Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

Das war ein sehr gutes Qualifying. In diesem Jahr war die Qualifikation nicht immer einfach für uns, aber wir haben uns nach und nach gesteigert. Gestern war ein schwieriger Tag für mich und ich musste mich für heute noch einmal neu konzentrieren. Es ist immer am schönsten, wenn man ins Q3 geht und dann zwei gute Runden hinlegen kann. Vielen Dank an das gesamte Team für den unermüdlichen Einsatz. Obwohl wir bereits beide Titel gewonnen haben, geben wir weiterhin alles und versuchen, uns zu steigern - das ist wirklich sehr inspirierend. Hinter uns liegt ein unglaublicher Weg, den wir in diesem Jahr mit diesem Auto zurückgelegt haben. Die Saison mit einer Pole abzuschließen, ist ein fantastisches Gefühl. Aber der wichtigste Teil steht uns noch bevor: dieses Ergebnis versetzt uns in die bestmögliche Ausgangsposition für morgen, dann geht es in den Kampf gegen Ferrari und Red Bull.

“I’m pretty pleased with qualifying and we got the most out of the car. Of course you always want to be ahead or a little closer to pole but I think this was the best we could do and there wasn’t much more in it. There are always tracks on the calendar where certain cars work better than others and it’s easier to find a good set-up. This is a Mercedes track and for us it was a bit more tricky to get everything out of the last sector. With Valtteri’s penalty I will start from the front row which will help in the race. The start will be important as overtaking is difficult around here but it’s a long race and we will of course be going for the win as always. Mercedes will be quick and it won’t be easy but as a Team we will make it as hard as possible, put them under pressure, and fight them until the end.”

“Qualifying was tough today. The lap I did on the first run for fourth place was good, but you can always do better. It’s a shame that we didn’t manage to get back out in time to do another lap. Though pole seems to have been out of reach today, I do believe that we had an opportunity to have a better result, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Ahead of the race, we will mainly have to work on making improvements in the last sector. That’s where we lacked the most in terms of our performance. It is the last race of the year, the last chance to get third place back in the championship, which will not be easy. I will have to take some risks at the start to fight for it and will give it my all. Let’s see what we can do.”

“I will start from P4 tomorrow but today’s Q3 was not ideal. We are struggling a lot in the final sector where there are some corners in which we are simply not quick enough. It’s probably not the best track for us, but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. In the last part of the session it was a pity because everybody was so slow. As a result, my tyres were too cold when I started my lap and I lost the car immediately in the first corner. And Charles wasn’t even able to start his lap. The reason why we are slow in the last corner is maybe that we are sliding more than the others, because we are struggling to get the tyres working correctly. Tomorrow we will do our best, but it won’t be an easy race. But we are looking for opportunities. That’s why we have chosen a different tyre compound and will see if we are right to start on Softs.”

“Qualifying was pretty average for me and I’m not all that satisfied with my result. I struggled from the beginning of Q1 and just didn’t get the most out of it which is frustrating. It was tricky out there and quite slippery but the race pace looks ok for tomorrow. Mercedes look quite fast so they’ll be strong and I expect Valtteri to make his way through the field, so we’ll need to get a good start. I think the degradation is quite high which is why most of us are starting on the medium tyre but it will be interesting with Seb who starts on the soft. We’ll give it everything tomorrow and try to make something happen.”

“A good quali for me, Carlos and the team. We achieved P7 but a P6 grid start taking into account the Bottas penalty, so I’m happy. It’s been a pretty good couple of days. I’ve generally been fairly comfortable with the car, which has been positive. “We knew quali was going to be tough and our aim was to get into Q3 and we did that. We’re ahead of the midfield guys we wanted to beat, so that’s a bonus. It couldn’t have been any better in terms of positions – it’s a good way to end the season.”

“I’m really happy with today’s qualifying. It’s cool for both cars to be in Q3. We’ve made a good turnaround from Friday and that’s what I’m most proud about. The jump we made is really strong and encouraging and credit to the team for working hard overnight. It was close out there again today but we’re in the mix inside the top ten. There’s a bit of pressure in the fight for fifth and there’s a job to do. We delivered today and now we have to deliver tomorrow.”

“I’m very disappointed with that P9 when I’d been very strong in Q1 and Q2. I was looking forward to putting another good lap together in Q3, but the out-lap was far from ideal. We got ourselves into trouble with the Mercedes and Ferrari and my last attempt was compromised. “It’s a shame, because matching my Q2 lap would have put us P7 easily. I expect a tough race tomorrow and we need to switch our focus quickly.”

“We’ll take tenth today. I was pleased with the laps I produced throughout all three sessions. It was a bit tricky at the start, I was chasing the feeling in the car and I did the best I could. We were on the backfoot a little bit after yesterday, but we recovered well and found some performance overnight and today. It’s positive for the team, with both cars in Q3. I think it’s going to be exciting and tight tomorrow. We’re in a race for fifth and it’s all to play for.”

