Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ich bin überglücklich über diese Pole, aber ich strebe immer nach Perfektion und so gesehen habe ich heute etwas Zeit auf der Strecke liegen lassen. Ich habe also noch etwas Arbeit vor mir. Ich lag in den ersten beiden Sektoren drei Zehntel zurück, aber zum Glück bekam ich den letzten Sektor hin und holte sie wieder auf. Mein Ziel ist es, an der Spitze des Feldes zu stehen, deshalb ist es großartig, wieder zurück auf der Pole zu sein. Ich komme immer besser klar mit der Strecke. Je mehr ich darauf fahre, desto mehr Spaß macht sie mir. Dies ist einer der schönsten Orte auf der Welt und es sind so viele Fans hierhergekommen. Hoffentlich haben wir morgen schönes Wetter. Ferrari geht auf den ultraweichen Reifen ins Rennen, wir starten hingegen auf den SuperSofts. Das dürfte also interessant werden. Wir haben an einem Strang gezogen und an diesem Wochenende bislang bessere Arbeit abgeliefert, aber morgen wird es ganz sicher eng. Deshalb werde ich weiterhin die Ärmel hochkrempeln und versuchen, im Rennen aus all der harten Arbeit Kapital zu schlagen.

Wir waren heute stark. Das Team hat wirklich sehr gute Arbeit abgeliefert. Meine Runde war okay, aber ich habe hier noch keine perfekte Runde hinlegen können. Nachdem ich gestern im zweiten Training viel Fahrzeit verloren habe und auch das dritte Training heute Vormittag für alle eingeschränkt war, fühlte es sich so an, als ob ich den ganzen Tag etwas im Hintertreffen gewesen bin. Entsprechend habe ich mich auf jedem Run im Qualifying noch verbessern können. Schlussendlich war es nicht ganz perfekt, aber es hat gereicht, um mit beiden Autos in die erste Reihe zu kommen. Das Team hat unglaubliche Arbeit mit dem Upgrade abgeliefert. Jedes Update, inklusive des Motors, hat uns dabei geholfen, das Auto zu verbessern und das gesamte Paket brachte uns heute in die erste Reihe. Es scheint so, als ob das Überholen auf dieser Strecke schwierig ist. Umso besser ist es, dass wir vorne losfahren können. Wir werden morgen verschiedene Strategien erleben. Ferrari startet auf einem weicheren Reifen als wir und es wird interessant sein zu sehen, wie sich das auswirken wird. Wir haben ein gutes Auto und sollten alle Zutaten besitzen, um morgen um einen Doppelsieg zu kämpfen. Ich werde jedenfalls mein Bestes geben, damit ich um den Sieg mitfahren kann.

“During the session”, Seb explained “it was getting better and better and I was more confident. So, I think today we can be happy with the third place. My last run was not spectacular, though, and I don’t think it was good enough to put me n the front row. After my first attempt in Q3, I had thought I could be closer to Mercedes and hoped to improve. But, unfortunately, in my last fast run I pushed a bit too much and made some mistakes here and there. Anyway, the car is good and we proved it. Let’s see what happens tomorrow, as we start with different tyre strategies. I think the car should be strong in the race”.

“I don’t think we maximised the potential of the car in Qualifying today. I was struggling a bit with front grip which didn’t make it easy, but we still qualified in fourth. It would have been nice if it had continued raining all day but unfortunately it dried up just in time for the session. We can see that on the straights we are still down on speed compared to the Mercedes but also we didn’t have the balance of the car perfect, in the long corners we were losing time also. In the race I think we will have to wait and see. My race pace looks good but so does a lot of the others and coming to a new race means anything can happen. I start on the supersoft so Sebastian should have a bit more grip, this will make it a little tricky but hopefully we will go for longer on our tyres. All weekend we haven’t really had a reference as the track is new, there are still a lot of question marks ahead of tomorrow so we just have to wait and see what happens.”

