Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

It couldn’t have been better today, the tow worked out well as we managed to lock out the front row. We went out there and did our thing. As a Team we had an almost perfect qualifying and we are very excited for tomorrow, The most important thing is that Checo stays ahead of Charles so we’ll do what we can to make that happen. I do think that our car is quick, there’s a massive question mark around the other teams though and how much long run performance they will have gained overnight. We made a few mistakes in Brazil I guess but we learn from that and we are back where we should be.

It is a great Team result for everyone back home and here in Abu Dhabi, we are in the best position to finish off the job and get that result tomorrow. It certainly was good teamwork with Max today, it was important to get both cars as high up as possible for the race. My Q1 and Q2 were looking strong, and I was hoping for more, but then Q3 wasn’t ideal, especially our first run. That put us on the back foot a little and in the end, it wasn’t good enough for P1. We have a very long race ahead of us, so we need to finish the job off tomorrow and deliver a massive result for the Team. It will be important to get off the line well and get a strong start to get away from Charles. We are certainly confident going into tomorrow that our race pace is good and we can race harder. We are a lot happier with performance than we were in Brazil. It would be a huge year for us if we are able to get second place in the Drivers’ Championship and make history for the Team. We will work hard and hopefully we can succeed.

P3 is the best we could do today. It was quite a tricky qualifying, especially in terms of tyre management, as is usually the case in Abu Dhabi, with the rear tyres overheating in the final sector.
With Carlos starting right behind me, we will work together to put pressure on our competitors ahead and aim to finish the season on a high.

It was a solid qualifying for the team today as we made a step forward on pace and car setup. I’m not entirely happy with my last attempt in Q3 as the traffic on the out-lap compromised getting everything up to temperature and I didn’t put a great lap together.
However, I’m happy with the feeling in the car and I think we’re in a good position for tomorrow. There are still many points to fight for and we’ll push until the end.

Wir sind mit der Erwartung hierhergekommen, dass es für uns schwierig werden würde, aber wir hatten nicht erwartet, dass der Abstand zur Pole Position acht Zehntel betragen würde. Wir haben heute auf den Geraden sechs Zehntel auf die Top-Autos verloren. Ich habe alles gegeben, deshalb ist es ein etwas überraschendes Ergebnis, so weit hinter Red Bull und Ferrari zu liegen. Hoffentlich ist unsere Rennpace morgen besser als unsere Qualifyingpace heute. Auf dieser Strecke tritt auch etwas Bouncing auf, was zu unserer fehlenden Performance beiträgt und zu Problemen mit Temperaturunterschieden an den Bremsen führt, die wir schon die ganze Saison über hatten. Das ganze Team arbeitet hart und macht einen unglaublichen Job, um diese Probleme zu beheben, vor allem auch für das nächste Jahr. Ich freue mich schon auf morgen und das letzte Rennen der Saison! 

Wir hatten uns für das Qualifying bessere Rundenzeiten erhofft, sollten aber morgen im Rennen in einer besseren Position sein, denn unsere Long-Run-Pace sah nach dem, was wir bisher gesehen haben, konkurrenzfähig aus. Der Startplatz scheint fair zu sein, wenn man sich die aktuelle Performance unseres Autos auf einer Strecke wie Abu Dhabi ansieht, aber nach den Ergebnissen in Brasilien hatten wir uns wahrscheinlich ein bisschen mehr erhofft. Wir wären also gerne etwas näher an der Spitze dran gewesen, sollten uns aber für das Rennen in einer besseren Ausgangsposition befinden. Morgen wird es interessant, denn es gibt viele verschiedene Strategieoptionen. Ich erwarte, dass Red Bull außer Reichweite sein wird, aber ich hoffe, dass wir Ferrari jagen können. Mal sehen, was der morgige Tag bringt - wir werden bis zur Ziellinie so hart wie möglich kämpfen.

A good quali. I think I got everything out of the car today, so I’m happy. I struggled a bit, not having enough confidence to push the car, but at the same time, we secured the best position we could. We’ve got a good starting place, let’s convert it into some good points tomorrow.

I’m very pleased with today’s Qualifying so a big well done to the team for one of our best sessions of the season. Every run felt like we made a step as we tried to maximise the performance of the car today. Our main competitors are quick this weekend, perhaps quicker than we originally thought, so we will need to be focused tomorrow to have a good race and bring back some points. There’s one more to go, so let’s make it the best one yet.

Overall, my final qualifying in Formula One was a good session. The car is doing what I want this weekend and this has contributed to this decent result. I have been very motivated and it felt as if there was a bit extra in me today. We did have some traffic in Q1 and Q2 with a Red Bull at the last corner, but the lap in Q3 was clean. I am looking forward to the race – my last one in Formula One – and I hope we will be able to deliver a good result for the team as I end my journey with everyone at Aston Martin F1. Anything can happen here and we will try to maximise our chances tomorrow.

