Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

It was an incredible result for us and it was a very proud moment. This weekend was positive from FP1 and we have just been trying to improve the car further and keep tweaking it. The Team have been working really hard and made some big steps forward and I think this particular track layout suited our car even more. Tomorrow will be all about tyres, tyres, tyres and how we manage the degradation.

It’s been quite a long road to this point since we started the year. Everyone has been working so hard to get the car where it was today, so to really be able to put all this hard work into Pole is fantastic. This really means a lot to the Team and I hope everyone is very proud. We have been quite clear that we want to win a race this year, so we’ll try to do that tomorrow.

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone in the team. The conditions have been incredibly demanding all weekend, not just for the drivers but also for the mechanics and engineers, and they’ve done a fantastic job. We worked hard session after session to understand the car and find the right balance in these temperatures, and the adjustments we made ahead of qualifying definitely helped us take a step forward. We managed to put it all together when it mattered most. Tomorrow will be a very different challenge, with tyre management likely to play a big part, but it’s great to be starting on the front row. Now we just need to focus on executing a clean race, maximising every opportunity and seeing what we can achieve.

We were strong in FP3, so it was a shame that we dropped back in terms of competitiveness come qualifying. It is a unique circuit here with a very aggressive tarmac and in incredibly hot conditions; that makes it difficult to deliver the same performance consistently. We will go around the loop tonight to see what we could have done differently and to make sure we understand exactly where we went wrong.

I put myself under quite a lot of pressure with only one new set of Soft tyres in Q3 but I did what I could. If we had a second set, I think we could have fought for the front-row, but I don’t think we could have challenged Max (Verstappen) for pole. He has looked like the quickest car all weekend and so it proved today.

P3 is not a bad place to be starting from all things considered. The tyre degradation is likely to be very high and, in all probability, it will be a multi-stop race. That will hopefully open up opportunities for us if we have good race pace. There is still the possibility of rain too which could make things even more exciting so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

P4 is not a bad place to start from. At the same time, it wasn't a great qualifying, particularly in Q3. I tried my best, but from sector two onwards, I was sliding around with the rear, probably being a bit too aggressive with the setup. That’s the way it goes sometimes. Tyre management and strategy will both be key in the race. Let’s see what we can bring home for the team.

I'm pretty satisfied with my final lap; I feel I put it all together and did a good job with what we had. However, it's clear we are a long way off the pace. My car is struggling with speed on the straights, and we've lacked general pace all weekend, so starting fifth is not a surprise. We don't expect any miracles, and it’s obvious the Red Bulls are in a class of their own here.

Tomorrow will be a very different and challenging race for everyone. The tyre degradation is higher than we've seen all year, which will likely force a two- or three-stop strategy. This could create opportunities with safety cars and varying strategies. It’s going to be a tough, physical race where managing the car lap after lap will be crucial. While we're not where we want to be in terms of performance, the unpredictable nature of this race could be a good thing for us, and we'll be ready to seize any chances that come our way.

That’s Qualifying done. A P7 result, but starting P6 tomorrow due to a penalty ahead. Overall, it was a decent session, but we’re still struggling for pace. I just didn’t get the best final lap and had no grip at Turn Two, meaning we weren’t able to get the last bit of performance out of the car.  

Looking ahead, it is going to be a long and tough one tomorrow. Our long-run pace looked pretty good yesterday, but the competitors around us didn’t look bad either, so it may be tricky to move forward, but we will do what we can to maximise strategy and any overtaking potential here. Let’s see what’s possible.

We’ve struggled today and that is reflected by what was our toughest Saturday of the year. It is so hot here and the tarmac is very aggressive, with the low grip making lap times several seconds slower than when we last raced here in 2017. That may have impacted our performance comparatively to what we have seen at other circuits, but it is true to say that we have clearly suffered more than our closest competitors this weekend. We didn’t expect to struggle this much here in Malaysia, and we will work hard to understand why.

Whilst we are frustrated by our performance today, tomorrow will be a very different challenge. The race is likely to be dominated by high tyre degradation and keeping the tyres in good shape across a full stint will be the key to a good Grand Prix. Whilst we have ground to make up, we know it should be possible to overtake if you have the speed so we will be giving it our all to make up ground.

Mixed feelings for me today. Obviously, we can be very happy with P1 and P3 and the overall performance of the car, which is now so much better than where I left it before my injury. I feel I got stronger with every lap I drove since FP1, but we were very limited here with the number of laps we could get in each session. If I had managed to get a few more in, even P2 could have been possible today because my last lap was not perfect. Max, though, was simply untouchable in Qualifying. On the other hand, it is a shame that I have to take the penalty and start from P8. Otherwise, I would have had the chance to compare myself to two multiple World Champions right from the start at the front, and that would have been fun. Now I have to fight the Mercedes, the McLarens and Charles first, which will not be easy, and try to climb through the field. But anything is possible, so I am still aiming for the podium tomorrow.

The car has been competitive again today and we reached our target of being in Q3, so I am happy we achieved that. We knew P9 was probably the best we could realistically do, so we decided to use two used sets of Softs in Q3 and save a set of new Softs for tomorrow in case they are needed. With Gabriel [Bortoleto] in Q3, we just needed to be ahead of him, which we managed. I am pleased with the car at the moment, it's in a comfortable place, quick enough for Q3 regularly as we have seen at the last couple of races, and we just have to keep working hard as the gap to those ahead is still just too far. It's a very fun track to drive, fast and flowing and I am sure it will bring some big challenges tomorrow. We know the target tomorrow is to translate this performance into points, and I am sure we will see different strategies up and down the field so we will need to stay focused and ready to adapt to anything which might spring up in the race.

