• Turkish Grand Prix

Driver reaction after Turkish Grand Prix

May 30, 2010

Ferrari

Felipe Massa - 7th "It was a very boring race for me, from start to finish, but it was also very difficult. I was always stuck behind Kubica and the two Mercedes, who were running at a similar pace to me. Very often I managed to get close, but I never had a real chance of overtaking Robert. I knew that, starting from eighth, it would be tough and so it proved. Now we must stay calm and try and quickly improve the car, starting with the very next race in Canada. Here we lacked performance, especially in the fast corners. The rain? The few drops that fell in the final laps had no affect on my driving."

Fernando Alonso - 8th "It was a case of damage limitation in what was a very difficult weekend for us. Our aim in this championship is to fight with McLaren and Red Bull for the podium, definitely not with a Renault for eighth place, with all due respect to my former team. We have to improve our performance: in Valencia we will have an important update on the car, which we hope will put us back to where we should be. I am convinced that right from Canada things will be better, because the track characteristics should better suit our car. The hierarchy in the field can change from race to race, as we saw in Monaco, where we had the potential to fight for victory. At the end, I attacked Petrov and I hope the two points this brought me could turn out to be useful come the end of the year: I am sorry he got a puncture that stopped him finishing in the points, because he drove a good race. Despite everything, we are still in a good position to fight for the title. However, now is the time to react."

Stefano Domenicali "This was definitely a very poor weekend for us and it's a shame we were unable to celebrate our 800th Grand Prix in a worthy manner. We did not have the performance level we expected and we were definitely inferior to the two teams which dominated the Turkish weekend. We are at the level of the second group of drivers; those who were fighting throughout the Grand Prix, all within a few seconds of one another. But we know what an influence qualifying has on the final result and yesterday we struggled even more than usual in this area. This afternoon, we did what we could: Felipe didn't make any mistakes and Fernando managed to make up a few places with the pit stop and by passing Petrov. Now we must make a step forward to close the performance gap: our engineers are capable and ready, as they have shown so often and I am sure they will be able to do it again, improving the performance of the F10. We are entering the crucial phase of the championship and we have to do everything to tackle it in the best possible shape."

Force India

Adrian Sutil - 9th "It was a good race in the end, I enjoyed it. I had a good start and first lap and the only real downside was the pit stop when we lost a few seconds at a crucial time. That's where I lost two positions and had to fight back past Kobayashi. I was quite lucky then to benefit from the tussle between Webber and Vettel and then Alonso and Petrov to make up some places. Ninth position after the weekend we've had is the most we could have done. OK, we probably lost a position due to the time lost in the stop but at this stage any points are good. We still have some developments coming for the next race and our next task is to use the SRW on my car - and once we get these done I think it will be looking really good for the next few races."

Tonio Liuzzi - 13th "It was a long race, but we knew we would have a difficult one after the qualifying yesterday. We realised that we are struggling with the car and I still don't have the grip. I tried to push hard at the beginning with the strategy but in the end we knew it would be a big job as when you don't have the right grip it's tough. We finished 13th on the road, but the pace was not too bad, particularly at the end. We now need to work back at the factory to understand why it's happening so I can get back in the points again."

Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal "After the various issues we've had over the weekend, it's very satisfying to come away from Turkey with some more points to our name. Adrian drove a great race and richly deserved his points today. Tonio has had a harder weekend and we really need to understand why he's not getting the grip he needs to be able to regain his earlier season form. That will be the focus for next week so when we get to Canada we can have a chance at another double points finish. We've also got some work to do on our SRW and when we do, I hope we'll be mixing it again with the top end."

HRT

Karun Chandhok - DNF - Fuel pump: "It is a bit frustrating to be classified not higher than 20th. In the first stint I was struggling with the pace compared to Bruno's and the Virgins'. But as we changed to the options tyres the pace came back. Early in the race, the fuel pump failed and I was struggling today for straight line speed. Unfortunately, I finished my race five laps before the chequered flag in the pits."

Bruno Senna - DNF - Fuel system: "I had a pretty good race today. The start was good and I could win some positions. Also the first laps were quite good. At the end I had a problem with the fuel system and that's why I had to retire. During the race, we were a bit unlucky with traffic as we were ahead of both Virgins. It is sad the we had a fuel pressure problem that caused us to end our race prematurely. But we are on top of it and hopefully we can get it sorted. I had a fair battle with Lucas Di Grassi as we had a faster car than Virgin and hopefully we can have another fight for positions soon."

Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "It was a difficult race for us. We were running well and making good progress, gaining good experience. It was disappointing to have one car retire on a fuel system problem and Karun Chandhok not finish higher than 20th. We now look ahead to the next race in Canada."

