Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Am Ende gab es keinen echten Kampf auf der letzten Runde - so wünscht man es sich eigentlich nicht. Aber man sollte es nehmen, wie es kommt! Ich hätte mich noch verbessern können, aber ich bin glücklich, dass mein erster Run für die Pole gereicht hat. Diese Strecke scheint mir immer zu liegen. Es kommt vor allem aufs Bremsen an und ich war schon seit meinen Kindertagen immer ein Spätbremser. Wahrscheinlich liegt die Strecke deshalb meinem Stil so. Das könnte auch der Grund sein, warum ich vor allem im ersten Sektor so stark bin. Es macht sehr viel Spaß, hier zu fahren. Man erreicht hohe Geschwindigkeiten und springt über die Kerbs - es ist wie eine Formel 1-Go-Kart-Strecke. Es ist immer etwas Besonderes, hierher zurückzukommen. Schließlich habe ich hier meinen ersten Grand Prix gewonnen. Zudem sind die Fans hier einfach unglaublich. Sie pilgern jedes Jahr, ohne Ausnahme, zu tausenden hierher und sorgen für eine fantastische Atmosphäre an der Strecke, aber auch in der Stadt. Im Rennen wird es eng. Heute habe ich mich im Auto nicht so stark gefühlt wie gestern. Also muss ich heute Abend hart arbeiten, um wieder dahin zu kommen, wo ich gestern bereits war. Gestern hatte ich alles im Griff. Heute habe ich durch die Setupänderungen etwas das Gefühl verloren. Ich konnte das Auto nicht immer so fahren, wie ich es wollte. Das bedeutet, dass ich mich etwas mehr zurückhalten muss und nicht so sehr bis ans Limit gehen darf. Ferrari sieht hier auf den Long Runs stark aus. Wir müssen also auf alles gefasst sein.

Obwohl ich die Pole ganz knapp verpasst habe, ist die erste Reihe eine gute Ausgangslage für das Rennen. Lewis war heute einfach dieses kleine Bisschen schneller auf seiner ersten fliegenden Runde. Deshalb habe ich versucht, bei meinem zweiten Versuch alles herauszuholen. Aber es ging nicht auf und ich verbremste mich in der ersten Kurve. Da es nicht genügend Zeit für eine zweite Runde gab, war die Chance damit dahin. Dennoch wird es im Rennen einige Gelegenheiten geben, um Lewis noch zu überholen. Ich hatte zuletzt einige gute Starts. Das ist etwas Gutes. Aber auch bei der Reifenstrategie könnte man etwas anderes versuchen. So oder so wird es morgen spannend. Denn die Wettervorhersage für das Rennen ist interessant. Ich freue mich auf jeden Fall darauf. Kanada ist stets ein besonderes Rennwochenende und ich kann das Rennen kaum noch erwarten.

“After P3 I was thinking about pole position, I thought it was possible. The car felt great all day, I think we did a step forward overnight. The last lap in qualifying I was very happy, I knew that it will be very close, unfortunately not close enough, so I think it wasn’t entirely perfect. I lost a bit of time maybe on the exit of Turn 10, I was maybe a bit too early on power, and that compromised the traction, which maybe caused me to lose some momentum onto the straight, I don’t know how much, we’ll find out later, but probably half a tenth or something, so it could have been better overall. I think we all have the feeling today that we can achieve something great. We missed it, but not by much, so I hope for tomorrow. We didn’t have any problem, nothing near to the issues we had in the last two races, we’ve been focusing on that. I think that the people back home have done a good job, trying to assist us as much as possible when we are out on track, and I think today we could show the real performance of the car. Here anything is possible, it’s a track where a lot of things can happen, tomorrow’s weather forecast is also quite tricky, we’ll see. It’s such a great place to drive, the people wave at you on an out lap and just appreciate Formula 1 being here, so the plan for tomorrow is to enjoy and try to do well”.

“I’m pretty happy. This weekend was steady – I think we built up to it and found a better rhythm in qualifying, and as always it’s the most important session, so I made sure I got it all together and in the end I’m pretty happy with fourth. My pace is only a few tenths from pole which is pretty good around here. I was quite lucky on my last lap in the last chicane, I hit the wall pretty hard and luckily it got me to the line and I didn’t lose too much time. The start is important here, but you can pass. I think we’ve got pretty good straight line speed now so we’re in a position to overtake. Tomorrow’s going to be cool, if not wet, so with those conditions it could be anyone’s race. Hopefully it’s a five or six way fight – that could be a lot of fun. I think being on the right tyre at the right time is crucial. It’s about being smart, but being quick at the same time, so it’s worth taking some risks.”

