Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

“I’m very happy because we had a great race, the car now has proved to be robust on all tracks and this weekend we got a little more power from the new engine, which I think also helped us down the straights. At the start I tried to stay close to Lewis, getting a good exit out of Turn 1 and then taking advantage of the slipstream to get past. After the Safety car pulled out, it was just the other way round, so I looked after the exit of Turn 1 to stay ahead. The first stint was very close, only a couple of seconds between us; but then the guys did a fantastic pit-stop, I could not believe the light had turned green so fast, and that gave our rivals no chance. The second stint was ore about managing the car and the tires for both of us. This is a great win for the whole team and hope in Monza it will be the same, but we need to keep fighting to be always up there.”

Wir haben heute alles gegeben, aber Ferrari war einfach besser. Es fiel uns schwer, ihre Zeiten mitzugehen. Ich denke, dass wir das Rennen auf der ersten Runde und beim Re-Start nach der Safety-Car-Phase verloren haben. Danach war es gelaufen. Sie waren auf den Geraden einfach schneller und wir konnten nichts dagegen unternehmen. Wir hatten hier ein Upgrade dabei, aber leider konnte Ferrari mit uns mithalten und uns sogar übertreffen. Jetzt müssen wir mehr Performance herausholen und uns in den Bereichen verbessern, in denen sie momentan stärker sind als wir. Aber der Kampf geht weiter, was für den Sport richtig spannend ist. Wir werden weiter alles geben.

“After a bit of bad luck here in Spa in the past I’m very pleased to finally be coming away with a podium. There was a bit of first lap chaos to contend with but we made it through cleanly and managed to settle into a good pace right away. From there on I managed to pass Grosjean up the hill and concentrate on chasing the Force Indias. I knew I would have to be patient and in the end I got close enough. I was surprised by their pace, I thought with DRS I would be able to get by easily but they were very strong. This made it a bit more enjoyable to try and pass. After this little battle it was quite a lonely race, it was good to push the car and learn from it but there wasn’t a lot more action for me. Seb and Lewis were once again too quick for us but in terms of balance the car felt really good. It is always good to be on the podium but being on it here in Spa with so many Dutch fans is really special. On the last lap I was able to take in the orange crowd and enjoy it. Monza shouldn’t be strong in theory but as you can see from today a lot of things can happen. We will do our best and try to be there so if something happens our car can be in the running.”

Wir hatten uns für den heutigen Tag Schadensbegrenzung vorgenommen und das ist mir mit einer guten Aufholjagd gelungen. Ich hatte darauf gehofft, vielleicht eine Chance auf einen Podestplatz zu haben, aber ich hatte eine Kollision am Eingang von Kurve eins, in deren Zug mein Frontflügel beschädigt wurde. Danach war der vierte Platz das Maximum, das wir heute herausholen konnten. Angesichts der Tatsache, dass ich von Platz 17 gestartet bin, ist das aber kein schlechtes Ergebnis. Das Rennen hat mir sogar ziemlich viel Spaß gemacht, da ich viele Autos überholen konnte. Mein Lieblingsmanöver war sicherlich das in Eau Rouge - das hat richtig Spaß gemacht. Leider konnten wir das Rennen nicht gewinnen, aber wir haben mehr Punkte geholt als Ferrari. Das ist schon einmal positiv. Sie sahen an diesem Wochenende sowohl im Qualifying als auch im Rennen sehr stark aus. Wir haben mit unserem Motor an diesem Wochenende Fortschritte erzielt, aber Ferrari ist immer noch schneller. Wir müssen also weiter Gas geben.

“It’s a great performance by the team today and I think we executed an almost perfect weekend. My only disappointment is from yesterday because I think pole position was within reach, but we can definitely be happy about the points we have scored. We just couldn’t have kept the top teams behind us in the dry so to be ‘best of the rest’, with Esteban right behind me, is the most we could have done. My start was really good and I was able to place myself in the right positions during the first few corners. After that, my pace was strong and consistent. I opened a gap and after that I was able to control my race. There was nothing I could do to keep Valtteri [Bottas] behind me - sometimes you just need to pick your fights and think of the bigger picture. I am happy with what we have achieved; we have scored some important points for the team and sent a strong message for the next few races. It’s a nice start of a new era for the team.”

