Fahrerstimmen – Tag 3

Every win is special, but this one feels just amazing. The last 15 laps were on the limit with the issue we had, but we brought it home.
Today, we had a really strong pace and some great battles. I worked hard last night to find where I could still improve and it made the difference today. I’m very happy!

We were just a bit too slow today, we were doing the best we could with the strategy but the Ferraris were extremely fast. Of course, we need to understand why we had so much degradation with the tyres, I’m not sure exactly what happened, no matter which compound we used none of them seemed to work well. Although we didn’t win today, we still walked away with a lot of points. In difficult moments you need to score points and we did that today. It was incredible to receive the support I did from the fans this weekend, but I’ve been hearing a few shocking things. It’s clearly wrong and what’s been happening is not right at all - I shouldn’t need to say this on a weekend that should be a celebration of Formula One at our home race.

Zunächst möchte ich den Frauen und Männern in der Box, die so hart daran gearbeitet haben, das Auto wieder aufzubauen, ein großes Dankeschön aussprechen. Leider brauchte ich am Samstagmorgen ein brandneues Auto. Das ist etwas, was mir nicht oft passiert, aber ich bin einfach dankbar dafür, wie hart alle gearbeitet haben. Gestern im Sprint war es hart, aber heute ging es besser. Wir hatten zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten im Rennen eine ordentliche Pace, obwohl ich ein wenig im Niemandsland gefahren bin. Es war ein wenig ein hartes Wochenende für das Team - aber ich bin dankbar, dass wir Dritter und Vierter geworden sind. Das sind tolle Punkte, und wir haben das Auto verbessert. Jetzt müssen wir uns weiter steigern, um wieder an die Spitze zu kommen.

Ich bin von P4 gestartet und auf P4 ins Ziel gekommen - das hätte ich vor dem Rennen wahrscheinlich auch angenommen, wenn es mir jemand angeboten hätte. Aber jetzt bin ich ein wenig enttäuscht, wie sich alles entwickelt hat. In der ersten Runde griff Checo in Kurve vier außen an und wählte dann eine enge Linie. Ich hatte Sainz vor mir und musste auf den Kerb am Scheitelpunkt fahren. Ich fand die Strafe hart - für mich war es ein Rennzwischenfall. Aber danach haben wir das Rennen ab der zweiten Runde gut optimiert. Das Positive daran ist, dass wir am Start einen 20-Sekunden-Boxenstopp hatten - und etwa 15 Sekunden hinter dem Podium ins Ziel kamen; ich habe mich von P19 auf P4 vorgearbeitet; und wir haben als Team das Maximum herausgeholt. Jetzt müssen wir die Köpfe zusammenstecken und weiter pushen.

What a day, what a weekend! I think we really maximised the pace of the car today when it really mattered. It was a great way to cap off my 100th Grand Prix in Formula 1. There were some good fights on the track today, but in the end George [Russell] was too quick and fifth position was the best we could have achieved. We go home with some very good points after this weekend, moving up to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship and now level with McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. As a team we are moving in the right direction and we have momentum on our side going into Paul Ricard, one of the team’s home races, and of course mine as well. It should be an incredible weekend and I can’t wait to be back in front of the home fans in two weeks’ time.

Fighting again with Lewis was fun. I felt a lot different compared to yesterday, obviously knowing that we had to take care of the tires. Quite soon I felt it wasn’t going to be a one-stop race just because of the way the tires were behaving – the winds were very different and difficult to manage. It was tough out there but it’s another double-points finish again after Silverstone, so everyone in the team can be very happy about the result. Being voted driver of the day as well is great so thank you to everybody.

A positive day, we went forward a good few positions and scored some decent points. I made a couple of mistakes with the track limits and ended-up with a five-second penalty, which probably hurt us. I should have been P6 but, apart from that, a solid day. The pace in the car was reasonable and we got the points that we wanted, so happy in the end. We just need to keep improving and keep pushing for next time. Big thanks to everyone for working so hard at the track and back home, we made a good recovery from Friday to score some decent points

What a weekend for our team, it’s really been great. Finally, we had a bit of luck, it kind of went our way after those four or five races recently that weren’t good for us. It’s hard not to get a little bit down about it but the last two races we’ve been lucky and we’ve had the pace, especially this weekend. I had a bit of an engine issue all race so I was just praying to God that it wouldn’t blow up, which it didn’t, so I’m super thankful for that so I could finish the race without a problem. We just had a great qualifying, a great Sprint and then a great race, so I’m super happy.

Obviously the target was points. I think, as a team, we’re happy with that. It’s a lot better than where we were Friday, so to get double-points is good for us. I was struggling with the left-front on the first stint as I'd had a lock-up into turn one, and put us a bit on the back-foot. So it didn’t feel as good as yesterday. We then struggled more with the front, particularly front-left, even without the flat-spot, but I think we did well to get what we could today. I would have loved to have got Magnussen, but we’ve got to take what we can today. More points, bit of damage-limitation, so pleased with that.

