Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ich bin mit der Performance des Teams und des Autos an diesem Wochenende richtig zufrieden. Es fühlte sich von Anfang an gut an. Deshalb bin ich dem Team dankbar für den großen Einsatz, den es erbringt, um das Auto stetig zu verbessern. Auf dieser Strecke kann es schwierig sein, das optimale Setup zu finden und dann in einen guten Rhythmus zu kommen. Aber ich fühlte mich durchweg wohl. Dennoch war Nico die ganze Zeit schnell und es war insgesamt sehr eng zwischen uns. Glücklicherweise fuhr ich meine beiden besten Runden am Ende. Natürlich ist es großartig, die Pole geholt zu haben. Aber ich bin mir dessen bewusst, dass dies nur der erste Schritt ist. Der Weg bis zu Kurve fünf ist lang. Es kann alles passieren, ganz besonders am Start. Das Team hat diesbezüglich alles ausführlich analysiert und wir haben sowohl im Simulator als auch hier an der Strecke daran gearbeitet. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass wir bestens vorbereitet sind. Jetzt warten wir ab, wie es läuft. Für den Moment bin ich mit dem heutigen Ergebnis zufrieden und freue mich jetzt auf das Rennen morgen.

Bis auf das Ende verlief das Qualifying gut. Aber im Q3 fand Lewis sehr viel Zeit, was mir leider nicht gelungen ist. Insgesamt war es ein enttäuschender Tag, aber im Rennen ist noch viel drin. Ich brauche einen guten Start und dann sollte ich nach der Eau Rouge eine gute Chance haben, um am Ende der langen Geraden zu überholen. Ich werde alles geben, damit mir das gelingt. Wir haben eine neue Startprozedur, die wir alle richtig hinbekommen müssen. Der Start wird morgen sicher interessant. Alles in allem bin ich noch immer optimistisch, dass der Sieg hier in Spa möglich ist.

I am very pleased with the result and it’s good to be back in the top three. The team did everything right, it was up to me to put it all together. Behind me it was very tight so to be on top of that pack is great. P3 is a good place to start tomorrow, the race pace looks on par with quite a few of the teams around us, so it will be a fight, but one I am really looking forward to.

It’s been a really good day and I am very satisfied with my lap in Q3. We were able to improve the car balance from yesterday and this gave me a whole lot of confidence - probably the most I have had this season. The car was much more predictable and this allowed me to push more in every corner. I showed very good pace in each of the three qualifying sessions and I am really looking forward to the race tomorrow. I see no reason why we cannot fight for the podium. The performance today also gives me a lot of optimism for the remainder of the season. The team is doing an amazing job and I am happy I was able to back it up with a good performance behind the wheel. I have been working hard with my engineers to get on top of the updated car and I expect to do this weekend after weekend.

It’s pretty cool that everyone is so close and I am pretty happy with the lap. I don’t think I left anything on the table and it’s good to be in the mix. Grosjean has got a penalty so that will push me up to fifth and that’s where I started from last year - not that I’m superstitious or anything, but you can always hope! Sector two is fun for us and we can push really hard there. We bleed some time in sectors one and three but the chassis feels good which is really positive for the team. Fingers crossed we have some good battles on our hands for the race tomorrow, the honey badger will try and find some honey in the forest here and go after it!

I lost a bit of time in the final sector and looking at the result it cost me a few positions, it was that close. It is frustrating but it is a long race and the circuit can hold so many surprises, one being the weather! We need to make sure we have a good start and gain as many positions as possible and then continue to build from there.

At the start of the weekend we didn’t have the best pace so the team has done a really fantastic job to get on top of the car and give me and Romain something really strong to use for qualifying, which is thanks to everyone’s hard work. I think we will be competitive tomorrow and with the right strategy we should be able to achieve something pretty good.

It’s very simple: in Q2 we were third and it was very tight if you look at the lap times. In Q3 I was having the same pace, unfortunately I was not able to improve like others, also lost some time at the last corner, and that’s why we’re not in front. But I don’t think there’s a reason to panic. For sure we’re not happy, I lost two or maybe three tenths, but tomorrow we should have a decent pace and pretty good straightline speed to turn things around. We have a good car and a strong package for the race. There’s a lot to be done tomorrow, it’s a long race, the starting and first turn will be interesting and there could be some rain at some point. There’s nothing wrong so we’re expecting a progress.

Today’s result is more than we had expected! I gave everything that I had in the car for that last lap, I pushed hard from the beginning to the end. Being P4 is a really good effort. It is just so fast here. Going through Eau Rouge at 300kph, it feels like being a kid at Christmas. Every time you drive through it you have a smile on your face, it is so nice driving on this circuit. We will start from P9 tomorrow with the grid penalty and we will see what we can achieve from there. We have been better in race pace than qualifying pace so with a good set-up and hopefully some nice overtaking manoeuvres we can score some good points on Sunday.

I’m enjoying this track so much! I’ve been waiting all weekend for the qualifying session, because in free practice you always carry more fuel and the car doesn’t feel as fast… But I knew that once we got to qualifying I’d really feel the speed and that’s just what happened out there today. I’m really pleased with getting through to Q3. Even though my last run could have been a little bit better, it was a good result for us today. It was a surprise because on paper it looked something very difficult to achieve. It’s not the track that suits us the most so tomorrow’s race will be difficult, but we are going to push as hard as we can, make the most out of any mistakes the others do and hopefully finish within the top ten. I must say I think this is one of the best qualifying sessions I’ve had this year, even though now it’s time to forget this and look ahead to tomorrow’s race, as that’s when the points are given.

