Willy T Ribbs

DRIVERS 1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)3 – Carlos SAINZ (Ferrari) TRACK INTERVIEWS(Conducted by Willy T Ribbs) Q: Welcome ...

The important thing is that we got a full race in, but at some stages of the race I was pretty quick and also the battles and the feeling with the car in battle with Checo, you know what to do with the battery, with the tyres, I think it gave me a good understanding of what to do in the future. MV: Yeah, I think if I would have been in a go kart, it would be a nice chicane to take, but not in an F1 car like we have at the moment. It's a corner that is just a bit unnatural and it's a corner that I think it can be easily manipulated to look a bit different and create a better combination, you know. But yeah, so it was very important to get a good run out of the chicane and actually also turn 16 onto the straight but of course with the extra top speed we had today that of course also helps. Red Bull are quite quick in a straight; we are quite quick in the medium and high speed – but today I have to say that I was quite surprised that we were struggling quite a bit more than them in the slow speed corners. I think I needed to complete a race distance, to get the body back to shape, and also get the feel for the car on used tyres, high fuel. And it’s a combination of those two things that maybe I was paying a bit the price and at some stages of the race I couldn't push 100 per cent. CL: In a race we need to, especially on the softer compounds, on the Medium, Soft, it seems that it's been already two races that in terms of race pace, they seem to be a bit stronger and managing those tyres better. And also Checo had a few issues in the race, so we have to be on top of that, but clearly there is a lot of potential, we just need to make sure it's reliable. So I was very happy once we always got to the straight because that gave you a bit of air. And luckily, it worked, so then, I just tried to see the pace, of course, Charles in front of me, and I think already from the start, it was very close. Obviously after the crash from Friday, I still had a bit of neck pain going into the race, but I had to manage it and I fought through it, especially with Checo at the end on the Medium tyre, he was very difficult to keep him behind.