Charles Leclerc:
It was a good race and, even though I am not completely happy with a P4, we brought home the best possible result today as McLaren were strong and we just didn't have the pace to fight them harder. I had a fun battle with George (Russell), who did a great job in managing his tyres, especially the rears, which made it challenging to pass him. I took the opportunity to pass him in turn 1 when I saw a gap and it worked out well.
We improved our understanding of this car and what we've learned will be useful in the future. It will be interesting to see how our competitors progress in the upcoming races.
Carlos Sainz:
I think today we had better pace than the result suggests. We had a very good start and we were quick straight away. During the first two stints I managed my tyres well and had good pace, but we got undercut by Lewis (Hamilton) after the second stop and that compromised my race. I tried to extend my stint to have better tyres at the end and gave everything to close the gap quickly. Unfortunately, the race was a couple of laps too short for me today and we had to settle for sixth.
As always, we will analyse the whole weekend when we are back home to see if we could have done something differently, but on the positive side I think the pace was there today. We will regroup and recharge our batteries before heading off to Qatar.
Lewis Hamilton:
I'm exhausted after that one! Ferrari brought an upgrade this weekend and they were just that little bit quicker than us here this weekend. It was a hell of a fight. I was really trying to hold on. We did manage to get ahead of Sainz which was great teamwork and good work from the guys in the pit stop and the strategy group. That was the maximum we could have achieved today. We know how important the battle for second in the Constructors' Championship is. I know how hard everyone at Brackley and Brixworth is working to achieve that. Minimising our points loss to Ferrari today was critical. There is still a long way to go until the end of the season.
George Russell:
We will take the positives from today. The one-stop strategy didn't seem to be the optimal one at the start of the day, but we made it work better than expected. Ultimately though, we just didn't have the pace this weekend to challenge those ahead. I'm glad we tried something different, but the end result was a fair representation of where our speed was. I think we achieved the maximum we could today. There was plenty of hard but fair racing today. In the beginning, I felt like I had good pace so was trying to make progress. In the closing stages, we were pushing but ultimately, I don't think anything we could have done would have changed the result. That's all good and it's all part of motorsport. It's been a challenging weekend for us here at Suzuka, overall. We will try to understand why that was and come back stronger for the next race in Qatar.
Esteban Ocon:
"First of all it is great to have both cars back in the points. I think the team did well to optimise a challenging strategy today and we performed well, in general, on track. We had a tricky start with the racing incident on lap one, which could have easily put an end to our race, but we were able to recover well, manage the tyres, have some good pit stops, and end our day with some points. It was good teamwork in an attempt to grab more points as a team and, in the end, we probably maximised what we had today. We have many things to learn and to discuss and we aim to come back stronger in Qatar in two weeks' time."
Pierre Gasly:
"Firstly, we've made it back-to-back points from the double header after going from twelfth on the grid into the points. From my side, I felt it was a very positive race with strong stints on both the Medium and Hard tyres to put ourselves into points scoring contention. We seemed competitive, closely matched with Fernando [Alonso] ahead, and closing him down might have been possible. As a team, we have some things to review to see what we can do better for next time. In the end, it's a double points finish for the team and that's the most important thing."
Lando Norris
"Another amazing day for us. A P2 and a P3, the team did an amazing job and I'm very proud of the steps forward we're making every weekend. We're getting there. The pace was extremely strong today. We're not close to Max but we're not miles away either, so it was a very good day and I'm very happy.
"Congratulations to Oscar, his first podium in Formula 1, our first double podium together. A good moment for us."
Oscar Piastri
"This feels pretty special, and I'll remember it for a long, long time. I can't thank the team enough for giving me this opportunity. Not many people get to have an F1 podium, and I've managed it in my first season, so thank you very much team. It wasn't my best race ever, but it was enough to get a trophy. Our pace was strong, and I think in the second half of the race I got more into a rhythm. I'm super-happy and very excited to try and get some more."
