Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Was für ein unglaubliches Wochenende! Es fühlte sich vom ersten Moment am Freitag großartig an. Ich fand im Training einen guten Rhythmus, fuhr ein starkes Qualifying, hatte einen ordentlichen Start und konnte danach das Rennen von der Spitze weg kontrollieren. Ich musste meinen Motor ein wenig schonen, da es mein letztes Rennen in diesem Zyklus war. Aber der Vorsprung war jederzeit groß genug. Ich kam hierher, um in Japan zu gewinnen – und das ist mir gelungen. Das ist etwas ganz Besonderes. Es ist ein fantastisches Gefühl, auf dieser legendären Strecke zu gewinnen. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Gewinn des dritten Konstrukteurs-Titels in Folge an alle meine Kollegen hier in Japan, in den Werken in Brackley und Brixworth sowie hunderttausende von Daimler-Mitarbeitern in aller Welt. Vielen Dank an jeden Einzelnen von ihnen und alle unsere Partner, die dies möglich gemacht haben. Sie sind einfach die Besten! Nach dem unglaublichen Einsatz der letzten Jahre verdienen sie das umso mehr. Lasst uns das feiern! Ich werde vielleicht auch ein wenig mitfeiern, aber nicht allzu viel. Die Saison ist noch nicht vorbei. Noch stehen einige Rennen aus und ich muss mir meine Energie einteilen! Auch vielen Dank an all die Zuschauer an diesem Wochenende. Die Fans sorgen hier immer für eine ganz besondere Atmosphäre und sie haben eine fantastische Show geboten. Arigato! Jetzt müssen wir uns jedoch auf die verbleibenden vier Rennen konzentrieren. Ich freue mich schon darauf, nach Amerika zu reisen. Bis dann!

“We knew the start was going to be very decisive and we had a really good one today which allowed me to settle into my own rhythm. I’m pleased the starts are coming together, that’s two in a row now. I was then able to sit behind Nico (Rosberg) and control my tyres. The team gave me a really strong strategy, along with a car that felt very balanced so I was able to enjoy a successful race. I was really happy to be able to get in-between the two Mercedes cars, it is a great result yet again for the team. In the race we had quick pace but I think Nico was still only cruising. When I sped up Nico could match it and if I slowed he did also, he was in control. Lewis (Hamilton) was obviously a bit quicker in the final stages and I knew he was going to catch me, the gap time on the pit board was dropping every lap. Into the last chicane I saw him coming in my mirrors so I defended my position, this allowed me to hang on for the second place. I had some concerns about the blue flags, I think we need to talk about it. I have been in the same situation last year and earlier this year, I understand from their (back-markers) perspective you want to race but the guys lapping you are racing for a podium so you have to have a different approach.

