05/07/2020
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "I'm not quite sure what happened yet, we'll investigate and find out but of course that's not how you want to start the season. I had a good start, unlike last year, and quite early on I could see that Valtteri was quick so fighting for the win was always going to be a big challenge. I think it would have been an easy podium and third would have been a decent start to the season but what can you do? This is racing and it is what it is, you can't change the result now. It is a shame for everyone who worked so hard to get us here this weekend but we will just focus on the race next week and hope for something better."
Alex Albon: It's still quite fresh so I've got to be careful what I say but there's nothing to add apart from how frustrating that is. I really think we could have easily won that race. We had a great strategy, the guys did a great job in the pit stops, yes we had a little bit of fortune with the Safety Car, but the car was feeling good. The hard tyre wasn't very strong today and I knew the Mercedes would have cold tyres on the re-start, so I already planned to get past them within a few laps of the Safety Car coming in. I feel like I had completed the move on Lewis already, and I was thinking about getting Bottas on the next lap. The contact with Lewis was so late in the corner that it surprised me. I was right on the edge of the track and I knew if I gave him all the space I could it would be up to him if he wants to crash or not. This time I was the one on the attack and he was defending. I wouldn't say this one hurts more than Brazil but that incident was maybe 50/50 whereas this one isn't. Obviously we've got next weekend to focus on now, we'll need a bit of luck to have the same opportunity as today, but let's see."
Christian Horner: "It was a very frustrating first race and I'm almost lost for words. Losing Max early on whilst he was running in second place on a better tyre was obviously painful but we still had Alex in a good position. Alex was putting in a very strong performance, strategically we got the call right to concede a position to the Racing Point but take on a new soft tyre. At the re-start Alex passed Lewis and inexplicably for the second time in three races Lewis has hit him and taken him out of the race. It was clearly a mis-judgement by Lewis which he received a penalty for but that still cuts deep for Alex. We then had to retire the car with what looks like a PU issue, which will now be investigated. It's hugely frustrating to come away from this race with a double DNF and no points, when we could have been in a position to win. The positives are that we looked to be having a competitive race but we still have a bit of pace to find ahead of next weekend."
Check out our Race Day gallery from Spielberg, here.