Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Das ist ein überwältigender Moment. Ich erinnere mich an den Gewinn meiner ersten britischen Meisterschaft. Damals fuhren mein Dad und ich nach Hause und sangen: 'We are the Champions!' Jetzt denke ich darüber nach, wie viele Opfer meine Familie gebracht hat - meine Mutter, mein Vater, meine gesamte Familie. Ich denke aber auch an meine Fans. Sie geben mir so viel Energie und ich hoffe, ich inspiriere sie dazu, ihre Hoffnungen und Träume niemals aufzugeben. Das Rennen war heute absolut unglaublich und einfach alles konnte passieren. Die letzten 10-15 Runden waren außergewöhnlich. Es war einfach ein komplett verrücktes Rennen. Ich führte, dann war ich Vierter und die Bedingungen waren richtig knifflig. Nico fuhr auch sehr gut. Ich dachte mir die ganze Zeit: 'Die Weltmeisterschaft ist da draußen... wie kann ich sie mir schnappen?' Es war so eng, ich konnte sie schon riechen. Es gab nie einen Moment, in dem ich glaubte, dass ich es nicht schaffen könnte. Es ist auch einfach nur unglaublich, mit Ayrton gleichzuziehen. Drei Titel waren immer mein Ziel. Denn er hat mich inspiriert. Jetzt gibt es niemanden, mit dem ich gleichziehen möchte. Ich möchte einfach so lange weitermachen, wie ich kann. Jeder Fahrer möchte immer gewinnen. Aber dies ist das ultimative Ziel. Titel bedeuten Größe - für dich und dein Team! Dieses Team ist absolut fantastisch. Ich bin unglaublich dankbar. Ich dachte, dass ich mit diesem Team gewinnen könnte - deshalb bin ich hierher gegangen. Und es ist mir gelungen!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Lewis. Er ist eine starke Saison gefahren und verdient es, den Titel zu gewinnen. Das heutige Rennen verlief für mich frustrierend. Es tut weh, die Führung durch Wheelspin zu verlieren. Es ist aber noch härter, weil ich mich sehr gefreut habe, dass ich mich von dem Zwischenfall mit Lewis in der ersten Kurve erholen konnte. Er ließ mir nicht genügend Platz und fuhr in mich hinein. Das war ein Schritt zu viel, weil ich in der Mitte der Kurve in Führung lag. Aber darüber können wir zu einem anderen Zeitpunkt als Team sprechen. Jetzt muss ich mich von diesem harten Tag erholen, aber ich bin sicher, dass mir das gelingen wird.

We tried to spoil Lewis’ party today! In the end maybe I should have taken more of a risk with Nico, but it was not possible. It is a shame, but let’s not forget where we started this year. Today it was another great race, a great recovery and the car was fantastic. I think you can’t ask for more if you start from P13. A good first lap helped a lot and after that we had the pace, especially changing to the dry tires in mixed conditions. We seemed to fly for a few laps, a couple of seconds quicker than everybody else. Maybe without the last safety car we could have won the race: but if ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts… It was a difficult race and we managed it very well. I can only say “grazie tante” to everybody on track and in the factory. So on one hand we are happy, but it is not a nice feeling when you are out of the fight. For the next year this gives us a boost, trying to do make progress. Hopefully we will give them a bigger challenge.

I really enjoyed today's race! A fourth position is a great result, definitely the best we could do today, and I'm just really, really happy! There were some very good battles out on track and I'd say this was the most complete race of the season so far, everything worked out as it should have: I made no mistakes and the team did a perfect job with the strategy, making all the right calls. It was difficult to know when to make the move on to slick tyres, because you never want to go too early and lose time, so you just try and wait and see if someone else does it... When I heard over the radio that another car was on slicks and not doing too bad, I said okay, now we go. Once on the Softs, I didn't risk much as I knew I had to look after the tyres and we managed to get to the end in a strong way. I'm delighted with today and I'd like to thank the team for all the efforts this weekend.

We are happy to come away with fifth place and ten points from a weekend with such difficult weather conditions. The track was very damp to begin with and I was lacking pace on the intermediates – sliding around with a lot of degradation. Then, when we switched to the softs and eventually the mediums, it was not easy to get the temperature in the tyres and I struggled for grip with each restart. There was so much happening in the race and you really had to concentrate because it was very easy to make a mistake. In the final few laps I was getting close to Max [Verstappen] who was struggling on the soft tyres, but there was not enough time to catch him. Overall I’m very happy for the team because we’ve done a really good job this weekend. The recent results give us real momentum as we head to my home race in Mexico, where I’m determined to give my fans something more to celebrate.

