Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Das war einer der körperlich und mental anstrengendsten Tage, die ich je erlebt habe. Ich bin ehrlich gesagt ziemlich erschöpft, aber es ist ein fantastisches Gefühl, so ein verrücktes Rennen gewonnen zu haben. Es war alles ein bisschen verwirrend und fühlte sich wie drei Rennen an einem Tag an. Es war unheimlich hart, diese Strecke ist phänomenal und Valtteri hart mich hart gepusht - es war alles andere als einfach. Mit all den Restarts und der nötigen Konzentration war es wirklich schwer. Der erste Start war nicht gerade klasse und ich verlor eine Position an Valtteri. Aber der zweite Start war besser und ich konnte mir den Platz zurückholen. Danach lag ich komfortabel in Führung, bis es erneut eine rote Flagge gegeben hat. Bei den Restarts hätte alles passieren können, aber zum Glück hatte ich beim letzten meinen besten Start des Tages und konnte meine Position verteidigen. Valtteri war immer direkt hinter mir und ich durfte mir keinen einzigen Fehler erlauben, ansonsten wäre er da gewesen und hätte mich auf der Geraden überholt. Vielen Dank an das gesamte Team hier an der Rennstrecke sowie in den Werken für all ihre harte Arbeit, die dieses Ergebnis ermöglicht hat. Mugello ist eine großartige Strecke, auf der ich in Zukunft gerne wieder fahren würde.

Es fühlt sich an, als ob wir heute drei Rennen gefahren wären - das war richtig hart. Der erste Teil des Rennens verlief gut, aber er war auch ziemlich kurz. Ich hatte einen Traumstart und konnte meine Position beim ersten Safety-Car-Restart verteidigen. Nachdem ich meinen Platz beim zweiten Start an Lewis verloren hatte, war es sehr schwierig, ihn zurückzubekommen. Ich habe mein Bestes gegeben und richtig hart gepusht, besonders im mittleren Stint. Dadurch konnte ich den Abstand beibehalten. Aber wenn man hinten liegt, rutscht das Auto mehr und verbraucht die Reifen mehr. Nachdem ich den Platz verloren hatte, gab es für mich nicht mehr viele Gelegenheiten. Aber so läuft das eben manchmal. Jetzt muss ich weiter angreifen und versuchen, mich zu verbessern. Und genau das werde ich machen.

“I’m really happy and it took a while to get here! It’s something I’ve always wanted and one way or another we haven’t been able to get it so to be there today is pretty special. It’s really nice to give the Team something back after they’ve supported me since day one and show them what I can do. It was a tough race and definitely not one of the easy ones. This track is brutal, especially the high speed corners in sector two, and with so many re-starts to manage we had our work cut out. We struggled to get off the line so I knew I had to be aggressive to get all the overtakes done but we had a really good car and we know it’s good on the brakes so we used that to our advantage. When we lost two positions on the final re-start, I was fired up as I wasn’t going to let the opportunity of a podium go by so I pushed hard to get third and I’m over the moon with today’s result.”

“I’m really happy with today’s race and we’re so close to the podium again. It was a long day, a long race with the stoppages and incidents, but the main thing is that all the drivers are okay. It looked like we were on for third towards the end of the race, so it’s a shame to come so close. We can’t get any closer than that and we’ll keep pushing. Our starts were good, we got Valtteri [Bottas], but he and Alex [Albon] were just too quick to hold on. It hurts not to be on the podium after that, but fourth is still a big result today.”

“I think we did really well to maximise the situation to get to P5 considering how crazy the race was, and it’s good points for the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships. I’m also relieved to hear that Lance is OK after his big crash. The key to our race was keeping our focus and staying calm in all the incidents and red flags, which we managed to do. I think the podium was a possibility for us today, but we just didn’t quite have the pace or the balance to make it into the fight for the podium. It was tough to come to a new race circuit and adapt quickly, but I think we did well to fight inside the top five this weekend. We also saw today that the upgrade Lance ran was promising throughout the weekend, so I’m looking forward to trying it out for myself in the coming races.”

