AlphaTauri
Pierre Gasly
"It was a very tough race today. We lacked pace and I just didn't manage to do what I wanted inside the cockpit, I struggled with the rear and had a lot of understeer. In addition to that, we were also pretty unlucky with the timing of the virtual safety car. It was a crazy race and looking at the final podium, there were big opportunities today and it's just a shame not being able to be in the mix for this fight. We need to have a look at the data to understand why it was so different today in comparison to Friday and what we could have done better, to try again and finish the season on a high in Abu Dhabi."
Daniil Kvyat
"This was a very good weekend for me and I was hoping for an even better result today – when the safety car came out I thought 'this isn't great timing for us' but still, 7th is not bad. We did everything right today as a team, I had a perfect Quali yesterday, I drove really well for an almost perfect race today and I'm very happy with my performance. It was a strongly executed race and the best weekend of the year for me. The pace was there and we were close to the top of the midfield, there was one point where it was Carlos, myself and Ricciardo separated by just a couple of tenths, it was very on the edge and entertaining. It's great to bring home some much-deserved points."
Claudio Balestri, chief engineer - vehicle performance
"Today's race was a good example of how tight the midfield battle is. After the first safety car, we were P5 with Daniil and P7 with Pierre, the pace was good on the first stint on the Option, then we fitted Prime tyres on both cars and the pace was still competitive. Monitoring the performance of the Hard compound on other competitors' cars, we decided to also fit the Hard tyre for the last stint. The deployment of the virtual safety car and the safety car helped cars running on a one-stop strategy, which wasn't an option for us. Today we have shown good pace, especially with Daniil. He did a solid race finishing P7. On the other side of the garage, Pierre was unfortunately just outside of the points finishing P11. Now we need to switch our thoughts on the preparation for the last race of this unprecedented season in Abu Dhabi."
Franz Tost, team principal
"Both cars had a good start and we finished the first lap with Daniil in P5 and Pierre in P7. The first stint on the Option went as expected, we decided to pit both drivers on lap 26 and change to the Prime tyre. The drivers reported some understeer but nevertheless, the pace was reasonably good. We then stopped them again to move onto the Base tyre. We were a bit unlucky here, especially with Daniil, pitting just before the virtual safety car, and as a consequence, we lost a position to Ricciardo. Daniil's pace was good at this point, but Pierre on the other side wasn't happy with the car, so we will need to investigate the reason for this. Unfortunately, he was only able to finish P11. Daniil drove a fantastic race, one of his best races with us, fighting for seventh position. He wasn't able to catch Albon, but he could keep Bottas behind. I think his seventh position is something the team deserved, we had the speed to be within the top seven, maybe even fifth or sixth with a bit more luck. As for the strategy, it was a disadvantage for us to start with the Option tyre because the cars in front were on the Primes, giving them the choice of a one-stop strategy. However, this was, in general, a good weekend for us and we're looking forward to the final race in Abu Dhabi, where we hope to bring home some more points."
