Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Das war heute eine der besten Pole Positions, an die ich mich erinnern kann. Wir hatten im Verlauf der Jahre viel Erfolg, aber ich kann mich wirklich an keine Pole erinnern, die mir so viel bedeutet hat wie diese. Hinter dem gesamten Team und mir persönlich liegt eine unheimlich schwierige Woche. Es ist fantastisch, wie wir gemeinsam als Team auftreten und zusammen noch stärker geworden sind, um unsere Performance von Wochenende zu Wochenende zu steigern. Ich bin auf jeden Einzelnen wahnsinnig stolz. An diesem Wochenende hängt eine dunkle Wolke über uns. Deshalb versuchen wir, uns gegenseitig aufzubauen und für Niki Leistung abzuliefern. Ich war über die Jahre nicht besonders erfolgreich in Monaco, ich habe nie ganz die perfekte Runde hinbekommen, aber heute war ich so nah wie nur irgendwie möglich dran. Das war für Niki.

Ich hatte heute eindeutig das Gefühl, dass ich den Speed für die Pole hatte. Mein erster Versuch im Q3 war schnell, aber ich hatte noch zwei oder drei Zehntel in der Hinterhand. Aber dann blieb ich auf meiner letzten „Out Lap“ im Q3 im Verkehr hängen, sodass meine Reifen für meinen zweiten Versuch nicht warm genug waren. Sobald ich die Runde begonnen hatte, konnte ich spüren, dass mir der Grip fehlte und ich konnte im Verlauf der Runde auf dem Display sehen, dass Lewis die Pole geholt hatte. Das war ärgerlich für mich, aber für das Team ist ein erneut ein fantastisches Ergebnis. Vor uns liegt ein langes Rennen, in dem morgen alles passieren kann. Der Weg bis zur ersten Kurve ist in Monaco sehr kurz. Deshalb ist es knifflig, dort einen Unterschied auszumachen, aber ich werde alles geben und versuchen, jede Möglichkeit zu nutzen, die sich mir bietet.

“It was an exciting qualifying and I’m happy to be starting third as I think it was the maximum we could do today. Everyone in the Team works so hard at this race so hopefully they can also be happy with this and my mechanics did a great job. Of course, as a driver and a racer you always want to be on pole but you also have to be realistic. In Q2 it looked pretty good but I knew that they (Mercedes) were coming and that they still had some margin. In Q3 we didn’t quite have the tyre temperature that we wanted on the final run, which cost us a bit of lap time, but I still don’t think we had enough for the front row. Overall, I feel good in the car and we keep pushing hard to improve. It is of course hard to overtake here so it will be very challenging to move forwards in the race, but if we are able to stay close then who knows what can be done with strategy. Whatever happens, I will be pushing as hard as always for the best result.”

“It was a difficult day for the whole team. I ended up in the barrier in the third free practice session, but the guys did a great job to fix the car and get me out for qualifying. Unfortunately, we struggled to get the tyres to work properly in Q1 and that meant I had to use an extra set. I managed to get through, but Charles didn’t while he was in 15thplace, which would have been good enough. Unfortunately, these things can happen in Monaco, if you don’t have a margin, you have to take risks and it doesn’t always go the way you want. We were not as competitive as we would have liked to be in qualifying, but the race is a different matter and in Monaco, anything can happen.”

“It was a really good session. I had a really good car, I could push, I felt comfortable. I put a lot of stress on the guys in Q2 with the damage to the front wing in the session after I kissed the wall, they did a fantastic job to turn it around, fix it, and send me out again. I got into Q3 with a good lap, then did another one there. We know how important qualifying is at this track, so to get P6 at the front of the midfield again – the fake pole position, I’m extremely happy with it. It was a perfect job from the whole team, not just me – it was a team effort.”

“I’m happy with the end result, especially with where we started on Thursday. We made some brave changes to the car even after FP3, but that worked and going that extra mile has paid off. The team made a strong recovery today and we can be pleased with that. We got into a good rhythm from Q1 all the way through to Q3, which is so important here as qualifying is so significant. Some variables tomorrow could make it interesting and I wouldn’t be disappointed if I wake up to rain! But, wet or dry, I’ll be ready.”

“I’m very satisfied with Qualifying today. I think it was great teamwork between my engineers and myself. We did a good job analysing where I felt uncomfortable on Thursday and they gave me exactly what I asked for, as soon as I get the setup I want I know I can deliver a good performance. That’s three Q3s in a row now, so I’m happy with how I’m performing – I hope we can do a good job tomorrow and score some points to capitalise on a good Qualifying.”

“It was a good qualifying and fifth is pretty good. I would have liked to have jumped Seb who was just a tenth faster in P4, but I wasn’t super satisfied with my lap and I struggled to put all the sectors together. You can see things are getting better but for sure there is still more performance to come. It’s all about continuing to work with the engineers to try and find a balance that helps me extract the maximum from myself. There’s a chance of some rain tomorrow which I wouldn’t mind, especially on this track as it would make things pretty interesting. I think we’re pretty good in the long run, but the main chance for us will be at the start where hopefully we can make up some places.”

