Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Das war heute ein sehr starkes Qualifying. Ich fand im Q2 in einen super Rhythmus, stellte den Frontflügel im Q3 nur ein wenig herunter und dann war die Balance absolut perfekt. Das ist ein ganz seltenes Gefühl im Auto. Vielen Dank an meine Jungs dafür, dass sie mir das ermöglicht haben. Ich habe die erste Runde im Q3 genau getroffen und war zuversichtlich, dass sie schnell genug war. Deshalb gab ich auf der zweiten Runde alles und hatte einen starken Verbremser. Aus diesem Grund habe ich den Versuch abgebrochen. Ich freue mich über eine weitere Pole. Aber morgen erwartet uns ein langes Rennen, in dem noch viel passieren kann. Obwohl unsere Pace stark aussieht, dürfen wir unsere Gegner nicht abschreiben, so viel ist klar. Sie hatten an diesem Wochenende erneut etwas Pech: Sebastian mit seinem Getriebeproblem und Lewis wieder mit dem Motor. Aber wir haben in den vergangenen Rennen gesehen, dass sie sich rasch davon erholen und durch das Feld zurückkämpfen können. Warten wir ab, was der morgige Tag bringt...

I’m very pleased with our qualifying performance; it was the maximum result I think we could have achieved, and my lap in Q3 was very good. It now puts us in a very good position for the race and we need to focus on turning a good qualifying, into a good race performance. This is a track that I really like and normally do well at, and it’s a track that suits our car. The new parts we have introduced are helping us, so the team at the factory and track have done a good job in improving the car. We have some fast cars starting behind us which will make the race difficult, but a podium will be the target.

The whole weekend has been tricky: for whatever reason, I struggled all the time to put one decent lap together. In qualifying it was a bit better, but I was still fighting with the front end in a few places. It could have been good enough for a second or a third place on the grid, but on my last lap I completely missed the last corner and slid away. Obviously I’m a disappointed with what happened, but considering how difficult it has been, this result it’s not ideal but it’s better than nothing. At least we are in third place at the start, we’ll see what happens tomorrow, I think in the race it’s going to be better.

It was a good qualifying for us as starting P2 and P4 is positive. We were a bit lucky with the penalties for Ferrari and Mercedes but I think it was definitely a good session. We just need to concentrate to have a good race tomorrow. Anything is possible and it’s probably the best track for us so far this season, so we’ll try and put everything together in the race.

"We gained one position with Seb's penalty so to start 5th is not bad and we are about a tenth off Felipe so it's close. The track makes it hard to put a lap together, the grip comes and goes so it's not easy to put all the sectors together but generally I'm happy. We are obviously a long way off the Mercedes but we expected that so if we can race the Williams tomorrow that would be good. "We don't have much of an advantage here because it's a one stop, everyone is able to push on the tyres and it will be flat out for a majority of the race therefore we are not able to do much with strategy. If we finish in the top five, that would be a very good result for us. There is a lot of fan support here for Dany, which is really nice to see, the atmosphere is good."

“I am very pleased with our performance today and my final lap in Q3 was fantastic – just when it mattered. We were strong in Q1 and Q2; I was feeling very comfortable in the car and I was able to deliver great laps in each of the sessions. We are making good progress as a team and our pace over one lap is very strong: it will be interesting to see how we perform tomorrow because we have a fast car behind us and it will be a big challenge to hold our position. This is not a track that helps overtaking so there should be some nice battles. We have enough tyres to choose the best strategy tomorrow and I am optimistic we can come away with a nice result.”

