Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich bin überglücklich, heute meinen 50. Sieg eingefahren zu haben. Es war ein langer Weg, das Wichtigste war jedoch, dass ich ein ordentliches Rennwochenende erlebt habe. Bei diesem Rennen lief es für mich schon immer äußerst gut. Dennoch war es angesichts der Zuverlässigkeitsprobleme in der jüngeren Vergangenheit eine riesige Erleichterung für mich, als ich über die Ziellinie gefahren bin. Ich war mir beim Start zu 100% sicher und wusste, dass es so laufen würde. Es war ein schönes Gefühl, gerade nach den vielen Aufs und Abs. Von da an konnte ich das Rennen kontrollieren. Es war großartig, wieder hier in Austin zu sein und die Reaktionen der Fans waren unglaublich. Mein Ziel ist es, diese Form ins kommende Wochenende mitzunehmen. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, den WM-Kampf in Mexiko fortzusetzen.

Ich hatte einen guten Start und versuchte, Lewis außen herum zu überholen. Aber letztlich hatte Daniel Ricciardo so die bessere Linie am Ausgang von Kurve eins und konnte dadurch profitieren. Danach war es schwierig, den Red Bull zu überholen. Aber zum Glück ging unsere geänderte Strategie auf. Wir fuhren mit dem Medium-Reifen und hatten dadurch etliche Optionen, besonders als das virtuelle Safety Car ins Spiel kam. Der Medium-Reifen hatte eine echt starke Pace und das Auto fühlte sich damit großartig an. So konnte ich gegen Rennende auf Lewis aufschließen. Da war es aber leider schon zu spät. Er hat an diesem Wochenende eine bessere Leistung gezeigt und den Sieg verdient. Jetzt freue ich mich darauf, unseren Kampf in Mexiko fortzuführen.

“In the beginning of the race the supersoft tyres helped me but the actual start I felt wasn’t really that much better than the Mercedes. Then I saw Nico going to the outside so it gave me an opportunity on the inside. Obviously I would have loved to have lead out of Turn 1 but second was good enough. I tried to stay with Lewis the first couple of laps but then his soft tyres were able to go a bit better. I think we were looking good for P2 but then the Virtual Safety Car didn’t work in our favour today. I’m not going to be too disappointed, it’s just cool to be on the podium here. I love coming here, the anthem was pretty awesome before the race, I had goosebumps, I’m not gonna lie, and then the podium after was great. It’s another big bag of points and we at least had Nico’s pace so that’s encouraging and we’ll try and do what we can in the next few days. Obviously Max and Kimi had their misfortunes today so it was just me and Seb out there, but we still gained a little bit on Ferrari so we’re looking good. We’ll try and keep going like this and get on the podiums for the last few races.”

“Overall today was a better day than yesterday, it was a good race. The start was not so good and into turn 1 I was quite lucky, given that somebody was hitting me, I think it was Nico Hülkenberg. Luckily nothing was broken so I could carry on. Then the pace was good, we were looking after the tires, so we could go longer than other people. The race was a bit different than we expected, we got a present from Max today but unfortunately also Kimi had some problems and had to retire. It could have been a good performance for the team with both cars in the points.”

“It was good and interesting today, I enjoyed it, especially the final part of the race. “Carlos [Sainz] was on a different strategy and different tyres to me and Felipe, which allowed us to close the gap. “Our tyres were in better condition than the Toro Rosso’s and we took advantage of that. The last couple of laps were very intense, as we had some extra speed so we tried hard to overtake. It was quite easy to overtake the Toro Rosso as they’re slow on the straights, so you just need to open the DRS. I was following Carlos for 45 laps and he drove very well, very consistently, zero mistakes – so we had a great battle. “To get past the Williams today you needed to overtake them in different places, like tight, slow-speed corners, and quite forcefully, and it was tough but hopefully enjoyable for the fans. “Our result today is nice for motivation, so I’m happy with fifth, but we gained a couple of positions because of other people going out, and our pace hasn’t been great all weekend here, so we need to understand the reasons for that.”

"Today's result is a very special one for myself and the team, it's a top, top, TOP result!! What a boost and what a way to motivate the team and keep our heads up until the end of the season! I don't know what this track has, but I just get such a good feeling every time I race here! It's a weekend I will always remember! To equal my best result in Formula 1 makes me very happy, but this P6 is a bit more special than the one in Barcelona because here we didn't think we really had the car to do so – our simulations before the race said we would only finish in P11 or P12 and here we were, fighting for a P5! We were able to make the tyres last during the first stint, staying close to the Williams and then managed to create a good gap to Fernando on the Softs. We also got a bit lucky with the VSC period, which was great news for us, as we were suddenly in front of the Williams. We knew it was going to be very difficult to get to the end on the Soft tyre, but we committed to that and went to the end on that set – during the last two laps I had no tyre left and just had to hold on to it as best I could! The battle with Fernando was so much fun! I knew that he would end up getting past me but I said to myself, 'let's make it a bit complicated for him!' I perfectly know how he attacks and how to defend against him, as I've been watching him race for the past 12 years... And I think that to be able to keep him behind for all those laps until he just opened the DRS and said 'ciao, ciao' was pretty decent! I'm so pleased, so happy, you just can't imagine what's going on inside me now, even if I'm not showing it on the outside, I'm delighted! I will definitely celebrate with champagne tonight, for me this feels like a win!"

