Max Verstappen:
"Overall it was quite a good race. Of course, I was a bit unlucky with the safety car call, but I think in that second stint both of us were pushing flat out. We used every centimetre on that track and touched a few walls! It was a good Team result and there were a lot of learnings from this weekend to take forward to the rest of the season. We bought it home and a 1-2 for the Team was ideal, Checo had a great race and did very well today. I'm already looking forward to Miami and seeing what we can do there."
Sergio Perez:
"It has been an unbelievable weekend, I am super pleased and I cannot say more about the Team, it has been a tremendous day for us and I am so proud of everyone. I want to say a big thanks to Thibaut, he is one of my mechanics who is at home for personal reasons, but he is still a very big part of our Team. The Team enjoy calling me the King of the Streets, I am super happy for them all. They have been tremendous all weekend, from the sprint race yesterday through to the way we executed the race today, it was perfect. I think today we were the fastest car on track and regardless of the safety car we would have won the race. I am definitely in the fight for the title, not just because of Baku, I believe I can be very good anywhere this season and now I am just thinking of Miami. There are a lot of races coming up and we must make sure we are on it."
Charles Leclerc:
We are still not quite there in terms of race pace and we know that's what we have to work on the most at the moment. We maximised every session throughout the weekend and couldn't have done anything differently, so that's something to be happy about and the team did a great job. The bottom line is that we have to focus on race pace and tyre management and push to make even more progress in the coming races.
Carlos Sainz:
This has been a very difficult weekend. P5 brings home some points but I must put my hand up and admit I lacked confidence under braking and the pace was not there. On the Medium tyre I could push a bit more, but with the harder compound I simply didn't feel the car. Now I look forward to a reset, as Miami is just around the corner and I can't wait to jump in the car again and keep pushing.
Lewis Hamilton:
The timing of the Safety Car wasn't ideal! I couldn't get bogged down in that frustration though. I had to keep my head down and get focused on attacking. That's what I did, and I got right back in the race. I really enjoyed those battles with the cars around me. The Ferrari of Sainz was just a little bit quicker on the straight than us, even with the DRS open. I gave it everything I had to get past though.
I'm continuously proud of my team. We didn't have the pace that we did in Melbourne, which is not the greatest, but there is no lack of motivation in this team. We're all super hungry, and hopefully this is the beginning of something better in the coming races. Once I get that confidence in the car, the pace will come.
George Russell:
I'm a little bit disappointed with myself today. I made a really good start and got in a decent position. I made a good move on Stroll to get past him into the pit lane but I then made a mess of the restart. I was defending from Lance and almost ran into the back of Fernando (Alonso). I then ran wide and got my tyres dirty. Ultimately that's why both Lance and Lewis got past. From there, it was line astern.
I'll take the extra point for fastest lap but the only reason we had that opportunity was because we were in a bad position. It was close pace-wise between ourselves, Ferrari and Aston Martin and small differences can make a big change in terms of results. Whether we finish P4 or P8 though, it's far from first so we've got a lot of work to do.
Esteban Ocon:
"We gave it everything we could today, going for the Hail Mary strategy in the hope for a late Safety Car or incident, but things did not go our way. We can be proud with our efforts, pushing all the way to the end and extracting the most from the Hard tyres. I had a bit of a scary moment at the end of the race when I came into pit and saw people congregating in the Pit Lane even though the race had not ended. Fortunately, nothing happened, but we must make sure these scenarios don't happen again. We were not where we want to be in terms of performance this weekend. And, after a weekend of learning, we have a chance to review and comeback stronger in Miami. I know we will do just that."
Pierre Gasly:
"This is a weekend all of us are keen to quickly move on from as it's been a very frustrating one for all of us at the team. We have to make sure this kind of performance is not repeated again. Clearly, it is not where we should be and we need to come back stronger for Miami next week on a more conventional track. In terms of my race, we tried something different on strategy and hoped for some fortune, but in the end, we couldn't do much more. I made a couple of moves, that's always satisfying, but it's much more rewarding when those overtakes are for points. I'm looking forward to racing in Miami next weekend."
Lando Norris
"A good race. It was as good a result as I was going to get and the best we could achieve today. P9 really doesn't sound like a lot but it was the best we can do at the moment. We got a bit unlucky with the Safety Car happening just after we had pit. I then got stuck behind Hulkenberg, but we got a couple of points on the board, which is a solid result, plus we got some good things out of the new parts we bought to track. So, I'm happy with that and we'll try to improve again in Miami."
Oscar Piastri
"It was a shame to miss out on points by one spot, but we were just lacking a bit of pace in the middle of the race, so there wasn't really much more we could do. I'm happy I survived the weekend after being unwell and we've got some really good learning in the bank. I certainly learned a lot about the tyres in that race, and how to manage them better, so all of that will help us fight for points next time. Thanks to the team here and back at the factory for getting the upgrades out to us, it's definitely helped. We go again in Miami."
