Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Das ist einfach ein fantastisches Gefühl heute. Ich bewundere dieses Team enorm. Das Auto fühlte sich in diesem Rennen einfach so gut an. Davon habe ich schon immer geträumt. Obwohl wir vorne lagen, war es dennoch ein hartes Rennen, um in meinem Element zu bleiben und keine Fehler zu machen. Wir machten nur einen Stopp. Deshalb versuchst du, die Räder nicht zu blockieren und die Reifen nicht zu beschädigen. Das war eine große Herausforderung heute. Es ist schade, dass ich nicht gegen Nico kämpfen konnte. Darauf hatte ich mich wirklich sehr gefreut. Ich bin froh, dass mein Auto es geschafft hat, da mein Heckflügel gegen Rennende etwas locker war. Deswegen musste ich mich von den Kerbs fernhalten und versuchen, das Auto nicht zu beschädigen. Ich versuche jetzt einfach, den Moment zu genießen. Noch sind in diesem Jahr viele Punkte zu vergeben. Es ist ein ganz besonderes Gefühl, die Konstrukteurs-Weltmeisterschaft zu gewinnen, Teil des Ganzen zu sein und zum Erfolg des Teams beigetragen zu haben. Das ist ein unglaubliches Gefühl und ich war sehr stolz, als ich von dort oben auf dem Podium all die lachenden Gesichter sehen konnte. Ich fühle mich wie ein kleiner Teil in einer großen Kette an Leuten. Darauf bin ich stolz und ich freue mich darauf, morgen das gesamte Team im Werk zu sehen. Ich wusste, dass die Jungs in diesem Jahr gute Arbeit leisten würden. Aber sie haben in diesem Jahr noch besser gearbeitet als im letzten. Das ist phänomenal.

Overall I am very happy. It was a great day, a great race and I felt really good in the car. In particular I am very happy for the Team, they have done a great job, after the lacking practice the days before. My start was not so good, I struggled a little bit, but as the race went on I fought my way to the front. After the safety car came in I could overtake Kimi and start the hunt for Williams. As for my fight with Kimi, first of all I think we both enjoyed the battle that since it was still so early in the race, it was right to let us fight to provide some excitement. In the end I was just able to finish my race. Lewis deserved the win, but we were maybe closer than some had expected.

It feels great to be back on the podium and to be able to celebrate with my team. I have been enjoying my time with the team so much and this is a great reward for all the work we have put in together. The call to pit under the safety car turned out to be very good because it gave us track position ahead of all the battles. With one lap to go, when Valtteri (Bottas) and Kimi (Raikkonen) passed me, it felt like this result had been taken from us: I was obviously disappointed but I also knew I had given all I could during the race. There was no more I could do because I had been on the same tyres for more than 40 laps. When I finally managed to get back into third it was just an amazing feeling. I am happy I was able to share this second podium with my team. It's a very special result and one that fills me with expectation ahead of the races in Austin and especially Mexico City.

It was a good result for me today and we managed to do well to fight back from a disappointing qualifying yesterday. I lost a bit of time behind slower cars at the beginning of the race because I was on harder tyres than those around me, but the pace was very good on the supersofts at the end. This allowed me to close up and be in a position to collect more points on the final lap due to the incidents up ahead.

I think we squeezed everything out of it today and ten points at the end of such a complicated race is a very good achievement, so we have to be satisfied with these points. With hindsight, you could say we could have run a slightly better strategy, but you can never be completely sure how these things will turn out and you never stop learning in this respect. It was nice to see all the people that came here to support me today, it’s a great feeling and hopefully it will continue and get better and better. I could also see that other drivers had their fans in the crowd as well which was nice, it’s a true passion and it looks like in Russia the sport is growing a lot and many people are coming which is great to see. I’m already looking forward to Austin because I think it should suit us a little bit better and I’m looking forward to those high speed corners.

