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2017 Rolex British Grand Prix Driver Quotes - Sunday 16 July

SEASON INFORMATION
13/01/2018

2017 Rolex British Grand Prix

Driver Quotes - Sunday 16 July

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton: I'm so happy... this has got to be one of my sweetest wins here. I was gunning for this victory. There was so much negativity ahead of the race, with people questioning how I prepared for the race. But this weekend has been one of my strongest of the weekend. I made a solid start and then after that I managed the car and the balance, and the boys did a fantastic pit stop. I really can't find a fault at the moment. The team did an exceptional job this weekend and Valtteri obviously drover a stormer today - I'm proud of him. It's great to have him in the team. I'm surprised to see the issues the Ferrari had because I didn't see any debris. I did not expect to come away from this weekend just one point behind Sebastian. This result really opens up the championship - and we go to Hungary next, where I've always gone well. Every time I came around Turn 7, I could see the fans cheering every single lap. It was really reminiscent of 2008, my first Grand Prix win here. I've got some great supporters here, not only in the crowd, but in the garage as well. I've got my brother here, some of my aunties and family has come too. There's this amazing young kid who's come from South Africa, Michael, who is fighting cancer. It was amazing to see him. And Billy Monger is with us, who is just such an inspiration.

Valtteri Bottas: What a race! I'm really happy for us as a team, to get the second 1-2 of the season. Of course I would have liked to win, but I'm happy anyway because that was definitely one of my best ever races. I had to fight hardcore out there a couple of times, but I ended up in a good position. We could actually go longer than expected in the first stint on the Softs and the tyres were really good. In the last stint the team told me to just take care of the tyres, because we saw a few failures out there for some other teams, but for me they were fine. We're just at the half-way point of the season and it could definitely be worst. It's still just my first year with the team and I'm still right in the championship fight As a team we did a really good job today. The strategy right from the start of the race worked really well. It was a flawless race for us and the 1-2 was our prize - the team really deserve this. We definitely got lucky with Kimi's puncture in the end, to take P2, but that's racing and today luck was on our side.

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo: "I hope they showed a lot of that on TV. I just felt like the whole race I was overtaking cars and I hope the fans enjoyed it. We made up a chunk of positions early on and then I got a bit greedy, went off track and ended up at the back again. It was great fun coming back through the field and I gave it everything. I caught Hulkenberg with a few laps to go and then Seb had his issue which handed me fifth, so danke Sebastian. I've been really happy with how I've been putting my Sundays together for the last handful of races, it's been strong and to get fifth from the back today I really couldn't ask for more. Last week I was the hunted and this week the hunter, I love the fight of this sport and today I felt I could really enjoy that. I would give this race ten out of ten in terms of fun. I think you could say that in the last six races the Honey Badger has certainly shown up on Sunday and it's been great fun."

Max Verstappen: "It is a positive day, I am happy to finish the race and get some solid points once again. We got a bit lucky with Seb's puncture at the end and I pitted to be safe as I knew I had enough room behind me. The front left didn't feel great and having seen what happened to the Ferrari we played it safe. If I had seen Kimi pit at the end I may have stayed out to try and get a jump on him but we made the precautionary stop to make sure we finished. With a lot of fast rights here it takes its toll on the front left so we knew there would be issues late on. At the beginning I knew I was quite a bit slower than Seb so I just did my best to stay in front and have some fun, it was the only thing I could do and luckily he didn't manage to pass me on track, after that little battle my race became a bit lonely. Our pace was pretty good and the car felt competitive during the race, it felt better than it did in qualifying so now we need to understand why we struggled yesterday. Fourth is a good result, probably one place better than we expected which is always nice. We have some upgrades coming in Hungary which I am hoping will make some steps towards being able to fight with the top two teams."

