Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

I wish I could have had the whole team up there on the podium with me today This was definitely a victory for us all, everyone at the track, back at the factory in Brackley and at Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth. Today we really showed what this car and engine can do and to beat our closest competitors fair and square is a great feeling. I had a good start from the dirty side of the grid and it was really important to maintain second position into the first corner. I took my opportunity on the first lap when Sebastian went wide and from there we controlled the race. Once we knew that Sebastian was going for a three-stop strategy, we filled the car up at my first stop and I just tried to be as consistent as possible to keep him behind me. It’s not nice to see a car catching you so quickly, even when you know he is on low fuel, but once he pitted I was able to push harder. I had a smile on my face for pretty much every lap today, the car felt that good, and I was able to back off in the last stint to conserve the engine. This is the first time that the car has been absolutely perfect for me and it means so much to the team to see just how good this car is. To go to Silverstone for our home race leading the Championships is a wonderful feeling but we know that we have to keep pushing to maintain our advantage.

A good race. I knew I had to hang in there for as long as possible in the first stint. It worked out pretty well and I managed to go a lap longer and save fuel, which helped me gain some time. I knew Sebastian’s strategy and that I was in with a sniff of getting a podium finish. Both Sebastian and I knew that first place was gone and it was about who would finish behind Jenson – he was on another planet! The second stint was therefore crucial, I had to push really hard. When you’re on a different strategy, the other guy is almost invisible until after the pit stops, but it turned out well for us and my engineer kept me updated with what was happening. I did enough in the middle stint to be able to jump Sebastian at the pit stops. Then, at the end we turned the engine down and brought the car home.

The start worked out okay, I was ahead but then I nearly lost the car in Turn 9 and 10 on the first lap. It was my mistake, it was extremely difficult there and I nearly did the same on the second lap. It was quite tricky, but I think without that there wouldn’t have a big difference, as Jenson was too quick today. After that I thought the strategy might swap to a two-stop plan, but it didn’t. I got caught behind Jenson who was heavier in the second stint and that allowed Mark to get ahead. Nonetheless, a good result for the team and I think we can be satisfied with second and third.

I am pleased with the race result and also with the car. We have worked really hard to find more performance and it's great to be back in the fight for a podium. The team deserve a lot of credit for the improvement this weekend, including the engineers who have made a good step with our starts. My start was incredible and I made up two places into the first corner, however I struggled a lot on the first lap with locking brakes so I dropped back to fourth. After that I got into a good rhythm and I was fighting hard with Nico Rosberg. He got ahead at the first pit stops but I bounced back and overtook at the second stops. I was really competitive towards the end when there was a lot of rubber down and it was enjoyable to be fighting at the front. I started the weekend with a positive feeling and we quickly found the right set-up so I am extremely happy to be back to a competitive level.

I am happy with fifth place and happy for the team as well because this is a good result. I had a great start, which I have to thank my engineers for as it went exactly as I’d hoped it would, and by the end of the first lap I’d managed to make up four positions. From there, I pushed hard to get past Trulli, and I thought I could because my pace was good, but he had a quicker car today. I hope we can keep up this momentum and score points at every race. At the moment, I would say we can consistently be in the top eight.

A very difficult day for us. We have to accept the fact that sixth place was the best we could do, because we were not quick enough to fight against those in front of us. We must continue to push on the car development front to make up for what we lack in terms of performance, starting with the race at Silverstone. From Friday it was complicated to find a way to make the tyres work well: for example, today the softs seemed to go better than on previous days, but using them right from the start would have been a risk because the degradation, up to yesterday seemed to be pretty significant.

Es ist schön, endlich zu punkten. Ich denke, dass ich heute ein gutes Rennen gefahren bin. Mein Tempo war gut, und ich habe keine Fehler gemacht. Das Rennen war sehr hart, denn ich hatte nahezu die ganze Zeit jemanden hinter mir, der Druck gemacht hat. Der kleinste Fehler hätte eine Position gekostet. Dementsprechend war es hart, die Geschwindigkeit zu halten. Wie dem auch sei, Platz sieben ist ein klarer Schritt. Jetzt müssen wir unsere Entwicklungsgeschwindigkeit beibehalten.

It was not easy to score points from 13th on the grid. At the start I was a bit unlucky; I got a good launch but I got caught at the exit of turn one and another car pushed me to the outside. I lost some positions so maybe the result could have been even better. But in the end I am happy to score a point because the car was spot on, really quick with race fuel. It's tricky to make up positions in Formula 1 but our strategy was right, the pit stops were great and the set-up worked really well so thanks to the team for a good job. Our target before the race was to get into the points so I am pleased to achieve that and I expect even more at the next race.

It was definitely not the race we were expecting or the one we wanted. The first lap was decisive for me: I lost valuable places and then it wasn’t possible to get them back because today we weren’t quick enough. Over recent weeks, we have improved our performance a lot, but we are not yet at the level of the best, especially at tracks like this one. It is never easy to catch up, because in the meantime, the others are not exactly stopping their own development. We must not be negative about this after a weekend like this one, but we should continue to concentrate and to push: I am sure we can soon return to fighting for the top places. It won’t be easy but I have confidence in this team.

