Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

I’m very happy to be on pole, it hasn’t been the easiest weekend so far as we’ve been struggling to find the right balance and I’ve been trying to find my rhythm. Overall, it was quite a good qualifying, we recovered well with the performance. It’s great for the whole Team to have a one-two start tomorrow, and to have Checo up there as well is really promising. A lot of things can happen during a race as we all know, but I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do out there on track as a Team.

When you miss pole position by a tenth of a second you always think there is a bit more you could have given, that is only a braking zone or something. It was really close out there today, look at the competition from Q2 and Q3, if you didn’t get a perfect lap then you were P5. We made some compromises in qualifying for tomorrow’s race and hopefully that will pay off so we can have a very strong race car. I am more comfortable with the car; the rear end of this car is a bit more planted, so I am able to work with it a little better so that’s a positive for me. I think Ferrari will be in the mix for the race, along with Aston Martin and Mercedes. We hadn’t seen this kind of pace from Ferrari until today, so I think they have been hiding quite a bit. If Charles was to do his final run, he would have been in with a shot for pole position. I think managing the tyre degradation will be crucial tomorrow and it will be really important for us to concentrate on our own race.

A positive qualifying. We were in the fight for pole, which we didn’t expect coming into the weekend. Several teams seem to be quite close, which makes things more exciting for drivers and fans, and I think it’s good for the sport. In terms of race pace, we could find ourselves a bit on the backfoot, as our competitors looked very strong in that area during free practice. We will give everything tomorrow and, with an extra set of fresh Soft tyres, hopefully we will have a good fight.

Today we made a step forward as a team. It’s been a difficult build-up to qualifying for me, not having had a clean day yesterday, but we reacted well today. I lost a bit in sector 2 in a couple of twitchy corners, but apart from that the feeling overall was better.
Now we’re looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll fight until the very last lap and try to bring home a good result to get the season going.

The whole weekend has been very good for us so far and we are very happy to be starting inside the top five for the first race tomorrow. Last year the team found itself out of Q1 and now we are lining up fifth on the grid. Everyone in the team has done an amazing job and this is a strong baseline to build upon as we start the season. We shall see what tomorrow brings, but we have been competitive in all the sessions and we are starting close to the podium positions. If there is an opportunity there for the taking, then we will look to capitalise on it

Der heutige Tag war viel besser, als wir erwartet hatten, insbesondere nach dem gestrigen Tag. Wir hatten einen harten Freitag. Wir hatten erwartet, dass wir über Nacht etwas an Performance zulegen würden, aber wir haben die Erwartungen übertroffen. Mit den Änderungen, die wir vorgenommen haben, dachten wir, dass wir vielleicht eine Zehntelsekunde finden würden, aber wir haben fast fünf oder sechs Zehntel gefunden, also müssen wir genau verstehen, warum das so war. Das ist eine positive Nachricht, aber nach dem dritten Training haben wir uns nur darauf konzentriert, die Performance zu maximieren. Das Auto lässt sich gut fahren, und wir haben eine viel bessere Ausgangsposition als mit dem W13. Wir können uns jetzt darauf konzentrieren, die gesamte Performance zu steigern, anstatt Probleme zu lösen. Morgen befinden wir uns in einer guten Position, von der aus wir um den dritten Platz kämpfen können. Sich drei Zehntel hinter Ferrari zu qualifizieren, obwohl sie wahrscheinlich das schnellste Auto auf einer Runde waren, ist positiv. Fernando ist wahrscheinlich eher ein Geheimtipp als Ferrari.

Ich dachte, heute könnte es schlimmer werden, als es letztendlich war. Wir haben über Nacht gute Arbeit geleistet, und das Auto fühlte sich im dritten Training viel besser an. Insgesamt war das Qualifying okay. Gestern dachte ich, dass wir Probleme haben würden, ins Q3 zu kommen, aber das war nicht der Fall. Wir waren im Kampf dabei. Wir wissen nicht, ob wir die gleiche Rennpace wie im letzten Jahr haben, aber ich hoffe, dass wir in der Gruppe hinter Red Bull mitkämpfen können. Es wird wirklich alles davon abhängen, wie unsere Long-Run-Pace aussieht. Ich freue mich wirklich sehr für Aston Martin. Es ist erstaunlich zu sehen, welche Fortschritte sie machen und welche Schritte sie gemacht haben. Ich freue mich für Fernando, denn er ist schon viel länger dabei als ich, also ist es gut, dass er wieder vorne mitmischt! Ich bin sicher, dass wir einige schöne Rennen haben werden.

I am really happy with today’s result. It shows the progress we have made as a team over the winter and that our hard work is paying off. From eighth we can race well and hopefully bring home some points tomorrow. I have spent the practice sessions doing my best to learn about the car, get up to speed, and find a rhythm as we built up to qualifying. I am really pleased with the performance I put in today and feeling grateful to be here just two weeks after my accident. I cannot wait to go racing tomorrow.