“Unfortunately I lost the rear end in Turn 1 on my last run, which meant that I missed my final chance in Q2. I don’t really know what happened. With the penalty for Bottas, we should start from P10 tomorrow, which is not a bad place to be with a free tyre choice. I think we can move forwards from there because our race pace should be stronger. We just want to end the season on a high note.”

“It was a bit of trickier session for us in Qualifying compared to the rest of the weekend. We were sliding a lot and we weren’t as competitive as this morning. We’ll try to understand the reason for this tonight, but all in all it’s not bad because we start from 11th position tomorrow and have a free choice of tyres. We knew we had more degradation with the Soft compound, so hopefully this will play in our favour during the race as our long runs looked strong yesterday.”

“We didn’t quite make it to Q3 tonight, but I think it was still a good effort by the team. I wasn’t happy with my Q1 performance, but I still made it through to Q2. To be starting from P12 gives us a good chance of a solid result tomorrow. We can think hard tonight about the strategy and we’ve got a free choice of tyres for the start tomorrow. There were maybe a few tenths of improvement I could have found in Q2, but I’m quite happy heading into tomorrow knowing that we have a good car in race conditions.”

“The car didn’t really feel great today and I was sliding around in Qualifying. I never really found good grip on the tyres and the car didn’t click. The only decent lap I got in was the first lap of Q2, the rest I just had a bad feeling in the car. We hope things will be better tomorrow, the race is different to Qualifying, you can play with the strategy and, if everything works well, there’s always a chance to move up the grid.”

“We didn’t know what to expect, as always. It’s hard to say, but after FP1 and FP2 Romain (Grosjean) had been showing good pace with his car, and I was very positive. He obviously then had to go back to what I was running. Ultimately today we’re both down qualifying in P15 and P16. That’s not good but I’m hoping we can do something tomorrow. We’re going to have a bit of fun and enjoy the last race of the season, let’s see if we can try and grab a point or two.”

“It was very close and very far today. After three sessions where we were sixth, seventh and 11th, I think we were ready for qualifying. We were thinking we could be around tenth or 11th. We got out there and the car just behaved very differently. Obviously, we didn’t run the same package as yesterday with the same track temperatures, that surely didn’t help us. It’s been the story of our season. You get things set up and then you go into qualifying and the car just doesn’t behave the same. I’m disappointed with that, but there’s nothing the guys could have done differently. We’ve done the best job we could. I’m looking forward to next year.”

„Das Auto fühlte sich ziemlich gut an, aber trotzdem fehlte heute etwas. Das ist schade, denn unser Renntempo war gar nicht so schlecht. Ein guter Startplatz wäre hilfreich. Stattdessen stehen wir morgen vor einer gewissen Herausforderung: Wir brauchen einen guten Start und die richtige Strategie, wenn wir einige Plätze gutmachen wollen, um dadurch wieder in den Kampf eingreifen zu können.“

„Es ist ein enttäuschendes Ergebnis, denn wir hatten gehofft, im Qualifying besser abzuschneiden. Verglichen mit Brasilien hat das Auto nicht viel Speed verloren, aber wir fanden nicht den Grip, den wir für eine Einzelrunde brauchten. Glücklicherweise müsste dies über die volle Renndistanz einfacher sein. Entsprechend können wir hoffen, im Rennen weiter nach vorn zu kommen. Überholen ist hier nicht leicht, speziell von unserem Startplatz aus. Aber wir werden alles versuchen.“

It was a good final qualifying session for us. Prior to the weekend, and after yesterday, we were anticipating being a second away from the next car. I think we ended up being three tenths, and a second from Q2. You have to take the small victories and be pleased that we did the maximum with the car. Tomorrow we will do our best, it is our last opportunity until next year.

It wasn’t an easy session. We had a small issue on the first run, so I lost a bit of confidence and knowledge about the conditions. In the end, I managed a reasonable lap, but it was qualifying as expected and unfortunately the pace is what it is. The race is long, and we have to make sure we do our best. It will be tough, but we will see what happens and try to enjoy tomorrow.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Lewis zu seiner 88. Pole Position - das ist eine richtig beeindruckende Zahl. Meine Runde war gut, aber Lewis scheint für mich heute einfach etwas zu schnell gewesen zu sein. Wir haben im Qualifying unterschiedliche Setups verwendet und alles in allem fühlte ich mich gestern etwas wohler im Auto. Aber mein Hauptfokus liegt ganz klar auf dem Rennen. Denn in Folge meiner Strafversetzung wusste ich schon vor dem Qualifying, dass ich vom Ende des Feldes starten würde. Ich habe dennoch alles gegeben, bin aber im Q2 nur einen Versuch gefahren, um einen Reifensatz für morgen zu sparen. Morgen erwartet uns sicher ein unterhaltsames Rennen und ich werde versuchen, so viele Positionen wie möglich gutzumachen. Das wird natürlich eine Herausforderung, aber ich freue mich darauf.