Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

What a crazy race! It was really exciting out there and I’m delighted that we came out on top today. I didn’t have the best of starts and was surprised at the lack of grip on my side of the grid. I went in deep at turn one and got a big snap of oversteer which dropped me to fourth but I was able to get past Alonso at the end of lap one and overtake Trulli and Rosberg at the first pit stops. I was happy with the car and our pace was good but the weather really threw the race wide open. Choosing the tyres was difficult but we made the right calls at the right time, particularly when it started raining so hard and so quickly. I have to say a massive thank you to my engineer Andrew Shovlin who was on the podium with me today and the whole team for their work on the strategy and in the pits. Last weekend we said that we had a fairytale start to the season and I am so proud that has continued here.

Ich bin natürlich sehr zufrieden mit Platz zwei, nachdem ich als Zehnter gestartet bin. Das war wirklich ein extremes und schwieriges Rennen. Ich hatte einen guten Start, aber eben auch ein schweres Auto, das war nicht ganz einfach. Als sich abzeichnete, dass es regnen würde, haben wir meinen Boxenstopp um sieben Runden vorgezogen und uns gleich für richtige Regenreifen entschieden. Aber die waren schnell hinüber, weil der erwartete starke Regen nicht kam. Das Team sagte mir immer wieder: ‚bleib draußen, der starke Regen kommt!’, aber die Reifen fühlten sich bald an wie Slicks. In dieser Phase wären Intermediates viel schneller gewesen, aber das konnte ja keiner wissen. Als es schließlich goss, war es die einzig richtige Entscheidung, das Rennen abzubrechen. Ich habe mich hinter dem Safety Car gedreht – Aquaplaning war nicht nur ein Problem mit den Reifen, mein Auto schwamm mit dem Boden auf. Ich freue mich für unser Team, dass wir von den ersten beiden Saisonrennen jetzt wenigstens ein anständiges Ergebnis mit nach Hause bringen.

It is fantastic to be back on the podium and I am really happy for the whole team. It was a really tricky race. I started third and was eighth at the end of the first lap. I struggled a bit behind the guys in front of me in dry conditions but I made the right call on the intermediate tyres; I said let's just take the risk and go for it. It was a long time before the rain really came down and I was not sure what everyone else was doing. They were struggling on the wets but I was really quick and I made up a lot of positions. When the rain came down I had to go to heavy wets because my tyres were destroyed. I was going well on them and it was unlucky that they declared the results based on the order at the penultimate lap because I could have had second. When the red flags came out I was second but I'm still happy with the result.

I am happy for the team. I feel a bit unlucky this weekend - I missed pole position by a tenth and it could have been an even better result for me. It was a good race and it was certainly eventful. I was pushing at the front and fighting with Rosberg for the lead. Actually I was struggling a bit with traction but it was very close. Then the rain came and the team chose to go with heavy wets, which was the more conventional strategy. I was the quickest car on the heavy wets but that was not enough because the tyres went after two laps. Timo was on the intermediates at that stage and that worked out better for him. I was a bit unlucky but strategy is always easier in hindsight and I don't want to blame anyone. It is a pity to just miss out on the podium but it is another very good result for the entire team

It was a great race today and I was really happy with how the car was performing in the dry in the first stint of the race. After a good start, I felt that I had the pace to catch up with the front-runners and score some good points. Unfortunately once the conditions started to deteriorate, we lost a little too much time on my side of the garage with the pit stops which cost me a few places. However the important thing is that the car is going great and we have proved that it is competitive at different types of track. Congratulations to Jenson and the team for maintaining our fantastic start to the season and I look forward to continuing the challenge in Shanghai.

The guys made the best call to stop the race when they did. It would have been nice to have had some more laps to give us a crack at getting on the podium – but that’s how it is, so I’ve got mixed emotions. It’s dark now (7pm), so it was the right call not to make a re-start. I’m not so sure you can blame the time of day for today’s conditions, as the weather was bad at 3pm too. It seems it was just one of those days. It’s been the mistiest and coolest day I’ve ever seen in Malaysia for race day.

All I could do was try and keep the car on the track. It was the correct decision to stop the race because it was just too dangerous for everyone. I love it when it rains, but this was just too much.

I took the lead off the start and it is a while since Williams have been out the front on pure performance and I have to thank the engineers for that. The car was going really well and I showed my ability to consistently push on each lap and open the gap to those behind me. And then the rain came and unfortunately the situation just didn’t go our way. But we got something out of the day and our car is right up there, so we will be looking to get the points we deserve next time out.

