Lewis Hamilton:
I am so, so grateful for the incredible support I've had this weekend from the people of Brazil - I've not had this kind of support since Silverstone! To hear the crowd throughout the weekend has been really humbling. I've just been saying 'Obrigado Brasil' all weekend. What a race! The Team here and at the factory did an amazing job, and Valtteri did a great job today to get as many points as possible.
I was pushing as hard as I could from last on grid yesterday, and then with another 5-place penalty today. This was, I think, the hardest weekend I've had. But my dad said 'you reminded me of 2004' when I was in Formula 3 in Bahrain - I started last and I finished 10th and then I finished 1st so, this one is for my dad.
Coming into this weekend I never, ever thought we'd be able to close the gap like we have today. And then things just kept going against us, but I think it really shows, just never give up. Whatever you're facing, you've just got to keep pushing, keep tumbling away, keep fighting. Never, ever stop fighting. That's how I've approached this weekend. It feels like a first because I don't feel like I've had a win for a long time.
Valtteri Bottas:
The start today was quite tricky, it was a disappointing first lap but I tried my best. After that, the pace was good and from the cockpit, I thought we could have a chance of the one-stop, but we decided to do a two-stop. The team put me in a good place to take advantage of the VSC, and it fell my way for once, so I was happy with that. Overall, I'm glad we could score more points than Red Bull today - it was a positive result. Congratulations to Lewis, he had an amazing drive.
Max Verstappen:
"I knew today would be difficult, but I did everything I could, we were just lacking a little bit. At least it was a fun race, of course I would have liked to have won but realistically I think this was a good result. Lewis and I were fighting for position on multiple occasions, I think it was hard racing but good racing and that's how it should be. I was hoping for a little bit more performance but this result is definitely the maximum we could do. Top speed wise it was tough to defend, you can clearly see when they take a fresh engine that it gives them a bit more power, so hopefully that will die down over the coming races. There are three races coming up that will be completely different again, so we'll see how it goes."
Sergio Perez:
"It was close today and it was fun, but I am not here to have fun, I am here to deliver. I had a great start but then it was very difficult to hold Lewis back, I tried my best to hold onto him but I couldn't, he was flying! Then we were ahead of Bottas by two seconds, we had the position and we had the podium but two laps later the virtual safety car came in. That timing was extremely unlucky for us and it worked perfectly for him, he managed to do the undercut and then pull five seconds away from us. It is a bit of a shame we lost the podium but I was able to build a big enough gap to the Ferrari in fifth to pit and go for fastest lap, which is an important point for the team. That straight-line speed of the Mercedes is just unbelievable, we were not able to match them and today they were on another planet. Ultimately it is a good result for us today, I don't believe there is much we could have done differently, it's just a shame because we should have finished ahead of Bottas had it not been for the VSC. Today the luck wasn't with us but there are still three races to go and everything to play for so we will keep pushing. Now we look forward to Qatar and hopefully there we can be competitive."
Daniel Ricciardo:
"It was going OK! We went forwards at the start, which was definitely one objective after yesterday. I wasn't happy with how the sprint panned out for myself, so I was determined to make it better. We had some good battles, Ocon made a good move on me early in the race and I was able to get him back with pretty much the same move, so that felt good.
"After that, we were in the fight with Gasly, and with Ferrari as well. We knew they had to two-stop. I think they had a bit more pace but maybe through strategy we could've disrupted them. But then we had a loss of power and had to retire the car. Definitely a shame, but it was a much more promising day than yesterday. We'll take the positives from that, and we've got another chance next week."
Lando Norris
"A disappointing day for all of us as a team, as well as for myself. I had a really good start and as I tried to come back onto the track there just wasn't enough room and I ended up getting the puncture. We could've scored some good points. We'll review it and try to do a better job next time. The fight back through was good, managing to score a point, which is better than nothing. I think that's the best we could've done today after what happened. A tough few weeks but hopefully we can have a better one in Qatar."
Lance Stroll:
"After making up some ground yesterday, I think we had a good chance to score points today. After a strong start, [Yuki] Tsunoda made contact with me in Turn One. He was on the Softs whereas I was on the Mediums, so at that stage he was faster. I think his move was desperate and he was way too optimistic. That contact damaged my car and from there more pieces were falling off, which meant that the pace got worse and we were just going backwards. It is disappointing to retire, but this weekend has made me even more determined to finish well in Qatar next weekend."
Sebastian Vettel:
"I thought we had a good opportunity to score points today, but the Virtual Safety Cars did not help us and cost me a position to Esteban [Ocon]. Without that, it would have been a different race. We still tried everything we could and chose the two-stop strategy, rather than the one-stop. We were close to scoring a point in the end against Lando [Norris] and we were catching him in the final laps, but it was not quite enough."
Fernando Alonso:
"I am happy with our result today after a difficult day yesterday. The start and the restart didn't play to our hands but then we had really good pace once it all settled down. We were a little unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car that happened, as we weren't able to box and, in the end, we did lose some time with that. Once we were back out our pace was strong. We only chose to stop once and despite some teamwork to try and stop Pierre (Gasly) from the overtake, we weren't able to hold him off. It's good to see both cars in the points again and we are still level with Alpha Tauri for fifth heading into Qatar next weekend, so we'll aim to continue this form."