“We split the cars yesterday, on the downforce levels, with Max lower than me. It was pretty evenly matched yesterday but it looked like the low was worth trying. We put that on for this morning but with the weather we didn’t get to try it. We decided not to run in Qualifying with something we hadn’t tried yet, but we still had a lot of front wing in hand but I think by the end of Q1 we had already used every bit of it and we still had understeer. In other sessions you can do other things on the car but in quali your hands are tied so it was a frustrating day. For tomorrow come race time I’ll be confident but I think we’re going to be a little slow on the straights compared to the guys in front but if it rains then we might be the lucky dogs. I think the wet will make it interesting. In the dry on raw pace we are not quick enough to challenge Mercedes, but in the wet I think it will be exciting for the fans.

“My car was working well today and it was a pretty straightforward qualifying until my last run. I was not able to put a timed lap together in the whole of Q3. The first run was pretty decent, but then I went a bit sideways in turn 11, and lost time. After that I was not able to improve my lap time. For tomorrow we chose the strategy that we think is the best for us, but we have to wait and see. In other races we have seen people starting with different tires and it did not change things from night to day. For sure tomorrow will be a challenging day”.

“I’m very happy with today’s result! It’s a very positive qualifying performance. We didn’t expect to be the best of the rest but we managed to do a great job and grab the chance. We look forward to the race where we’ll aim for a clean start and try and have a bright outing. We’ll see about the weather first. Mixed or wet conditions always makes it more interesting and I always enjoy it. Hopefully we can get a strong result in front of the team’s home crowd.”

„Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit meinem heutigen Qualifying. Es war nicht nur wegen dem Resultat ein Erfolg, sondern auch wegen der grossen Fortschritte die das Team seit gestern erzielt hat. Das Qualifying auf Platz 8 im Q3 zu beenden ist ein unglaubliches Gefühl, und ich möchte mich herzlich bei dem Team bedanken, dass sie eine so tolle Arbeit geleistet haben um uns das zu ermöglichen. Das Auto fühlt sich gut an, und ich fühle mich auf der Strecke wohl. Ich freue mich sehr auf das Rennen, und bin gespannt was möglich sein wird.“

“It was looking good. We got both cars into Q3, but then we didn’t get anything out of the session. It was a good performance up until Q3. I didn’t get a lap in Q3, I had Kimi (Räikkönen) overtake me on my fastest lap, then he let me by again. I had no idea what he was doing. It meant I didn’t do a lap in Q3.”

“I went into turn three and lost the rear end. There’s no obvious reason, so we’ll investigate to understand a bit more. We’ll look at the data. I was pretty much doing as I was before, so it’s a bit strange. It’s frustrating. We haven’t had much luck since Australia. I was hoping this weekend would run smoothly, and that was the case. It’s not what we wanted, but there’s the race tomorrow, and we’re going to do our best to come back and get seventh, where we should have qualified.”

“I am a bit disappointed to miss out on the top ten by such a small margin [0.02s], but I am happy about my lap and how we came back as a team from a difficult Friday. We came into qualifying a bit blind after missing track time yesterday, but we were able to improve the car a lot and found a good balance. P11 is the next best thing to a place in Q3 and at least we will have free choice of tyres. Hopefully it’s going to be very hot tomorrow and the strategy can play in our hands, or perhaps it’s going to rain – I’d welcome anything that can mix things up. I have to thank the fans for all their support. I could see them with their flags and it was a special feeling to drive in front of my home crowd.”

“It’s a disappointing position, but I was pretty happy with my lap, I lost a tenth in turn nine with some oversteer, which you have sometimes when you’re on the limits. It’s been nip and tuck all weekend and slightly tricky. I haven’t found the love or harmony I usually have with the car, so it’s been a little difficult. In a tight midfield battle, you particularly need that confidence and if you don’t have it, it’s enough to miss out on Q3, like today. We’re starting twelfth tomorrow so we can do something with the strategy as we have some flexibility. There’s a lot of love and support from the home crowd so we’ll give it our best shot and recover as much as we can. I’m confident we can get points.”

“I don’t feel we maximised the qualifying today. We could have been much further up the grid. I think we were unlucky with the conditions because we were expecting more rain towards the end of Q2. I went out too early and did my laps, and then the track improved. We need to see what happens with the weather tomorrow because if it’s wet it will open up some opportunities. The track is very tricky in the wet, but it can also dry very quickly, just as we saw today.”