Of course I feel frustrated that we didn't manage to finish in the points, but to be honest we couldn't expect much more today. We started in eighth position and having the lightest car on the grid penalised us because after the first pit-stop we just couldn't keep up with the pace with the top contenders. We therefore need to improve quickly. Hopefully the changes expected for the Silverstone race will be significant enough to see us score some good points and change our situation for the second part of the season.

Für mich war das heutige Rennen enttäuschend, weil ich gleich zu Beginn alle Chancen auf ein gutes Ergebnis verloren habe, als ich ein Problem mit dem Auto hatte. Schon auf der Formationsrunde habe ich bemerkt, dass das Auto zu einer Seite zog, und der linke Vorderreifen absolut keinen Grip hatte. Das Rad stand still, sobald ich die Bremse leicht angetippt habe. Der Start an sich war okay, ich war danach Neunter, aber dann bin ich in den ersten Kurven fast nur geradeaus gerodelt, weil ich diese Probleme hatte. Da sind einige durchgeschlüpft. Im zweiten und im dritten Stint lief es besser, aber da war Hopfen und Malz längst verloren. Nichtsdestotrotz ist es erfreulich, dass unser Auto generell besser geworden ist und wir aus eigener Kraft in die Punkte fahren können.

I had a good start and a strong first lap. Everything was then going well until the second stop. What happened was a real shame as I think that was probably the best race of my career so far. Base-wise, we were competitive today, so thanks to the team for a good car and a solid strategy which allowed me to beat Raikkonen and Alonso on the track. We will just have to learn from the mistake in the pitstop and hope for a better result next time.

“It was quite an uneventful race but I actually enjoyed myself this afternoon,” Lewis said. “I was very heavy at the start but I just pushed and pushed. That’s why I can smile – because I think I drove to my full potential. “The most important thing is for us to keep our heads up and to keep pushing. I see my role from now on as helping the team to cure the problems with this year’s car and to make next year’s car the best it can possibly be. When the team gives me a car to win, I will win. “Now we look ahead to Silverstone – I really wish Jenson all the best: he did a fantastic job today. Personally, I hope I can come away from my home race with a great feeling from my home fans. I hope they won’t give up supporting me.”

“This was a character-building race for everybody in the team,” Heikki said afterwards. “At the start of the race, I really got the maximum out of the car and I’m pleased about that. I had a good fight with Rubens too – it was great to be racing hard and fair and it was very satisfying to keep a faster car at bay with some good old-fashioned racing tactics and also our KERS hybrid. “In the final stint, the engineers elected to turn down the revs to protect my engine. Still, we have to be realistic: we finished 14th and we all know we can do better. We’ve had some great days in the past and we’ll continue to push hard to enjoy some great days in the future.”

It was a tough but a good race for me, as I attacked as hard as I could. We have to stay positive and today, we looked a bit more competitive than over the rest of the weekend. For me, after the last two races, it was a good experience to finish the Grand Prix today and get more mileage. Now we need to do two things: analyse exactly what went wrong in qualifying and get some updates for the car as soon as possible. We will have to make the best of the next two races, after which we are hoping to have some major improvements for Hungary. We need to continue to work hard.

It was quite a straightforward race today, but my fate had been decided yesterday with the problems that I had in qualifying and so it was difficult to make the strategy work. The car was good and I had some fun battles, including the one with Hamilton when I passed him, but our final result is disappointing. However, I remain confident we can improve in time for Silverstone.

Perhaps we had hoped for more from 15th on the grid. I lost a couple of places at the start but was able to get them back quickly. The race pace was quite good though and I could have some exciting battles on track with a McLaren and a Brawn, which was great. It was not a real problem with Barrichello: he touched me once through a corner but I was just defending position. It was an interesting race, the car balance and the race pace were pretty good. Only the result was not as we would have liked, but it's been quite a positive weekend overall.

Starting at the back was always going to be difficult. After the start, Fisichella seemed to be in trouble and was all over the place, so I couldn’t take too many risks trying to get past and I lost between 3 and 4 seconds on the opening lap. Of course, I also had to deal with a very heavy fuel load and after that, I had a solitary race. Doing the long second stint on the Option tyre was also not easy. We opted for a one-stop strategy in the hope that circumstances or a Safety Car might help us move up the order. It’s been clear all weekend we were off the pace, but we have to stay positive and think about how to improve for Silverstone, when we can expect to have a few minor upgrades on the car.

I have had a few problems with the braking this weekend. We changed all the brake systems to see if it made any difference but it was actually worse today as the car was almost completely locked. I had a good start and in the beginning of the race I was quite competitive with the cars around me but then unfortunately the brake pedal was getting longer and longer and we decided to come back in to the pits. We tried to see if we could get back out again but in the end it was very risky and we had to retire. It's a shame as I enjoy this race but I've just had terrible luck at the track!

It was a difficult and immensely frustrating day for me today. We had a problem with the clutch at the start which caused the car to go into anti-stall so I wasn’t able to get off the line. That dropped me back into the pack and to complicate things further, I was hitting the limiter on the straights which meant that I couldn’t overtake and had to take risks. So it was an eventful first half of the race as I tried to compensate for the problems and I had a couple of incidents with other cars. I was prepared to fight my way up the field but the damage caused to the gearbox by the problems at the start began to get worse so the team had to retire my car. It’s difficult to have a day like this when you could see the pace of the car was fantastic but we will bounce back. Silverstone is one of my favourite circuits so I’ll stay positive and look ahead to the British Grand Prix in two weeks time.