Max Verstappen (Red Bull, winner of the Spanish GP): “Everything came down to the start of the race, when I took the lead and opened up a gap during the first stint. After that, I had to do a fairly defensive race because Lando (Norris) and McLaren were very fast, and especially in relation to the degradation of the tires. I think we did everything right, we took a pretty aggressive strategy which paid off in the end, which makes me happy.
(At the start) I had to do a bit of rallying on the straight, I put my wheels in the grass, which made me lose momentum. I took the lead from Lando by braking late at the first corner and was determined to regain the lead so I could spare my tires. They heated up very quickly because of the high speed corners and I was sliding a lot. »
Lando Norris (McLaren, 2nd): “I should have won this race. I got off to a bad start, it’s as simple as that. The car was incredible today (Sunday), probably the fastest. I lost everything at the beginning, it’s disappointing. There were many positive things but only one negative, which ruined everything. We will work on that for next time but we still take big points.
I’m not sure what I did wrong or not (initially). Max (Verstappen) was almost level with me on the inside and George (Russell) had me on the outside. But well done to Red Bull and Max, who did a very good job again. It’s a shame to have lost this race.
We arrive at Austria and Silverstone, two of my favorite races and where I perform well. I’m excited to get there. We are on a good path at the moment, but I still need to improve certain things to be at the top. »
“We couldn’t have slipped a sheet of paper between our wheels”
Lewis Hamilton, on his on-track battle with Carlos Sainz
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 3rd): “It was a good day and a solid weekend. I really thank the team, they practiced so much on the pit stops, the strategies, they were really on point. Like Lando (Norris), I had a very bad start and lost ground to the Ferraris. We had to fight to get back on the podium. I don’t know where I could have finished with a good start, probably not that far from the cars in front.
Putting soft tires was the plan from the start. Wearing hard tires was never an option for me today (Sunday). I rode so that I could race on this strategy.
All the overtaking was very tight and that’s how it should be. With Carlos (Sainz) we touched each other a little, but it was OK, just on the limit. We couldn’t have slipped a sheet of paper between our wheels. »
