F1 - 2022

DRIVERS1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)2 – Sergio PÉREZ (Red Bull Racing)3 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)

I had confidence that with the car we had today and the pace we had that it would have been an interesting fight to the end. Do you feel any kind of sympathy for him and in the heat of the title fight is it possible to feel something like this? You know, it happened to me, it happened to many people in the past. I think the main straight is way too bumpy, we have to really try and find a bit of a line. MV: Well, as soon as we got out and they told me the gap, I think it was like 12/13 seconds, that's quite a bit of a gap to close. And even now, we want change but who knows what that change is, it's just us, 20 drivers, we would choose to have a safer ride out there and when you’re going 300kmh between the walls and you barely can keep the car in a straight line. And once I put the hard tyre on, I think it would have been a really interesting fight to the end with Charles to see how much we would have caught him, because I think we did have a bit of a pace advantage. And for us to show for all the hard work back at Brackley and Brixworth to deliver a reliable car and reliable power unit, and capitalise from others’ misfortunes, whatever you want to call it. Of course unfortunately we never got there to have a fight but yeah, overall it was a good day, strong day and good pace in the car and we could really look after our tyres. It was certainly right at the restart after the Virtual Safety Car that we lost the pace, I think all the way to that stage, things were looking right; things were looking okay. SP: I think it was the right call made by the team, because at that time Max was a bit further ahead and it was just a good team result and you know, in this place, anything can happen. I think every weekend is a bit different and you really have to be precise and you really have to be on it with little things for the race management as well.