Ich bin natürlich sehr zufrieden mit diesem Resultat. Vor allem auch, weil es vom Start bis ins Ziel ein sehr forderndes Rennen war. Das Auto war von den Rundenzeiten her konkurrenzfähig, vor allem auf den superweichen Reifen. So konnten wir zeitweise starke Konkurrenten hinter uns lassen. Die Balance des Autos war auf weichen Reifen nicht so gut, wie auf superweichen. Nichtsdestotrotz war es eine tolle Leistung des Teams, dem ich diese Punkte gerne widme – die gesamte Belegschaft hat sie verdient. Genau diese Möglichkeiten dürfen wir in solchen Rennen nicht verpassen. Es freut mich, dieses Mal das Maximum herausgeholt zu haben.

It was a bit tough today but we opted for the right strategy from the beginning starting on the soft tyres and going longer on the first run. Unfortunately we lost a lot of time on the second stint with the new super soft tyres. Our car didn’t perform as expected at the beginning of the run but then after a few laps we started to get back into the rhythm. We scored points today which is very positive for the team and hopefully we can continue to do so in the next races.

All through the race the car was behaving well, especially after the pit stop, but then I was stuck behind other cars and had no speed on the straight, so it was hard to get past. In the final stages, I tried to overtake Valtteri in the same place I had passed him earlier in the race, I had a good run in turn 3 and in the next one there would have been enough space, so I decided to go for it. I don’t know if he was not expecting me at all or if he did not see me, but once I decided to go there was no way I could back off. I tried to turn inside as much as I could, but there was no way to go and in the end we collided. It is an unfortunate thing for us and for them, nobody want to have an accident even if it’s part of racing. It’s really a shame, but my move was based on a good chance and not something completely crazy.

“Today, we did everything right, did the best we could, and we took home some points. “I was a sitting duck for the first couple of laps: I couldn’t really fight off the people behind, my deployment was cutting off at the end of the straights, so it was very easy for people to overtake. That was tricky: they were trying to pass me into Turn 13, which is a pretty scary place, especially when you don’t have DRS and can’t gauge the closing speed of the cars behind. “Still, it wasn’t bad. I was racing Fernando for the whole race, which was all I could really do, as all the other cars were quicker. “We haven’t made massive progress with the car’s performance, but we did lots of interesting things with the set-up this weekend. We’ll analyse those and see whether they paid off or not.”

I'm disappointed. It certainly wasn't the best of race starts, as I got clipped because the cars in front of me crashed and from then on it was a very difficult race. I had a lot of damage on the car, especially at the rear, and it wasn't behaving as it should've been. It was very difficult for me to continue, but we tried to, hoping we could get back into the points, even though in the end it wasn't possible.

“To have both cars finish in the top 10 at a circuit where we didn’t expect to fare well, was a nice surprise. It was just a shame to lose out afterwards [owing to a 5s penalty for corner-cutting]. In fact, the car performed very well in the race – I think we were able to look after the tyres a little bit better than the cars around us, and, on an afternoon where every little bit helped, we made the most of that. “We’ll now hope for more performance at the next race, in the USA. It’ll be tough, and we’ll have to remain realistic, but I’m definitely happy with today’s result. “Now, we can keep moving forwards and improve things for the future.”

It was quite a strange race with lots of accidents and safety cars, and we managed to do a very good job as a team to give me a good shot at the podium. I was running in P3 on the last lap and then I was hit from behind in Turn 4 and that was it. It’s difficult to describe the disappointment because the team has worked so hard all week to get a good result, and then the result we feel like we deserved was lost with only one lap remaining. It’s a tough end to the weekend.

I’m really pleased with my race today. Everything went well for me through the weekend and finishing ahead is a nice way to end things on my return to the cockpit here in Sochi. It hasn’t been an easy weekend on the track. It seems that there was something happening every session and this made it difficult to find a good rhythm to prepare for today. Anyway, the race went well and it was very straightforward for me; pretty as much as we planned. Now I’m looking forward to my final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, but I’ll be on hand with the team at the next three rounds also.

