Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Dies ist eine der schwierigsten Strecken und ich war die ganze Zeit am Limit. Das Auto war auf des Messers Schneide. Es war hart, das Maximum aus den Reifen herauszuholen. Es ist schwer zu sagen, woran das gelegen hat. Es ist hier sehr warm, aber wir hatten Schwierigkeiten, die Vorder- und die Hinterreifen zur gleichen Zeit auf Temperatur zu bringen, damit sie zu Beginn der Runde Grip boten. Ich bin sehr stolz und dankbar dafür, dass wir hier in die erste Startreihe gefahren sind. Jetzt erwartet uns ein intensives Rennen. Es ist immer wichtig, dass Valtteri neben mir startet, besonders zu diesem Zeitpunkt der Saison. Er ist außerordentlich gut gefahren und hoffentlich können wir morgen gemeinsam gute Arbeit abliefern.

Diese Strecke gibt dir einen echten Adrenalinkick! Morgen wird hart, der Kurs ist richtig intensiv, aber wir starten zumindest von den besten Plätzen. Wenn man bedenkt, wie schwierig das Qualifying heute war, ist das ein großartiges Ergebnis. Die linke Startseite wird definitiv staubig sein, aber ich werde mein Bestes geben, um die Position zu verteidigen. Dies ist eine der härtesten Strecken des Jahres, sowohl mental als auch physisch. Das macht es umso spannender, denn morgen kann alles passieren.

I was on a really good lap until I lost it on the final corner, I thought I had approached it in the same way I had been doing all session, but I lost the rear. I’m upset with myself and it is of course disappointing but there are two races to go and anything can happen. We had a good car in qualifying and everything was coming together which gives me hope going into the race tomorrow, also knowing that the pace was there today. I hope we can follow well tomorrow and if that’s the case, there should be some good opportunities and we should have a good shot.

I am very happy with my qualifying. Today was all about regaining confidence on this track and I worked on this from my first lap in FP3 to that last lap in qualifying. I really took it to the limit and P4 is a very good result, one that we did not expect.
Tomorrow will be a tough but exciting race. Despite it being a street circuit, the three long straights make it possible to overtake more than we had anticipated. Our race pace has been strong all weekend, so we should have a good opportunity if we have a clean race.
A big thank you to everyone on our team for the incredible job they did last night to put the car back together in perfect shape. I will give it my all to bring home a good result for them.

We were P1 in Q1 and Q2 and then in Q3 I don’t think the approach we took with the tyres was the right one. I suddenly picked up a lot of understeer and couldn’t match my Q2 time, which is a bit of a shame. These tyres are so picky that if you are not in the right temperature window then your balance is totally different and that is what happened to me today. It is a physically demanding track, it puts a lot of stress on your body and mentally it is challenging too to be up there session after session. Today wasn’t an ideal day for us as a Team but tomorrow there is still a lot to play for, it is going to be a long race and anything can happen still. I am looking forward to it, the pace was there today and I really hope we can improve on our starting position and get into the podium positions very early on. We will see if starting on the clean side of the grid tomorrow is an advantage, I think the start is a good chance to overtake, then we will go from there and try to be in the mix with the leaders straight away.

It’s been fantastic again today with another top six Qualifying position. This time it was a bit more difficult, I didn’t feel quite as confident in the car and I struggled with the balance throughout the session. I had to really work as we made our way through Quali, but I managed to put it altogether and I’m really pleased with my lap. I was only two-thousandths behind Sergio, which is nothing, so that’s a bit frustrating but at the end of the day it’s still a great starting position for tomorrow to score points.

I'm disappointed with the end of qualifying really. Happy we’re still P7, because it could've been worse today. I got a bit unlucky throughout qualifying with yellow flags, but even so I could've been one or two positions higher as I didn't do the best lap when I needed to, so I'm a bit frustrated. I have a small advantage at the start with the Soft tyre, so I need to make the most of that, but for the rest of the race it's going to make it a lot trickier. I’m still in a decent position to score some points tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do.

I’ve got some mixed feelings about today. I think my performance in Q1 and Q2 was great and I’m really pleased with that, but unfortunately on my final lap in Q3 I had traffic and I lost a lot of time. I think I could’ve been starting further up the grid tomorrow, so it’s frustrating right now. There are lots of positives to take away today though, particularly the fact that I made it through Q2 on the Mediums, so I’ll be starting on the same tyre as everyone else around me tomorrow. It’s a really great track to drive, so I’m looking forward to the race and hopefully we can come away with points.

I’m pretty happy with today’s Qualifying in ninth place. I was pleased with my laps and, as a team, we’ve worked really well this weekend. I’ve got the confidence in the car, which is needed around here in order to really push on the low fuel laps. It’s a shame we couldn’t put both cars into Q3, but we had a quick car in FP2 and hopefully we can carry that into the race with both Fernando and I aiming to score. It’s going to be a long race tomorrow. It’s very hot, a very busy lap, maybe similar to Singapore in terms of physicality, but I’m looking forward to it. We’ll see what we can do from ninth on the grid and we’ll give it our best for another solid team result.