Esteban Ocon:
"I'm happy to be back in the points today after a very busy race. Today was all about our strong teamwork between all of us. We tried to maximise everything the best we could, and we pushed everything to the limit both from a performance and tactical point of view. When Gasly pitted for the second time, I gave the place to Fernando to see if we could hold him behind by giving me a tow. It worked for a couple of laps, but it was not enough in the end and Fernando returned the place. Still, eighth and ninth position at the flag gives us six points and that's a great team result, which is important for the Constructors' Championship. It's still tight, we head to two unknown tracks next and we'll keep pushing as much as we can to hold onto this position."
Charles Leclerc:
That was a really nice race. We weren't satisfied after the Sprint Qualifying yesterday, so we worked hard last night to analyse where we could make some improvements. And that's what we applied today, so I am very happy with the performance.
I had a very good start, which was my first target. After that, the race was all about managing the tyres well and maintaining the gap to those behind me.
It's also looking good in terms of the gap we are building to our direct competitors in the championship, so overall, a very positive finish to the weekend.
Carlos Sainz:
I cannot be happy with today's result as I think if I had made a clean getaway from the line it would probably have ended with P5. We need to keep digging into that to understand what was the cause, as we are lacking consistency off the line. I then had contact with Lando (Norris) and that ended up costing me positions to Checo (Perez) and Charles. From there, the pace was strong the entire race, but that was it.
There are a lot of positives to take away from this weekend. First of all the points that we were able to collect as a team to extend the lead over McLaren and secondly the good feeling with the car, the tyre management and the strong pace since Friday. It's just frustrating that I haven't made the most of the last two races after eventful starts, but we'll keep pushing! On to the final race of this triple-header.
Yuki Tsunoda:
"I'm pretty frustrated after today. I think we made a good choice with the tyres but unfortunately the collision with Stroll completely ruined my race. It was a risky move, but he just wasn't looking in his mirrors and we came together. It's a real shame I received the penalty, as I also struggled with damage for the rest of the race, but these things happen and we'll work to come back stronger next time out."
Pierre Gasly:
"I'm really happy, it's been a very intense race, but I think we can be pleased with today. There were some really nice battles, with Daniel and Seb, then at the end of the race with the Alpines. It was so fun to be racing with them, as we don't often get to do that in F1. It was of course hard, but today we finished in the best position we could, behind the top three teams, and that's the most important thing, as we continue our fight for fifth."
Kimi Raikkonen:
"The car felt quite nice today, a lot better than at any other time in the weekend: we changed a few things, so we started from the pitlane, but we were able to produce a good recovery drive. We made up eight places, which was probably the most we could do today, but we need points for the championship and we didn't get them. So, all in all, it was the right decision, but we fell a bit short. The positive is that we had the same good feeling with the car we had in the last few races, so hopefully we can keep this form in the final three rounds and have some good results."
Antonio Giovinazzi:
"The first part of the race wasn't bad, I had good pace and could be in the battle just outside the top ten. We stopped for the first time and then got stuck behind Stroll and Russell, then we pitted again but ended up behind Russell again. We all know how difficult it is to pass here and once we were in that position, there wasn't much I could do. Not the Sunday I expected, but hopefully we can have a better one next week."
Nikita Mazepin:
"I had a good day. My start wasn't the best, I had a good getaway and then had a bit of wheel spin, so the first few corners were difficult to overtake people. I had a good Turn 4 and after that I think I looked after the tires nicely in the first few opening laps. The team did a great job of giving me the car that worked very well in the beginning, I had a bit of a difficult middle and then I was able to recover towards the end. I made a move when I needed to make it, and obviously with a few VSCs we tried to maximize it and there wasn't a whole lot on the table to extract more from today."
Mick Schumacher:
"We were battling Kimi and we were joking about it in the press conference. It's unfortunate that we got a bit too close but those things happen, especially at that kind of corner where it's tight. I went limping into the pits but after that I think overall, it was a good race. We learn from these things and any battle that I get is really useful. A lot of positives that we can carry away from here and I have to say, I really enjoyed that one."
George Russell:
Today was better than we expected. The first two stints were quite tough, we couldn't make any progress on the opening few laps and struggled on the restart, but the final stint was good, and we managed to stay ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi. Being able to keep an Alfa Romeo behind is a pretty big deal for us as we just didn't have the pace this weekend. P13 is not what we are aiming for as a team but, given the circumstances, I think it was a good result. I'm more optimistic heading to Qatar as I think the Losail International Circuit will suit the characteristics of our car more than the last two races, so hopefully we can go there and can be faster next weekend.
Nicholas Latifi:
The race was easier to manage than I anticipated as we had decent pace, but it was a very lonely Grand Prix as I was by myself for most of it, which is quite frustrating. We will have to look back and see what we could've done differently. However, we race again in seven days and on these upcoming tracks, we should be more competitive than we've been in Mexico and Brazil, so I'm looking forward to these next few Grands Prix in the Middle East.
