Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Die Runde begann perfekt und ging genauso weiter - einfach magisch. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass es eine meiner besten, wenn nicht sogar meine beste Runde überhaupt gewesen ist. Mein Bruder und ich nennen so etwas eine „sexy Runde“. Heute hatte ich nur diese eine Runde in mir, danach konnte ich nicht mehr schneller fahren. Auf dieser Strecke kommt es auf das Vertrauen an – das Vertrauen in deine Bremspunkte und die Stabilität des Autos. Du hast nur ein paar Runden, um dich darauf einzuschießen. Sobald man einmal raus ist, ist es sehr schwierig, wieder reinzukommen. Deshalb bin ich sehr froh, dass ich im Q2 zwei zusätzliche Runden auf den HyperSoft-Reifen hatte. So konnte ich die Reifen etwas besser verstehen. Im Q3 hatte ich das Gefühl, dass ich in jeder Kurve am Limit war, aber nicht darüber. Ich hatte keine durchdrehenden Räder oder etwas Ähnliches. Alles in allem war ich in diesem Jahr in den Rennen ziemlich stark. Entsprechend hoffe ich, dass es morgen so weitergeht. Ich werde heute Abend hart arbeiten, um sicherzustellen, dass ich einen guten Start habe. Danach geht es darum, auf die Reifen zu achten. Es wird sicher nicht einfach, lange mit dem HyperSoft zu fahren, aber das ist für uns alle gleich. Das dürfte also interessant werden. Ferrari und insbesondere Red Bull hatten eine gute Pace auf den Long Runs. Uns erwartet morgen also ein harter Kampf. Aber ich bin sehr dankbar dafür, dass wir heute bessere Arbeit abgeliefert haben und mich jeder Einzelne im Team so stark unterstützt hat. Mein gemeinsamer Weg mit Mercedes und dem gesamten Team ist ein absolut beeindruckendes Erlebnis.

“Today was the best Qualifying session I’ve had in Formula 1. Given the engine driveability issues we faced in Practice and Qualifying I was very surprised to bring it home in P2. My Q3 lap was really good and we made progress with the set-up in every session which meant the car felt great at the end. The main step was finding quite a bit of front grip, this helped a lot come Q2 and Q3. Around here if you feel it was a good lap with few mistakes it usually translates into a front row. Even with the odd false neutral we managed to be on the front row so I’m really happy. If I can take a metre against Lewis at the start, and get in the lead, there is a good chance of a win as it’s a hard track to pass on. You still need luck with Safety Cars but as always I will do my best. I can certainly say I have put myself in a good position to try.”

“Our laps today were not ideal”, said Seb “and, all in all, our qualifying session was not as good as it could have been. I think we didn’t take the best out of the car. We didn’t have a smooth session, that’s it. The gap seems big but it’s partly because this is a very long track, so I am not worried. I think Lewis had a very good lap but he was not impossible to beat. Obviously, it’s always better to start from the front row, but I think tomorrow it will be fine. The car is good, so I believe we can stay with the group of the cars in front and then we have two hours of racing to work something out. You never know what can happen. Obviously, we should have done better because we had all the ingredients, but today we didn’t put them all together. I’m not completely upset because third is not a disaster, but for sure we wanted to qualify on pole and that was up for grabs today. However, we now turn the page and see how we can fight tomorrow”.

Startplatz vier ist sicher nicht ideal und ich kann damit nicht zufrieden sein. Vom dritten Training bis zum Q2 lief alles ziemlich gut, aber danach konnten die anderen Fahrer im Q3 noch einmal stark zulegen und ich leider nicht mehr. Ich habe einfach keine Verbesserung bei den Streckenbedingungen gespürt. Lewis ist eine großartige Runde gefahren, aber sieben Zehntel sind ein großer Abstand. Das muss ich mir jetzt genau ansehen und herausfinden, woran es gelegen hat. Die Long Run-Zeiten von Ferrari, Red Bull und uns sahen relativ vergleichbar aus. Es ist wirklich schade, dass ich mich nicht weiter vorne qualifizieren und die erste Reihe angreifen konnte. Wir sind hier definitiv konkurrenzfähiger als im Vorjahr. Das Auto hat sich verbessert und wir haben den richtigen Weg beim Setup eingeschlagen. Deshalb blicke ich dem morgigen Sonntag optimistisch entgegen. Dann ist ein neuer Tag und zumindest einer der beiden Ferrari-Fahrer startet hinter mir. Noch liegt ein langes Rennen vor uns und ich werde alles geben, um vor Sebastian zu kommen. Mit drei Teams im Kampf um die Spitze ist alles drin. Auf dieser Strecke ist das Überholen schwierig. Entsprechend werden der Start und die Strategie entscheiden, wer dieses Rennen gewinnt.

