Lewis Hamilton:
It's been a really good weekend and a great way to bounce back from Russia. It was the rawest fight that I can remember having in a long-time. I loved it, this is why I race. This is what made me get into racing in the first place. This is what the sport needs to be like every single weekend. To have a close battle like that with a four-time champion is awesome. I lost out on the start and had to watch Sebastian fly by. He was so fast out in front and it was such a push to keep in touch with him and not let him pull away. I was able to manage my tyres in the first stint and keep relatively close, then it was tricky to keep up on the Medium tyre and then after the second stop. We came out so close together which was super tight into Turn 1. He didn't give me much space, it was close! I thought Seb would get me at the end of the final stint but I was able to do it. I have to congratulate my team today, with the strategy and the pit stops, as well as everyone back at the factory that has worked so hard to deliver these upgrades, enabling us to be so close in this fight with Ferrari.
Valtteri Bottas:
It's been a tough weekend. We had problems straight from practice, when we had to swap to the old engine on Saturday morning. Then today we had an engine failure in the race. We don't know any more than that at this stage. We knew it was a risk switching back to the old Power Unit in terms of the mileage but we didn't if we wanted to qualify yesterday. At least we got more points than Ferrari today in spite of the retirement. The first corner was very tight. I had a good start but there was no were to go. I tried to avoid the collision but I touched Kimi. Lewis was on a different strategy while I was running long. We tried to execute a one-stop which is why I was lapping slower at that point. It could have been a rewarding strategy but with the Virtual Safety Car the guys in front had a free pit stop. We should have both been on the podium today. It's always disappointing when you don't finish but we'll pick ourselves up and move on.
Daniel Ricciardo:
"I'm happy to be back on the podium today, it's the first one of the season for me which is nice but actually the race was quite a lonely one. I didn't have any real battles and my race was more about trying to keep a rhythm and maintain concentration. I got a bit fortunate with Valtteri's problem towards the end of the race which bumped me up to third, but of course I'm still happy to be up there again and see all the smiles from the team. Today we will enjoy the podium but tomorrow we need to understand how to further close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes. I want to take the positives from this weekend, we will keep working hard and chipping away. I don't think it's impossible to catch the leaders at some point, maybe it will take a little longer than we had hoped but we will get there. I think I got the maximum out of the car today and moving on to Monaco we will have a few more updates, which will hopefully give us another step, and at that track it's fair to say anything can happen."
Max Verstappen:
"An unfortunate start to the race which ultimately finished it also. I tried to go around the outside as there was plenty of room there. If Valtteri had not touched Kimi, we all would have had enough room to get through that corner. Due to the contact it meant Kimi lost control and slammed into me, but it wasn't his fault. Sometimes you have a bit of luck, like last year, sometimes you don't as we can see this year. It was shame to not be able to take part in the race after the incident as I think with this weekend's upgrades it could have been fun and we could have got a good result. After an unfortunate race for me it's important to focus and look ahead to Monaco, I'm hoping we can continue to improve and have a good fight there."
Sebastian Vettel:
My start was good, I saw Lewis struggle with wheelspin, and kept looking in mirror to see if anybody else had a better start. The first stint went ok, then we had to pit, otherwise they might have got us with an undercut. My second stint was also pretty good: I managed to get close to Valtteri who was all over the place with his tyres. He blocked me, in the end I managed to get past, but by then I had lost an awful lot of time. Then in the last stint we did everything we could, the car was good, it was close with Lewis. I am happy when we have the chance to race the Mercedes cars, we can be very happy but not entirely happy today. The most important thing, though, is that we were in the fight; the team is in great form, we need to improve because we want to be ahead of them.
Kimi Raikkonen:
I made a good start, but on the main straight I got blocked once by Bottas. I chose to lift and go a little bit on the left to leave him space, but, I don't know how, he hit me on the right rear corner, my car jumped and I end up going into Verstappen. There was nothing me or Max could have done, when you get hit from behind in that way there's no way to avoid the collision. I'm pretty sure Valtteri had enough space. Unfortunately my race ended there. Obviously it's very disappointing, we had been running quite well all weekend and I was happy with the behavior of the car.
