29/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "It wasn't a straightforward race today, we made the safer call with the pit stop because there was a lot of risk in pitting straight away, I opted to stay out for another lap. After that, as soon as I came out on the intermediates, I could see that we had a lot of pace, it was just a matter of time.
"The weather of course was challenging today, it was okay from my position, but I understand that the people behind me were still struggling to see. There are some improvements to be made with the visibility, but I think race control did the smart thing today, they took some time to analyse everything and that was wise. At the moment, it looks like our car is fast on the wet and the dry so I'm pretty chilled and looking forward to the race tomorrow."
Sergio Perez: "It was a shame that we had to retire from the race today and get no points for the team. The conditions were tricky and Lewis ran out of grip and crashed into the side of me. I had massive damage to the sidepods and floor and once we realised the extent of this, we had to retire. It is unfortunate, as today we had some good opportunities and had a great strategy. The race pace was good and I think we could have caught Pierre Gasly. All in all, I think everything was managed well today by race control and we have been really strong the whole weekend and had the pace to fight for pole today. Ultimately, we lost a few points today but we look forward to tomorrow."
Christian Horner: "We brought Checo in immediately for the tyre change and he got a great release that jumped both Mercedes and Ferrari's, elevating him to 4th. Unfortunately there was the contact with Lewis that caused significant damage to his side pod causing a significant loss in down force that meant we had no choice but to retire the car. For Max, it was another clinical performance. We chose to bring him in after the first lap which ended up putting him in 2nd, just behind Piastri. While it was a very strong drive from Oscar today, Max was able to bring it home and covert the win following the safety car. We regroup now and prepare for tomorrows race, Checo on the front row and Max in 6th following the gear box penalty. So, another challenge and no doubt the weather will play a part but both drivers are sharp and on their toes and we look forward to some good racing."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa here.