“I am satisfied with today’s race and I think we finished where we deserved to with the pace we had. I made a good start and I was on the inside of Sebastian [Vettel] at turn one. He had better traction, but I was very quick on the straight and tried to get the lead on the Kemmel straight. I had a good run down, slipstreaming both Vettel and Lewis [Hamilton] and I tried to find a way on the inside, but in the end I lost a place to Sergio. It was good, fair racing all around. It’s a good start to the “new” life of the team; we scored a lot of points which is important for our championship comeback. We showed good pace all weekend and hopefully this is going to continue in the final part of the season.”

“That was about what we expected today. We knew the Force Indias had the same pace, if not a bit quicker, so it was difficult to stay with them. They were quick on a straight line. I’m pretty happy with how the race went, and I’m happy Kevin was there as well. We did the best we could. Two cars in the points – in seventh and eighth – that’s really good for the constructors’ championship. It was a lot of points for us and zero for some others, so that’s a positive from this race.”

“We scored points with both cars, which was the goal for today. We did everything we could. In the race, I lost a lot of time around the pit stops, which was unfortunate but, even so, I don’t think I could have fought the Force Indias. It would probably have just been a swap between me and Romain. We’re catching up on Renault, and that’s the target. I’m really just happy for the team. We can be pleased with the result today. Scoring 10 points on a day when Renault didn’t score any points – that’s important.”

"I'm really happy to score points today! It was supposed to be a difficult weekend for us on a track like this, and to end up with two points is really positive. The race itself was actually quite calm for me, I started in 10th position and overtook Daniel and Kimi on the inside of Turn 1 which put me in eighth. A few laps later Valtteri passed me but we knew there wasn't much we could do about that, so I just pushed as much as I could. In the end we finished in P9, so it's really satisfying. The car felt great all weekend and Honda did a really good job, we definitely made the most out of our package this weekend. We will try and do the same in Monza in a few days, another track that on paper does not suit our car, but It's our home race and I will give it all to get the best possible result."

„Es war ein recht gutes Rennen. Ich hatte einen anständigen Start, und habe ein paar gute Entscheidungen getroffen. Während des Rennens hatte ich auch interessante Zweikämpfe. Das Auto hat sich gut angefühlt, und es ist schön, das Wochenende mit einem weiteren Punkt zu beenden. Das Team hat eine tolle Arbeit geleistet, und das Resultat motiviert uns für das kommende Wochenende. Wir machen uns nun auf den Weg nach Monza zum Heimrennen von Alfa Romeo. Es wird aufregend sein, die Fans dort zu sehen, und ich freue mich darauf wieder Rennen zu fahren.“

“Overall, it’s been a difficult weekend. We struggled in sector two today and overtaking was difficult as we couldn’t get into DRS range of the drivers ahead. When you lack confidence and balance in the car, it makes things tough at this track. We have things to analyse and look into. On Friday I was more comfortable with the car, so we have to check what’s happened over the course of the weekend. We know what we need to improve. We have a couple of days to work hard and get set for Monza.”

It was a reasonable race to be honest. Our race pace was closer to our competitors and I was fighting a Sauber for points at the beginning of my stint which showed we were having a proper fight, which wasn’t down to just luck. The prospect of getting points was a nice feeling but we just missed it. I enjoyed the couple of laps at the start, I was manging the pace and my stint. I think we had good pace compared to where we are usually. After the pitstop, everything looked even better. I wasn’t lucky catching the Toro Rosso at that part of the track, I struggled for a lap and a half with the tyres and that’s how Carlos (Sainz) got through, otherwise I think had enough pace to keep him behind. That would have made for a very special race for where we are and what we have but I think we can take a lot of positives from today.

I felt we were better compared to the rest of the field today than we have been recently, and that is a positive sign. Renault was a bit quicker than us, but not too much quicker. I think they had that bit better extra pace and undercut us. Carlos was on the mediums at the beginning and we were on the softs, and he was kind of maintaining the pace, but on the supersoft he undercut us quite easily.

