Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

So ein Rennen habe ich noch nie erlebt. Ich wusste von Anfang an, dass ich die Spitze einholen musste - das war mein Ziel. Ich fuhr einen sehr langen ersten Stint, aber kurz bevor es anfing zu regnen, musste ich an die Box gehen, da die Reifen einfach nicht mehr länger gehalten hätten. Es regnete immer mehr und die Bedingungen waren richtig schwierig. Aber ich war schon soweit gekommen, dass ich unter keinen Umständen aufgeben wollte. Dieser Doppelsieg für Mercedes ist absolut fantastisch, gerade an einem Wochenende, an dem das Team uns mit der Vertragsverlängerung sein Vertrauen ausgesprochen hat. Ich hätte das niemals für möglich gehalten, aber ich habe einfach weiter alles gegeben, daran geglaubt und dann hat es geklappt. Vor dem Rennen habe ich wie immer gebetet und es scheint, als ob diese Gebete erhört wurden. An diesem Wochenende gab es viel Negatives, aber ich habe das Gefühl, dass der Regen das alles weggewaschen hat. Es ist wie ein Traum und ich werde diesen Tag niemals vergessen.

Ich hätte dieses Rennen gerne gewonnen, aber im Moment freue ich mich sehr für uns als Team. Es ist ein perfektes Ergebnis beim Heimrennen von Mercedes in Deutschland. Ich habe heute um den Sieg gekämpft und gegen Rennende sah es für mich recht gut aus. Aber leider hatte ich etwas Pech, da das Safety Car mit Blick auf das Alter meiner Reifen für mich nicht ganz zum bestmöglichen Zeitpunkt herausgekommen ist. Da habe ich das Rennen verloren. Lewis hat eine großartige Aufholjagd gezeigt und ist ein Mega-Rennen gefahren - vielleicht eines seiner besten. Schlussendlich hatte er ein bisschen mehr Glück mit dem Safety Car als ich. Ich hatte eine gute Chance beim Re-Start, Lewis und ich lieferten uns ein großartiges, faires Duell. Aber er behielt die Nase vorne. Das muss spannend ausgesehen haben - zwei gleiche Autos kämpfen auf der Strecke gegeneinander. Wir entschieden uns dazu, nicht auf die Intermediates zu wechseln. Das war ein Risiko, aber das Team war sich sicher, dass es nicht lange regnen würde. Es sollte sich als die genau richtige Entscheidung erweisen. Entsprechend bin ich froh, dass ich dem Team vertraut habe. Ich werde weiter alles geben und bin mir sicher, dass meine Zeit kommen wird.

“It was pretty difficult out there today. Surprisingly, in some corners there was decent grip and in some others there was none at all; we could feel the rain especially in Turns 2 and 6. It was hard to tell when to slow down and where the grip was. Obviously, you had to make your decision before the braking zone, knowing that if it happens to be wetter than you expected, there’s not much you can do. It was not easy but we tried to make the best calls and I think we got it right. The most tricky moments were before the safety car came in; it felt like it was raining a lot, somehow we had some decent grip and suddenly quite bad grip. At one point I had a moment with some back-markers and unfortunately I lost second place. In many ways it could have been better today, but this is what we got. I think that we made the most of it, considering the situation.”

“After such a chaotic race I think finishing fourth is a good result and the car felt strong throughout the race. It was a hard day for decision making due to the late changes in the weather. I had a small slide at Turn 6 when it first started to rain so I decided to pit for Intermediates. As soon as I came out of the pits and got to Turn 6 it was dry again. I knew it was not going to work, it could have done but unfortunately it didn’t continue raining enough. Sometimes these decisions work for you, sometimes not as we experienced today. The safety car meant it didn’t impact the result but it was worth trying at the time. The heavy rain came a fraction too late in the day, perhaps we could have done more but instead we had to settle for dryer conditions. We should be in better shape to get a good result in Hungary so I’m already looking forward to next weekend.”

“I’m very happy with that. The first part of the race wasn’t so exciting, but it was unfolding nicely towards the end, then the rain hit us. It was tricky out there trying to keep it on the road, but I enjoy those conditions and started to make some gains. It’s good points for the team, our joint best finish of the season and my best finish with Renault. More crazy conditions would have been nice, but we’ll take that. We made the right decisions and that’s why we deserve fifth today. We’ve been working hard for it, so it’s a nice reward for the team. We did a good job today.”

