Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich liebe Montreal! Es ist etwas ganz Besonderes, hier wieder gewonnen zu haben. Hier habe ich 2007 meinen ersten Sieg eingefahren. Das Team hat fantastisch gearbeitet. Vielen Dank an alle dafür. Ich würde nicht sagen, dass es eine Erleichterung ist, denn ich hatte bei den vergangenen beiden Rennen eine gute Pace. Ich bin einfach nur glücklich, dass ich für das Team und mich einen weiteren Sieg holen konnte. Nach den Stopps war es relativ eng. Ich denke, dass Nico weniger Benzin verbraucht hat, weil er in meinem Windschatten fuhr. Deshalb musste ich etwas sparen, während ich den Abstand kontrollierte. Es ging einfach nur darum, jede Runde die Zeiten zu treffen. Ich verbremste mich einige Male, aber zum Glück war es nicht so schlimm und verursachte keine Schwierigkeiten. Ich hatte es unter Kontrolle. Im Namen des gesamten Teams möchte ich diesen Sieg dem Vater meines Ingenieurs Bono widmen, der vergangene Woche verstorben ist. Hinter Bono liegt eine schwierige Zeit, aber er war das gesamte Wochenende über fantastisch. Dieser Sieg ist für ihn.

Das war ein hartes Rennen. Reifen, Bremsen, Benzin - alles war am Limit. Mein Problem war, die Bremsen hinter Lewis zu kühlen. Ich musste andere Linien fahren, um frische Luft zu bekommen. In den letzten zehn Runden zog ich die Pace an und begann, mit dem Einsatz meiner elektronischen Hybridpower anzugreifen. Diese hatte ich bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt aufgespart. Aber das Problem ist, dass die Ingenieure deines Teamkollegen immer wissen, was du tust. Sie können ihm sagen, dass er seine Pace ebenfalls anziehen soll. Deshalb machte er, was ich machte, und so gab es keine Chance für einen Überraschungsangriff. Das war wirklich sehr schade. Aber so ist es nun einmal. Ich habe es im Qualifying verloren. Deshalb muss ich dort bessere Arbeit abliefern und wie in Spanien ein perfektes Wochenende zusammenbekommen. Jetzt geht es weiter. Ich freue mich auf Österreich. Daran habe ich dank meines Sieges im vergangenen Jahr schöne Erinnerungen.

We really maximised everything today and I'm really happy for us as a team. We had an opportunity to get third and we took it. We had the chance to change the strategy in the middle of the race and go for one stop instead of two. We knew it could be a risk but the team knew what to do and we were right. There was not much threat from behind so we could take a bit of a risk, and I'm really proud that we did. We were racing hard today and we earned the podium. It’s great to be back in the top three and we know there are better grands prix to come because of the updates we are bringing so I can't wait for the next few races.

The result of today is not ideal, we expected more than what we got in the end. My start was pretty good but then I did not have enough speed to go through and try to pass the Mercedes at the first corner. The tires were working pretty much ok, but in this kind of circuit fuel saving plays a big part and this obviously limited our speed today. My spin is exactly the same story of last year, I had no problem in any of the sessions during the weekend, but for some reason today in both the outlaps something odd happened with the throttle, and I could not control it . It’s a very unfortunate thing. Then we tried to recover from that but we found ourselves on different tactics than the Williams. Overall we had a pretty good weekend, we definitely improved in certain areas but of course this is not the result that I was expecting this morning. We’ll keep on working and improving things

It was an entertaining race and I had a good recovery, but obviously there was not much more we could have done. In the opening laps I was not very happy with myself, I was very aggressive but I could not find the gaps, I wanted to go crazy but there was no room, so I had to be patient and it’s a shame because these are the moments when if you are lucky you can gain easlily five, six , seven or eight seconds in total race time. It did not happen so we had to fight back afterwards, but the pace was good, I felt happy in the car and especially toward the end the speed kept coming. I lost time at the first pit-stop and I am not sure it was totally on me, something went wrong at the back of the car, but the guys have done a super job so far and they shouldn’t be blamed if sometimes things go a bit slower. About the move on Hulkenberg, I noticed that I was already ahead of him on the outside, and I think he braked too late and could not make the corner. We did our best today and I am quite content with 5th, but it’s a bit of a shame because around here there is a very nice podium and without the penalty I think we could have had a shot at it.

After a challenging qualifying for me yesterday I’m happy with how the race has gone and I’ve picked up some good points. Starting P15 was always going to lead to a busy race and there was a lot of great overtaking and the car had good consistent pace. We managed to have a one-stop race and still keep the pace with the option tyre at the end which was fantastic. With the car I had today I could have been fighting for a podium, but all in all this has been a very positive weekend for the team and we should be very competitive in the next few races, especially with some upgrades planned for the car.

Finally, here we are in the points! I think now we’ve started scoring there’s potential for this to be a great season for us as we have really good pace. It was a good race. We had to pit quite early to gain the place against Nico Hulkenberg which made the later part of the race quite tricky and I couldn’t defend later on as a consequence. I’m pleased for the team that we got both cars in the points; let’s continue like this.

I am very happy to come away from here with four points – that's definitely some positive news. It was not the most eventful race and I was by myself most of the time, except for the battle with Sebastian [Vettel]. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have tried so hard to defend against Seb, but when you're a racer you just don't want to give up a position without a fight. He took the outside line, I was on the inside, braking on the dirt and the marbles. I could see it coming but he didn't leave me anywhere to go so to avoid contact I kept braking, lost the rear and spun. Fortunately I was able to get going and didn’t lose too much time. Overall it’s been a positive weekend: we keep finding good performance from our VJM08 and the team is pushing hard to find more speed. We’ve had a good run in the last few races, with Checo scoring in Monaco and my points today. It means we are making good progress and we're closing in on fifth in the championship, so the second half of the season should be very interesting.

