Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Meine erste Pole Position in Monaco: Dafür habe ich eine Weile gebraucht! Heute war es schwierig, die Reifen auf den Punkt hinzubekommen. Wir mussten eine Out-Lap, eine Aufwärmrunde und eine schnelle Runde fahren, und zwar auf beiden Reifen. Dies ist ein wichtiger Tag für mich. Wenn ich auf meine Jahre in Monaco zurückblicke, war es im Allgemeinen recht schwach. Manchmal hatte ich das Auto, manchmal nicht. Ich lebe seit einigen Jahren hier, das macht diese Pole Position noch besonderer. Noch liegt aber ein langer Weg vor uns. Wir haben erst die Hälfte geschafft. Der morgige Tag wird mental und physisch sehr anstrengend. Aber ich freue mich darauf. Ein riesiges Dankeschön an mein Team. Die Performance des Autos ist außergewöhnlich und sie haben sehr hart dafür gearbeitet. Ich glaube, ich habe meine letzte Pole Position hier 2006 in der GP2 geholt. Jetzt möchte ich das morgen im Rennen umsetzen.

Ich fand heute einen guten Zugang zum Qualifying. Das Q2 war ebenfalls gut, aber danach verlor ich am Ende den guten Rhythmus. Das ist schade. Ich musste sehr pushen, dabei ging ich etwas über das Limit. Lewis hat heute gut gearbeitet. Leider wird es nun für mich schwierig, dieses Rennen noch zu gewinnen. Aber ich werde heute Nacht von meinem Start in Barcelona träumen und hoffe, dass ich morgen erneut so einen Start zeigen kann.

I am happy with third place. Today it looked like everybody was struggling to get the tyres to working temperatures – which is funny, because they call them Supersofts – and the Mercedes cars were the ones which probably suffered the least from this problem, so this is why the gap looks bigger. The rain on Thursday didn’t affect us so much, as it was the same for everybody, today’s low temperature probably did not help, but we are not looking for excuses. Tomorrow I will be starting from third on the grid, on the inside line. Everything can happen and I hope to have a good pull-off; it could be possible to jump one of the cars ahead, two is more difficult, but then Lewis, too, should have a good start, otherwise he may be blocking the way. The gap to our contenders is still there, but we have more to win than we have to lose.

"I'm a bit frustrated because I think we should be P3," he said. "There was a miscommunication from the pit wall starting the last lap and it's a missed opportunity for us. At Monaco, every grid position counts, but we're in a good place to attack and we'll go all out to try for a podium finish in tomorrow's race. I always enjoy this track and having to fight the car over the kerbs; I'll try to have a bit of fun tomorrow."

"It's a positive qualifying result for the team," he said. "We're not where we want to be, although we're making progress and heading in the right direction; we're in a good position for tomorrow's race. The rain didn't affect us too much during quali but we'll have to wait and see if it's a factor tomorrow."

I don’t think that the accident of this morning affected my qualifying. My car has been working pretty well so far, apart from the fact that it was hard to get the tires working . You need few good laps to make a time and today in my last run I was too slow behind a Toro Rosso and decided to come in. Today we had the speed but not the chance of doing a clean lap. It was not a very good day and obviously tomorrow we are going to pay a big price. Tomorrow we’ll see what we can do, we’ll try to make a good start and go from there, even if it won’t be easy. Here there is a big chance to remain stuck behind other cars for the whole race and overtaking is really difficult: that’s why the result of today is very disappointing.

I’m really happy and excited with seventh place today. I always say qualifying in Monaco counts for 90% of your final result, so it was important to be strong. To be quick here you need confidence in the car and in yourself, and I had both today. To make it through to Q3 was already a great effort by the team, but to be starting P7 means we have already done a lot of the hard work for the race. We went out early in Q3 because we thought the rain was coming and I had a mega lap. I was worried some of the others might improve their times, especially with the track evolution, but fortunately it was not the case. Tomorrow we have a good opportunity to score some important points. We know that anything can happen on a Sunday in Monaco, but I’m focussed on getting a clean start and a good first lap.

That was not too bad. The car felt better from this morning as we made some beneficial changes. I think we could have done better, but we had to hold the car a while to get some track space for the final lap and that meant that everything cooled a little. P8 is a strong position to start from and I have a feeling that tomorrow will be a good race for us.

"I'm disappointed with qualifying in P10 here in Monaco. Q1 and Q2 were okay, even though I was already starting to struggle with the tyres, but in Q3 it was really difficult to get the tyres up to temperature. I had no grip at all and started to lock-up a lot, and in my last run I was only eight hundredths faster with a new set of tyres. We have to make sure we look into this and understand the reason. We will try and make the most out of today's result in tomorrow's race, but it won't be easy. I will try and make a good start, stay out of trouble and hopefully fight for some more points."