“I’m happy with today. It was a long race from the start to the finish with the two red flags, but I don’t think we could’ve asked for much more. I think we capitalised on other people’s mistakes but didn't really have the pace to do a lot more. “Everyone that finished ahead qualified ahead and was much quicker, so I’m happy with how we performed. The car was still very tricky to drive, so I struggled with some confidence. We’ve got a bit to work on for next time, but I think from my side it couldn’t have been a much better race. “Finally, thanks to the team for their hard work over this opening stint of races. It hasn’t been easy for the team at track or the guys and girls back at the factory, but their support has been incredible.”

“It was a very difficult race today, both physically and mentally, so I think we can quite proudly say as a team we didn’t make any mistakes, which is great. It was important for us to get some good points, so I’m happy with the result and I’m pleased with my driving. The team did a great job in difficult circumstances during the two red flags, and our strategy calls today were the right choices. There was a lot of mess behind us, but in front it was quite stable, so P7 was a very good result and we took some more points to close the gap in the championship.”

“I had a great start, making my way to P3. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace we needed to keep this position and finished in 8th place. I tried to fight as much as I could, but it just wasn’t enough today. Lots of things happened in the race, but one thing hasn’t changed, which is that we have to work hard to improve our performance. The race itself was quite fun. I was happy every time there was a standing start because it was an opportunity for us to try and fight for positions. The car was quite difficult to drive, especially on the Hard tyres. Towards the end it became a bit better on the Softs, but overall, it’s very tough at the moment, so we need to keep our heads up and stay motivated. It’s very important to keep this in mind in times like these. Hopefully we will see better times coming soon.”

“It was definitely not the smoothest of races but we finally managed to bring home some points, so we can be pleased about that. My race started pretty badly, I am not sure what exactly happened at turn two but I was hit and suffered a lot of damage. Probably whoever hit me didn’t expect the pack to slow as much as we did, but in any case the crash took away part of my floor and my front wing. The damage made the handling of the car really bad and we struggled with the balance: we lost a lot of downforce but in the end we were still able to push at a decent pace. I had a slow pit stop but thankfully the second red flag got us back in the fight. Then I had a penalty for crossing the pit entry line, which didn’t help, but after the second red flag I was still able to do some good laps and in the end only lost one place. It was far from the perfect execution of a race but, despite all the issues, we still brought home two important points. It’s still a bit of a shame as we have made some good progress and I think we could have finished even higher with a cleaner afternoon, but hopefully we will carry the performance to the next few events.”

“The start was not the best, but then I had a good run into Turn 1 staying on the inside, out of trouble. Then when I came round Turn 2, I saw that the McLaren had spun, but I couldn’t avoid making contact. Luckily, with the Safety Car deployed we could change the wing and rejoin the field. I would have loved to capitalise a little bit more on other people’s mistakes, but at least we were quite lucky to generally stay out of trouble. The positive thing is that we were able to finish in the points, but of course we can’t be happy with our position.”

It’s such a shame as the race was under control, and I was in P9 before the last red flag. I was driving like hell, everything was stable, the tyres were good, and I was ready to bring the car home. With the last restart, we had some wheel spin and this made the final stint very diffciult. I am disappointed for myself and the team as I feel like we deserved that. Under normal circumstances with the great initial start we had, we would have been in the points.

“It’s one of the strengths of Haas – we never give up. I had a big hit at turn two on the first lap. The car was switched off, I was ready to retire, then I saw I had two wheels on the grass so I restarted the engine to see if I could get out of the gravel. I was able to get going and the suspension was ok, so we thought – let’s keep going. At the first red flag I saw the state of the car, I didn’t know how we were going to keep racing, half of the left-hand side was missing. The guys said to hang in and we did our best. The last restart was fun, I managed to get up the order a bit. But when you’re missing about two seconds a lap, which we had calculated in aero damage, there’s not much you can do. That said, I’m very happy that we didn’t give up. Nobody can take that from us.”

“It’s really frustrating to end a race like this, without having really raced a single lap, although I am happy for the team scoring points. I had made another good start, climbing to P14: I felt at ease in the car and who knows how the race could have gone. There’s not much I can say about the crash except that it was a very dangerous situation. Everyone around me was already up at full speed, but suddenly there was [Kevin] Magnussen almost stopped in the middle of the track. [Nicholas] Latifi avoided him but I just didn’t have the time – I tried to, but clipped his rear left. Thankfully, nobody got injured but it was a very dangerous crash. With such a long straight, this was always going to be an issue and we have to think on how to avoid this situation happening again in the future.”