“That was good fun. It was a good end to the race. Obviously, we didn’t quite get the right choice putting inters on, as the track dried really quickly for some reason. It was a bit of luck, a gamble, but we came back on slicks, and I had amazing fun through those last laps. I was just pushing it to the limit and going for it. I think we would’ve been quite happy to be where we were before the rain came, and then, obviously, it rained. The boys deserved a really good drive from me, and I had fun doing it.”

“When you come away from such a crazy afternoon with some good points you have to be happy. The whole race was very busy and I was always in the middle of the pack fighting the cars around me. I had a mega first stint, but we were unlucky with the slow pit stop, which cost us a few seconds. Then, when the rain arrived, it was very tricky and each lap was a new adventure. I spun while I was lapping Leclerc – I don’t think he saw me and I just lost the rear end. To survive all these things and finish seventh is a good achievement. It’s just a shame I lost a position to Grosjean on the final lap, but we did all we could today.”

“It’s a great result for us after yesterday’s disappointment. I made a good start and gained a few places in the opening laps, but besides that the first stint was pretty boring. It’s only after the pit stop, when it started raining, that Sergio and I truly made the difference. We gained a few positions on slicks under the rain and it was really good fun. I had to evaluate the situation lap by lap, based on how much rain I could see on my visor and picking my braking points accordingly, but we never really had any doubt about staying out. To get in the points after a tough Saturday is a great result: we stayed solid, we believed in our strategy and in the end it paid off.”

„Es ist toll wieder in den Punkten zu sein. Es war ein schwieriges Rennen, insbesondere was das Reifenmanagement betrifft. Wir hatten einen langen ersten Lauf auf weichen Reifen. Nachdem es angefangen hat zu regnen, haben das Team und ich sehr viel kommuniziert, und uns dazu entschieden die Ruhe zu bewahren und vorerst draussen zu bleiben. Es war eine grosse Herausforderung, keine Fehler zu machen, da die Strecke sehr rutschig und fordernd war. Ich schaffte es aber, die hektische Situation zu managen. Am Ende des Rennens haben viele Teams Reifenwechsel vorgenommen. Es gab einige gute Kämpfe um die Punkte, und es hat Spass gemacht dieses Rennen zu fahren. Es ist super, auf Platz 9 ins Ziel zu kommen – das gilt für das ganze Team. Wir reisen positiv gestimmt in die nächste Runde nach Budapest.“

"I'm happy with how today went. I lost some time behind the Williams at the beginning but I had some fun battles out there. We definitely had good pace on the harder compound tyre, but I struggled at the end when I moved on to the Ultrasoft. I was disappointed to lose a place to Grosjean but he had a lot more pace than me. I kept it clean and we made the right call to brave it and stay out when the rain came. The team and myself had great communication during the changing conditions and in the end it paid off. I also used some of my experience from endurance racing to help make the call, so I'm really happy with the race I did and to bring home one point."

“Obviously, it wasn’t ideal to end up outside of the points after being P6 for the whole race. We didn’t quite get the best out of the weather situation. We’ll just have to learn from that and do better next time.”

“It was a difficult race for me in the end. We made a good start off the line, but then I got squeezed and lost a little bit of momentum. The race settled after that and we were looking in a good position to score points before rain made the track quite slippery and difficult. Unfortunately, I stopped for Intermediate tyres the lap before Vettel crashed, so we were slightly unlucky with the timing. We finished in the top ten, but the penalty ended our chances of securing points, which is disappointing and we’ll look at what happened there.”

“It was a very strange race. “We had a terrible first part, when we were almost last – as we’ve been most of this weekend, to be honest. Then we had an engine issue; we thought we had to retire the car but then we found some settings to make it work again, even though with a little lower power than normal, but at least it got ourselves back in the race. “When the rain came down we took the right decision by not pitting for Intermediate tyres, which got ourselves up a few positions. Thirteenth was probably the best position we could’ve gained today. “The most important thing now is changing things around on my car and arriving in Hungary with a normal car.”

