“It’s always great to win”

Sergio Pérez (MEX/Red Bull Racing) – Winner

“It’s always great to win a race. It could have been an easy win but the safety car made it more complicated. I had Max Verstappen behind me who kept this gap and I’m happy with this victory. I didn’t have a great start, it’s something we have to work on to make sure we have better starts in Melbourne. I was asked to maintain a certain rhythm then to increase it and we were free to beat it. It’s always this game with us, it’s like that. »

Max Verstappen (PBS/Red Bull Racing) – 2nd

“I was very careful at the start of the race. It was not easy to follow during the first laps because I lost a bit of grip in the first sector, but I was able to overtake my opponents one by one. The safety car helped me a bit but I think that anyway, second place was the target today (Sunday). I always want the best lap in the race and I went for it. A few laps earlier, I was managing my pace because there was this problem with the car. Afterwards, I went to look for this point. »

George Russell (GBR/Mercedes) – 3rd

“Fernando Alonso deserved to be on the podium. He was faster. I am happy to finish fourth today (Sunday). Obviously, I take the points for third place and I’m not going to complain about it. It’s a good result. Attacking at the end of the race was risky. On a circuit like this, in qualifying, you give everything on a single lap, you are as close as possible to the walls. In the race, it’s a little more dangerous and I couldn’t keep up this pace indefinitely. For four or five laps, I gave it my all. I’m happy to take the trophy but Fernando Alonso deserved to finish third today (Sunday). »

Fernando Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin) – 4th

“It doesn’t hurt too bad to be honest. I was on the podium, I took the pictures with the trophy, I celebrated with champagne and now I have not fifteen points, but twelve. I think it’s rather the FIA ​​that is fading today (Sunday). You cannot apply a penalty 35 laps after the pit stop. They had enough time to inform us of the penalty because if I had known, I might have created an eleven second gap on the car behind. Today (Sunday) we didn’t make a good impression on our fans. No one told me about that ten second penalty, they only told me about the five seconds in the first stint, and I created a seven or eight second gap. In the second relay, there was no information at all. There was not even an investigation. The team is trying to analyze the situation with the stewards because we didn’t fully understand the second penalty. I feel concerned but it’s not too close to my heart because I celebrated the podium and I have three points less that I will try to recover in Australia. »

Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) – 5th

“I suffered today (Sunday) and generally all weekend. I didn’t have the right settings in the qualifying session and I suffered in the race with the first stint on hard tyres. We then had to stop and, fortunately, I managed to make my medium tires last. It was really long. Finishing third and fifth is a very good result for us. If we qualify higher, I think we could have better results. In any case, we take the points. »

Charles Leclerc (MCO/Ferrari) – 7th

“The safety car, you can’t really control that sort of thing. Today (Sunday), we weren’t very lucky with her, but that’s how it is. I think the first stint on the soft tires was pretty good. Afterwards, on the hard tyres, it was very difficult to get into the second behind Carlos Sainz Jr in order to use the DRS. During almost the entire second stint, I stayed a second and a half, I had a lot of trouble getting closer than that. It still lacks a lot of performance, that’s what I’ll remember from this day. I want to fight for the top positions and, for the moment, we are clearly in difficulty. We have to work. I hope there is a miracle solution but I don’t know it. »

Esteban Ocon (FRA / Alpine) – 8th

“I think that was the most we could do. We were in management mode behind because, in front, things were going too fast. We still widened the gap with those behind. With Pierre Gasly, we were a bit alone during this race, it was a bit sad. At first, we thought we could hang the Ferraris on the first stint. We managed to hold on a bit. On the second stint, this was also the case at the very start. We managed to keep up the pace and then they flew away. We couldn’t have done much more, the maximum was done today (Sunday) so it’s up to us to work to fill this gap in the future. We know what we have to work on, that’s a good thing. Quite simply, we need to gain performance in general with the single-seater. There are small things that we can improve on behavior but it’s really performance that we are lacking at the moment. It was a solid weekend, I’m happy to finally start my season. There is more to follow. »

Pierre Gasly (FRA / Alpine) – 9th

“At the start, you had to be aggressive and try to pass Oscar Piastri’s McLaren as quickly as possible. I think we are having a solid race, finishing where we need to finish with both cars. A second race in the points, we continue to adapt to this new car. There are plenty of positives to take away from the weekend. I feel more and more comfortable with the car. There are things to improve, still work. Overall, in terms of performance, we would like to be able to get a little closer to the cars in front of us but I think, for now, that’s where we are. I had the same problems as during the qualifying session yesterday (Saturday). I felt very good during the third free practice session, we will try to understand why and try to build on this session. It’s only the second race, there are positives and negatives. We will continue to build and put everything together to get points again in Australia. »

Sources: Canal+, Sky Sports