"Well, first of all I'm glad everyone is okay after such a dangerous accident. That’s the main thing. We really need to look into what happened and figure out what triggered the whole situation to make sure it never happens again. It’s not the first time these restarts have got dangerous when you’re at the mid-to-back of the field, and something needs to be done. “On the positive side, I got a good start. It was a day to take risks and try to go forward at the start because the pace all weekend hasn’t been great. Unfortunately, I had slight contact with a Racing Point, fighting for P5 into Turn Three, which sent me into a spin. We still had the whole race ahead of us and from P15 at the restart I could’ve fought into the points. Unfortunately, we never got to race again this afternoon. “Last but not least, I want to thank the mechanics and the entire team for all their effort and hard work after doing nine races in eleven weekends. We keep going.”

“We had a brake overheating issue, which is why we had to retire today. Under the Safety Car, the rear brakes were on fire, which caused damage to the rear of the car and the brake line and we couldn’t put the car back together during the red flag. We were in a good position at the start, but I had to go around, Carlos [Sainz] and I lost a couple of positions there. I felt we had the pace for solid points. It looked a cool race to be in with lots going on. It’s getting pretty crazy this year, which is interesting and there are more opportunities for big results.”

“What seemed to happen at the restart was that the leader was going slow all the way to the line, which he’s entitled to do, but then somewhere in the middle – between me and the front, somebody decided to go. I guess somebody maybe tried to open a gap to get some momentum, but they went too early and tried to stop again. The guy in front of me started to go, we were flat out for a few seconds, then suddenly they all braked. I braked, I saw people coming past, then I was hit by Giovinazzi – who had nowhere to go. This is certainly something to take a look at – in terms of whether or not this thing about overtaking until the line is a good idea or not. Maybe it’s a good idea to have it somewhere earlier on the straight. We can’t have this happen again. I’d got up to P12 from P20 on the first lap, it had been looking good. This is definitely another missed opportunity.

“First of all, I’m OK after what was a big impact. We’re still investigating the cause of the crash. It all happened so quickly, but it felt like a puncture. We need to go away and look at the data and fully confirm the reasons for it. There were some really strong points on the table and we were closing on Ricciardo for the final podium place before the accident, and it was all set up for an exciting finale. I’m pleased with how the upgraded package performed this weekend, and it gives us a good platform for the coming races. We were able to make a good start to the race and get a good launch in the restart to keep out of trouble until late on. It was an unfortunate result and sometimes that’s how the cookie crumbles, but I’ll take the positives!”

“I am of course very disappointed as I know this could have been a really good race for us. I had a good launch at the start of the race and went around Lewis but then the car just didn’t accelerate so I lost a lot of speed and had no power. I then dropped back into the midfield and got hit from behind. When you drop into the middle of the pack in the first few corners like that it’s quite easy to get involved in a crash so I’m not disappointed about that, we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. There isn’t much more to say but it is just really disappointing for the Team that we had to retire again, especially when we looked so competitive but it is of course good to see Alex maximize the result and get on the podium.”

For the restarts at this track, we knew that the leader was going to go as late as possible because of how far forward the line is along with the slip stream effect. When you are in the middle to the back of the pack, the concertina effect is always much more exaggerated especially as these cars are so fast. I almost hit Kevin (Magnussen) in the apex of the last corner when everyone braked again, and then again it seemed that everyone went, and you are just reacting to the cars around you. The cars ahead then braked once more and there was nothing that I could do to avoid it. It is unfortunate because we avoided the chaos at the start and picked up quite a few positions. I was excited to see how the race was going to unfold, but that is racing sometimes.

It’s a shame to finish the race just after the first corner. It was quite messy coming into Turn 1 with so many cars side by side. I saw some space between Kimi and Romain in Turn 2, I ended up in the middle and had nowhere to go, so we collided and that was pretty much it. I don’t think there is anyone to blame, but it’s a shame as I feel like we missed an opportunity for points today. We showed good pace all weekend and, even if we didn’t have a great qualifying, I was confident we could recover today. Obviously, I would have liked to have been out there with the guys and fight for points, but I think we need to take the positives here because the performance so far has been good, so we need to carry this to Sochi.