Sun: Williams, Red Bull, Sauber

Editor

A late collision with Kimi Raikkonen denied Valtteri Bottas a podium while Felipe Massa came from P15 to finish P4.

Williams
Felipe Massa: “It was a good result for me today and we managed to do well to fight back from a disappointing qualifying yesterday. I lost a bit of time behind slower cars at the beginning of the race because I was on harder tyres than those around me, but the pace was very good on the supersofts at the end. This allowed me to close up and be in a position to collect more points on the final lap due to the incidents up ahead.”

Valtteri Bottas: “It was quite a strange race with lots of accidents and safety cars, and we managed to do a very good job as a team to give me a good shot at the podium. I was running in P3 on the last lap and then I was hit from behind in Turn 4 and that was it. It’s difficult to describe the disappointment because the team has worked so hard all week to get a good result, and then the result we feel like we deserved was lost with only one lap remaining. It’s a tough end to the weekend.”

Red Bull
Daniil Kvyat: “I think we squeezed everything out of it today and ten points at the end of such a complicated race is a very good achievement, so we have to be satisfied with these points. With hindsight, you could say we could have run a slightly better strategy, but you can never be completely sure how these things will turn out and you never stop learning in this respect. It was nice to see all the people that came here to support me today, it’s a great feeling and hopefully it will continue and get better and better. I could also see that other drivers had their fans in the crowd as well which was nice, it’s a true passion and it looks like in Russia the sport is growing a lot and many people are coming which is great to see. I’m already looking forward to Austin because I think it should suit us a little bit better and I’m looking forward to those high speed corners.”

Daniel Ricciardo: “I’m happy with how I drove but it’s a shame we don’t have any points to show for it. The risky strategy was working well and we were looking good to earn some decent points. We’re not sure what happened, we suspect it’s a suspension issue. I came out of turn four and I felt something was not right and I reported back to the team. The team will investigate the issue but I think considering we weren’t expecting too much from this track, we can be pleased that we were racing with the faster cars of Williams and Ferrari and managed to keep them behind us for a good while.”

Sauber
Felipe Nasr: “I am very satisfied with the result today. It was an intense race from the beginning to the end. The pace of the car was quite competitive, especially on the supersoft tyres, and we were temporarily able to keep ahead of some strong competitors. The balance of the car with the soft tyres was not as good as with the supersofts. Nevertheless, well done to the team, those points are for all of them. They all did a great job. These are the opportunites we cannot miss, and I am glad we extracted the maximum today.”

Marcus Ericsson: “A difficult weekend for me, but I was still optimistic for the race. As I started from the back of the field, we chose an alternative strategy starting on soft tyres. The start was good, as I was able to overtake a few cars going down to turn two. Then I suddenly saw Nico (Hulkenberg) facing the wrong way. I had nowhere to go and went into him. This is very disappointing as the car was quite competitive here. A missed opportunity, which is frustrating for me. Now I will recharge and try it again during the next race weekend.”