"We knew it was going to be difficult today starting from the back because of the tactical engine penalty, so, as we didn't have much to lose we could be bold with our strategy. The weather made things very tricky and we were unlucky gambling on our strategy when we pitted for the wet tyres as we expected more rain, but the track wasn't wet enough and the heavier rain didn't come. As the wet tyre began to overheat on the dry track, we were forced to make an additional stop to go back to the Ultrasofts. This didn't help but we had to take the risk. It just didn't work today, so we will reset and focus on next week in Budapest."

„Es war ein enttäuschendes Rennen. Nach einem guten Start konnte ich meine Position im vorderen Mittelfeld verteidigen. Unsere Performance war gut, und ich habe mich im Auto wohl gefühlt. Als es anfing zu regnen hat das Team mich an die Box gerufen, um auf intermediate Reifen zu wechseln. Die Strecke war allerdings nur in manchen Kurven nass, weshalb die Reifen schon nach nur ein paar Runden zerstört waren. Danach war das Rennen ein einziger Kampf. Ich habe einige Positionen verloren und habe mir schwergetan, die Reifen ins richtige Arbeitsfenster zu bringen. Es ist schade, das Rennen so zu beenden, allerdings haben wir dieses Wochenende weitere Fortschritte gemacht. Ich konzentriere mich nun auf das kommende Rennen in Ungarn, und freue mich darauf, wieder im Auto zu sein.“

“It was a tricky race today. “We bet on the rain and at the first drops we pitted for Intermediate tyres, expecting that it would rain hard in the following few minutes. But, it didn’t, and we were out there on a dry track with wet tyres, so we killed them and then we had to stop again to get back onto dry tyres. “At that point, our race was compromised. “It was difficult conditions out there, but we weren’t in the points so we had to try something. Disappointingly, the bet today was the wrong one. “At the end of the race, the team told me to retire the car, as they probably saw something on the data.”

“The first 10 to 15 laps were really hard on the Medium tyre and they were a handful. I think the race would have come to us but on the first few laps I needed to be really patient and pick cars off one by one. Once I got into clean air I was able to do some low eighteens which seemed competitive at the time but we didn’t really get a chance to see what we could do today. We could have gone long on the Medium tyre and I think the strategy would have worked for us towards the end. On lap 29 I heard something strange when I was downshifting for Turn 6 and then once I accelerated out of the corner I lost power and the engine started to sound pretty sick. I got on the radio straight away and expected the team to ask me to pull over, which they did. I don’t know the specifics but it was some sort of engine failure which is obviously pretty frustrating after taking the penalties today. Anyway, would have, could have, that’s racing and I feel like I have been in this position too often this season. It hurts, it always does. I may not remember this race but I will remember the crowd, they all showed up today which was really nice to see and I guess they know it may be the last time we come here for a while, it’s been a good show for them, but not for me. Hopefully I can go and win in a week’s time before we all head off for the summer break.”

I had to retire as I lost brakes. Qualifying looked strong yesterday, but today the pace wasn’t great. But I was happy with my race. At one stage we looked like we were in a pretty promising position, but then the rain started to come in. Looking at the results, Hartley scored a point and we were in front of him before we stopped for the inters and then obviously we had to retire with the brake failure. However, at a certain stage we were looking pretty good. It is a shame we could not be there at the end to capitalise on some of the mixed conditions.

“There’s not much to say: I made a small mistake which had a huge impact on the result. I braked just a tiny bit too late for the corner, locked the front tires and then the rear ones, so that I couldn’t turn the car anymore. I think I had managed everything right before that. We had the pace and we had been in control of the race up to that point. It was my mistake, so I am disappointed, but I don’t think we still have to show what we can do. We’ve shown everywhere that we are competitive, so I am looking forward to Hungary next weekend.”

It was a good race and I had to fight quite a lot at the start. I had some good fights which I won and others which I unfortunately lost as I was not in position to do so. But once the race settled down it was a good race and we managed the tyre well. The pace was reasonable and when the rain started, I was very confident and closed the gap between cars ahead of me quite quickly. When the safety car was deployed I felt it was our chance but unfortunately, I had a call to stop the car immediately.