“This qualifying was a bit more tricky than we expected”, Kimi commented. “In general, we struggled to ‘switch on’ the tyres straightaway and make them work as easily as it had been all weekend; so I was a bit surprised. Things can change quickly from practice to qualifying, that’s why there’s no reason to look at the lap times in practice, especially in places like this. The end result obviously is not great; this is the kind of circuit where if you get everything right your lap can be very good, but if you have some difficulties, the time difference gets big very quickly . Tomorrow will be a long day, everybody seems to be quite close to each other; it will be a long, tough and hectic race , and usually many things happen here. We’ll try to make the right decisions and the right calls”.

“It was a strange session and I was surprised that we lost so much pace in Q3. We made some changes between FP3 and Qualifying and initially the car felt pretty sweet. Everything we changed seemed positive and I thought we would get quicker and quicker as the track evolved, but we just lost pace as the session went on. I don’t have any answers as to why that happened yet which is pretty frustrating. I honestly thought we had a really good chance of a front row and in the space of an hour we lost a second to our competitors. Even with two attempts in Q3 we just couldn’t improve. It felt like we did everything right but the lap time doesn’t show it. I know we have good race pace but on a street circuit Qualifying is so important. It was strange and frustrating but hopefully we will find some answers.”

“It's an incredible result; I am really pleased with our performance today. I think I produced a nearly perfect lap on a track where it is hard to achieve it. We're ahead of our direct rivals and just behind the leaders. We had an advantage of four tenths on the Haas and six tenths on the Renault, and I think it goes to show that our upgrade package is already making a difference. This is a track that normally doesn't play to our strengths, so I was a pleased at the pace we have shown. Tomorrow's race is going to be a long one - nearly two hours - and there's never a boring race in Singapore with incidents and Safety Cars influencing the end result. We need to make it to the chequered flag, avoid mistakes and hopefully I can make it eight races out of eight in the points in Singapore. Starting on hypersoft tyres can leave me a bit vulnerable to those behind, but track position is very important here. It's not as crucial as in Monaco, but I'd rather be ahead than catching up.”

“I think I had a great performance. On my last lap I had a massive oversteer into turn 21. I guess I lost about three tenths of a second, so it could’ve been really tight with (Sergio) Perez. You know, Force India, they were really quick in Monaco, and here it’s the same kind of track, so I’m a little surprised. It’s a shame Kevin couldn’t make it through. I think he missed a tenth or so, and on a track like this, it’s always difficult to find the limit in Q1. You don’t want to push it too much to crash the car, but you’ve got to push it to get up there. The race is going to be super long. The hypersofts are doing about three laps and then you better be on softs. It’ll be interesting tomorrow. It’s going to be hot, there’s probably going to be a safety car and, hopefully, we get a good race pace and keep the fight going.”

“I am quite pleased with tonight’s result. We had a great car and the upgrades worked really well, so we can be happy with what we achieved. My Q3 lap was not ideal because I brushed the wall and it probably cost me some time. Maybe without this I could have been higher up the grid. I feel good about tomorrow - anything can happen in the race and you need to keep out of trouble and be opportunistic. Overtaking isn’t easy around here so the first lap will be really important. I think we will have the race pace to score good points.”

“It’s a little frustrating because we had the potential to be higher up on the grid. The qualifying pace in the car wasn’t as bad as it looks from the timing sheets as my final attempt wasn’t good. Seventh or eighth was probably possible today, but it didn’t go our way. We have to remain positive as our race pace seemed good yesterday. Tyre and race management will be crucial. Starting on the Hypersoft tyre won’t be easy, but we have to manage tomorrow as best we can. I want to have a good race, optimise everything and get back into the points.”

“We have been competitive all through the weekend here and this qualifying result is good. We got back to our normal competitiveness and I’m happy about that. “We knew that we were borderline on the Q3 cut-off, but starting the race from ninth or 10th on Hypersoft tyres can be a big disadvantage tomorrow, as those tyres seemed to have quite a lot of degradation yesterday in the long runs. So I’d rather be 11th with a free choice of tyres, and hopefully we can benefit from that. It would only be worth being in Q3 if we were fifth or sixth. “In ten years of racing here, there has been a 100 per cent record of Safety Car periods, and we need to be ready for that in case there’s an opportunity, or a window to stop and change tyres. “It’s a long and challenging race tomorrow and we need to stay focused and fight for points, but first of all we need to see the chequered flag. Reliability-wise, we haven’t been too strong recently, and we need to change that.”

