Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Ich bin überglücklich, hier zu stehen. Es war, ehrlich gesagt, ein hartes Wochenende. Diese Strecke ist phänomenal und eine sehr große Herausforderung. Wir durchfahren die Kurven 6 bis 9 mit 275 bis 285 km/h und die G-Kräfte, die dabei auf uns lasten, sind einfach der Wahnsinn. Valtteri war das ganze Wochenende über schneller als ich. Deshalb habe ich hart daran gearbeitet, meine Linien und mein Setup zu verbessern. Im Q3 habe ich dann endlich die Runde zusammenbekommen, die ich gebraucht habe. Vor der zweiten Runde wurde der Wind etwas stärker, weswegen ich nicht noch einmal nachlegen konnte. Aber der erste Versuch war gut genug. Valtteri hat großartige Arbeit geleistet und mich richtig hart gepusht. Umso mehr freue ich mich darüber, dass ich meine Pace im Qualifying noch einmal steigern konnte. Jetzt freue ich mich auf morgen. Auf so einer High-Speed-Strecke wird es nicht einfach, aber dadurch dürfte es auch interessant werden.

Es ist enttäuschend, nicht auf der Pole zu stehen, gerade angesichts des geringen Abstands und weil ich meine letzte Runde abbrechen musste. Die gelben Flaggen haben mein Qualifying definitiv behindert, da ich auf der letzten Runde noch mehr hätte herausholen können. Ich habe nur noch darauf gewartet, alles richtig hinzubekommen. Der erste Versuch war okay, aber nicht perfekt. Deshalb wollte ich noch einmal angreifen, aber ich bekam leider nicht die Gelegenheit dazu. Vor dem Wochenende dachten wir, dass Überholen hier nahezu unmöglich sein würde. Aber während der Trainings konnten wir sehen, wie die Strecke ist und welche verschiedenen Linien man durch die Kurven nehmen kann. Deshalb hoffe ich, dass ich morgen gegen Lewis kämpfen kann und wir ein schönes Duell haben werden. Der Weg bis zur ersten Kurve ist ebenfalls lang, warten wir ab, was passiert.

“As a Team I think we did a very good job the whole weekend and from the start the car was in a good window which meant it was more about fine tuning. We are the closest we have been to Mercedes in qualifying so we can be happy about that and also the gap to the competition behind us is bigger. I have good hopes for the race and it is always difficult to predict whether we can fight for the win but I feel a bit more confident than some other weekends. We have quite decent top speed which I think is good around here and although it won’t be easy to pass at least the last few corners are quite wide and long so you can take a few different lines if you have the pace to follow. Strategy wise as it is a new track we will find out a lot during the race, especially about the tyres as track temperatures are going to be quite high tomorrow. A Mercedes is never easy to overtake but we will give it all we have and I love this track so I’m really looking forward to the race.”

“It was a good, strong qualifying and driving these cars around this circuit on low fuel is just incredible. It’s crazy and it takes your breath away so I hope we continue with tracks like this in the future. Qualifying fourth is my career best so I’m happy as we are making constant progress. Spa was good, Monza was better and here so far has been another step forward. Obviously, there’s still some time to find but we’re consistently getting better and I think without the yellow flags in the last Q3 run we would have gone even quicker. During the Free Practice sessions, I was lacking a bit of confidence but after we made some changes, the car became more connected and I could start pushing it. Tomorrow, we’ll need to get a good, clean launch as it’s a long run to Turn One and then hopefully we can have a simple, boring race without any dramas.”

“I’m happy to be back in the top ten as I’ve missed tackling Q3 in recent races. The last two weekends have been extremely difficult for us so it’s nice to finally see the light. It’s still a bit of an unknown where our pace came from, and it is very important for us to find out, because that’s how we will consistently be at our best. The characteristics of this track suit our car better, that’s for sure. I think our medium-downforce package is better in terms of balance compared to our low-downforce one that we were running in Monza and Spa. I was struggling to drive the car there, and here I’m a bit more at ease with it, so I had more confidence and that also helped today. P5 is definitely the best we could have done. We are lacking performance compared to the guys in front but overall I’m very happy with the balance, which is positive. It’s going to be a difficult race because we have quite a lot of cars behind us that might turn out to be faster than us. Hopefully we can give our tifosi some entertainment and finish in this position or even better.”

“It was a little bit frustrating out there today. I think we could have qualified in P4 or P5 without the yellow flag on the final runs in Q3. I’d set a comfortable banker lap on my first run and I think I was set to improve significantly on my second. Regardless, there’s plenty of positives to take from today. We improved the car overnight and earned a good starting position – and that’s important because overtaking is going to be difficult here. I’m happy with the feel of the car and we have good underlying pace, so I think we have the potential for a strong result tomorrow. We were also able to collect more data on our upgrade package and the early signs are promising. It’s been a good day’s work and I’m looking forward to the race now.”

“I think we got everything we could out of the car and overall it’s been a positive day for the team. It was a good lap in Q3, which was important because we only had one set of Soft tyres remaining [having used two sets in Q1]. It’s a shame that we have the penalty for the Grand Prix, but if I had to lose a place on the grid – I’m glad it’s to my team-mate! Lance was able to run the car upgrade today, which is looking positive, so that’s a good sign for the coming races. It’s a new race for all of us, so there’s plenty of unknowns and calling the strategy won’t be easy tomorrow. A strong start will mean we have everything to play for in the race.”

“We showed pretty good pace today, so it’s a shame not to maximise it. We’re still in a good position to score points for the race. I was happy with the session, especially with Q2, where I put in a good lap and saved two sets for Q3. My first run in Q3 wasn’t the best, I lost the rear and it was a bit messy and there was certainly more to come on the second set. Unfortunately, with Esteban’s spin and the yellow flag, I couldn’t improve my lap time. Looking at the result, there was potential for fifth with a clean lap. There will be a lot going on tomorrow and I think there will be a good battle for the top five and hopefully it’s a fun one.”

