Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ich liebe es, im Regen zu fahren, aber es ist schwer in Worte zu fassen, wie schwierig die Bedingungen heute waren. Wir haben uns alle vorangetastet und gebetet, dass wir uns nicht verbremsen. Im Q3 sind wir direkt von den Slicks auf die Intermediates gegangen, wodurch uns nur eine Handvoll Runden zur Verfügung gestanden hat, um den Grip zu finden und zu verstehen, welche Streckenteile trocken und welche nass waren. Ich bin in Kurve eins von der Strecke abgekommen und dann auf der nächsten Runde in Kurve zwölf. Dadurch hatte ich nur noch einen Versuch, um es hinzubekommen, und die Strecke trocknete in den Schlussminuten langsam ab. Ich wusste, dass ich die Pace hatte. Ich musste nur die richtige Balance finden und diese war in jeder Kurve anders. So zu fahren macht mir besonders viel Spaß. Ich dachte eigentlich, dass wir im Trockenen mittendrin im Kampf gewesen wären. Mir war klar, dass es eng zugehen würde, aber ich dachte, dass ich den Tick vor Ferrari sein könnte. Sie waren nun für einige Rennen die Favoriten, aber wir sind vor ihnen gelandet. Sebastians Pace auf den Long Runs sah gestern sehr stark aus, demnach könnte es morgen hart werden. Ich weiß nicht, ob unsere Pace für den Sieg ausreichen wird, aber ihr könnt euch sicher sein, dass ich mein Bestes geben werde. Der Weg zu Les Combes ist auf der ersten Runde sehr lang und wir wissen, dass die Ferrari auf den Geraden unglaublich schnell sind. Warten wir ab, wie es sich morgen entwickelt.

“Today was ok”, Seb commented: “we had the pace and we managed to stay on track and maintain control even if the conditions were tricky. I could have done much more but I made some mistakes, therefore I am happy with second position, albeit not completely of course. When it suddenly starts raining as it did today, everything gets more confused and there’s more traffic on track. You know that every lap is important, but you also know that the last one could be the best. However, we have a good car, our people are pushing very hard and I think we have taken another step forward here. I believe that speed is the main aspect that can make the difference. We’ll see how we get off the line tomorrow in the first lap, but I think that if we have better speed, then we will find the right way to pass. We’ve been very close so far, so I think we’ll see the real pace tomorrow in the race”.

“It’s a fantastic day. After everything that has happened in the last few weeks it’s a special moment and we should enjoy the day. I’m very proud of the entire team because they kept up their motivation and worked really hard to give me a quick car today. Even without the rain, we looked strong and made it well into Q3 in the dry. When the rain started falling, we knew there was the chance to get an even better result, but it wasn’t easy. At the start of Q3 we tried to do a lap on the slicks, but it just wasn’t possible and I had a few scary moments getting back to the pits. When we switched to the intermediates, I knew I needed to get a perfect lap, but on my first attempt I made a small mistake. So on my final lap I tried to be safe as well, and we ended up in third place. I’m so excited for the race. We have a quick car, especially down the straights and we will race hard tomorrow.”

“I am very happy about today’s result and what a tremendous qualifying it has been! So many emotions are going through my head – it has been a really difficult session, which makes the result even sweeter. It’s a great result for the team – for the new owners, the old ones who built the team to what it is now, and everyone who works so hard every day. The rain made things stressful and we had to take some risks. We chose to stay out on slicks because the track was dry in sectors one and two, but as soon as we did the rain picked up quickly. I had a massive moment in Eau Rouge and I was lucky to stay out of the wall, but I was really expecting the worst – there’s no small crash there. We had to come in for inters and I locked my rears at the final corner. I jumped on the kerb, damaged my front wing and the time we took to change it meant I only had the chance to do one lap on inters. Perhaps with one more lap I would have been able to fight for pole position, but we can still be very happy about P4. We are in a great position for tomorrow and we can put up a strong fight in the race. At the very least, we are targeting a lot of points – but you can never make predictions in Spa.”

