Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

“It has been a great day and the car was hooked up straight away in Qualifying. To come out on top is incredible and my first pole position will always be a special one. It’s also nice to get pole on a great track like this as a qualifying lap on low fuel is so enjoyable. You can really feel the grip of the car with the full downforce and it’s a lot of fun out there. We are closing in on the front-runners all the time and Honda keep pushing hard to optimise everything. Today was another great day for everyone within the Team, but that Team also includes Honda, so a big thank you as the car has been flying. The hard work is paying off and it’s great to see. I haven’t done a long run this weekend but lately our car has been even better in the race, so I don’t feel too worried. We just need to try and get a clean start and get the job done. I also didn’t realise there were so many Dutch people in Hungary at the moment and it was amazing to see them all in the grandstands. We are all very close so tomorrow should be another exciting race.”

Nachdem ich das erste Training verpasst hatte und nur eine begrenzte Anzahl an Runden in der zweiten Session zurücklegen konnte, war ich das gesamte Wochenende ein wenig im Hintertreffen. Erst heute Vormittag habe ich meinen Rhythmus gefunden, der im Laufe des Qualifyings immer besser wurde. Angesichts dessen bin ich mit meiner Runde zufrieden. Es war sehr eng gegen Max, aber er konnte sich geradeso gegen mich durchsetzen. Sie waren das ganze Wochenende über schnell, aber erst morgen kommt es darauf an. Wir möchten hier um den Sieg kämpfen und es sind viele finnische Fans auf den Tribünen, um mich anzufeuern. Deshalb werde ich alles geben, damit wir morgen einen spannenden Kampf erleben.

Natürlich ist der erste Platz immer unser Ziel. Aber Max hat heute großartige Arbeit abgeliefert: herzlichen Glückwunsch an ihn! Ebenso an Valtteri. Mir ist es im Verlauf des Qualifyings ein wenig entglitten. Es war eine schwierige Qualifikation. Das Auto fühlte sich nicht genauso an wie im dritten Training und ich hatte ein wenig damit zu kämpfen. Aber wir befinden uns immer noch im Kampf und ich habe eine gute Ausgangsposition für morgen. Der Weg bis zur ersten Kurve ist sehr lang, das wird sicher sehr interessant. Auf dieser Strecke ist das Überholen nicht einfach, also wird es auch auf die Strategie ankommen. Wir sind darauf vorbereitet, morgen alles zu geben.

On the one hand, I am happy with my lap in Q3. On the other, the mistake I made in Q1 was unnecessary and I will make sure that it doesn’t happen again. The team did a great job to get the car back in shape for us to go out in Q2. I believe that we got the best result we could today. So far this weekend, we have been lacking grip. Our competitors are strong, especially in the corners, and it will be a difficult race for us tomorrow.”

“Today went pretty much as we expected and reflects what we have seen in the last few races. Our car is very quick down the straights but it’s not the best through the corners and that means we struggle to keep the tyres alive right to the end of the lap when we are trying for a quick time. You can see that from the fact we are quickest in sector 1 and then we suffer over the rest of the lap. In fact, it will be a very difficult race in terms of tyre management and given the characteristics of our car, it would suit us to see high temperatures tomorrow, because we would then be able to put our competitors under pressure. If that’s not the case, then it will be a one stop race and it’s less likely that we can be in with a chance. Overtaking is difficult here, but not impossible, so let’s wait and see how things go tomorrow.”

“I’m disappointed as I didn’t put a clean lap together and I made a few mistakes otherwise I think I could have taken the fight to Ferrari for P4 or P5. In the end we’ve qualified in P6 which is still a decent position but for sure we wanted a better lap time. Tomorrow we start on the medium tyre, we’ll keep pushing flat out and hopefully we can do something with the strategy and recover some positions. Also, a big congratulations to Max on pole position. It’s really deserved and great for the whole Team. On a tricky track like this where it’s difficult to overtake, it’s a good advantage and we have a strong car as he proved today, so there is everything to play for. In Free Practice, no one managed to do any long runs so we don’t know what the tyres are going to do over 70 laps which could also make things interesting.”

“A good qualifying. Compared to Hockenheim last week, it was a good improvement and it’s nice to be back in Q3 again. It wasn’t easy; it was still close together in the midfield, but I’ve felt comfortable in the car all weekend and I was always reasonably happy. “We also made a couple of improvements throughout qualifying that helped at the end of the day. We have P7 and P8, behind the top three teams, which is a good achievement for us both. Massive thanks to the team at the track and everyone back at the factory. Now we just need to convert our quali form in the race.”

“I think it’s a positive day for the team. Coming into the weekend we weren't so sure about the performance on this track, but we managed to make the right decisions with the set-up going into Saturday, and we put both cars in Q3. “I started off Q1 with some balance issues, but we managed to sort them out through the session, improving every time I went out and finally doing a good lap on my last attempt in Q3. Seventh and eighth is great news for the team on this track and we can race from there tomorrow.”

“The old girl made it into Q3, she was limping a little at the beginning, but eventually she got there. It’s been a tough weekend to be fair on her. We’re running the same downforce we had in Hockenheim, just because that’s the maximum we’ve got. Here, obviously, it’s not enough – it’s tricky. Q1 was very difficult, Q2 things got a bit better, then Q3 we really extracted the maximum we had. I’m worried for the race, we’re missing a lot of downforce to get the tire to stay alive for a long time. It’s a track where it’s difficult to overtake, so I’ll get my elbows out and see where we can finish tomorrow.”