Lotus

Jarno Trulli - DNF - Hydraulics "It was difficult at the beginning with the hard tyres, and the team were telling me Heikki was quicker on the options, and as he was on a different strategy he got past. Afterwards, I was pulling away from our competitors comfortably, but the failure put an end to the good race I was having. "

Heikki Kovalainen - DNF - Hydraulics: "What a shame. I lost power steering in turn eight and it looks like it was a hydraulics failure. At first I thought I had a puncture as the steering suddenly felt really strange, but then I lost the gearbox, the clutch, and throttle. It's so unfortunate as this was our strongest race so far. I was on the softer tyre and although I wasn't sure how they would run at the beginning of the race, they did in fact hang on really well. I can't help but feel disappointed, but as I've said before these things happen, and we will work through this, and come out stronger as a result. We're only a few tenths off the other teams per kilometre, and we know the areas to work on to improve this car. I'm confident we can make a very big step for next year and for now, we'll move on and put this behind us."

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer "Obviously very disappointing to have two cars go out on the same lap when we were having such a strong race, our strongest performance all year. We started the cars with Jarno on the harder tyre, and Heikki on the soft - Heikki was slightly quicker on the option to start with, but towards the end of the stint Jarno was catching him. We were hanging on for the pitstops, monitoring the rain situation, but then had sudden hydraulic failures on both cars. Heikki's was a leak from the power steering, and with Jarno we don't know as yet what the specific issue was. Despite that we have to keep our chins up after what was a really strong weekend from the whole team, fix these problems and move on. "

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton - 1st "It was quite an eventful race. I didn't get a great start, it looked like I had a better reaction than Mark [Webber], but the car just didn't seem to be going anywhere. Fortunately, I was able to attack Sebastian [Vettel] into Turn Three - I got past him, which was a relief, then I was challenging Mark for a long time, before I lost some time to him at the pitstop, when my right rear took longer than normal to go on. So then I had to battle two Red Bulls rather than just one; it was hard enough trying to overtake one of them, so trying to overtaking two was really tough. But the good thing is that I had the race pace to keep up with them, even though I was having to keep an eye on my fuel consumption from early on. But anyway, unfortunately for them, they collided - and enabled us to get past. After that, I felt confident we could get a potential one-two, and we were trying to look after the tyres and save the fuel to the finish. The [laptime] target they gave me was perhaps a little bit slower than they'd meant, so Jenson was suddenly on my tail. I had a great battle with him, and was happy to get past because it was quite a surprise. We're allowed to race out there, but we have to be sensible. At the end of the day we're a team: we both want to win the constructors' title and we both want to win the drivers' title. But we're not stupid. I wouldn't do anything dangerous to touch Jenson - and vice versa - and that's the great thing about racing each other. We know we have that cushion and that respect for each other, so we don't really have a problem with it. Having said all that, winning today doesn't feel quite as good as it sometimes does. That's because it's a little bit different from some of my previous race victories: ideally, the racer in me wants to win by overtaking the guys in front, not by seeing them crash out in front of me. Rather than inheriting a win, it's much nicer to fight your way past your rivals and earn the win the hard way. Still, I'm very happy for the team. My girlfriend is here too, which is nice, and my dad is on holiday and I really wanted to win today so that I could dedicate the win to him. It's his 50th birthday tomorrow, you see, and a grand prix victory is the best birthday present I could ever give him."

Jenson Button - 2nd: "What a crazy race! I got a good start, but I was stuck behind Lewis going into Turn One, and then Michael [Schumacher] was able to get round the outside of me. I got Michael back into Turn 12, though, which was very rewarding after Barcelona, and then it was four of us, two McLarens and two Red Bulls, who pulled away. It was very difficult to get close enough to overtake, but I was able to look after the tyres, and then just before the stop I pushed and was able to close up to Sebastian - I thought maybe I could jump him but that wasn't the case in the end. Even so, we were all running pretty close and anything could have happened at the end of the race - which it duly bdid when the two Red Bulls got together, which gave Lewis and me a good one-two. We were then both told to conserve fuel - although I'd already been conserving fuel for about 30 laps at that point actually - and we never imagined the pace of the race would be so fast. At the end, I had a run on Lewis out of Turn Eight. I don't know why he was a bit slow, but I got a good run into Turn 12 and managed to get past him. We had a good little battle and we were wheel-to-wheel for three corners, but it positioned me wrong for the final corner, I got a poor exit and he was able to get back past me along the pits straight and on the inside into Turn One. After that, I was told to save even more fuel because I was pretty close to critical. It was a tough battle, but we didn't touch and we still finished first and second, so that's how you do it."