“It wasn’t easy, but it’s great to have a qualifying session like this – beating some of the top teams and ending just behind the Force Indias, who were very strong in the wet conditions. We’re fast in the dry as well, which is good. I think we were in front of one of the Red Bulls most of the time – that’s quite exciting, as well. I was ready to give it all in Q3, and then the rain came and added to the fun. It was a close call at the start, whether we tried a lap on slicks to begin with. I was tempted to go for it, but I think it was just too wet, so everyone went for the intermediates. I’m happy with our performance, especially knowing that our last qualifying in the wet, we were not so good.”

“The weekend so far had being going in the right direction and the car was fine”, said Kimi. “The result of this qualifying is far from ideal, but not a disaster. For sure this is not the place we should have finished today. In the end we only had fuel for one lap and we had to come in. This is what we have got and there’s nothing we can do. It’s just a matter of getting it right and being there when the track is faster. At the moment, it is difficult to find a positive side, but the race is normally a different story and we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow we’ll try again, learn from our mistakes and keep going. First of all we need to come through the first corner without any issues. Yesterday it was surprisingly difficult to overtake, but in the race it is a different story”.

“The weekend so far had being going in the right direction and the car was fine”, said Kimi. “The result of this qualifying is far from ideal, but not a disaster. For sure this is not the place we should have finished today. In the end we only had fuel for one lap and we had to come in. This is what we have got and there’s nothing we can do. It’s just a matter of getting it right and being there when the track is faster. At the moment, it is difficult to find a positive side, but the race is normally a different story and we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow we’ll try again, learn from our mistakes and keep going. First of all we need to come through the first corner without any issues. Yesterday it was surprisingly difficult to overtake, but in the race it is a different story”.

“Starting seventh is not what we wanted but it was a tricky situation out there today. We fuelled for two laps, one of those for slicks and the other for Intermediates. It stopped raining towards the end of our laps and the track dried a little but if we had stayed out and gone for another lap we would have run out of fuel. It’s frustrating as the time we spent on track was competitive so I’m sure we could have been closer to the front. Even my last quick lap could have been a little better as I ran out of energy in the last sector and I had expected to use it on just one lap. I think we made the correct decision to go on to the Intermediates, it was just bad luck that it stopped raining and we had no fuel left. In general Qualifying was good and the car felt good, we just got caught out in Q3. We have really low downforce on the car so we should be able to overtake some cars ahead of us that usually would not be there. With the unusual mix at the front it should be an interesting first few laps.”

“Timing is difficult here and the weather is just so unpredictable. Once it started raining, we thought it would get heavier, but five minutes later it started to dry and by then we had used our tyres and fuel. As a team, we thought we were doing the right thing to get out on the Intermediate as quickly as possible while it was still not that wet, but at the end of the session the cars still on track had the best conditions. It was unlucky and in normal circumstances once it starts raining it usually gets worse and worse but today that just didn’t happen. In hindsight, the strategy didn’t work but at the time it looked like the right thing to do. Even if it’s raining in the pitlane here it could be 40 degrees at the other side of the track so we just missed out. I’ve struggled all weekend with speed and there are still some unknowns. In Q1 I had to put two sets of tyres on to get through, even though we weren’t expecting to be that quick around here, we shouldn’t be in that position and we will try and find some answers tonight before the race tomorrow. Even though we haven’t been that quick so far, tomorrow we can be more optimistic, even starting eighth. We are definitely better than that and we will try and charge through. I’m sure a few cars in front of us won’t be as strong on race pace so we will be moving forwards and not backwards.”

“It was a pretty hectic Q3. It had a lot of potential to be good, and in those kinds of conditions, you can make a big difference. You can also mess it up, which I did. The track was dry on the last lap. You go out on the intermediates, and it’s wet with spray. It doesn’t look like it’s going to dry up, so you push with everything you can. Then on the second lap, the tires are already gone. By the third lap, the track was so dry that you get massively faster again, but today I missed out, whereas the likes of the Force Indias got their big chance. It’s exciting, but obviously it’s disappointing when it’s not gone your way. At the end of the day, two cars in Q3 is good, and we made some good steps in the dry in Q1 and Q2. We were running in the top-10 consistently. I think the car’s race pace is good, so tomorrow should be interesting.”