Valtteri Bottas:
"It's been a pretty eventful, yet short race for me today: I actually had a great start right off the line, but then I found myself caught between two cars, a Williams and an Alpine, going into Turn 1. There wasn't enough space, and that resulted in a collision which caused a puncture on my front right tyre. We immediately pitted and I went for a nose change as well; then, just after the end of the Safety Car, I tried to overtake Sargeant from the outside, and made sure to leave enough space - unfortunately, he locked up and ended up taking me out. We pitted again to check the damage on the car, and found it wasn't possible to go further. Today just wasn't meant to be for us, which is a shame, as I reckon our car had potential to do well at the start of the weekend. Overall, this back-to-back unfortunately didn't go how we expected: now, it will be important to reset, in order to come back ready in Doha in a couple of weeks, and tackle the remainder of the season."
Guanyu Zhou:
"I had a very good start, and I was attempting to charge my way through the pack and gain some positions: then, four cars touched in front of me, and a rather big piece of carbon got stuck right in my front wing. From that moment onwards, my race was compromised, and I had to take it easy in order not to damage the car. Performance wise, I think our pace today was alright, likely quicker than the Alpha Tauris, which seemed to have a more competitive package this weekend. In terms of our own package, we sure made a further improvement from Singapore, and it will be important to analyse the data we have gathered: in general, I reckon our speed now allows us to fight just outside the top ten, and it will be fundamental to keep on working towards improving that. Unfortunately, this weekend hasn't been the best: my qualifying chances were compromised yesterday, and ultimately, my race as well. Now, we will head back to Europe, getting some rest after a challenging double-header, and then work hard to prepare the races ahead."
Lance Stroll:
"My race was ended by a rear wing failure today. It's disappointing because I had a good start, making up five places on the opening lap, and I think a point or two would have been possible. That's racing sometimes. We'll investigate what happened and go again in a couple of weeks' time in Qatar."
Fernando Alonso:
"It was a good race today: a mega start moved us up to sixth and the car felt good despite a lack of performance yesterday. Having started on the Softs, we pitted a little earlier than those around us and we struggled a bit once we switched to the Hard tyre. On the second set of Hards, we were quite competitive, so we were able to push and keep the Alpines behind at the end. Everyone is working flat out at the track and at the AMRTC, so we will keep pushing and look forward to Qatar."
Kevin Magnussen:
"I got hit on the rear tire, it was a pretty desperate move, but it is what it is. I got spun around, and then we had to pit - that was too early for the two-stop strategy with the tire degradation that we have on our car. It made the situation a lot worse by pitting at that point and I didn't want to do a three-stop, so it really ended our race."
Nico Hulkenberg:
"I think I stayed out of the messy part at the start as on the left, two cars ahead of me, there was contact. I managed to capitalize from that on the inside line and took three or four cars which was quite nice and rewarding. I then gained one further position from someone else, so it was good. We went into the race with a three-stop intention, obviously we're not the best on tire management, so I think it was the right call."
Yuki Tsunoda:
"It's frustrating because there was pace today, but I didn't have the opportunity to maximise it. On this track, it's hard to follow because the tyres overheat very easily and I feel like we pitted for the hard compound too late, so I was behind everyone and had to catch up to the pack. I think there was no chance to catch P10 today. It's a shame that I wasn't able to perform well and get a good result in front of the Japanese fans, but I got a lot of energy from them so thank you to all the fans. In the end, it is what it is."
Liam Lawson:
"We didn't have the performance in the long run today and didn't quite have the speed of the Alpines ahead. The team and I worked hard this weekend to maximise the sessions, and we made steps in each one. The fight with Yuki was aggressive, but I think it was a fair race. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and I think neither of us had the pace to make the top 10. I'm still trying to score points for the team and prove myself every time I get in the car, and I think I did that today."
Alex Albon:
No car is strong enough to survive those kinds of crashes. A bad start kind of triggered it, so we need to work on that, but then we were in the wrong position at the wrong time and I got squeezed. I had damage from lap one and it was pretty much game over so it's a shame. We tried to push on and see if the race would unfold and see what would happen as this race is a bit of a battle of attrition, but ultimately we needed to retire the car.
Logan Sargeant:
A hectic first few laps for sure. I came out the pitlane to a lot of debris on the track being worried about getting a puncture. From my side on the incident, I locked the fronts the second I touched the brakes at Turn 11. It's my fault but [Valtteri] Bottas must not have seen that I locked up before making the move. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car following the contact. It's disappointing for a track where we had the car in a pretty good place and decent pace, especially in qualifying, to come away not even finishing the race. We'll move on and focus on Qatar.