The start was very chaotic, as we expected to be the case here, and we all had to avoid the crash between Ericsson and Hulkenberg on the exit of turn 1. I lost position to Roberto and was behind him for the first stint, then at the restart I flat-spotted my tyres under braking and had to pit again, so our positions were pretty much set for the rest of the race. I think it has been one of those weekends here in Sochi. Nothing has been very straightforward so we have to be pleased with getting both cars to the finish again and look ahead to better things in the next few races.

I’m happy with how I drove but it’s a shame we don’t have any points to show for it. The risky strategy was working well and we were looking good to earn some decent points. We’re not sure what happened, we suspect it’s a suspension issue. I came out of turn four and I felt something was not right and I reported back to the team. The team will investigate the issue but I think considering we weren’t expecting too much from this track, we can be pleased that we were racing with the faster cars of Williams and Ferrari and managed to keep them behind us for a good while.

What a disappointing way to end what was being such a good race! But I have to say that I'm happy I could race after what happened yesterday. Today's was a good performance in difficult conditions. I started from P20, pushed hard and suddenly I found myself in P7... We could've even ended in P6! Towards the end of the race I was warned to look after my brakes as the temperatures were very high and I was managing to do that while still racing at a good pace. Unfortunately, with only eight laps to go the brakes said 'enough' at Turn 13 and that was the end of my race. I have to be thankful to the whole team, they did a great job for me to be racing out there today after yesterday's crash. The car was in perfect conditions. Now I will certainly get some rest during the next couple of days!

Ungeachtet der Schwierigkeiten im Training und Qualifying bin ich mit Optimismus ins Rennen gegangen. Weil ich aus den hinteren Reihen startete, entschieden wir uns für die Strategie mit weichen Reifen am Beginn. Der Start gelang mir gut und bis Kurve zwei konnte ich ein paar Autos überholen. Doch plötzlich stand das Auto von Nico (Hülkenberg) verkehrt zur Fahrtrichtung vor mir. Ich konnte nicht mehr ausweichen und fuhr in ihn hinein. Das war umso enttäuschender, weil unser Auto hier konkurrenzfähig war. Diese verpasste Möglichkeit ärgert mich. Nun heisst es, neue Energie tanken und es beim nächsten Rennen aufs Neue probieren.

I didn't have the best of starts, but then I was able to pick the ideal line on the approach to turn two. Unfortunately, I locked the rears going into turn two and, when that happens, you just end up in a spin. I hoped the whole field would get past without hitting me but unfortunately Ericsson got stuck with me and I couldn't move away. The first lap is always a unique situation: I didn't brake any later, but with cold tyres it's really tricky and once the tyres locked there was nothing I could do to save it. It's always a pity to go out at the start and it's really frustrating because our pace seemed really good this weekend. I just want to move on and start thinking about the next race. At the same time I have to say well done to Checo because the podium is a great result for the team.

Der Rennsport kann sehr hart sein. Man steckt so viel Energie in ein Wochenende, aber am Ende verlasse ich Russland ohne Punkte. Das war ein sehr enttäuschendes Wochenende für mich. Bis zum Safety Car lief alles gut. Dann kam das Gaspedal in meine Richtung. Zu einem Zeitpunkt konnte ich gar nicht mehr lenken, weil ich meinen Fuß so weit hochnehmen musste, dass ich dabei mit dem Knie das Lenkrad berührte. In den vergangenen Monaten hatte ich einige Male Pech, was meinen Kampf gegen Lewis erschwerte. Aber ich werde zurückkommen und weiter pushen. Wir können sehr happy sein, dass wir den Konstrukteurs-Titel zum zweiten Mal in Folge gewonnen haben. Dadurch ist es ein guter Tag für jeden in den Werken und wir müssen ihnen allen dafür dankbar sein, dass sie dies ermöglicht haben.

I lost the rear end in a very high speed corner going through turn three and couldn’t recover it. We don’t know exactly why yet. We need to check what has happened – was it a driver error or something technical? - we’ll see. I feel sorry for the guys because there will be a lot of work to repair the car. I feel okay physically and I’ll certainly be a bit sore tomorrow morning, but I’ll be completely fine again after a couple of days. We lost some good points today but let’s understand what happened and look forward to the next race.