Valtteri Bottas:
"It wasn't a great race for us and we were never in the mix for the points: we need to understand what happened and, most importantly, how to get back to being competitive. My race was hard from the start: I had a contact in turn two, I was on the outside and I was hit from the left and from behind, which left me with some damage. It was quite a long race after that: we tried to find a way back in, as anything can happen here, but eventually there weren't any chances for us to rebuild our race. For sure, we need to improve our pace and do everything we can to move forward. We head straight to Miami now: it is a very different track from this, we will stay motivated and go for it again."
Guanyu Zhou:
"Quite the weekend to forget for us: it's never nice to DNF, but realistically we didn't have a chance to score points today. We needed to retire the car as a precaution as we had rising temperatures and alarms on my dash. In general, it was a tough weekend for all of us. We need to understand the reasons for this and work hard, all of us, to make a step forward. I am confident this team can do that, I see it in the people here and at home. We will do all in our power to get back where we expect to be and continue to improve."
Lance Stroll:
"It was pretty tough out there today. I was happy with my start, as well as the Safety Car restart, but I wasn't feeling super comfortable with the car once the race got going and made a slight mistake. A little misjudgement can end your day here, so I was fortunate to get away with brushing the wall and managed to continue with the race. Once Lewis [Hamilton] passed me, it was just about maintaining position and holding off George [Russell] for the remaining laps. He was pushing hard, but we managed the tyres well and I was able to keep him behind me. As a team, we definitely have a few things to work though ahead of Miami, but I think we need to be pleased to come away from the first Sprint weekend of the year with a decent haul of points to maintain second in the Constructors' Championship."
Fernando Alonso:
"I think we had a tricky weekend with the DRS issue on Friday and Saturday, but despite this we have finished only one second away from the podium at the chequered flag. With that in mind, I have to be happy with fourth position and our overall performance which was encouraging all race. Thankfully today the DRS seemed to work fine, and our tyre management was strong. I thought the tailwind was quite random and here in Baku you are always on the edge. We only have to wait a few days before we go racing again, so let's see what we can do next week in Miami!"
Kevin Magnussen:
"We were stuck in traffic the whole race, we had pace for much more but just couldn't pass. Unfortunately, with the wing we have it's really fast with no DRS but with DRS it doesn't really have a big impact. Overtaking is very difficult, defending is pretty good because without DRS we're pretty fast. That little detail made the difference today because I think looking at the cars ahead I was way quicker than them but just couldn't get past. A bit of the same story as last year as we were in the points until the end but this year, we had even more pace. Hopefully that carries onto Miami, and we will try again."
Nico Hulkenberg:
"It was hard work - I was head-down, focused. It was a quali race to be honest for me, that was all I had but it was okay for 40 laps or so and then at the end, unfortunately the tires started to drop quite rapidly. The Safety Car didn't come out and that's what we needed with the strategy we pursued. Nevertheless, it was good learning. We elected for a pit lane start and changed the set-up completely to something more conventional. We learned something, on the positive side, and now onto Miami where I think we'll be more competitive."
Yuki Tsunoda:
"It was a tough race today but the team, especially the mechanics, did a great job to repair the car after yesterday. The engineers found a strong set-up, even if we lost some time in sector two. We didn't get many chances to do long runs this weekend but to be able to demonstrate a strong pace, and build on this performance throughout the race, was awesome from the team. I am also happy with my performance. I was consistent, and being sandwiched between the two McLarens meant any mistake would cost us the point. It took a lot of concentration but in the end, we were able to achieve another top-ten finish. There is still room for development and improvement to fight for points consistently, but I have confidence in my team to race stronger in the future."
Nyck de Vries:
"The accident today was fully my mistake. It was very silly and unnecessary and that responsibility is on me. I am disappointed with myself but that's the way it is. There are positives to take away from this weekend and I'll try to look at them. I am happy to be racing again next week so I forget this weekend as soon as possible."
Alex Albon:
It was really tough out there today. I had some damage on my front wing for most of the race following contact with the McLaren, so there was a lot of management to do. It was tricky trying to keep the Haas behind me whilst staying close to Oscar, and not a lot of room for overtaking with the shortened DRS zones. We really did maximise this weekend and I think it was personally one of my strongest, especially coming off Australia. I think we definitely have more to find with the car, but I think I'm becoming at one with it, so hopefully we can keep this going.
Logan Sargeant:
All things considered I learned a lot this weekend. In the race today, we got a bit unlucky with the safety car timing at the start and fell into a bit of a lonely, frustrating race. I was stuck behind Zhou [Guanyu> for most of it. By the time he pitted it was just too late and I was too far disconnected from the pack ahead. However, when I did get in front, the car felt good, I was driving well, and the pace was not too bad at the end. I brought a set of hard tyres a long way and that's all positive. Our one lap pace this weekend was good, and I was happy considering we only had one free practice session to go into qualifying and have a pretty good one. It was going to be an even better Sprint Shootout until the crash, so I'll learn from that and move forward. The race wasn't bad, it just fell out of our hands and was a lonely, boring one for most people.
