Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Ich bin überglücklich… Dies muss einer meiner schönsten Siege hier sein. Ich hatte mir diesen Sieg fest vorgenommen. Vor dem Rennen gab es so viel negative Stimmung und einige Leute stellten meine Vorbereitung auf das Rennen in Frage. Aber dieses Wochenende war eines meiner stärksten. Ich hatte einen ordentlichen Start und achtete danach auf das Auto und die Balance. Außerdem haben die Jungs einen fantastischen Boxenstopp abgeliefert. Ich kann im Moment keinen Fehler erkennen. Das Team hat an diesem Wochenende eine außergewöhnliche Leistung gezeigt und Valtteri fuhr ein fantastisches Rennen - ich bin stolz auf ihn. Es ist super, ihn im Team zu haben. Ich bin überrascht, dass Ferrari solche Probleme hatte, denn ich habe nirgendwo Trümmerteile gesehen. Ich hatte nicht erwartet, dass ich nach diesem Wochenende nur noch einen Punkt hinter Sebastian liegen würde. Dieses Ergebnis gestaltet die Weltmeisterschaft wieder ganz offen - und jetzt geht es nach Ungarn, wo ich schon immer gut war. Jedes Mal wenn ich aus Kurve sieben herausfuhr, konnte ich die Fans jubeln sehen. Das hat mich an 2008 erinnert, meinen ersten Grand Prix-Sieg hier. Hier waren viele großartige Menschen, die mich unterstützt haben, nicht nur unter den Zuschauern, sondern auch in der Box. Mein Bruder ist hier und auch einige meiner Tanten und Familienmitglieder sind gekommen. Wir haben auch diesen unglaublichen Jungen aus Südafrika da, sein Name ist Michael, und er kämpft gegen Krebs. Es war fantastisch, ihn zu treffen. Und Billy Monger ist auch bei uns, er ist so inspirierend.

Was für ein Rennen! Ich freue mich so sehr für das Team. Unser zweiter Doppelsieg in dieser Saison. Natürlich hätte ich gerne gewonnen, aber ich bin auch so happy. Dies war eindeutig eines meiner besten Rennen. Ich musste einige Male richtig hart kämpfen, aber schlussendlich war ich in einer guten Position. Wir konnten im ersten Stint auf den weichen Reifen länger draußen bleiben als erwartet. Die Reifen waren richtig gut. Im letzten Stint sagte mir das Team, dass ich auf die Reifen achten sollte. Denn es gab einige Schäden bei anderen Teams. Bei mir war aber alles okay. Wir haben erst Saison-Halbzeit und es könnte definitiv schlimmer sein. Es ist mein erstes Jahr mit dem Team und ich bin immer noch mitten im Titelkampf. Wir haben heute als Team sehr gute Arbeit abgeliefert. Die Strategie ging von Anfang an gut auf. Das war ein fehlerfreies Rennen und der Doppelsieg die Belohnung dafür. Das hat sich das Team redlich verdient. Am Ende hatten wir Glück mit Kimis Reifenschaden. So kam ich auf Platz zwei. Aber das gehört zum Rennsport dazu. Heute war das Glück eben auf unserer Seite.

“My race wasn’t going too bad until a few laps before the end. I suddenly had the problem, my front left tire let go with no warning; the air stayed in the tire but the rubber part, came off. It’s disappointing because without that issue the second place was secured, and we deserved a better result. We had made some changes to the car and they seemed to have improved the feeling. When it’s like this you are confident and you can push; I hope that it will be a similar story in the future races. However, today we were lacking a little bit of speed against our rivals. We did what we could but obviously there’s some work to be done to catch up the Mercedes in places like this. This is definitely not our strongest type of circuit. I’m interested to see what happens in the next race, I guess the Hungarian track should suit our car better.”

“It is a positive day, I am happy to finish the race and get some solid points once again. We got a bit lucky with Seb’s puncture at the end and I pitted to be safe as I knew I had enough room behind me. The front left didn’t feel great and having seen what happened to the Ferrari we played it safe. If I had seen Kimi pit at the end I may have stayed out to try and get a jump on him but we made the precautionary stop to make sure we finished. With a lot of fast rights here it takes its toll on the front left so we knew there would be issues late on. At the beginning I knew I was quite a bit slower than Seb so I just did my best to stay in front and have some fun, it was the only thing I could do and luckily he didn’t manage to pass me on track, after that little battle my race became a bit lonely. Our pace was pretty good and the car felt competitive during the race, it felt better than it did in qualifying so now we need to understand why we struggled yesterday. Fourth is a good result, probably one place better than we expected which is always nice. We have some upgrades coming in Hungary which I am hoping will make some steps towards being able to fight with the top two teams.”

