Nico Rosberg managed to hold on to second in his ailing W05, while Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire. Here is a round-up of the driver's reactions: For a detailed look at the race weekend and a guide to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, see my preview. You can also take a look back at previous races with my blog's F1 Flashback, Richland F1's One Year Rewind and my Formula 1 Blog 'Remember When' feature. See what the teams and drivers got up to prior to the start of the on-track action with my Thursday Snapshot. Missed any of the Canadian Grand Prix action? Catch up with my Weekend Report.
"I’m a grand prix winner. I think it still seems a bit surreal to be
honest, just because it all happened so quickly at the end. I was third
for a while and then it all happened in a really exciting fashion. Once I
got past Perez I knew I just had to drive clean and get in Rosberg’s
DRS zone and, from then on, it was just awesome.
"Finishing under the safety car made it a bit weird, but I wanted to
make sure the two drivers who were in the accident were okay before I
started celebrating. We achieved a great result today with first and
third – so let’s enjoy it – but we will still have some work to do also.
This will motivate the guys to work even harder and find even more, so
I’m sure it will keep coming even better for us at the next few races."
A battle to the end for Rosberg:
"That was a big battle all the way through today! I had a tough start
but I was able to defend in the first few corners and fight against
Lewis. The race went smoothly for a while then both cars suddenly lost
the MGU-K system and a lot of power which was really tough. Then I lost
some time in the second pit stop which let Lewis jump me and I was
struggling to cool the rear brakes down so it was all happening.
"Towards the end of the race, I tried to defend against Sergio which
was fine but Daniel was too fast on the straights with much more power
than I had available and he was able to get past. With so much going on,
I had to ask my engineer where I finished at the end as I thought I was
probably about fifth or sixth. I was so happy to hear that I was in P2.
They are important points for me in the championship, so it was a tough
but ultimately good day."
“Looking at the wild final stages of the race, today we picked up
some “lucky” points, but we still can’t be happy with where we finished
as our aim was to do better than this. In the beginning, my pace wasn’t
good and I wasn’t happy with the balance of my car. Then in the second
stint, when the track began to improve, we found a good rhythm and we
managed to catch the group in front. But we weren’t quick enough to join
the fight.
"What Red Bull did in the race shows how quickly things can change in
Formula 1 and that should be further motivation for us to get to a
point where we can fight for the win. This weekend, we have made some
steps forward, especially on the aerodynamic front, but the others have
also improved and now, all we can do is carry on working to be as well
prepared as possible for the forthcoming races."
A poor race for Grosjean:
"Today was not great in terms of pace for me, however there are some
positives looking forwards. We can see that a Renault Sport F1 team can
win a race so we have a target there, especially when the win came at a
circuit that is not thought to be one of the stronger ones for them.
"Congratulations to Daniel for his win which I watched in the garage. The
rear wing of my car broke, so it was safer to retire than risk a
potentially dangerous situation. We have a lot of work to do, so it’s
time to go home and try to understand our problems and come back
stronger in the next races."
"What a fantastic race. The opening stint on the Option tyre was
tough-going for me, so I decided to jump off it quite early and move to
the Prime. But then I just kept coming up on traffic – there were cars
everywhere: if you were racing against a single car, it was easier to
get past, but if you were in a bunch, it was tough because lots of
drivers were able to use the DRS.
"Still, I fought my way through at the end. I had a little dice with
Fernando and Nico [Hulkenberg] – Fernando almost hit Nico at the
hairpin, and had to dive down the inside. Then they both ran wide and I
got down the inside of both of them. On the final lap, you never want to
see an accident like Felipe and Checo’s – but, fortunately, they both
got out of their cars okay, which was good.
"We come out of this weekend knowing that there’s a better overall
feel to our car – it’s encouraging that we’re making progress. In a
straightforward race, I wouldn’t have finished fourth, but we did a good
job today and ought to be happy. These points are helpful, and they’ll
spur us on to do another good job in Austria."
Potential podium lost for Perez:
"On the final lap I was defending my position going into turn one when I suddenly got hit from behind. It was a big impact, but I am okay. I’m really sad for the team because we had an amazing race today and the one-stop strategy was working perfectly.
"It was not easy in the final laps and I was pushing hard to try and get ahead of Nico [Rosberg] for the lead. Daniel [Ricciardo] managed to get ahead of me when I had an electrical issue with my car, but I managed to reset the system for the final couple of laps. The podium was possible today and I’m just very disappointed for the points we have lost."
"It was a very challenging race. Especially in the beginning, I was
struggling so much with the tyres. It was hard to manage them and to
drive consistently. I fought with some cars, but it was extremely
difficult to keep them behind. When I pitted, I got a fresh set of soft
tyres, which I drove until the end. With this second set of soft tyres,
the car felt much better, I even enjoyed driving. But then we lost
power, and I had to retire."
Power-unit problem caused Kvyat retirement:
"It’s been a disappointing end to a difficult weekend here in Canada.
Even though yesterday’s Qualifying did not go well for me, I was hopeful
to aim high in today’s race. At the start of the race I lost a position and then later on I
made a mistake in Turn 1 when my tyres were still a bit cold and I lost
quite a lot of time there.
"At the point my race was already compromised,
but I kept pushing anyway. I then had to stop on track when I suddenly
lost drive. About the incident with Raikkonen, there was only place for
one car in the chicane and if I had turned, we would have clashed, which
is why I cut the chicane."
"I was one of the quickest guys on the track, so we lost many points
today. I'm happy that I'm here with no problems but I'm so disappointed
for what happened with Perez, and also for the pitstop because I think
maybe we could even have fought for victory today. But it shows we have a
good car and I'm convinced the next race will be better."
Miserable race for Bianchi and Marussia:
"I got a great start, kept everyone who was behind me behind and then
obviously Max and I were racing each other through Turns 2 and 3. I
braked into Turn 3 and there was an impact, after which I ended up in
the wall with a badly damaged car.
"I am disappointed for the whole Team
because once again we had a strong weekend and it was a race that held
so much promise for us, both in terms of the car we had and also how the
race ultimately panned out today. Now we have to move on and give the
Team a better reward from Austria."
"A disappointing end to a difficult weekend, but for me it’s all part of the learning curve. As soon as the formation lap started I could feel that the Power Unit wasn’t pulling hard in any gears and that continued under the safety car. The team tried to fix it but there wasn’t anything we could do and as soon as the safety car came in I was told to retire and that was the end of the race.
"When I got the car back we found out the problem was with a pipe connected to the turbo, not the Power Unit itself, and we had to retire to prevent any damage to the engine. Obviously that’s not how we wanted to end the race but we’ll regroup and keep pushing."
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