Zunächst möchte ich allen in den Werken und bei Mercedes-Benz herzlich gratulieren. Jeder Einzelne hat fantastische Arbeit abgeliefert und es ist unglaublich, drei Jahre hintereinander so erfolgreich zu sein. Dahinter steckte in den vergangenen drei Jahren extrem harte Arbeit von sehr vielen Menschen. Das ist die wichtigste Nachricht des heutigen Tages. Ohne ihre Unterstützung hätten wir das nicht geschafft und ich bin extrem stolz, ein Teil des Ganzen zu sein. Ebenso stolz bin ich darauf, seit 2007 Teil der Geschichte von Mercedes-Benz zu sein und seit 2013 zu diesem Team zu gehören. Was das heutige Rennen betrifft, bin ich mir nicht ganz sicher, was am Start passiert ist. Ich muss erst abwarten, was die Ingenieure sagen. Aber es war der schlimmste Start, den ich mir vorstellen konnte. Meine Seite war nicht gänzlich trocken und es gab stark durchdrehende Räder. Aber das war nicht alles. Ich verlor viel an Boden, während alle anderen Fahrer um mich herum mehr Traktion hatten. Es war frustrierend, aber das lässt sich nicht mehr ändern. Solche Dinge passieren. Im ersten Rennabschnitt hatte ich nicht die Pace von Kimi. Deshalb wusste ich, dass ich länger draußen bleiben musste und versuchte erst gar nicht, ihn im ersten Teil des Rennens anzugreifen. Die zweite Rennhälfte war viel interessanter und ich konnte auf den harten Reifen eine gute Pace zeigen. Das Auto fühlte sich besser an, ich fühlte mich wohler darin und konnte einige Autos überholen. Wir gaben etwas mehr Frontflügel und dadurch verschwand das Untersteuern komplett. So konnte ich mir meinen Weg durch das Feld bahnen und die Lücke schließen. Leider gelang es mir nicht, Platz zwei zu erobern, aber ich gab heute mein Bestes. Jeder Punkt zählt. Deswegen habe ich mir die Seele aus dem Leib gefahren, um so viele Zähler wie möglich einzufahren. Nico hat heute großartige Arbeit abgeliefert. Jetzt genießt er einen ordentlichen Vorsprung in der WM, was es für mich schwieriger macht. Ich werde aber weiterhin mein Bestes geben – so wie ich es heute oder auch sonst immer getan habe. Mehr kann ich nicht machen. Ich konzentriere mich darauf, alles zu geben, und dann werden wir sehen, was passiert. Vielen Dank an alle Fans, die heute hier waren. Sie waren wie immer fantastisch. Nun freue ich mich darauf, nach Hause zu kommen – und dann das nächste Rennen in Angriff zu nehmen.

”We had a very good start and made good progress in the first two laps, passing Ricciardo and Perez, then we were faster than Verstappen. I think today we had the second fastest car. So it was a question of time, but obviously Max came in as soon as he could to maintain track position, which worked well for him. We tried to go on the softer tire in the end, which initially we thought would work well, but then we had too much degradation and we were falling off this group. It is always easy to criticize, and I am sure there are many ‘experts’ that knew better, but on the pitwall as well as in the car, I was keen to go for this strategy so to extend the second stint. It’s a fact I lost big chunks of time with the blue flags. I always got the lapped cars right in sector one, when they can’t move, so I was losing a lot of time, and there’s probably where I lost track position to Lewis, who always seemed to clear the lapped cars in the straight. But then the pace wouldn’t have probably been enough to challenge for the podium.”

“After a good qualifying yesterday, the issue with the gearbox and the consequent starting position change was not ideal in this kind of track. Obviously there’s a lot of disappointment, as we had a good car and if we could have stayed in front we would have fought with more free air and with a lot of speed. I had a good start but then I got stuck behind other people: it was really tricky to follow other cars and it affected quite a bit the behavior. It was also difficult to stay close to them and attack them. Once we got past them and I was on my own, the car was quick and handling well. For sure today we were fast enough for a better result. Unfortunately that’s how it goes…”

“Today wasn’t a very exciting race for me, and unfortunately it just wasn’t my day. Kimi’s (Raikkonen) penalty was a bit of a bummer for us as it put us on the wet side of the grid and that compromised the start. I don’t think my launch was too bad but Lewis obviously struggled to get off the line and I had to go around him through the wet and that made me lose a place to Sergio (Perez). Seb (Vettel) had a good exit out of Turn 14 and made quick work of me on the straight, then he caught Perez quickly as well. That sort of shaped the first stint for me. We struggled to stay close to the cars in front as we couldn’t follow them in the dirty air, and we didn’t have the straight line speed to make an attack. We struggled in the traffic and fell behind the eight ball. In the final stint towards the end I had a clear track and I was able put in some good laps but it wasn’t enough. I’m not going to get too down about it. I didn’t think there was anything else we could have done today, it was just circumstances and how the race panned out. We’ll come back in Austin ready to have a good weekend on track and also eat plenty of barbeque. I’m going to diet for the next few days so I arrive lighter in Austin and can enjoy the local food!”

