Sun: McLaren, Red Bull, Sauber, Manor

It was a difficult afternoon for Red Bull as they failed to score a single point while McLaren also had a race to forget.

McLaren
Fernando Alonso: “It’s difficult when you have other drivers overtaking you along the straights, then you arrive at the corners, and watch them outbrake themselves, or make mistakes. Then, when you take the corner perfectly, and get overtaken again along the straights, it feels frustrating. We need to improve the programme. The remaining races will be tough, but we’re looking towards next year. We’ll win together, and we need to make it happen as quickly as possible. Hopefully, we can learn some lessons from today’s race and keep improving things.”

Jenson Button: “When there’s that much of a speed differential between our car and the others’, you don’t know what to do. When they overtake you, you just back out of it – there’s such a difference in speed, that you can’t be sure where they’re going to be. At my second stop, Ericsson got past me, and that messed up my race because I was quicker, and had the better tyre – I was on the Option, he was on the Prime – for the final stint. If I’d come out ahead of him, we’d have been fine, because we were quicker than him, and he was holding cars up behind, which helped Fernando to run his own race. But I couldn’t keep the faster cars behind me, and fell farther back. It’s been a tough weekend in front of the whole of Honda and all the fans we have here; and that’s tough, because we want to succeed in front of them.”

Red Bull
Daniil Kvyat: “It was pretty boring for me out there this afternoon, because a combination of circumstances meant I had to just sit back and was unable to attack. I had a completely new car, so that wasn’t so easy. We had difficulties with the tyres, the brakes and the overtake button, which made life complicated. In the end, I did manage to overtake some people, but it wasn’t great. It’s frustrating and annoying, but there was nothing I could do. Battling for P13 does not give you much satisfaction. But a big thank you to the team, they had a lot of work to do on Saturday night to get the car ready for the race.”

Daniel Ricciardo: “At the start, the best line for me was straight down the middle. I saw the gap between Kimi and Felipe and I knew it was close, but I thought they would make a bit of room. I haven’t seen the footage and don’t want to put the blame on anyone so we’ll call it a racing incident for now. It’s a shame for the team, I think we could have gained some positions off the line and then the race would have been completely different. But we had the puncture, and that damaged the floor so we lost some downforce. I tried to do what I could, we started to catch some cars towards the end but by then I didn’t have the grip to do anything. On a positive note, even with the damaged floor, the car was handling well.”

Sauber
Marcus Ericsson: “I had a good start. In the first stint especially, I had a reasonable pace running in the points in P10. Towards the end of this stint I was pushing a bit too much and had sort of a half spin in turn 13, so I lost some time there. That was a shame. We gambled a bit with the early second pit stop, knowing we would have a long last stint on the hard tyres. Then I was able to keep the train of cars behind me for many laps, but at the end the rear tyres could not hold on anymore. I think we had a better performance today, even if the result does not show that. However, there are still things to improve.”

Felipe Nasr: “The race started well. I gained a couple of positions at the start, and I had some good fights and overtaking manoeuvres in the early stint. Suddenly, I had a strange feeling in the car. Together with the team, we decided to stop the car and retire from the race. Now we have to look into it to understand the issue.”

Manor
Alexander Rossi: “It was a tough race today but I’m very happy with the outcome. I struggled a little more in the first stint, but after the first stop everything turned around and my pace was pretty good. I was right on the tail of my team-mate throughout the second two stints, and was trying to get past when Will spun. Thankfully, I was able to get out of the way, but it was a real heart-in-mouth moment that I’m sure looked every bit as dramatic from outside the cockpit as it did from where I was sitting! All in all, I’m pleased with how things are going after two races and glad we had a good race after a difficult weekend.”

Will Stevens: “It goes without saying that I’m disappointed with the result today. I felt I was in control up until the point of the penalty and then the spin, and that’s where I lost the advantage. It’s a shame, as my pace was strong all weekend, so that’s what I’m focusing on and I’m looking forward to getting things back on track in Russia. I’m pleased for what is a good team result though, and that is what we were targeting here.”