It was a tough race because the Mercedes powered cars had a clear advantage over us, but we managed to keep two of them behind us todaywhich is the maximum we could have done. Two championship points is the best we could have achieved. The team did a good job but we obviously have to improve in many areas including the power unit.

It was good for the team to get both cars in the points. Unfortunately, that car didn’t feel as strong as it did in qualifying but I was able to push nevertheless. It can be difficult with traffic here and I was held up a few times even when there were blue flags. I thought I was past the Manor, but it was soon clear that I wasn’t. It was my fault entirely and I apologise for it. You never stop learning as a driver.

It was a tough race today and I just didn’t have enough pace to finish in the points. In the first stint I was suffering with a lot of understeer and couldn’t really attack the cars ahead of me. The main battle was against the Red Bulls and I managed to get ahead of Ricciardo, but it was hard to match the pace of Kvyat. Towards the end of the race I had to save the tyres, the brakes and fuel, so I just had to make sure I brought the car home.

I don't think we could've done much better today. We knew this was going to be the toughest race of the season so far and that it would have been difficult to fight for points. It was a decent race. I pushed as much as I could and at least we were able to complete some overtakes, but with all the fuel saving and lift-off we had to do, it was very difficult out there today. After a tough weekend, I don't think a P12 is that bad, but hopefully next time out we can finish in the top ten again.

It’s been a strange weekend for me and I am a little confused about today’s race. I was lacking pace and we are not sure why. There was nothing that felt especially wrong but we just couldn’t get any pace out of the car. I had a few set-up changes compared to Dany but that doesn’t explain the difference in pace. It is something we will look at to understand what the cause was.

Es war kein schlechtes Rennen für mich. Ich hatte schöne Zweikämpfe, musste aber meine Position durchwegs verteidigen. Generell hat sich das Auto gut angefühlt, allerdings waren unsere Rundenzeiten heute einfach nicht schnell genug. Wir konnten nicht um Punkte kämpfen, so wie wir es uns erhofft hatten. Nun müssen wir die Daten analysieren und verstehen, was wir besser machen können.

I had a good start and first few laps, where I was able to catch the guys in front of me even though I was on the harder tyre, so we can be happy with my first stint. But after my pit-stop, where of course I lost time due to the 10-second penalty, it became a bit of a lonely race. I caught up with Ericsson but I couldn't get past him on the straights, so I decided to stay behind him, not destroy my tyres and save the engine.

Es war ein schwieriges Rennen. Wir hatten einige Probleme, wodurch das Auto nicht einfach zu fahren war. Zu Beginn des Rennens habe ich zunächst an Motorleistung verloren. Zusätzlich haben die Bremsen überhitzt, was dazu führte, dass ich nicht am Limit fahren konnte. Es gibt viele Daten zu analysieren und zu verstehen.

After a good start I was having a really strong race, managing to get ahead of my team-mate despite a problem with the front left in the pit stop, which lost us quite a bit of time. After that my race was going pretty much according to our one-stop plan and then on lap 50 I was hit by Grosjean as he was passing me, which was a little surprising as I left him so much room. It was an unnecessary accident and one which required another pit stop for front wing damage. The wing was snapped clean in two. All that aside, it’s been a stronger weekend for us here. It’s a shame we had our first retirement with Roberto’s car, but that was a good long run compared to other teams and I’m sure we’ll have things sorted for Austria.

“Obviously, I’m a little bit sad to have suffered a third consecutive retirement. I lost power and I had to pit, and that was it. Definitely, we need to put some things in order – we know the situation for what it is but what we have to do now is work harder than ever because we want to change the situation more than ever. All the developments I know are coming for future races make sense, so I can see positive signs. I think we need to be patient now, and we need to continue to work incredibly hard. “It’s been a difficult weekend for both Jenson and me, with Saturday’s problems and now today’s DNFs. Hopefully, though, we’ve learned a lesson, and it’s better that all these problems are happening now, while we’re not yet competitive. If, one day, we’re fighting for a podium finish, or for a victory, and we have to retire the car, that will hurt even more than these retirements hurt; so, as I say, we’re learning important lessons every weekend, and gradually we’ll put things right.”

“It was obviously a very difficult day, made even more difficult for me since I’d started last with the addition of a drive-through penalty in the first three laps. I was then obviously out of sequence; the leaders lapped me, pitted and then lapped me again. “One of our biggest issues today was fuel saving. In addition, we lost a bit of tyre temperature as well. That said, our pace on the Prime tyre was pretty good. “I guess it’s easy for people to look at today’s result and say we’re having a bad season, but that’s not actually the case. We’ve made very big improvements since the first race, in fact. You do have difficult days, and today was undoubtedly one of those, but that’s always the way of it when you begin a new project and you’re starting from zero. So, yes, we’re still quite a long way behind the other teams in terms of power unit development, and even the design philosophy behind our car too; but if you don’t take a stab at it at the start of the season with a new project like this, you’re never going to be able to fight the top guys. “Today was quite painful, yes, but so far this season there’s been improvement at every race, with the exception of today. The layout of the circuit here was always going to be tough on us, but hopefully we’ll be back on track in Austria where we have some updates coming.”

It has been a very positive weekend for me and the team, so to retire from the race for the first time this season is disappointing. I had a nice battle with Will though and there is so much to take away from here in terms of steps forward, so we have to focus on the good things. I feel like I’m making good progress, so it’s all about what we can do to prepare for the next one and keep pushing to improve.