Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

”Obviously it’s a great feeling to win this race. It’s nice to prove to all the people that we can still win; that’s the reason we are here for, try to win races and Championships. It was an exciting race, not only for us but also for all those who were watching. We had a very solid weekend, I felt confident and I’m glad about that especially because lately we’ve had rough weekends for the team. I’m glad we had a fight and it’s nice to see that we still have the speed to go for it and fight has hard as we can. This weekend we found the car that we expected to have. The start was a key moment; In the first part of the race we had the speed, I tried to take care of tires and save fuel. Then the Mercedes stopped and came back on fresher tires: at that time, my target was to keep them behind before we, too, stopped for tyres. If Hamilton had passed us before our stop, it would have been a different story. We are still in the fight for both Championships and this is a good thing. We’re off to Mexico now, where we’ll try do the best we can and hopefully we can get a great result for both teams. We’ll keep fighting until the end.”

“It is safe to say today went a lot better than expected. I managed to stay out of trouble on the first lap while progressing up the field as the pace of my car was really strong. This was crucial as it allowed me to settle into my own rhythm and catch the cars ahead. I didn’t think the Soft compound was the best out there, once I pitted I felt more comfortable and able to control the Supersofts. The undercut on Valtteri was ideal and probably the key to achieving the podium, a great call from the team. In fact, our entire strategy was spot on and once we stopped we were able to manage the Supersofts all the way to the end. The last 10 laps were pretty exciting, especially being the only car on the softer compound fighting at the front. I was trying to get close to Kimi but at the same time keeping an eye on Lewis in my mirror, it was close but we managed to hang on to second. Lewis had a go but we both gave each other plenty of room and thankfully he ran a bit wide and onto a dirty part of the track. I think I started to run out of traction towards the end so attacking Kimi was not on the table. The team have certainly earnt a little celebration tonight before we head to Mexico, where we will try to do even better.”

Das Rennen hat richtig Spaß gemacht. Es war eng gegen Kimi und ich hatte auch kleine Zweikämpfe gegen ihn und Max. Es war ziemlich cool, dass Ferrari, Red Bull und wir um die Positionen gekämpft haben - das muss auch für die Zuschauer aufregend gewesen sein. Natürlich bin ich von unserer Performance etwas enttäuscht. Ich bin als Erster gestartet, aber als Dritter ins Ziel gekommen. Dennoch bin ich dankbar dafür, dass ich vor Seb gelandet bin. Ohne Freitagstraining kann man nicht am Setup arbeiten und das Optimum aus dem Auto herausholen. Alle saßen im gleichen Boot, aber ich glaube, dass Ferrari uns mit den Änderungen nähergekommen ist. Im Rennen fehlte uns die Pace auf den Geraden, aber ich habe alles gegeben. Ich habe wie verrückt gepusht und genau darum geht es im Rennsport. Ich hatte am Ende eine kleine Chance, aber ich musste Max viel Raum lassen, weil es besser ist, Dritter zu werden, als von jemandem rausgeworfen zu werden, der nicht im WM-Kampf steckt. Dieses Risiko wollte ich nicht eingehen. Wir sind heute auf Sieg gefahren, aber es hat nicht sollen sein. Jetzt geht es nach Mexiko. Das ist ein wundervoller Ort, aber ich hatte dort nicht immer die besten Ergebnisse. Entsprechend möchte ich dieses Rennen unbedingt gewinnen.

”I am really, really happy for Kimi and his result today, but I am not happy with my race and I am disappointed for letting the team down today. I had a contact with Ricciardo on lap one, I am not sure he saw me when I was getting closer to him. I wanted to put him under pressure for the next corner, I wasn’t thinking about passing in that point at any rate, but I had nowhere to go, we touched wheels and I span around. I think this has been an important race for us as a team and it’s nice to see that we had a good pace during the race, even though there are still many things we need to learn and to understand. It has not been an easy time for me lately and bad results are part of the game, but I believe it’s always possible to overcome issues.”

