Sunday: Sauber, McLaren, Toro Rosso

Fernando Alonso joined the fans after his latest DNF, while there was a double blow for Toro Rosso.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson: “Overall it has been a tough weekend, but I got the maximum out of the car in the race. We made a step forward with our tyre management throughout the race. The pace that I had was similar to our direct competitors for most parts of the race. Now we have to build on that and take those insights with us to Baku.”

Pascal Wehrlein: “It was a difficult weekend – for one because of the crash in the qualifying, and also because I could not keep up with the lap times of the competition. We have to make sure that we understand the reason for that. For now we are focusing on the upcoming weekend in Baku.”

McLaren

Stoffel Vandoorne: “It was a difficult race. I think we more or less knew that before the start. We found it tough on the straights, and also the amount of fuel saving we had to do today really hurt us. The closing speed of the other cars was really impressive, so we were a bit of a sitting duck. In the end, we made it to the finish, but it’s not the result we were hoping for. It’s incredibly difficult to stay with the group ahead, and when we can stay with the group we are vulnerable and don’t have the power to defend, so we have to invent some tricks to keep the other cars behind, and then it all starts to become very challenging. There’s no point moaning about it – I’m just trying to get on with my job – but I just hope there will be improvements soon so we can actually start racing with the others.”

Fernando Alonso: "We were in the points with a couple of laps to the end but my engine gave up. I am frustrated, of course, but it’s not only about losing a point today, of course. As a driver, we try to come here and drive as fast as we can, so missing on that point is disappointing especially for the guys, who have been working so much day and night, preparing the car, preparing the strategy and taking care of every single detail. Our chassis feels quite strong in the corners, but we are being overtaken by everyone in the middle on the straights. It’s tough times. The support we have from the fans in Canada is great, so when my car stopped I thought we should give something back, and I went up the grandstand to give my gloves to the people who had been cheering me on.”

Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat: “A very disappointing day. Our problems already started during the formation lap – my engine stalled, so I had to catch all the cars before the Safety Car line, which I didn’t manage to do so I got a penalty for it… But we were still going for P9 as the pace was mega good today! Unfortunately, during my pit-stop we had a problem and then we retired… It was too late to do anything after losing so much time in the pits anyway. I did everything I could do today but what’s annoying is that every time we have very good pace something happens or goes wrong… It’s very frustrating, we deserved a reward today.”

Carlos Sainz: “What a tough start to the race – I had a good start and was in P12, trying to overtake Fernando around the outside of Turn 2… He got better traction than me out of there so I focused on positioning myself to try and attack him into Turn 3 and, all of a sudden, I touched with a Haas that was on my right-hand side… I have to say I never saw the car there, it’s simply a dead angle in my mirrors so I never knew he was there. If I had realized I was there, of course I would’ve been more careful and left some space. Once we collided I was just a passenger, crashed into the wall and that was the end of my race unfortunately. I’d like to say sorry, especially to Felipe, who received a touch from me… I just couldn’t do anything to avoid it. It was a big crash, but I’m fine. Unfortunately, the whole weekend has been a bit difficult for us, starting with not being able to run in FP1, then yesterday’s qualifying and today’s accident… It’s now time to focus on Baku; luckily we have 20 Formula 1 races so we can forget this weekend!”