“Definitely a much better qualifying for me today, top five which is around where we wanted to be. I had hoped we would have been a bit closer to Mercedes but it is what it is. They turn up the power in qualifying and seem to be very strong so hopefully tomorrow we can be a bit closer. My last run in Q3 wasn’t great, you should usually improve and I didn’t but it’s not so bad. Our race pace is looking good and that is where you score the points, also you never know with the weather. No hot moments for me in qualifying today, here in Canada you run close to the barriers but you still have time to correct it, unlike Monaco. Conditions are a bit different from yesterday so you have to change your driving style as it’s very easy to lock up or run wide. It will be difficult to beat the Mercedes, and the Ferrari’s also look quick but hopefully a bit of rain will help us tomorrow in the race. I think it will be very challenging.”

“Since yesterday evening we did a good job and improved a lot the behavior of the car, but today it was still not easy to put the car where I wanted. It was a hectic qualifying session because of the weather conditions and I was not very happy with the driving. I had some issues here and there, I struggled in turn 10 all the times to make the front turn, and it was hard to put the lap together. It has not been an easy weekend so far and if you finish P6 there’s still work to be done, but I’m sure that for the race tomorrow the car will be better”.

I think we did well today. The cloudy conditions made it a bit more tricky to get the tyres working. For me the main problem was the front tyres and getting them hot enough to grip well. That was the main issue, but otherwise the car was handling well. Obviously it was very close today so it was definitely better than the last couple of races, but it’s tomorrow that counts and the weather could affect things. Tomorrow’s the day we need to get the most out of.

It was a very competitive qualifying session, which meant we were fighting with every team for a very small gap. With the car I had today, I did a very good job and I’m really happy with my lap. If I had a similar car to Valtteri, I’d have done an ever better job. All in all, I’m pleased with the lap I did and my overall qualifying result, considering my accident yesterday.

“I’m feeling happy with our performance today. You always want to be higher up, but I think we maximised our opportunities and ninth is a solid effort, which should bring us some good points tomorrow. The margins were very small, so it was important to deliver the laps without any mistakes because even a couple of tenths can cost you four of five positions on the grid. The conditions were quite stable and even the rain during Q1 didn’t affect the grip levels too much. If the rain comes back tomorrow, it will definitely make things interesting, especially if it’s heavy rain because aquaplaning can be an issue here on the smooth surface. If it stays dry, I will have to start on the ultra-soft tyres, just like everybody else in the top ten, and try and use a good strategy to move forward.”

“That was a nice surprise today – we’ll take it. “I was definitely happy with that session – it can be a tricky circuit in these mixed conditions, and tomorrow will be tougher for us, but there’s potentially wet weather forecast for tomorrow, and maybe a bit of rain would help us. “I’m very happy – we’ve done an amazing job with this car in the past 12 months and we’re now in a position that’s perhaps better even than we’d expected. So I have to say thanks to everyone in the team: we were only four-tenths behind Ferrari in Q2, and that should boost the belief and motivation of everyone in the McLaren and Honda factories. “We’re ready to attack: we’re not fighting for the world championship, so we have nothing to lose. Definitely, it’ll be maximum attack tomorrow.”

“I knew reaching Q3 was going to be difficult because we had to use more tyres than we would have wanted in Q1. It meant we only really had one set of ultra-softs available in Q2 to get the job done. In any case, I gave it all I could and the end result was P11, which is not a bad place to start the race. In Montreal, you can expect the unexpected, especially with the weather being in the balance, so there’s everything to play for tomorrow. I think we’re looking good in racing conditions with solid pace so we can definitely fight for some good points.”

“Sitting on the cusp of the top 10 is essentially where we are right now – and it’s where we’ve been for the past few races. Still, this is a circuit on which we hadn’t anticipated being as competitive as we were in Monaco, so there are definitely positives to take from today. “On my final Q2 lap, I didn’t get a tow down the back straight, and Fernando did – he got a tow from me! – so, up until the last sector, it was looking good for Q3, but then I didn’t get the tow and lost out. “If it’s dry tomorrow, I’ll be starting on new tyres and will be aiming to make the best of it and score some points. If it’s wet, we’ll just have to see what happens; the weather can really mix things up, and we’ve shown our strengths in making the tyres work and choosing the right strategy, so there’s plenty to look forward to.”

