Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso
“I had a bit of a lonely afternoon out there, but I enjoyed my race. There was nothing I could really do against Max [Verstappen] and Sergio [Perez] but, happily, there was no pressure today from behind, so we’ll take this result. We’ve taken four podium finishes from the first five races – and only missed out on a podium in Baku by eight tenths of a second – so it’s been a fantastic start to our season. One day, when there’s an opportunity to win, we need to make sure we’re in the best position to capitalise. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.”
Lance Stroll
“It was a tough race today and we found it difficult to make a huge amount of progress from 18th on the grid. The car felt good, but I was stuck in a DRS train with a lot of traffic around me. We opted for a long stint on the Hard tyres and managed those well; it was then just a case of deciding when to pit to make sure there were enough laps left to maximise the pace of the Medium compound. I had some fun overtaking Alex [Albon] into Turn One but, in hindsight, we could have boxed a few laps earlier to try and catch 10th position. It’s been a weekend to learn from – which we’ll do – and I’m looking forward to getting back out in Imola.”
Tom McCullough, Performance Director
“This was a tricky race to manage. Both Lance and Fernando drove faultlessly and maximised every opportunity – for Fernando, that resulted in a third-place finish and some valuable points; for Lance, it was difficult trying to cut through the traffic, but he pulled off some fantastic passes. It was frustrating to just miss out on a points-scoring position at the end. Fernando’s race was all about managing the strategy from the Medium to the Hard tyre. It worked out well for him: Ferrari went for the undercut with Carlos [Sainz] but we elected to balance the stints and overtake him on track. After that, Fernando was able to consolidate third place and pull comfortably clear of the cars behind. With no DNFs and no Safety Cars, it was difficult for Lance to make progress through the field. Add low degradation to the mix and it became even trickier – because a lot of cars were able to run at a similar pace. But he managed his race extremely well, was typically brave on the brakes and made up plenty of places to finish 12th. We conclude this double-header having scored 37 points and maintained second position in the Constructors’ Championship. A huge thanks to the whole team for their incredible efforts over the past few weeks. We will regroup and come back just as strong for the triple-header, which kicks off later this month.”
