Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Dieses Wochenende war einfach fantastisch. Es war ein perfektes Wochenende für mich. Ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, so etwas schon einmal erlebt zu haben. Dieses Rennen ist für jeden Fahrer etwas Besonderes. Es ist sehr emotional, wenn man dort oben auf dem Podium steht. Es macht dich stolz, vor diesem Meer an Fans zu stehen und in den Fußstapfen so vieler großartiger Fahrer zu wandeln, die hier schon gewonnen haben. Am Start war es gegen Sebastian recht eng. Danach hatte ich es aber unter Kontrolle. Die Balance war nicht perfekt für das Qualifying, aber sie war eine der besten, die ich im Rennen jemals gehabt habe. Ich kann mich nicht oft genug beim Team für all die harte Arbeit bedanken. Jeder in Brackley und Brixworth leistet einen unglaublichen Job. So etwas habe ich vorher noch nie gesehen. Vielen Dank dafür.

It’s an incredible day, it’s the best second place I ever had in Formula One. Thanks to all the tifosi for giving me those emotions today on the podium: it’s fantastic to see so many fans, feel the support we get as a team. It just makes our lives so much more worth living when you see all the fans coming underneath the podium. In terms of emotions it’s more than a victory. It’s nearly a perfect day: I’m saying nearly because I don’t know what happened to Kimi at the start. It’s a shame because otherwise I believe we could have both cars on the podium today. The speed was there, unfortunately not enough to win, but we’ve tried everything. Monza is known to be a power track and we all know how dominant Mercedes was here last year. I believe the engine guys have done a great job. There are for sure things that we need to improve: we’ll do step by step. Tyres were ok for the whole weekend.

It's really emotional to have been on the podium. It was a difficult but fantastic race, I didn't have the best start but I was still able to pass cars so it was good enough. I worked hard to open the gap to Valtteri, but when I pitted early it gave him the advantage on tyres at the end of the race. It was hard to keep him behind as he really wanted it, but I just about managed it. I am delighted for myself and the team, we got a lot of valuable points. It's special to be up on the podium at Monza again, and I really thank the team for their effort today.

It was a good result for the team today, good points which is important. My pitstop lost me too much time which was crucial for the second part of the race. I managed to get extremely close in the end but it was too late. As I saved my tyres and brakes I was able to attack in the final laps but we had system issues on the last lap, so we need to investigate what happened because I also lost an opportunity there. It's a shame for me that I couldn't be on the podium but it's still good points for us.

I don’t know exactly what happened at the start. As far as I know I did everything correctly, but the car went into the antistall and did not move at all. I still don’t have the right explanation about what happened, but it’s a really bad thing that cost us a lot today. If you start from second place and after a few seconds you’re in last position it’s not easy to see the positive side of the race: we wasted a big opportunity to fight at the front. The car has been working well all weekend and also in the race the behavior was good. We made the best out of it and in the end I managed to come up fifth. Obviously I’m a bit disappointed, as we were hoping for a better result in our home race in front of all our fans, but if we think that after the first hundred metres we were last it was still a good result. Overall we had a pretty good speed all weekend so in a way we have to be happy for what we have done because here we were expecting more difficulties. Today I was positively surprised that we could get through some cars that are very fast on the straights, this shows that we are doing the right things, pushing the car in the right direction and improving in all areas

I had a really enjoyable time today. I had very strong pace from the beginning to the end; I managed the tyre degradation well and I feel we got the maximum that was possible from the race. The first stint was fairly calm: I found myself in clean air and I managed to open a gap over the cars behind so I wasn’t under any pressure. After my pit stop, I knew Kimi was closing in behind me: he was really quick and there was nothing I could do to keep him behind any longer than I did. I am very pleased with our performance over the whole weekend and the team really deserves these points. Today's result is important because it moves us back to fifth in the championship with a nice gap over our rivals. We did a good job and we deserve this result.

Seventh place brings some useful points, but I finished the race feeling a little bit frustrated because we didn’t have the pace we know is possible. I actually think we had a problem with the car and it’s something we need to investigate because I was losing downforce, the car was sliding and the rear tyres were heating up too much, all of which really hurt my pace. The second half of the race was quite difficult defending against Ericsson and that’s when we were considering changing to a two-stop strategy because I was struggling so much with the tyres. In the end we decided against it and I was able to hang on to seventh place for some important points.

It was a great result for the team considering where we started and the characteristics of this track. It was sweet taking that eighth place on the last lapfrom Ericsson. I am very happy with the chassis, the car was handling really well, and we were able to fight with a Ferrari and a Mercedes-powered car on a track where we lost out a lot on the straights. It wasn’t an easy weekend for us, but I think the race was positive and the energy in the team is good. I will probably celebrate with one more pizza.

Mit meinem Start und der ersten Runde war ich zufrieden. Danach kam es zum erwarteten Kampf gegen unsere direkte Konkurrenz. Dabei konnte ich das ganze Rennen über das Tempo mithalten und auf Nico (Hülkenberg) Druck ausüben. Sicherlich war das heute eines der stärksten Rennen in der bisherigen Saison. Natürlich war es frustrierend, in der letzten Runde in der letzten Kurve noch einen Platz einzubüssen. Ich habe meine Reifen im Kampf gegen Nico (Hülkenberg) sehr strapaziert und konnte letztlich den Angriff von Daniel (Ricciardo) nicht mehr abwehren. Ein bittersüsses Ende nach einem starken Rennen.