I’m not that happy today because we had the potential to be well inside the top ten. On my final lap in Q2 I made a small mistake going into turn one – I just locked the tyres and missed the apex. On top of that we had a small issue with the turbo, which cost us some speed and time down the straights. So I just missed out on making Q3. However, the weekend is not lost and I’m sure we can have a strong race from P11. The car has been performing very well this weekend; we’ve looked competitive and I will be attacking in the race to try and move forward.

I did my best but I missed out on Q3 by one tenth and a half which is disappointing. We will make the most of our strategy, and the tyres we have available, for the race tomorrow. This track allows for overtaking and we will try to make up some places during the race. We’ll do our best to make it work.

Zuerst möchte ich mich beim Team dafür bedanken, dass sie mein Auto über Nacht wieder repariert haben. Das Ergebnis des Qualifyings ist etwas enttäuschend. Andererseits ist es positiv, dass wir einen Fortschritt im Vergleich zu den vorherigen Rennwochenenden erzielen konnten. An das gute Freitagtraining konnten wir heute Vormittag nicht anschliessen. Wir änderten daraufhin einige Fahrzeugeinstellungen, was zu Verbesserungen führte. Dennoch reichte dies nicht für die Platzierungen, die wir erwartet hatten. Von Startplatz 13 haben wir immer noch gute Chancen auf Punkte.

Ein enttäuschendes Qualifying für mich. Dass ich nicht imstande war, in Q2 zu kommen, überraschte auch mich. Zumal das heute durchaus möglich gewesen wäre. Bei meinem ersten Versuch in Q1 hatte ich ein gutes Gefühl. Doch beim zweiten Anlauf konnten die Reifen nicht genügend Haftung aufbauen. Wir müssen nun analysieren und verstehen, was die Gründe dafür waren. Hier in Spa kann im Rennen vieles passieren, auch weil die Strecke gute Möglichkeiten zum Überholen bietet. Ich bin überzeugt, dass ich einige Plätze gutmachen kann

I’m really happy with how things have gone today. The car feels really good and I’m enjoying a good battle with my teammate. It’s nice to end qualifying ahead, but I think we can expect a good fight between us tomorrow. It could be a very mixed race tomorrow, weather-wise. Potentially a bit like Silverstone where it was dry for the most part and then the rain came along and changed the landscape. Because of the nature of this track, we’ll need to keep our wits about us, but at the same time it could throw up a few opportunities for us.

I don’t know exactly what happened, I lost some drive and had to stop. It’s too early to say what the problem was, we have to wait to know more about the issue. Our car has been handling pretty nice all weekend, unfortunately the issue has come at the bad time, my position could have been a bit better. Yesterday we had been trying few different things and I think we had made the right choices for today. Obviously we know we have to improve in all areas. My starting position will make my race very tricky but I hope that the race condition will turn in our favour. It’s important to go through the first corner: even if it won’t be easy to get past Mercedes-engined cars, we’ll keep fighting and doing our best.

I’m pretty pleased with my qualifying lap today. I lost quite a bit of time this morning in FP3 due to a small hydraulics problem, so I was not quite so prepared for qualifying. Will and I were trading time through the lap, me losing out in the first and last sector, but gaining on him in the second. So I’m looking forward to the race and to seeing how we can continue that fight between us. It is usually a race where anything can happen, so I think it will be close between us.

It wasn’t the best of starts to my qualifying session, as I had a power issue in Q1 which didn’t let me focus on my lap, even though I managed to get through to Q2. But, to say the truth, we planned a qualifying session like this, stopping in Q2, as there was no point in trying to fight for Q3 because of my 10-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s race. By doing this we’ve also saved some tyres and hopefully we can fight for points… I know it’s not going to be easy, but to be racing in front of my home crowd will surely give me that extra boost I need. I’m confident and looking forward to the race. In this morning’s final practice session I could see that our long-run pace was quite good, so I’m hoping tomorrow will be the same. It’s not being the easiest of race weekends, but the car feels good so I’m happy about that and at this track anything is possible. There will definitely be some hard fights, but we will aim to finish in the points, that would be a really good result for us here in Spa.

“I felt my lap today was equal to the pole position lap I did here three years ago – I really enjoyed driving the car this afternoon. “This morning I’d been struggling with the rear end at the corner entries, but we transformed the car for qualifying. Nevertheless, when you cross the line at the end of the lap and think you’ve done enough to be a bit higher up, it’s difficult to hear that you’re still a second off the guy ahead. There’s a lot of work needed to close that gap. “We always knew this circuit was going to be a tough one for us. It won’t be easy to make up any ground in the race tomorrow, and we’ve got a long way to go before we’re competitive, but at least the feeling in the car is good.”

We knew this would be a difficult weekend. Spa is the longest circuit on the calendar, with very long straights, and we know we have a lack of straight-line speed, so we strategically decided to take some penalties this weekend. “We missed the long run in yesterday’s practice due to the red flags and some telemetry issues, and we sat out FP3 this morning because of an exhaust issue, so we’re short on laps this weekend. So hopefully we can finish the race tomorrow and learn a little bit more about the car. “In order to really enjoy the race, we’ll need something exciting to happen – like some rain. A dry race will make life difficult for us.”