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel: It was a difficult race. The brakes got fire on the grid and I think this is the reason why I had no grip at the start: they were too hot. During the last laps, after the problem with the front left tire, I tried to get the car back and recover some points. It was difficult today because I was stuck at the beginning behind Max, but I am not the one to judge what happened between him and me. After that I think the pace was good, considering the fact that I was on the Soft tires. Valtteri was on other compound, the Supersofts, so it was clear that he would have been strong. Today was not a great day, but we'll see what happens in Hungary, on a different track.

Kimi Raikkonen: My race wasn't going too bad until a few laps before the end. I suddenly had the problem, my front left tire let go with no warning; the air stayed in the tire but the rubber part, came off. It's disappointing because without that issue the second place was secured, and we deserved a better result. We had made some changes to the car and they seemed to have improved the feeling. When it's like this you are confident and you can push; I hope that it will be a similar story in the future races. However, today we were lacking a little bit of speed against our rivals. We did what we could but obviously there's some work to be done to catch up the Mercedes in places like this. This is definitely not our strongest type of circuit. I'm interested to see what happens in the next race, I guess the Hungarian track should suit our car better.

Force India

Sergio Perez: "It's been a difficult race and I have a feeling we didn't get to demonstrate our true pace. We should have finished higher, but in the end we still bring home points with both cars. I had a poor start and that compromised the rest of the afternoon, because I couldn't recover from it. Silverstone is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake, and even though I spent all my race within DRS range of Esteban, I never had a real opportunity to pass him. Being so close to the car in front damaged my tyres and cost me lots of downforce so there was nothing I could do. You can look back at the race and think of things that could have been done differently, but it's always easy to say this after the race. As we get to the half-way point in the season, I feel very positive about our performance. We have been doing really well as a team and I hope we can get back to our real level in the next race and after the break."

Esteban Ocon: "I had a brilliant start - it felt like four wheel drive and I moved up a couple of positions, but I lost out to Hulkenberg at the end of the first lap. After that, I had a good battle with my teammate for most of the afternoon and the team let us race - just like Canada. Sergio was fast and giving me pressure, but I was able to stay ahead. It's very satisfying to see us score points again with both cars. Our consistency is our strength this year - on all tracks we are there with good speed and scoring points. We need to keep this up in the second half of the year."

WilliamsF1

Felipe Massa: I'm definitely happy with the race after starting 14th, having had a very good start and opening lap, to finish 10th. For sure the most difficult part of the race was overtaking the Force Indias at the end. I was quicker, but maybe not quick enough to have the opportunity to overtake. I'm still not happy with the qualifying yesterday. When you start out of position things are a lot more difficult than they should be so today maybe we could have fought for more points. Unfortunately, starting 14th didn't allow us to do that, but I'm happy with my race. We just need to make sure our starting position is better in the next race.

Lance Stroll: It was not a good race for us. The start was good and I moved up to P12. The first stint was also okay, and then also at the start of the second stint things weren't bad. But then we picked up some damage on the car, which I believe was a broken barge board. I started to feel something was wrong, we suspected it was the tyres and so I stopped again. However, this was for nothing really as it just got worse from there. I just brought the car home but some damage on the car destroyed our race. Now I'm just looking forward to Hungary.

McLaren

Fernando Alonso: "It was a difficult weekend for us, starting last with the penalties; then in the race, when I was following a group of cars, I had another issue.

"Hopefully, it hasn't done any damage to the engine and we'll be able to keep using it in the future.

"Stoffel was 11th today, so I think we weren't quick enough to be in the points today and I think I could have ended up 13th or 14th, so the retirement is a little bit less painful than it would be if we'd lost a points finish. Now I'm looking ahead to Hungary, which should be a better weekend for us."

Stoffel Vandoorne "It's a shame to once again finish just outside the points - but there are plenty of positives to take away from this weekend.

"The pace we showed in the race today was very encouraging: to run as close as we did to both Force Indias and a Williams on a circuit like this is a real positive.

"Not everything went perfectly in the race - my pit-stop didn't go too smoothly, so I came out side-by-side with Felipe and lost a position. That was a shame, because there was definitely a chance to finish ahead of him because our pace was very similar to his.