“I enjoyed myself today and I feel we made all the right decisions during the race. The start was good fun – I had a clean run going into turn one and ended up in third place. I tried my best to hold on to the position, but I knew it would be difficult to keep some very quick cars behind me so I needed to be sensible and choose my battles. Our car was very quick today and the two-stop strategy was definitely the correct one for us. It meant we needed to overtake the Williams cars on the track because they were on a different strategy, but fortunately I could make the moves on them very quickly. The end of the race, after all the pit stops, was just a case of looking after the tyres and keeping out of trouble. We scored some very useful points today – we need to keep doing the same in the final four races.”

“I am quite happy with my race: seventh would have been possible, but I paid the price of not having an ideal qualifying session yesterday. I had a good first lap, but when you start from the back of the top ten, you have a lot more traffic to deal with and that cost me some time. The pass on Valtteri [Bottas] was the highlight of my race. I had lined up a pass the lap before, but didn’t get a good exit from the final corner and I missed out in turn one; so I told myself “if I can’t get you here, I’ll get you at the chicane instead!” I pulled the move off nicely; it was a close wheel-to-wheel battle. It was important to finish with two cars well inside the points, but we know every race and every point will count from here onwards because the battle in the championship will go down to the final race. It’s going to be good fun and it’s a nice challenge.”

It was a tough race. We were really fighting from the beginning, to the end. We lost two positions at the start with both cars, maybe due to the tyres we had compared to the others. The pace at the beginning didn’t look very promising compared to the others. We tried to stay out long to do a one-stop, and it worked out. We would love to have finished ahead of Force India, but today they had a better car. We managed to score points with both cars after being just 13th and 14th during the first stint. I think it was a positive race and the strategy worked out very well.

As a team strategy-wise, we managed to do something different to our competitors so that was good. There definitely wasn’t any more we could have got out of today. In a nutshell, we need to make a quicker car and hope that the rest of the circuits in the calendar are better suited to us. We just didn’t have the pure pace today. From my side, being the lead car in the first stint I was hoping for the better strategy out of the two of us but that didn’t work out today. Looking ahead to Austin, I hope it’s better and more like Malaysia in terms of our pace in comparison to Force India. It’s just so difficult to predict these things nowadays, so we need to learn from today and hopefully we’ll perform better there in two weeks.

“Well, we struggled on the first stint with a green track, and with the soft tires, we had a lot of graining. But then the car was flying. It was really good. I had some good overtakes. I don’t think I’ve ever been as frustrated as today at the end of a race. I thought we deserved much more. With the pace of the car, I was much faster than the Williams’. We just got the life on the hard tires wrong. We could have pitted earlier for the last stint, but overall the pace was amazing. It shows a lot of promise for the future. I’m optimistic about these updates and the pace we had in the car.”

“Tenth last week, twelfth this week, but this week everyone finished the race! We had a lot of luck last week and I think today was actually a stronger performance. We beat everyone that we could this afternoon. I’m pleased with how we went, the strategy, the pace, performance… Everything was good.”

"A P13 was the maximum we could do today, I really don't think we could've done much better. Nothing extraordinary happened today, there were no Safety Car periods or retirements, so we didn't gain any positions that way either. Our straight-line speed is just nowhere, which is very unfortunate, but there's not much more we can do, we're just too slow. On the positive side, I feel better in the car race after race and our team work is constantly improving, so we will go on doing our best to finish the season knowing that we couldn't have done more!"

“I started the race on hard tyres against others around me on the softs and mediums – it was always going to be tough today. We can’t be completely satisfied with today’s race after scoring points in the last two races but we will work hard to get back into point-scoring position in the coming races. The next round is in the USA and it’s a pretty cool track to drive so I look forward to being there next.”

