Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Das war bislang ein fantastisches Wochenende. Es kommt selten vor, dass man fast jede Session anführt. Deshalb bin ich damit richtig glücklich. Die Basis dafür ist die harte Arbeit, die meine Mechaniker und Ingenieure ins Auto stecken. Dafür bin ich ihnen allen wie immer sehr dankbar. Ich fühlte mich heute Abend super. Es ist wirklich schade, dass dies das letzte Qualifying mit diesem Auto war! Jeder Fahrer träumt davon, solch ein Auto fahren zu dürfen. Ich habe das gesamte Wochenende über meine Probestarts von der Pole durchgeführt. Ich hatte absolut nicht vor, morgen von einem anderen Platz zu starten. Ich wusste von vorneherein, dass dies ein wichtiger Bestandteil meiner Aufgabe an diesem Wochenende sein würde. Jetzt habe ich es geschafft und kann mich auf das Rennen konzentrieren. Der nächste wichtige Schritt wird sein, die Führung am Start zu behalten. Um überholen zu können, brauchst du hier einen großen Pace-Überschuss. Deshalb wird der Start entscheidend sein. Heute Abend muss ich mir die Strategie ansehen und überlegen, was nötig ist, damit ich das Rennen gewinnen kann. Im Moment ist meine Pace ein bisschen besser. Aber ich kann nicht kontrollieren, was hinter mir geschieht. Ich kann mich nur auf mein eigenes Rennen konzentrieren. Aber du weißt nie, was vielleicht passiert. Mir bleibt nur die Hoffnung darauf, dass mein Auto morgen genauso wunderbar ist wie das gesamte Wochenende bislang. Dann werde ich nach dem Sieg greifen.

Ich wollte hier auf der Pole stehen. Demnach bin ich nicht überglücklich. Ich fühlte mich heute im Auto wohl und fuhr am Ende einige gute Runden. Aber Lewis hat großartige Arbeit abgeliefert und war einfach ein paar Zehntel schneller. Ich befinde mich dennoch in einer guten Position, um das Rennen zu gewinnen. Denn ich möchte die Saison positiv abschließen. Morgen gibt es einige Gelegenheiten und ich freue mich auf einen spannenden Kampf. Der Yas Marina Circuit ist eine großartige Strecke und ich fühle mich vor dem letzten Saisonrennen sehr gut. Ich bin stolz und glücklich darüber, wie die Saison bis jetzt für mich verlaufen ist. Heute Abend werde ich mich ein wenig mit Vivian und ein paar Freunden entspannen, um morgen in Topform zurückzukommen.

“I’m definitely pleased I got the third place I was after. It feels really good. This morning was hard, I did a run quite early and I was nearly a second off Max so it didn’t look good on paper but the track warmed up so much that we didn’t really know what to expect coming into quali. Q1 was a little bit slow but then I picked it up and Q3 was solid enough so I was happy. We’ll see about the strategy. It’s just nice to do something different to Mercedes. We know on the same equipment they’re probably going to be quicker so we feel it should make us go a little bit longer at the start and then perhaps we can bring the race back to us towards the end when our tyres might be a bit different. For tomorrow of course I wish I was in their position, obviously they’ve both got a little bit more pressure than us this weekend, which I’m kind of envious about. But if the win is there for me tomorrow then I’ll go for it and there will be no holding back. You always have this level of respect as they’re fighting for the title, but if they leave the door open and I think I can pass, then I won’t make it easy for them and let them sail into the sunset.”

“It was a pretty good qualifying, the car has behaved well all day. Today we went a lot faster than we had been in practice, we did our best and it was almost enough for third place, but my last lap was not perfect in some places. It’s hard to say if we’ll be able to fight with the Mercedes tomorrow: usually in race conditions we are a bit closer, but I’m sure they will also be very strong. Tomorrow we can only do our best, we’ll try to make a good start and then we’ll see.”

“I’m not really happy with the result. I was struggling a bit with the balance of the car to start with. In the end it was good, but then in the last lap I had a bit of a messy last sector. I saw a bit of smoke from Verstappen ahead, enough to lose a bit of concentration. After this morning we were expecting a bit more, not really to fight the Mercedes, but to beat Red Bulls. I don’t think we were any slower, but we didn’t get the lap together when it mattered, probably we were a bit on the aggressive side trying to anticipate the track conditions. For tomorrow it should be positive, for tonight it was a bit too much. Otherwise the car feels good, we managed to improve it today. Mercedes are a bit far away, but we hope to get ahead and be in front of Red Bulls tomorrow. We are on the softer compound, which should give us an advantage off the line and for the first lap.”