One point is better than nothing considering we started on the back row today. I think it was one of my best races this season, other than probably at Silverstone last weekend. I think we were fighting for sixth or seventh positions, but then there were some strange vibrations on the tyres we fitted after our second stop under the Virtual Safety Car. As it was still under the VSC, we decided to stop again for another new set of tyres. Unfortunately, we lost some positions with this extra pit-stop and had to fight back on the last few laps. In the end we managed to take tenth position. Ultimately, only one point from this race feels a little bit of a shame for me, but we can be very happy with our overall pace and performance as a team this weekend.

I was hoping for points today, that was the target, and it’s a bit disappointing to be finishing just outside the top ten. In the last lap, Fernando was closing the gap pretty fast with a new set of tyres, and ultimately got me. Besides that, I think it was a good race, also strategy-wise, and we did everything we could given where we started: we just lacked a bit of pace, especially through the corners. At least, I managed to climb up the grid from a pitlane start, so that’s a positive to keep. We must keep progressing, since the other teams are doing so as well. I reckon France could be better for us, but we will need to qualify in better positions than we did here to maximise our chances come Sunday.

It was a fun race. We took risks, we were bold and I had to push a little bit too hard on the tyres to keep up with Valtteri [Bottas] as he was a little bit quicker than us. I knew what I was doing wasn’t kind to the tyres but I was trying to stay close to him. You risk and you push to fight for points and today it didn’t quite work out for us, but I still feel it was a good race. The whole race we were more or less matching the McLarens, we hit a bit of traffic here and there but I was really happy with our pace and we’ve definitely made a step forward this weekend. It was the first proper race with the new aero upgrade that we have and there’s a lot learnt from today so we can look at the data and come back stronger in France.

My start was decent, and I could hold position and battle with the McLarens early on. I also had some good wheel-to-wheel moments out there with cars on different strategies, which was fun. However, it was tricky to keep the faster cars behind. It would have been nice to have come away with a point or two after a strong recovery drive yesterday, but we have to keep pushing and will try and return to the points in France.

I feel we had a lot more potential in our car this weekend, so I am not happy with this result. We looked strong yesterday, but today we spent the first part of the race stuck in a train and then struggled with the hard tyre. Once we switched to the mediums, I was a lot more at ease and I felt we were competitive, but by then it was too late to make it back into the points. The pace we showed in the Sprint yesterday and in the final stint today is a positive to keep, as well as the mileage that does help with my overall experience. I had some fun battles and enjoyed the close racing we had, but I wanted more from this weekend.

I think we can write off this weekend, we just didn’t have the pace. I haven’t seen the footage yet, but I obviously received a penalty in the race, so I guess I’m the one to blame for the incident with Sebastian. I tried to fight as hard as I could, it’s always tricky in that corner and unfortunately he spun. We need a big reset, we’ve got a week and a half to try and understand why we were slow and to understand what we can do to improve in the upcoming races. Hopefully the new package allows us to move forward and be competitive in the midfield again.

It’s been really tough, that was a long race. I had no pace at all this weekend and have really struggled since FP2, with the car sliding all over the place. We need to go away and look at what the issue may be, as we’ve not seen anything in the data that explains why this weekend has been so difficult. I gave it my everything today and there wasn’t much more I think I could’ve done in terms of my personal performance in this situation but overall, this has been the hardest race weekend we’ve had so far this year.

It is disappointing to be pushed into the gravel again [after the contact with Alex Albon yesterday]. This time it was [Pierre] Gasly and it almost feels that there is a target on my car! I had made a good move on the outside and was ahead leaving plenty of space. I think he was just a bit too keen, ran into me, and I was off in the gravel. The car was not in the best shape after that and my race was pretty much done. Before that it was a tricky race because I was hit by some debris on the first lap, which may have damaged the car. We were not very competitive on the Hard tyres at the start, but the Medium was better and we were working our way through the field until the contact with Pierre. I think we have had quite an unlucky weekend so let’s just turn the page and focus on the next race in France.

It’s difficult to find the right words today, as it was clear that a one-two was pretty straightforward. I had strong pace today, especially on the hard tyre. Degradation was very high but we managed it well. On the last stint the car felt really good on track until we obviously had the issue and we had to retire.
Today’s result is a hard one to take as it cost the team and myself an important number of points for both championships. On the positive side, I’m feeling better and better in the car, more comfortable every race, and this keeps me motivated. We are fast, and this is what’s matters the most. Congrats to Charles for the win! We’ll keep pushing!

We sustained floor damage from running over some debris at the start of the race and I ran wide on one curb. Towards the end of the first stint I could feel the balance getting worse. Beginning of the second stint there was a lack of downforce and pace. The decision was to retire the car to save the engine mileage and we'll be ready to go again in France.

It was a big shame that we had our race ended so early. I had the whole race ahead of me and I thought I had good opportunities coming my way, so it was very painful. We had a lot of damage to the car and we were going nowhere so we had to retire. I gave all the room I could to George on lap one, there was enough room for both cars not to crash and unfortunately, we ended up colliding, I don’t know what else I could have done. Today has hurt us in both Championships and hopefully we can recover the ground. It has been the same way all season, sometimes we are quicker and sometimes Ferrari are. It is still very close but today they were clearly the quicker car. We need to look forward now, the season is long and hopefully we can come back stronger in the coming weekends.