Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

It was an incredible race today, in fact all in all an incredible weekend and it is difficult for me now to sum it up. The race was intense and long, I had some pressure from Daniel behind me, we were the quickest two cars out there today, but I was able to control the pace and look after the tyres, which ran ok for the whole weeekend. The car felt fantastic, I could control the gap until the end. Today we are in paradise, but we know we’re still a long way to go. It has been a surprise that Mercedes hasn’t been on the pace this weekend, we don’t know why, but to be honest we don’t really care. I am very happy for the team today, there has been a lot of work going in since the day I joined in. For the next races we will keep pushing 100 percent, we’ll give our maximum, like always. As long as there is a chance we have to go for it, we have to do everything we can. Mercedes are the ones to beat, the best way to do it is looking after ourselves and doing the best we can.

I think this was our best chance of a win and we got close, so we can be proud of what we did. We have made the most of our opportunities here. At the start Seb just went away and then I was coming back to him and if it hadn’t been for the Safety Car, we’d have got pretty close and maybe an undercut would have been possible at the pit stop. Making both stops under the safety car affected our chances and I think that dictated the race really. In the first stint we were coming on quite strong, with Seb pushing hard to break the DRS gap. But as the laps were ticking down, we were starting to come alive and I was able to lean on the tyres a bit more. Then I was frustrated to see the Safety Car come out, but I knew I still had to make one more stop so I had one more chance. But Seb seemed to have learned from the first stint and started easier than in the first one and was able to pull away later. I was able to close on him again, before we had another Safety Car. That was that really because it’s hard to overtake here. We got the fastest lap right at the end and we can be proud of that. Moving forward, Suzuka is usually a good track for us, although I don’t expect to do as well as there, but we can aim for the top five. It’s good to get another podium, I’m really happy for the team. The last few races the chassis has really come alive so thanks to the guys for that.

I have mixed feelings: I’m happy to be third, considering how difficult it was yesterday, struggling with the grip and the handling of the car, but I’m a bit disappointed for not having been able to fight for a better position. Today I knew it was not going to be easy: it was a tricky race, on new tires I was able to follow Daniel easily, but then I was starting to have the same problems as yesterday, and I did not have enough speed for trying to catch him. First and third is a great result for the whole team, but of course it could have been better. It’s hard to predict how is going to be in the next races , but I don’t think we should get carried away. Obviously some tracks fit you better that others: we’ll do our best as usual. Hopefully we’ll find out that we can be competitive again fighting at the front. We have done an amazing job as a team so far, we keep improving, building and learning a lot in all areas, we are going in the right direction.

Singapur war ein enttäuschendes Wochenende für mein Team. Wir waren am gesamten Wochenende weit weg von der Pace und Lewis fiel aus. Ich hoffe, dass dies außergewöhnliche Umstände waren und unser Auto nicht zu dieser Strecke und diesen Bedingungen passte. Das Problem ist, dass wir nicht wirklich verstehen, warum Red Bull und Ferrari hier so viel schneller waren. Der Start des Rennens war ein bisschen chaotisch. Auf den Installationsrunden ging mein Motor einige Male aus. Deshalb konnte ich nicht die gleiche Startprozedur durchlaufen, die ich schon 100 Mal geübt hatte. Ich musste mich anpassen, aber es war okay. So konnte ich die Position halten. Platz vier war heute das Maximum. Bis Suzuka haben wir aber viel Arbeit vor uns, um zu verstehen, was falsch gelaufen ist.

It was a good race for me. The start was good, the pace was a little bit better than we expected. I could put a bit of pressure on the guys in front and undercut some people. The pit crew did an amazing job today under pressure. We did what we had to, got our heads down and took our opportunities. This was the maximum result today so I'm pleased.

I was unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car as I pitted a lap before it came out. It seemed the Safety Cars didn’t like me at all today, it must be something personal! But that’s life. That worked against us and it wasn’t a good race for me, but we couldn't have done anything else. I lost two places to Mercedes after the first stop and a place to Bottas after the second one. After that, I was always in traffic behind cars that were a tiny bit faster down the straights, which was just enough for me to be unable to pass. On the plus side, we kept it on the track and scored some points. The team did a very good job this weekend and the car worked very well. 8 points is the maximum we could have got with all that bad luck. My time will come. Our car has always worked well in the corners, so our team’s result here is not so surprising.

