Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich bin richtig glücklich über diesen Sieg. Das Auto hatte eine großartige Pace und die Balance fühlte sich fantastisch an. Wenn das überhaupt geht, wurde sie im Rennverlauf sogar noch besser. Ich fühlte mich nie unter Druck. Nach den Stopps ließ ich es auf den Out-Laps etwas ruhiger angehen. So konnte Nico aufschließen. Aber ich hatte immer einen beruhigenden Vorsprung. Ein riesiges Dankeschön an jeden hier und in der Fabrik für all die harte Arbeit. Das Auto war das gesamte Wochenende über grandios und die Mannschaft hat super Arbeit abgeliefert. Das Wetter war hier ebenfalls großartig - dann macht diese Strecke noch mehr Spaß. Und was für Zuschauer! Sie waren richtig laut und ich habe viele britische Flaggen gesehen. Das weiß ich wirklich zu schätzen. Vielen Dank für die Unterstützung. Hoffentlich sehen wir uns in Monza wieder!

Leider habe ich den Start verpatzt. Vielleicht hatte die zusätzliche Einführungsrunde einen Einfluss darauf. Wir müssen erst herausfinden, was genau passiert ist. Aber in jedem Fall muss ich das in Monza verbessern. Danach musste ich aufholen, was bis zu einem gewissen Punkt gut funktionierte. Ich lag wieder auf Platz zwei und konnte den Abstand zu Lewis ein wenig verringern. Aber ich kam nicht nah genug an ihn heran, um zu überholen. Er hat den Sieg heute verdient und es ist wieder ein großartiges Ergebnis für das Team. Das Auto, das sie uns gegeben haben, war hier unglaublich. Vielen Dank dafür. Hoffentlich haben wir bei den nächsten Rennen das gleiche Performance-Niveau. Ich werde jedenfalls wie immer alles geben.

Today’s result is wonderful. It’s good for the team and for myself of course. Yesterday’s good qualifying result put a smile on my face but today was an unbelievable race. Everything came together when it mattered during those 43 laps. I drove with my heart today and pushed 100 % throughout the race. I did some great overtaking manoeuvers and was really pushing to catch up and hopefully overtake Sebastian Vettel – of course it was bad luck for him to have had the tyre issue at the end. We were really trying to go for the podium this afternoon and I felt very emotional during the last lap of the race! It’s a great feeling today.

It was a very interesting race and really good fun today. I had a lot of overtaking opportunities and the car performed well. The strategy from the team to keep me out during the virtual safety car was good and we were able to have a strong last stint. The team did a good job and we scored some solid points. We should be happy with the performance today and hopefully we can continue this form over the next few races.

Fifth place and ten points is a good result, but we just lacked the pace to really fight for the podium today. My start was very strong and I was close to taking the lead on lap one when I was alongside Lewis [Hamilton] after Eau Rouge. I settled into a good rhythm, but we had very high degradation on the soft tyres in the first two stints. It was a bit better on the medium, although we struggled in the middle sector with our low downforce set-up and that hurt my pace. We were racing some quick cars and it was hard to fight off Grosjean and Kvyat, so it’s clear we need to analyse our performance and see where we can improve. I’m already looking forward to the next race in Monza, which is another track where I think we can be competitive.

It was a frustrating day for me. I struggled at the start and then the soft tyre in the first stint didn't operate as well as it should have done so I lost a few positions. At this point we were fighting from behind but the medium worked well. I couldn't overtake the Force India of Perez at the end as their straightline pace was good. It has been a difficult day but to still finish sixth is the main positive we will take away from the weekend.

Obviously we cannot be very happy with where we finished, but it’s much better than from where we started. Yesterday we had some issues but today we wanted to get a better end result. My start was pretty bad, I had a lot of wheelspin and then obviously the first corner was not ideal, but I was able to recover quite well. My car was handling pretty well through all the race, only towards the end I ran out of the front tyres. Today we kept doing our best and tried to improve our position, but coming from so far back it was not easy. We keep trying and hopefully we have some more luck on our side in the future, we are doing the right things as a team but all the times something happens and we cannot get the result we expect. Now we go to Monza, our home race: it would be very nice to have a strong weekend there in front of all our fans. Again the track has a lot of straightlines and is not going to be easy against all those cars but we’ll bring some new stuff that hopefully will help us to be in fight.

What an entertaining race, it was a great achievement to start from so far back and finish eighth in the end! My pace was very strong and I enjoyed the overtaking, so we can be very happy about today's race. The car felt great and we were able to keep up with Ferrari and Williams. I really enjoyed it and even if some of the overtakes were a bit risky, when you start from so far back you have to go for it if you want to move forward. It wasn't an easy start to the weekend, but we managed to do a great job in the end and I would like to thank the team for the big effort and my home crowd for the support, we can all be really happy with today's P8!

We haven't got the result we were after today. The pitstop and the race pace are two areas that we need to investigate. We thought we would be stronger during the race but the soft tyre in the first stint didn't work as well and put us in a difficult position. We have to make sure we bounce back well in Monza.

