Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Das war heute eine Überraschung. Wir hatten hier seit einiger Zeit zu kämpfen und erwarteten vor diesem Wochenende, dass es für uns erneut sehr schwierig werden würde. Wir gingen wirklich davon aus, dass wir uns hier im Hintertreffen befinden würden. Aber wir blieben konzentriert, haben hart gearbeitet und am Ende ist alles zusammengekommen. Die ersten paar Kurven waren ziemlich verrückt. Ich wurde am Start aufs Gras gedrückt und dann hat mich Max getroffen. Danach war es nicht gerade einfach, mich davon zu erholen. An meinem Unterboden fehlte ein großes Stück, weshalb sich das Heck stark bewegte und ich musste meinen Fahrstil entsprechend anpassen. Ich weiß gar nicht, wie ich das geschafft habe, aber es ist mir gelungen. Die Jungs haben bei der Strategie fantastische Arbeit abgeliefert. Wir sind recht früh hereingekommen und ehrlich gesagt, dachte ich, dass es ein wenig zu früh gewesen ist. Aber schlussendlich ist es aufgegangen. Ich wollte den Fans heute unbedingt ein Ergebnis abliefern. Sie haben mich auf der Fahrerparade alle angefeuert und ich wollte für sie eine gute Performance zeigen. Deshalb bin ich dankbar für diesen Sieg.

“We didn’t get is so wrong today. It was simply a case of not believing that the hard tyres could last so long, considering how early in the race Lewis pitted. He took a risk and it paid off. For our part, we tried both strategies; two stops for Charles and one for me and the final result proves that both of them were good. On Friday, we had a lot of graining, while today there was none and that made the difference, helping those who decided to take the risk. Obviously, we can’t be pleased with this result, because when you start from the front row, as a team, you expect to win. In the closing laps we lacked the speed to try and go for the win. For Lewis and Valtteri, everything went really perfectly, while maybe we were just a bit unlucky.”

Heute war ein sehr guter Tag, ganz besonders, wenn man die Umstände bedenkt - speziell den Zustand meines Autos nach dem Unfall gestern und die Tatsache, dass ich von Platz sechs ins Rennen gegangen bin. Ich hatte einen schwierigen Start, aber danach bin ich ein sehr starkes Rennen gefahren. Ich habe auf meine Reifen geachtet und konnte meinen ersten Stint ziemlich lange ausdehnen. Dadurch haben sich für mich einige Möglichkeiten eröffnet. Ich versuchte, Sebastian unter Druck zu setzen, aber letztendlich glaube ich nicht, dass der Unterschied zwischen uns für ein Überholmanöver ausgereicht hätte. Wir haben das Maximale herausgeholt und das gesamte Team hat fantastische Arbeit abgeliefert - von den Mechanikern, die mein Auto repariert haben, bis zu den Strategen, die einen großartigen Plan für das Rennen entworfen haben. Alle haben richtig klasse Arbeit geleistet. Gestern hatten Red Bull und Ferrari die Oberhand, aber wir sind in diesem Jahr an den Sonntagen richtig stark und genau darauf kommt es am Ende an. Beim letzten Rennen haben wir uns die Konstrukteurs-Weltmeisterschaft gesichert, aber das heutige Ergebnis zeigt, dass dieses Team noch immer hungrig ist. Ich bin unheimlich glücklich, dass sich heute die ganze harte Arbeit aller in Brackley und Brixworth ausgezahlt hat.

“Starting a race from pole and not finishing first is always disappointing. The beginning of the race went well, and I managed to stay in the lead for the first stint. Wanting to cover off Alex (Albon), we pitted early and committed to a two-stop strategy. After my first stop the race was very tricky: my second stint was difficult and any time I approached a car ahead I struggled with overheating and couldn’t overtake. All in all, it’s a shame but if there is something I can learn from today it is to try to help the team more with my feedback from inside the car so that we can make the best call together.”

“Today was ok and I had good fun. I think it was one of my best races in terms of pace and the guys in front weren’t too far ahead! At the start we were running third and I was getting quite excited. It was great to be fighting at the front but unfortunately their one stop strategy worked out better. We stuck to a two stop strategy but I’m not sure if we had the pace or tyre life to make a one stop work. I lost quite a lot of time getting through traffic, especially after my first pit stop when I came out behind Sainz but there’s quite a high chance of getting traffic at this circuit. The boys also got the fastest pit stop of the race, so I obviously hit my marks! They have had a busy weekend so that was a great job and I’ll have to repay them. Overall, I’m happy with my performance and I’m improving my consistency which is important. The lap times are coming and now I’ve got three more races to improve even further!“

“Sixth obviously isn’t where I wanted to finish today with the car we had but when you look at the circumstances I think it was still a very good race. I had a good start and I think Lewis got pushed onto the grass by a Ferrari so he lost some momentum. He came back around the outside at Turn 1 and then into Turn 2 he went very deep to defend and I had to go onto the grass to avoid him. The race was still on until I overtook Valtteri and he clipped my rear tyre which gave me a puncture and I had to do a whole lap to get back to the pits. After that I was forced to do a one stop which was very slow as I did 66 laps on the hard tyre. The result is a shame as the pace was good and the car was good but to come back to sixth was actually not a bad result if you look at everything that went on.”