“Very happy with this quali and back to Q3! After missing the whole of FP1 and a very difficult FP3 where we didn’t get it right on the set-up, finishing P9 today is a great turnaround of the weekend. I managed to put together very good laps, improving consistently to finish with that 1m11.4s which I think was the maximum we could extract today. “I always enjoy qualifying around these streets, but the job is not done quite yet. Thank you to the team for a good analysis and a perfectly well-executed quali in the garage.”

“I’m happy to make it to my first Q3, although it wasn’t easy out there as I couldn’t find a good rhythm – it wasn’t as good as Thursday. I was on the back foot for most of the session trying to get the tyres to work. It was also a matter of getting confidence: you arrive at Turn 1, the tyres are really cold as you’ve spent Sector 3 going at pedestrian pace, and you get to the first corner not knowing exactly what’s going to happen! However, we can be happy with P10 in Monaco as it can always lead to something good.”

“I felt the car had the potential for Q3 today, so it’s a little disappointing to just miss out in eleventh place. It was very tight out there. Maybe I was pushing too hard, overdriving the car in places here and there, but that’s only little things. I started in eleventh last year and we still managed to score decent points so we can be encouraged by that. We’ll bring the biggest boxing gloves we have and aim to have a fight tomorrow! We have some options on strategy with the free tyre choice so we’ll see and go from there.”

“Overall I think it was a decent quali considering it was my first time here in Monaco in F1. I struggled in FP3, perhaps we went in slightly the wrong direction, so went back to what we had on Thursday. It was a little bit of an unknown in terms of how the car was going to change but I had an idea from Thursday. “I made a small mistake in Turn One on my final push lap which effectively cost me going in to Q3. I didn’t do it when it counted and that was my mistake. We made good improvements and maybe I wasn’t as confident compared to at some other tracks.”

“At the end, traffic cost us the chance to move into Q3. I was clearly going to crash into Pierre (Gasly). It’s not his fault, we can’t see anything with these mirrors, we rely on the radio – and I don’t think he was warned on the radio by Red Bull. The same happened to me in Bahrain with Lando Norris. I’m obviously unhappy, and even though Gasly was penalized, it’s not his fault, and it’s not going to change my qualifying – I’ll start where I am, and for tomorrow, that’s a bad thing. It’s Monaco, there’s not much we can hope for as qualifying is key.”

“We were just not fast enough, it’s as simple as that. We managed to do our fastest lap of the weekend in qualifying, but the other cars improved a lot more than we did. We struggled with the balance of the car. When I had grip at the front, the rear went and when I sorted out the rear then I wasn’t comfortable with the front.”

“It’s easy to understand how disappointing was this qualifying, as it significantly compromises my home race. The team was convinced that the time I’d done was good enough to get me into Q2, which would mean saving one more set of tyres, but unfortunately I was the first of those knocked out. It’s a real shame because I think that today I could have got a good result. Clearly it will be very difficult to recover in the race, because it’s almost impossible to overtake here. There’s a chance of rain and that would make the race more unpredictable: that could give me a slightly better chance.”

“We have struggled for pace this weekend and going into qualifying we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. In the end we needed a tenth or two to make the difference and progress to Q2, but we just missed out. In that sense it’s been a frustrating day because we know how important qualifying is in Monaco and it’s usually a race all about track position. The margins were small today, but it means we have a difficult job tomorrow. Considering where we will be starting the race, we have to hope for some rain to come and mix things up, otherwise it’s going to be difficult to score points. At the same time, Monaco can sometimes be unpredictable, so we will be ready to try and maximise those opportunities tomorrow.”

“It hasn’t been easy in the lead up to qualifying. We’ve been missing pace in practice and, even with the changes made to the car since Thursday, we still struggled today. It wasn’t made easier by such a busy track in Q1 and finding space for a clean lap was difficult – it’s always the case in Monaco. I didn’t get a clean run on my second attempt and that ended any chance to make Q2. It’s going to be tough to score points, but let’s see what we can do, and see if the weather changes tomorrow. I think we just have to remember that Monaco is a one-off race and I don’t believe our performance today is a true reflection of the speed we have in the car. Anyway, let’s see what happens tomorrow and try and make the most of those situations that come up in the race.”

“I don’t really know what happened in qualifying. We had showed our potential with P6 in FP3 and we didn’t change anything on the car. The grip just was not there and we don’t know why. It is really disappointing because we were very strong in all sessions and now we are P15. It is quite difficult to overtake around here but the weather can be unpredictable, so we will see.”

I felt like we maximised qualifying. I was pleased with my lap at the end, I put it all on the line and got the most out of the car. It was pretty fun and a thrill to complete a lap like that around the streets of Monaco. For the race, I need to keep it on the black stuff, out of the walls and pick up the pieces from other people’s mistakes.

The conditions today were better in terms of the feeling and the grip, but that was the case for everybody. From a driving and operational point of view we did everything that we could, but we were unlucky with traffic when we left the garage. All in all, it was a smooth session and tomorrow will be difficult race.