Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“It was tough session. I think we had a good recovery, as yesterday I didn’t really find my way, but the car felt much better this morning. I think we could have been a bit quicker in qualifying here and there, but Mark did a good lap and I think we still have a good chance from third on the grid. It will be a long race and you never know what can happen with the weather here. Rain is forecast, but we don’t know how much we will have and when. However, in the end it doesn’t really matter, the most important thing is that we have a solid race and the target is to win, which is not impossible from third – it’s the clean side of the track and we go from there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow – it doesn’t happen too often that you have so many people coming here and supporting the German drivers, so I will make sure I enjoy the race tomorrow.”

“The session went pretty well, with the exception of my run in Q2, which wasn’t very smooth. The other sessions were good and the boys did a great job on the car; they’ve had some late nights in the lead up to the event, so they’ve recovered very well. I thought on my in-lap, ‘if someone gets me, they deserve it’, as I don’t think I could have got much more out of it – it was my limit and a pretty good lap. It was very satisfying to see no one got me there at the end, it’s quite an anxious wait for those 30 seconds. I will be in there pushing very hard tomorrow.”

“We are neither surprised nor disappointed, quite the contrary in fact. This grid is more or less what we could have expected, from what we had seen in free practice yesterday. We though the Red Bulls would be three or four tenths faster than us and that was the case and then even Hamilton went very well, especially in the first sector and got in between us. In fact, McLaren had so many new parts here and you could see they were working well. I am happy with my lap and with the result and anyway, this year we have seen that we have always gone better in the race than in qualifying. Let’s see what the weather will do tomorrow, as rain is forecast. If it turned out to be dry, then we can claim to have a 25% chance of winning and a bit less if it rains, but only because so far, in the wet others have been better than us. Maybe tomorrow the situation could turn around, you never know. I am still aiming for the podium, but if the chance of a win comes along I won’t need to be asked twice. Also at this track, we have seen the updates we have introduced helping to improve our performance, race after race. Clearly, we must take a further step forward if we want to be up there with the best.”

“First of all I want to say a huge congratulations to the whole team, who did a great job today. Everyone back at the factory and here at the circuit has been working massively hard, and that’s the reason why the car was so quick today. I think we all underestimated how good the car would be, in fact.To split the Red Bulls and be ahead of the Ferraris is a fantastic effort by the team. We’ve got a big job ahead of us tomorrow, of course, but today I’m on a high: that lap was a real boost. I reckon today’s qualifying session was one of my best ever, definitely my best this season. The car felt great, we had really good balance and I think it’s one of the best laps I’ve done in the car. You’re already on the limit in your first lap of Q3, and usually if you improve in the second run it’s by a tenth; but today it was by four-tenths. I don’t really know where I found the time, and to be honest I’m going to get a recording of the onboard footage and watch it back because I’d love to see it!”

“My car felt pretty good this morning, but this afternoon during quali I couldn’t find enough grip out there on either the Prime or the Option tyre. We’ll look into it this evening to better understand what happened. However, Lewis drove a brilliant lap to be second on the grid - so congratulations to him. Actually, his pace is encouraging for me too, because it shows there’s more speed in the car if only we can find it. Also, yesterday showed that our long-run pace is pretty good, so that’s encouraging too. So, when you consider that I’ve had a rather troubled couple of days, I suppose P7 is a reasonable platform from which to try to score as many world championship points as possible during the race tomorrow. As always, here at the Nurburgring, there’s a possibility of rain - and I’ve had success in changeable weather conditions this year. But, come rain or shine, I’ll be approaching the race really positively.”

Nico fuhr dank einer starken Runde im letzten Qualifying-Segment den sechsten Startplatz für den Großen Preis von Deutschland heraus. "Egal, ob es trocken oder nass ist - ich denke, dass wir von dort aus ein gutes Rennen fahren können. Wir können sehen, dass wir uns in die richtige Richtung bewegen", sagte Nico. Vor allem mit dem Setup seines Silberpfeils war Nico glücklich. Auch die Updates, die MERCEDES GP PETRONAS in Silverstone eingeführt hatte, überzeugten ihn. "Die neuen Teile arbeiten gut, das ist wirklich zufriedenstellend", freute er sich. Nico hat hohe Ziele für sein Heimrennen in der Eifel. "Es sollte morgen ein spannendes Rennen werden und hoffentlich kann ich vor all den deutschen Fans ein paar Plätze gut machen", erklärte Nico.

