Fahrerstimmen – Tag 2

It\'s great to be on pole position, especially at a track where I struggled last year. Q1 was quite tricky with the changing wind conditions, but we kept making progress throughout the session. The car felt really strong in Q3, and I was happy with my final lap as I managed to put everything together.

Pole on Saturday is a great result, but the points are scored tomorrow. A good start will be crucial, especially with the long run to Turn 5, so our focus is on finishing the job in the race. The team has done a tremendous job overnight to improve the car, and I have confidence in the package we have. Tyre degradation is expected to be high, so we\'ll analyse everything carefully this evening to make sure we\'re in the best possible position for the Grand Prix.

I think we really executed well as a Team today, and we\'re happy to be starting on the front row. The whole weekend has been positive: the car is in a good window, and the balance is decent as well. We have just been lacking a bit of straight-line speed compared to the other teams, but we have been able to maximise the potential of the car. Of course, Isack helped me out in Q3 with the tow in the final sector. A big thank you to him, as it is one of the main reasons why I\'m sitting here in P2 for tomorrow\'s race. We gained around three tenths of lap time, so without it we likely would have qualified around P6, given how close the gap to the others was. Tomorrow will be more about looking in the mirrors and defending the cars around us, so hopefully it will be an interesting race.

I felt satisfied with my last lap in Q3 today and felt like it might have been good enough for the front row. I’ve been struggling for the last couple of races with my pace and we’re all working hard to try and find a solution. There are several factors that could be at play, but I’ve focused on my driving style this weekend to see if that helps to improve things. There were some encouraging signs but it’s clear that our deployment wasn’t as we expected here too. As a team, we are continuing to investigate all the possible options to understand how we eliminate that deficit.

The positive news is that we still have a solid starting position in P3 and, as Kimi showed by taking pole position, the car is quick. Anything can happen here at Spa and usually does so I hope we can have a good race tomorrow. I’ll be fighting hard and giving it my all.

I was very satisfied with my first lap in Q3, while on my second lap I lost some time by lifting when I saw the yellow flag being waved at the pit lane for Isack (Hadjar). There may have been a few hundredths to gain there, but there wasn’t much more to extract from our car today. Our pace overall looks quite solid, even if our competitors are performing at a very high level and there is still a significant gap to them. We will see what we can bring home tomorrow. This track doesn’t really suit the characteristics of our car, so it could be challenging to overtake and defend during the race, especially in the straight lines. We will push to gain some positions at the start and take it from there. A podium would be a good result for us.

Firstly, a big thank you to the team for the incredible job they did getting the car back together after FP3. I\'m grateful as always for all their hard work. The car lacked some stability in qualifying, and we knew that the first and last sectors would be our biggest challenge, but we managed to extract the maximum from today\'s package. We’re starting in a decent position tomorrow and I\'ll be giving everything I can to move us forward.

It was a trickier day for us. We have struggled to find the right balance with the car and extract the maximum lap time. Our final lap in Q3 was a step in the right direction, but it\'s clear we haven\'t had an easy time. We had to use an extra set of new tyres in Q2 just to be safe, which shows how challenging the session was.

Looking ahead to the race, it’s difficult to predict our exact pace since our running has been limited. The pack around us is incredibly tight, however a race here is always eventful, especially on the first lap, so we\'ll be looking to make the most of any opportunities that arise. We have some good ideas on how to improve the car\'s characteristics going forward, and hopefully we can make things a bit easier in the races to come.

It\'s been a very positive Saturday, and it feels amazing to drive an F1 car on this incredible track. The team has done a brilliant job to produce a strong package this weekend as the car has been quick and the new upgrade is working really well. I lost a bit of time in the final chicane, so there\'s a small part of me that\'s disappointed with the little bit of lap time left on the table, however I\'m overall happy to have had my best Quali result so far this season. We\'re continuing to make progress as a team, and that\'s fantastic to see, so want to say a huge thank you to everyone for working so hard to develop the car. We expect Lando and Isack to come through the field tomorrow, so we have to stay realistic; however, we\'ll remain focused to maximise every opportunity.

I am very happy about today. I think we maximised everything we had, and even managed to extract a little bit more, so I am really pleased with our performance. Tomorrow won\'t be easy: the Racing Bulls are ahead of us, and I\'m expecting a tough fight because they are rather quick. But I\'ll give it everything I have and see what we can build from there. A big shoutout as well to all our team members from Hinwil, Neuburg and Bicester who are supporting us from the grandstands this weekend. It means a lot to have them cheering on us, and it gives us even more motivation to fight for a strong result tomorrow.

We’ve been a little off the pace all weekend, which was somewhat expected with the package we have here. I felt like we put together a strong Qualifying lap - the balance was in a good window, and I was happy with the car, but in the end we just didn’t have enough to make it into Q3. That being said, the progress we’ve made as a team this season has been huge, and it’s a credit to all the hard work everyone has put in. The upgrades on Arvid’s car are clearly working well, which is really encouraging heading into next week when they’ll be implemented on my car too. Tomorrow is going to be a tough race, but our race pace has been strong throughout the season, so hopefully we can show that again and fight our way forward.

First of all, a big thank you to the team for fixing the car after what happened yesterday and having everything ready on time for today\'s running. It was a little unfortunate with where the barrier is at that corner with something similar happening to Lewis [Hamilton] in Free Practice 3. In terms of our Qualifying, I am not happy with P12 as Q3 is always our target. However, that is just the reality of where we are at the moment, and we have work to do if we want to be in the top ten tomorrow. There are some grid penalties, which means we start P10 and we\'ll try to capitalise on track position in the race. Our target is more likely to be the Audis rather than the Racing Bulls who have a lot of pace again. Longer-term we have to add more performance and try to get back in the fight with them. Spa is a track where there are a few good overtaking opportunities, so we\'ll try to make the most of our set-up, gain some places and target scoring points by the end.

