Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“Congratulations to Lewis – he’s been very quick and has been all weekend and I just couldn’t quite get close enough to him this afternoon. “On my final run, I think I lost some ground in the last corner: I hit the limiter at the apex and lost a bit of time, but I feel good in the car. Third position isn’t where I want to start, but we can have a good race from there: there are a lot of long straights on this circuit, especially after the start. With a headwind from Turn Two to Turn Three, there could be a lot of action on the first lap – I’m looking forward to that! “Our car is feeling good this weekend. As a team, we’ve done a great job – and I’m particularly grateful to the guys in the garage who worked extremely hard last night to switch my chassis. Thanks guys. “We’re slightly heading into the unknown tomorrow as we haven’t run high-fuel yet. Off the line tomorrow, we’ll need to get a feel for how the cars behave on high-fuel, and then we’ve got to focus on what we’re doing to the tyres over the course of a stint. “We have all the ingredients for a fantastic race. Even more encouragingly, if we continue this way, fighting for poles and wins, then it’ll be a really good way to end the season and the perfect basis for 2012.”

“Throughout the year, I don’t think my qualifying performances have been too bad – it’s only in the last two races that I didn’t manage to get my final run in Q3 – so today’s result wasn’t entirely unexpected. Still, we’ve been quick as a team and never stopped making improvements to the car. I’m so, so proud of all the men and women both here at the circuit and back at Woking who’ve worked so hard to get us back to where we want to be. “Of course, pole position is still only the first step, particularly when we know that tomorrow’s race will be long and unpredictable. Pole is always a great achievement and I’m particularly proud to have achieved it at the team’s 700th Formula 1 grand prix. “We’ve been working to improve our starts, and I hope we can convert pole into the lead tomorrow. The grand prix’s going to be tough, and it’ll be difficult to beat the two guys starting immediately behind me, but I hope to keep the lead and control the race in a responsible way. “I now want to put all my energy into the race.”

"On the last run, I lost the rear a little bit on the exit of Turn 1. I tried to get it back through Turn 3, but I was down 3/10 of a second; it’s a pity as you’re not going to get that back in the last sector – which hadn’t been too bad on the previous run. So, we’re fourth tomorrow to start. It’s a shame that Jenson got me in the end there, as it bumped me onto the left hand side of the grid, but we’ll see how we go tomorrow in the race. Tyres are going to be interesting tomorrow, as there were different strategies in qualifying. We’re closer to the McLarens than we thought and it was a well fought contest between the four of us.”

“I can’t be happy with sixth, but the position reflects our current situation: McLaren and Red Bull are stronger than us so it just leaves us to fight between ourselves for fifth and sixth places. That’s how Saturday goes, but maybe tomorrow will end up like Sunday in Suzuka and we will find ourselves again fighting for the win. When tyre degradation is very high, usually we are in good shape, but here the situation is not very clear, as the behaviour of the Supersofts over a long run and on full tanks is still an unknown quantity. We had considered using this tyre right from Q1 but then we decided not to take too many risks. Today, we were losing too much time in the first sector, where we lacked top speed. On my last run, I immediately lost a few tenths at the first corner and after that, I could not make up the time, so I decided not to complete the lap. Unfortunately, I start from the dirty side of the grid, which should be a major disadvantage here, so I hope I don’t lose a place to Rosberg. We will have to keep an eye on what happens ahead of us and exploit the strategy in our favour. The new front wing? I don’t like talking about individual components; on the one hand I think that’s a job for the engineers, on the other, I prefer to share my opinions about it only with the team.”

“I am happy with my performance today. I think I got a good lap on my final run, after the first one in Q3, when I used the same set of Supersofts I had already run in Q2. My impression is that we are now also improving our Saturday performance, but there are still four cars in front of us and so the grid position stays more or less the same. Going into this Grand Prix there was a lot of concern about tyre degradation but, at least from what we have seen today, it seems to be less severe than expected. Let’s see how things go tomorrow. I am confident: if nothing strange happens to me, as has been the case in the last few races, then I think I can do a good job. It was actually here, a year ago, that I stood on the podium for the last time: maybe tonight I’ll watch the race again, even if the weather then was very different to what we can expect tomorrow. Finally, I want to offer my condolences for two people who have left us this very day: Maria Martins Bassi, my wife Raffaela’s grandmother and Pasquale Danza, whom I first met ten years ago when I came to Ferrari and with whom I shared so many good times, both at the track and at Maranello.”

