Toro Rosso
Max Verstappen: “What an entertaining race, it was a great achievement to start from so far back and finish eighth in the end! My pace was very strong and I enjoyed the overtaking, so we can be very happy about today’s race. The car felt great and we were able to keep up with Ferrari and Williams. I really enjoyed it and even if some of the overtakes were a bit risky, when you start from so far back you have to go for it if you want to move forward. It wasn’t an easy start to the weekend, but we managed to do a great job in the end and I would like to thank the team for the big effort and my home crowd for the support, we can all be really happy with today’s P8!”
Carlos Sainz: “What a frustrating way to end what was being a good weekend. During the formation lap I felt I had no power, so I had to box. Luckily they managed to solve the issue and I was able to go out and race, but being two laps down there wasn’t much I could fight for, just hope for rain and be lucky. After two stints though, we decided to retire to save engine mileage. I’m obviously very disappointed and desperate to finish a race, as it’s now been four consecutive races where I’ve had to retire while fighting for points. But this isn’t going to bring me down. I’m going to keep pushing and show my good performances whenever I can, like I did yesterday in qualifying for example… We know that this world is sometimes like this and I’m sure this unlucky streak will come to an end soon – hopefully in Monza!”
Franz Tost (Team Principal): “We didn’t have a good start to the race because an electrical problem related to the engine on Carlos’ car meant we had to bring the car into the garage before the race had even started. We fixed the issue with the cable and he was able to re-join the race, but he was already a couple of laps behind. We decided to continue the race because in Spa you never know what can happen, and maybe a Safety Car or some rain could’ve helped us, but unfortunately this never happened, so with 11 laps to go we called him in to save some engine mileage. I’d like to apologise to Carlos for this, as it’s now the fourth race in a row where he can’t finish a race because of technical problems. Max, who was starting at the back of the grid due to the 10-place grid penalty, drove a fantastic race. To finish in P8 and to fight with a Ferrari for P7 shows how competitive the car was and how good Max was driving. Without the problem on Carlos’ car, I think we would’ve been in a position to score more points than what we’ve actually done today.”
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): “It was in part a difficult race. We suffered a loss of power on the formation lap with Carlos due to a loose connector in the engine. Once it was fixed in the garage he could get going again, but as he was two laps down, the race was effectively over. We have to apologise to the team and ensure that this won't happen again. Max had a good recovery from his grid penalty with some strong moves on track to score points. On such a long circuit, it’s a great achievement.”