We didn’t quite have the pace in Qualifying today, so in the end, I think we can be quite happy to be starting tenth for the race. It was close in Q1 and less than a tenth separated a number of cars in Q2. We know it will be difficult to overtake tomorrow, but we’ll try our best to have some fun and gain some places inside the top ten. It’s the last time I will jump in the car with Alpine, so I will be looking to make the most of the race tomorrow and hopefully end on a high with the team.

I’m pretty happy with today, I made a bit of a mistake in Turn 6 on my final lap in Q2 but overall, I’m pleased with how it went, and the extra performance we were able to show in Quali. I really like the track here, it was my best placed finish last year with 4th, and we’re starting just outside the points tomorrow, so hopefully something good can happen again. Obviously, we know it’s going to be difficult, but our long-run pace was looking quite good yesterday, so I think there’s a possibility to move ourselves forward tomorrow and score some all-important points, to allow us to finish the season in P8.

Q1 didn’t look too bad and Q2 was ok, actually. We felt like we were in a good position and it was less than two tenths to getting through to Q3 which was very unexpected to be this close. We’ll happily take it and move forward now to the race. We’re quite close to the points and we have AlphaTauri quite close as well so hopefully we’ll get them at the start, and we’ll be able to manage the race from there. It will be crucial for us to stay in front of them so that’s what we’ll focus on.

I'm pleased with Q3 because it hasn’t been a sure thing this year. So, from that point of view, I'm happy to just be in it the whole session and be able to be in the hunt. It was a P10, but we were competitive enough to give us a little bit of hope. I think the middle sector, I just didn’t quite nail so there was maybe a tenth or so on the table there which maybe could have put me in the fight with Vettel and perhaps Ocon. Nonetheless, looking forward to tomorrow. I will try to attack from the start, make up a few positions and put myself back in the fight with the top ten.

I was happy with my final lap in Q2: it was good and clean, but we just lacked a little bit of speed to Sebastian, who has had a really good day in his final qualifying. Crucially, we have qualified ahead of both Alfa Romeos and the car has been behaving really well this weekend. We will look to move forward into the points. It will be a long race and we have lots to fight for tomorrow.

I feel I got as much as I could out of the car tonight, as my qualifying performance was alright: unfortunately, we weren’t close enough in terms of pace to be a little further up the grid. Yesterday, everything was working fairly well, while today has been more difficult. We struggled a bit during FP3 earlier today, and even though it seemed like we got our pace back in the afternoon, I don’t think we quite had the speed to fight for Q3. We definitely hoped for more, but nevertheless as the midfield was pretty close during Q1, we will hopefully be able to move further up to deliver the results we worked so hard for.

It seemed like we did take a step forward from FP2 to qualifying, but the traffic at the end meant we had to stop in the last sector for close to half a minute before starting our lap, so that killed it and you start your lap on cold tires. It’s so tight that even one tenth would’ve got me close to the top 10. That’s a bummer, that’s what we got right last week but today we didn’t manage to do the same. It’s very tight so I think it’s going to be more about tire management and strategy tomorrow.

We have been playing catch-up all weekend as we’ve had difficulties setting up the car. Today we made a small step forward, but it wasn’t enough. The car was sliding around in the low-speed corners and was still not the way I wanted it. Qualifying was like rush-hour in London, but I think it was the same for everyone. Tomorrow will be a long and difficult race, but there will be plenty of opportunities to make up some ground. Tomorrow will be the last time that I am dressed as a Scuderia AlphaTauri driver, so it is definitely an emotional and special weekend for myself and all the team. I have spent so much time with them over the last five years and I will remember those memories forever, so it is time to give it one final push.

We went into qualifying knowing we had good pace, so I believe today’s result doesn’t really reflect where our car actually is. It was a strange feeling, we just couldn’t get the tyres to work in our outlap and, as a result, our sector one pace suffered. This was especially so on my second run – there was so much traffic at the end of the outlap, I had to pretty much stop and that destroyed our attempt. It’s frustrating, of course, but now we need to prepare in the best possible way for tomorrow’s race.

After FP3 we were feeling confident and the car was looking good, however as the track temperature drops down, outlaps need to be faster to compensate for the drop and we were in a lot of traffic and not able to get a clear outlap. I overtook seven or eight cars on the outlap and I was still not ready for Turn 1. However after Turn 6 I was happy with my lap but I lost so much time in the first half trying to get the tyres up to temperature. It wasn’t enough when the margins are so small but I think we would’ve got into Q2 had it not been for that. Fortunately, it’s not a situation where we’re scratching our heads wondering why there’s no grip, it’s more that we didn’t really have the chance to do what we needed to. When we’re in traffic it makes it complicated so it’s a bit frustrating, but we’ll look to tomorrow.

I’m pretty happy with the last lap in Qualifying. It wasn’t the perfect lap, but it was clean. We just didn’t have the pace today. I made sure to use all the tyres I had and left nothing on the rack. It’s not where I want to be in my last Qualifying session, but I’m satisfied. I think the main difficulty was trying to find the right space for the outlaps. Tomorrow will be difficult but it’s my last race and I’ll be trying to enjoy it as much as possible.