Martin Whitmarsh -team principal "Today's race had everything: drama, suspense, excitement and a perfect result from a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes point of view. The 43 world championship points we earned from our one-two finish have propelled us to the top of the constructors' world championship. But we're particularly encouraged by the fact that, despite our having to ask both our drivers to drive with fuel conservation in mind from early in the race, it was immediately clear that Lewis had the pace to pull away if only he could have passed Mark - and he very nearly did on a number of occasions. It was edge-of-the-seat stuff - and Jenson was pushing Sebastian pretty hard just a few hundred metres behind. After the Red Bulls fell over each other, Lewis and Jenson raced each other pretty hard whilst still driving with fuel conservation in mind, and I imagine their dice made hugely entertaining TV, too. On the slow-down lap, Jenson congratulated Lewis on the radio, which is an eloquent illustration of the affection and respect they have for each other. Looking forward to the Canadian Grand Prix in two weeks' time, we're pleased to have closed the performance gap to Red Bull, and are hopeful of bagging another hefty haul of world championship points in Montreal. But I want to stress that I can only say that as a result of the fact that everyone in the entire Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team - our drivers, our engineers, our mechanics and every single person who works so hard back at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking [Surrey, UK] - is so motivated, so driven and so committed to the cause."

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher - 4th "My race started as I had hoped when I was able to catch Jenson right at the start. Unfortunately I did not have a lot of grip with the tyres as the formation lap was quite slow and the pressures had gone down which combined with the top speed of the McLarens meant that I could not hold Jenson behind me for long. I was even struggling to keep the car on the track during the first lap. From there onwards, I was in my starting position and when Sebastian retired, we were able to pick up a place. That was about it. It was a straightforward race for me without any more possibilities. I understand at the front there was quite a bit happening so for the fans, it was a good show. All in all, I think we had a positive race and we clearly made a step forward towards Red Bull and in front of Ferrari, so we can be quite happy about that."

Nico Rosberg - 5th "I am reasonably happy with fifth place today although it was an uneventful race for me. I was slightly faster than Michael for much of the race but it was not possible to overtake and I had to be careful as Robert was pushing hard behind me. For me, the most exciting part of the race were the in and out laps for my pit stop which were pretty fast and together with the great work from the team, that enabled me to stay ahead of the cars just behind me on track. Although our general pace still has to be improved, I'm satisfied that we have taken what we could from this weekend."

Ross Brawn "A solid performance today in which we achieved the potential of the car with both drivers. We had a purposefully quiet early part of race as we were unable to challenge the leading group and therefore decided to save our tyres for the second half. Michael, Nico and the team did an extremely good job with the car that we had and once again our pit stops were very impressive. Compliments to them all today. We have made reasonable progress with our latest set of upgrades thanks for the hard work of everyone at the factory but clearly we have a lot of work still to do."

Red Bull

Mark Webber - 3rd "Sebastian had a bit of a top speed advantage, he went down the inside and we were side by side. I was surprised when he came right suddenly, as I was holding my racing line. It happened very, very fast and it's a shame for the team. Not an ideal day. The McLarens were solid and it was a good race between all four of us up at the front until then, neither of us wanted to make contact with each other. It's obviously not ideal, but it happened. There was a long way to still go in the race, but that was an interesting few metres on the track between both of us. In the end it wasn't the result that either of us wanted. We've got great character in our team and two fast drivers at the front - we're not dicing for 15th and 16th - we're going for victories so there's clearly a lot at stake. I'll have a chat with Sebastian about it, we might have a difference of opinion but we'll be adults about it and press on."

Sebastian Vettel - DNF - Accident "If you watch it on the TV, you can see what happened. I'm not in the happiest of moods. I was on the inside going into the corner. I was there, I was ahead and focusing on the braking point and then we touched. Mark's car hit my rear right wheel and I went off - there's not much more to say. We were all on the same pace during the race, I think I was a bit quicker than Mark for two or three laps, I was catching him and thought I could get him on the back straight. I was very close and passed him on the left, that's the story. This is something that happens, no one needs it, but there's not much you can do now."

