Toro Rosso
Max Verstappen: “It was a very enjoyable race! Of course, you always want to score more points, but we have to be realistic and a P10 was the maximum we could do today. On the straights we were slow and it’s very difficult to defend position with a Lotus or a Force India unfortunately, but to add another point is always good. I enjoyed it out there this afternoon – I managed to do some good overtakes, especially at Turn 1! There were some good battles, I was attacking but behind they were also doing the same to me, so I had no rest but it was good fun! I’m happy to finish in the top ten once again.”
Carlos Sainz: “How frustrating not to even be able to start the race! I went to do the first practice start on the way to the grid but the engine suddenly turned off. I was pushed back to the garage and started the race from the pit-lane, but as soon as I left the engine stopped… It’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to racing here! It’s definitely not the ideal situation for a rookie like me, as I need to gain experience and finish races, but now we just need to look forward, there’s one race left in Abu Dhabi in two weeks and we will give it our all to try and end the season on a high.”
Franz Tost (Team Principal): “Starting from P9 and P10, I was expecting to score some more points than what we have today. Unfortunately, Carlos wasn’t able to make it to the starting grid because of an issue on the drivetrain. We checked everything when he was brought back to the garage and he started the race from the pit-lane, but unfortunately after only a few hundred metres we recognised that the problem was not solved, the rear tyres locked-up and that was the end of his race. I’m really sorry for Carlos, because this is now his seventh retirement due to a technical failure, where the driver cannot do anything about it. As for Max, he had a good start to the race, even though he was then overtaken on the long straight by a few other competitors with more power and therefore quicker. He was able to establish himself in eleventh position and had some fantastic fights with Maldonado, Grosjean, Perez and Nasr, and I must say that once more, his manoeuvres were of an extraordinary quality – always overtaking in the corners, taking a lot of controlled risks, and not in the straights like the other cars. Max really drove an excellent race. The strategy from the team was good, we couldn’t have done anything different. We simply have to accept that here in Sao Paulo we were just too slow to close the gap to Lotus. We have one more race in two weeks in Abu Dhabi, which is a completely different type of circuit, and I hope that we can fight and end up in sixth position in the Constructors’ Championship.”
Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader): “Yet again Max put in a good race and scored a well-deserved point [two after Felipe Massa's exclusion from the Grand Prix] after a difficult weekend. Everything worked perfectly with his power unit and he was able to fight with the Force Indias and Lotus cars for position. It is obviously a shame that we lost Carlos' car so early in the race. The team looked at everything in a lot of detail after his electrical issue yesterday that affected the clutch control and the analysis suggested that everything on the engine side was OK to run. Unfortunately it seems that the engine was in the end affected by this issue, which resulted in a loss of power on the lap to the grid and then on lap one. We will check everything with the team and try to end the season on a high in Abu Dhabi. But more importantly we would all like to express our sincere sympathy for the victims of the Paris attacks on Friday night, their friends and families. We are all thinking deeply of our city at this very sad time.”
REPORT: Rosberg keeps Hamilton at bay to win in Brazil
AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix
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