Race - Belgian GP team quotes

Haas F1

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean brought home finishes of 12th and 13th, respectively, in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, the 13th round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Both Magnussen, who started eighth, and Grosjean, who started ninth, took the green flag for the 44-lap race around the 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile), 19-turn circuit on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires and were able to thread their way through an opening-lap incident and the mayhem that ensued to emerge with Grosjean in sixth and Magnussen in seventh. They held position through the first nine laps before Magnussen began struggling to defend. He dropped to 10th over the next three laps as Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll and the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly were able to slip past.

Meanwhile, Grosjean held firm to his sixth position until he pitted for a set of medium rubber on lap 17, eventually settling into 10th place over the middle stages of the race.

Magnussen was in 15th when he finally pitted for his set of medium tires on lap 26 and resumed in 18th behind a pair of competitors ahead of him who had yet to pit.

From there, the Haas F1 Team duo did their best to manage their racecars and tire wear to the finish, Magnussen crossing the line 12th and Grosjean 13th.

With today’s results, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team remained ninth in the constructor’s championship with 26 points, six behind eighth-place Alfa Romeo and 25 ahead of 10th-place Williams.

Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who dominated throughout practice and qualifying this weekend, scored his first career victory from the pole in today’s Belgian Grand Prix, becoming the 108th different driver to win a Formula One event. He took the checkered flag .981 of a second ahead of runner-up Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, with Valtteri Bottas following home his teammate for the third and final podium position.

Eight races remain on the 2019 Formula One schedule, beginning with next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix Sept. 6 to 8 at Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Romain Grosjean

“We had a great start, the car was performing very well at the beginning of the race. I was really happy with the car pulling out a gap. Then we put the medium on and to my surprise the car was even better. So, I was hoping it was going to be a really good afternoon. Then we went behind the Renault of Ricciardo. He was fighting as hard as he could, and we just had no chance to pass him. We obviously had too much drag and not enough top speed. It’s not a choice, or an option we had just to get the tires to work, but it’s so hard. I was happy with my driving style and the car, you’re constantly fighting, but it’s so hard to take having been in P6 to then go to P13. It’s a tough feeling not being able to do anything.”

Kevin Magnussen

“The first stint on the C3 tires felt terrible, there was absolutely no grip and we were just falling down and getting overtaken all the time. I actually made the wrong call to stay out a bit longer on that tire, that was so bad because I felt it was hopeless, so we might as well just wait for a safety car or something like that. I felt that was my only chance to come back. Then when we eventually did pit for the C2 yellow tire, the car just came alive and completely back to normal and felt very good again. It’s so unpredictable and you don’t know what to expect.”

Günther Steiner

“Obviously, a disappointing result at the end – to finish where we were. Romain (Grosjean) just couldn’t get past Ricciardo at the right time because we’re lacking top speed. We got overtaken by everybody. We were stuck behind Ricciardo, who was going slow, and we could not defend from the people going past us, and we couldn’t attack. Almost the only place to pass, at turn five, you need top speed coming from the straight, and that was our problem today. Otherwise, the car was performing, but it wasn’t good enough obviously on top speed. We still have work to do. I think we can get close to what we need to do, we just have to keep on working. Everybody did a good job and we just have to try to keep on fighting. That’s what we’ll do.”

Racing Point

SERGIO PEREZ

“It’s obviously a very sad day for our family, our community. I don’t think any of us have really enjoyed being here today - but all we can do is give this race to Anthoine. It’s no less than he, his family and his friends deserve. It was a good result for the team - especially considering the issues we had on Friday. It was a hard race, from the beginning to the end, but we came away with a good amount of points and some positive momentum to take into the next few races. There was a bit of chaos at the start, which I had to avoid by running wide, which lost me two or three places. From there we were fighting all the way through to make it back. I went into attack mode with lots of overtaking and P5 looked possible - but at the end Albon was very strong and we had no chance to keep him behind. Our strategy was quite aggressive, so we paid the price at the end of the race. It always hurts to lose a position on the final lap, but we did all we could. Overall a positive performance for us. Spa is a place where we generally go well, so it will be interesting to see how we go at the coming races."

