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2014 Austrian GP - Driver Reaction

The 22 drivers have their say on the action at the Red Bull Ring

The 22 drivers have their say on the action at the Red Bull Ring where Nico Rosberg took victory.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso: "I think that I can consider this to be my best race of the season, because finishing eighteen seconds off the Mercedes in a race without a Safety Car or any particular incidents, is a good result. It was impossible to keep Hamilton behind me and fifth place is really the best we could do today, because the first four cars were quicker and therefore deserved to finish ahead of us. "We pushed hard all race without any problems, which means that little by little, we are improving. Sure, there's still a long way to go but the aim is still to do well and score points. Each track is a different story and we will always try our best." Kimi Raikkonen: "This was another very difficult race for me, despite having gone in a different direction yesterday to try and improve the performance. Unfortunately, it did not bring the improvements I'd hoped for and again here I found myself fighting the handling of the car. At the start I made up one place, but already on the second lap I began to have a problem with the brakes overheating and this meant I had to slow down. "At the time of my first pit stop, my tyres were completely worn and on my in-lap alone I lost two places. We should definitely have stopped sooner. Compared to the start of the season, progress has been made, even if there's still a lot to do as our speed still doesn't allow us to fight for the top places."

Lotus

Romain Grosjean: "Today hasn't been easy. We had various issues during the race to add to our struggle for overall performance so it was quite a challenge! We stopped very early for soft tyres but unfortunately we soon experienced graining from these which made it difficult for the rest of the race. Looking at the past, the team has always managed to make a great comeback. It might be a bit of a big build-up this time, but I know that we will work hard and do all we can to fight back to where we want to be." Pastor Maldonado: "For me in the car it was actually quite a good weekend. We finished the race which is positive and we made the most of the package we had today. We are losing a lot of time in the slow speed corners and we need to keep improving in this area to be more like our good high speed corner performance. "Unfortunately we had some brake issues from very early on in the race so I wasn't able to fight others around me, even though it was nice to be running in the top ten during the course of the race. After that, it was a case of saving fuel and brakes to get to the chequered flag. I think Silverstone will suit us much better."

McLaren

Kevin Magnussen: "I really thought we were going to finish sixth today, but Checo [Perez] just had too much pace at the end of the race. That wasn't great, but it's positive that we're making improvements. We've made progress this weekend, but we still need to keep pushing: we still need to find good, efficient downforce. "Still, I think we got everything out of our package this weekend. It's tough racing in the midfield pack, like we did today, but we're going to get there. It's maybe difficult to see it from the outside, but, believe me, we're making improvements all the time." Jenson Button: "I'd hoped we could make up some places today, but it's never easy to overtake around here. We went for a different strategy - starting on Primes - but it didn't really work for us. "At the start, Nico [Hulkenberg] pushed me wide at the exit of Turn One - there was no real need for that as there was enough room for both of us - so I lost a couple of places. From then on, my race was all about sitting in the train, waiting for people ahead of me to pit, and trying to make my strategy work - which in the end I couldn't. It was a long afternoon's work for 11th place. "I'm now really looking forward to Silverstone."

Force India

Sergio Perez: "Today we got a very positive result for the team, especially considering where we started the afternoon. When you start in 16th it is always going to be difficult to make up ground, but I had a very strong start and made up a good few positions. It was especially important to pass Jenson [Button] because he was on a similar strategy to mine: it was a key moment for my race. "The strategy worked; we showed once more that we can manage the tyres well, and we had a very strong race pace, as we have had all year. It was nice to be in the lead for a while, although we obviously knew that the cars behind us were on a different strategy. The only regret is that without the grid penalty I would have been further up the grid, which would have made a big difference because we had the pace to fight for a podium today. It's nice to be back in the points after two disappointing races: the car is improving and we are in good shape." Nico Hulkenberg: "It was quite a tough afternoon and more difficult than I was expecting. Inside the car I was struggling with the balance quite a lot, which hurt our pace and also had an impact on the tyre wear. So I think it was just a general lack of pace which stopped me from being able to get a better result. "Checo obviously had better race pace, even though he was on a different strategy, so we need to understand why that was the case. It's good to continue picking up points and I had some good battles this afternoon, especially with Ricciardo on the final lap. I was fighting hard to keep him behind but he had a tyre advantage and I could not hold him off."

Sauber

Esteban Gutierrez: "It was not a satisfying race. We made a mistake during the first pit stop, as the wheel nut on the right rear wheel was not secured, so I had to stop in the pit lane and my mechanics had to pull me back. Afterwards, I got a ten second stop and go penalty. Apart from this incident, I was trying to get the most out of the car. I got a lot of blue flags, so I had to let other cars by, which resulted in slower lap times. We tried by compromising qualifying in order to get a better race pace, but it didn't seem to pay off. It was difficult to keep the tyres alive." Adrian Sutil: "From a driving perspective, it was a good race. I had a good start and was able to gain two positions on the first lap. Up to lap 15, after my first pit stop, everything went according to our plan. Suddenly, I got the instruction through the radio to stop the car immediately. However, the radio communication was not for me, but for Esteban. After telling me this I immediately continued in the race, but I had already lost quite a lot of time due to this incident."

