Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ich bin mit der Pole-Runde sehr zufrieden. Die zweite Runde bekam ich leider nicht ganz zusammen. Deshalb hoffte ich, dass die erste gut genug sein würde. Zum Glück war dem so! Ich mag diese Bedingungen. Es ist ein bisschen wie eine Lotterie. Ich habe es beinahe nicht durch Q2 geschafft, als ich hinter einem Ferrari und einem Sauber festhing. Das kann so leicht passieren und macht es so viel spannender. Jetzt freue ich mich auf morgen. Das Auto fühlt sich großartig an und die Hitze macht dieses Rennen mit der Strategie stets zu einer Herausforderung. Die Temperaturen setzen den Reifen zu und im vergangenen Jahr machten wir drei Stopps. Es ist also hart für die Autos und die Fahrer. Im Vergleich zum Qualifying erfolgt der Start früher. Sofern es trocken bleibt, wird es ein sehr heißes Rennen. Es ist nicht die einfachste Strecke, um zu überholen. Der Start wird also entscheidend sein, besonders angesichts des langen Weges bis zur ersten Kurve. Ferrari hat sich stark verbessert und es ist fantastisch, neben einem vierfachen Weltmeister zu starten. Uns erwartet ein interessantes Rennen.

I think we had a good pace in the end, it was very tight with Lewis. If you look back to one year ago, we had the same conditions, intermediates in the end and it was one tenth, so maybe next year … For sure the result puts us in a good position for tomorrow. I think the target for Sunday is to extract the best race we can, and then we go from there. The nature of the track suits our car well, I expect nothing else than to be very strong tomorrow, but you never know about the conditions in Sepang. There is rain in the air that can hit you at the right time, but also make go all wrong, you just never know. Let’s keep our feet on the ground, in the end we have to look after ourselves. Mercedes is very strong and has an advantage, but it would be nice to give them a hard time tomorrow, it has been a bit too chilled for them in the last months

Die anderen beiden Fahrer leisteten heute einfach bessere Arbeit als ich. Das war aus meiner Sicht etwas ärgerlich. Lewis war gut und Sebastian hat im Ferrari ganz besonders überrascht. Davor ziehe ich meinen Hut. Ich glaube aber, dass ich morgen beim Start eine gute Chance habe. Denn ich starte von der sauberen Seite der Startaufstellung. Ich werde versuchen, Seb sofort anzugreifen und danach gibt es einige gute Gelegenheiten, um auch Lewis zu schnappen. Das Rennen wird sehr hart für die Reifen sein. Uns erwarten vielleicht drei Boxenstopps und es besteht stets die Möglichkeit, eine andere Strategie zu wählen. Ich freue mich sehr auf das Rennen und werde voll angreifen.

"We've always gone pretty well in the wet and there are still some things we can improve, but fourth is a good result for the team," he said. "The second row is a good starting position and we should hopefully have some battles tomorrow. "We're behind Mercedes and Ferrari, but we are ahead of the Williams and the conditions were tricky, so that's good, step by step we are improving and heading in the right direction. Tyre degradation will be high, so it will probably be a three-stop race tomorrow. If we can finish in the top four, that will be good."

"It was a decent qualifying for us, P4 and P5 is good for the team but I think on our lap we maybe went out a little early, it might have been better later on but it's hard always to know with the conditions. Overall, there are a lot of positives to take from this weekend and we are seeing some improvements, it's a good start."

I’m very happy, it was a good session this afternoon, especially Q3. In Q1 and Q2 I wasn’t totally comfortable with the car, but we had a good end of Q2. I was smiling when it started to rain, because that’s what I like. I’m Dutch so I’m used to driving in the wet, even though here it’s a completely different story. P6 is a really a good position to start tomorrow’s race. I’m really looking forward to it and even if we seem to struggle a bit in the longer runs, I’m not worried and hopefully we can score some points.

It wasn’t the easiest day today, I think in the dry we can both be in the top five. We still have some of the issues in the wet that we had last season, hopefully we can now look to solve a few of those. Tomorrow looks like it will be dry though, so we hope for a better race.

I am a little disappointed with how the day turned out. I felt like I did a good lap so was a little surprised to be in P9. I wanted to be the last car across the line and so was pleased to be, we just have some work to do on the wet weather performance. Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow, but it will also be hot and so nothing will be easy, especially from ninth.

Es war bisher ein gutes Wochenende. Ich konnte alle Trainings in den Top 10 beenden. Es ist grossartig, diese Performance nun auch im Qualifying bestätigen zu können. Mit diesem Ergebnis können wir zufrieden sein. Im Auto fühlte ich mich bei trockenen sowie feuchten Streckenverhältnissen wohl. Positiv ist auch, dass uns am Ende von Q3 nicht viel Zeit auf die vor uns liegende Konkurrenz gefehlt hat. Es war erneut ein guter Tag, und morgen haben wir durchaus Chancen, in die Punkte zu fahren.

“We had never driven with wets on the car before so it was a bit of a discovery mission but everything was good,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy qualy, but the team made the right calls. It was a safe choice to go out on extremes wets first. We then went onto inters but the timing didn’t allow us to finish our lap so we had to pit. We only did one timed lap in those conditions but we made it and I think we got the best we could. A post-qualifying penalty for leaving the pitlane not in the in the order he entered (a scurrilous crime) was subsequently bestowed upon Romain, meaning a P10 start tomorrow. “The race is going to be interesting; we have quite a mix of cars around us but it’s a long race, it’s a hot race and even without rain, it’s quite a demanding race on the cars and on drivers. It’ll definitely be interesting,” Romain reckoned.