Christian Horner, team principal "It's disappointing for the team to have got into that position today. The one thing I always ask the drivers is that, yes, they can race each other, but give each other room, and that's exactly what didn't happen. They were too far over on the left, Sebastian got a run on the inside of Mark, but then came across too early. They didn't give each other room; it's as simple as that. It was a massively close race between us and the McLarens up until that point. We managed to get ourselves ahead with a better pit-stop and a better strategy for Sebastian and were first and second. Sebastian was a bit happier on the prime tyre than Mark and was looking quicker at that point in the race. He got a run on Mark up the inside and we saw what happened. It's massively disappointing and the situation shouldn't have occurred. To give McLaren 28 points on a plate is very frustrating for everyone in the team - especially after so much hard work. We've lost a lot of points today with what's happened. We need to learn from it, so we don't find ourselves in this position again."

Renault

Robert Kubica - 6th It's been a good weekend for us and it's nice to score some more points today. Unfortunately we started the race behind the Mercedes and I remained stuck behind them all afternoon, even though my car seemed to be quicker because I could keep up with them easily. I knew we had a chance to get ahead of them during the pit stops and I had a very good out lap, but their pit stops must have been a bit quicker and so we couldn't jump ahead. The car felt good during the race and the updates we brought here improved the car which is encouraging for the next few races.

Vitaly Petrov - 15th Although I'm disappointed to miss out on points today, I really enjoyed the race and the car felt really good. During the race I thought there was a chance of rain, which would have made things interesting, but in the end it was very light and didn't have a big impact on things. At the end of the race my tyres were really worn when I was fighting with Alonso. He tried to go around the outside of me in turn three and my car pushed to the outside so we made contact which caused the puncture. It's bad luck and I'm disappointed to miss out on scoring points, but there are a lot of positives from this race because the car has the pace to fight in the top ten. Hopefully we can be strong in Canada as well and I can score some points there.

Eric Boullier, team principal Overall it has been a very satisfying weekend. Both cars have run well and we had both drivers in the top ten in qualifying for the first time this year. In the race today we again showed the strength of our car and the progress we have made recently, but it was a shame that we couldn't jump ahead of the Mercedes with Robert during the pit stops because we felt we were quicker than them. As for Vitaly, he has been excellent this weekend and drove a very strong race, pushing Massa hard and fighting well against Alonso. It's cruel luck to pick up a puncture so close to the end because he really deserved a good result after such a strong weekend.

Alan Permane, chief race engineer We've had a really strong weekend here and until the last couple of laps it had been a fairly straightforward race. Both cars spent most of the race stuck in the train of cars behind the Mercedes and so it was difficult to see the true pace of the car. We therefore need to work on our qualifying pace to try and get ahead of them on the grid so we can realise our full potential. Robert was as solid as ever and hasn't put a foot wrong all weekend so it was good to score some more points with him. Vitaly was also very impressive today and had very strong race pace. It's a real shame that he picked up a puncture while he was fighting with Alonso, but he can be very proud of his performance today.

Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi - 10th "I am very happy that we finished the race with both cars and got the first point. I had a good start, although I was on the dirty side of the track, and the pace of the car in the beginning was good. Our race strategy was not easy. The car was better on the harder tyre compound, therefore we did a very short first stint on the softer ones. I pitted after ten laps and drove the rest of the race with the same set of tyres. In the end I could see from the car the canvas on the front right tyre. Therefore I started to be very careful, especially in turn 8, and that's also the reason why I didn't defend any harder against Adrian Sutil."

Pedro de la Rosa - 11th "With the high fuel level I had a lot of understeer in the beginning of the race, so I paced myself waiting for my chances to come later in the race. The lighter the car became the better the balance was. The front end came back and I had no problems with the tyres. Certainly I would have been fighting at the end if it hadn't been my team mate in front of me. Our team needed desperately to bring both cars home and score this point. You have to be careful taking risks and this was not the time to attack and risk losing everything. It is better this point stays with us rather then going somewhere else. We finished this race being competitive and this is very good."

Peter Sauber, team principal "Looking at the whole weekend it's clear we were able to confirm the upward trend which we saw in Barcelona. Of course we were lucky in the race, but we finished with both cars and finally scored a well deserved championship point."

James Key, technical director "I'm very pleased we scored a point at this event. It was also good that we had a two car finish. It was fairly eventful in many ways, because, to begin with, it was a case of making sure we were matching the top ten pace, which Kamui did superbly well. He stayed very close behind Fernando Alonso. On the strategy side of things, we decided to bring the cars in early, and particularly Kamui given his tyres were several laps old after doing Q3 with a used set of tyres. That seemed to be the right call. Unfortunately he was held up slightly at his pit stop, which cost him two seconds. Without that he could have been further ahead. Towards the end Kamui's tyres went off quite badly at the front, and he lost quite a lot of lap time, which allowed Pedro and some other cars to catch him up. But the fact is both came home in tenth and 11th. I think this is deserved by everyone and we should be very pleased with this result."