“This was a strategic race today – and, strategy-wise, we did a perfect race. The team should be very happy with what we achieved; we made all the right calls, but still we need to go away and look at our lack of performance. “In the opening laps, I really enjoyed racing in the drying conditions, and I felt like I was able to make a bit of a difference. We got onto slicks before the others, and made the right calls, but, once it was dry and everybody knew where to brake, it became a lot more difficult for us. We just couldn’t match the others’ pace once they all found their feet. “Nevertheless, it’s great to get some points – and I enjoyed the challenge. We just didn’t have the pace. “Finally, congratulations to my old friend and team-mate Lewis. He and his team haven’t put a foot wrong all year – this is a fantastic achievement for him.”

What a mad, amazing race! We were fast from start to finish and I'm really happy with today's result, my best so far this season. To start from P20 and to finish P6 is just unbelievable. Okay, P7 after adding the 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit-lane because of the pit-limiter not working is a bit of a shame, but I've still got a very big smile on my face! It was an action-packed race, with many safety cars, tricky pit-stops, plenty of overtakes... I really enjoyed it out there this afternoon! My race engineer even said over the radio that I was "on fire", which made me smile! I'd like to thank the team for getting the car ready in time for the race and I'm happy that I've been able to reward them with such a positive result after a troubled morning. Max also did a great job and it's great that the team got so many points today, we definitely deserved it!

We are in the points once again which is the main positive thing for the team. It was quite a busy race with a lot of fighting around me, and even some fighting with the car as it didn’t quite perform as expected. It was a little bit strange because we are normally quite strong in the races; better than in qualifying in fact. My crew were great all day with qualifying and the race. We hope to continue scoring strong points in the remaining races.

Was für ein ereignisreiches Rennen. Letztlich konnten wir zumindest zwei Punkte bei unserer 400. Grand-Prix-Teilnahme holen. Begonnen hatte es mit Schwierigkeiten – zuerst hatte ich einen beschädigten Frontflügel, dann einen zu frühen Stopp auf Trockenreifen. Nach einer Runde musste ich wieder an die Box, um Intermediate-Reifen montieren zu lassen. Erst ab dann startete mein Rennen wirklich. Das es am Schluss zu Punkten reichte, lag auch daran, dass ich mit den Reifen besser umgegangen bin, als einige Konkurrenten.

The beginning was really fun between both Mercs and both Red Bulls. It was a good four-way battle. To see the Mercs not getting away from us was awesome. I was enjoying that. In the lead we were quite quick for a few laps and it felt like old times. That obviously didn’t last long and once we put the slicks on we just didn’t have the pace. We struggled with the warm up with the tyres and also struggled a lot with braking today. It was so tricky in the dry and then obviously there were the collisions with Hulkenberg and Carlos. It went downhill from then on. Even though we were on slicks it was never really dry out there. The kerbs were slippery and there was still a bit of a puddle through Turns 9 and 10, so it was definitely tricky. Dany spun off just in front of me on to the astroturf and into the wall. It was a crazy race and I hope the fans enjoyed it as it was quite action packed. Lewis definitely deserves the title. This year he was clearly on top of the rest so congrats and hats off to him for being the 2015 champion.

This was one of the best races of my career. “To be running one minute behind the penultimate car on lap two, and then be running as high as fifth position with 10 laps remaining was quite a feat. “After such a strong recovery, it was a shame that a mechanical issue in the closing laps put us out of the fight. That meant my feelings after the race were more sad than happy – but we can go away and continue to try to improve these issues. “Finally, congratulations to Lewis [Hamilton] on winning his third world championship. He’s been very strong all season, and that’s a great achievement. Hopefully next year we can give him a little bit of a tougher time than we have this season!”

It’s been a truly amazing week and to finish in 12th place today is incredibly exciting for me and the team. I’m so proud to race well here in front of my home crowd and to equal the team’s best performance of the season in only my third Grand Prix. The race did get off to a tricky start, which was a shame. There was a Williams driver in the mix, who had picked up some damage, and avoiding him put Will and me on the same piece of racetrack. Unfortunately we hit and I’m sorry for Will that the resulting damage ended his race. As for the positives, I had a good battle with Nasr for quite a few laps and then with the rate of attrition we were seeing, I think everyone perhaps started to feel that we were getting in touch with a points-scoring position. In the end, it wasn’t to be, but that doesn’t detract from what has been a fantastic day for me and I’m now looking to carry that momentum forward to Mexico, where we race in just a week’s time. I’d like to thank the Team and everyone who continues to support me in my career. I hope this is just the start of great things in Formula 1 for me.