„Das war heute ein ordentliches Rennen für mich. Mein Start von P18 aus war nicht so schlecht, ich konnte um eine Position nach vorne fahren. Der erste Rennabschnitt auf Medium-Reifen war okay, ich konnte mit dem vor mir fahrenden Jolyon (Palmer) mithalten. Alles in allem glaube ich, dass wir die richtige Strategie gewählt haben. Immerhin bin ich als 15. ins Ziel gekommen – nach P18 am Start eine Verbesserung. Nach wie vor gilt, dass wir punkto Renntempo besser werden müssen, damit wir um Punkte kämpfen können.“

“Our race today reflected the whole weekend: it was just anonymous. “To finish 16th and 18th today is a rather nasty surprise, especially after finishing seventh in Singapore, and seventh and ninth in Malaysia, just last weekend. “I hope this was an exceptional and unique event, and that we’ll return to business as usual at the next race, in Austin. “It was clear that the layout of the track didn’t suit our package – we lacked downforce through the faster corners. “I know our car is in fact much more competitive than we were able to show today, and I’m obviously disappointed about putting on such a poor show at Honda’s home race. But we’ll head back home, analyse what happened, and bounce back from this disappointment.”

"A very disappointing race for me today. Even if we started well, managing to get past both Williams and enjoying a good race pace during the first stint, that all changed after the first pit-stop. We then dropped behind the two McLarens and from that point onwards our race was over, as we were just not able to overtake because of our low top-speed... It was just impossible! I can assure you I tried my best, but today we couldn't do more than this. It's a frustrating situation to be in but we won't give up. We will now get ready for the next races where hopefully we can be a bit stronger – rainy Sundays would also help!"

“I made a poor start – the [power unit] components in the back of the car were all-new, so I got massive wheelspin and was therefore somewhat left behind on the start-line. Then it was really difficult to get past the Manors – they’d started the race on the Option tyre, and I was on the Back-Up, so it was hard to make a move stick. “I eventually got past them though and, despite racing with the backmarkers, I still had some fun out there – a few little battles – but we were a long way behind the points-scorers. “It’s been a very tough weekend – it’s a shame that Suzuka is our bogey track because it’s our second home. Still, we have to take the rough with the smooth: we haven’t been quick here, but we hope to be quicker at the next race.”

„Ein enttäuschendes Rennen für mich, nachdem bereits das komplette Wochenende schwierig gewesen war. Ich startete auf harten Reifen; mein erster Rennabschnitt war okay. In Kurve 11 hatte ich zu spät gebremst, die Reifen blockierten und wurden dadurch beschädigt. Deswegen musste ich früher als geplant zum Boxenstopp. Als ich von der Box wegfuhr, schien es als würde die Kupplung Schwierigkeiten machen. Dadurch verlor ich ebenso etwas Zeit auf die Gruppe vor mir, wie durch einige blaue Flaggen, die mein Rennen beeinträchtigten.“

“Everything started pretty good. We’ve been working a lot on getting the best out of our start and today that proved to be better. On the first stint, things were going well. We were managing the gap, pushing to get higher up to the front of the grid. I then came into the pits and I ended back out behind a lot of traffic, and that was it. I was trying to push forward, trying to overtake, and then I had an incident with Carlos (Sainz Jr.). He braked a bit early, closing the door, and I had nowhere to go as I was preparing the corner to overtake him on the straight. After that, I had some damage on the front wing which wasn’t ideal. Unfortunately, this is how the race went. It was not what we wanted, but now we need to keep pushing and keep a good rhythm and really put in a good performance as we head to our home race in Texas.”

Esteban. In Summary? “Well, we struggled a bit with the pace but I think we had a better strategy this time. A few more laps and I think I could have got close enough to Esteban Gutierrez to pass him.” Five down, four to go. Time to head home and regroup ready for the big ‘Americas’ push? “We keep making progress, always getting closer to the competition, which is good. Now we need to take some time to have a good look at all the data we’ve gathered - where we’re missing something, where we can improve - but what I can do also. There are only four races left and they will pass by quickly, but also four races is a lot of opportunities to improve and we have a lot to fight for, still.”

Pascal, what have you got to say about that race then? “Not so much, unfortunately. It ended up being a really difficult race. We struggled with the pace, we struggled with the blue flags – struggled generally today. There isn’t much more to say than that.” We’ll say it for you then. Four races remaining and we need to find a way to get back in the fight with our immediate competitors? “Yes, we’ve made some good steps and improved the car, so we just need to work with what we have to find more performance from the package and keep making that progress. We’re not far away, but that’s not where we want to be.”