LANCE STROLL

“It has not been an easy weekend for all of us and our thoughts remain with Anthoine’s family at this time. I think we put on a good race in his memory and for us it was a competitive afternoon. Both cars in the top ten means good points for the team. I am quite pleased to score a point from P16 on the grid, but it was a bit frustrating because I spent the whole race stuck in traffic, behind cars on different strategies, so it was tough to get clean air and really push on. In hindsight, I think that’s where we lost a lot of race time compared to other drivers, such as Kvyat and Albon, who managed to get in front of us during the race. We gave it a good go though: I was right behind Gasly towards the end and I almost got him. If it wasn’t for the yellow flag on the last lap, I think I could have got him. But it was a great race: very exciting from start to finish and I enjoyed it.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER, CEO & TEAM PRINCIPAL

"It’s been a difficult weekend for the motorsport community, but I’m pleased we put on a good show today and paid tribute to Anthoine in the best way possible. I said yesterday that getting both cars home inside the points was achievable and we did that today – even though it came down to the very last lap. Sergio’s strategy worked out well, but it left him exposed on the final lap to Albon [with fresher tyres] and we had to settle for sixth place, which is still a fantastic effort. Lance was on a different strategy with a late second pit stop, which saw him charging through the field to pick up the final point. It’s the result we deserved and reflects the speed we have shown all weekend. The car has looked much more competitive here and it’s another demonstration of the progress we have made over the last few events.”

Williams

— George Russell finished 15th and Robert Kubica 17th in the Belgian Grand Prix
— The Brit started 15th on the grid, and Robert from the pitlane both on the medium Pirelli tyre
— Both drivers ran a clean race, pitting on laps 30 and 31 for the soft Pirelli tyre

Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal

It’s been a very difficult weekend for everyone in Spa, following the tragic death of Anthoine Hubert. Today we raced for Anthoine, a young talent that was sadly taken far too soon. From all of us at ROKiT Williams Racing, we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Anthoine Hubert.

Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer

Both drivers completed solid one-stop races and brought the cars home in one piece. Following Raikkonen’s early contact we were able to race him, with George able to stay ahead. A frustratingly timed blue flag for Vettel meant that Robert was unable to stay ahead despite having enough pace to do so. Overall though the car was not well suited to Spa and racing on the long straights was difficult.

Next week we will be in Monza for the final European race of the season and we will approach the weekend as we always do and will adopt some of the learning points from this weekend. However, for now our thoughts remain with the family, friends and colleagues of Anthoine Hubert and we congratulate Charles on his maiden Formula One win.

George Russell

It’s been a difficult day for everyone with the devastating news. Anthoine was a really great guy and I hope we did him proud, racing in his honour.

I didn’t make a good start, I was forced to the outside and then I saw Raikkonen going through the air with a lot of debris. I committed to the escape road, then when I came back on Verstappen was going slow, so I lost a lot of positions. Our pace was ok, although I don’t know the end gaps to the guys ahead of us. Overall, it was quite a lonely race. This was always going to be the toughest race of the year for us. Next weekend we must reset, fight and see what we can do.

Robert Kubica

We had to start from the pitlane and had to compromise the car slightly due to yesterday. It might have been an advantage to start from the pitlane with the cooler weather, as you have much better tyre temperatures, but because of the safety car we couldn’t really gain anything from that.

The pace was not too bad, although I had a bit of degradation with the medium tyres in the early part of the race, then it stabilised, and I managed to resume pace. We put the soft compound on for the last part of the race and I was managing to keep Raikkonen behind, but I was a bit unlucky with Vettel lapping me. He got me into the DRS zone, and with Alfa being nearly 20kph faster than us on the straight line, it was easy for him to overtake me as well.

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat

“We had a fantastic race today, to come from last on the grid to P7 was a great result. We knew that with the cooler conditions it would be much better for our car, and actually we made a very big step in the race. Our car seems to perform better on Sundays this year, which I prefer - it’s where you need to be the fastest. We had many overtakes, good tyre management, a great strategy, and today we also had the pace to be competitive. We put everything together and I’m really happy with my racing and the final result. It was a lot of fun.”

Pierre Gasly

“This was the most emotional race of my career, it was important for me to deliver the best performance I could for Anthoine. In the end it was a good result and I’m happy to get two points on my first race back with Toro Rosso. We knew it was going to be a tough race and we really went for it. We had an aggressive strategy pitting early, and we knew we would have to fight a lot on the second part of the race against the other guys on the softer compound. I gave it my best in attacking and defending, we had some good close racing and I’m really happy to score these two points, for the team and for Anthoine. I’ve discovered quite a few more things about the car during the race, it’s quite different to the Red Bull one, and lap after lap I could feel it getting better so I’m sure there will be more to come in the upcoming races.”