The opening laps were mega, it was very enjoyable and it was nice fighting, but then the track dried out. If it was a wet race I felt it could have been a victory today. It’s easy to say that, but there's no point really, because once it dried out we were an easy target for everyone, which was a bit frustrating. We weren’t able to be as competitive in the dry as in the wet so we’ll have to have a look at that. In the dry, I was driving a bit over my limit when I crashed, I put the wheels on the artificial grass, tried to carry a bit more speed but it didn’t work out and I'm disappointed with myself. Finally, congratulations and well done to Lewis on winning the Drivers’ championship, he’s done a really good job this year.

It was a disappointing race. The first corner was very difficult with many things happening. I was involved in an accident which damaged the right side of my car. I carried on and was catching the cars in front but we had a problem with the damper, on both cars actually, so we had to stop. It’s not a nice weekend for all of us, so we need to concentrate on the next one.

The first part of the race was more or less ok: the car felt pretty good all the time, I had the speed and I was able to fight with other cars. After the tires change I made a mistake, I pushed a bit too much, the rear end got loose, so I went off and hit the wall. The front of the car got stuck on the advertising board, I kept turning the wheels for a while, then I managed to get off and go back on the track. I had a slow puncture on my rear left tire, and I also damaged the right front end: we changed the front wing and the car was ok, but the brake duct had failed and the brakes got overheated, so I had to retire. It’s not very nice when you have a race ending like this: we have the right tools but we have to put things together, make no mistakes and achieve a proper result. Congratulations to Lewis and the whole team, he did the best job out of everybody and deserves to be the champion.

Mein Start war gut. Doch in Kurve 1 drehte sich ein Auto vor mir, und ich konnte gerade noch eine Berührung vermeiden, weil ich neben die Strecke ausweichen konnte. Dadurch verlor ich jedoch einige Positionen. Ich fand aber schnell wieder in meinen Rhythmus zurück und konnte Plätze gutmachen. Auf den Intermediate-Reifen waren wir in der Lage, das Tempo auf der immer trockener werdenden Strecke mitzuhalten – ganz im Gegensatz zu den Trainings. Auf den weichen Reifen dagegen hatte ich zu kämpfen, um diese auf optimaler Temperatur zu halten. Doch plötzlich rollte mein Auto auf der Strecke aus – wegen eines mechanischen Defekts im Elektrik-Bereich. Die Enttäuschung darüber ist umso grösser, weil heute Punkte durchaus möglich gewesen wären.

It's a huge frustration to be out of the race when things were looking so promising. Until the accident, it had been a very interesting race and it must have been a very entertaining for the fans as well. I struggled at first on the intermediate tyres, but as soon as I switched to slicks I started making good progress. We were looking really good and I wanted to get past Daniel (Ricciardo) as I was faster than him and he was holding me up, so I tried to make a move. Unfortunately that didn't work and it was the end of my race. When I got back to the garage the team told me that there was an issue with the front wing – from contact earlier in the race – and it broke just when I was trying to make the move on Daniel. It's a shame as we could have scored a lot of points today. These last two races haven't been the best for me, but that's how racing goes sometimes. At least I can get back in the car in just a few days and get the disappointment out of the system, rather than having to wait for a long time. I look forward to the race in Mexico and it should be a really exciting week in a cool country that is always very welcoming to us.

I had a good start, but in the middle of the first corner I felt a hit from behind. This gave me a puncture and the damage meant that the floor and braking cooling ducts were damaged. We tried continuing but the brake temperatures were just too high and we had to retire for safety reasons. It’s a shame because it would have been a good race as far as we know with the experience we have and the set-up we were on… Everything should have been quite nice but now we’ll never know!

It’s just not my day. I think that really sums it up. Two technical failures in the same day and it was the suspension failure that ended my race. The race didn’t start that well, there was damage to my front wing after lap one so I had to pit for that. We had to make a call to go to intermediates or risk the slicks. We tried the slicks, which was guided by me, I thought it could be possible. But it was the wrong call and we lost a lot of time there. In the end none of that matters because of the technical failure so there was no possibility for a result today, unfortunately.

I’m pretty devastated that I didn’t get the chance to race today. I made a really strong start – as I have been doing in the past three or four races in particular – and I was able to get past Alex into the first corner. Then ‘boom’, my race was run when I got hit from behind and the damage was too severe to continue. It is what it is, but I was hoping for good things today when we finally had a dry track to work with. There’s no point in dwelling on it and I’m already looking ahead to Mexico.