Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Unbelievable! We had a difficult day yesterday, the whole team worked really hard over night to turn it around and we recovered well. Again, today we had a quick car and it was enjoyable to drive; a qualifying lap around here feels insane. I know it’s going to be close during the race, but I think if we make the right calls on tyres and execute it well, we should stand a good chance tomorrow. The atmosphere is amazing here, I hope the fans are having a great time, I really can feel the support and I can hear them all around the track.

As a driver, you always target pole but Max (Verstappen) just put it together today.
The car balance felt a step better compared to yesterday. Q1 and Q2 were a little tricky. We tried different things on the out laps and in the end the front was a bit stronger which was good because I could push more.
I’m confident for tomorrow, though it’s a track on which it is rather difficult to overtake, so I hope it will be as close as today and that we can have a good battle with Max.

We knew we were up for a good battle and it proved to be one of the closest qualifyings of the year. Finishing P3 within less than a tenth from pole shows how small the margin was today.
I expect a close race with even more cars in the mix, but I’m confident we can fight for the top places. Overtaking may be a bit easier than last year and strategy will play a big role.
Tonight, together with the team, we will evaluate all the available options in order to maximize the result in the race.

Die letzte Runde war gut. Als ich in den letzten Sektor kam, war ich definitiv schneller unterwegs, aber dann sah ich, dass das Auto in die entgegengesetzte Richtung stand und musste lupfen. Diese Runde wäre mindestens für P3 gut genug gewesen, aber warten wir ab, ob ich das morgen gutmachen kann. Ich bin froh, dass unser Auto an diesem Wochenende viel, viel besser ist, das ist aufregend. Während des gesamten Qualifyings lag ich nur eine Zehntel hinter Red Bull, was mich sehr zuversichtlich stimmte, dass wir vielleicht den Unterschied ausmachen könnten, aber es hat nicht sollen sein. Ich bin mit der Abstimmung und der Balance des Autos sehr zufrieden. Ich hoffe, dass der Reifenabbau morgen zum Tragen kommt und wir die Oberhand behalten können. Die Aero-Charakteristik des Autos funktioniert hier viel besser. Letzte Woche mussten wir unser Auto höher abstimmen, hier ist das kleine Fenster, in dem unser Auto funktioniert, viel einfacher zu finden.

I was pushing it to the limit on the final lap of Q3 and I just went over the limit a little, it’s a shame. I went a bit too hot into the final corner and in the end I was lucky not to damage the car. I touched the throttle too early; I just kissed the gravel and unfortunately, I lost the rear end. I was on a good lap and could have improved quite a bit but we lost out. We are still P5 though and we can race from there but it will be very important to have a strong race pace. We have made positive changes to the car since yesterday and we are on the right track, this morning the long run was positive so Im hopeful to carry that into tomorrow and make up some good positions on the leaders. We think it could be a very close race between us, the Mercedes and the Ferraris, it could be a battle and I am looking forward to it.

Auf einem Kurs wie diesem entwickelt sich die Strecke sehr stark weiter und wenn wir schon im Hintertreffen sind, haben wir das Gefühl, dass wir alles geben müssen, und das war auch unsere Strategie in Budapest. Die Strecke hat sich ständig weiterentwickelt, und wenn man als Letzter über die Linie fährt, findet man hoffentlich die besten Streckenbedingungen vor, so dass man entweder als Held oder als Verlierer dasteht. Heute hat es für uns nicht ganz geklappt, aber P6 ist kein schlechter Startplatz, und der Weg zur ersten Kurve sowie die ersten paar Runden werden entscheidend sein. Aber ich sehe keinen Grund, warum wir nicht um ein Podium kämpfen können. Ich hoffe, dass die Sonne herauskommt und in Kombination mit dem orangenen Nebel morgen ein wenig Temperatur in die Atmosphäre bringt. Wir haben verstanden, warum wir in Spa langsam waren und warum wir an diesem Wochenende schneller sind. Ich denke, diese beiden Rennen waren entscheidend für unser Verständnis, wie wir ein schnelleres Auto über 23 Rennen hinweg entwickeln können.

A good day. I’m very happy with P7. We’ve given ourselves the best opportunity to make the most of our race, and we couldn’t have done a lot better comparing to the six cars ahead of us. We’ve got a good chance to score some good points tomorrow, so that’s the aim.

It’s great to be in Q3 and obviously we’re very happy with our performance. It’s unexpected as I think we were expecting to go out in Q2 but to get to Q3 and repeat the lap time we did in Q2 was definitely decent, and we now have a good starting position for tomorrow. We haven’t made massive changes, we’ve just been fine-tuning and luckily we started the weekend with a great set-up so we didn’t have to make big changes which always helps. It especially helps builds confidence and hopefully makes you faster.