After a busy pre-season test, I’m pleased with how the first Friday practice of the season went, and it feels great to be back on track in the environment of a race weekend. We saw today that the car has gained performance since the test and we have a clearer picture of where there are improvements to be made. Things are going in the right direction and we’ll be discussing at length tonight how we can get ready to have a good first qualifying of the season. There’s more to come from us and I’m feeling ready.

It wasn’t perfect in Q3 unfortunately, but I don’t think I’m going to let that ruin my day. I think it was pretty decent – I was pretty happy how I was able to produce and deliver the laps. I think we saw already yesterday how over one lap we’re in a decent spot and quite competitive, but the real test will come tomorrow. The big emphasis and focus is there, I expect a really tough battle and race but I’m excited and looking forward to it.

P11 in the first qualifying of the year, I would say I’m reasonably happy with that. I think we pretty much got everything out of the car. There maybe was a tenth left in it but I needed two tenths to gain any positions. It was a tough qualifying, it was very close between all the midfield and even the top cars, to be honest. It was a little bit better than I was thinking coming into the session, so we’ll take it. It’s a long race ahead tomorrow and a track we can overtake on, so hopefully we can move forward.

It was a straightforward qualifying session for us, and starting from P12 we will be definitely aiming for a place in the points. I’m quite happy about the laps I delivered and it’s good to see how Zhou was able to push me as well: we were just a bit short of Q3, but the midfield is really close and everything can still happen. From what we have seen in testing, we are not bad in race trim, and it will be interesting to see how tyre degradation will affect different cars: it’s quite difficult to predict how the race will shape up, but we’re going to give it our best shot.

Even from outside of the top ten, I feel we have the potential to gain a few positions during tomorrow’s race: last year we were able to climb up the field, and I see no reason why we can’t repeat what we have done before. It will be a tight fight, once again, and points are definitely the target. Looking at our performance from practice, we are in the mix for the top ten and it will often be a case of who can put everything together on the day: we went really close to it today, but ultimately fell a bit short. Still, there’s everything to play for tomorrow and I’m confident we can do a good job.

We didn’t expect to get into Q2, but getting through was very positive for myself and the team. Of course, I was frustrated we didn’t have new tyres for Q2, but we knew that was the plan from the beginning. We haven’t tested the long-runs in these conditions, but we’ll dig through the data extensively tonight to be able to build the strongest possible car going into tomorrow, especially in terms of finding grip. At the same time, I am happy with my performance today, but ultimately tomorrow is when it counts. We are aiming for points, and we know it won’t be the easiest race from what we have learnt from testing last week, but anything can happen.

We had some front wing damage in Qualifying, and we lost one of the flaps, so we didn’t complete a lap in Q2. It’s disappointing as, looking at the times in Q2, I really believe we could have made it to Q3. I’m a bit disappointed after being P9 in Q1 and I feel like we deserved more than where we qualified but I think if you look at where we were this time last year and where we are at this year, apart from Aston Martin, we’re the team that has made the biggest step forward. I’m really proud of everyone at the team and at the factory and things are going in the right direction. We really do come alive when the track becomes cold and I would say our race pace is stronger than our qualifying pace, so let’s see what happens tomorrow.

It's a dream come true to go out and qualify in Formula 1. We had good pace today and the team deserved to have both cars in Q2. A slight mistake in Sector 1 cost me as I struggled to find my brake point with the change of wind at Turn 1. However, we've laid a good foundation for ourselves to build off going forward. I think we had the car in a great window this evening. In terms of balance it was right where I wanted it, I just needed to put it together slightly better. It's going to be a pretty special feeling when the lights go out tomorrow. I'll try to get off the line clean, have a good first lap and build from there.

We got traffic in the final corner on the second run. It was so close – the whole field was bunched up – so if we lose a little bit, it’s game over. It’s a little bit unfortunate but the race is tomorrow, and we’ll try to do better there. There’s still stuff to work on, so we’ll see how we go in the race.

Obviously it’s not what we were looking for there. The red flag compromised us a bit and I just didn’t nail it on the second set of tyres. That said, it was my first F1 qualifying and it is a long season ahead. We’ll do our homework and see what we can do. Tomorrow is another day.

We would’ve liked to qualify higher today, but I didn’t have the tyres in the correct window. The final lap in Q1 was crucial, but unfortunately, I lost the rear. Our long-run performance has been looking more promising than our short-run pace, so that should provide for more performance tomorrow. The midfield is tight and competitive, so we need to make sure we gain some positions. It will be challenge, but we have tonight to evaluate our data.

It feels great to be back in competitive action and feeling the demands of a Friday Practice day. In testing there’s obviously a bit more time to learn about the car and make changes, but today was a reminder of how fast paced everything is and how concise and accurate you have to be during the sessions. I’m satisfied with how we’ve worked today. We ran through a busy programme, and we’ve built up a good picture on car set-up in the conditions we expect to see for the rest of the weekend. I’d say Free Practice 2 was much more comfortable. The car felt good and there’s more to come from us this weekend. I’m excited for Qualifying tomorrow.