I had a really good start and the race was going fantastically. I avoided the incidents at corner one and managed to overtake two cars. Our pace was really good and I managed to open up the gap to the cars behind. Then I was really unlucky with the virtual safety car because I was nine seconds ahead and then Sainz came out in front of me, gaining a lot of time and points. At the end, Fernando dived into the corner I was taking, hit my car and I got a puncture because of it. It destroyed every opportunity I had to finish the race in sixth, and potentially fifth. We still finished seventh and closed the gap to Force India, but it should have been more. It’s time to look ahead to Mexico.

“Eighth place was a good recovery after our race was compromised on lap one. I was hit hard from the rear under braking for turn 11 by Kvyat, who made a mistake and came in with no control. All of a sudden I was effectively in last place and with a badly damaged car. It was a difficult recovery, but step by step we got back into the points and in the end we didn’t get a bad result. We got all the strategy calls right and this helped us overcome the damage to the car because we made up positions in both pit stops. To come away with four points and to move up to seventh in the drivers’ championship is a good result in these circumstances. It’s important to hold on when you get a difficult weekend, especially in races with high attrition, and score every point you can get, but the regret remains because I think we could have finished fifth today.”

“I’m pretty happy to get into the points after a frustrating day yesterday. The start was a bit of a crazy mess – there was so much action. Starting 19th makes your race a little bit more difficult but I had a good first couple of laps which I really enjoyed. I made up a lot of places and then fought my way into the top 10, and then I fluffed up my second pit-stop a little bit where I lost a place to Checo [Perez], but I think he would have got past me anyway. “The second half of the race for me wasn’t as exciting – I was looking after the tyres, judging the gap behind me, and trying to save the tyres to the end of the race to attempt to catch Checo, but I think I was about three seconds off at the end. I came home ninth which isn’t too bad, and it’s great to get some good points for the team on both sides of the garage. Fernando did a fantastic job to get to P5. He was very quick today, and the Safety Car helped him a lot – one day we’ll get that luck too! “I made some strong overtakes – some good, clean scraps – especially into Turn One, and I had a lot of fun fighting my way through, which made it a lot more enjoyable. “For the rest of the season, it’s important that we work on our Saturdays – trying not to make bad decisions and qualifying closer to the top 10, which means you have a lot more to fight with. Hopefully the next race in Mexico City will be a good one – I’m already excited about it – and hopefully we can get a good result there.”

“It didn’t go too badly today. It was a bit of a messy first lap, but I managed to get through everything. Then we went with an aggressive strategy trying to go for it. That worked out pretty well, so I’m happy with that. We were lucky that a few cars retired in front of us but, in the end, we needed to finish the race. It’s great to score a point in front of our home crowd. I’m very pleased with that and for the guys, as well. It’s been a long time since we scored. It’s obviously a great thing to be able to score points at the end of the season.”

"Quite a tough day for me today. I think I had a good start, but we then had to switch to a one-stop race after getting a 10-second penalty for my incident with Perez during the first lap. This compromised our race and it wasn't easy to make it work, but we tried our very best and kept pushing until the end. I have to say we did a very long stint on the Medium tyre and the management was very good. It's just a shame that we lost the opportunity to fight for some more points today."

“We started with the plan for a one-stop strategy but we quickly realised that it wasn’t the best option so we swapped to a two and finally a three-stop strategy. It was tougher on tyre wear than we predicted but that did mean I was able to have some fun at the end of the race on the super soft tyres – it was the most fun I’ve had in the car all season, being able to push hard to the chequered flag. It was a pretty decent race considering our qualifying position. The penalty is frustrating, but that’s racing sometimes.”

“I had a slow start and unfortunately lost a few places that allowed Kevin to pass me, which then meant I was on his gearbox for a good two-thirds of the race. We were really struggling to follow other cars and although I was quicker, I couldn’t get close enough to pass which was so frustrating. I could have tried to lunge but that’s not a clever thing to do between team-mates. In the end, I overheated my tyres trying to overtake and fell back a little bit.”