"So, unfortunately, no points - but today was very encouraging, and I'm sure our time will come."

Toro Rosso

Carlos Sainz Jr: "I'm not going to say much about what happened today on lap 1 with Daniil, the images talk for themselves - it's just very frustrating to have not finished another race. Of course I'm disappointed and it's not the way you want your race to go, but I just need to think of it as a stage of my year - with 20 races, there's always going to be this kind of situation at some point... That's why I'm not worried and very calm. Fortunately, it's a weekend where not a lot of points were on the table, especially because we needed some tricky scenarios like rain but this never happened, so we didn't lose that much. The only big shame is that we haven't scored any points again this weekend, but we need to keep our heads up - I'd like to cheer the mechanics and the whole team up as they must also be disappointed about this and hopefully in Hungary we can turn it around and have a good race weekend as a team. I'm confident it will be better next time out."

Daniil Kvyat: "Even if I was able to continue after the collision with Carlos, my race was also compromised and I'm obviously not happy with what happened. I was ahead and on a dirty line, so it's normal to have some understeer, and then, all of a sudden, the crash took place. These things happen and sometimes they're unavoidable. It's a real shame, as this has damaged both us drivers and the team, which I feel very sorry for. There's not much more that can be done now, we just need to learn from this and move forward."

Haas

Romain Grosjean: "Tough day in the office. We didn't have much pace today with either tire. I got stuck in traffic initially, which killed the supersoft. I pitted for the softs, and again, traffic all the way. We tried a gamble at the end putting new supersofts on, hoping that something would happen at the front, but nothing did. We just need to understand why our race pace wasn't as good as it was in qualifying and go from there."

Kevin Magnussen: "I felt the Toro Rosso hit my tire at the start, but nothing happened. Fortunately, there was no puncture. I just didn't quite get the first lap. It was always going to be difficult when you start on the reverse strategy on the harder tire. That first stint kind of kept me out of the points. The pace was good in the car, I just had to do a long stint on the tires and wait for the guys in front to pit and then put in a lot of good lap times. I came back a bit at the end, but it wasn't enough. Whenever you're fighting outside of the points, it's never that interesting. Still, I'll take the positives. We were quick and had good pace in the race."

Renault

Nico Hulkenberg: "We are very happy with the race result today. P6 is a big success for the team. We were able to get a good lap in qualifying and then to carry it through to the race. We had a strong race pace, and were able to keep ahead of both Force Indias, which is really positive. We lost some power at the end, especially down the straights, which made it easier for Daniel to pass me, but then we gained back a position from Seb [Vettel] when he had his problem. Overall this is a very positive result. The new upgrades worked really well, we were able to push the car and I'm really pleased for the team."

Jolyon Palmer: "Going out at the start of the race is really frustrating. We had a hydraulic leak on the first lap, which is pretty gutting as I think we were in a good position. Eleventh with new tyres, a car that was working really well with lots of different options on strategy: all was looking good to get some points. I have had so much support all weekend that it would have been sweet to get them here. All the same we can see that the car has taken a step forward, but we just need to look at reliability now."

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson: "It was a fairly good race for me. I maximized the performance of the car and my lap times were decent, especially during the second half of the race. Of course we want to be higher up and fight for points, but our pace was not competitive enough for that this weekend. We did manage to make the best of it - the team did a good job in improving the car set-up throughout our stay in Silverstone. We have to keep pushing now in order to have a stronger weekend in Budapest."

Pascal Wehrlein: "The race did not go as we hoped it would. When the safety car came out at the beginning of the race, we made the decision to complete the mandatory pit stop and change to medium tyres. I then returned to the pit one lap later in order to switch to soft tyres, with the goal to drive on them until the end of the race. Unfortunately the tyres lost more and more grip, due to which I had to change again. I hope that we have a better weekend in Budapest."

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