I’m really happy about our Quali performance today. If I’m honest, it was a bit of a surprise to make it through to Q3, considering our pace in FP3, but we made some good changes to the car after practice, I was then able to put it altogether and extract the maximum performance from the car. The hard work from the team has really paid off this afternoon and making it through to Q3 is really positive, so I’m pleased with how we’ve improved today. Now we’ve got to concentrate on the race, we’ve got a lot of strong data to look through, so we need to work hard tonight to allow us to try and finish in the top 10 tomorrow.

It is a shame that we had the hydraulic issue in Q3 because we had the pace for a top-eight result today – and that would have been great given our recent difficulties in qualifying. The car was really fun to drive today – the team have done a fantastic job with the set-up and balance – so it is great to see everyone being rewarded for their efforts. This starting position should give us a good chance to score some decent points in the Grand Prix tomorrow.

At the end of the day, considering where we were in the practice sessions, we have to be pleased with our performance today. We’ve made a big step-up from FP3, and we just missed out on making it through to Q3 this afternoon. For the race tomorrow, the aim is to gain as many places as possible off the line, as we’re starting from P11, and then hopefully come home in the points.

It’s been a tricky day for us and it’s not where we wanted to qualify. We struggled a bit with rear grip and seemed to lack a bit of pace compared to previous weekends, so we’ll definitely have a close look at that. We’ve been in worse positions in the past and points places are not far away. The weekend is far from finished. We hope for some more overtakes tomorrow and we’ll be giving it our all as always to have a solid race and get both cars back into the points.

Unfortunately, it’s not been our day today. It was the traffic in Q2 that cost us from going into Q3, as we were half a second faster and could have been in sixth position. We could not show the true potential of the car, but these things can happen on a track as narrow as Zandvoort. Let’s see if we can use the pace of the car tomorrow and have a better result in the race when it counts. It’s not easy to overtake here as we saw last year, but we will push to score as many points as possible.

I think we made a decent step in qualifying today, especially considering the results in FP3 earlier today, as we were on the back foot and it looked like we could’ve been out in Q1. As predicted, it was super tight in the midfield, but I am fairly happy with where we qualified: I reckon we maximized everything we had, and this is why I wanted to thank the team over the radio. We are still struggling a little with the pace compared to some of the other teams, and we should start from that to give ourselves a better chance ahead of tomorrow. It will be hard to overtake on this track layout, but hopefully we can have some good action during the race.

Today was okay if you think about the circuit and where we are in our limitations to get into Q2, so I think it's a really good job. I'm pleased about Q1 as we didn't expect to make it into Q3, so it's been a massive effort by everyone. I lost a little bit of the rear in Q2 and we're fighting small margins out there. Whilst finishing P15 in Q2 is obviously disappointing, I feel like we made some good changes overnight, so can see if we can make up some places tomorrow.

The feeling with the car wasn’t too bad, but we’re still lacking a bit of pace and grip to be higher up on the grid. We tried everything with the setup, but what we could find was not fast enough today. We expected this compound to be a one-lap tyre in qualifying, and that is what we have been focusing on with our run plan today. It’s been quite a tough weekend so far, but there’s still a race ahead of us. It’s going to be a challenge, no doubt, but we will try our best and see what we can find.

I’m disappointed to be out in Q1. It was a tough one, because I think we were tracking to make it through. I was quite confident we were, but then just got a bit unlucky in the second-last corner. The car in front dragged some dirt onto the track and I just slid my way through and lost it - I think it was about three-tenths or something. So, yeah, that cost us. I think then it was probably a couple of tenths to find, and I think we could have chipped away at that. So, it’s pretty unlucky and frustrating. It's going to be tough for the race tomorrow, but we’ll keep at it.

It looked good this morning and for whatever reason it disappeared again. It looked pretty decent after the first run in Q1 so that’s why I’m a bit puzzled that we didn’t gain that extra grip that everyone else seemed to, as I just gained two tenths where some others gained eight tenths or a second. We’ll push tomorrow and see what we can do.

On my final Q1 lap I picked up some sand on my left-side wheels on the entry to Turn 13. At that point, you are really focused on the apex kerb on the right – I was not trying anything fancy – and I just drifted off-line and lost the car. I guess you could say that I got caught out by the ‘zand’ in Zandvoort. My pace up until that point had looked very good – that last lap was easily good enough for Q2 – and I think we could probably have got to Q3, too. It is a shame, and it makes things harder for tomorrow because we will basically start last. We will see if we can find a smart strategy solution – but it is probably going to be a long afternoon.

We had an issue that we are still investigating in qualifying. On my first lap I was getting some messages on the dash and losing power and then on my second attempt I had to abort the lap because the issue re-occurred. It's not ideal because we've been struggling all weekend and it seemed like we had made a decent step in the right direction at the start of the first lap. We just didn't get in a representative lap. This is motorsport and it happens.