I’m very happy, I think it was a mega lap – overall, all the laps in qualifying were very good and I felt really at ease with the car.

After a tough weekend in Baku, I think this is a very strong response, and it shows the quality of the upgrades package we brought. The whole midfield has closed the gap now, so hats off to the team for the incredible job they’ve done, putting the car in the right window and giving us the confidence to push. If I was able to deliver this today, it’s thanks to them, and I really appreciate that.

There’s going to be a lot of degradation tomorrow, but that’s the same for everyone. Hopefully we can put together a good race, keep the tyres alive and go for the points.

After a comfortable FP3 this morning, it felt like quite a frustrating Qualifying. The car had been competitive so far this weekend, so we'll be reviewing where we lost so much pace. We struggled more with tyres during this session, so management tomorrow is going to be key with the high track temperatures. That being said, there's opportunity for overtaking here, so we'll take our learnings and focus on pulling everything together for the race.

It was our best Qualifying so far this season and we were about 1.5 seconds from the front in Q2 which is the closest we've been all year. The car is the same as previous races and it's clear we lack performance on the straights, but we do seem to be better suited to this track. Tyre management will be a big factor tomorrow, so let's try have some fun and see what we can do in the race.

It was a good qualifying today, doing some of the best laps I’ve done this season, given the limitations of our car. I was able to find a baseline that worked well, allowing me to be precise and consistent out there, and improving every lap. We’ve done a good job today although tomorrow will be tough given our lack of downforce, making it difficult to take care of the tyres. We’ll do our best to take any opportunities that come our way.

We made it through to Q2 and qualified in P14. That’s our most competitive result of this year so far. It clicked for me during the second push lap in Q1 and came together much better. I felt more comfortable in the car during Qualifying than in the practice sessions, although there were some mistakes in Q2 and I think we could’ve gotten slightly more out of it. But we will see what tomorrow brings. I didn’t do many long runs on Friday and it will be tricky conditions with the hot temperatures, the track surface and the tyre degradation.

It was a disappointing end to qualifying because the lap was coming together well until the lock-up in the final sector. The margins are so tight these days that you need to get every corner right, and unfortunately that cost us a significant amount of lap time.

Tomorrow will be a demanding race with high tyre degradation, and the weather could add another element. Starting further back is never ideal, but there are plenty of variables here, so we'll give it our best shot and try to make our way forward.

It’s been a really tough weekend so far. On my second run, I locked my front left, the outside front, into Turn 1, which was super unusual and weird and normally tells you something’s up with the brakes, so we need to look into that. I went into my final run with a lack of confidence, and left some time on the table, definitely. On top of that, to be honest, we’ve been slow all weekend, on my side. Going into FP3 with only two push laps, you don’t have enough time to fix mistakes, so I went into qualifying guessing what to do with the car and my driving. I don’t think we’re better than P15, but I definitely think if I had a clean weekend, I would’ve gotten into Q2.

It’s slightly disappointing. I’m not saying we would’ve blasted through to Q2, but I think we performed better in the other sessions when we were on track with everyone at the same time, pushing to do the laps right there. It’s a shame that we couldn’t repeat that. The car was working well, the team did a good job the whole weekend, and I’m happy with the job we’ve done. We just need to get more in the race tomorrow, it’s going to be a long one with a lot of strategies. We’ll try to use all the opportunities that come our way.

That was a tough qualifying and not the result we wanted. We made some changes to the car for the session and they didn't give us the performance we were hoping for, so we'll look at the data tonight and work out what we can take from it. We knew this was going to be a challenging track, and tomorrow is a learning day for us. We'll look at strategy and see what options we have. With the way tyre degradation is likely to play out, hopefully it's an eventful race, and we'll be able to make the most of whatever comes our way

It's been a smooth weekend for us so far. Obviously if you look at the result, we're at the back which is not great, but it feels like we've been able to maximize everything this weekend. It's been smooth sailing and we’ve not faced any issues so far, so we’re clearly making progress with each weekend that comes. Yesterday in the long runs we were pretty much on par with the Williams, so hopefully that's the case tomorrow and we can have a bit of a race with them.

I’m looking forward to the challenge, although we knew coming here that this would be a difficult circuit for us and that we would struggle for pace.

That’s also why we felt it was better to save the new engine for another race where we can potentially benefit more from it. The focus now is on tomorrow. It will be a demanding race, particularly managing the tires and limiting the sliding while maintaining good pace. Degradation looked quite low today, but conditions will be different tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how the race develops.

It's been an unconventional Qualifying day and weekend for us, knowing the grid penalties we'll have applied tomorrow. We did not really have a proper go at it, but we knew that would be the case and the focus has been on high fuel running and getting the most from the car and the tyres during the race. Free Practice 3 was really the first time we ran with low fuel and the car has felt strong in all conditions, which is positive and again shows we've made progress with recent upgrades we've brought to the car. We've saved some new tyres for tomorrow's Grand Prix, giving us some more flexibility and strategy options, which we hope to benefit from. Hopefully the work we've put in on set-up can help with that and hopefully we can have some fun during the race and make some moves. Overall, it was a well-managed Qualifying by the team with Pierre also in Q3, so hopefully we can score some strong points for the team.

I’m reasonably happy with today’s Qualifying. We can see the pace is definitely there, which is a positive. Starting from the back in tomorrow’s race is going to be exciting, there are likely to be plenty of surprises and opportunities, which I’m looking forward to. Most of my running this weekend has been focused on the long runs, so I feel pretty well prepared. There’s likely to be a mixture of two- and three-stop strategies, which should make for an interesting race.