Today it was simply a bad time to go out, we should have been out earlier. I did try to pass Ericsson but he was there trying to do his job; it’s not an unlucky situation but it was a mistake. Tomorrow we’ll try to climb some positions, for sure we have the speed but we are quite far from the front and when you start in this position is not going to be an easy race. Obviously there is going to be more risk in the first corner, but we’ll try to make the best out of it tomorrow.

"The performance was there today and we could have made it to Q3 had it not been for the weather changing,” explained Pastor. “We got to the track a little bit late on my last run and that penalised us, but we showed we had good pace in Q1. I felt like we had already made a step forward. Overall the car was quick and consistent so hopefully we can recover some places tomorrow. We’re targeting points.”

It was a short qualifying session in the end with the rain arriving quite early in Q2. Maybe it would have been better for us if the rain had arrived five minutes earlier and Q2 was completely wet because everybody was able to complete a lap on slicks when the track was quite dry. It was only on the in-lap that the skies really opened. As it happens I think it would have been very difficult to reach Q3 anyway. The race tomorrow will be tough, especially managing the tyres in the high temperatures. There is always the chance of more rain and that’s when you have to adapt quickly because it’s all about being on the right tyre at the right moment. Whatever happens we will try our best to come away with some points.

It was really tough out there in these conditions. I was the last car out on track in Q2 and that compromised my lap on the mediums - our strategy was the right one but we were just a bit late in going out and by the time I got to sectors two and three the track was starting to get wet. All in all, I think where we are is a fair reflection of our current pace. We are hoping to be in a better position than others tomorrow because our focus has been directed towards the race rather than qualifying. We've seen in Melbourne that anything can happen so I will approach the race aiming for points.

I’m disappointed with today’s result, as getting into Q3 was more than possible and we could’ve ended up with a great result. We were looking very good, very sharp, but unfortunately I made a rookie mistake at Turn 14 and I locked-up when it was starting to rain, losing all chances to get through to Q3. If this rain hadn’t arrived, we would’ve surely been up there. But these things can happen, we need to stay positive and learn from mistakes. I look forward to making up some positions in the race tomorrow as we know that we can fight for a good result.

Nach dem dritten freien Training stellten wir fest, dass wir noch immer Schwierigkeiten mit den Hinterreifen haben. Im Qualifying dachten wir zunächst, Fortschritte gemacht zu haben. Auf meinem zweiten Run mit Medium-Reifen blockierten allerdings die Hinterräder in Kurve 4, wodurch ich viel Zeit auf der entscheidenden Runde verloren habe. Das gesamte Wochenende war bisher nicht einfach für mich. Dennoch freue ich mich schon jetzt auf morgen, zumal wir wissen, dass unser Auto im Rennen konkurrenzfähig ist. Ich bin zuversichtlich, ein paar Positionen gut machen zu können.

“It was very difficult to get temperature into the tyres during the qualifying session – I really struggled in the first sector on every run I did, but was able to make the car work in the second and third sectors. “Before qualifying, I think we’d have hoped to be a bit closer to the cars in front of us, but this weekend has seen us take a massive step forward in performance. “Also, I think our race pace – and our consistency over a long run – look like giving us a little extra. I’d like to think we could get closer to some of the cars in front tomorrow; that’ll be something to look forward to. “There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend: we’ve made a big step forwards in terms of pace. There’s more to come from the engine and the aero package, but we know what to do.”

“Our form today wasn’t unexpected, but I think our performance so far this weekend has maybe been better than I’d have anticipated before arriving here in Malaysia. “In fact, I’d say the progress we’ve made since Australia has been fantastic – we’re much closer to the cars in front now – but we’re still under-performing and we still need to improve. However, the steps we’re taking with the car show a lot of progress, so I’m optimistic that I won’t be qualifying in Q1 for that much longer. “If it rains tomorrow, it’ll be another learning process for the team. For me, too, the start procedure, the formation lap, the pit-stops – they’ll all be firsts for me as I wasn’t able to practise any of them in Australia. That makes me feel confident that there’s a lot more to come in the next few weeks. “This isn’t an ideal position from which to start the race, but I’m fully aware that McLaren-Honda is a long-term project: we want to beat Mercedes, and to do that you need time, and to be prepared to take your chances as they come.”

We were hoping to make the 107 percent time today, and that is what we have been pushing for through the weekend. Unfortunately we missed out by 0.4s in the end. In the three sessions Will has shown that the car is thereabouts on pace, while I had a spin in FP3 today so, along with yesterday, I have not been able to achieve the consistent running I wanted to for the team. Coming into this, our first weekend on track, we were aware that we have a lot of hard work to do and that this is just the start. So although we are disappointed for the qualifying result, we have to keep focus on what we have achieved to be here and to be able to begin our development.

Obviously I was very disappointed not to take part in qualifying. In FP3 we had a fuel system problem and we were trying to resolve that, but sadly we weren’t able to get on top of it in time for me to take part. Looking at the positives, as we always try to do, the practice sessions showed promise and my times were within the 107 percent throughout Friday. Step by step we’ll get there.