“I’m pretty disappointed with sixth today. Qualifying up until Q3 went very well, we had no issues and didn’t touch the car. In my last run I was pushing hard and a few tenths up but I locked up into turn 11, if not for that I feel I would have been around P3. It was a bit unfortunate as my pace was there and the car felt good. It would have been great to be a bit higher on the grid as the tyre strategy means that by starting on the supersoft we need a really strong start and to be careful with the cars behind. We should be able to stay out a bit longer, the tyre seems to work well in the higher temperatures so this suits the start of the race. The pace has been there all weekend so I am definitely aiming to go forward tomorrow and work my way to the guys up front. I will put today behind me and focus on having a strong race and closing the season with another successful result.”

“I’m very happy and I think seventh place was probably the maximum result for us today. I’m pleased with my laps, especially considering the lack of running I have had this weekend, sitting out FP1 and missing half of final practice. Going into qualifying I thought it was going to be quite difficult, but we made good progress with the car during the session and I had the confidence to really push on all of my laps. Hopefully we can deliver more of the same tomorrow to end the season and my time with Force India in style. The cars ahead in the top six may be just out of reach, but we will give it a go and see where we end up.”

“I am pleased with the result for the team, locking down the fourth row of the grid, but I am not very happy with my performance because I know I could have done better. I had a bit of understeer on my last lap so I tried to change my lines to counter it, but it didn’t really work. I could have been in P7 with a perfect lap, but with Nico just ahead it’s still a great result for the team. I am looking forward to our last race as teammates and beating the cars around us to finish the season on a high note. I want to outscore our rivals because finishing fourth in the championship is a really important objective for us.”

“I think we have to be happy today: it was definitely a good quali for us. “The conditions are always difficult here, because you practice in hot conditions, then head into qualifying when the track conditions are much cooler. That means you need to anticipate what’s going to happen, and make set-up changes a little blindly as you don’t really know how the conditions are going to change. “Happily, our car felt competitive, and making it into Q3 and finishing 9th in the final qualifying session of the season is extremely positive. We capitalised the performance of the car today and we got everything we possibly could out of it. “There are no big threats from behind us in terms of the championship, and it’ll be hard tomorrow to finish higher than the position we’re already in, so let’s just enjoy this final race and hopefully finish on a high by scoring some good points.”

It definitely was not a very easy qualifying today, but I was happy with the result. To be honest, I wasn’t happy with the tyres but I just tried my hardest to set a good lap. I had a very good time in Q2, which was important. I definitely expected a bit more from my lap in Q3, but maybe I didn’t have as much grip in the tyres as Q2. We’re not far from where we expected to be and we will see what we can do compared to the other cars.

Obviously I would have liked to have been in Q3, but for some reason I couldn’t get any extra grip from the ultrasoft tyre compared to the supersoft. The car felt very good with the supersoft tyre, but I don’t feel like we got the most out of the qualifying tyre. However, tomorrow is a different game. P11 gives me a free choice of tyres for the race, so that can open up opportunities. Lately, Force India have been finishing races ahead of us so it would be nice to end the season with a good result for the whole team and for Felipe. There’s obviously a title battle on the line up at the front, so that could create quite an exciting race ahead.

“It was good fun out there this evening – I enjoyed it. “As the track cooled down, we needed to balance the car up with more front-end grip, but didn’t have anything left in the car, so the resulting understeer cost me a little bit of time. “To be fair, however, 12th position isn’t a bad place to be for tomorrow: we get to run new tyres. With these tyre regulations, it’s often better to start outside the top 10 in order to best free up the strategy for the race. And I’d definitely rather have a good race tomorrow than a good qualifying today. “None of the compounds last for long around here, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow – points are definitely possible.”

“It’s been quite a tricky day, starting with FP3 conditions where it was pretty hot. Obviously, it was important to understand how the conditions would change the balance of the car going into qualifying with it going into the night and temperatures dropping. I feel very grateful to have achieved this result for my team. My group of mechanics and engineers having been giving it their best efforts even though it’s quite an emotional weekend for all of us being our last race together. They deserve to have my best, and I’ll give them the best of my focus, attitude and performance.”

“I’m disappointed with that qualifying session. Clearly, we were hoping for a bit better. We had a lot of problems yesterday and we were still hoping that we’d made the right decisions. We did as much as we could, but we need to get more understanding of the tires. I think we’re spending too much energy just to get all four corners working. It’s the same for everyone, so that’s where we need to focus. We’ve seen that when we get things right, like in Brazil, we’re very fast. When we’re not, we’re usually around 14th and 15th. That’s the number one priority for now. For the race tomorrow, I’ve got no idea what to think. I didn’t get to do any long runs. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”

“I’m really happy with how we’ve been going; I’ve been in Q2 at every race I’ve qualified for after the Malaysia GP now so it’s been a strong run for us including today. Yas Marina isn’t the easiest of tracks for us but I did a really good lap in Q1 and managed to beat Wehrlein in Q2, so fifteenth is probably as good as it can get. I think our race pace is a bit stronger, so we should be able to move forward. If something kicks off at the start and we make up some places then we have the pace to stay up there.”