“There’s always a bit of ‘shoulda woulda coulda’ in qualifying, but I would have easily been inside the top 10 today. “On my final lap in Q2, I lost a lot of time lifting for the yellow flag at Turn One. I then gained a lot of it back – I was only a tenth off my best – but it wasn’t enough. And I think we could have had some fun in Q3, too – I think we’d have been fighting two or three cars for position. “The car felt really good – although we still don’t have enough outright pace – but I have a lot of confidence in it, especially under braking. Today’s performance shows the progress we’re making. The team has done a fantastic job this weekend, and they should be happy because the car is getting better all the time. “This is a nice little stepping stone for the future. Our aim tomorrow will be to score points.”

My final lap was a very good one and I believe I could have been firmly in the top ten, but unfortunately I made a small mistake in the final corner, which cost me enough time to miss out on Q3. Obviously it is disappointing, especially knowing how important your starting position is here. I am likely to be 11th on the grid, which means we will need to choose the right strategy to try and make up some positions. If we make the right calls tomorrow, we should be able to get some points. The brush with the wall in Q1 didn't do any damage but it cost a lot in terms of rhythm: you spend a long time trying to get the right confidence around Monaco and an incident like this sets you back a little. Qualifying in Monaco is always a challenge, but one I really enjoyed. The car feels much better than it did in Barcelona and we seem to have more performance in our hands which is encouraging. Nevertheless, I expect a tough race where good tyre management will be especially important.

There were no major issues during qualifying that caused us to be out of position; Monaco just isn’t a circuit that suits the characteristics of our car. We struggled throughout the day and found it hard to set the lap times we wanted. Tomorrow won’t be easy, but anything is possible due to the nature of the track. It’s not a great result as we have become used to qualifying higher, but I’m confident we can still get points and that must be our focus.

“We don’t exactly know what happened to my car in Q2: I guess it was something electrical because the car switched itself off in the middle of the straight. I had no power, no electrics, and no readout on the steering wheel. “But, overall, the team’s performance has been better this weekend, and Jenson at least has the opportunity to score a few points tomorrow. “I don’t wish to sound pessimistic, but, in the Monaco Grand Prix, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, you just join a train of cars. Starting 14th, hopefully we can gain some experience of the car, and improve its performance and reliability. We’re still too fragile at the moment.”

Wir sind natürlich enttäuscht, in der Startaufstellung relativ weit hinten zu stehen. Wir wussten allerdings bereits in den freien Trainings, dass es im Qualifying schwierig werden würde. Nun müssen wir versuchen das Beste aus unserem derzeitigen Paket herausholen. Vielleicht haben wir morgen etwas Glück, denn wir wissen aus vergangenen Rennen, dass in Monte Carlo vieles möglich ist.

I made a mistake on what should have been my fastest lap in Q2 and I was aiming for a much better lap time which would have put me in the top ten. Basically I locked a wheel heading into turn fifteen and went straight-on which lost me about four tenths. The car is looking good for the race, even if I have it all to do with my penalty meaning I start from P15 on the grid.

I had some traffic on my initial option run and couldn’t go at the sort of pace needed to keep the tyre temperatures correct, and on my timed lap I just lacked overall grip throughout the lap. We knew this track was not going to suit our car and we’ve been struggling to get the tyres to work throughout the weekend. Then again this is the sort of track where lots of things can happen and if we stay out of trouble and finish the race then points are still possible.

Es war ein schwieriges Qualifying für uns. Seit dem ersten Training versuchen wir, unsere Reifen auf Temperatur zu bringen. Die eher kühlen Aussentemperaturen erschweren dies zusätzlich. Ich hatte auch etwas Pech mit dem Verkehr auf der Strecke, wodurch ich im letzten Sektor etwas Zeit verlor. Doch das kann in Monaco immer passieren. Morgen werden wir unser Bestes geben.

It’s encouraging to be a little bit closer to the cars ahead, but I think there was a little more to come from the car because our first run was cut short when I had a problem. We managed to get on top of it in between the first and second runs. Overall it was a good session and a very special feeling to take part in my first F1 qualifying here. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow and to making the most of any chances to progress through the field.

It was not a bad qualifying for me. I am a little closer to my team-mate and my runs were good, so I think we can have a good race tomorrow. The chances of being able to keep pace with the cars directly ahead are a little improved by the nature of this track, so that means we can be in a good position to take advantage of any opportunities that may come our way.

"Considering where we were in FP1, FP2 and FP3, a P8 in today's qualifying session could have seemed disappointing, but we need to remember that our objective was always to get into Q3 in order to fight for points in tomorrow's race, and that's what we had done today. I was actually quite satisfied and happy with a P8 in my debut in Monaco, but the stewards' decision for me to start from the pit lane for not stopping at the weighing bridge in Q1 is very disappointing. 78 laps around here in tomorrow's race will now be even tougher. In Monaco it's very difficult to overtake but I will try my best."