It was a chaotic race and it’s easy in these conditions to take decisions, which later in hindsight, turn out to be wrong. When we fitted the rain tyres, we expected heavy rain to come soon and unfortunately it was just a light shower. Therefore, I came back in to fit intermediates and immediately after that, the downpour arrived. It’s a shame, as I could have managed to get into the points. We definitely need to analyse our mistakes and understand how they can be avoided, but I don’t think it needs a revolution which the always emotional onlookers demand: it would be wrong because it’s not a case of us suddenly becoming stupid. It’s the playing field that has changed. We must be aware of that and tackle the situation with a different approach.

Round about lap 18, we were running low on fuel so we were hoping for rain before the end of the first stint. It didn't come quite in time and we gambled on extreme wets as heavy rain was expected, but instead it was more like drizzle, so we changed again to intermediates. Then the rain really came and I had to come in again for extremes and after that, the race was stopped. It was a shame, as it seemed we were pretty competitive in these very changeable conditions. I would have liked to restart, as it might have been an opportunity to pick up points, even if only half-points.

We made a good start from P9 to P3 and after that we had to defend our position because we were slow. This part of the race was interesting and it was difficult to decide what tyre to take when we made our stop because we didn’t know how heavy the rain would be. We stay optimistic for the next race in Shanghai and we remain determined to continue fighting for the championship.

I had wheelspin of the line and I dropped quite a few positions to the KERS cars around me, and I ended up behind Piquet and I struggled to get past. This affected my plan as I dropped quite a lot of time behind him and then of course the weather came along and it was impossible to make a totally correct decision with the changing conditions. It was the right thing ultimately to red flag the race and it was no surprise that we didn’t restart.

Just before the red flag it was impossible to drive; really difficult to hold the car. We tried to call the right decision at the right time and there is nothing more we could have done in these conditions. The balance of the car was good, but the grip on the track was quite low, although we had a good start to the race. We have learnt a lot again this weekend and I now need to get ready for the next race.

We were in a good position at the time of the first pit stop and then we made a mistake, fitting the rain tyres when the rain had yet to fall. And that was where my race was pretty much over. When the race was halted, the conditions were very difficult. There was so much water on the track and I was struggling to drive the car even in second gear. Clearly we cannot be happy with our start to the season: in Melbourne, I was the one to make a mistake and today it was the team, the result being we find ourselves without any points.

Not so much to tell. I was on the intermediate tyres and they were pretty gone as it wasn’t very wet before the sudden pour down. I was approaching Turn seven and there was suddenly lots of water, but I was being very cautious. I lost the car due to aquaplaning and there was nothing I could do. There was too much water and my tyres were not made for those conditions. A spin wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but the anti-stall didn’t work. Without that, I would just have spun, lost some time and that would have been it. In the past drivers had three pedals, a throttle, a brake and a clutch and when you were spinning you knew exactly what to do. It’s not in our hands anymore, so it’s a shame that we have to retire for this stupid reason.

"We were really going well and I think I was around P7 or 8 and the plan was to come in on the following lap, but then I went off at Turn 5. The extreme tyres were completely gone, like driving on slicks and I slowed down, but obviously not enough for the amount of water, so I spun, went into the gravel and stalled. We were competitive in terms of speed at some stages, running in the top six lap times, even though I was running last, having had to come in to change the nose. I think one of the Force India cars pushed me wide at the exit of the last corner and I ran over something that broke the front wing. I am disappointed as the spin at the end was my mistake and it is on days like this that we should have picked up some points.

When the rain started it was very difficult and just about impossible to drive. We were in second or first gear at 20kph and even then we were sliding around the circuit. It was unbelievable, so it was a good decision to stop the race. It was a bit of a shame that it couldn't be restarted as I think we would have had a good chance in the wet conditions. In the end though it was too dark to restart. Looking forward to Shanghai, I want to get another weekend with no problems: let's improve our pace and look for some downforce, and carry our momentum forward.

Unfortunately we made a wrong call to change to extreme wets very early on. We came in too early and I did three or four laps under dry conditions so we destroyed the tyre. Then it was raining and the grip was getting better and better but there was just so much water and the tyres were almost slicks so I could not control the car, it was just aquaplaning. It was not a good race for us, unfortunately we had a wrong strategy but we will see for the next race.

My start was okay. I was taking it quite carefully and was trying to slot in behind Lewis, then I just lost the rear and spun out. It was my mistake. Game over.

Als ich in die Formationsrunge ging, klang der Motor sehr seltsam und hatte kaum Leistung. Ich bin ins Rennen gestartet, so gut es unter diesen Umständen ging und fragte über Funk nach, was ich tun sollte. Das erübrigte sich dann, weil das Auto in der zweiten Runde Feuer fing und ich aufgeben musste.