Courtesy of Red Bull Media Service Team
Dutch driver takes second place at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen followed up his maiden victory of the 2020 FIA Formula One season with another mature drive as he claimed second place at the Spanish GP.
The 22-year-old Dutch driver produced a blistering start at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he powered past Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap, but was unable to close the gap on the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton who claimed victory at the chequered flag.
A fifth consecutive podium place for Verstappen keeps him second in the championship standings, while teammate Alexander Albon finished in eight place. Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver Pierre Gasly also finished in the points as he finished in ninth, with Daniil Kyvat ending the race in 12th position.
QUOTES
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 2nd
“It’s a great result for us to split the two Mercedes cars today after they have been so quick and I’m very happy with that. Overall, it’s been another strong weekend with a good amount of points which we should be happy with. I made a good start and it was important to get past Valtteri early, which I did. I tried everything to stay with Lewis in the first stint but overall their car was faster and Lewis was a bit too quick today. From then onwards we focused on our own race and the car felt good. Second is of course good but that’s not why we are here, we are here to win so you can never be fully satisfied unless you do that. At the moment we’re in-between the two Mercedes cars and of course we’d like to push Lewis harder but you have to be realistic as they still have the faster car.”
ALEX ALBON – 8th
“It was a hard afternoon and I’m not happy with my race. It was really tricky out there and I just didn’t have any grip on any tyre compound. Each stint I was nursing and looking after the tyres but after six or seven laps I just had no grip. It was frustrating and the opposite to Silverstone last week. No matter what we did we just really struggled to keep the tyres alive. It hasn’t been an issue this year so we’ll need to look at the data and see the reasons behind it because at the moment we just have question marks. I was struggling in sector three mostly, I couldn’t stay close enough to cars ahead so I couldn’t overtake and I was kind of a sitting duck. Now we need to understand why today was so different to last weekend in the race so we can come back stronger and improve for Spa.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER – Team Principal
“Once again Max extracted the absolute maximum from the car today and to split the Mercedes, which was the faster race car, it’s the best we could have hoped for. After making a good start, using the slipstream and getting ahead of Bottas into Turn One, Max settled into the race and on a two-stop strategy he pushed as hard as he could to keep the pressure on Lewis and stay ahead of Valtteri. For Alex, he made a good start but got boxed in at the first corner behind Valtteri and he then seemed to struggle with degradation on all tyre compounds. P8 was the outcome of that and now we’ll need to go through all the information from the race to try and understand what created that degradation on the three compounds of tyre. The mechanics did a standout job once again today with more sub-two second pit stops and now I’m sure they are all ready for a well deserved weekend off before we head to Spa.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
PIERRE GASLY – 9th
“It was a great race and I’m happy to get another two points for the team this weekend. We had a good start and I managed to pass Charles and Lando in Turn 1 which put me in eighth position. We got held up a bit in the second stint behind other cars in a train of DRS, so we didn’t make full use of the prime tyres, which was a bit of a shame. However, I think there are a lot of positives to take away from Barcelona, which is quite a challenging track in terms of car performance, and it was nice to be in the mix with the McLarens for most of the race. We can be pleased with our result today and now we start focusing on Spa.”
DANIIL KVYAT – 12th
“I can’t say it was a satisfying race as it was quite frustrating. I wasn’t as comfortable in the car as I usually feel on Sundays. We still need to look into the details and try to understand why – maybe our tyre usage wasn’t optimal. I was happy with my initial start, I had some nice battles with Ferrari and Ricciardo, so I thought there was more for me to take today and finish in a better position. I think there are a few things we can learn from this weekend and we should be able to do well in the next races.”
GUILLAUME DEZOTEUX, Head of Vehicle Performance
“For Pierre, the first stint was strong as he managed to keep Leclerc behind and maintained a gap to Sainz.. Unfortunately for Pierre, his entire second stint was in traffic and he got stuck in a train with Albon and Norris. Overall, we bring home some points which reward a strong weekend on Pierre’s side of the garage. Daniil’s race was more complicated. In the final part of the race, he was very close but the leaders coming by were forcing him to drop and attack again. Obviously, after showing a competitive performance over the entire weekend, we would have preferred to bring home more points, but overall, it’s a positive result that confirms we are a strong midfield contender. We will go on working hard to keep the good momentum going and increase our advantage over our direct competitors.”