"I think Q3 was a bit of a longshot today, I really hoped we would be able to make it but unfortunately we just didn't have the pace. I was really close with Sergio, so maybe one more position was possible, but we lacked performance in qualifying. Of course it's a bit disappointing not to get a better result in my home race, but I think we did the best we could. We seemed to have some trouble with the second sector on the long straights, so we need to have a look at the data and see where we're losing time, because in general the car feels OK. I think yesterday it felt a bit better than today, but it's so tight in the midfield and we lacked a couple of tenths. It's been really amazing to drive in front of my home crowd, they give me a lot of support! We have one more battle tomorrow - the most important one - and hopefully there will be a lot of fans there to give me a boost. I'll fight a lot and try everything to get back in the points, the last time was in Monaco and it would be amazing to score points in France!"

„Nachdem mein Wochenende bisher nicht ideal verlaufen ist, bin ich mit meinem heutigen Resultat zufrieden. Ich konnte nach einem Zwischenfall in FP1 nicht an FP2 teilnehmen. Die dritte freie Trainingseinheit haben dann wir aufgrund des Regens verpasst. Da ich eine so limitierte Zeit im Auto hatte, habe ich es nicht erwartet, ins Q2 zu kommen. Allerdings verlief das Qualifying doch gut. Q1 war positiv – meine schnellste Runde brachte mich ins Q2 weiter. Dort hatte ich zwar eine gute Leistung, verlor aber durch einen Fehler etwas Zeit auf meiner letzten gezeiteten Runde. Ich freue mich über das Resultat, und das Team hat eine tolle Arbeit geleistet. Ein Auto in Q2 zu haben, und das andere in Q3 – das ist eine tolle Belohnung für das Team, sowohl an der Strecke als auch im Werk. Ich freue mich nun auf morgen.“

“This was a disappointing session for us. “Our performance has usually been so-so on Saturdays, with our average position in qualifying so far this year being 13th. That said, I have scored points in every single race I have finished, and hopefully tomorrow will be one of those Sundays. “There was nothing wrong with the balance of the car today; our lap-time was just not quick enough to make it into Q2. In our pre-quali meeting, we said we thought we would be around 14th or 15th, so this is more or less where we expected to finish. “We know where we are, and, unfortunately, need to keep improving…”

“It’s very disappointing to see both cars eliminated in Q1. There was nothing particularly wrong with the balance – the feeling was okay – it’s just that we lack pace. “Since the start of the season, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes to understand what’s not working. We need to keep our heads down, keep trying and hopefully turn things around. “This weekend has not been good for us – we need to do better. Hopefully we can reverse the form of today and have a better race tomorrow.”

It’s tough. The car didn’t feel that bad. The conditions weren’t as hot as we predicted. It was just about to rain, so the track was cooler with less sun. Throughout the lap, the car balance was much more together, as was the corner balance. It was not bad, but today is where we are and it’s the limit of what we can achieve. The race pace yesterday was better than the qualifying pace. The car felt better, but we’ve said this before and it has turned out completely different in the race, so I don’t want to say too much. What I can say that’s right is that we’re working and investigating, but there’s not much we can do from where we are.

It was a tough session for the team, but I have to be honest and say I expected us to be where we are. Unfortunately, the situation is we are missing about six tenths to 18th and the next team. That is not ideal, so we have to keep our heads down and keep pushing. I had a snap when trying to get more speed, went wide and the rear went away from me. I hit the sausage kerb and the car went up into the air. It was a pretty hard landing and I think there could be a bit of damage there. Anything can happen tomorrow, maybe a bit of rain, so we will see what happens. Looking forward, it is a long season, so a lot can change.

"We're starting tomorrow's race from the back of the grid because of the engine penalty we received, but we're pretty positive because the car's felt decent all weekend – especially on the long run simulation yesterday. Qualifying started pretty well for me, I think I was in the top 10 after the first run, then on the second one I ran into a bit of traffic. It also started to rain a bit towards the end of the lap, so it didn't feel like we got everything together. If the weather is as unpredictable as today, there might be some opportunities tomorrow."