Uns war schon vorher klar, dass es ein schwieriger Nachmittag werden würde. Ferrari sah gestern sehr schnell aus und es hingen jede Menge Fragezeichen über dem Rennen, da wir nur wenig im Trockenen fahren konnten. Dadurch war es sehr schwierig, Prognosen für das Setup und die Reifen abzugeben. Wir hatten nicht ganz die Pace, die wir uns gewünscht hatten, besonders auf den weichen Reifen. Wir hatten ein Ein-Stopp-Rennen geplant und das haben wir umgesetzt. Aber rückblickend war der zweite Stint ein bisschen zu lang. Meine Reifen bauten drei oder vier Runden bevor mich Sebastian überholt hat ab. Schließlich waren sie komplett am Ende. Deshalb konnte er in nur wenigen Runden so einen großen Vorsprung herausfahren. Aber wir konnten mit Lewis auch die Zwei-Stopp-Strategie nicht umsetzen. Alles in allem hat uns heute einfach die Pace gefehlt. Jetzt werden wir die üblichen Analysen durchführen, um zu verstehen, warum wir heute nicht schneller gewesen sind. Danach können wir in Mexiko hoffentlich gestärkt zurückschlagen. In dieser Saison stehen nur noch drei Rennen an und der Kampf ist noch lange nicht vorbei. Entsprechend werde ich alles geben, um die bestmöglichen Ergebnisse einzufahren.

“Today saw the best team result since I’ve been with Renault so I’m happy for that, it was a very good job from everyone involved with the team. We demonstrated that the race pace of our car is very decent and we’re still very competitive. It also illustrated how important it is to have a strong qualifying position and a clean first lap. Everything is still possible for us and we took a great bunch of points. It was a very satisfying feeling today, but we have three races left so we need to keep the good work coming.

“In general I’m happy with how we finished the weekend. It was a very good result for the team, which is exactly what was needed. To finish sixth and seventh here gives us strong points so congratulations for a fantastic team effort. On my side, I did a great start and arrived in the first corner ahead of the three cars previously in front. I did run wide behind the Ferrari but re-joined the track safely, letting Esteban by. I then overtook him cleanly round the outside in turn six, so I still can’t understand the penalty. After that, it was all about tyre management and fuel saving. I’m happy for the seventh position and happy to see the great efforts from the whole team paid off today.”

“I made a good start, managed to stay out of trouble and benefited from the chaos around me. We tried to extend the first stint but perhaps we stopped a bit too late. Our pit-stop wasn’t the best and I ended up in a lot of traffic, which caused me to lose out to Magnussen. I was able to overtake him in turn one as he was leaving the pits, but he passed me on the back straight. I followed him for the rest of the race and although I got close, I ran out of laps to make a move. I don’t think we would have been able to challenge the Renaults today, but I’m disappointed we lost out to Magnussen.”

"Really happy with my performance and race today which was rewarded with two points. I was aggressive when I needed to be and did a good job with tyres, the team gave me good info from the pits and the mechanics did a good pit stop - a team effort! From last on the grid to P9 was the max we could do today, and I'm happy with the aggression I showed and how the race went. Even if the points haven't come, I have been very strong in all the last races and am very motivated and optimistic for the rest of the season and beyond."

“It was a decent race for me. It was tough to start on the hardest compound, which made it more difficult to challenge my competitors. However, I was able to move up the field step by step, which was a good effort. Still, the target is to score points, so I am not fully satisfied with the original result, which was P12. Our performance this weekend was solid and I look forward to our next opportunity in Mexico City.”

“In the end today’s result wasn’t too bad, especially under the circumstances. We made a reasonable start with all the carnage that happened around us – we got touched left, right and centre on the first lap which wasn’t ideal. “We finished 13th, after deciding to go for a two-stop strategy, and pitted under the Virtual Safety Car. A few of the cars around us did a one-stop – it’s hard to say which was best, but we were quick when it mattered, and we beat a couple of cars again. “In the end, I think it was the maximum possible for us today.”

"It was a long and difficult Sunday. Starting from P19 we knew it would be a difficult race. We took some debris after the chaotic first lap and that damaged the floor a bit, after that I was just trying to do everything I could from inside the car, but there was a massive loss of grip for the rest of the race. We decided for a two stop strategy but there wasn't much we could do today. The pace over one lap in Qualifying was really good so there's positives to take away from the weekend. It's just a shame we couldn't fight properly this time, but I'm really hoping we can carry the pace into Mexico and have a clean Qualifying there to get a good result for the team."

