Google+ Jack Leslie F1: 2016 Chinese Grand Prix Driver Reaction

17 April 2016

2016 Chinese Grand Prix Driver Reaction

Nico Rosberg joined a very exclusive club in China, claiming his sixth consecutive F1 victory - something only three other drivers, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari, have achieved.
© Sauber F1 Team
It was the German's third win of the season, as he extended his lead in the 2016 standings. Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat completed the podium. Here's what some of this year's grid had to say about the Chinese GP.

Nico Rosberg
"It's been a fantastic few days for me here in China. First of all, the fans have been amazing from the moment I arrived. They're so enthusiastic, which gives us drivers a very special feeling. Then, racing wise, it was an almost perfect weekend. 
"Only the start could have been better - but luckily I was able to pass Daniel later on the straight and from then on I could build up a gap. I must say, I've never had a better balance in my car than I had today. It was really perfect, so a big thanks to everyone who helped me achieve that. Their support is unbelievable and that's really what makes it possible for me to be doing what I'm doing.
© Mercedes
 "I'm a very happy man today and, after three races I can be really pleased about how my season has gone so far. But it's a very long year ahead and there's a lot of points still on the table, so I'm not losing my focus. Now I look forward to Russia, where I started my good run of qualifying results last year. Hopefully I can get on a nice run like that again."
Sebastian Vettel
"What happened at the first lap, in the end, is a racing incident. From my side I didn’t really know where to go, I was sandwiched between Kimi and Daniil. Obviously I am terribly sorry for what has happened, I mean touching the car with the same colors is not right. It was a shame, because it destroyed both of our races, Kimi’s and mine.
"At the end of the day we’ve been lucky because we were still able to continue. The safety car helped us to sort of come back. Kimi locked up in turn one. I tried to go inside to pass him. Daniil was behind me. He had a better start and was lining up for the same move initially. I was determined to overtake Kimi. Daniil was determined to overtake me. 
"Kimi came back from the left, Kvyat came from the back from the right and I was reacting to him. I tried to back out of it, going off throttle and hitting the brakes, but there was no way, so I had contact with Kimi which is a shame, the car was damaged after that, but obviously a great recovery by the Team, which managed to stay calm initially and then change the nose while the safety car was out. Overall we had great pace, good strategy, fantastic pit stops, I couldn’t have asked for more after this poor first lap. Hopefully in Russia we have a smoother race."
Valtteri Bottas
"It was a disappointing race. I was blocked at the start because of the crash between the Ferraris and lost many positions. The beginning of the race was looking alright, the pace was pretty good on the soft tyres, but once I went on to the medium tyre the pace was not there and I was struggling with overall grip. We need to check and see if everything was alright with the car, but it was difficult out there today in the last stint."
Daniil Kvyat
© Red Bull Content Pool

"I really enjoyed the race today. Our pace was very strong and to get this result at this track where we didn’t expect to be so strong is really great. The car is performing really well, the chassis is easy to drive and with further upgrades coming to the power unit, we should be in an even stronger position. I think it was a fair move on Vettel. I saw the gap and I went for it.
"We didn’t touch, unfortunately for him, Kimi was on his other side. For me it was a logical move and it paid off with a podium. It’s a nice boost for our side of the garage after a couple of tricky races. It’s also good for the team to be consistently fighting for podiums this year. It’s very encouraging for the season. I’m a very happy man today and it’s nice to carry this feeling heading into my home grand prix in Russia."
Nico Hulkenberg
"It was a frustrating race in the end, even though the start and the first few laps were great. As the lights went out, I rocketed from P13 up to fifth place, picking up one place after the other. The safety car threw all this good work out the window because I had to stack in the pits behind Checo and dropped right down the order.
"The dirty air affected us, we had some faster cars coming through and this destroyed my tyres. In fact, tyre degradation was the main story of the day and we appeared to suffer more than some others, which is why I went backwards in the second half of the race.
"The time penalty was an added blow, but in the end it didn’t make a huge difference to my result: the rules say you shouldn’t slow down coming in, but in the heat of racing it’s hard to gauge if that is giving you an advantage. Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace to get back into the points: it’s something we have to work on and do better in the coming races."
© Renault
Jolyon Palmer
"The start was good today, as was the first lap – we made up a lot of positions. From then on though, it was a tough day. The balance of the car was all over the place, tyre degradation was bigger than usual and the pace wasn’t as good as previous races. We need to look in the data really, and I’m definitely happy to move on to the next race."
Max Verstappen
"A race full of action! At the start, I had a good first reaction but then I wasn’t able to keep my position unfortunately. From then on it was very tricky, and the safety car didn’t help as I lost even more ground with our double pit-stop, which meant I was at the back of the pack…
"But I stayed calm, overtook the rivals one by one and in the end, to cross the line in eighth position is something that if someone had told me at the beginning of the race I wouldn’t have believed. I also think the team did a great job strategy wise, we were able to charge through the field and score some more points."
Felipe Nasr
"It was a difficult race for me this weekend, especially as it was compromised after the start at turn 1. I got hit, which resulted in my front right tyre having a puncture and in a nose change. That cost me a lot of time in the race, because I couldn’t recover the lap I lost in the safety car period.
"So this meant, I had a lot to catch up in the race. Anyway, I still feel that we have a lot to do in the car to bring back the pace, because I am still struggling with the same issues that I’ve been having in the last couple of events. I have confidence in the team that we can get the performance back."
© McLaren
Jenson Button
“My start was good: I made up a lot of places and was able to take the battle to the other cars. Our pace on the option tyre during the first stint was also pretty good – it was fun racing the quicker cars. When the safety car came out, there was mayhem in the pit-lane because Nico [Hulkenberg] was trying to slow everyone down to help his team-mate.
"After that stop, we seemed to be sitting in a strong position, but we were running the Medium compound, and we just seemed to stand still compared with the others. We tried to do a two-stopper – which didn’t work out – so then we decided to fit the option for the final stint. 
"Given our position just outside the points, we thought we might as well give it a go. Perhaps fitting the option at the end was the wrong choice – I could have stayed out until the end on the medium, but I decided to have some fun by fitting softer [ie, faster] rubber – but it just couldn’t make its performance last to the end. Still, as I say, it was worth having a crack at it."
Pascal Wehrlein
"It was a good race, with some positives to take away. Once again we were fighting with some other cars and managed to overtake a few as well. The start went well and then the first few corners were a bit hairy with cars and debris all over the place. We did well to avoid the chaos and made up 17 places from the start to be 4th for a few laps.
"That was a nice feeling, although I knew it would be short-lived. The car was working fine but I think 18th place is where the car is right now at this event. At the end we saw the chance to gain on Magnussen, which is why we went for the super-softs.
"It was a good feeling to be hunting him down but we only had a limited window on those tyres and it wasn’t quite enough in the end. Everyone finished, so with no DNFs we got ahead of four other cars on merit, but we have to make a good step forward now to make a big difference in the races ahead."
© Haas F1 Team
Romain Grosjean
"It was a horrific race. The start was terrible when (Marcus) Ericsson turned into me and got my front wing. From there we had the safety car and I thought, ‘OK, we still have a chance to do something'. But the balance in the car was nowhere near good.
"I don’t know what happened. Somehow, it’s positive that we had such a difficult race, because we can analyse what we did wrong, what we did right and what we could have done differently. From there, we can come back stronger. It’s a difficult one after the two first races. Not the birthday I was hoping for."

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