Rio, as a team in its relative infancy, the race results sometimes belie very positive development strides. Qualifying in Baku threw the spotlight on some of that progress, didn’t it? Yes, there were some really positive signs in Baku and in particular I had a very strong qualifying. My lap was just 0.1s away from Q2 contention and 2.0s from Rosberg’s fastest Q1 lap time. So at a track where we are able to exploit the potential of our package, we have managed to halve last year’s delta to the frontrunners and that’s a sure sign that all the hard work is starting to pay off. For me too, it’s all about step by step improvement and I’m happy that this is beginning to shine through. But then the race… Ha. Yes, that’s racing though. We had a bold strategy to cater for any opportunity that came our way, but I think everyone was surprised that it was such an attrition-free race. So the damage I picked up when Gutierrez hit me in Turn 1 of the opening lap punished us especially hard, because we had rolled the dice a little on strategy. It was a disappointing conclusion to an otherwise very strong weekend, but we can’t let that disappointment overshadow strong practice and qualifying performances. The team are doing a great job and I’m happy with my own progress.

Onwards and upwards. Pascal, what are you expecting from this weekend in Austria? Rain. The weather in this region is always a bit unpredictable but the forecast here is for a wet weekend. This could shake things up a bit in the way that we hoped Baku might. Performance-wise, that race was going to plan for us until I suffered the brake problem. We’re edging closer to the midfield pack, so we just need to keep pushing and make sure we’re in the best possible position when a bit of luck comes our way. Geographically, this event must be a little like the next best thing to your home race, with plenty of German fans expected? Yes, that’s true, although I can’t wait for the team’s home race and of course Hockenheim just a couple of races later. This is a great track though, one with a lot of history and some interesting technical challenges, so I can’t wait to be back in the car to pick up where we left off.

Dave, we’re in full-on back-to-back mode, with six Grands Prix in the space of eight weeks and of course a big home race to prepare for. The team will certainly have earned their August break this year! It’s a very intensive stage of the season, that’s for sure. Everyone is working very hard, so I hope that our luck will turn a little in these coming races and provide a bit of reward for those efforts. Baku revealed a little more of our progress and potential, so we just need to get on top of the areas which let us down in the race and have faith in our development programme. We have more scheduled upgrades in the pipeline and we just have to keep plugging away at it.