Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ganz ehrlich, ich bin überglücklich. Montreal war in den vergangenen Jahren immer ein gutes Pflaster für mich. Es war ein enges Duell gegen Ferrari - sie waren an diesem Wochenende bislang sehr schnell. Ich musste tief in die Tasche greifen... Es war eine großartige Runde, eine sexy Runde! Ich kann nicht glauben, dass alles so gut zusammengepasst hat. Nach dem harten Wochenende in Monaco haben wir aus unseren Fehlern gelernt. Ich verdanke diese Pole dem gesamten Team in den Werken in Brackley und Brixworth. Ich zitterte, als mir Ayrtons Helm überreicht wurde. Für viele von euch war Ayrton der Lieblingsfahrer. So auch für mich. Diesen Helm zu erhalten und seine Statistik einzustellen, ist eine enorme Ehre für mich.

“I was not so happy with my job in the last run of Q3. It is true that we faced tough competition, but we could have been closer. We could even have been ahead, but Lewis did a very good job today. As for me, I lost the car in Turn 2 and from there I knew I had to catch up. The car was very good and I had been happy in the morning session. To be on the front row gives you the chance to make a good start. I am looking forward to tomorrow, I am sure we’re going to have a very close race. This is a nice track and we had a good run here also last year”

Zunächst herzlichen Glückwunsch an Lewis zu seiner 65. Pole Position. Es ist eine großartige Leistung, mit Senna gleichzuziehen. Ich habe alles gegeben, aber es war ein kniffliger Tag für mich. Ich hatte Schwierigkeiten mit der Fahrzeugbalance und war im 3. Training nicht richtig zufrieden. Wir nahmen einige Veränderungen am Auto vor und danach fühlte es sich im Qualifying viel besser an. Aber als es im Q3 darauf ankam, die letzten Hundertstel und Zehntel herauszuholen, war das Auto wieder instabil. Ich bekam einfach keine Runde zusammen. Die Long Runs scheinen okay zu sein. Deshalb erwarte ich erneut ein enges Rennen gegen Ferrari. Morgen kommt es darauf an.

“Today it was a bit tricky: for whatever reason yesterday we had been a bit more comfortable. The car felt pretty OK, but we struggled to make the tires work as we wanted. There was a lot of potential in the car, but I was not driving very well, and did not manage to put a good lap together. My last run was very poor, I made mistakes in the first and second corner and I paid the price for it. Tomorrow it should be a different story. It’s going to be a long race and obviously a lot can happen; you never know here, it’s one of those places where things can change very quickly. We’ll try to make the best choices; we should have the speed, let’s see”

“We know that this circuit is not our favourite and doesn’t particularly suit us so P5 was the best we could aim for, we achieved that so I’m pleased with the result. Ferrari and Mercedes are able to turn their engines up and find that extra pace; we can’t do that at the moment. During the race the engine power difference is slightly less as they cannot run at that level for an entire race, this means we can try to get involved and make ground. I think our race pace looks ok for tomorrow, if we can keep fifth that is the first goal, then we can see what happens in front of us. We are constantly working hard to improve the car, working towards having the best car in the field, so this means constant development. The upgrades we have got this weekend have worked really well which proves we are going in the right direction. It is hard to show that progress in Qualifying, and at a tough track with long straights, but we are definitely improving.”

“Things didn’t really go to plan yesterday, but we had a lot of laps on track this morning in FP3 and understood a lot more. For Qualifying even though we ended up at the tail end of the top six I still felt we were actually in the hunt. We have put ourselves in a good position to at least race with Max so I can’t ask for too much more. The last run I would have loved to improve so there was maybe a tenth in that, but other than that I think we got the most out of it. I’m no Einstein but three years ago I finished first and started on sixth. I will be starting on sixth again tomorrow so that’s easy maths, am I right?”

"It was a great qualifying session for me. I’m very happy with everything we’ve done this weekend and I’m very happy with the lap. We were competitive today, but seventh was the best position we could have achieved. The race is tomorrow though, and I was quite happy with the pace in the race simulations yesterday. I’m looking forward to the race as I think we have good pace to be able to fight and score some good points."

“I am pleased with our performance today. The car was giving me confidence and my flying laps were clean and tidy. Eighth is a good position to start the race and, even though the strategy options will be quite limited on this track, I am confident we can come away with a decent result. It will be a close fight with the cars around us because the gaps are small, but our race pace looked good yesterday so we should be competitive.”

“I’m pleased with today. The car has been strong since FP1 and we’ve done a good job in all the sessions by always moving forward and improving the car with each run. It’s also a new track for me so I’ve taken things step-by-step and built my confidence with the car and the track. I really enjoyed qualifying – pushing more and more through the chicanes and getting closer to the walls. It’s an old-school track and definitely a challenge for the drivers. To start from ninth means we are already in the points and I have a good feeling for the race. The priority is to get a clean first lap, stay out of trouble and find a rhythm to make the most of our competitive race pace.”

“I am quite pleased with P10, I think this is as good as it could get for us this afternoon. Yesterday it looked like we had quite a bit of work to do, then this morning looked much better. Now we have to put our heads down, push hard and work for some points tomorrow.”

"I don't think P11 is a bad starting position for tomorrow. It's just a shame that we lost about three minutes at the FIA bridge, as the car got stuck in first gear, which was very frustrating! Because of this, I was only able to do one lap in my final attempt and the tyres were still too cold; I also got a puncture as I sadly kissed the wall... Without all of this it could've definitely been a better lap, I'm sure. I'm not worried about tomorrow, we just need to do our race and hopefully fight for points."