“Today was a good reaction to a very difficult weekend so far. We finally managed to put a good lap together in Q2 and get through to Q3. It’s disappointing to not fully see what the car was capable of doing in Q3 due to the yellow flag but, in general, I’m happy with the turnaround we made. “We’ve made a lot of set-up changes across the weekend and now we’re ready for a challenging race tomorrow, when we’ll try our best to fight for points.”

“Unfortunately, I lost the car on my Q3 run and couldn’t put in a lap time. It was one of those times when you push the limits more and more throughout the session and that one was just a bit over. It’s a shame as we showed good pace and we could have qualified a lot further up. The car was good today and the team did a really solid job, especially the step between FP3 and Qualifying. We’re in a position to score points tomorrow and I know we have the ability to grab some.”

“A tricky qualifying, but given how much we were struggling in FP3, there are some positives we can take away from today. “The car was a long way off the pace this morning and I didn’t have much confidence, so I struggled a lot during that session. We made some good improvements going into qualifying and the result could’ve been a lot worse, but obviously I’m still frustrated to have missed out on Q3 by a few tenths. We’ll push hard tomorrow to make up a few positions and get into the points.”

“I had a solid day today as I felt more comfortable with the car in qualifying than in other sessions. My engineers did a good job trying to make the car suit my driving better because yesterday I wasn’t very happy, but today we definitely made a step forward. However, we were missing a couple of tenths, so in the last run since there wasn’t much to lose, I tried to take Turn 7 flat; you try to find time anywhere you can. We start from P12 tomorrow and you can fight from there, the race is new for everyone, so it will be important to capitalize on anything that might happen.”

“P13 is a good result given the circumstances but obviously we want a lot more. The car felt quite nice and I felt we got everything we could out of it, but it’s still disappointing not to be higher up on the grid, as we were very close to the top ten. We keep pushing for a spot in Q3 and sooner or later we are going to break in. We’ll find out tomorrow if we can get in the points in the race: overtaking will be difficult but all we can do is go out there and do our best.”

“I made a mistake in Q1, although I was still able to go through to the next part, but from then on we weren’t able to make any progress. We need to have a look at the data, but so far, I’m not really getting the hang of the car. I am trying to, but it will be a difficult race tomorrow, especially given our start position, which means we won’t be able to show our true pace. I am not happy with this result, but I have struggled a little bit this weekend so far, so lets see what we can do tomorrow. As for overtaking, everybody is saying it is difficult here, but as we have never raced here before, let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

“Q2, as I said at Silverstone, that’s our current target for the short-term in qualifying. So, that’s the positive today. The Q2 runs weren’t that good. I didn’t have a tow on my first run, and for us that’s costly here. The lap was good, we were just missing straight line speed. I just went for it on my second lap. I guess at turn one I picked up a big gust of wind – the rear of the car completely snapped. I was down four tenths already, so it was game over from the first corner. I can’t say for the race how we’ll go. In all fairness, I didn’t do the long run yesterday with the issues we had on my car. I’m pretty sure tires are going to have a tough time. Let’s see, at least for us, how much of an issue surface overheating is. I’m a bit worried but let’s hope I’m wrong. But what a track to drive. Turns six to 10 you’re flat out – that’s absolutely mega.”

“Today was frustrating as everything was going so well all weekend. The car was good in free practice, and in Quali we pushed the engine a bit more and in my two laps before the finish line, I ran out of energy which cost us more than a tenth. Looking at the gap, we were only missing half a tenth to Q2. It’s clearly not good on such a track to qualify so far behind and it’s a shame because everything before that went great. We just didn’t manage to put things together in Quali and we made small mistakes in the worst possible moment. We need to find a way to recover as we know we are faster than this, so we’ll try to make our way back into the points tomorrow.”

“I’m disappointed to be out in Q1 as today we had the potential to do better. I put in a good lap in my first run, but in the second one I just didn’t pull it all together. This is a track where a small mistake costs you a lot because this layout is effectively a sequence of corners: if you do a mistake, you lose momentum and your lap is ruined, and this is what happened. The race tomorrow will be tough: physically tough, with high temperatures and on a track on which overtaking is difficult. We will try our best to make up some ground.”

We were quick from the off and I had a really good feeling in the car. We changed the downforce level from yesterday, which I planned to run this morning but didn’t get the chance to. It was a bit of a change for us, and missing FP3 made it difficult. I am disappointed I couldn’t finish my final lap as that would have been a great way to reward the team, as Q2 was definitely on the cards for us today. A big thanks to the boys for getting my car turned around after FP3 as there was a lot of work on their hands. Nevertheless, I think we did a good job today.

I was feeling strong after FP3. We made quite a sizeable change going into qualifying and geared the car towards the race tomorrow to have more of a fighting chance. The first run was feeling good, but the balance went in the wrong direction for the second and the third. I was limited with a lot of understeer; we were compensating for that and we kept adding more and more wing. I think there was more today, but I am looking forward to the race tomorrow.

“I’m pretty surprised to be where I am. It didn’t feel bad, the car’s gotten better and better all weekend long. When I was driving that last lap, I thought it was going to be ok, it didn’t feel too bad. I had one of the Williams car’s go off in the gravel at turn seven, there was a lot of gravel and dust coming up. I had to lift off a little bit, which maybe cost me a tenth or so. That meant I was dead last as it’s so tight here. It was a little bit unlucky, but honestly it felt much better than it was. Given the surprise of today, not being as competitive as we thought, it’s hard to have too big an expectation for the race tomorrow. As always, we’ll do what we can to try to make it up in the race.”