Jody Egginton (Technical Director)

“We said yesterday that we needed to be ready to take any opportunity today to recover from Qualifying, and it’s fair to say we have managed to do this with both cars, and as such, we have consolidated our championship position. Both drivers pushed hard from the start, making up positions early on which meant we were able to cover the stop from Hulkenberg with Pierre. This allowed Dany to go longer in order to have fresh option tyres for the last third of the race, so it was good to see the strategy pay off with a good haul of points for the team. The drivers put in a good performance, the pit stops were tidy, and the pit wall did a solid job. It’s great to see Pierre settling back in with the team very well, and we now head to Monza with a bit of momentum to continue the fight for P5 in the Championship.”

Franz Tost (Team Principal)

“Our starting positions were not as good as we expected but I must say it was a very interesting race for us. We had Daniil starting from P19 because of his PU change, and Pierre starting from P13. We decided to split the strategies and have Pierre on the Option tyre and Daniil on the Prime for the start of the race. We were quite lucky in the first corner to avoid the incident between Verstappen and Raikkonen, which meant after the first lap Pierre moved to P9 and Daniil to P11. In the first stint we didn’t run into any major problems, and when Renault called Hulkenberg in, we reacted and brought Pierre in as well to switch from the Option to the Prime. He drove a really good race after that, although towards the end, the tyres lost a bit of performance. Consequently, we switched the drivers’ positions as Daniil had fresher tyres and was therefore faster. He made a nice overtake on Ricciardo which saw him finish the race in seventh position. Even if with very used tyres, Pierre was also able to finish in the points securing 9th position. We take away eight points for the team today, which helps us consolidating 5th position in the Constructors’ Championship. It was a fantastic race from the drivers and a really good job from the team, both from the strategy and the operational side. Now we’re looking forward to racing at in Monza, our home Grand Prix.”

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director)

“Three of our drivers, despite starting from the back half of the grid, managed to finish in the points today. Therefore in the end, this can be considered a positive result for both our teams. Both the Toro Rosso cars showed a good pace and the fights involving our own drivers were particularly exciting! On the PU side, the Spec 4 we introduced for the first time this weekend, matched our expectations and we acquired plenty of data to analyse for future use.”

Red Bull Racing

ALEX ALBON

“I’m very happy. P5 is an amazing result and we’ve got off to a great start. I had some good fun out there and I enjoyed this race a lot. I started off the weekend very nervous and if you had told me I’d finish the race fifth I’d be very happy, but I’m a bit more relaxed now. It was actually a difficult race and in the first stint I struggled with grip in the dirty air and couldn’t overtake anyone. But then once we pitted for the soft tyres, the car came alive and I was like - now we can do something! The last lap was really good, I had a good fight with Sergio where we were both on the grass and it made for some good racing. There are definitely some areas I need to improve on and over the next few days I’ll get my head down, do some homework and address them for Monza. I will sit down with the Team and understand why I struggled at the start, but I am still finding out the car’s little tricks and adapting to it. I didn’t really feel too much pressure coming into the weekend, I think the media thought I was going to, but I’ve enjoyed my week with the Team. It’s been a good experience and a different way of working. Last night was very tough, us rookies knew Anthoine very well, so it’s been a stressful few hours and this morning felt strange. When you know a person and when they’re at the race track, it’s a very difficult atmosphere, so we dedicate this race to him.”

MAX VERSTAPPEN

“It was of course not a great end to the weekend but it’s not the worst thing that can happen in life as we have seen yesterday, so I cannot really call this frustration. I got a poor start, the reaction was not great and then I got wheel spin when I released the clutch. I tried to stay on the inside into Turn 1 but I think Kimi expected to be fully ahead of me and just followed his line. I don’t think you can blame anyone and I guess he just didn’t see me, once I was next to him and he was turning then we couldn’t back out. We touched, my track rod was broken so I went straight on into the barrier at Eau Rouge and the race was over. These things happen, it’s very unfortunate for the Team and we will of course try and do better next week.”

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal

“I’ve been very impressed with Alex’s performance all weekend and he put in a great recovery drive from 17th on the grid to finish fifth in his first race with us. He was pretty cautious during the first half of the race as he felt his way into the Grand Prix, but things started to come alive for him on the softer compound tyre and he put in some great overtakes. Max didn’t have a great start which meant he got boxed in at Turn 1 in the middle of the pack. He made contact with Kimi mid-corner which resulted in a broken front track rod, ending his race. It was a frustrating racing incident but Max has completed over 20 consecutive races in the top five now and it’s just unfortunate that run ended at his home race. It’s been a difficult 24 hours for the whole community and everyone raced with a heavy heart. Congratulations to Charles Leclerc, he drove a great race and it seems quite fitting that a close friend of Anthoine’s won here today.”

