Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

I'm really happy with that. It doesn't matter who it's against - you always try to beat everyone. But it's great to have a fight with Ferrari as well as Nico. Mercedes has been the best team on the grid for the last year or so but Ferrari are pushing us really hard now. It definitely wasn't an easy win. It was close when I came out of the pits after the first stop and the battle behind me was intense. I had a bit of a slow stop which reduced my gap and when I was braking into T1 I saw them right there in my mirrors! From there I felt like I had it pretty much under control. I had to back off at the end with the traffic and the brakes but luckily for me the effect wasn't as great as for Nico. I have to say a big thanks to everyone back at the factories and here at the track. The car was really nice to drive this weekend and they've done a great job. They won't be 100 percent happy I'm sure as Kimi took points from us today. But it's still a good haul of points and I know we'll work even harder to do better at the next race. That's what motorsport is all about and that's why we go racing - to fight with other teams.

After a difficult year last year and a beginning of the season that was a bit unlucky, it’s great to be back on the podium. I have mixed emotions, it’s a great feeling to be back, but we want to be on the top. The start was really good , I managed to pass Nico, but then I lost the position and there I lost a bit of time. The strategy was perfect, we did the right calls and the right tyre choice , I was happy with the car , we kept up a good speed through the whole race. In the last laps I was getting closer and closer and could see Hamilton, but the race was at its end, we would have needed more laps to try to do something. I think we are still a little bit behind the Mercedes but in some circuits and some conditions we ca be very competitive, especially in the race. Today we did our best , we have to be happy with the result , we did the maximum and took some good points for the team. We keep improving step by step, we just have to keep working doing the same things in the same direction,and I’m sure we’ll get there.

I felt very good in the car today and had a really exciting race. I was able to recover from my poor start with some overtaking manoeuvers on the red cars and I also tried to catch Lewis. But he also had good speed today so it was impossible to get by him. At the end it was very disappointing that Kimi got me, but I had no chance to defend my position with a brake-by-wire problem in the last two laps. I just went straight on at Turn One and that allowed him past, which was a shame. Anyway, we will investigate this now and with Lewis' win we still got a strong result for the team once again, so I look forward to the next races with this great car.

I am pleased with the race and happy with fourth position. It was a real shame for the team that Felipe had an issue at the start. It was a lonely race but the final 20 laps were very tough. Sebastian was quicker than me, and closed up behind very fast, but the fight was really good fun. I know a few tricks that can really help to defend and they all worked today, and I am delighted to come out on top today.

It didn’t seem to be the perfect day for me. I couldn’t get into the rhythm and lost positions when it mattered not to lose them for the final result. In general, I struggled a bit with the rear end and exiting the corners, which made me vulnerable to Nico’s attacks and prevented me from getting as close as I needed to Valtteri to chase him down the straight with DRS. Towards the end, I was struggling to get past in the fight against the Williams. When it was important to be quick, I always seemed to get stuck in traffic, and thus damaged my tyres. Overall, though, I think it has been another very positive weekend. It’s s shame I damaged the front wing in the race and I had to come in for a new nose, otherwise I think fourth place would have been secured, or even third. Anyway, that’s how it went. I was trying to push, and when you’re following another car you obviously lose a lot of downforce. With hindsight, it was probably more than I expected. I think I tried a bit too hard and ran wide. On the other hand, I am very happy for Kimi. I’ts good that he was able to pass Nico (Rosberg) towards the end. For the team, it’s obviously a great result. It’s a long way to go for the season and up to this point we can be very, very happy. It’s still a big surprise how good we are but there’s still a bit of a gap.

I think the race went as well as it could and I drove well to finish sixth. The chassis is working better and through the corners we are more or less there; we’ll move onto Europe and see if we can get further up the grid and keep improving. The weekend went pretty smooth for me until the end of the race, I don’t know what happened, but the team will have a look at it.

I pushed as hard as possible at the start on the medium tyres whilst everyone around me was on the grippier soft compound rubber,” he said. “Once I moved to the soft tyres I was able to set the race’s then fastest lap so things looked good with our strategy.

Eighth place feels very good and I’m very satisfied. It was a great opportunity to score points today and this is a nice reward for the whole team. Before the race we were not sure a two-stop strategy was possible for us – we thought the tyre degradation would be too high, but the team did an amazing job to make it happen. My engineers were giving me good information over the radio and after the first stint we knew that stopping twice was our best chance of scoring points. I think this was one of my best races in terms of managing the pace and the tyres. There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend and once again we showed that this team has a lot of heart and that we never give up.

I enjoyed the race today, it put a smile on my face. We had a good recovery to finish in the points. We gathered a lot of data to analyse and see what improvements can be made so we can move forward. As a team we want to improve and we’re all working hard to get there – I can feel good vibes are coming.

It was a frustrating day for me to have to start from the pitlane. The car struggled to fire-up and once under way I had a lot of positions to make up. A few laps in at Turn Four, Maldonado ran into the back of me and damaged something. From then on I really struggled with the rear and the car was very hard to drive. It was a difficult day but one point is better than nothing.

