Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Es ist fantastisch, hier in Spa von der Pole Position zu starten. Bei diesen Bedingungen ist es hier niemals einfach. Sie machen diese Strecke zu einer noch größeren Herausforderung. Heute waren die Verhältnisse allerdings sehr stabil. Das gesamte Qualifying über herrschten Intermediate-Bedingungen. Es war also nicht so hart wie in den vergangenen Jahren. Wir haben heute eine super Qualifying-Performance gezeigt. Dafür möchte ich dem Team danken. Sie haben großartige Arbeit geleistet. Meine Ingenieure haben mir dabei geholfen, das richtige Setup zu finden. Sie nutzten alle Möglichkeiten aus, um während der Session etwas zu verändern. Das Auto wurde gegen Ende immer besser und besser. Ich bin wirklich sehr zufrieden. Gleichzeitig bin ich aber auch etwas überrascht, dass der Abstand zu den anderen Teams so groß ist. Morgen wünsche ich mir einen guten Start und ein sauberes Rennen. In Budapest haben wir ja gesehen, dass es erst am Sonntag darauf ankommt. Ich bin jedoch recht zuversichtlich, denn wir haben ein fantastisches Auto. Deshalb freue ich mich auf das Rennen.

Ich war vor dem Qualifying ein bisschen nervös. Ich hatte an den vergangenen Wochenenden einige Schwierigkeiten und fragte mich, ob diesmal alles glatt laufen würde. Es war jedoch großartig, zu sehen, wie sich die ganze harte Arbeit des Teams auszahlte. Diese Strecke ist eine enorme Herausforderung im Nassen. Im Trockenen macht sie wahrscheinlich mehr Spaß. Dann ist man ganz am Limit. Aber die Bedingungen waren recht stabil. Demnach war es nicht allzu schlimm. Auf dieser Strecke benötigt man Vertrauen beim Bremsen. Auf meinem Run im Q3 hatte ich leider verglaste Bremsen vorne links. Deshalb zog das Auto zur Seite. Wenn so etwas auftritt, ist es echt schwierig, sich davon zu erholen und die Bremse wieder auf Temperatur zu bringen. Aus diesem Grund verlor ich auf meinen letzten Runden etwas Bremsleistung. Ich bin jedoch nicht allzu enttäuscht. Im vergangenen Jahr stand ich auf der Pole. Aber auf der Kemmel-Geraden flog Seb an mir vorbei. Der zweite Platz könnte also die beste Ausgangsposition sein. Dieser Startplatz könnte demnach ein versteckter Vorteil sein.

"I think the rain helped us," he said. "In dry conditions we couldn't have qualified so high up. So, it was a good day for us and a good result and we should be a little bit more competitive compared to Mercedes in the race tomorrow, so let's see."

“I think today’s qualifying went well, even if it wasn’t easy, because every time you went out on track, you didn’t know what conditions to expect and exactly how much grip you would find from the track surface. Fourth position is a great result and now I think we can expect a very interesting race. We tried various aerodynamic configurations and, if we seemed more competitive, maybe it’s because we managed to adapt better than some other teams. The rain certainly helped, but we also had good pace on the long run in the dry yesterday. Tomorrow, whatever the conditions, we must simply try to run a perfect race and above all make the right tyre choices. We have all new sets available and, of the two compounds, I think the Soft will be the one to use at the start and in the early part of the race. The Medium is a bit slower, but similar to the Soft in terms of degradation, so it will be a case of running it for as little time as possible in the race and to make the change at the right moment.”

"I had a moment on Blanchimont; that corner is tricky in the wet," he said. "It's never full, it's always a lift or a dab of the brakes and knowing that the chequered flag was just there at the end of the session, then I just pushed it a bit too much. I guess in hindsight it cost a bit of time, but you never get the perfect lap in these conditions. Spa is unique, as the track is so long and some parts of the circuits are drier than others, so nearly every lap you're driving blind. It's great to drive here though."

The final practice where I finished P1 showed that we have a very strong car in the dry, but wet conditions allow other cars to move closer to us and unfortunately we didn’t qualify as high today as we can. I lost some tyre temperature in my warm up lap because of traffic which is crucial for us and this made my final run trickier than the ones before, and throughout qualifying we were losing time in the second sector. Our wet pace has improved a lot though since the beginning of the season and P6 is still a good grid slot. We can still do a lot tomorrow and if it is a dry race then we stand a good chance of challenging Ferrari and Red Bull.

