Sauber
Nico Hulkenberg
“Another couple of points on the board today, and I think we can be pretty satisfied with that – it was likely the maximum available. Everyone who finished ahead started ahead and probably had a bit more pace, so we executed well to bring it home where we did. It was a clean, solid one-stop strategy in a low-deg race with not too much variation, and the team did a great job.
“The first stint on the hard tyre was strong - managing it while racing closely in the early laps took some effort, but we pulled it off nicely. We gained two important points for the team, and while the fight in the standings is still very close, there’s everything to play for.”
Gabriel Bortoleto
“First of all, I would like to apologise to Lance [Stroll]. It was my fault – I had a strong launch and went for a move on the inside of the Williams, but by the time I committed, I misjudged the braking point by a few meters and it was already too late to slow the car down properly. I went in a bit long, had no angle to make the corner, and ended up hitting him.
"It’s a shame, because the weekend seemed promising until qualifying, and then the mistake on lap one ruined both our races. I just need to put everything together now for the remaining two races of the season – clean laps, clean weekends – because not finishing these last two races meant losing track experience I should have been gaining. I’ll learn from this, reset, and make sure to come back to the performance levels I've shown before as we come to Doha next week.”
Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal
“Another mixed weekend for the team. We went into the race committed to a hard–medium one-stop strategy, with a clear backup plan in case graining became an issue. The track surface here is unique, so tyre behaviour was our main focus throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, Gabi misjudged his braking point in the first corner which resulted in an incident that both ended his race early and resulted in a five-place grid penalty for Qatar.
“On the other side of the garage, we saw another great performance from Nico which, for the second race in a row, resulted in a points finish. We leave Las Vegas with 64 points, getting a bit closer to our main competitors in the Constructors’ Championship with only two races left this season.”