“I hope they showed a lot of that on TV. I just felt like the whole race I was overtaking cars and I hope the fans enjoyed it. We made up a chunk of positions early on and then I got a bit greedy, went off track and ended up at the back again. It was great fun coming back through the field and I gave it everything. I caught Hulkenberg with a few laps to go and then Seb had his issue which handed me fifth, so danke Sebastian. I’ve been really happy with how I’ve been putting my Sundays together for the last handful of races, it’s been strong and to get fifth from the back today I really couldn’t ask for more. Last week I was the hunted and this week the hunter, I love the fight of this sport and today I felt I could really enjoy that. I would give this race ten out of ten in terms of fun. I think you could say that in the last six races the Honey Badger has certainly shown up on Sunday and it’s been great fun.”

“We are very happy with the race result today. P6 is a big success for the team. We were able to get a good lap in qualifying and then to carry it through to the race. We had a strong race pace, and were able to keep ahead of both Force Indias, which is really positive. We lost some power at the end, especially down the straights, which made it easier for Daniel to pass me, but then we gained back a position from Seb [Vettel] when he had his problem. Overall this is a very positive result. The new upgrades worked really well, we were able to push the car and I’m really pleased for the team.”

“It was a difficult race. The brakes got fire on the grid and I think this is the reason why I had no grip at the start: they were too hot. During the last laps, after the problem with the front left tire, I tried to get the car back and recover some points. It was difficult today because I was stuck at the beginning behind Max, but I am not the one to judge what happened between him and me. After that I think the pace was good, considering the fact that I was on the Soft tires. Valtteri was on other compound, the Supersofts, so it was clear that he would have been strong. Today was not a great day, but we’ll see what happens in Hungary, on a different track.”

“I had a brilliant start – it felt like four wheel drive and I moved up a couple of positions, but I lost out to Hulkenberg at the end of the first lap. After that, I had a good battle with my teammate for most of the afternoon and the team let us race – just like Canada. Sergio was fast and giving me pressure, but I was able to stay ahead. It’s very satisfying to see us score points again with both cars. Our consistency is our strength this year – on all tracks we are there with good speed and scoring points. We need to keep this up in the second half of the year.”

“It’s been a difficult race and I have a feeling we didn’t get to demonstrate our true pace. We should have finished higher, but in the end we still bring home points with both cars. I had a poor start and that compromised the rest of the afternoon, because I couldn’t recover from it. Silverstone is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake, and even though I spent all my race within DRS range of Esteban, I never had a real opportunity to pass him. Being so close to the car in front damaged my tyres and cost me lots of downforce so there was nothing I could do. You can look back at the race and think of things that could have been done differently, but it’s always easy to say this after the race. As we get to the half-way point in the season, I feel very positive about our performance. We have been doing really well as a team and I hope we can get back to our real level in the next race and after the break.”

I’m definitely happy with the race after starting 14th, having had a very good start and opening lap, to finish 10th. For sure the most difficult part of the race was overtaking the Force Indias at the end. I was quicker, but maybe not quick enough to have the opportunity to overtake. I’m still not happy with the qualifying yesterday. When you start out of position things are a lot more difficult than they should be so today maybe we could have fought for more points. Unfortunately, starting 14th didn’t allow us to do that, but I’m happy with my race. We just need to make sure our starting position is better in the next race.

“It’s a shame to once again finish just outside the points – but there are plenty of positives to take away from this weekend. “The pace we showed in the race today was very encouraging: to run as close as we did to both Force Indias and a Williams on a circuit like this is a real positive. “Not everything went perfectly in the race - my pitstop didn’t go too smoothly, so I came out side by side with Felipe and lost a position. That was a shame, because there was definitely a chance to finish ahead of him because our pace was very similar to his. “Unfortunately, no points – but today was very encouraging, and I’m sure our time will come.”