Yesterday we lost some time, but today I think we recovered. Now I’m waiting for the race. I will start seventh which is not where we belong, so we should be quicker than the other cars around and go from there. The car is good, so I am confident for tomorrow. We are not the favorites, but there’s always a chance. I hope not to get it wrong this time. For sure we need to start improving as soon as possible, that’s why we are pushing very hard. We are doing everything we can, we have a new engine here, and I think we are on the right way, but we still see that other people, especially Mercedes, are doing a good job as well. If you want to be the best you need to be ready to tackle the best. I have high confidence, but let’s keep our feet on the ground. It is easy to get overexcited and for sure now we would like to be first, but that’s the nature of the game. We are wisely spending our energy looking at ourselves, trying to make improvements. Time will teach us…

"Our lap times during the whole session today were consistent which is good. I thought we could find something extra for Q3 but unfortunately we didn't have time to do our warm up lap, so I had to go straight to the push lap with slightly cold tyres. That left us with understeer and costs us a couple of tenths. But I am generally happy with qualifying at this track which is challenging for us. "The tyre life here is quite long and this will help Williams as they look strong on this track, we knew that would be the case and I don't expect the situation to change too much in the race. This track is not the strongest for us but we will try and bring some points home."

"I'm pleased and happy with today's qualifying result. Especially after a difficult day yesterday, where we were struggling a lot, to come back and get through to Q3 is something I honestly didn't expect. In addition to that, I'd say this is one of the most difficult qualifying sessions of the season: the track is very slippery and as soon as you brake a meter earlier or later, you immediately lose a lot of lap time and lock-up the tyres... So you really have to be very focused and that's what I did to end up P9. For sure tomorrow's race will be another challenge because we are all very close, but I'm ready for it and hopefully we can carry on scoring good points."

Es war natürlich kein tolles Gefühl, wieder zuschauen zu müssen. Aber so ist das Leben. Ich wusste relativ schnell, dass es ein Problem gab und dass es wahrscheinlich das gleiche wie in China war. Ich fuhr zu meinem zweiten Run im Q2 raus, um ein Gefühl für die Runde zu bekommen und fühlte den gleichen Leistungsverlust wie beim letzten Mal. Als es in Shanghai passiert ist, hatten wir es vorher noch nicht erlebt. Jetzt kam es leider erneut vor, also müssen wir es verstehen lernen. Ich war noch nie abergläubisch wegen solcher Dinge und werde es jetzt auch nicht. Ich kann nichts dagegen unternehmen. Ich mache einfach weiter und blicke dem Rennen entgegen. Ich weiß noch nicht, wo ich starten werde. Warten wir ab, wie sich das entwickelt. Aber ich gebe niemals auf und ich werde wie immer mein Bestes geben, um so viel wie möglich im Rennen gutzumachen. Auf dieser Strecke ist Überholen nicht einfach. Angesichts des Reifenabbaus und der Schwierigkeit, hier jemandem zu folgen, wird es nicht einfach, mich nach vorne zu arbeiten. Es gibt jedoch lange Geraden und wir haben eine gute Pace. Wenn das Auto heil bleibt, kann ich hier sicher um gute Punkte kämpfen.

"I'm disappointed with not getting into Q3 today, because we've been very fast the whole weekend and we had the pace to end up in the top ten. I was putting a good lap together in my last Q2 effort but in the last sector I found some traffic that slowed me down. I will go back to the hotel a bit angry tonight, but the positive thing is that we know that we have the pace and we can perform well tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to the race."

“We were so close to getting into Q3 today – we had a good shot at it but ended up a tenth off. “In fact, it was so close that we were just two tenths off eighth position in Q2 – and despite the balance not being quite there. I think both Fernando and I struggled with the handling – the car was understeering, which is difficult to resolve. There’s a tipping point at which, when you dial in more front-wing, the balance suddenly shifts from under- to oversteer – so we were being cautious in qualifying. “Tomorrow won’t be the easiest race for us – the lap is 71 per cent full-throttle – but Turn Two is always tricky here, so my aim will be to stay out of trouble, pick up some places and then see what happens. “I still think a one-stop strategy will prove tricky for most people tomorrow, so that should also make things interesting.”

“It was a fairly straightforward qualifying session, but not with the outcome I wanted. I’ve not felt comfortable since I jumped in the car yesterday and it’s been a struggle to find the grip and performance we were expecting. We changed a lot of parts overnight and before qualifying, but it didn’t take us in the direction we needed. Obviously we can’t change the car ahead of the race so I think it’s going to be a tough Sunday considering how close things are in the middle of the grid.”