„Ich hatte einen guten Start und konnte mich so nach der ersten Runde auf P13 verbessern. Es war ein harter Beginn des Rennens mit einigen kämpferischen, schönen Duellen. Auf den weichen Reifen konnte ich ordentliche Rundenzeiten fahren. Später entschieden wir uns bei der Rennstrategie für die riskantere Variante mit nur einem Stopp. Wir wussten, dass es damit gegen Ende des Rennens knapp werden würde, waren aber der Meinung, dass wir nur so eine Chance auf den Punktgewinn wahren konnten. Deshalb bin ich nach dem Stopp sehr lange auf Medium-Reifen gefahren. Gegen Ende des Rennens war es dann zu schwierig, das Tempo meiner Konkurrenten mitzugehen. Insgesamt war es wieder ein ordentliches Rennwochenende, an dem wir erneut Schritte in die richtige Richtung machen konnten. Das müssen wir nun in Mexiko fortsetzen.“

„Von meinem hinteren Startplatz aus entschieden wir uns, das Rennen mit Medium-Reifen zu beginnen. Weil diese Gummimischung anfangs weniger Grip hatte, musste ich alles versuchen, um das Auto auf der Strecke zu halten. Als wir bei den Daten sahen, dass wir mit diesen Reifen länger fahren können, wechselten wir auf eine Ein-Stopp-Strategie. In dieser Phase gab ich mein Bestes, um den Boxenstopp so lange wie nur möglich hinauszuzögern. Aufgrund der Strategie konnte ich gegen Ende des Rennens einige Plätze gutmachen.“

It was a very disappointing day today. I went into turn one on the inside and had a good line for the corner, but at the apex Hulkenberg touched me and I got a puncture. That also damaged the floor of the car and I lost a lot of downforce for the rest of the race. I’m happy there is another race coming quickly next week in Mexico to try and make up for this. The positive thing is that we narrowed the gap to Force India a bit, but we need to make sure that we score good points with both cars.

Pascal, how was your first United States Grand Prix? “All things considered, I’m really pleased with my weekend here. There were some challenging moments, but I’m happy with how we overcame those to have a good qualifying and now race today. The race itself was very straightforward. I think we got the most from the car, so given that I missed quite a bit of track time, it was a good result.” What about the overall Austin experience. Pretty cool track and city, right? “It’s definitely one of my favourite races of the season so far. We found some time to do some really fun things with the team, at the same time as working hard for the racing, so overall it’s been a great weekend. My thanks to the team and I hope we can continue like this into Mexico next week.”

Esteban, fantastic start. We thought you were going all the way to the front! “It was a great start. I gained six places I think. Obviously, I dropped back gradually through the lap and then the tyres were sliding around quite a bit. I don’t think it was such a good idea to start on the Medium tyre, but even so, the early part of the race was good.” From that point on the race seemed to go less well for you. “Yes, it seems that I picked up some damage that affected the balance. The team spotted something in the data and we tried to manage the situation, particularly during the pit stops, but it was harder to drive the car and in the end I was just pleased to get to the finish. I was hoping for something more but it was good to get both cars home at least, to reward all the hard work by the team.”

“Quite a disappointing home race. I really want to thank everyone for all of their unconditional support as we really wanted a better result here in Austin. It all started well, optimizing everything we had in qualifying, and we got off to a great start in the race. The first stint was very strong and we managed to get into the top-10, fighting hard and pushing to the maximum. Unfortunately, a brake problem ended our race. It’s not what we wanted or expected to happen, but we need to continue working very hard as we head to Mexico.”

“Obviously the end result of this race is far from ideal. It’s a pity because the performance of the car today was good. When we changed for Soft tires, for whatever reason I seemed to struggle. The balance was ok but I never really had the grip I was expecting. Once we went back to Supersofts the car was good again. When I left the pits after the third pit stop I slowed down a bit and asked if everything was ok because I saw some sparks coming out. At the end of the pitlane the team told me to stop. Now we have to understand what happened, the rear wheel nut had not fitted properly.”

“It was a very unfortunate way to end the race, especially as the first part was so positive. The start was OK, being on the harder compound means it is always going to be tricky but we managed to get away and stay in front of Seb. I was happy with the pace and I felt good out there, it was a nice battle with Kimi who I was glad to pass. I’m sure there was the ability to race the Mercedes today but it is just very hard to pass them due to the straight line speed. I backed off Nico in the end to save my tyres and maintain the gap from the Ferrari. The pit stop issue was my misunderstanding, the team had asked me to push the lap before so I thought I was going to be coming in. I pitted and then realised they hadn’t actually made the call, luckily it didn’t affect the end result. Shortly after I had come back on track I heard a banging noise coming from the engine so I pulled the clutch, they then asked me to release it again and keep going so they could try and work out what it was, unfortunately we couldn’t solve it and it ended my race. At the end of the day the race pace was good and the setup felt strong so I am positive and looking forward to Mexico next week.”

“It’s really disappointing to have another first lap retirement. I just ran out of space going into turn one because I got sandwiched between Valtteri [Bottas] on my left and Sebastian [Vettel] on the right. Sebastian turned in quite aggressively, made contact with me, and that pushed me into Valtteri. I think it could have been avoided if Sebastian had given us a bit more space, but it all happened so quickly and I had nowhere to go. It’s really frustrating when you have a quick car and your race only lasts ten seconds. We had done all the hard work on Friday and Saturday, but all that effort counted for nothing.”