“We weren’t quite fast enough to get into the top 10, but we finished the race and got a bit more valuable experience with the car, which had been our main objective. “Everything worked fine on my side of the garage, but unfortunately Jenson couldn’t start the race. We need to look at many things before the Spanish Grand Prix, and we have three weeks in which to increase our performance and improve our reliability. There’s a lot of work ahead, but we’re optimistic. “It’s clear that we’re all committed to this project and to doing all we can to bring about our eventual comeback. The whole team is united and everyone is hugely motivated by the challenge ahead. Hopefully, we can build on what we’ve achieved so far, and see further improvements over the next few races.”

Mein Start war nicht wie erhofft, denn bereits in Kurve eins ging mir der Platz aus, woraufhin ich einige Positionen verlor. Im Anschluss blieb ich im Verkehr stecken, was meine Rundenzeiten während des gesamten ersten Stints beeinträchtigt hat. Zusätzlich musste ich für ein paar Runden einen Leistungsverlust hinnehmen, was dazu führte, dass ich den Anschluss nach vorne verlor. Allerdings war es vielversprechend, dass ich auf den Medium-Reifen starke Rundenzeiten fahren konnte. Ich denke, dass wir ohne Probleme hätten in die Punkte fahren können.

It was a disappointing result for me tonight: we didn't seem to be able to find the same level of grip we had in qualifying and that made it really hard in the car. We were in a few battles, but we just couldn't get the right edge, which is a shame. We seemed to be struggling to preserve the tyres compared to the cars around us and this cost us positions. We will need to investigate what caused us to suffer so much in the race, and hopefully it will at least give us an answer to avoid a similar situation in future races.

Ich hatte einen sehr guten Start in das Rennen. Während der ersten Runde konnte ich vier Plätze gutmachen und lag auf der neunten Position. Die Rundenzeiten der ersten beiden Stints waren durchaus gut, und wir waren in der Lage, mit unseren direkten Konkurrenten mitzuhalten. Es lief alles nach Plan. Dann hatte die Crew während des zweiten Boxenstopps Schwierigkeiten, das linke Vorderrad zu montieren. Ursache dafür war ein mechanisches Problem. Das ist natürlich sehr enttäuschend, aber manchmal passieren solche Dinge im Motorsport. Wir gewinnen und verlieren gemeinsam. Danach war unser Rennen natürlich sehr beeinträchtigt. Nichtsdestotrotz habe ich weiterhin versucht, mein Bestes zu geben und konnte bis zum Ende des Rennens gute Rundenzeiten fahren. Alles in allem zeigten wir eine vielversprechende Performance, und das ist ausschlaggebend für das nächste Rennen in Barcelona.

That was a frustrating race for me. Unfortunately the engine anti-kill triggered when I came in to make my final pit stop which cost me a lot of time. It’s frustrating as we should have finished strongly. My focus is now Barcelona where I’ve delivered very strongly in the past.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my race. It didn't get off to the best start because of Maldonado being out of grid position, so that meant Roberto got away ahead of me. We had a good duel for me to get that back but by the time I was able to get by 8 laps in, I'd lost a lot of time. The positive thing is that when I was back with the pack, the pace is good and it's pretty impressive that we're bringing both cars home when you can see from other teams that it's no mean feat. Massive congratulations to the team for an incredible job in this first part of the season. Obviously the job gets harder still as we head to Europe, but everyone is very motivated by our achievements so far.

It was good to bring both cars home again and to see that as a team we continue to make good progress. I was a little disappointed with my race as it started out well with a good battle with my teammate Will. After pushing so hard in the early part of the opening stint, when he did get by I had used the tyre, so I started to lose time to him and I wasn't able to make that back. Overall, we have learned such a lot from the first phase of the season and now that we have some time to reflect on that, I think we will be even better equipped for the start of the European races. My thanks and congratulations to the team for all that we have achieved together so far.

Quite a disappointing day today for all of us, especially after such a good qualifying yesterday. I don't know what happened to my car today, I just know that I felt something weird with its behaviour and I was forced to stop. I can't hide the fact that I'm upset because we had a very good starting grid position but we suffered from a lack of pace today. We'll do our best to be in good shape for the start of the European season in Barcelona, a race which will be very special for me as I will be racing at home.

“Obviously, that was a disappointing day to end a disappointing weekend. “However, although I was unable to get the running I required, and was also unable to make the start of today’s race at all, it’s clear that our car is improving, and that’s good news for all of us. “That’s a result of a lot of hard work. In particular, I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to the boys in the garage, who worked unbelievably hard all weekend for so little reward. Their commitment and team spirit are massively impressive, and I know we’ll get the rewards they deserve in the end.”

It hasn't been a positive day. It was a tough race. We still don't know the exact reason for the retirement, but it looks like an electrical issue made us end our race before time. Obviously this is not the way we would like to finish our weekend but we have to stay positive. I'm disappointed, but we will carry on working as hard as always in order to come back stronger in Barcelona and fight for points again. That's where we belong!