Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

I did not expect to take pole position today. After FP3, it seemed as though we were on the back foot but once we put it all together in Q3, it went well.
I'm already focusing on the race though, because we want to convert this pole into a win. Our pace has been good so far here this weekend, so let's see what we can do tomorrow.

t was quite a strange qualifying session today, but a mega result for the team! It hasn’t been the cleanest of weekends for us but in Q3 we managed to put everything together and consolidate a front row lockout for the race. Traffic nearly put me out in Q2, but the lap in Q3 felt good and this is a fantastic boost for everyone in the team, especially during this long triple-header.
We need to stay focused, as tomorrow won’t be an easy race. Temperatures and tyre management will be key for us. However, we are in the best possible position to try to keep everybody behind. Let’s race!

I tried to do the best I could but it just didn’t come together today. There’s very low grip around this circuit because of the altitude, so it’s not as easy to push as hard as I usually would in qualifying. I didn’t have the perfect balance in Q3 and that cost us a few tenths here and there. Nevertheless, we were still close to the Ferraris and it’s a long race tomorrow. I am feeling confident, I of course would’ve liked to start first tomorrow but we’ll have a good slipstream into turn one so let’s see what we can do.

I’m very pleased. P4 is a little higher than we expected within the top 10, but the pace has been there from the start of the weekend. After Austin, knowing we had a normal weekend in Mexico to try things with our setup, we started with a slightly different car and definitely more toward what I was after. I was happy to hit the ground running yesterday. The confidence in the car was there, and we were always a solid P10 car, with some purple sectors sometimes. Before qualifying, it wasn’t about whether we could make it into Q3 but how far up the grid we could qualify. Yuki was great and gave me a slipstream in Q1 and 2, so that definitely gave us the extra tenth or two to get in, and then Q3 was just our pace. From that point of view, we had the pace to do it. The lap I was visualising in my head was maybe P7, or P6 at best, but P4 is wild. As a team, we have to enjoy it because it’s a big moment. It’s not often that we get this far into the top 10, so there’s a part of me that will be enjoying it for the next hour. Points are awarded tomorrow though, and I believe we have a chance to score a lot. Half the job is done but it’s a long run to Turn 1, so I’ll keep calm, pick a good line, and race hard.

I don’t know where the Ferraris came from, we were not expecting them to be that fast. Overall, it got a clean lap and it felt ok but I just lacked some progression through qualifying, which I didn’t get fully and that really hurt us. Not having a new set in Q3 wasn’t ideal, that probably proved quite costly with the evolution and being on a used tyre. We wanted to be on the first two rows but we are still P5 and a lot of things can happen tomorrow, I need to overtake four cars and anything can be done in this sport. It’s a long race and it’s a long way into turn one, we know overtaking here can be really difficult, but anything can happen and I know I have the support of this crowd behind me.

I've been struggling all weekend with the car and it has been a bit of a nightmare to drive. We've had to try and put the performance together piece by piece, and we made good changes going into qualifying so that I was much happier with the car. Q1 and Q2 weren't looking too bad - especially the second run in Q2. But the car is just really peaky - sometimes it's in the window, sometimes not. And I couldn't squeeze anything more out of it on that final lap. The race is definitely going to be a challenge: we will be overheating the tyres and the brakes, so it won't be easy to battle the cars around us. I don't really know what kind of race to expect but it's going to be on a knife edge.

Seventh on the grid. The pace looked good early on, we had a decent Q1, a decent Q2, we just struggled in Q3 with grip for some reason. We’ll have a look and see what we can do tomorrow. We’re still in contention for strong points, and this circuit always throws up opportunities.

It was a bit of a shame to end up P8 because we showed signs of strong pace at points, but we didn't deliver when it counted. We lacked consistency today - some runs we were strong, others not, so it was a confusing picture. On the final run, we had one set of new tyres and tried something different on the out lap, and it didn't work and the tyres weren't in the window. As for tomorrow, it will be hard from P8 - the brakes will need managing and PU temperatures are always a challenge, too. We came here expecting to be competitive and I hope we can make progress in the race, but it won't be easy.

It’s great to have both cars in Q3, especially considering where we were just a week ago. I am really proud of the team for the work done: everything ran smoothly today. The track definitely suits our car quite well, so it’s been good fun out there: I think I got the most out of our car today, despite a lock-up in the last sector on my final lap. Looking ahead to tomorrow, with the pace we’ve shown so far, as well as what we have learnt in practice, I reckon we have a concrete chance to bring home some good points, so I am looking forward to getting in the mix.