“I can’t claim to be completely happy with this qualifying, because some cars were faster than ours. That might not be surprising in the case of the Red Bulls, but it definitely is the case with Hamilton’s McLaren. Tomorrow, we will aim to make our usual step forward in the race, but we know it won’t be easy. Sure, if it had been ten degrees warmer, I would not have complained! Especially with the Medium tyre, we struggled a bit and that’s why I used my first set of Softs right from Q1. At this track, tyre wear is very low, therefore it was not much of a penalty, not even in terms of the race. The big unknown for the race will be the weather: we have the maximum aerodynamic downforce possible, which should be a help if it does rain. In any case, in the wet it will be vital to make the most of any opportunities that come our way.”

“Another strong qualifying performance for us and it’s great to be starting my home race from P8. My Q3 lap was good, although a couple of tenths slow slower than my Q2 lap, but it wouldn’t have changed my overall position. My laps in Q2 and Q3 were pretty much perfect and I feel I got the maximum from the car. The balance has been good all weekend; I feel confident in the car and I really like this circuit. So I’m excited about the race tomorrow and really looking forward to it. We just have to wait and see what happens with the weather.”

ichael schaffte es am Samstag durch alle drei Qualifying-Segmente und geht am Nürburgring von der zehnten Position aus ins Rennen. Allerdings hatte er sich ein besseres Resultat vorgestellt. "Wir haben die Erwartungen an diesem Nachmittag nicht erfüllt. Das Auto war leider nicht das, welches ich im dritten Training vorgefunden hatte", erzählte Michael. Vor dem Qualifying hatte Michael ein Problem mit seinem KER-System. Die Mechaniker schafften es rechtzeitig den Hybridantrieb zu reparieren. Trotzdem konnte Michael nicht die Rundenzeiten seines Teamkollegen fahren. "Im Qualifying war ich immer noch knapp eine Sekunde von ihm entfernt. Wir müssen nun die Gründe dafür analysieren", sagte Michael. Nur knapp verpasste Michael eine bessere Startposition. "Ich versuchte noch stärker zu pushen, um zu kompensieren. Das führte auf meiner letzten Runde zu einem Fehler in der letzten Schikane und kostete mich wahrscheinlich Platz acht", verriet er. "Wir müssen jetzt überlegen, wie wir uns für morgen verbessern können. Ich werde mit Sicherheit versuchen, einen guten Start zu haben und das Rennen so gut wie möglich zu fahren."

It was a difficult session for us. We were looking more competitive than this yesterday, but not enough to be in Q3. We were working more on race pace so we will see tomorrow. I think we have the possibility to score some points if we have the right strategy.

“It was not an easy day for us as it was very difficult to find the right set-up and also to warm-up the tyres in these cold conditions. We all worked very hard so it was satisfying to achieve our main target of getting into the top ten, and I think we should be quite happy with our position today. That said, we were still at the limit to get into Q3 so there is more work to do. The team did a fantastic job and they gave me a fantastic car. The weather has changed a lot over the last two days so you need to always adapt your driving style, but whether it is wet or dry tomorrow, we are ready for anything."

“It was quite a tough day for me. I couldn’t really get the tyres to work when it mattered and I was struggling with a lack of grip in both Q1 and Q2. I seem to have lost some ground to Adrian compared to yesterday so perhaps one of the directions we took overnight hasn’t quite worked out. We need to analyse that and hopefully try and improve for tomorrow. As for the race, the unsettled forecast means it’s unlikely to be a straightforward race. I still hope we can fight for points because our long run pace has looked quite strong. Also my set-up is more raceorientated, which will hopefully play into our hands.”

“I was only just over three hundredths of a second off Q3 but margins like that can always be found somewhere, so by no means was this a bad qualifying session for me, although it would have been good to have had a run in Q3 and try to gain a few more places. As for tomorrow, so much depends on the weather; if it’s wet it makes it very difficult to know what to expect and we know that as a team, our car is better in dry conditions and on the long runs. One thing is clear, and that is that we’re on the way back. Silverstone was a tough race for us, but we’ve certainly made a step forward and we need to have a good race tomorrow to demonstrate that. We’re definitely targeting points."

We knew we might struggle on my car as we weren’t able to use KERS here. We didn’t have an ideal balance on the car, particularly compared to the morning, and it wasn’t possible to get on top of that during the session. We need to analyse that in detail, and look for better pace in the race tomorrow.