It’s a good feeling to end such a demanding race with seventh place and six points. The start was very important because I knew I had to get ahead of Fernando [Alonso] and I also jumped ahead of Romain [Grosjean]. After that I managed to keep up a good rhythm and I had new tyres immediately after the first safety car so I concentrated on looking after them and building a gap to the cars behind. The second safety car didn’t help us because it gave the Toro Rossos a big advantage with their fresh tyres. We knew they were catching us quickly and it was tough to stay ahead because my tyres were getting old and it wasn’t easy to keep the car away from the walls. So the last 15 laps of the race were very demanding but fortunately we could hold on for seventh.

It was an amazing race, I enjoyed it a lot! After stalling at the start I thought it was over, as I was pushed to the pit-lane and then re-joined the race one lap behind... But I just kept on pushing and to finish P8 is just fantastic! My pace was great and once again I really enjoyed all the overtaking! I don't think there was any reason for me to give up my position after going from being one lap behind to being back in the points, I think I deserved that P8.

It was certainly an eventful race! I had a good start, some very good pace at the beginning and the strategy was looking great. Suddenly, during the restart of the race after the first Safety Car, my gearbox went into neutral and I found myself at the back of the field. Then I started to overtake and have a lot of fun, climbing back up to P9, behind Max, who was pushing Perez. After seeing him try to overtake him for 10 laps, I just thought maybe I could try during one lap, and if I hadn't been able to I would've given the position back to Max. I just wanted my chance, but he decided not to give it to me. It's something we need to talk about as a team, but overall I have to say that I'm very happy to have finished in the points again! Let's keep on pushing, the next race in Japan is only seven days away!

Das war heute ein sehr herausforderndes Rennen für uns. Wir hatten mit einer Zwei-Stopp-Strategie geplant und wussten, dass es schwierig werden würde in die Punkteränge zu fahren. Alles lief gut und nach der ersten Safety-Car-Phase war ich unter den Top-Ten. Doch als das Safety-Car zum zweiten Mal auf die Strecke musste, kühlten meine Vorderreifen leider zu sehr ab. Deshalb war mein Tempo beim Re-Start nicht gut genug. So musste ich warten, bis die Reifen wieder ihre optimale Temperatur hatten – das kostete Zeit. Wie auch immer, im Ziel war ich sehr glücklich, dass ich an einem nicht einfachen Wochenende für das Team und mich einen WM-Punkt holen konnte. Es tut gut, wieder ein Rennen mit einiger Zufriedenheit zu beenden.

Mit meinem Start war ich zufrieden und auch mit der ersten Runde. Ich konnte mit einem guten Manöver an Jenson (Button) vorbeiziehen. Danach übte ich auf Felipe (Nasr) Druck aus, doch auf dieser Stadt-Strecke ist das Überholen schwierig. Gleich nach dem ersten Stopp haben wir leider vergessen, den Boxenstopp-Schalter auf dem Lenkrad auf Aus zu stellen. So war die Bremsbalance auf der Strecke im Boxenstopp-Modus und blockierte die Hinterachse. Schade. Doch danach konnte ich im Vergleich zu unseren unmittelbaren Konkurrenten gut mithalten. Alles in allem war es gut, das Felipe einen Punkt schaffte, für mich aber war es etwas enttäuschend.

It was a really difficult race. The contact from the McLaren was small but enough to break my diffuser. I was defending on the inside and I don’t know where Jenson wanted to overtake me. It’s a very narrow corner where it happened and there was no chance for him to overtake. The damage meant we lost performance at the rear at the time in the race when we wanted to preserve tyre life. Sadly it wasn’t possible to maintain the pace and the tyres so we had to make an additional, unplanned stop.

We had an aggressive strategy planned for today, which looked good since we were as high as P8 at one point but the first virtual safety car cost us dearly. I lost a lot of places on the first lap, there was quite a lot of sliding going on and, as we knew this wouldn’t be a great track for us – like Hungary and Monaco – we knew it would be difficult. There was nothing left in the tyres towards the end of the race and as soon as we were out of the points, we chose to retire the car as we had some concerns with the gearbox and didn’t want to risk a penalty in Japan.