"The lap-times at the end of Q2 were very tight – the difference between 14th position and a place in Q3 was just two tenths. And, sadly, we’re at the back of that group. “But that’s the way it is – I still feel that we’re missing the couple of tenths that would massively help us to overtake some of the other cars in this very competitive midfield group. “While we weren’t in luck today, I definitely think we’ve shown ourselves to more competitive this weekend, and I hope we can recover tomorrow and fight for some points."

“It’s been a complicated weekend so far for us. We’ve been struggling with the grip and the car. It’s difficult to get the tire to work on such a smooth asphalt. We’re progressing, we’re learning and doing the most we can do. I still don’t have the feeling I used to have earlier in the season with the car. We really need to analyze that. Then tomorrow’s going to be a long race with a lot of fuel saving. The tires are hard to keep in the window, so it’s going to be challenging for everyone. Maybe we can try to be a bit more clever. Let’s do our best, let’s analyse and let’s keep having some interesting data. We’ll see where we are after the race.”

“Qualifying was pretty hard. It was difficult to get the tires to work here so it’s been a bit of a challenge. I was doing my best, with all the options we have available, to maximize everything but I’m not really satisfied with the result. However, we still have a race to do tomorrow. Hopefully a few surprises may come our way that will give us a chance to be up in the points. It’s probably not going to be very straightforward, as the pace is not as good as we want it to be, but we will definitely push hard and do our best to get there.”

“It wasn’t a brilliant qualifying lap from me and we struggled to get the tyres into their correct operating window, so not a perfect set-up for the car either. FP3 earlier in the day was much better for us as we were able to get a more even balance with the front and rear tyres working well together, however qualifying proved to be more of a challenge. There was more possible from the car if we’d been able to find that sweet spot.”

“Today the car has been really good. I think we’ve found the problem that’s been hurting me the last couple of Grands Prix. We’ve changed something and it’s working well so it’s good to be back on track! I’m pleased because I can now demonstrate what I can do as a driver whereas before it was frustrating. We’re not super quick as a team but I’m happy with the car and I think we can look forward to a good race tomorrow. Our race pace tends to be better than in qualifying; we should be able to move forward quite quickly, we’ll definitely aim to challenge the guys in front of us and take any opportunity on offer.”

“Starting in P19 is surely an unsatisfying result. It is a pity as I was on a good lap at the end of Q1, but then I braked a bit too late into Turn 13. Anyway, I feel more comfortable in the car this weekend and this is what counts. In terms of the car set-up, we made good improvements from session to session, so I will now work on some details for tomorrow. I am positive I can fight for some positions in the race.”

“Qualifying was a bit frustrating today. This morning the track temperature was much hotter and the sun was out, so it was easier to bring the tyres to temperature. This afternoon it was harder to get them into the working window. We were hoping for more to be honest, because in FP3 we looked good. I think the race will be a different story; you can see from today that my lap times have improved so I think after 5 to 10 laps we’ll be okay. In qualifying you only have one or two laps and when you are just sliding; it’s hard. So, I’m focusing on tomorrow and hopeful that we can have a good battle with Sauber and Renault.”

“It was an interesting session for us; it feels like we’ve made a step up and we’re closer to those around us versus previous races. My last lap could have been better. I suffered a bit with traffic and lost about two tenths in the last sector, so it was frustrating not to get a clean lap. As for tomorrow, I can’t wait. The aim is to get a good clean start, especially with such a long run down to the first corner, then get the maximum from the car. Our long runs on Friday looked positive so with good tyre management I’m looking forward to a strong race tomorrow!”

“Obviously a disappointing result. I felt that FP3 was a little step forward for me, but then again in qualifying I was struggling with the tyres. I had issues during the whole weekend to bring them into the right working window. I also had some traffic in qualifying, which did not help. Nevertheless, we were just not fast enough today. Tomorrow we will try to fight back.”