„Unsere Leistungsfähigkeit ist hier insgesamt nicht gut, und ich denke, wir haben im Qualifying fast hundert Prozent von dem erreicht, was unter diesen Umständen möglich ist. Wir kommen hier auf dem Nürburgring nicht gut zurecht. Meine schnellste Runde war im Grunde in Ordnung, es gibt nichts, worüber ich mich beschweren könnte. Ein Mal habe ich ein Rad blockiert, aber das ist nicht unser Problem. Vielleicht wäre es ein oder zwei Zehntelsekunden schneller gegangen, mehr aber ganz sicher nicht. Wie dem auch sei: Wir sind da, wo wir sind. Und von dort aus werde ich morgen um Punkte kämpfen.“

„Es ist natürlich enttäuschend, in Q1 auszuscheiden. Es war ein schwieriges Qualifying an einem bislang für uns schwierigen Wochenende. Trotzdem war meine schnellste Runde nicht perfekt. Ich hatte Autos vor mir und hinter mir, aber es ist eben auch eine Tatsache, dass wir hier insgesamt zu langsam sind. Das einzig Gute ist, dass ich jetzt zwei frische Sätze von den weichen Reifen für das Rennen habe. Ich werde alles geben, um mich nach vorn zu arbeiten.“

“Given how little track time I had yesterday, in general I am pleased with my performance this afternoon. I had the feeling I got the maximum out of the car, which we had decided to run in rain set-up to be ready for a wet race tomorrow. Jaime has decided to stay with a dry set-up so now we must wait and see which one of us has made the right choice.

“This is where we are at the moment in qualifying. Maybe if it rains tomorrow, then it will prove to have been a good idea to have used the extra set of tyres this afternoon. Perhaps I could have gone one or two tenths quicker, but no more than that. Nevertheless, I am pleased that we managed to make a step forward on the car after this morning’s session, improving it for qualifying and I believe I have a good set-up for the race too.”

"I'm relatively pleased with the performance today but I think there was still more to come from the car. On the second run I was still struggling to get the front tyres working and I maybe pushed a bit more than I should so couldn't improve on my first run. That run had gone well and I was able to get a decent time in so all in all not too bad."

“The car was not easy to drive today, by any means. We had the same problem in Silverstone in similarly windy conditions and our car is just very sensitive to that. We have to understand why because without the little mistakes, too much oversteer and being too much over the limit to trying to get the maximum out of the car, we could have been four or five tenths quicker. I was pushing hard and I drove a good lap I think. I just want to get more out of the car. We still managed to split the Lotus cars and in better conditions I think we could have a good race, so we will see what tomorrow brings. The fans have been great here and thanks to them for their support in my home race.”

“We’ve continued to work hard during this morning’s free practice and the balance of the car was good. I was optimistic about finishing ahead of our main rivals in qualifying. However, the track conditions changed from the morning to the afternoon and the car wasn’t feeling the same. Also, with the gearbox change, we got penalized and will have to start off the back tomorrow. Still, I’m confident that tomorrow we can regain yesterday’s feel on race distance. Tomorrow will be a difficult but exciting race”.

“I think it was a pretty good qualifying session for me today. I didn't quite manage to get the maximum out of the car on my fastest lap, and as we have to use the same set-up for the race tomorrow it wasn't ideal for qualifying anyway. But I'm very pleased to have had a smooth Saturday; we've had no rain and no bad luck. As a result we have a good consistent pace so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.”

"I've got to say I'm pleased with how qualifying went today. Tony had said to me that if I could get within a second of Heikki he'd be proud, and I finished about 0.8 off him so that's a goal achieved. One of the challenges today has been finding out how much grip there is on the soft tyres on low fuel and that was always going to be a pretty steep learning curve in quali, but my times have been coming down all weekend so I'm getting there. As I've been saying, the last couple of days have been about learning the car, the tyres and how to get the best out of the DRS system, so to get as close as I reasonably could expect to my teammate is pretty good progress ."

“I’m quite happy with the qualifying session. I’m not delighted but I have to be realistic and I think it’s a good step forward from Silverstone. Also, this morning, I wasn’t so quick and we learned from that. We made some changes with the engineer and it seems to be positive because my lap times improved considerably. So I think it’s a very a good step forward. We need to take another one tomorrow during the race”.