“It was a pretty hectic Q3. It had a lot of potential to be good, and in those kinds of conditions, you can make a big difference. You can also mess it up, which I did. The track was dry on the last lap. You go out on the intermediates, and it’s wet with spray. It doesn’t look like it’s going to dry up, so you push with everything you can. Then on the second lap, the tires are already gone. By the third lap, the track was so dry that you get massively faster again, but today I missed out, whereas the likes of the Force Indias got their big chance. It’s exciting, but obviously it’s disappointing when it’s not gone your way. At the end of the day, two cars in Q3 is good, and we made some good steps in the dry in Q1 and Q2. We were running in the top-10 consistently. I think the car’s race pace is good, so tomorrow should be interesting.”

"P11 was a really good result today, it was much better than we expected because we knew Spa is a track that doesn't necessarily suit our car. In the end we were right behind the top 10, so I'm really satisfied with the result. We definitely extracted the most out of the car today; I think the gap to the Haas was five-tenths to get into Q3, so I think it was too much of an ask for a better result. I'm excited to go racing again, I think our tyre degradation was very good which is a positive factor for tomorrow. The cars in front of us are really fast, so it's not going to be easy to overtake them, but if we get a good start then we can give it a big push!"

"After FP2 and FP3 we knew today was going to be a challenge. I think as a team we got most of the performance out of the car and it felt quite good. Making it to Q3 would have been a bit of a stretch today, but in the end it was a pretty good day for us. I would have loved the rain to have come a bit earlier because historically we're pretty good in mixed conditions, but we have been able to achieve the best we could today. P11 and P12 was a good result – especially since we will both move up a position after Bottas' penalty. We're in a good position to hopefully fight for points tomorrow."

"After FP2 and FP3 we knew today was going to be a challenge. I think as a team we got most of the performance out of the car and it felt quite good. Making it to Q3 would have been a bit of a stretch today, but in the end it was a pretty good day for us. I would have loved the rain to have come a bit earlier because historically we're pretty good in mixed conditions, but we have been able to achieve the best we could today. P11 and P12 was a good result – especially since we will both move up a position after Bottas' penalty. We're in a good position to hopefully fight for points tomorrow."

„Es ist schade, dass wir es im Qualifying nicht noch etwas weiter nach vorne geschafft haben. Das Auto fühlt sich dieses Wochenende gut an, und wir sind auf dem Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps recht konkurrenzfähig. Einige der Teams hatten jedoch noch etwas Performance in der Reserve, und konnten ihre Positionen vor uns gut verteidigen. Es gab einige Probleme, die wir vor dem nächsten Qualifying beheben müssen. Wir sind aber überzeugt, dass wir morgen trotzdem gute Resultate erzielen können. Das Wetter wird eine interessante Rolle spielen, und ich freue mich schon darauf zu fahren.“

„Das Auto hat sich gut angefühlt, und wir hatten sowohl in der dritten freien Trainingseinheit, als auch in Q1, eine gute Performance. Wir haben es beide ins Q2 geschafft. Leider musste ich dieses jedoch wegen einem technischen Problem noch vor meinem letzten Lauf beenden. Das war etwas enttäuschend. Ich fühle mich allerdings schon das ganze Wochenende sehr wohl im Auto, und bleibe für das Rennen zuversichtlich.“

“We’ve lost a bit of performance in recent races, but on top of that we knew Spa would be quite a difficult race for our package in terms of performance, and so will Monza. We will try to defend here and attack on more favourable tracks. “My qualifying lap today was enjoyable. Driving these cars on this circuit is always very special because they feel fast and grippy, but then you cross the line and your time is slower than your competitors, which means that tomorrow we’ll have to recover. “We try to score points in every difficult situation, so why can’t we score points again tomorrow? We need something special to happen, so maybe there is some rain coming that will give us a chance.”