“I think what we achieved in today’s qualifying was the maximum we could have hoped for. I’m happy with our performance – it was probably a bit quicker than we expected, actually, considering our power deficit. We’re in P12, not ideal position to start from, but I think our time compared to the pole time here is quite competitive for us. Obviously, we’d like to be further forward, but I believe we maximised the potential today with a good, clean lap. “The car has felt great so far. It’s been fun out there today, and the level of grip is very high. Even though the tyres are difficult to warm up, they’re very consistent and you can push throughout the run, so I think it’s going to be an interesting race. “The key to tomorrow’s race will be performance and reliability, as always. We’ll have to do some fuel saving and keep an eye on engine cooling, so it won’t be easy. But the first priority tomorrow will be to finish the race, and, if we can be in the points, that’ll be great.”

"I'm disappointed with today's qualifying result. It's a shame because after FP3 we finally got to show some performance and we were definitely in a good position for a better lap this afternoon. Unfortunately, qualifying was just full of trouble and the yellow flags disrupted my timed laps in both Q1 and Q2 and I was therefore not able to improve my lap time – I think a 13.4 or 13.5 was possible. P13 is definitely not where we wanted to end up today, but there's not much I can do about it now. On the positive side, the car behaved pretty well and I feel comfortable – I'm confident and ready for the race: last year we started P16 and managed to recover and score some points, so this means tomorrow could be a similar story... We will push hard and never give up, that's for sure!"

“It’s not been easy. We knew we were not in Q3, but I was hoping to get a bit more magic in qualifying. Q1 went pretty well. In Q2, we just didn’t get any grip at all on the last set of tires. I did my best, managed to get a decent time, but it was nowhere near good enough to go through with a better position. We’re going to work, try to analyze everything. The positive is this is a track where you can normally overtake. It’s going to be a long race and it can be tough on the brakes. Hopefully, we can play with that and get some points tomorrow.”

“I had a tidy lap, which I was happy with in Q1 and the car felt good. For some reason in Q2 I wasn’t able to find enough grip or get the tyres turned on and I ended up with a slower lap. I’m pleased to be back in Q2, but disappointed not to be further up the order. We know the tyres are pretty sensitive so we just have to get on with it in the race. This is a track where you can overtake and you often see safety cars so hopefully things go our way tomorrow.”

“It’s a shame that I had to abort my final Q1 lap when the yellow flags came out. I think we had the potential to get into Q2 – we were struggling a little bit with switching on the tyres on the first timed lap and we’d been improving our time on the second lap. I think the potential was there to progress on the second timed lap, and it would have been good enough to get us through to Q2 if it hadn’t been for the yellows, unfortunately. That’s how it is sometimes: we were unlucky. “In general we’ve found it difficult to get the tyres in the performance window and we know how difficult it is if you can’t get the temperatures up. In terms of actual performance, we’re not that far away; it’s just a case of needing that little bit more time to get the tyres working, and then we’re up there. “We’ll give it our best shot tomorrow. We know this track isn’t the most favourable for us, with all the long straights, and we’re compromising the set-up a little bit in order to boost our straight-line speed. Tomorrow, we’ll see: it’ll be a long race, hopefully it’ll be a decent one, and we can bring both cars to the finish, after which we’ll see where we end up.”

"We went out at the beginning and stayed on the same set of tyres the whole session. I felt the grip was getting better, but I think the track was just improving. I think the decision not to pit for new tyres towards the end of Q1 had a bit to do with me not getting through, but it is too hard to say. You can always look back afterwards and say we should have done this and we should have done that, but we are in the position we are in. Obviously, we are starting a little bit further back than we would want to, but it is a long race, overtaking is possible and you never know what will happen. We have to stay focused and positive. This is my first home Grand Prix, which is great and I am aiming to enjoy it."

“It was very frustrating. There were a lot of things going on – mainly traffic. It’s the second weekend in a row that we don’t get laps because of traffic. I didn’t get a good feeling for the car as I didn’t really get to put a lap down. The important thing is to try and be on the same strategy as the guys around you so that you don’t do fast laps when everyone else is doing slow laps. We didn’t get to show our full potential today. We need to try to be better.”

„Es war bisher ein schwieriges Wochenende für uns. Vor allem gestern hatten wir Schwierigkeiten, die Reifen zum Arbeiten zu bringen. Allerdings konnten wir in Sachen Reifen-Management ein besseres Verständnis bekommen, was durchaus ein kleiner Fortschritt ist. Dennoch können unsere Rundenzeiten nicht mit denen unserer Konkurrenten mithalten. Positiv ist, dass ich heute mit dem Auto besser zurechtgekommen bin. Die Änderungen, welche wir am Auto vorgenommen haben, könnten uns morgen im Rennen einen Vorteil bringen.“

„Der Dreher in die Streckenbegrenzung war mein Fehler. Denn ich bin beim Anbremsen in Kurve 1 zu weit nach rechts gekommen und ein bisschen auf dem Gras gefahren. Es tut mir sehr leid für das Team, speziell für die Mechaniker, die seit dem Monaco-Rennen sehr, sehr viel gearbeitet haben – und heute wird nochmals ein langer Tag für sie.“