Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Es ist ein großartiges Gefühl, hier auf der Pole Position zu stehen und ich habe das Qualifying wirklich genossen. Es fühlt sich fantastisch an, wenn man sich die Pole im letzten Versuch im Q3 holt. Meine letzte Runde war fehlerlos. Vorher hatte ich im ersten Sektor etwas zu kämpfen, aber am Ende habe ich es hinbekommen. Die verkürzte Trainingszeit machte es bei diesen kalten Bedingungen sehr knifflig. Deshalb war es sehr wichtig, den Sweet-Spot der Reifen auf der Outlap genau zu treffen und ich habe das Fenster exakt erwischt. Morgen ist ein neuer Tag und es wird sicher ein interessantes Rennen, besonders angesichts der Temperaturen sowie der geringen Fahrzeit, die wir hier hatten. Ich habe für morgen nur ein Ziel, also hoffe ich, dass ich einen guten Start erwische und dann sehen wir, was danach passiert.

Dies ist eine fantastische Strecke und es ist klasse, wieder hier zu fahren. Aber heute war leider nicht mein Tag. Das Auto fühlte sich im Q2 noch gut an, aber im Q3 habe ich ein wenig an Pace verloren. Jetzt müssen wir uns die Daten ansehen und herausfinden, wo ich noch etwas nachlegen kann. Valtteri hat heute super Arbeit abgeliefert, Glückwunsch an ihm zu seiner Pole Position. Ich glaube, dass sich morgen im Rennen viele Möglichkeiten ergeben werden. Jetzt müssen wir abwarten, wie sich das Wetter entwickelt und wie die Temperaturen aussehen werden. Es wird darauf ankommen, wie sich die Reifen verhalten, aber auch der Start und mögliche Safety-Car-Phasen können entscheidend sein. Noch ist alles drin und ich freue mich auf morgen. Bis dahin werden wir heute Abend die Köpfe zusammenstecken, um sicherzustellen, dass wir uns für das Rennen in der bestmöglichen Position befinden.

“Today has been a good day and we can be happy to be on the second row of the grid. It was an interesting qualifying and after missing both practice sessions yesterday, it was busy for everyone today but overall I think it was positive. The car has been handling well and everything is a bit more stable. I felt quite comfortable but of course there are always a few balance areas you want to improve. In Q3 when it really mattered, I just started to understeer a bit too much and when it’s so cold, you grain the front tyres and just eat up the rubber so that cost me a bit of lap time. I think we are closing in on Mercedes which is positive and what we’re working towards. We are usually closer to them on Sundays and tomorrow it will be even colder so it will be interesting to see what the tyres do and how they’re going to behave. It’s a fun track to drive and tomorrow is a bit of a question mark for everyone but hopefully it is going to be exciting.”

“This qualifying result is possibly better than we expected, especially in these cold conditions, but we brought some updates here, which maybe made a small difference in the right direction, which is nice to see. I am happy about the way we are working and how things went today. I quite liked the fact we had just one FP session and went straight into qualifying. We made the most of the situation, even if we don’t have much information about the long runs with high fuel. Especially in Q3 there was quite a strong wind, which made the car unpredictable. For tomorrow, we are all a bit in unknown territory, but one thing I know is that it’ll be important to manage these soft tyres because they are pretty difficult in terms of graining. It’s going to be a tricky race but that’s what makes this weekend interesting.”

“I’m quite happy with my qualifying lap but there are still areas to improve. Even though we haven’t had much time to practice, straight away the car was feeling hooked up. I’ve been enjoying this two-day format, it feels like F2 and F3. Obviously it would have been nice to have been in front of Charles, he did a good lap, but we got pipped right at the end. P5 is not a bad place to start and we can fight from there. We obviously have the two Renaults behind us so it won’t be easy, we’ll have to get our elbows out for Turn One! The real challenge will be when we start the long runs as we haven’t had much practice for that. We’ll see how it goes with the weather and there are plenty of opportunities to score some good points.”

“I’m happy enough with today’s qualifying and sixth is a good starting position for us. It was a fun Saturday with a packed practice session and then a hectic qualifying. Everyone was on track at a similar time, so it was quite enjoyable. It’s not the best preparation, but we know the car well enough and we’ll figure it out for tomorrow. We know it will be close in the race, but I’m excited and I think we can be up there and aim for a top six finish. We’ll see how the Soft holds up as it looks like it could be susceptible to graining. If it’s dry or wet, it should be an interesting race and sixth isn’t a bad place to be on the grid.”

“It was a good qualifying for us today, especially after just one practice session. I’m happy with seventh. We had very limited knowledge on the track after not driving yesterday and just the one session today. We put the car into qualifying and it performed really well from Q1, and I’m pleased with that. We’re jumping into the unknown tomorrow as I only drove the Softs in practice and qualifying today. We’ll see how the tyres handle in the race and how long they last. We’ll see how it goes but we’re in a good position to score some good points for the championship.”

“I think today was as good as we could do really. We weren’t quick enough to make further improvement, so I think we maximised our performance – even if P8 is a bit disappointing. The car was feeling relatively good and we have a better feeling than we did in Sochi, which is the main thing. We thought we would have a little bit more in the bag for qualifying, but we didn't. Overall, not a bad day – the car feels relatively good – but tomorrow’s going to be tricky due to the weather, so we’ll see what we can do.”

