Qatar Grand Prix: Race team notes – Red Bull

Max Verstappen: “I feel great, I am really proud of that one.

“We made the right call as a Team there to box: it was definitely what made us win the race today, as I felt like we were not on the same level as McLaren in terms of pace. When a safety car comes in it can shake up the grid and that was a great opportunity for us to then win the race. We did a very good job as a Team and I was very proud of us, especially as we nailed the strategy. In Abu Dhabi, we have nothing to lose and we are going to give it everything that we have. Of course, we are relying on another crazy race like we had today, but we are going in there with positive energy. We need to maximise the car and be as competitive as we can. We will stay focused, try and have a good time and hope that we start the weekend well.”

Yuki Tsunoda: “I can be pretty satisfied with the weekend overall, a solid result in the Sprint and a point this evening. I tried my best to get into the points, and we got there in the end, it was a really tricky race tonight. The car felt good and the pace was okay, but the nature of the circuit and the two stop rule made it difficult. With the high speed corners and just one DRS zone, overtaking was nearly impossible and everyone struggled with it. Once the Safety Car came out, the strategy became fixed for almost everyone and that made it even trickier to make up positions. Over the last few races the Team have given me a strong car and I’ve been able to stay as close as I can to Max, so I’ll look to do the same next weekend. It was impressive to see him secure another win and I will help him as much as I can in Abu Dhabi.”

Laurent Mekies: “We can definitely be happy with that one. The pace in the car steadily improved from Friday night when we were in a tricky position, to tonight when we could fight with the McLarens, which is a testament to the Team once again. Of course, the decisive moment was the call to come in under the Safety Car and it was another great call from our strategy team here and those working back in Milton Keynes. From there on, Max didn’t put a foot wrong, drove two incredible stints, taking great care of his tyres and managed to create a solid gap to the McLarens, which drove us to this most welcome race win! Yuki managed to recover to score points and his pace was promising at the end of the race once outside of the DRS train. We’ll need to perform again in Abu Dhabi and we will have absolute focus on getting the car into a position where Max can fight at the front and look ahead. What happens behind him is not something we can control.”

Check out our Sunday gallery from Lusail here.