Monza was always going to be a tough weekend for us. Our race wasn’t too bad considering where we started on the track, because of our penalties. I didn’t see much action during the race but it was a positive result to finish in the points, down to good teamwork. We’ll have to come back stronger in Singapore, where the track characteristics should suit us better.

I'm pretty happy with today's race, especially with our pace. We were quick, and towards the end of the race I was getting closer and closer to the ones ahead and, even though I didn't manage to catch them, it felt good to know that we were faster. It's a shame we didn't get that final point that I think we deserved, but the five-second penalty I had to complete at the beginning of the race wasn't ideal. There are many positives to take from today: we finally finished a race after four retirements in a row, something I really needed, and enjoyed some good fights!

I couldn't do much today because the drive-through at the start of the race put me on the back-foot, but I think we can be happy with the car's pace, it was really good! Hopefully we have more luck in the next qualifying and start higher up on the grid in Singapore. It wasn't one of the easiest races, but I enjoyed some more good overtaking moves and I'm happy with that. I'm sure that if we hadn't started from last in the race we would've finished in the points today. We can be pleased and I now look forward to Singapore, where I'm sure we will be competitive.

Dank eines sehr guten Starts konnte ich Plätze gutmachen und in die Top-Ten vorfahren. Doch gleich nach der ersten Schikane spürte ich einen Reifenschaden am rechten Hinterrad. Deshalb musste ich schon nach der ersten Runde wieder an die Box. Von dem Moment an war mein Rennen gelaufen. Das war sehr schade, denn das Auto war konkurrenzfähig genug, um in die Punkte fahren zu können. Ich habe jedenfalls alles versucht. Schön, dass das Team dank Marcus dennoch Punkte holen konnte. Nun freue ich mich auf das nächste Rennen in Singapur.

“I had a good start, and took some cars into Turn One. The whole first lap was good – there were a lot of incidents, and I think I got up into ninth. “Then, unfortunately, I just waited for the other cars to come by. It was a bit difficult out there, because the other drivers were overtaking me in places that I didn’t previously think were possible, so I had to look in my mirrors on the entry to every corner. “At the end, I missed out on a good race with my team-mate. We’d already had a good little fight for three laps, and there were six to go when he retired. I think it would’ve been a good fight between us – it’s easy for other cars to overtake us, but it’s not easy for us to overtake each other, so it would’ve been quite fun.”

That was a good race. The car was well-balanced, we had good pace and for the first few laps I could enjoy some proper racing with the cars coming from behind us. Inevitably, things settled down a bit after that but we were able to push hard and maintain the momentum. I was very comfortable this weekend and feel like things are going my way again, so now I’m really looking forward to the long-hauls.

It’s been a more difficult weekend for me, so I have to be pleased with what is a good result overall for the team. The last few races have been much better for me, but not everything goes your way all of the time, so I’ll take away the positives and keep pushing for the flyaway rounds, starting with Singapore, which I’m really looking forward to.

Dieses Wochenende war sehr hart für mich. Ich hatte einfach zu viele Probleme mit meinem Auto. Dadurch war es für mich unmöglich, um den Sieg zu kämpfen. Es schmerzt sehr, wenn man zwei oder drei Runden vor Schluss ausfällt. Bereits einige Kurven vorher habe ich gespürt, dass ich etwas Leistung verloren habe. Aber ich hoffte trotzdem noch, dass ich es schaffen könnte. In der Weltmeisterschaft war das heute leider ein großer Schritt in die falsche Richtung. Aber es nützt nichts, sich in solchen Situationen zu beklagen. Ich muss einfach weiter pushen, um noch stärker zurückzukommen. Aufgeben kommt für mich nicht in Frage. Ich werde hart pushen, um alles in die richtige Richtung zu lenken. Los geht es in Singapur, bei einem meiner Lieblingsrennen. Darauf freue ich mich jetzt schon.

“I got a good start today, then a couple of cars made contact at the first corner, which slowed me down. Then, at the second chicane, I came close to Jenson and eventually lost all the advantage I’d gained. “Jenson and I were on two different tyre strategies, to try to cover all possible opportunities. I was on the Prime, which was one second slower than the Option, so I had a slower first stint, but then I was a bit quicker in the second. “In the final laps, I felt a loss of power and was told to retire the car, so as not to cause further damage. We were outside the points anyway, so it was a wise decision.”

It’s been a tough weekend and this is racing sometimes. We keep united and keep pushing as there are still seven Grands Prix to go so time to recover and keep fighting. I had contact in turn one where the Force India came into the side of me and took out my front-right suspension and that was the end of my race. We were looking for a strong finish and we had potential for that. Everyone knows that turn one at Monza can be tough and that’s what we saw today.

We had the potential of a good race ahead of us. I made a strong start but got hit by a car from behind in turn one which broke my rear suspension so that was it for us. It was a too optimistic move from Nasr who hit me which meant my race was over. It’s been a tough weekend but everyone has made the most of the opportunities we have and the spirit of the team and the support from the F1 world has been amazing. The E23 still feels good so we head to the next races optimistic of more good results to come.