“It was a tricky session for us due to the changing track conditions. We had a bit of rain during the session and we had to adapt to it. I found it interesting trying to extract the maximum of the car. It hasn’t been easy this weekend to keep the focus as I haven’t been feeling very well, but I’m happy with what we achieved today. I’m going to get some rest and recover so I can have a good race tomorrow.”

“The car balance is not miles off, but we just don’t have any grip from the tires. We’re not getting them to work properly. For some reason, we had it at the beginning of the year, but we haven’t managed to bring them back in the window since. That means you can’t really drive the car as you would like. Yesterday, our long-run pace was quite good, so hopefully the race tomorrow is better.”

"What a shame. It had been a good weekend up until the first run of Q2, when I made a bit of a misjudgment and crashed at the Wall of Champions. It was a small mistake, but we all know that here in Canada a very little error can end your session... The walls here are all so close! I've slightly touched this same wall a couple of times over the weekend, but in today's Quali I did it in a bit of a different way, just a bit harder. I just knew that the fight to get into Q3 was going to be tough so I pushed that extra bit more and maybe this is the reason for this mistake. Fortunately though, we are looking strong and the points are won tomorrow, so we will make sure we fight for another top ten finish in the race: that's still our target even if we're starting P20!"

"I don't think it was a bad qualifying session, but it's just a shame that we didn't find those extra couple of tenths that would've allowed us to get into Q3... This is the only frustrating part, as if we had been able to make our tyres work better I think we could've achieved it – I just don't think we maximised our potential today. A P13 isn't the best result we could've achieved, so we need to look into this now. At least qualifying was a clean session from my side, something which I needed, as up until this session I hadn't felt totally comfortable in the car. Tomorrow we will start from even further behind as I have a three-position grid penalty from Monaco, but in the race anything can happen and we just need to keep our head down and take any opportunity that comes up. The car feels pretty decent and this gives me confidence to keep pushing. We just need to make sure we are proactive, as it will be a very open race strategy wise."

“I’m happy with the lap I did and the car’s much more to my liking today. It was unfortunate that the track was getting slippery as I had another lap of fuel left in the car. It was so close out there; 0.015secs is absolutely nothing! The good thing is the car is still improving and my set-up was night and day from yesterday. There are no zebra crossings here so I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s possible in the race.”

“I’m very happy with my qualifying; I was very close to Q2 and we’re ahead of the Saubers, who are our main competitors at the moment. We knew we could be competitive against them here, because of the long straights where you need more power. But you also need good braking and good traction, and we seem to have all that, which is positive for us. On the first set of tyres the track was completely fine but then it started to rain halfway through and the track became more slippery, so we couldn’t improve. I’d say we exceeded expectations a little here today, so I hope we can do the same in the race tomorrow.”

“It was a tricky qualifying. In general I struggled a lot with the grip, even compared to the FP3 morning session. I never managed to get everything together in qualifying. I think I went out a bit later than the others. In the end I was not able to improve on the second run on fresh tyres due to the light rain. For the race, I believe the weather will play a huge role. We have to remain positive for tomorrow and see what opportunities might come up for us.”

“Today was very disappointing for me. The pace wasn’t great and there was some spots of rain when I went out on the second set of tyres, so I lost control in turn 4 and hit the wall on the outside. I think looking at Pascal, we can see that the car is competitive and the pace is there; I just didn’t get the chance to show that myself. Tomorrow it seems like it will be wet, so I will try to do my best during the race.”

“It was a tough qualifying. My first run was ok. For the second run we went out a bit later than the other teams. When I was out on track, the rain started to fall a bit more towards the end of the lap, so it was more and more slippery. It was not the easiest session. Regarding tomorrow, I think the unstable weather conditions could mix things up during the race. As we start from the back of the field, that could give us some chances.”

“What can you say? Obviously I wanted to be driving rather than watching qualifying. The damp conditions caught me out in the morning and the walls are pretty unforgiving as we saw. I feel for my crew as they have a lot of work to do. I’ll be doing everything I can to make amends in the race tomorrow.”