I am happy with the step we have made today, after a challenging Friday. I felt we had a stronger car in race pace than on the single lap, so to be in Q3, on the same level as Valtteri who had been confident with the car from the beginning, is a very good result. The margins have been tiny all weekend, and we knew track limits would be an issue on this track: we waited in the car at the end of Q2, and indeed we got promoted into Q3. In the final segment, I squeezed everything out of the car – I don’t think I left anything on the table. We kept improving with each session, feeling more comfortable with each lap. Now, with two cars in the top ten, we have a good chance to score points: we will still need a strong race tomorrow, but we’ve put ourselves in a good position to do so.

I’m satisfied with eleventh place today as that is slightly above the expectations we set heading into Qualifying. We know this track layout does not seem to suit the strengths of our car so it was important to maximise everything we had in our hands today. We knew it would be a challenging afternoon in Qualifying where even making it out of Q1 would be extremely close. We made good improvements between Practice and Qualifying and we have to continue looking into the reasons as to why we have found it so hard at this track. We will go with the flow tomorrow, see what we can do on strategy, and give it our all in the race. We are in a decent starting position to contend for points and that remains our objective on race day.

You’re always hoping for more. With the weekend that we’ve had, it’s been a real struggle and we’ve played a lot with the set-up, but I’m happy with the changes made going into qualifying again. It felt good, positive, and to be honest, if you told me P12 before the session, I would’ve definitely taken that. It’s tough, we’re not quick enough on merit so we’ll need outside circumstances to help us get a result, but we’ll hang in there and hopefully get something from it.

It was a very tricky Qualifying session today and we’ve not been performing at our best so far this weekend.  We’ve tried a few different things with the set-up, but we seem to be losing pace everywhere over the lap. The race will be tough for everyone with the high temperatures and usually there is a lot of traffic around this circuit. However, we remain hopeful of scoring points tomorrow. After all, we were running in the top 10 in Austin despite having started from the pitlane. It’s a long race tomorrow and we will keep pushing.

I don’t think it was track limits, however I might be wrong. Based on the external view of the shot, it looked to me that my rear tyres were still on the white line, however it is what it is. It’s really frustrating but what’s more frustrating is the lack of pace in Qualifying; I was four of five tenths slower than I was in FP3, losing a lot of grip, so I almost had to do tyre management to keep the tyres alive into sector 3. It was the same from FP1 to FP2 and now FP3 to Quali, so we really need to look into it. We’ll look to tomorrow and see what we can do.

It’s been a tough Saturday and an unfortunate day for us. After a positive Friday, and with the target of reaching Q3, it’s certainly a tough one to take to exit in Q1. We tried to be aggressive in Q1 on two sets of tyres and, in the end, it did not pay off with some traffic and incidents on my second push lap. It’s certainly frustrating as we were not able to show our true potential and I know there was more on the table today, especially given the close margins throughout the field. Points are scored on Sundays and I remain optimistic for tomorrow’s race. I have had some good starts this year and another one tomorrow will be important. We have to put ourselves in a position to take any opportunities and scoring points remains my goal.

It’s so incredibly tight out there, basically one second between the whole field pretty much, and we’re at the trailing end of that. For us, this track is probably more difficult because of the thin air and ambient pressure not helping us in terms of cooling, so it’s pretty much what we expected. I’ve had about five laps before qualifying all in all here, so I can’t say too much about the long run, I haven’t had one. It’s been a tough weekend not doing FP1 and having an issue in FP3 as well, I haven’t really had the best of preparations.

Today’s result is obviously not what we wanted. An issue with the car on the first run meant we didn’t set the banker lap we needed. I made a mistake on my second run, and didn’t get a chance to complete my third lap due to the yellow flag, but that’s the way it is sometimes. It’s frustrating as the car was good and the speed was there. I’ll bounce back tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this afternoon went wrong for us. Going for that last lap everyone wanted to stop in the pit lane for about a minute and lose loads of tyre temp and then there was impeding on the lap and yellow flags. I never really had a fair chance to set a lap. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. We should’ve got into Q2 with a clean run. In hindsight, we needed to go early and get ahead of all that mess. It’s frustrating as we have a quick car this weekend but didn’t put a time on the board. The race pace wasn’t too bad yesterday, so we’ll try and move forward tomorrow.

Firstly, a great job to the team and Daniel. We knew I was taking an engine penalty, so we just wanted to maximise the opportunity for my teammate. Obviously, I’m frustrated because there was definitely the potential to have both cars in Q3, but I’m happy with how I did and that I was able to help my team and teammate. We focused mainly on race pace during Free Practice, so I’m confident the car will be strong tomorrow. I’ll do my best again and try to overtake as much as possible. Our car’s characteristics seem to suit this track, so we’re aiming to have both cars finish in the points.

It’s been a tough weekend extracting performance from the car. We were struggling with pace throughout Qualifying and didn’t have the grip to push. I got caught in traffic through the final sector on my fastest lap too, so I lost a few tenths there. We’ve got a big job to do from P18 on the grid, but we’ll get our heads down tonight and see what’s possible tomorrow.