Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

I am very pleased with our overall performance so far this weekend. I
felt confident in the car and started pushing a bit more in Q3. The first lap was good. I think that the second was one of the best laps I have ever done in qualifying. It was so much fun to drive and I was really on the limit. I had a lot of oversteer, so the rear was quite loose. Still, I knew that the lap was coming together nicely and that felt particularly good. It’s a shame that I couldn’t finish it, but this is Monaco and we know that the final attempt is always at risk of yellow or red flags.
We secured pole anyway, so I am really happy. Whatever the conditions are tomorrow, we will start from the best place possible and will do everything to finish the weekend as smoothly as it has gone so far.

It was a great build up throughout qualifying today, especially up until Q3 when unfortunately things got a bit messier. On my first attempt I had to overtake both Mercedes during my flying lap and I left a couple of tenths on the table, especially overtaking Hamilton at the swimming pool. However, I was confident for the second attempt until obviously Perez crashed in front of me.
I did all I could to react quickly and avoid the crash, but it was too late. Things like this can happen in Monaco and unfortunately I was caught up in it again.
Overall, P2 is a decent position to start on Sunday and it’s a good day for the team with another front row lock-out and a good opportunity to score solid points tomorrow. Let’s race!

I knew the timed lap in Q3 was very important but the outlap was even more so, with people not respecting the delta and so I ended up in the final sector with tyres that were too cold and I nearly lost it in turn one. I was thinking the tyre would pick up grip and warm up but it just didn’t and it’s a big shame what happened. I was losing lap time in turn eight so I tried to anticipate the corner very early but it just didn’t work and while, it is frustrating to end the day like this, we have still qualified in the top three in Monaco. I am very sorry for my Team, it is going to be a long night for them but hopefully we can recover and be back tomorrow. It was just a precautionary check in the medical centre, I am all ok and now I am looking forward to tomorrow. I am on the good side of the grid so I would like to gain one or two positions, it will be tricky but I am up for the fight. It could be a wet track tomorrow so anything can really happen.

In general my pace this weekend has been a bit of a struggle, I never really found the perfect balance. We were on for a good final lap in Q3, I was pushing to the limit on the last lap until I got to the corner where I hit a little traffic jam! It was very unfortunate as I think we could have done better than fourth, not pole position, because I think that Charles is too far ahead, but I think we could have at least got second place. That’s Monaco for you though, it’s completely unpredictable and there’s always a risk of a red flag when everyone is trying to risk it all. I think I need to do a little rain dance tonight, shake it up a bit for the race tomorrow because in the dry you cannot pass around here.

I’m happy with today. I think it was the maximum we could achieve. The car was good all weekend and I think today we showed that we extracted a lot out of the car, and we put in some good laps. It wasn’t quite enough to be ahead of the top two teams but good enough to be ahead of everyone else, which is always the next step. So, I’m happy but there is one more job to do tomorrow. The focus is to try and go forward if possible – but it’s difficult – so we will try to stay where we are as a minimum and get some good points.

Die Bodenfreiheit des Autos war das ganze Wochenende über unsere größte Einschränkung. Dieser sechste Platz ist zwar kein Ergebnis, das man feiern sollte, aber ich denke, wir haben mit dem Paket, das wir haben, das Maximum herausgeholt. Das Team hat unglaublich hart gearbeitet, um uns die bestmögliche Abstimmung zu geben, aber wir haben in Barcelona gesehen, dass unsere Stärken der Speed auf den Geraden und in den Hochgeschwindigkeitskurven sind - und in Monaco gibt es beides nicht! Objektiv betrachtet gibt es also keinen Grund, warum wir heute weiter vorne stehen sollten. Mit Blick auf morgen denke ich: Her mit dem Regen! Niemand weiß, wie sich die Reifen im Nassen verhalten werden. Also müssen wir uns von den Mauern fernhalten, am Ende dabei sein und bei der Strategie etwas riskieren, wenn wir es können.

Even though we made a big improvement with the car for today and position-wise it’s a good qualifying, we could have been even better. On the first attempt in Q3, I was fifth and with the track evolution I think we could have kept this position for tomorrow. Unfortunately, I locked up under braking for Mirabeau. In Monaco when you lose concentration, even for a second, it can have a big impact, so I apologise to the team. Nevertheless, we need to see tomorrow and if the rain comes as it could be very chaotic, with lots of safety cars and red flags. If it does rain, I’m sure it will be great to watch on TV, but very stressful inside the car!

Die roten Flaggen haben mich meine letzte Runde gekostet, aber ich glaube nicht, dass das Ergebnis sonst viel anders ausgesehen hätte, als es jetzt gekommen ist. Im Nachhinein betrachtet hätte ich die erste Runde auf diesem Reifensatz hinbekommen müssen, was mir jedoch nicht gelungen ist, weil ich die Runde mit dem falschen Motormodus begonnen hatte. Aber so ist das nun mal in Monaco, es war einfach Pech in dieser Session. Das Auto fühlt sich da draußen ziemlich schlecht an, und wir müssen große Risiken eingehen, um auch nur in die Nähe der Zeiten der Autos vor uns zu kommen. Wir haben das Auto im Vergleich zu gestern verbessert und sind etwas näher herangekommen, aber selbst mit einer perfekten Runde würden uns wohl immer noch sechs Zehntel fehlen, was ein ordentlicher Brocken ist. Jetzt müssen wir abwarten, was das Wetter morgen macht, und versuchen, im Feld weiter nach vorne zu kommen.