"Um mit den positiven Aspekten des heutigen Tages zu starten: Ich habe zwei neue Sätze der superweichen Reifen gespart, was immer hilfreich ist", so Michael nach dem Zeittraining. "Auf der anderen Seite ist es natürlich sehr schade. In Q1 lief alles ganz normal und durch die Erwartungen, die wir unter normalen Umständen an die Reifen haben, war es absolut gerechtfertigt, es in Q2 mit nur einem Versuch zu probieren", erklärte der Kerpener. "Leider konnte ich bereits beim Verlassen der Box spüren, dass irgendetwas nicht stimmte, da ich sofort Vibrationen hatte. Ab da konnte ich nur noch hoffen, dass die Lücke groß genug sein würde, um innerhalb der Top-10 zu bleiben", meinte der MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Fahrer, der anfügte: "Leider war das nicht der Fall." Nun werde man genau analysieren, wo das Problem lag. "Morgen im Rennen werden wir uns dann voll darauf konzentrieren, einige Plätze gutzumachen", versprach Michael.

“I was pleased with today’s efforts. Eighth position is something to be proud of, and it gives me a strong chance to make my presence known towards the top end of the grid tomorrow. I was quite surprised with how enthusiastic we were in venturing out again in Q3, but I was unable to complete a second timed lap anyway. This track is quite smooth, and today it offered a lot of grip with these tyres. As a team we did a fantastic job, and the main thing is we have no mechanical problems heading into tomorrow.”

“Considering the limited dry track time we had during practice, I think we can pleased with our performance level today. Getting both cars in the top ten is a good result and we can have a strong race from there. I took the decision to save tyres during Q3 and I believe it was the right thing to do. Having as many new sets for the race is an advantage – that’s something we’ve already seen in lots of races this year. Starting from the dirty side of the track is not ideal, but there is not a very long run to the first corner so let’s see how the start of the race unfolds.”

“McLaren looked very competitive yesterday; I know the conditions were completely different, but you could see they were a fair chunk ahead of everyone else, including us. They looked extremely quick this morning in the dry also, but I think once again we pushed them very hard in qualifying and got closer than I think they, and we, expected. So, I think we did a good job. We also saved all our soft tyres, which I think will be crucial for tomorrow. We only had a rough idea from this morning with more fuel in the car, but I think we are in a good position. There’s not a long run to the first corner and Turn 3 is a little bit exposed, so we’ll see. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen and I think tyre wear will be crucial.”

"Ich bin mit dem heutigen Ergebnis ganz zufrieden. Das richtige Set-Up für das Qualifying und das Rennen zu finden, ist immer ein Kompromiss, besonders nach so wenig Fahrzeit auf trockener Strecke", meinte Nico im Anschluss an das Zeittraining in Bezug auf die starken Regenfälle vom Vortag. "Ich bin daher zufrieden, dass wir einen Satz der superweichen Reifen gespart haben", freute sich der Wiesbadener. "Es wird schwer, einen der Top-6-Fahrer abzufangen, aber hoffentlich habe ich morgen einen guten Start und kann bereits da eine Position gutmachen", so der 26-Jährige. Besonderes Augenmerk müsse man am Sonntag auf den Reifenverschleiß legen. "Aus Sicht der Reifen-Situation wird es ein interessantes Rennen mit vielen Boxenstopps", glaubte der MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Fahrer, der anfügte: "Ich bin sicher, dass unsere Jungs auch bei den Boxenstopps wieder großartige Arbeit leisten werden."

“We looked quite strong throughout the session, although we seemed to be very close on performance with the cars around us – so it was a tight session as well. It’s good to make Q3 and it puts me in a strong position tomorrow, especially starting from the clean side of the grid. For the race the important thing is to be aggressive with our strategy because there are some fast cars behind us, including a Mercedes, and we need to work hard to keep them at bay. That won’t be easy because I expect the DRS zone to be quite effective here. So there’s a lot of hard work ahead tomorrow, but we go into the race believing we can bring home some points.”

…, so we can say this was a good qualifying for the team. We did a good job, starting yesterday when the car felt fine in the wet. I think we now have a better understanding of some of the upgrades we introduced in Suzuka and made the most of them. I was also encouraged by the long run I did, as there was not as much tyre degradation as we had expected, so this issue should not trouble us tomorrow. I am expecting a lot from the race in which I hope we can score enough points to close up the gap to Sauber, who are starting behind us on the grid. As for the incident this morning with Vettel, it’s clear to me what happened: I was on a long run, he was on his fast lap, so I let him by. Then he made a mistake so he was behind me, but he caught me again. Having already let him by once, I pushed for another lap on my long run. You cannot keep letting one driver pass you. I know it would have been easier for him if I had moved over again, but I also had a job to do to get enough data, because we had no information regarding a long run in the dry because of yesterday’s rain. I’m sorry about that, but they have to understand my point of view too.

“I am reasonably happy with my performance in today’s qualifying, even if thirteenth is not where we really want to be. However, we are getting very close to Q3 which is very important. Being two tenths off getting into the top ten is a sign that the car is improving. I am sure I could have done a bit better, but this still looks good for tomorrow, especially considering we had a strong long run in free practice this morning, during which we got a good idea about tyre degradation. This means we should be well prepared for the race, in which we have every reason to believe we can get a good result.”