Pascal, fifth time in Q2 this season. What a way to round out the last qualifying session of your debut season! Are you as thrilled as your team? “Ha ha. At least! My fifth time in Q2 this year and that’s a really special way to finish in the last qualifying of the year. In Q2 I only had one set of Ultrasoft tyres so my second run was the limit and it wasn’t possible to improve any more. But I think we have to be happy with P16 and my thanks to the team because together we’ve done a really great job so far this weekend. I like the track but I don’t think it’s our best one, so we’re really pushing hard to end the season in a positive way.” Eighth row on the grid tomorrow. What can we do from there? “Well, who knows. We’re in front of Sauber and our pace looks really strong, so you never know what might be possible and what might happen in front of us. I think we should dream big and push for points. Why not? Brazil was a tough day for us, so I would love to put the smile back on everyone’s faces.”

"After all the problems we've been struggling with this weekend, today's result is actually the maximum we could achieve, at least from my side – I don't think I could've done a better lap to be honest. We've had very little track time during the practice sessions, so it was difficult to go into qualifying without many laps under my belt... I'm happy with the recovery and we still have a chance to fight tomorrow, when I will try and do a clean race and see where we end up. We're also going blind into the race, as we didn't complete any long runs, but we will keep fighting until the end, that's for sure!"

“We’ve been lacking pace so far here in Abu Dhabi and that was the same for qualifying today; it just hasn’t been my weekend. We had three runs planned but I was called into the weighbridge so that didn’t help. Hopefully we can have a good race, as a lot more can happen and we’ll be looking for every opportunity to fight our way forward”

„Für mein Gefühl habe ich heute das Maximum aus dem Auto herausgeholt. Dennoch reichte es nicht, um in Q2 zu kommen. Auf meinem zweiten Satz ultraweicher Reifen hatte ich eine freie Runde und konnte eine relativ ordentliche Rundenzeit herausfahren. Das Positive dabei war auch, dass wir die Reifen gegenüber dem ersten Satz besser auf die optimale Temperatur bringen konnten. Auf meiner schnellen Runde hatte ich allerdings auch mit Motor-Fehlzündungen zu kämpfen. Unsere Zielsetzung für das morgige Rennen ist klar: Wir müssen alles tun, um den zehnten Platz in der Konstrukteurs-WM zu verteidigen.“

Esteban, obviously unhappy with P20 today. What went wrong? “Yes, my qualifying was a disaster. Free practice looked positive this morning and we were ahead, but as soon as we put the Ultrasoft on I was standing still and my teammate and everyone else was improving. There was nothing more in terms of pace on that tyre for me. I was losing speed and we have to look at what the problem was because for sure, there was one.” Season finale tomorrow. What can we expect? “Well, it’s a great track, which I enjoy, and up until qualifying the signs are all good in terms of our performance. I’m starting at a disadvantage in terms of grid position, but if we can get a good start – and we know we can – then I hope we can recover some places and have a good race.”

"Honestly, it's being a very tough last two days here in Abu Dhabi, which is a bit painful as I really wanted to finish the season with a clean weekend and enjoy myself. The team has struggled to solve the problem regarding the rear of the car and, because of this, we haven't had much track time unfortunately. We're working hard and every time we do a change on the car it seems to be positive – the team has done a great job since yesterday. Obviously, this has conditioned our set-up and we've not had much time to develop it or get used to the track – something which is not ideal when you're preparing for a race. Tomorrow we are starting from very back on the grid but let's see what we can do - I will definitely try and enjoy it, hope for no reliability concerns and follow a good strategy. Let's go for it!"

„Das war ein enttäuschendes Qualifying für mich. Das Auto war bereits am Freitag schwierig zu fahren, vor allem auf ultraweichen Reifen. Bereits in den gestrigen freien Trainings hatten wir arg zu kämpfen, um auf dieser Gummimischung ein besseres Gefühl zu bekommen. Deshalb war uns klar, dass das heute kein leichtes Qualifying werden würde. Dazu kam noch, dass ich auf meiner letzten Runde in Q1 ein bisschen zu viel riskierte und deshalb in Kurve 17 die Räder blockierten. Dabei büsste ich viel Zeit ein. Ein Lichtblick für das Rennen sind im Vergleich zu den Short-runs unsere Rundenzeiten bei den Long-runs. Deshalb bin ich zuversichtlich, dass wir im Rennen stärker sind, als im Qualifying.“