28/04/2019
NEWS STORY
Carlos Sainz: "Happy to score good points today after yesterday's setback with that yellow flag. I knew it was just a matter of time and having a clean race. Today we showed solid pace throughout the whole race.
"Congratulations to everyone in the team for our first double-points finish of the year. Great effort from everyone. We need to keep pushing though, we have to be ambitious and aim higher! It's a nice boost ahead of my home grand prix."
Lando Norris: "Overall, it's a good race for us as a team. A double-points finish, the first one of the year, which is a good thing. The whole race was pretty good. My start was probably the best I've done all year and I made no mistakes. I lost the tyres a little early in the first stint so boxed onto the Mediums, had a good middle stint and we took the decision to try the Softs after the VSC.
"The thinking was that the other tyres, the Medium, while not worn, had done a lot and wouldn't be able to turn on as well. It looked like they did, so it was the wrong decision. It could have worked, maybe if it had been a bit colder, but it didn't and that's just something we have to look back on. It always happens in racing! A good weekend altogether."
Gil de Ferran, Sporting Director: "Both cars in the points equals a good day at the office. Although perhaps from the outside it may have looked like a straightforward race, it was, in reality, anything but. Our cars had good pace, nevertheless, we had to be extremely careful with our tyre management throughout.
"Given that we had a ‘free' pit-stop, we elected to take both a conservative and aggressive strategy at the same time by pitting Lando during the Virtual Safety Car. In this manner, as a team we had every strategic eventuality covered.
"Congratulations to both Lando and Carlos, who drove flawless and perfectly managed races. Congratulations to our strategy team, who executed the complex race to perfection. Congratulations to our pit-crew who, once again, excelled.
"And finally, congratulations to everyone at McLaren who has continually put in a tremendous effort at every grand prix that we go to. We leave here with a good taste in our mouth, but still, as always, calmly determined to continue to step forward."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku, here.