Ich schaffte einen guten Start, dadurch konnte ich in Kurve 5 an Daniil (Kvyat) vorbeikommen. Danach mussten wir feststellen, dass sich einige Trümmerstücke eines anderen Autos in meinem Unterboden verfangen hatten und ich dadurch im ersten Teil an Abtrieb einbüsste. Daher konnte ich das Tempo meiner unmittelbaren Konkurrenten nicht mehr mithalten, was etwas frustrierend war. Beim ersten Reifenstopp entfernten wir die Trümmerteile, und ich konnte wieder etwas Boden gutmachen. Dennoch waren unsere Rundenzeiten nicht so konkurrenzfähig, wie wir das erwartet hatten. Am Schluss hatten wir Glück und konnten einen Punkt holen – so kam ich erneut unter die Top-Ten.

Es war ein schwieriges Rennen für mich. Beim Start hatte ich mit durchdrehenden Rädern zu kämpfen, wodurch ich einige Plätze verlor. Mein gesamtes Rennen wurde aufgrund von Bremsschwierigkeiten beeinträchtigt. Zusätzlich verlor mein linker Vorderreifen während des letzten Renndrittels an Luft. Ich hatte in diesem Rennen ein paar Schwierigkeiten, doch ich bin zuversichtlich, dass es beim nächsten Rennwochenende in Monza wieder besser klappen wird.

We deserved to finish on the podium but that’s racing; a different thing thought is not to finish the race because of what happened. I think this is not easy to accept for a driver, even if it’s not as bad as in Silverstone few years ago, but still we need to talk to each other as it can’t happen without prior notice. There’s no explanation for what happened: it’s not a puncture, the tire just exploded.

“That was a tough race and a painful weekend: we simply weren’t competitive today. “My only fun came at the start – to start 20th and be 14th at the end of the first lap was a good feeling. After that, our overall pace wasn’t good enough, but at least we got both cars to the finish, so hopefully we can learn a bit for the next race. “That’s just the way things are at the moment. Monza will also be difficult, but I’m sure we’ll have some better races after that.”

“From the early laps, I had a problem with the deployment from the ERS pack. I’d get deployment from it in different places now and again, but it was never really deploying and recovering as it should. It would cut immediately after Raidillon, for example, and then I’d have to rely on the ICE alone. “That’s a lot of power to lose, and it meant I was driving the Kemmel Straight and the straight up to Blanchimont without any deployment at all. You can’t really do much in that situation.”

It was a good race for me. I got ahead of my team-mate on the first lap and things stayed that way until the finish. It was a bit of a lonely race for me to be honest, and mainly about managing my tyres so that I could push when I needed to. I think the strategy worked out well to limit the blue flags, and this enabled us to maintain reasonable pace. It’s always a real pleasure to drive here at Spa; you never get tired of experiencing Eau Rouge. And of course we start the second half of the season with another two-car finish, so a good solid weekend.

My start was really good. I managed to get in front of Nasr in the first corner and then I came out and I was sandwiched in the middle of two cars, and with no room. I was hit and that compromised me quite a bit. I lost position and although the pace was really good, I wasn’t able to regain the place. So, a race that hasn’t really gone my way in terms of the result, but a positive weekend overall and of course we achieved another two-car finish as a team.

What a frustrating way to end what was being a good weekend. During the formation lap I felt I had no power, so I had to box. Luckily they managed to solve the issue and I was able to go out and race, but being two laps down there wasn't much I could fight for, just hope for rain and be lucky. After two stints though, we decided to retire to save engine mileage. I'm obviously very disappointed and desperate to finish a race, as it's now been four consecutive races where I've had to retire while fighting for points. But this isn't going to bring me down. I'm going to keep pushing and show my good performances whenever I can, like I did yesterday in qualifying for example... We know that this world is sometimes like this and I'm sure this unlucky streak will come to an end soon – hopefully in Monza!

I had a good start jumping up to third and the race was going okay. We didn’t have a great balance with the Prime, I was struggling a little, but we were hoping to come on strong with the Option and have a good last stint. It’s disappointing not to finish, we are not sure what the issue is but the team are investigating. I lost power going into the chicane, everything switched off, including the dash. It looks like it’s electrical but we’ll see what the investigation brings.

It’s disappointing to finish your race before it’s even started, but sometimes these things happen in racing. On the way to the grid I just felt a loss of power. We tried to understand and fix the problem on the grid, but it came back during the formation lap. There were a few moments when the power returned, but it disappeared again just before the start and I had to retire. It’s a real shame because the car has been very quick this weekend and we had a good opportunity to score some important points.

We had been doing a great job this weekend, especially yesterday. The car was feeling very good, very competitive and I had a good race start. We had an issue with the drive of the car which the team are investigating. I’m disappointed about the issue we had today but that’s racing sometimes. We are keeping focussed for the next race now and Romain has shown what is possible. I love Italy and Monza so I’ll be doing everything I can for a strong result there.