Today’s a shame as qualifying didn’t feel as bad as it looks on the timesheet. I think, like yesterday, we’ve got a more balanced, stable and understandable base and we’d expected to get more performance from it today than we actually did. I think my lap was really good, but in the last chicane I didn’t nail it so Fernando ended up half a tenth ahead of me. I think otherwise I could have got ahead of him, but not by much as that’s the limit of the car. Unfortunately, it’s one of those days where with your eyes closed you’d say it was a good job, but when you look at the timesheet it’s not. It’s confusing for me because it felt like an improvement.

It was very challenging and just a poor session. The car was very difficult to drive, I made a mistake in turn one, as I just locked up on my second push, and then I ran wide again in turn 13 so lost a few tenths there, but we are missing a big chunk of lap time to challenge the others. For the race, I honestly doubt we can do much, as we are quite slow on the straight line and not so good in the corners. However, I am still going to go race and give it my all as anything can happen in turn one and Eau Rouge, so for the start I am going to try and gain some positions and go from there.

Das war ein etwas seltsamer Nachmittag. Wenn du weißt, dass dein Ergebnis nicht wirklich eine Rolle spielt, weil du ohnehin vom Ende des Feldes starten musst, gehst du das Qualifying ganz anders an. Ursprünglich wollten wir nur im Q1 fahren. Kurz vor dem Beginn der Session haben wir diesen Plan jedoch verworfen, weil wir glaubten, dass ich Lewis etwas Windschatten geben könnte. Aber dann regnete es im Q3 und wir verwarfen diese Idee am Ende doch wieder. Zum Glück hatte dies keine Auswirkungen auf unseren ursprünglichen Plan, da wir uns auf dem weichen Reifen qualifiziert haben, auf dem wir ohnehin ins Rennen gehen wollten. Es macht riesigen Spaß, auf dieser Strecke zu fahren. Deshalb freue ich mich auf morgen und ich bin zuversichtlich, dass sich Möglichkeiten ergeben werden. Auf dieser Strecke gibt es Überholmöglichkeiten und wir haben hier ein sehr gutes Auto. Jetzt freue ich mich auf die Herausforderung und werde dabei versuchen, auch etwas Spaß zu haben.

“The one lap I did today was pretty much on the pace, so the car felt alright. Q3 looked like it was exciting and it would have been nice to be involved, but with the engine penalty it made sense for us to skip the rest of qualifying to save the engine as it needs to go a long way from here. We have to be realistic for tomorrow and it won’t be easy to get into the points. Having said that, overtaking is possible here and our top speed has been competitive so far this weekend, so I want to have a good race and have a bit of fun and hopefully there will be a nice reward at the end.”

“Qualifying didn’t go as expected. We’re looking into what’s happened with the car as it wasn’t behaving as normal, it was strange as I had a lot of oversteer, which is something I’ve not had all weekend. The car felt fine yesterday and this morning, then suddenly for qualifying it’s not how it was. It’s tricky to understand, and we’ll be going through the data to figure out why. It’s a circuit where you can overtake so of course tomorrow is another day and we’ll be looking to work our way through to the points.”

“Qualifying didn’t go as expected. We’re looking into what’s happened with the car as it wasn’t behaving as normal, it was strange as I had a lot of oversteer, which is something I’ve not had all weekend. The car felt fine yesterday and this morning, then suddenly for qualifying it’s not how it was. It’s tricky to understand, and we’ll be going through the data to figure out why. It’s a circuit where you can overtake so of course tomorrow is another day and we’ll be looking to work our way through to the points.”

“Our general performance explains pretty much everything this afternoon. We’ve been last in almost every session, we’ve had so many problems this weekend and I don’t think there were any surprises here in qualifying. “It’s my home grand prix and it’s a real shame that we don’t have better machinery to really put on a good show and give the fans a good result. “I don’t think there would have been a huge miracle if I hadn’t had the incident in FP3. We tried to play every card today, with a bit of slipstreaming as well and we didn’t really progress any further, so I don’t think it made much difference for me. “I hope I can progress at least a little bit tomorrow. It’s been a difficult weekend, we’ve not really had any performance at all, and I just hope tomorrow will be better.”