Finishing Q3 in P9 is a good result. It is always important to qualify well in Monaco, so hopefully we can race well from there and make the most of any opportunities to move up the order. The weather is the big question mark, though. If it is wet, it can be a real lottery around this track, but it can also make for a fun and entertaining race. I would be surprised if it was a completely wet race, so we might need to be ready for mixed conditions. Whatever happens, we will target good points tomorrow.

After three difficult free practice sessions where performance was lacking, it’s a great feeling to get to Q3 in Monaco. We knew qualifying was key today, so the focus was always to get the set up right after testing different things over yesterday and today. I do have mixed feelings, though, as I was on for a great final lap before the incident, which stopped the session. Nevertheless, we showed that the pace was there, and we managed to extract it when it mattered, so great job by the team. We’ve got both cars on the top ten tomorrow and we are most likely expecting some rain, so it’s going to be interesting and we know in this sport that anything can happen.

I’m disappointed with today. I touched the barriers in Q1 and damaged the front left of the car. The red flag allowed us to get back to the garage, however there was still some damage on the car and that impacted my performance I believe. Unfortunately, this also compromised Pierre’s Quali and he was unable to get through Q1 – it’s a real shame as I think both cars had the potential to be in Q3 today. I think our best chances of scoring points tomorrow with both cars is to have a wet race, so let’s see what happens.

We did not expect to miss out on Q3, but we turned out to be not as competitive as we expected. Despite missing a session yesterday, I feel I managed to get into a good rhythm: the car was balanced and felt good, the last lap in Q2 was really good as well. I think we probably got as much as we could: we lacked a bit of pace, not in any particular corner but overall. It’s disappointing as we thought this would be a strong track for us, but we’re still not far off the points: it’s going to be a long day tomorrow, with the threat of rain as well, so everything can happen. Hopefully we can put up a good fight and bring home another top ten finish.

It’s been looking good, and the car felt good but it just didn’t happen in Q2. I would like some rain from this position as it would be nice to have some spice and a bit more of an eventful race so we can have the chance to come forward. I think the pace is there in the car – fingers crossed for a wet day tomorrow.

It’s not the result I wanted. I was just trying to get back into the flow of it in FP3, and then we made a few set-up changes for qualifying. Q1 felt a bit more competitive, and I think we did some decent laps. There were a couple of mistakes here and there, but I felt like the pace was in it at the time. And then Q2, when everyone was able to make that step, I struggled to get more out of the car and felt I was at the limit. We’ll keep at it and hopefully it rains tomorrow.

It’s very unfortunate that the group which we were in was very tight together. I think we were like three or fourth tenths off Q3 in that case, so I think if from my side I nailed that second sector, for sure we would’ve got close to it, but there are those days where it just seems that there’s a little bit missing, but it’s a lot of fun. We missed a lot of FP1, which meant we were always on the backfoot, but I felt especially for qualifying we didn’t move on the set-up and personally for me it felt like it was the right direction and it paid off in the sense that it will definitely help for the race set-up. We’ll see where we end up – tomorrow’s weather conditions look interesting which can help us make that step into the points.

It’s a very frustrating result; I feel like we had much more to offer today. It’s such a tight window to get the tyres in the right place, and something like a red flag really disrupts our progress as everything cools down. I was happy with the laps that I did put in, and the car felt good, so from that perspective, it’s an even more frustrating day. These street tracks do seem to suit our car, so I think we were all hoping for more, but we’ll go again tomorrow and it’s possible that the weather may present some opportunities.

I’m extremely frustrated today. We’ve been fast all weekend up until Quali, so it’s disappointing to have thrown this opportunity away. I’m not happy with the strategic calls we made today, and then we left the pitlane too late in Q1 and didn’t manage to cross the line before the red light came out. We need to go away and look at everything, as we had the pace to fight for top six and, in the end, we’re not starting in the position we deserve to be in.

First of all, I want to say thank you and well done to everyone in the garage for repairing my car after practice. It was a big push to get everything fixed in time for qualifying. Unfortunately, qualifying was frustrating: I went off the track at Turn 13 after taking too much of the kerb and my lap was over. It is a shame because I was four tenths up on my best time up to that point. The car has potential, so it is disappointing to qualify 18th.

In the free practice sessions, I was never comfortable with the car balance and only by qualifying did I get what I needed. That meant that I went into qualifying with a different car from FP1, FP2 and FP3, and it was a case of starting again to find the limits of a car. The car was much better in qualifying. I was discovering a car that I felt I had much more potential in and a lot more lap time, but at the end, we had the red flag. It’s frustrating, I know I need to do better, and we also need to understand these issues with the car and reduce compromising our qualifying.

It’s a very frustrating and disappointing result: the red flag coming out just seconds before I finished my lap meant I was the only one who couldn’t set a time with the second set of tyres and, on a street circuit like Monaco, with strong track evolution, I never stood a chance with the first lap. The slow exit from the pitlane of the cars in front of me when we got a green flag again meant I couldn’t get another attempt and that was it. It hasn’t been the smoothest weekend so far, but I am confident we can get together and figure out a way forward with the team. We’re going to put our heads down and do our best for tomorrow’s race. The weather could play a part, so we’ll go out and try to salvage a good result.