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Daniel Ricciardo
“Today it was a long and frustrating race. We didn’t use the pace we had in the clear air. We were on the mediums at the start of the race and after only a few laps we pitted for new hards together with the other cars who started on softs, coming out in traffic. It’s even more frustrating because we were quick all weekend, and I felt like we have taken ourselves out of the race so early as we couldn’t fight cars that were coming much quicker on newer tyres.”
Yuki Tsunoda
“It didn’t work out for us today. We seemed to have understeer and then losing that position at the start and conceding back to Lando affected us. We tried giving an overlap to give Max the pace but to no avail. The middle sector, in parts of the race was where we were looking competitive but there is plenty for us to look at to try and see how we can improve and come back stronger next weekend. Checo drove a good race today and his strategy, getting the undercut on George, worked well. He also showed good pace, made good overtakes and hopefully would have taken some good confidence from that for a strong performance in Spa.”
Laurent Mekies, team principal
“Over the past few weeks, everyone in Faenza and Bicester worked hard and effectively, delivering the upturn in performance we witnessed here in Hungary. Getting both cars into Q3 was proof of that, once again heading the midfield and the points we picked up today are a well-deserved reward for all that effort. Yuki’s race was sensational, and we were the only car daring to do a one-stop race, which allowed us to beat not only the midfield runners but also both Aston Martins. Yuki’s tyre management was second to none, and he made it stick to the end. The team also did a truly remarkable job in a short space of time by rebuilding Yuki’s car around a new chassis following his Q3 crash. Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Daniel and pitted him too early in heavy traffic, which lost him a chance to fight for points. His pace had been extremely strong all weekend long, and he demonstrated that again in the final stint of the race when he was finally able to find some free air and fight his way back. We certainly share his frustration, and we will learn and come back stronger next week. Now we move on to Spa, a very different challenge to the Hungaroring. We go there with the positives of our strong weekend here and will push very hard to get our car to work as best it can at this fast and flowing track.”
Guillaume Dezoteux, head of vehicle performance
“Yuki finished P9 and brought us two precious points which reward the hard work the team has put in overnight repairing his car from the crash yesterday in qualifying. Both cars had a good start but lost positions to the soft runners in the opening laps. Some cars started to pit early, and we reacted with Daniel, which put him in heavy traffic and did not allow him to use his pace. Anticipating his second stop allowed us to gain a few positions back and Daniel could show good lap times, but it wasn’t enough to end up in the points for him and he finished P12. With Yuki, we decided to extend the first stint. His good tyre management and the consistency of lap times opened the possibility of doing a one-stop race, which is what we went for. This strategy allowed us to beat the two Aston Martins which is a great achievement, concluding this weekend on a high note.”