It was a tough race. I had a very good start and gained quite a lot of places. I got some damage on the rear-side of the floor in one of the incidents with a McLaren through the first-lap, but everything was ok whilst we were in dirty air and there was a lot of inconsistency in the things happening around the track. I had good pace considering the damage and I could keep up with the cars ahead and everything looked good. After the pitstop it just didn’t work. When everyone got into their rhythm and got into their pace we just didn’t have the performance to compete and keep the people behind. The damage on the floor that I had was probably painful for us in clean air when everyone could use their performance a bit more. I was just basically trying to get to the end without losing too many places which was not the best feeling either. I don’t think we could have done much better.

It was a terrible day. I had contact with Alonso on the first lap in turn five. I saw a gap and went for it, but I don't think he really saw me and turned in. After that my race was finished as I got the drive through and that was that. I haven't seen the footage, but I think it was a racing incident. I am just disappointed about the result.

“It is frustrating to finish the race like this. It was clear that the potential was there to achieve a good result, especially after starting from P9 today. After the incident on the first lap, the car was just too damaged for us to extract enough performance to allow us to be competitive enough to race properly – even after changing the nose and tyres just after it happened. In the end, I had to retire from the race early, which is a shame. Our performance was strong this weekend, and we will take that with us to Mexico and build on it.”

“It’s incredibly frustrating to retire so early in the race and I just don’t seem to have any luck at the moment. Everything just switched off and it seemed pretty much identical to the issue I had in Bahrain at the beginning of the year. I couldn’t even communicate with anyone on the radio so it looks like a battery failure. Now, seeing how the race played out makes it even harder to take as it could have been pretty interesting and it was a great afternoon for Max. There’s not much more to say about it to be honest. A lot of times this year there have been things out of my control but I can only keep trying. The biggest shame is that I only have a handful of races left with Red Bull and I want to have more highs than we’ve had. I want to be able to celebrate with the Team at least one more time and be on the podium to enjoy that feeling, but we’re running out of races which is pretty tough to take at the moment.”

“It was a tough race this afternoon after a difficult first lap. I lost a few positions at the start because the cars behind me took some big risks. I decided to let them go because the risks were too big in my opinion. After that it was difficult to fight back because the cars we were racing [the Renaults] had already gotten ahead. After the pit stop, I had Kevin [Magnussen] behind me for the rest of the race. He was quick and it wasn’t easy keeping him behind. I’m pleased we still picked up some decent points, but we definitely need to review our weekend and see where we can improve for the races to come.”

“My race today lasted only a few hundred meters. “There was a lot of action in Turn Four, which was a surprise, because it’s not normal to overtake into that high-speed section. Three cars were trying to overtake each other and a couple of guys around me were very optimistic, misjudging their position and manoeuvres a bit, and the result was that some cars ended up in the wall and one of those was mine. “It’s always the same story, it just keeps happening. At the start, people are trying to bump everyone else, the same as when you have a rental car! No one does it on purpose, but today they played bowling with my car again, like they did in Spa. “It’s a shame. We came out here early to prepare for this race and it only lasted a couple of corners.”

“I would say it was a steady race. The car was very good. We had good pace and I was able to put pressure on the Force Indias. I passed Perez just after the pit stop and I was faster than Ocon, but I had to save so much fuel that I couldn’t afford to attack him. It’s a shame that we have fuel saving in Formula One and not being able to attack. At the end of the day, what the fans want to see is great racing. We can’t do it because we have to save fuel. It’s disappointing.”

“I had a decent start. There was a lot of action going on. I was fighting with Charles (Leclerc) and Esteban (Ocon). I got to turn 12 and I braked early because I was behind them. I didn’t want to take much risk, but I ended up in the dirty air and I couldn’t stop the car. I tried to avoid the contact as much as I could, but Charles was trying to get a good exit and I hit him. I feel sorry for Charles and I’m frustrated for the team. This being our home race, we wanted to do well. It’s not been a great afternoon.”