“This is a great day for me and my team. I think the race was just about perfect and I want to congratulate the entire team for all their hard work delivering this result. It’s extra special to score good points in my home race - in front of the fans who have given me so much support this week. There were some cars that were a bit quicker than us today, but we beat them with a fantastic strategy. This feels like a victory for us. The race was so intense, especially the battle against Daniel [Ricciardo] at the end – when he was on fresher tyres and putting big pressure on me. I had to concentrate so hard and push right until the end. I’m very satisfied with our performance and the points we scored today are important for the fight in the teams’ championship.”

“It’s good to be in the points. I could have got more if I had passed Perez but I just couldn’t make it stick. I sent it into turn one, maybe a little late and the postman wasn’t there! We made a really strong start on the Hard tyre and that set us up for the rest of the race. It’s a solid day with both cars back in the points. It’s been a tough week for the team, so I’m proud of them and how they’ve kept their spirits high. We regrouped quickly and we can be pleased with that, but now we have to move on and keep it up.”

“It wasn’t easy at all inside of the cockpit, but today I gave everything and I’m happy with scoring two points. Overall the car has been competitive all weekend, which was positive. Starting the race on the Option tyre clearly wasn’t ideal, but we tried to make the best out of it. In the end we managed to make it work which was important for our battle in the Championship.”

“We definitely wanted more today, so it’s frustrating to only pick up one point. We perhaps were a little bit too keen to pit early. In the latter stages of the race I was struggling with the car a bit, trying to get in a rhythm. There’s not much to say about the final corner incident. We were running in ninth, but I had no grip, I was pushed by Daniil [Kvyat] and it doesn’t take much to spin. It was a shame as it cost us an extra point.”

“We knew it was going to be difficult today with our starting compound, but we still had high hopes to get some points. I think the race was very strong given the circumstances. In a way we kind of compromised our race with our good Qualifying. I’m quite upset with the penalty I received because as a racing driver, I disagree with it because we are told we are allowed to race. Nico was defending and I was attacking and these things happen, especially on the last corner of the last lap. Despite this, I feel very strong after this weekend; Friday, Qualifying, and the race were all strong for me, so I’m looking forward to getting back on track next week in Austin.”

“We had a great opening lap and a strong first stint - managing the gaps to build a tyre advantage over our main competitors and we were solidly inside the points. The second stint wasn’t so straightforward: we struggled with front graining so we need to understand why it impacted us so much. It’s a shame we couldn’t capitalise on the track position we had to score some points today because the pace was good and the car was strong. We need to review the data, see what we could have done differently and come back fighting in Austin.”

“It’s been a bad and frustrating afternoon for the whole team. After such a strong qualifying yesterday and a great start today, managing to slip into P4, it was very disappointing to go backwards after the first pit-stop. “The Hard tyre simply ruined our race. We need to analyse in detail what happened and why we had such a poor stint on that compound. Austin is right around the corner so there is no time to lose. We’ll keep our heads down and work hard to come back stronger next weekend.”

“My start wasn’t too bad and in the opening phases I was racing with the Renaults and Racing Points, but the pit-stop issue cost us a lot of time. After that, with no Safety Car or VSC, our race was effectively compromised. I was pretty much on my own for the rest of the afternoon, so it’s hard to tell where we stood in terms of pace. We will need to work hard to get back ahead of next week, in Austin.”

“I think we did a good job considering we made a one-stop strategy work. We had damage on the car, I was hit by Kimi (Raikkonen) at the start, we were all squeezed up and he damaged my floor. Taking those things into consideration, and knowing that we just didn’t have the pace today, I think we did the best that we could.”

I made a great start and through turns one, two, and three I was in the right place at the right time and gained a load of positions. For turns four, five, and six though I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and lost them all. I spent most of the race right behind Robert, but I think he had a problem near the end and had to do an additional pitstop. In the final 10 laps I was in clear air and the pace was extremely strong, so if I’d managed to hold onto those positions after the first few corners then I could have maintained them. A bit of a missed opportunity and we should have finished higher.

“It was a tough afternoon. Nothing was working very well, we just have to hope that the next race is better. We need to keep looking to find out what’s going on with the car. Here, it hasn’t felt right since FP3, and the race confirmed that.”

The feeling in the car was much better than yesterday. I managed to make good decisions in the battles, there was a lot going on and I gained a couple of positions at the start. George managed to get in front of me as I had a long pitstop, but then I managed to overtake him. It was unfortunate that I had to stop for the second time because of a slow puncture. Thanks for the support from the Mexican fans, it was an amazing atmosphere today.

“It’s a shame to have to retire from the race because generally we had been a bit happier with things this weekend. Unfortunately, much of our day was decided at the start. I got squeezed between two cars and a big chunk of my floor was destroyed. The cooling was damaged too and later in the race the temperatures went very high and we had to stop the car. It’s unfortunate but that’s how racing goes sometimes. At some point our pace wasn’t too bad, so let’s hope we can keep improving next week.”

“I had another really good start, a good first few corners and managed to get ahead of one of the Red Bulls and one of the Mercedes. My first stint was good and we had better pace than the Toro Rossos. “I think we had a wheel nut cross-threaded at my stop, I’m not too sure, but the team decided to play safe by immediately stopping the car and bring it back to check it. I was running pretty much a lap down and had several blue flags which made the race even more difficult. Some parameters of the car were beyond the limit and we retired to avoid further damage.”