exciting here. Plus, I’ve got two new sets of tyres for the race. “So we can still do a lot from 11th – and I’ll do my very best to pick up some valuable world championship points from there. “I suppose you could say we’ve just got to be brave tomorrow.”

Reaching Q3 was good today as everybody is very aware how closely bunched the field is behind the front few teams, but as always, it is human nature to feel that more could have been possible. The Renaults and De La Rosa were strong today with just a couple of tenths between us all. Although overtaking will be challenging tomorrow, we know that the race is going to be highly competitive with the form of the cars around us.

In Q1, I was very happy, the car was perfect and I only needed one run and was quite comfortable to see the rest of the session out in the garage. Then going into Q2, I had a lot of traffic on my out lap and basically because the lap was so slow, I don’t think the tyre got up to operating temperature. The tyres were just not there, and the car balance was out and by the last run, the tyres had given up.

“Obviously qualifying was not ideal for us today. After yesterday’s performance, we purposely went for a different set-up which was supposed to tell us more about the car and was targeted more towards the race. It seemed to be reasonable this morning but as the track became hotter in qualifying, it went against us. Our set-up should work better in the race although starting from 14th place does not make it easy. Being on the dirty side of the starting grid does not specifically help, but I will certainly try again to have a good start tomorrow. And from then on we will have to see how the race develops.”

„Ich bin zufrieden mit meiner Leistung, aber vor allem bin ich sehr stolz auf das Team. Das Auto war wirklich gut. Meine Platzierung beweist, welche Fortschritte die Jungs in Hinwil mit diesem Auto erzielt haben, vor allem, wenn es um langsame Kurven geht. Sie haben sich nicht aus dem Konzept bringen lassen, hart gearbeitet und das Ruder herumgerissen. Ich will mich beim Start und in der ersten Runde aus allen Streitigkeiten raushalten und dann um Punkte kämpfen.“

„Ich bin sehr enttäuscht. Wir haben viele Abstimmungsänderungen vorgenommen, seit wir hier angekommen sind. Aber ich bin noch immer nicht zufrieden. Das Auto fühlt sich fremd an, anders als ich es gewohnt bin. Ich finde keine Haftung. Von daher war die Aufgabe für mich heute ohnehin schwer, und dann war es viel zu optimistisch vom Team, mich zum zweiten Anlauf in Q1 erneut mit den härteren Reifen loszuschicken. Mit den weicheren hätte ich es wenigstens in Q2 geschafft. Sei es drum, Fehler passieren. Ich habe offenbar eine rote Ampel überfahren und bin deshalb nicht auf die Waage der FIA gefahren. Ich habe das Signal nicht gesehen.“

“Not too bad today and for me at least, I was on the limit of what the car could do. We found a good setup for Q1, but maybe I had a bit too much front wing in Q2 and the car was oversteering too much. My lap times were all similar and I think it was the best I could do today, even if I had expected a little bit more from the upgrades we had here. And just to make it clear, I was not held up by Schumacher.”

“I would say the car worked well and the balance was quite good, even if I did not feel so comfortable in the car up until now. At least I finished in front of my team-mate, having been behind him most of the weekend, which is every driver’s first target. I think our main problem is still a lack of downforce and pace, especially in the twisty corners in the second sector. I think it will be a long and difficult race, in which the key will be to try and make up some places at the start, because after that moment, it gets very hard to overtake other cars. Last year, I was on the dirty side of the grid and made a very bad start, so I hope that being on the clean side will be a big improvement tomorrow.”

I am quite happy about the qualifying performance today. We're very close to the top ten, which we didn't think we would be after this morning. We struggled to make the soft tyres work again and in the end went out in qualifying not really having a clear picture on performance, so 13th position is a good result. We know tomorrow will be tough as it's a hard place to overtake but our race pace is good. We will look to have a quick start, use strategy and pit stops to make a difference and try to gain as many positions as we can. I always think points are possible and I'll be going into the race pretty positive after this performance today.

We had some problems with a driveshaft boot* in the morning and didn't run the soft tyres so we went into qualifying not knowing completely how we would perform. However the balance was very easy and we looked positive in Q1, setting a good time fairly quickly. Unfortunately I hit traffic in Q2 and didn't get a clear lap, and then lost the rear in the last corner on my last lap. I was more than half a second faster until that point so we could have got a much better position for the start. Q3 would have been very difficult but for sure we are not in a position we should be. Tomorrow it's going to be difficult to overtake but there's always hope and with our race pace we're encouraged we can make up at least a couple of positions. · The driveshaft boot is a component that stops grease leaking from the driveshaft

“We had a very strong free practice 3 this morning. The car was feeling very good and we had managed to improve it from yesterday. In qualifying I ran wide in my first flying lap and damaged the floor of my car, making me lose a lot of downforce and a lot of pace through qualifying. I’m very confident that tomorrow the car will be back as strong as it was in free practice 3.”

"It's a bit disappointing today. I was going well on the first run but I was held by the traffic in the last sector and lost about 4/10ths, so we had to abort that lap - it's a shame as that was looking like pretty good. On the second run the tyres didn't work as well as we'd hoped and that cost me a lot of time. Despite that we'll do our best tomorrow, and want to see both cars across the finish line."

"I think we got as much out of the car as we could today. Considering the time I lost yesterday it felt like the maximum this afternoon. The car felt ok, and it's a bit of a relief we got to where we are as I wasn't sure about the balance today, bearing in mind I'd missed most of FP2. We're still in a decent position for tomorrow and we'll focus on the start and the strategy, and make sure we stay ahead of the other new teams in the race itself."

“We had a very good two days so far and the whole weekend went in the right direction. The team have done a great job. In general I was quite happy with the car and in qualifying I expected Lotus to be ahead of us because we were still struggling over the bumps. My two qualifying laps were very good and I am really happy with my performance and that of the team. A happy day and I hope we can continue this into the race tomorrow.”

“It was a bit frustrating qualifying today and we had the potential to be further up. We were experimenting with the set-up this weekend as we were chasing after the changing track conditions. The car was hard to drive in qualifying and we have to look into the data and find out what we can do for the race tomorrow.”

“I am quite happy with this result for the team, which worked really hard and provided me a good car. The track conditions have changed compared to the practice session in the morning and it was a bit slippery. Consequently, it was a challenging qualifying and I could have done a better result but unfortunately, I lost some time in the last sector of my fastest lap. Apart from this, we could improve all over the weekend and we are looking forward to the race tomorrow, which is going to be a long one. I’ll try to concentrate from the beginning until the end and to show my best performance.”