„Es ist ein wenig enttäuschend, dass es nur P10 wurde. Andererseits drehte ich, als es darauf ankam, meine schnellste Runde des Wochenendes. Also kann ich mich nicht wirklich beschweren. Das Auto fühlte sich ziemlich gut an, aber unser Tempo war nicht so schnell wie das der McLaren, die wir aufs Korn genommen hatten. Morgen wird ein neues Kapitel aufgeschlagen. Nachdem am Freitag nicht viel gefahren werden konnte, gibt es einige Fragezeichen, was das Renn-Tempo angeht. Aber das ist für alle gleich, nicht wahr?“

“Starting eleventh tomorrow certainly isn’t a bad thing. We have some flexibility on strategy with the free tyre choice. The last lap in Q2 was tricky, and the difference in qualifying is so small in the midfield. It’s not a bad day for us and I think we can have a strong day tomorrow.”

“I’m pretty satisfied with P12 after a tough FP2 after the crash. The car had the potential to reach Q3, but we were always just missing something which was a bit frustrating. Overall, I’m happy because after FP3 I was struggling as the car didn’t really feel connected. We made a few changes after FP3 and in Qualifying the car felt more hooked up, so I got the rhythm back. Reaching Q3 would have been nice, but we were two tenths from getting through, the balance was good in some corners and in other places it wasn’t. Track position is key around here as there isn’t many places to overtake, so we’ll need to think of a good strategy for tomorrow. We’re near the front of the free tyre allocation and I think the degradation will be quite high here, so hopefully we’ll be able to overtake some cars.”

“Apart from a little misunderstanding with the team on the last run, when we went out with the wrong setting on the car, it was an OK Qualifying session. There wasn’t that much left in the car today, maybe a tenth, so this is generally where we are at the moment. We will be able to fight from P13 tomorrow, but it’s difficult to overtake here and usually the races become a bit like a train. However, the race is long so maybe there will be different strategy calls we can make which will help us. The start will be quite important, so we’ll see where we are and we will try and do as good a race as possible.”

“We were P4 in Q1, then P15 in Q2. I don’t know what it is, but this car is swinging so much, up and down. The window is so small, even in qualifying – we saw that in Austria. I was struggling to get out of Q1, I got through just about, same thing again in Q2. Then in Q3 I was fifth. The car can go in and out of its window even in one session. It’s very difficult at the moment. It worked perfectly for Q1, then for Q2 there was no grip. There was some traffic on my out lap, but that shouldn’t be such a big deal to affect our tire window. We’re really just trying to learn and analyze from these sessions, but it’s tough. So, I start 15th tomorrow on a track that’s very difficult to overtake.”

I am ecstatic with qualifying. We have really turned the page this weekend with our update and understanding the tyres. It was a shame to miss out on Q2 but considering everything, we are over the moon. I felt comfortable inside the car, probably the happiest that I have been all year. It was a joy to drive and I’m really pleased with the lap. Regardless of tomorrow, we will enter the summer break on a positive note, knowing that we achieved this result on merit.

“It's been a difficult day. I think we could have got through to Q2 to be honest. It would have needed a good lap, but we didn’t get it. My final run was badly compromised when all the cars were trying to find space in the final corner. That’s where [Daniel] Ricciardo tried to do something crazy, overtaking me in the last corner. He screwed up his lap and my lap too because I ended up too close to Norris and Daniel was close behind me. We all know traffic is tricky in Q1. We spoke about it in the Drivers' Briefing and the importance of being respectful of each other. For me, it was quite disrespectful. He's an experienced driver and I didn't expect that from him. We know this track isn't the best for us anyway, but now we're really in a tough place for tomorrow. It’s been a bad day for us, so let's hope it gets better in the race.”

„Das war heute ein hartes Qualifying. Während des Q1 wurde ich in Kurve 11 zu weit nach außen getragen. Anschließend fühlte sich das Auto nicht mehr richtig an. Also müssen wir prüfen, ob eventuell etwas korrigiert werden muss. Im Mittelfeld geht es sehr eng zu, also entscheiden Kleinigkeiten, und heute kamen wir ein wenig zu kurz. Wir stehen in der Startaufstellung nicht dort, wo wir gern stünden, speziell wegen der Strafversetzung, die ich hinnehmen musste. Aber wir haben viele Daten, die wir vor dem Rennen analysieren. Es ist schwer zu sagen, wie wir bezüglich des Renn-Tempos aussehen. Aber ich hoffe, das wir morgen konkurrenzfähig sind.“

“It’s been a frustrating day. We know this circuit is not the best suited to our car and that’s shown in the end result. We really struggled in practice this morning and that put us on the back foot for qualifying. I was blocked on one of my laps and there were also some mistakes from my side which proved costly because I think it could have been much better. It was not our day, but as we saw last weekend, anything can happen in the race and we will be pushing hard tomorrow.”

We were lucky with the weather and support today, but unfortunately the pace is what it is. I felt happy with the car and with the balance, but in general I lacked grip. We were lacking half a second, we tried something desperate and as you can see it did not work.

“The car actually felt OK. We got caught in traffic and when I got to the last corner there were other cars that were backed up. At that stage you have a choice of trying to pass and keep your tyre temperature up or hang back and start the lap with cold tyres. I tried to go, but it was too late and then the lap was compromised. It’s going to be a tough race but tomorrow is another day so let’s see what happens.”