Toro Rosso

Jaime Alguersuari - 12th "I believe we can be satisfied with our result, as I don't think I could have done better from where I started. The decision to make two stops for tyres was the correct one, so that I could attack De La Rosa and Kobayashi at the end. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite do it in the number of laps remaining, but this has been an encouraging weekend and I really hope we can again push in Canada, getting back to scoring points again."

Sebastien Buemi - 16th "The start was good, but then De La Rosa made a poor exit to Turn 2 so going into Turn 3 I tried to go round him on the outside. But I went a bit wide and when I came back onto the track, Hulkenberg got past me and as I tried to retake him at Turn 7 on the outside, I think he might have lost the front end of the car and he clipped my right rear, which punctured the tyre and I had to pit immediately. After that, my race pace was not too bad, considering there was quite a bit of damage to the rear of the car, which meant I had a lot less downforce. I had a good fight, but I am a bit disappointed, so now I am just looking forward to the next race."

Franz Tost "As we have seen in past races, our performance on Sunday is much better than in qualifying and today yet again, both our drivers had good race pace. So we now need to concentrate on transferring that good level to qualifying, as your race is won or lost dependent on your grid position. It's difficult to score points when you start from far back. The team did a good job in terms of our tactics: unlike the majority, we started on the Prime tyre, as we expected the Option to struggle in the early laps. In the second stint, the Option did indeed bring a better pace. In the later stages, we saw that although Alguersuari was close to De La Rosa, he could not pass him and, as Liuzzi was around 19 seconds behind, we called him for another tyre change and if the race had been one or two laps longer, Jaime could have got the Saubers and scored a point. Unfortunately, Buemi had a collision with Hulkenberg on the opening lap. The Williams front wing clipped Seb's right rear wheel and after pitting for new tyres, he went out again with a damaged floor and parts missing from the right rear brake duct. Nevertheless, he did quite good lap times for the rest of the race."

Virgin

Timo Glock - 18th "It was a tough race for the team today so it was great for us to get both cars to the chequered flag and take some reward for all the hard work that has gone into this weekend. The start was disappointing for me because we stalled on the grid, which enabled Senna to pass me. I was stuck behind him for the first 18 laps and just couldn't get close enough to overtake him but then I got him in turn 12. From that point on I could go quite a bit quicker and had a better race. We had a good pitstop and on the option tyre the car felt okay and we had reasonable speed. Unfortunately, five laps from the end, I felt a drop in the power steering assist and the team advised me to stay in fifth gear in order to finish the race. But it's good that we managed to keep the car going and end the day as the best new team."

Lucas di Grassi - 19th "We have had a lot of problems during this weekend, especially regarding the engine, but we achieved our target of getting both cars to the finish and ending the weekend as the best of the new teams. We demonstrated once again that our reliability is improving and what we need to do now is focus on improving the car so that we can be faster and consistently be the best new team at every race."

John Booth, team principal "To finish the race with both cars and as the best of the new teams is a fantastic reward for the whole team, who've worked incredibly hard all weekend to contend with the various issues that cropped up. After the power loss issue with the engine yesterday, the very last thing we needed just an hour before the race was an issue with the engine oil system, which had us taking the car to pieces to get to the engine when we would have been in the final throes of our race countdown. On one side of the garage we were calmly executing the grid sequence with Timo, but it was quite a different story on the other side of the garage where the guys were faced with the seemingly impossible odds to get Lucas' car together and out into the race. They were an absolute credit to us today."

Williams

Rubens Barrichello - 14th "I had a problem with the clutch at the start which is a shame because it's been fine all weekend so we will have to investigate that. We pitted earlier than we had originally planned because our pace was better than the cars in front. Our stop was quite slow because we had a problem with the front wheel. Later on, I then had an issue with the throttle. Our overall race pace wasn't too bad but we need to resolve these issues that we are having."

Nico Hulkenberg - 17th "It hasn't been a good weekend for us and our race pace wasn't good enough today. I also had an incident on the first lap which meant I had to pit early. We have to keep working hard to find more performance."

Sam Michael, technical director "We finished roughly where we qualified today. Rubens had a problem with anti-stall off the start, it wasn't a driver issue. Shortly after his pitstop, he then had a throttle control problem which dropped him back down the order again. The problem reduced so he was able to continue the race, but we'll be stripping the car down to identify what caused it. Nico came together with another car on the opening lap which damaged his front wheel. That forced him into a premature pitstop, so the rest of his race was consumed with tyre management. For the forthcoming events, our objective will be achieving better qualifying and race performance."

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