"The conditions were extremely tricky today. In fact I almost failed to make it through to Q2 because I acquired bad flat-spots on both my front tyres at Turn One of my first lap, so I had massive understeer and couldn’t really push. But, despite that, I just about managed to make it through, so that was okay. "I then made it through Q2, and Q3 worked out pretty well too. I nailed a strong lap and had a good feeling in the car. Okay, P7 might not be a fantastic result, but it’s not a bad position from which to start tomorrow’s race. "I simply can’t over-state how much I love driving here. It’s truly amazing to drive this track in any race car. It’s superb fun, and hopefully tomorrow we can do what we came here to do, namely get a good result and score some good points. "A dry race tomorrow would be nice."

“After lots of unforeseen incidents on Friday, this morning I was reasonably happy with the handling of my car. In the afternoon, the arrival of the rain made everything more unpredictable, the car was sliding all over the place and putting together a good lap wasn’t easy. On my last run in Q3, I tried my best, but some mistakes cost me a few places. Even if I’m a bit disappointed, now I want to just think about tomorrow’s race, which will be a long one, with the chance of very variable weather. I will try and make up as many places as possible and in order to do that, it will be very important to make the right decisions at the right time.”

The rain was very tricky today and prevented us from showing our true pace. Our pace looked solid in Q1 and Q2, but I had traffic in Q3 on my warm up lap and because of that I was not able to warm my tyres up properly which stopped me getting the full performance out of the car on my flying lap. Even though the track was drying and getting quicker in Q3, I was slower than my Q2 time so that shows that I could have gone faster if my lap had come together. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we can show the pace we have and move up the field.

"My first run in Q3 was pretty good. "But, during my second run, on new Inters [tyres], in the slightly drier conditions, I locked up at the top of the hill – and, as soon as you lock up, that’s it really. I went straight on, and that was the end of my lap. I tried to continue, but I was 1.5 seconds down, so I was never going to get that back. It should have been the run that got me the lap-time I wanted, but it wasn’t to be, which was a pity. "With regard to tomorrow, I’d prefer it if it were dry. The wet is always a real mess here, especially at Eau Rouge. After the first lap it always gets pretty horrible if it’s wet, in fact, so as I say I’d like it to be dry. "It’ll be a better race if it’s dry, in fact."

"That was a tricky qualifying session and until the last run I wasn't too happy with the car handling. But we tweaked a few things and in the end I was much more comfortable. I would say that my last run in Q2 was quite representative, even though I think we could have been faster if it had been dry. Tomorrow will be a different situation, since the race is very long and anything can happen. We will definitely push hard and hopefully we can grab some points."

"Q1 went well but then unfortunately we had an issue with the exhaust system, which compromised my Q2, being able to run only three laps and the timing was not the best one. It's a shame as we had the car to make it to Q3 today. Nevertheless, we have seen during the weekend that we have got the pace to do well, long runs looked pretty good. Considering that tomorrow the race should be in dry conditions, starting from P12 is not too bad, as everything is possible."

“It was not the easiest day for us. I was struggling in the wet conditions and that was the main issue today. I wanted to be further up but we did not maximise everything. I’m feeling more optimistic for tomorrow and we should have strong race pace. P13 is not a bad place to start the race and I’m sure we can move forward and make up some positions.”

„Wieder ein nasses Qualifying in Spa, so wie im letzten Jahr auch. Es war schwierig, die Situation auf der Strecke richtig einzuschätzen, vor allem wie viel Wasser noch in den Kurven stand. Insbesondere im Regen ist das Auto nach wie vor nicht einfach zu fahren. Aufgrund der Wettervorhersage für das morgige Rennen wählten wir für das Qualifying eine Trockenabstimmung, wodurch die Balance des Autos nicht optimal war. Unter diesen Umständen waren wir trotz allem gut unterwegs, und es war wichtig, das Qualifying fehlerfrei zu beenden. Das Team hat gute Arbeit geleistet, und auch ich habe mein Bestes gegeben. Ich bin mit dem heutigen Tag durchaus zufrieden.“

"Spa is a circuit where you have to be quite brave even in the dry, so in the wet it's pretty good fun! P15 is quite disappointing. We got through to Q2 but then we were one of the slower of the cars in that session. We knew that the Q1 conditions would suit us a bit better than in Q2 due to the amount of rain on track. We look to the race now and as it's Spa, you never know what can happen. We're on the grid and we'll push as hard as we can for the best result possible."