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne: "I have struggled with the brakes from the beginning of the race. It's difficult to drive the car with such a considerable rear locking. It's not good for tyre life and for the balance in general so it was really a tricky race. I was doing my best to finish it at least but in the end I just could not bring the car to the chequered flag. "Problems happen, it's a shame that they occurred here but the new aero package is working well and we have a good car to face the next Grand Prix in Silverstone. There are still a lot of races in front of us and I'm sure we are moving in the right direction for the rest of the season." Daniil Kvyat: "I'm obviously disappointed with how today turned out, especially because everything was working so well this weekend and it seemed like a promising race. Our pace was strong, our updates and also tyre management worked well. The start was difficult, I lost a few positions but I managed to get a position back. From then on I was able to push hard and it looked like we could have a strong result. "Around lap 26 I saw my rear right tyre blow up and I was forced to stop. I'm not quite sure what exactly happened, but we will now analyse everything closely and find out what the problem was today. On the positive side, we have made a solid step forward this weekend and I think it looks promising for the upcoming races, so I can't wait to get to Silverstone where we will aim high again."

Williams

Valtteri Bottas: "It's difficult to explain how I feel right now. That was the best champagne I've ever tasted. All the hard work that the team puts in shows in moments like this. I had one pitstop that really put in me in the fight and that changed my race, so well done to the boys for that. I had put in a good lap before that and so I got in front on Felipe and from there I could manage my pace with the cars in front. Having both cars score good points is what we wanted and so third and fourth for the team is a great result. There are still two places to go up the podium, but for now we will enjoy this moment." Felipe Massa: "I am very happy for Valtteri, he did a great job. We had a good fight with the Mercedes but it was clear we were never going to win. I had to manage my tyres the whole race and also struggled with traffic. To stop first and come back out fourth is a bit disappointing but that's racing. It was a positive weekend for the whole team and an emotional one as well. The main thing is that we got 27 points which means we move up in the Constructors' Championship. We have progressed a lot but there still work to do to close the gap to Mercedes."

Marussia

Jules Bianchi: "It was not an easy race trying to make our one-stop strategy work, but we did and I am pretty happy with how we have finished. I got a good start and kept everyone behind me until it was not possible for me to keep pace with the Supersoft tyre Kobayashi was running to my Soft and he was able to get by. "We just had to keep faith with the strategy though and run as long as possible on the prime, which, in the end was 40 laps. Everything worked out well because on the Supersoft I was able to catch him very quickly, overtake, and then pull away from him by some margin. Late in the race I was also closing the gap to Grosjean but unfortunately I ran out of time. "Nonetheless, 15th is a good result and I am happy that we delivered a good Team performance today. It was a nice fight, just not the fight we had been hoping for, which was with the cars ahead. I hope we can find those extra tenths for our home race at Silverstone in two weeks' time." Max Chilton: "We had a very good strategy today which enabled me to keep Ericsson behind and in the latter stages of the race, close the gap to Kobayashi. I had a really good second stint but unfortunately we just ran out of laps as the gap came down to only 2s. "Generally I'm pleased with 17th after starting at the back of the grid today. It has been a positive end to the weekend but we've grown used to being able to focus on the cars ahead, not behind, so we need to recover a bit of ground for the next race to get us back on track. "The next round is our home race, for the Team and for me, so hopefully we'll find a little bit more pace to get us back where we need to be."

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi: "I didn't have a great start but then recovered and passed my teammate and Bianchi and was running well for the first stint. We'd started on supersofts and they held up well, right until we boxed on lap 14 for a set of softs. "Our original plan was for a two stops and with our race focused on the Marussias, as soon as it became clear Bianchi was stopping once, we decided to switch the strategy into the second stint which meant I had to manage that set of softs for 55 laps to the flag. Unfortunately that didn't work as with about ten laps to go I couldn't hold him back as he was on supersofts and had the pace to pass. We tried something and this time it didn't work, but ultimately we probably didn't lose anything as we were really only fighting him. "Despite that I think we have to take quite a few positives from this weekend as our performance relative to our nearest competitors improved quite a bit. Our reliability has been much better this weekend and the setup change we made on Friday night paid dividends again today as I was pretty easily able to pass the lead Marussia and pull away early in the race. From where we were on Friday, and in the last couple of races, that's a good sign and we know we can improve again at Silverstone so I'm already hungry to get back and fight again there." Marcus Ericsson: "I'm pretty pleased with my race today as the gap to our direct rivals on Friday looked like it would be much more than it was today. "I had a really good start, passing a couple of cars, but we'd planned to stretch out the first stint on softs to around lap 28 so I didn't want to kill them defending so early in the race. The first stop was good, going onto a set of new supersofts which performed really well until about 10 laps into the stint, and then they started going off so we boxed again on lap 43 for a set of softs to the flag. "Unfortunately we had to extend the second pitstop by four seconds because of a Ferrari in the fastlane of the pitlane and that meant I came out about 12 seconds behind Chilton. The car felt good and within a few laps I had the gap down to around three seconds, but then the blue flags really kicked in and cost me a lot of time. They're obviously part of the race, especially for us, and even though they make life even more tough, particularly on a small track like this, it's still something I'm learning. We're nearly halfway through the season and I'm definitely improving, and I'll take that as another lesson - without that I think it would have been a much better fight to the flag, but 18th is still ok, especially considering where we were in FP1 and FP2."

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