It was a great qualifying and I had a lot of fun, the car today was just brilliant. We knew the medium tyres would be better and we showed just how good they were in Q2. The soft in Q3 weren’t as good and we struggled a bit more, it took us longer to get them in the right window, but tomorrow we will start on medium which is a positive. I could have improved even more on my Q2 lap but I had a little kiss with the wall on my final flying lap: thankfully I could still make it through. Starting in P10 with our preferred tyres, on a track like this, will be good and I can’t wait for the race. We had a strong weekend straight from FP1 and now we just need to keep this pace, maybe with a bit of the luck that has eluded us all season, to bring home a good result.

We had a quick car, but I just picked up some damage on the last run and lost a lot of time. I damaged the floor on a kerb and it was dragging on the straight. I saw the lap-time dropping away. It’s a shame, because we were a lot quicker than P11 today. I’ve used that kerb a lot already, but that time I picked up a bit of damage. We made a good set-up change for quali so I was comfortable and had pace, we just got unlucky.

It was a good performance, we were really close to making it to Q3 but it didn’t work out in the end. The last corner wasn’t that good and it cost us a little bit of time, but in the end what made the difference was that probably we should have stayed on the mediums for an extra lap. I wanted to try the soft tyres and it didn’t work. Still, we are in a good place to start: it’s hard to tell how the race will go, it will surely be important to be in the thick of it and we’ll give everything to bring home a good result.

It was a tricky session for us tonight. Yesterday the car felt fast and had a good balance, but today from FP3 and into qualifying the car felt very different. On a street circuit and going close to the walls it’s quite difficult when you aren’t totally comfortable with the balance. We saw in Formula 2 there were more overtakes than expected, so while I think it will be more difficult for us to follow at such high speeds, we remain hopeful to make up ground tomorrow. I hope to have a clean race tomorrow and we need to make sure to score more points in our battle for fifth place.

I was really happy with my lap in Q1 and was pleased to get through to Q2. We ran the medium tyre for the first time since FP1 in Q2 and again, I was pretty happy with my first lap but couldn’t improve on my second effort, running slightly wide in the middle sector. I am relatively satisfied with P14, but we are a bit further behind Alfa Romeo than we would want to be. It is tricky out there and getting the tyres in the right window is difficult, but I do believe that is about where our car is at the moment.

I think overtaking is going to be difficult in the Grand Prix but we will have to see on Sunday. Nobody knows how the tyres are going to react and the grip levels are pretty high. You can push relatively hard which is quite fatiguing but what we want to see in F1. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

oday’s qualifying is a tough one to digest. I’ve been fast and comfortable with the car all weekend and a single snap jeopardised the entire qualifying and tomorrow’s race. Q1 was very promising and I knew from previous sessions I was also fast with the Medium compound. However, a very aggressive snap of oversteer in turn 10 made me lose the car and, although I managed to avoid a big crash, I clipped the wall and damaged the rear wing. It was unexpected, because I hadn’t experienced that snap in any other run since Friday.
There was no time to replace the damaged endplate and the guys did their best to fix it before going out again. I was quite fast in the first part of the lap but as soon as I put some load on the rear wing in a more difficult corner I realized the downforce was very compromised and I had to abort. The race tomorrow is uncertain and anything can happen. I have confidence in my pace and will give it my all to make up some positions and try to score some good points.

We were aiming for Q2 today and it looked possible, but unfortunately, I didn’t get my second lap on the first set of tyres in, and then ran wide in Turn four which set me back a lap. I know I could have done a better job and, with an extra lap we could have found that time, but I only have myself to blame for that, so it is a bit disappointing.

Tomorrow will be quite challenging for everyone, both physically and mentally, with the high temperature and high-speed nature of the circuit. It has been a fun track to drive so far though, so I am looking forward to the challenge.

I was a little surprised that we were unable to make Q2 because I felt my last lap was good – even though I was held up at the end of the second sector, which cost me a few tenths and a chance to progress. There was a lot of traffic out there, especially at the end of laps, which complicated things further. I think it is clear that this track does not suit our car in qualifying trim, but the positive is that our race pace has traditionally been stronger this season, so we will see what we can do tomorrow. It hurts to qualify in P17 but, if we have an eventful race tomorrow, we can try to make our way up the field.

I am really disappointed to have ended up in P18 because traffic at the end of the session ruined my qualifying. It was like a parking lot and there was nothing I could do. As a result, I was not able to put in a flying lap when the track and tyres were at their optimum and it proved very costly. I think we would have had enough to make it into Q2 otherwise. We will go away and review to see if there is anything we could have done differently. We have never raced here before, so we will have to see how the Grand Prix plays out tomorrow and try to make up some places.

I delayed the deployment of my DRS, and it’s around a tenth so it’s quite frustrating but I was not anticipating being so close to the Aston Martin so that’s something I think really shows our build-up of performance over the weekend. The race is a different story – if we get the opportunity to fight we will but if we get ahead and have a good start, we might be even able to keep it.

The track’s still good – it cleared up from yesterday which is a positive. I was happy with my rhythm, that was totally deliberate and ended up in a very good place in FP3 and if anything, I should’ve been better in qualifying. Unfortunately, qualifying is about a lot of others letting you do your lap. 6.1km on this track isn’t enough for even the best in our sport to get through. I was divebombed by four or five cars into the last corner when I was trying to make a gap and ended up racing Vettel on the start-finish line so didn’t get my lap in.