22/10/2017
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "I am feeling good after the race but of course it is never nice to be about to step out onto the podium and then have it taken away. They should at least let us talk it through in the stewards' room first and voice our opinions. I had a great race and I am happy with fourth but it's the way I got there that hurts. I got a five second penalty and one penalty point for what? I ran wide on a track with no limits that everyone is running wide on all weekend, why do I get punished? The rule is we cannot protest so all we can do is move on to Mexico, weird rule. We have an amazing race with loads of overtakes and action and then due to 5cm or 10cm of kerb the result is changed, people don't like to watch that. At the end of the day I had a lot of fun and a great race. I feel I made some really good overtakes and had nice rhythm with really strong pace and balance in the car. Taking all these factors into account and no engine penalties I'll hopefully start near the front and achieve a better result in Mexico."
Daniel Ricciardo: "It's obviously never nice to be out of the race early. There were a lot of elbows out and you could see a lot of contact, so I wouldn't have suspected it would be due to a mechanical issue but of course it was disappointing to finish early. I think I tried to get the most out of it today and the laps I raced were fun but also frustrating. I felt that, especially earlier on, we were quicker than Valtteri, but I always had to come from so far back that it was never going to be an easy move. I tried a lot of times to make it stick but could never quite manage it. I wasn't going to drive behind him all weekend wondering what could have been, so I don't have any regrets with the moves I tried. It's just frustrating to not continue that battle. I did enjoy it out there though. Every time I tried to overtake Valtteri he would just slip back underneath me and I thought: alright let's try again. I think we'll probably have to take a penalty which means that I will start at the back in Mexico. I'll do my best to try and charge through the field and you'll hopefully see more of today in Mexico."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A tremendously exciting race today particularly for Max who made incredible progress from 16th on the grid to be fighting for a podium in the last couple of laps. He made some great passing manoeuvres and on the last lap managed to make a pass on Kimi, which was then penalised with a five second penalty. This is particularly galling looking at the amount of cars that had been off track, not just in the race but all weekend without any sanction or punishment. Nonetheless a great performance and another competitive afternoon for us. Obviously we were very disappointed to lose Daniel early on in the race with an engine issue, after putting on a fighting few laps behind Valtteri. He would have been on the podium again without that issue today so we take comfort from the fact we had a competitive car and are just sorry for Max and the fans that they didn't get the podium they deserved today. Our congratulations are with Mercedes; a fourth consecutive World Championship is a tremendous achievement and they have deserved the title again this year."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Austin, here.