My Formula 1 debut has been a long time coming, but today has been pretty special. All the hard work to get here finally paid off and it was a fantastic feeling to be racing on the streets of Singapore in my first ever Grand Prix. It wasn’t the most straightforward of races; I didn’t get the best of starts, and as the procedure is quite new to me, it’s something I’ll need to work on. I recovered quite well though and managed to get a good run into Turn 5, where I was able to get past my team-mate. Everything was going well until around the midpoint of the race, when I lost radio communications. This was particularly challenging because of the second Safety Car period and I wasn’t able to receive instructions from the team about when to unlap myself. Despite that, I think we managed everything well and I’m very appreciative of all the effort put in by the team to make my Grand Prix debut a successful one.

Overall, it hasn’t been a good weekend for me. Today I actually had my best race start of the season, but unfortunately I made a mistake on the first lap, which cost me position. The safety car helped out, and I tried my best whenever I was close enough, but there was too much tyre degradation on the rears towards the end. It’s a big shame, because I’ve really enjoyed racing on the streets here, but sometimes things just don’t go your way. Hopefully the next time out at Suzuka will be a more typical race for me.

It was a very unlucky race for me. My problems started with the collision I had with Hulkenberg after my first stop. I was braking for the corner and he turned his car in on mine, leaving me with nowhere to go, so we hit. This caused a slow puncture on my front-right tyre and the extra pitstop put me back many positions. I then had a gearbox problem. I was changing gears from 2nd to 3rd and was getting neutral. It seemed to resolve itself but it happened again and I had to retire the car. It was one of those races where things just weren't going my way. We need to concentrate on recovering some of our lost points at the next race.

“Today’s race was definitely disappointing for us because both Jenson and I could have been in the points today and we missed that opportunity. Gearbox problems caused the failure of both cars. “Before retiring, though, we were running in the top 10, and our performance on the Supersoft [tyre] was quite good, so I think we could have kept that position until the end. But to score points you have to finish, and we didn’t today, so today was a reminder that we need to work harder than ever. We still lack performance and reliability, and fixing those two things represent a lot of work and we need to do that.”

“We should have scored points today, and we would have scored points if I hadn’t had contact with Pastor [Maldonado] and we hadn’t had gearbox problems. There’s lots of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, but the car felt alright to drive, which is a positive. “We went very long on our stops, and I was able to look after the tyres well, which is always helpful, and the second Safety Car helped us. “But it’s been a tough season. Everyone is feeling it, but it’s not slowing us down in terms of how much effort everyone is putting in, both in Woking and Sakura. “So the team will now get their heads down and focus on the next race, in Japan. It’s Honda’s home circuit, but it’ll be another tough weekend. “We’ll do our best.”

Das Rennen lief sehr gut. Für mich fühlte es sich an, als ob ich im Rennen meine Bestform hatte. Ich glaube, ich hatte die Pace, um zu gewinnen. Ich gab alles. Ich fuhr auf den Prime-Reifen und konnte locker mit den Jungs an der Spitze auf Options mithalten. Meine Pace war wirklich gut, als ich anfing Leistung zu verlieren. Ich merkte, dass das Team so hart wie möglich arbeitete, aber diese Dinge passieren einfach manchmal. Es ist Pech für das Team, denn ich fühlte mich richtig gut. Ich war sehr optimistisch. Aber es war besser, das Auto abzustellen und den Motor zu schonen. Wir werden hart daran arbeiten, um herauszufinden, woran es gelegen hat. Aber ich bin nicht besorgt darüber, diesen Motor zu verlieren. Unsere Zuverlässigkeit ist sehr hoch und wir hatten bislang eine unglaubliche Saison. Noch liegt ein langer Weg vor uns und ich weiß, dass ich heute einige Punkte verloren habe. Aber ich war schnell und in Form und ich werde sicherstellen, dass ich so auch in Suzuka zurückschlagen werde!

That’s a really frustrating way to end my race. I was feeling confident with the car; I had made my first stop and I was in good shape. The accident with Felipe [Massa] was very unlucky and I don’t understand why I’ve been given a penalty before there has even been the chance to discuss the incident in the stewards’ room. I saw Felipe coming out of the pit exit as I went through turn one, but I was ahead in turn three, I was on the racing line and I took the corner as usual. Then I felt the contact with my left rear and my race was over. In my view it was my corner and I’m surprised Felipe backed out of it much too late, locking up just before he hit me.