“It was a tough day for the team. Not only did we have the Friday washout affecting all the teams, but we were without Lance and that limited what we could learn this morning in practice. I definitely think there was more on the table in qualifying because we didn’t have another set of softs for Q3 to make a second run. But the positive is that we secured a top 10 starting position for the race tomorrow. It’s going to be a race of unknowns, so if we have some good luck at the start – we can still aim for a strong result. I also hope Lance feels better and we have him back in the team soon. Nico did an excellent job in jumping into the car without any practice and getting familiar with the car and team again in a short amount of time.”

“A very challenging Saturday for us – mainly because yesterday we didn’t have the time to test the new package I’m running this weekend. FP3 was not enough to fine-tune the set-up properly and qualifying was a struggle. I did improve through the session, but I haven’t felt like we’ve put the car into its optimal window yet. We need to look carefully into it because the other car seemed to extract a bit more from the other spec, so the target is to optimise the new parts as soon as possible. Hopefully we’ll get there with more running. “The points are tomorrow and we could have an interesting race due to the weather changes, so we’ll keep an eye on the sky.”

“I tried everything, but I was really struggling with the car in the first sector and I was sliding a lot. It was a shame that we couldn’t make it to Q3 even if I was feeling ok in the car and I think the pace was decent. I hope that with the free choice of tyres, we will have a bit more luck tomorrow. I only ran the upgrades in the afternoon, as we had very little free practice time and therefore had to make a comparison using the two cars running different configurations, but I don’t think they made a big difference. Today I’m happy for the fans because the weather was better and they finally were able to see some cars on track.”

“It’s a bit disappointing to be only P12 today, but we knew it was going to be a difficult weekend and after FP3, I didn’t feel like we managed to get the car in the right window. We tried to make some small changes in Quali and it improved, but ultimately not enough to really fight with our rivals, who were just faster today. We need to review what we could have done better, but on the positive side we have free tyre choice tomorrow, so I’m quite confident we can have a strong race. Starting from P12 we’ll try to do something different with our strategy which can hopefully play in our favour, so I’m excited about tomorrow’s race.”

“It was quite cold out there! We had to analyse everything very fast after FP3 to try and understand the best setup in these conditions – also the driving lines. I liked the challenge, it was quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, we didn’t have excellent pace today, it was just OK. Having said this, I’m pretty happy with my lap as there wasn’t much more on the table today, and the gap to Q3 was a bit bigger than normal. As for tomorrow, there is always a chance for points because we usually perform better in the race than in Qualifying, so hopefully it will be a good one here at the Nürburgring.”

“I am really happy with what we did as a team. It’s the first time we make it to Q2 this year, something I really wanted, and to do it in such challenging circumstances, with only one hour of practice and on a track I never drove in full before, is special. The car felt quite good from the beginning, so we can be confident we can put up a fight tomorrow. We expect the conditions to be difficult with the weather, but we will give it a good shot. Today we got the maximum we could, tomorrow we will give everything and hopefully bring home a good result.”

“I think we got the best out of the car in qualifying. It looked quite strong in Q1 but then other people found quite a bit more lap time than we seemed to. Ultimately, we fell back to our P15 spot again in Q2, but that’s where we are, and we’ll continue to try and do better. We’ll try and do a good job tomorrow. This race weekend has been a bit odd so there could be some opportunities.”

“The track was good, it’s a mega track to drive, it’s a pleasure. Obviously with our car, we know we need to be flat out from the first lap in Q1 to be able to move into Q2. Sadly on the second set of tires, on my first lap I over did it and on the second I got traffic – so that was it. It’s a bit of a shame but we’ll do better tomorrow. I think the unexpected is our best chance in the race.”

I am a little bit disappointed; I think Q2 was possible if we had put everything together. It was tough in these cold conditions; the tyres are really difficult to get working. In FP3 they were working well, and the car was feeling great, but I couldn’t get the same feeling in qualifying. That was a shame as we were so close to Q2 and I think we had the potential today. In ordinary circumstances we know exactly where we are so I am really excited for what the weather may bring tomorrow, hopefully it will be mixed and create a bit of chaos. It will be an interesting race and I am ready to fight tomorrow.

I think Q2 was achievable today. I wasn’t completely happy with my laps on my second and third sets of tyres. They were a bit messy with some snaps here and there that hurt the laptime, so I am a bit disappointed on that front. We made some sizable changes from FP3 to qualifying to get the balance more in the window, which I feel we did. I think tomorrow will be interesting regardless, it could be mixed conditions, so I am very much looking forward to it.

“I can’t be happy with 19th but it’s what we got. We just didn’t have the speed to get more out of those three laps we did: they were not the greatest laps and there was nothing obviously wrong with how the car felt, but we expected more. We’ve got to do a better job tomorrow: we will try to make some progress, for sure, and see what we can do.”

“Well, that was one for the storybooks! It’s certainly been an interesting Formula 1 season. I got the call from Otmar at 11am: I was sitting with a friend having a coffee! I then ran to the car and got here as quickly as I could! I did the required COVID testing and I probably had around 40 minutes with the engineers before jumping into the car for qualifying. Obviously, the result wasn’t amazing, but I had fun and I learned a lot of useful information. I know the track, but it’s been a while since Formula 1 has raced here – and the RP20 has evolved a lot since I drove it at Silverstone too. I had to go out there and learn the car, feel the grip levels, and then find the limit as quickly as I could. To do all that in just a few laps is a big ask, but it’s good experience for the Grand Prix. We’ll let all of that sink in and come back tomorrow, go racing and give my best in this very unexpected home race!”