Heidfeld reflective on "tough weekend"
Monday 11th July 2011
Nick Heidfeld admits he always knew it was going to be a "tough weekend" for Renault, but believes his team made several good decision at the British Grand Prix.
Renault
Nick Heidfeld: "We saw on Saturday that this would be a tough weekend but as usual I said 'never give up.' I had a good start, but the first few corners were incredibly tight and I was happy to get through them without any damage to the car. The big question for the race was when to change from the intermediates to the slicks and we were one of the first to do this.
"It was a good call, however we didn't get as much of an advantage as you can sometimes get from timing your stop well. After that it was an interesting race for me as I had to look after my tyres and at the same time I had to attack and also defend at different times, particularly with Michael and Adrian.
"Finding the balance between attacking, fighting and not killing the tyres was not only very satisfying, but it also worked out well for us with four valuable points."
Vitaly Petrov: "It was not a difficult drive today [Sunday], however I found it tough running with the intermediate tyres. I lost some positions and was unable to protect myself because the traction was very poor and other cars were able to pass me like I was not there.
"The DRS section was not helpful at all; they should change its position on the track because it just wasn't possible for me to overtake here at Silverstone. I was very close to Adrian (Sutil) but just could not get past, so that was a big frustration. Even on the back straight, there was not enough KERS to overtake so it would be better to put DRS there. My speed was not too bad, I was quite quick but I felt helpless out there."
Force India
Adrian Sutil: "After such a promising start to the race it's disappointing to come away empty-handed. My start was okay and things looked good in the first few laps. The conditions were tricky, with a lot of damp areas in the second sector, but I felt quite confident and was able to run in the points.
"I think we made the right decision with the strategy to stop three times, but in the end I don't think we had the pace to hold on for points today [Sunday]."
Paul di Resta: "It's extremely disappointing to end my first British Grand Prix in P15. I had a good first part of the race; we seemed quite competitive and I was able to hold on to Jenson [Button] as I concentrated on looking after my intermediate tyres. I think we made the switch to dry tyres at the right moment and we were running well.
"Then I got a call to come into the pits again, but when I got there the team were expecting Adrian, so there was obviously some confusion. It cost me quite a lot of time because the boys had to run back in the garage and fetch my tyres. That cost us about 25 seconds, which pretty much ended my chances.
"So it's a frustrating race, but I think we should stay positive because the car has shown well this weekend and that gives me confidence going into the second part of the season."
Team Lotus
Jarno Trulli: "I had a decent start and was getting set to pass Timo but then had the call to stop the car to prevent any damage to the engine because of an oil leak. It's obviously not how we wanted the race to go but our reliability record has improved dramatically this season and this is just one of those blips.
"I'm sure we'll bounce back at the Nurburgring where we may well have similar weather conditions, so we'll move on and make sure we learn the lessons from this weekend."
Heikki Kovalainen: "What a shame! I had a really good start but then lost fourth gear and had to retire the car. The conditions out there were exactly what they should be for real drivers - a mix of two types of circuit, one wet, one dry, exactly what I love racing in and the type of race we could have taken advantage of. But these things happen so we'll move on to Germany and keep on pushing."
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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