We had hoped for more from Qualifying today in Spa but we will line-up in P11 for tomorrow\'s race with some grid penalties for cars ahead. I lost a bit of time on my final push lap so it might have been a little more for me, however, ultimately, we are just lacking pace relative to some of our rivals. It feels like we have made a small step on performance since Silverstone, which is positive, and hopefully we can carry that forwards into tomorrow when it counts. Of course, Racing Bulls again look strong and Audi are just ahead of us, so that\'s where our fight is. Going forwards, we need to understand where we are lacking and where we can improve so we can be ahead of them again. Now our focus is on tomorrow and our objective is to be in the points. We\'ll try to have a good start and put ourselves in contention to be up there inside the top ten.

It was a frustrating end to qualifying. We had gearbox issues from quite early in the session, with the shifts not working properly, and then right after Q2 the team told me to stop the car on track because of a hydraulic problem.

It\'s disappointing because there are definitely some encouraging signs in the performance, but we haven\'t had a clean run on my side of the garage, with technical issues holding us back. We\'ll take it on the chin, work through it overnight and try again tomorrow.

I am very happy to have qualified P3 today. We had a pretty amazing start to Q3, we extracted absolutely everything from the car and were able to put it all together. Unfortunately, the 10-place penalty means we won’t be starting there, but it’s nice to see that we are moving in the right direction and it’s encouraging for the future when we are able to bring bigger upgrades.

Mercedes on Pole isn’t a surprise, so congratulations to Kimi Antonelli. We can still take positives though - we are clearly quicker than quite a few of the other cars in front of us on the grid, so we’re hoping to make some overtakes and hopefully get back in the race closer to the front of the grid. We will see what we can do.

It\'s been a tough weekend so far. We were dealing with an issue in all of the practice sessions, so it was a relief to find a fix for qualifying and get the car working as it should. Getting into Q2 was a positive, putting in some good laps and extracting everything from the car. Tomorrow will be about executing a clean race and avoiding any drama around us. We\'ll need some chaos to get within reach of points, so we\'ll look to maximise any opportunities that come our way.

It was a tough day, and we weren\'t fast enough to be in the fight for Q3. We did our very best out there, and our very best was P16. It’s a shame to be looking a bit more competitive in the previous session, but honestly, the others were probably not executing as cleanly as we were. In qualifying, everyone put it together, and in the end, I feel like I did one of my best qualifying sessions in terms of execution. All my laps were really well done and lap times were improving, so on that side, I’m happy. On the performance side, I’m not, none of us are happy, and we need to continue working, but the positive is that the car balance has taken a big step forward from the last event.

It\'s frustrating not to make it into Q2 today after feeling like the car was in a good place all weekend. We made some setup changes between FP3 and qualifying, but they were just too aggressive, so it\'s unfortunate to fall short when it matters. We\'ve been in good rhythm with the car all weekend and have been slowly chipping away at improvements, which had been paying off. We\'ll just have to see what we can do tomorrow, keeping in mind there are a few grid penalties, so we\'ll have a few cars out of place.

We knew it was going to be a tough session, as we have a big straight-line deficit compared to where we should be. In the first run, it was almost five-tenths in the straights that we were losing, so we were trying to lose less by getting closer to another car. The lap was good, the team was happy with it, and I was as well. I\'ve done plenty of those here, and I was able to get through easily in the past. Now, with that difficulty plus some downforce loss on the rear, it was always going to be tricky. We did the maximum we could with what we have, and we\'ll keep pushing tomorrow.

It’s been good to have a straightforward weekend with complete sessions, because every lap helps build confidence and improves our understanding of the car. I felt comfortable behind the wheel all weekend, and I think we got everything out of the package in qualifying today. We know there are still areas we need to improve, but we’re learning more every time we go out and that’s giving us more consistency. Tomorrow is about making the most of every opportunity and seeing what we can do over a race distance.

I was happy with my lap but unfortunately I had some issues with deployment since FP1 that we didn’t manage to fix before Qualifying. It proved to be quite costly as those tenths that we are missing on the straights could have moved us a few positions further up the grid. Getting to the flag tomorrow will be quite important for us and that’s our focus for now. We have to hope we get a good start and be in the mix - that will be the ultimate target for us.

We made a few changes before Qualifying today and improved the car in some areas. We didn\'t get the perfect tow that we were looking for, though, so there were a few tenths lost there. Other than that, the pace was what we were expecting today. We know there\'s not much to fight for here. It\'s about getting through this weekend and focussing on what\'s coming in Budapest.

Our mission was clear today, and we executed it, so we can be happy with the day\'s work. I knew I had to get into Q3, and we managed that quite comfortably despite having limited one-lap pace as the car was set up for the race. Max might have been up there, but I was happy to do the job for him and the Team. It’s a little difficult to give a tow with these regulations, not knowing how the engine would behave as you have to manage the deployment differently, but we timed it well. Tomorrow, I hope I can work my way up the grid, stay patient, and get back into the points.

It was difficult out there today in Qualifying, but it’s as we expected. We still try to do our best and this has been the case over the last ten races for us. We will make sure we maximise everything tomorrow and continue learning what we can to find every bit of performance. Tomorrow will be about doing everything we can at the highest level.