"I'm not happy with how today's race went. I had a couple of good battles on track, but it wasn't easy out there. I was right behind Daniel on the exit of Turn 1 which would have shaped up to be OK, but then he had contact with Kimi and he lost his wing. I got stuck behind and then both the Williams and a Sauber ended up passing me before Eau Rouge, so I lost out in the mix of the first corner scrap and my race wasn't looking too good at that point. We went really long on our first stint to help the other car to consolidate a points finish, as we knew points were out of reach for me. We ran a different strategy to Pierre's car and started on the harder compound which we knew would be tricky for Turn 1, but it made sense to split strategies. I'm happy as it's a quick turnaround before Monza."

“It was a pretty boring race to be honest! I was on my own all the way. It was a very unfortunate crash on lap one, luckily everyone was unhurt so that’s the most important thing. “We tried to do something different with the tyre strategy and pit behind the Safety Car, and unfortunately that didn’t really pay off. I think the race in general was quite boring for everyone, there wasn’t much overtaking and for us there were no miracles today. “Whatever we did there was nothing much we could get out of it. Whether pitting the second time was the right thing to do is hard to tell, but it didn’t make much difference. We more or less confirmed our pace anyway and we aren’t very quick at all. The only chance we had for a good result was to try something completely different and it didn’t work, but I don’t think we lost anything by doing it.”

„Es ist enttäuschend das Rennen so zu beenden. Kurz nach dem Start wurde ich in einen Unfall, der zwischen zwei anderen Fahrern stattfand, verwickelt, und musste das Rennen sofort abbrechen. Ich freue mich nun auf das kommende Rennwochenende in Monza. Es wird ein wichtiger Grand Prix für uns, insbesondere da unser Titelsponsor, Alfa Romeo, in Italien eine Ikone ist. Wir werden alles tun, um dort ein positives Ergebnis zu haben.“

“I don’t know exactly what happened at the start, but I felt a tap and to be honest I just remember sliding and the next minute I hit the back of Kimi. It was just a Turn 1 incident and apologies to Kimi if his retirement was down to me, but I’m pretty sure it all started behind me and was a chain reaction. It was a big crash for quite a low speed corner and I think Hulkenberg hit Alonso pretty hard from what I heard. My rear wing was pretty much ripped off and the mechanics tried to get me back out with a new wing before we went a lap down; we just missed that but they did all they could. We tried to stay out and hope for a Safety Car so we could get back on the lead lap, but we couldn’t just keep racing and hoping until the end, so we chose to retire with 14 laps remaining to save mileage on the engine and gearbox. After the rear wing change there was still some damage on my car as they had to fix it so quickly, we overtook quite a few cars but we weren’t really that fast and we were just circulating. Just one of those Sundays I guess. A lot of people would love my bad days, there you go, perspective. We will try again in Italy.”

“I’m disappointed. We made a good start. There were a couple of possibilities of overtaking in Turn One – you play it cautious, you brake at the same point, then you look in the mirrors and see the guys behind you behaving as if this was the last corner of the championship. “I saw Nico in the mirrors coming with all four wheels locked, at a very high speed. He completely missed the braking point by a long way, not just a couple of metres. There was no way I could avoid that, then I felt the impact and flew over Charles’ car. Nico played bowling a little bit with us today. “It’s sad to see this happening, because usually these kinds of accidents have major consequences, but on the positive side, everyone involved is fine, especially Charles, as I flew over his car. Not that we needed any proof, but the halo showed again today it is a very good thing to have on the car. “Now I feel okay, but we need to wait a couple of hours to see how things develop when it cools down.”

“I don’t know what happened at the start: the only thing I know is that somebody hit me from behind and straight after that I got a puncture. I had a lot of damage to the rear wing endplate and the floor; at that point I could not go fast and the DRS stayed open all the times, it was hard to remain on track. It was pointless to continue, the damage was too big, so we decided to go back to the garage.”

“When I hit the brakes, it locked up the front wheels and I slid. These cars are aerodynamically sensitive, especially with cars bunching up ahead as you lose a lot of grip and load. I have to admit it caught me by surprise today. It was probably a misjudgement from my side as I was a bit late on the brakes, so it’s frustrating for me, the team, and the other drivers caught up in the incident. That’s racing and unfortunately these things happen. We have Monza next weekend, so I want to get this out of the system as soon as possible and focus on that.”