McLaren

Carlos Sainz

“Obviously a disappointing grand prix, not being able to race. We definitely need to look into what happened today. It’s obviously not very good news if you cannot even start a race. So nothing to say. A shame also about Lando’s retirement on the last lap that prevented us from getting another 10 points in the championship, which would’ve been a very big step in the right direction. I’m sorry for the whole team. I don’t think we deserve these two DNFs. At least the pace of the car showed today that there was a lot more to grab than single points. We move on.

“What happened yesterday puts everything into perspective. It was the toughest reminder that motorsport is extremely dangerous and everyone needs to be aware of the inevitable risks it involves. Our whole community is going through a very tough and emotional moment and all my thoughts go out to Anthoine’s whole family and his friends. We will always carry his memory wherever we race. It is the best tribute we can pay to our fellow driver. Rest in peace.”

Lando Norris

“First of all, my thoughts today are with Anthoine’s family and friends. My deepest condolences to them.

“With my race, it wasn’t boring. It was still fun and exciting. We had an extremely good start, the launch was very good and in Turn One we managed to pass six cars in one go and get into fifth. We controlled it from there.

“I think we have some positives to look at. Everyone in the team did such a good job and losing the engine on the last lap was tough. We have to move on from this and get ready for Monza."

Andreas Seidl - Team Principal

“Let’s start with the positives. After a difficult Friday and Saturday, we couldn’t have expected the pace we showed today. The performance the team and Lando put together was impressive. After avoiding trouble in Turn One, emerging in P5, we were fully in control of our race. That, of course, is encouraging. It’s now important to study our race and understand where this pace came from today.

“The negatives are two DNFs. Two technical failures. This, obviously, is very disappointing. We need to wait until we have the cars back in the garage to begin a thorough analysis, together with our colleagues from Renault, to understand in detail what happened. We lost a great opportunity to score good points today – but we have to put this behind us and look forward to Monza.

“The last word should of course go to Anthoine and his memory. It is never easy to accept such a loss. This has been a difficult 24 hours for the motorsport family and all of us at McLaren send our heartfelt sympathies to Anthoine’s family, friends and colleagues, and our best wishes to Juan-Manuel for his recovery.”

Renault F1

Renault F1 Team raced in today’s Belgian Grand Prix in honour of Renault Sport Academy driver Anthoine Hubert.

In a fitting tribute, the team returned to the points, with Nico Hülkenberg claiming eighth position. Daniel Ricciardo passed the line in fourteenth following a lap one incident that caused significant damage to the floor of his Renault R.S.19.

Nico Hülkenberg

“It was a difficult race right from the start. I had to take avoiding action at turn one to miss the collisions and we lost some positions there. The midfield was again very close today meaning making back the positions was hard. We pitted near the end for Softs and that paid off. We were certainly a bit lucky on those last laps, but that’s racing. It was good to get some points on the board, especially in the circumstances after yesterday’s shock news. The morning was difficult, but once the helmet goes on, the adrenaline kicks in and you have to work. To take home points was pleasing in the end.”

Daniel Ricciardo

“Our race was pretty much shaped after the lap one, turn one incident. I got hit from behind and had big damage to the floor. We had to pit – I actually thought we might retire the car – but we put the Mediums on and the car was a bit of a handful. We kept going, held our place in the top ten, and I thought at one stage we might pick up some points. I was proud to hold on for that long and I know we couldn’t have done anymore. I’m glad today is over; yesterday’s news has been difficult to take. It was tough to be here and put on a brave face, but I’m glad I gave it my best.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal

“We had a good pace in qualifying, but the planned penalties exposed us to incidents that frequently occur here in the midfield at the first corner. And unfortunately that was the case today. Nico was able to avoid the debris off the start by going very wide but to the expense of several positions, while Daniel was hit from behind and fell back to the rear of the field with a suspected slow puncture. From there it was a race to come back. We asked Daniel to look after his tyres after the change and he did an extremely good job considering the circumstances and the very significant damage to his car, at least half a second per lap. For Nico, he was able to make up some positions but the mediums did not last so well in the traffic and he had to stop again for softs. This weekend has been difficult for a number of reasons. We need to reflect and then turn our thoughts to Monza where we hope our pace can be equally decent but rewarded with more points.”