"It’s a disappointing result in the end as the car felt good in Q1 and little by little we lost grip from the rear tyres. When you lose grip through the session, especially at a track like this, it’s difficult to put together a perfect lap. We need to analyse why we went backwards after a promising Q1. We remain optimistic for tomorrow, however. We have a good chance with a number of options with strategy. Our target was to be further up the grid for the start, but points are given out at the end of the race."

„Allgemein war es ein positiver Tag. Wir haben zwischen FP3 und dem Qualifying einige Fortschritte erzielt und uns bis ins Q2 gekämpft. Wir haben das Maximum aus dem Auto geholt – das ist immer unser grösstes Ziel – und wir können mit unserer Leistung zufrieden sein. Wir haben ein langes und schwieriges Rennen vor uns und die hohen Temperaturen werden eine besondere Herausforderung sein. Ich freue mich auf morgen.“

„Es war ein interessanter Tag für uns. FP3 war recht schwierig und wir waren mit unserer Performance nicht vollkommen zufrieden. Dennoch gingen wir zuversichtlich ins Qualifying. Die erste Einheit verlief glatt und ich war mit meiner Leistung zufrieden. Leider war Q2 nicht so positiv, wie wir gehofft hatten. Ich habe mich zwar im Auto wohlgefühlt, konnte meine Rundenzeiten allerdings nicht so gut verbessern, wie ich es gerne gemacht hätte, um es ins Q3 zu schaffen. Wir sehen, dass es im Mittelfeld sehr eng ist, und müssen uns im Rennen vor allem auf das Reifenmanagement und eine gute Strategie konzentrieren, um ein gutes Resultat zu erzielen. Ich freue mich schon auf morgen.“

"It has been tricky for us since the beginning of the weekend because we were not as competitive as we had of hoped yesterday. Today was a bit better but there wasn't much we could do to compete with the other teams for Q3. We struggled with balance and grip so we tried a few things to find a solution, but we weren't able to put it together which has made it difficult to extract the most performance out of the car. We're aiming to make up some positions tomorrow, we know in Singapore that can be difficult, but we are usually competitive on the Hypersofts in extending the life of the tyres, so that will be the target during the race."

“It’s not only been in qualifying, I’ve been missing the pace to my teammate. It’s really strange. I don’t really have any answers as to why I’m suddenly a second off the pace. It feels like I just don’t have the grip to go that fast. When you have a car that is somewhat well balanced, then it can only be overall lack of grip. I don’t really know why. It’s frustrating. I hope to find some answers as we look into it.”

"We had a tricky session this morning, but we made some changes and got the car in a better window for Qualifying. It was pretty close to Q2; I had some traffic in my first run, my second run was clean but I made a couple of small mistakes in the middle sector which cost me time. Pierre got me by a tenth and a half of a second, and that was the difference between getting knocked out in Q1 and progressing to Q2. It's a tricky track, you only get one chance around here. We were very good on tyres yesterday which was positive, so I remain hopeful we can make the strategy work and challenge for points in the race. We were hoping for better pace this weekend, but let's see what tomorrow brings."

“My last run on the new tyres was extremely messy from my side – I touched the wall about four times I think. We should definitely have been in Q2 as that was when the track was at its best. It’s a shame because the pace was there to progress. I think the car is okay so that’s good. “I tried to squeeze everything out of the car. When you do a bit too much and you overheat the tyres, the lap-time doesn’t come towards you. It’s all about qualifying here. “I think our race pace is usually a bit better than qualifying – we’ve known that since the start of the year – but around here it’s very difficult to overtake, so it’ll have to be about a good strategy. The key will be to see what the runners on Hypersofts can do, how long they can make them last. At least we have free tyre choice so hopefully we can gamble a little bit. “Anything can happen here in Singapore. There’s 100 per cent chance of a Safety Car so there’ll probably be one at some point!”

It was really tough, one of the toughest qualifying sessions of the year, more of a survival. The way we have to approach each lap is to try and finish with as little damage and losses rather than attacking as a qualifying lap. I am very disappointed, we knew it was going to be tough, but with the change of conditions, it fell away from us. Tomorrow will not be the easiest race for us, so let’s hope for some rain!

We need more grip to be faster, as this just didn't suit our car. Looking at the time sheets today, tomorrow is likely to be a misery, but perhaps some rain could help. We have to figure out why we are off the pace, which we are severely lacking. Looking where we were, we tried something different with the car for the last run and my first few corners were even slower than the first run. I tried to brake deep into turn seven to see what happens, but I didn't stand a chance, and just missed the corner. Tomorrow is going to be tough, but anything can happen.