“I felt the Toro Rosso hit my tire at the start, but nothing happened. Fortunately, there was no puncture. I just didn’t quite get the first lap. It was always going to be difficult when you start on the reverse strategy on the harder tire. That first stint kind of kept me out of the points. The pace was good in the car, I just had to do a long stint on the tires and wait for the guys in front to pit and then put in a lot of good lap times. I came back a bit at the end, but it wasn’t enough. Whenever you’re fighting outside of the points, it’s never that interesting. Still, I’ll take the positives. We were quick and had good pace in the race.”

“Tough day in the office. We didn’t have much pace today with either tire. I got stuck in traffic initially, which killed the supersoft. I pitted for the softs, and again, traffic all the way. We tried a gamble at the end putting new supersofts on, hoping that something would happen at the front, but nothing did. We just need to understand why our race pace wasn’t as good as it was in qualifying and go from there.”

„Es war ein ganz ordentliches Rennen für mich. Ich habe heute das Maximum aus dem Auto herausgeholt, vor allem in der zweiten Rennhälfte waren meine Rundenzeiten ganz ok. Natürlich wollen wir um Punkte kämpfen, aber an diesem Wochenende waren unsere Rundenzeiten nicht konkurrenzfähig genug. Dennoch haben wir einen guten Job gemacht, die Fahrzeugeinstellung während des Wochenendes weiter zu optimieren. In Budapest müssen wir weitere Schritte nach vorne machen.“

"Even if I was able to continue after the collision with Carlos, my race was also compromised and I'm obviously not happy with what happened. I was ahead and on a dirty line, so it's normal to have some understeer, and then, all of a sudden, the crash took place. These things happen and sometimes they're unavoidable. It's a real shame, as this has damaged both us drivers and the team, which I feel very sorry for. There's not much more that can be done now, we just need to learn from this and move forward."

It was not a good race for us. The start was good and I moved up to P12. The first stint was also okay, and then also at the start of the second stint things weren't bad. But then we picked up some damage on the car, which I believe was a broken barge board. I started to feel something was wrong, we suspected it was the tyres and so I stopped again. However, this was for nothing really as it just got worse from there. I just brought the car home but some damage on the car destroyed our race. Now I’m just looking forward to Hungary.

„Das Rennen ist nicht so verlaufen, wie wir uns das erhofft haben. Als am Anfang des Rennens das Safety Car zum Einsatz kam, haben wir uns dazu entschieden, einen Pflicht-Boxenstopp zu machen und auf Medium-Reifen zu wechseln. Eine Runde später bin ich dann wieder an die Box gefahren, um auf weiche Reifen zu wechseln – mit dem Ziel, bis zum Rennende zu fahren. Leider haben die Reifen mehr und mehr an Haftung verloren, weshalb ich ein weiteres Mal zum Reifenwechsel musste. Ich hoffe, dass wir in Budapest ein besseres Wochenende haben werden.“

"I'm not going to say much about what happened today on lap 1 with Daniil, the images talk for themselves – it's just very frustrating to have not finished another race. Of course I'm disappointed and it's not the way you want your race to go, but I just need to think of it as a stage of my year – with 20 races, there's always going to be this kind of situation at some point... That's why I'm not worried and very calm. Fortunately, it's a weekend where not a lot of points were on the table, especially because we needed some tricky scenarios like rain but this never happened, so we didn't lose that much. The only big shame is that we haven't scored any points again this weekend, but we need to keep our heads up – I'd like to cheer the mechanics and the whole team up as they must also be disappointed about this and hopefully in Hungary we can turn it around and have a good race weekend as a team. I'm confident it will be better next time out."

“Tough times. A difficult weekend for us, starting last with the penalties, then in the race, when I was following a group of cars, I had another issue. "Hopefully, it hasn’t done any damage to the engine and we’ll be able to keep using it in the future. “Stoffel was 11th today, so I think we weren’t quick enough to be in the points today and I think I could have ended up 13th, 14th, and the retirement is a little bit less painful. "Now I am looking ahead to Hungary, which should be a better weekend for us."

“Going out at the start of the race is really frustrating. We had a hydraulic leak on the first lap, which is pretty gutting as I think we were in a good position. Eleventh with new tyres, a car that was working really well with lots of different options on strategy: all was looking good to get some points. I have had so much support all weekend that it would have been sweet to get them here. All the same we can see that the car has taken a step forward, but we just need to look at reliability now.”