Alfa Romeo

When tragedies such as the one that took Anthoine Hubert happen, everything else loses relevance. Today we raced to honour the memory of the young Frenchman: it wasn’t a lucky race for us and we leave Spa-Francorchamps empty-handed despite lots of potential. Today, however, it wasn’t the final result that mattered.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

“Racing today was never going to be easy given yesterday’s tragic circumstances. Anthoine was one of my drivers in F3 and the minute of silence we observed for him today was quite an emotional moment. My thoughts go out to his family, while at the same time I hope for a quick recovery for our Sauber Junior driver Juan Manuel. As for the race, it was an afternoon to forget: Kimi’s race was over within a few hundred metres from the start, when he was hit by Max Verstappen in a very optimistic move, and Antonio missed out on some good points with an accident in the last lap.“

Kimi Räikkönen

“Unfortunately my race was already over in turn one. I had to slow down as Bottas was at the outside and the next thing I know I get hit and I’m on two wheels. Afterwards it was nearly pointless to stay out as there was a lot of damage to the floor but you never know what’s gonna happen so we did the whole distance. Really a shame as we had a strong car today.”

Antonio Giovinazzi

“The car has been really strong today and therefore it’s even more disappointing not to finish the race with an accident in the last lap. Our strategy was great and we would have been in the points and for this I feel sorry for everyone in the team, but I guess that’s racing.”

Mercedes

Double podium for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport at Spa-Francorchamps

— Lewis finished the Belgian Grand Prix in P2 after starting third
— Valtteri came home in P3, thus completing a double podium for the team
— Today’s result marks the 200th podium place for Mercedes in Formula One as well as Valtteri’s 50th points finish for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
— Lewis (268 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 65 points from Valtteri (203 points)
— Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (471 points) lead Ferrari (326 points) by 145 points in the Constructors’ Championship

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been a very difficult weekend for everyone in motorsport and today I raced with Anthoine in my thoughts. In general, it’s been a wobbly weekend but to have a solid Qualifying and then a solid race today, I’m really happy. Of course, you always want to win on a race day, but I gave it absolutely everything I had. Ferrari were a very strong force but for us to be that close at the end means there are plenty of positives to take. I’m happy for Charles, he did a fantastic job all weekend so congratulations to him. We’ve got a lot work to do to try to catch up to Ferrari on the straights in the next four days, but if anyone can do it it’s this team. Hopefully we can have another close race next weekend in Monza.

Valtteri Bottas

It’s been a tough weekend for everyone after yesterday’s sad news. I was trying as hard as I could out there but not many opportunities came my way. The race pace felt OK, but Ferrari were stronger on the straights as we expected. I was maybe lacking a bit at the end of the first stint with tyre drop off but the second stint was strong. However, there was no other opportunity for me to attack before the end of the race, so we decided to save the engine and the gearbox. Spa has normally been a difficult track for me, but we made up a position with better strategy and I actually think this has been my best performance here. Now we look to Monza where we expect Ferrari to be quick again, but we’ll push hard to fight them.

Toto Wolff

Overall, this was a weekend of damage limitation for us in terms of the championships, so we can be satisfied to come away with a double podium finish and two strong drives from Lewis and Valtteri. We had a quick race car this afternoon, pulling back lots of time through the second sector as the tyres degraded, but you could see the straight line speed of our competitors – even with the DRS and the tow, we didn’t really have enough of a speed delta to put them under pressure lap after lap. When you finish so close to P1, of course you look back at what you could have done better – perhaps the optimum stop lap for Lewis would have been one earlier, but it’s a lot easier to make that call with hindsight. Of course, the big picture this weekend is a different one – a talented young man lost his life yesterday and that has overshadowed everything. We must continue to remember him and hold Anthoine’s memory high – today was Charles’ well-deserved maiden F1 victory, and they were close friends, so everything happens for a reason.

James Allison

We’d hoped for better but it would be churlish not to be happy with a very solid second and third place and all the points that they bring for us. Charles was out of touch yesterday in Qualifying and, although it looked for a short while as if we would have him in our clutches today, he was just a bit too good over the race for us over the race distance. There were a lot of reasons to be happy about our car performance today: it ran nicely on its tyres, with less degradation than our major competitors and performed strongly through the corners. So, looking forward from here to the circuits that are ahead of us, Monza is not going to be an easy one but the tracks after that we can look forward with a degree of confidence.

Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari has taken its first official win of the season, thanks to a great performance from Charles Leclerc at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The Monegasque managed the 44 lap race to perfection, on his way to his maiden F1 win, the first also for a driver from Monaco. This fantastic result came at the end of what was a very difficult weekend for the world of motor sport, following the tragic death in Saturday’s Formula 2 race of young French driver Anthoine Hubert.

The race. Charles got away well from pole position to keep the lead. Behind him, Sebastian Vettel was overtaken at the first corner by Lewis Hamilton but retook the place getting by again at the end of the Kemmel straight. Shortly after, the Safety Car appeared after Max Verstappen went off and then Carlos Sainz did the same. At the restart, Charles managed to pull away from the group, running at a consistent pace. Sebastian pitted on lap 15 to switch from Soft to Medium, while his team-mate stayed out for a further 5 laps.

Sebastian. On new tyres, Vettel put in a run of very quick laps which saw him take the lead when Leclerc and the two Mercedes pitted. However, the German’s tyres were degrading quickly and his pace dropped off and on lap 27 he let his team-mate through into the lead. Then Hamilton closed in and he and Sebastian had a good duel for three laps. Once he had lost the place, the team changed his strategy, bringing him in for another set of Softs to run for the final ten laps of the race. Sebastian finished fourth, behind Charles and the Mercedes duo and, making the most of his new tyres, brought home the extra point that goes with setting the fastest lap.

Final stages. The final ten laps were nail biting, as Charles managed his tyre degradation and fought off a hard-charging Hamilton, who never got quite close enough to use the DRS. Charles took the flag less than a second ahead of the reigning world champion and a further 12 ahead of Valtteri Bottas. This was Scuderia Ferrari’s 236th win, while Leclerc set two new records here in Belgium, becoming the youngest driver to take pole and the win at Spa-Francorchamps. He is also the youngest ever driver to win a Grand Prix at the wheel of a Ferrari. The world championship is back on track right from next week in Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. Before the action starts on track, fans can attend a special event organised by the ACI (the Italian Automobile Club) to celebrate the 90th Italian Grand Prix and the 90 years of existence of Scuderia Ferrari. It takes place in Milan’s Piazza Duomo starting at 17 on the Wednesday. It will feature plenty of historic racing cars and drivers from yesteryear and today who have played their part in this unique team. Of course, Sebastian, Charles and Team Principal Mattia Binotto will be in attendance.

Charles Leclerc

“It is difficult to enjoy a first victory on a weekend like this. I grew up with Anthoine, and we competed in our first karting race together with Pierre (Gasly) and Esteban (Ocon) in 2005. These are memories I will keep forever. Losing him yesterday was a huge shock, not only to me but to everyone in motorsport. In a way, I am satisfied having won today to remember him in the way he should be remembered. He was a champion, and this victory is for him.
The race itself was good and nothing would have been possible without the amazing car the team gave me. We made good improvements in terms of race pace and tyre management this weekend.

The last few laps weren’t easy. I saw Lewis coming closer and closer in the mirror, so I put my head down and tried to focus on the work I had to do in the car. At the end, I managed to cross the line in first place and I’d like to thank the team for the hard work they have put in to make this possible.”

Sebastian Vettel

“It was not by any means an easy race for me. At the start I managed to retake my position from Lewis but then I began to struggle with the tyres and I had to stop earlier than planned. With the medium tyres at first I managed to maintain a good pace, but then it dropped again.
I tried to keep second place but I couldn’t do it and at that point, the best thing to do was to pit once more for tyres and carry on without struggling so much.

We have to understand why my car had such high tyre degradation and we will do a full analysis of the situation to understand the reasons why I did not feel comfortable. It was definitely not a great weekend for me, but it was a great weekend for the team and that’s the main thing. So congratulations to all the guys in the team and well done to Charles for his first win!.”

Mattia Binotto Team Principal

“This is a victory that certainly gives us plenty of energy and desire to do well. After the summer break it was very important for us to return to the track focused – and to show we are competitive after a start to the season in which we lost so many opportunities.

Compliments to Charles, who sealed his very first victory in Formula 1, and it was important to do it here not least because he and Anthoine were close friends. This is the best way to remember him. His weekend was outstanding from Friday and he truly deserved this win.
Seb also put together a good race and he showed strong pace in the first stint, but we brought forward his pit stop to protect his position. This meant his tyres had degraded a lot towards the end of the race. He helped his team-mate and he showed yet again that he is willing to work for the good of the team.

Now we head to Monza, we are raring to go and we want to perform just as well at our home race.”