Sergio Perez:
"It has been an incredible day for us and I'm very proud of our team and the job we have done all weekend. Everything worked out for us and we have come away with some big points. We made the most of the opportunities that came up and we were there when it mattered to pick up the points. I didn't make the best start, but I stayed out of trouble and made it safely around the first lap. Then I kept my head down, managed my speed and controlled the race to bring the car home. The only small issue was a slow pit stop, but I had enough time to the car behind and it didn't make a difference. So big congratulations to the whole team because it hasn't been an easy weekend in terms of finding a car set-up. To be leaving here with a fourth place feels amazing and gives us big confidence for the rest of the season."
Esteban Ocon:
"I'm really happy today. Fifth place is a great result for me and, together with Checo in fourth, a fantastic day for the team. It's a great ending to a weekend where we worked incredibly hard and it's a nice reward for everybody in the team. The car was fast in qualifying and we were on the pace straight away yesterday. We kept pushing and we showed good speed in the race as well. Sure, there were some circumstances this afternoon that helped us, but you need to be ready to take the opportunities when they come your way. Once we had made it through the first lap chaos, we had the pace to easily keep ahead of all the cars behind and we could manage our race. I feel we maximised what we could get out of today: the team are doing everything right at the moment and that's what makes us so strong. There's still a lot we can achieve this year: we are always there when it counts and the car is consistently fast. Scoring points every time we go out is what really matters for the championship so we need to keep up this consistency."
Felipe Massa:
I'm so disappointed. I had a fantastic start, passing Perez and Alonso on the straight, and then I got to turn one and saw the incident ahead. I then got to turn two and Alonso was suddenly on the outside of the corner, we touched and I picked up a puncture, which ruined my race. We had a big opportunity to finish fourth today, which I think I could have done because we had good pace. It's really painful because we lost so many points today as a team.
Lance Stroll:
It was not a great race. I have had better ones and I just found it frustrating. The start was good as were the first couple of stints on the soft tyres and I had a good pace at the beginning, but we just struggled on the mediums and started to lose grip. I didn't feel great in the car and couldn't get it feeling the way I wanted. It was just one of those races, but I am sure it will be better next time. At every race I get more and more confident, but this weekend was just a tough one.
Fernando Alonso:
"The race didn't go as we'd planned. We were a little bit unlucky with the contact in Turn Two with Felipe [Massa] and then we were behind Daniil [Kvyat] for too many laps in the mid part of the race, but even without that I think we didn't have the race pace to be in the points today to be honest.
"I'm a little disappointed, but at least we finished the race, and hopefully this is the first sign of a step forward in reliability. We now need to prepare better the next Grand Prix.
"Tomorrow at 9.00am I need to be at the Brickyard, and at 12.00pm noon I'll be in the car for first practice. So I now have 14 hours to rest, nine of which will be spent on the plane, so we need to switch into Indy mode now, and for the next two weeks my full focus will be on that."
Stoffel Vandoorne
"I haven't seen the [Massa] incident properly on TV yet. I wasn't really expecting Felipe [Massa] to be there - I think I left enough space for him to be able to pass - but unfortunately we made contact and my front wheel broke, so that was the end of the race for me.
"I don't want to blame anyone, and in my personal opinion it was just a racing incident.
"The manoeuvre on Jolyon [Palmer] was my first overtake this season, so at least I got something out of the race. The fact that that move felt so good shows that our package still isn't strong enough, and we're still not in a position to fight with the others. But we've taken a step forward for this race with the upgrades we brought here, and some areas are definitely improving, but in the race we're still struggling a bit. Hopefully we can carry some more improvements into the next race.
"I don't want to make any predictions for Monaco, but the chassis has been improving, and hopefully we'll bring a couple more updates that will pay off. We'll have to wait and see, and try our best; that's all we can do at the moment."