“I'm really happy to make it through to Q2 again, especially as it repeats a good performance here last year. I love this track and it’s also very special to me personally, so it is always a really nice feeling to do well here. I was a little surprised that we had such a strong qualifying, simply because the tricky conditions were the same for everyone, yet we have fared better than some of the teams further up the grid, finishing ahead of a Lotus, a Force India and a Sauber. I also made a little mistake in Turn 10, so there was even a bit more to come. I’m really pleased for the Team as this is a nice reward for them and I hope we can carry it through to the race now. We can’t be sure what the weather will bring tomorrow. Ideally it would be dry, but I think we are still missing a little bit of performance, so we will be do our best whatever the conditions.”

"It was pretty tough at the beginning of the session, but then the track was improving all the time in Q1. We changed for a second set of intermediate tyres and were pushing hard – even with a bit of a spin on one of my laps - but we couldn't get the improvement in lap time that we wanted. It's going to be a tough race tomorrow and we don't know what the weather will bring so our fingers are crossed; we'll do our best."

“It was a difficult session in tricky conditions. Initially it was looking good; I was on the pace and we chose to stay out on one set of intermediates for the whole session. Maybe that was a factor in missing out on Q2 because my tyres were quite old and worn by the end of the session. Q2 should still have been possible, but I made mistakes on my last two laps and out-braked myself going into the final corner, went wide and lost time. For the race tomorrow I believe we can recover because we’ve got a solid car and the long run pace in the dry yesterday looked promising.”

“It was pretty tricky out there so I was quite happy with the lap as I had no battery - I used the energy on the previous lap when the tyres weren’t at their best. I was closer to Jules on the first run so without the energy problem, who knows? Maybe Q2 was possible, but then Jules pulled a mega lap out of the bag, so credit to him. We are still a good chunk ahead of the Caterhams and I think we can have a really strong race. Spa is a great track so I’ll be giving it my all and I hope for a good team result tomorrow.”

„Bis jetzt war das ein sehr unglückliches Wochenende. Es ist einfach enttäuschend, wenn ich alle technischen Probleme betrachte, die wir hatten. Ich weiss, dass das Team sehr hart arbeitet, um alles in den Griff zu bekommen. Und auch ich versuche, alles aus dem Auto herauszuholen. Leider ist jedoch unsere Zeit auf der Strecke sehr limitiert. Bei diesen wechselhaften Wetterverhältnissen ist es wirklich schwierig, so das gesamte Potenzial abzurufen. Diese Situation ist nicht akzeptabel, und wir müssen dringend etwas ändern, um die technischen Probleme in den Griff zu bekommen.“

"This is definitely a speedy way of learning how to drive an F1 car! Yesterday was dry while today was wet, so all this is now covered and I know exactly what to expect in both those conditions. I think it was a very tough qualifying session for me. I had to figure it all out while I was out there, so I'm very happy that I brought the car back without making many mistakes - it was so easy to lose it out there! In the end I managed to complete two decent laps and I'm really happy with my result. "The most difficult part of this weekend is figuring it all out in such a short period of time: understanding where the grip is, where to brake, how to handle the throttle and the power... I've accumulated a lot of experience in a very short amount of time and I feel that I can do a good race tomorrow. I did some long runs yesterday and I found a good rhythm. Hopefully the conditions won't be too tricky, because if not I will need to find out where the limit is while I'm racing - that's my biggest concern. Nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's race, I'm ready for it!"

"I think we could've been quite competitive in the rain but unfortunately we were in the wrong place on track all the time so I didn't get a single clean lap. I'm disappointed because we could've done much better if we had put a lap together. "It doesn't really matter what weather conditions we race in tomorrow, I think we're going to have a tough race anyway, but we need to make the most of the opportunities that come up during the race tomorrow. In the dry this morning we were out early on the option tyre, so that's why we were a bit off the pace, but the car felt a lot better today in the dry, so if there's a dry race tomorrow I think that there's potential to do well."