Red Bull
Max Verstappen, P5
"It was a very eventful race. Unfortunately, on lap one I lost the rear and spun in the second corner which was a shame. I recovered it well but then we had to manage and minimise the time loss. After that we opted to do an early stop. It is easy to say after the race, but the Hard tyre wasn’t really working for us as we didn’t have particularly good grip and struggled a bit at the end. I tried my best to hang in there, but it wasn’t meant to be.
"However we for sure picked up a bit of performance which is really promising. Overall, it was a positive weekend for us and good to be back in the mix. The car is a work in progress and we keep on pushing and keep trying to improve, so we are heading in the right direction."
Isack Hadjar, DNF
"It's a tough one to take. We had a good start from the pitlane and I felt awesome the first few laps. We had very good pace early on and then the mistake came. I didn't see it coming and everything went so fast, I was just too eager and ended up finding the limit of the track. I need to look back at what happened to understand where I went wrong.
"The Team made a big step forward and the pace was much stronger today than we've had in the opening rounds, so I'm frustrated that I couldn't score what I felt were easy points. I'm already itching to get back into the car in Canada and maximise what we now have."
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal
"Our car is very different today to what it was five weeks ago in Japan when we were 1.2 seconds off pole. It’s clear we still have a lot of work to do, but looking at our race pace today and our quali pace yesterday, I think we are on the right track. We brought upgrades, like almost everyone else, but on top of that we have been able to resolve some of the issues we had up until now and we found some lap time there too.
"I have no problem repeating myself when I say we have a fantastic team of people back in Milton Keynes, and here at the race track, in my opinion the best talent in the paddock, and they must take the credit for this uptick in performance. It’s been a strong united effort at 360 degrees, chassis side and PU side.
"We also take home some very important learnings from this weekend on what to improve next, and we are well aware that much more is needed in order to compete again for the top spot. Max reminded us of how incredible he is when he can push with the car, sticking the RB22 on the front row yesterday and fighting for each millimetre of track today, coming through the entire field and surviving a 50ish lap long stint on the hard. Isack did not have a clean weekend and we did not help him with the back of the grid start due to our mistake yesterday. His initial pace in the race was strong and I have every confidence we will regroup back in MK and come back stronger for a smoother weekend in Montreal."
