The thrilling 2014 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps was won in style by Daniel Ricciardo, with the Aussie doing just enough to finish ahead of Nico Rosberg.
Valtteri Bottas impressed once again in third, while Lewis Hamilton retired with car damage following an early puncture caused by contact with his team-mate. Here are some post-race thoughts from the drivers:
Ricciardo happy to win under different circumstances:
"You know everyone was saying we didn’t really have a chance around here, but I think we had some really good pace today and surprised ourselves. It feels a bit surreal, but another win is very cool, very cool. It was difficult staying out at the end of the race.
"When you’re the leader as well you always feel like you’re the most vulnerable when it comes to a pit stop or not, but Simon my engineer came on the radio and said I think it’s 11 laps left, can these tyres get to the end?
"And I said I think I can keep more or less this pace, and we were able to, and then on the last lap I found a couple more tenths, so I was having a bit of fun then! There’s been a lot of good things about the win today, obviously the last two came from a more aggressive style of race, but today was more calculated and it was nice to win under different circumstances."
Hamilton "gutted" after registering third DNF:
"I'm gutted with the result - not just for my own championship hopes but for the team, as we really should have had a one-two today. It's been a tough year for everyone and the whole team has been working so hard - every time we've been knocked down they've never given up.
"I didn't fully understand what had happened until I saw the replay just now, but I gave him plenty of space, took the corner like I usually do and suddenly felt a big hit from behind. There was nothing I could do about it and that was effectively my race over. I wanted to retire the car early - not because I was giving up, but because I couldn't catch the people in front of me and even with a safety car I don't think I would have been able to pass them.
"The car was quite badly damaged and my thoughts were to preserve the engine after the last one was destroyed in Hungary. What happens next is not my call - that's one for the bosses to make. But I'm now almost 30 points behind in the Championship so that's the main thing on my mind. It's a big gap and it will be hard to recover from here. That's tough to swallow - but ultimately it's just been one of those days."
"We had decided to tackle this race more aggressively, making an early stop to get ahead of the cars that had yet to pit and that meant I was able to stay with the leaders for much of the race.
"When Bottas in the Williams began to close on me, I knew I didn’t have the speed to defend on the straight and with a few laps to go, he managed to pass me.In general, I’m happy with how this weekend ended. We knew it would not be easy on this circuit, but we did our utmost and for the first time, we managed to have a clean race without any problems.
"The car has improved and today the pace was good. Fourth place shows we are going in the right direction, but it doesn’t mean we can settle for that. Today, we scored a good number of points, but we are here to win and we will continue to work to reach the top."
Loss of downforce caused Grosjean's retirement:
"The car was pretty good; the pace was much better than expected, which is encouraging. Unfortunately the race was compromised early on, we had to change the nose on the first lap and we picked up some damage later on from debris on the track.
"We lost a lot of downforce as a result so we retired the car. We’re moving forward every weekend and learning a lot, though Monza is likely to be challenging too. Singapore should suit us a lot better."
"We played the long game today – most people were making their pit-stops early – and I felt I kept the tyres in good condition. I also had a lot of fun out there, especially racing Kevin [Magnussen], Sebastian [Vettel] and Fernando [Alonso] at the end.
"In the final laps Kevin and I didn’t touch, although I had to back off a bit at turn eight, when Fernando ran off as he and Kevin were dicing. I lost a place to Fernando there, which was a bit of a shame, and in turn a place to Sebastian after that, but as I say I really enjoyed it out there. It’s such a fantastic circuit; driving here always feels so good."
Perez pleased with points in Belgium:
"Somehow I avoided all the crazy battles that took place today because my race was quite straightforward. I went flat out and I think we achieved the most that was possible from the race.
"I lost a bit of time in the second stint, having to pass the two McLarens and I took a bit too much out of the tyres, which cost me some time later in the stint. In the final ten laps I was under a lot of pressure from Kvyat: he was catching me quickly, but I managed to hold him off. In the end, we got some points out of this weekend and that's the important thing."
"It was a tough race. The race strategy was to attack straight from the beginning on. Unfortunately, it did not work out as expected, but at least I was able to gain some positions during the first laps. Throughout the race I struggled a lot with the medium tyres.
"This aspect made things complicated and put us in a difficult position. Our pace was too slow to finish the race in the points. We need to keep working to be in the top ten as soon as possible."
Vergne just misses out on the top 10:
"The start wasn't great. There were some cars already passing me by on the straight and I couldn't do anything to defend myself. It's a bit frustrating to sit in the traffic, with my tyres which didn't last very long and suffering of a lack of performance.
"We need now to have a look at all the data to see if there is anything we can do to be back in Monza in a better condition. We are not far from the points but we need to sort a few things out, have a clean weekend and score some points at our home Grand Prix."
"Our pace was solid today and a lot better than in qualifying, with some good battles with the Ferrari’s and Red Bull’s, and I think third was probably the right result. I was stuck behind slower cars at the beginning which made the first stint difficult, but I managed to make my way past cars when it was needed and that was important for my race.
"We came into this race aiming for a podium and it is very satisfying to achieve that after an up and down weekend with tricky weather and Felipe being very unlucky today with debris."
Chilton pleased with performance:
"It’s great to end the weekend on a positive with 16th place, having gained three positions and finished ahead of the Caterham. We’ve improved the car since Hungary and we are in a good place versus the teams around us, so this has enabled us to fight this weekend.
"That what is required now, to try to hold onto 9th place in the constructors’ championship. I’m pleased with how the race panned out, especially taking Ericsson right at the end."
"I didn’t even get the chance to sweat unfortunately. I was really looking forward to a good race and I had a good start, but then I went a bit wide at turn 17 and there was a sudden loss of power. The team and Renault will have to investigate this tonight and see what happened.
"It’s a shame, but I am pleased with my race weekend – I made no mistakes and did a reasonably good job. Of course it would’ve been fantastic to finish the race and do a whole Grand Prix, but it’s still been an amazing weekend. I can go home happy even though it didn’t really end the way I would’ve liked it to.
"I want to thank Caterham F1 Team for this amazing opportunity – it’s been fantastic to experience Formula 1, I got a lot of support and the team has been great. It’s frustrating to have only completed two laps of the race, but this is motorsport and these things happen."
No comments:
Post a Comment