„Wir haben hier bisher eine schwierige Zeit. Startplatz 14 ist natürlich nicht das, was wir uns erhofft hatten, wir sind zu weit weg von der Konkurrenz. Das Hauptproblem ist nach wie vor zu wenig Grip, was verschiedene Ursachen hat. Meine letzte Runde in Q2 war im Prinzip in Ordnung, ich kann mich nicht über die Verkehrssituation beschweren und habe auch keinen Fehler gemacht. Es war so ziemlich das Optimum, was heute zu erreichen war. Das Rennen morgen wird eine andere Geschichte. Wegen des Wetterumschwungs seit Freitag, als es nass war, gibt es wenig Erfahrungswerte darüber, wie sich die Autos auf dieser Strecke und mit den hier zur Verfügung stehenden Reifen verhalten, wenn sie vollgetankt sind. Darüber werden wir erst morgen mehr lernen, und ich hoffe, es wird uns zum Vorteil gereichen.“

„Für mich war das ein ganz schlechtes Qualifying heute. Wir konnten erst heute Vormittag auf trockener Strecke fahren, für mich ist der Kurs neu, und ich bin nicht zufrieden mit der Balance und der Abstimmung meines Autos. Ich hatte überhaupt kein Vertrauen in das Fahrverhalten. Meine letzte Runde in Q2 war besonders schlecht, weil ich die Bremsbalance nicht richtig eingestellt hatte und die Vorderräder blockierten. Angesichts meines schlechten Startplatz denke ich, dass wir eine aggressive Rennstrategie anpeilen sollten.“

“It’s been a bit of a tough weekend so far and today didn’t go quite to plan. It’s my first poor qualifying performance of the year and I hope it’s the last! These things happen – sometimes you just don’t get everything you need out of the car at the vital time. Vitaly did a great job so we’ve seen that the car is consistent and has strong potential for the race. The car was fine; I probably didn’t have sufficient mileage to push when it mattered on my qualifying run. I’m just off Vitaly’s time in a few corners and that’s all it takes to make the difference between Q2 and Q3. It’s not the ideal way to celebrate my birthday, but tomorrow should be a better day.”

I didn’t get much running on low fuel this morning, just four timed laps, and this track is not easy, especially sectors 2 and 3. I think I did some good laps in qualifying, in both Q1 and Q2. We are a bit far away from the top ten so we need to keep working. Tomorrow is another day and we have lots of new tyres which is important for our race strategy.

My first lap in Q1 was quite good but my tyres had started to go off by the third lap. As we had decided to conserve tyres before the session started, we aborted the run and came in. We made the best call we could today based on the performance we have in the car at the moment.

"For me that was probably my best qualifying lap of the season. Next to Hungary, I think I got as much as I possibly could out of the car and nailed every sector, so it's a good feeling to know when you've wrung as much as you can from a single lap. We worked hard last night and today to find a balance that would suit the dry conditions today and tomorrow, and I think we've done that, so I'm feeling pretty good about the race. It'll be very interesting to see how the tyre strategies play out, and if we can keep up the pace from Suzuka we'll be there or thereabouts."

"I think we did ok today, but there was definitely a bit more in the car. This morning I had a really good setup and found a lot of grip, but this afternoon it just didn't feel quite the same so I wasn't able to get as much out of the car as I could. Still, I'm reasonably happy with where we are - we're well ahead of the cars behind and close enough on race pace to a couple of the teams just ahead, so another good start tomorrow and we'll be ok."

“It’s been a great weekend so far and today went very smoothly compared to the last few weekends where we had a few more set-up troubles. The car was very good in wet conditions yesterday, which made me very comfortable for today, because if the car is very good in the wet it should also be good in the dry – and it was this morning, straight from the first lap. We just fine-tuned the set-up as for us there is quite a lot of grip here and that suits the car. I got a good qualifying lap; a slight mistake into turn 5 which cost me a bit of time, but in general today we are 0.9s from Team Lotus. The team did a good job and in particular my engineers worked well together to get everything right. Now we have to focus on looking after the tyres over a race distance and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

“It wasn’t a good day for me. The pace is not there and it’s been like that all weekend. There’s obviously something going wrong, even though we’re not sure where it’s coming from yet so we will have to analyse and try to understand it before tomorrow.”

“Overall I was quite happy with the balance and the car was reacting quite well. We’ve had a good Saturday. In qualifying we were a few tenths behind one of the Virgins and a bit more off the other one, so we need to understand the reason behind this gap. We lost a lot in the third sector because of graining and this will be key tomorrow because the race will be really hard. There will be a lot of problems with the tyres, especially the supersofts, and we will face a lot of pit stops. We just have to be in the right place at the right time to try and beat our closest competitors”.

“This morning we had some problems which the guys tried to fix and we made it out on to the track before the end of the session. But in the afternoon, already on the first timed lap, my race engineer came on the radio and told me to box because they saw another issue coming up on the data. I’m sure it will be solved and we will try and have a good race tomorrow. Looking at today, as long as we get some miles done then that will be better than nothing”.