Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz
“What a shame to have had to retire. It was looking like a race where we could’ve certainly scored points, and it all just ended in a first-lap accident. We had a very good start to the race – obviously everyone in front of us was on the Super Soft tyre while we started on Softs, but we still managed to gain a few places, so that was good. We were fighting and I was defending from a McLaren and Checo Perez, who suddenly arrived from behind and hit me, causing a puncture. From that point onwards my race was completely lost, as I was a lap down after my first pit-stop. Now we just need to put this behind us and look forward to the next race in China in two weeks’ time, where we will come back stronger - we know that we have a good car and we can be fast.”
Max Verstappen
“I’m very happy with today’s result! I think we bounced back very strongly from the first weekend and the whole team did a fantastic job – a great strategy, good pit-stops… It all worked out perfectly, including our tyre management. The car was just doing what it had to do and felt good, we had great pace! It was an action-packed race and I really enjoyed it out there. To finish P6 is a fantastic way to finish the weekend and I’d like to thank the whole team for their excellent work. Also, this is the first time ever that the team scores points here in Bahrain, so I’m very happy to have changed this statistic – as I said before coming here, that was one of my objectives!”
Franz Tost, team principal
“Taking into consideration that we started today’s race from P10 and P11, to finish with a car in P6 is, on one side, a really good result but, on the other, it’s a pity we had to retire the other car. I’d like to congratulate Max and the team, because both parties did a really good and professional job, both regarding strategy and pit-stops. Unfortunately, Carlos had a collision with Perez, which caused a puncture on the right-rear tyre at the beginning of his lap. As a result of this, while driving back to the pits, the floor also got damaged… We therefore ended up deciding to call him in, even though originally we made him stay out just in case there was a Safety Car period. This never happened so we ended his race prematurely as the car was very unstable in the rear because of the amount of downforce we had lost. On a more positive note, this is the first time we score points here in Bahrain, so we can be happy with this, and we now look forward to China, where we expect to be quite competitive.”