Carlos Sainz Jr:
"What a good race, I'm very happy! It was a bit chaotic at the start – we managed to gain a couple of positions but I then ran wide into Turn 2 in order to avoid the accident… I therefore lost some of the positions I had gained, but we were P9 and from that point onwards it was a full-on attack race to try and recover. We managed to do just that and finished P7 after starting P12, a great result! I really enjoyed it out there today because we were always faster than the car in front and never looking in the mirrors. It was also amazing to have such big support from the fans – I was feeling it! I was pushing the whole time, going for the cars I had in front, trying different ways of attacking both on track and in the pit-lane and we managed to do a very complete race weekend. During my in-lap at the end of the race I looked up to my grandstand and it was amazing to see them all so pumped up and cheering me on – I'd like to thank everyone for this amazing support. Talking about thank-yous, I need to make a special mention and congratulate all the pit-stop guys – they've improved the pit-stops so much this year and this was a key part of the race today. I now have a surprise for them in the garage in order to thank them in a proper way: let's enjoy some good Spanish ham and beers together! Well-deserved by everyone!"
Daniil Kvyat:
"It feels great to finish in the points today, I'm proud of myself and my engineers! We didn't give up after a difficult day yesterday and followed a great strategy to go from last to P9! Of course we need to analyse and find out what happened yesterday, because we can't afford qualifying sessions like this to happen anymore, but today's race was fun. I was able to overtake many cars at a circuit where normally it's not easy to do so and enjoyed every lap of the race a lot, so I'm very happy. These points are very welcome after a tough weekend! Thanks everybody!"
Romain Grosjean:
"Well, it's good for the team to score a point, but a shame for Kevin with his puncture to lose P9. I had a good start, then into turns one and two there were a lot of cars spinning. I had to go on the astroturf to avoid them. If that hadn't been the case, I'd have been next to (Nico) Hulkenberg or in front of him and the race would've been different. The pace was there on the softs, but I was always into traffic. On mediums - I really struggled to get those tires to work. There's a lot of work we can do. I was happier with the car today than yesterday, but still we have to work hard to get a good run home."
Kevin Magnussen:
"It's annoying. We could've had the points with both cars, so it's pretty disappointing. There was some contact there with Kvyat. I would've been fine, but I got a puncture from the contact. I gave it everything I had today. If we had finished in the points, that would've been a good result for us. I'm very disappointed not to do that."
Nico Hulkenberg:
"P6 is a great result for us and very rewarding too. It's been our lucky day with some of the top cars out at the start, but also later on in the race too, so we clearly benefited from that. At the same time, we were there at every opportunity to do a good job and the guys did a great second pit stop to enable us to pass the Sauber. I feel very comfortable in the car but we still have work ahead of us to catch up our closest competitors."
Jolyon Palmer:
"We went for an aggressive strategy today given my starting position on the grid. I think it's fair to say it didn't bring us the reward we wanted. I wasn't able to get the pace out of the car when it was needed, however we were going better on the final set of tyres. My job now is to sit down with my engineers and analyse the race whilst we also have a good look at the car too. I'm determined that we will do better in Monaco."
Marcus Ericsson:
"For me personally I felt good in the race, but I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. My pit stop just finished once the virtual safety car phase started, so I lost some time there. It is not going my way at the moment. Nevertheless, huge congratulations to the whole team - to everyone here at the track and also in the factory. Today we have been rewarded for the hard work - it is great for the team that Pascal scored four points. Overall it is nice achievement."
Pascal Wehrlein:
"It was a very good race for me today. I am really happy that the performance of the car was there, as well as the strategy with only one pit stop perfectly worked to the end of the race. We could not have expected such a result after the practice sessions. It feels very good to finish this race surprisingly in the points. I want to thank the whole team, as everyone has done a great job throughout the whole weekend. Now I hope that the further updates on the car will also move us forward in Monaco and that we can repeat such results."
