Oracle Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App RB quotes after the race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
April 21, 2024
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen dominated the Chinese Grand Prix ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris and team-mate Sergio Pérez despite twice having to re-establish his lead in a race interrupted by two safety car periods at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Starting from pole position after topping both qualifying and the sprint race on Saturday, the Dutchman controlled the race in commanding fashion despite two Safety Car periods being called in the space of five laps, which forced him to rebuild his sizeable lead each time.
In the end, Verstappen crossed line after 56 laps with an advantage of 14 seconds over Norris to secure his first win at the Shanghai International Circuit and his fourth victory five races so far in 2024.
Lining up alongside Verstappen on the front row of the grid, Sergio Pérez suffered from unfortunate timing of the Safety Cars and had to fight his way back from fourth after the second period to claim the final podium position, just running out of time to challenge Norris for second.
Verstappen now leads Pérez by 25 points in the Drivers’ Championship standings ahead of the Miami Grand Prix on May 5, while Oracle Red Bull Racing extended their advantage in the Constructors’ Standings over Ferrari to 44 points.
Visa Cash App RB endured their most difficult day of the season to date in China, with both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda failing to finish the Grand Prix.
Tsunoda was hit by Hass driver Kevin Magnussen at the restart after the first Safety Car period on Lap 27, which put the Japanese driver out of the race and forced the second Safety Car deployment, whilst Ricciardo was also forced out after being hit on Lap 33.
QUOTES
Oracle Red Bull Racing
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 1st
“I think today went really well and I was very happy with everything. We had great pace in the whole race although, of course, with the deployment of the safety car, the gap that I had made was shortened and we then had to gain that back. Today the car was very well balanced, every time that we needed to be quick we were and it felt much more consistent to drive in comparison to the sprint, even for the restarts. Overall I’m really pleased with the performance that we had as a team. Every race is different in terms of emotions, but this one was particularly enjoyable because the whole weekend went so well, especially considering that it was a sprint weekend, which is always much more hectic. A weekend like this is as much as you can ever hope for. A win in Shanghai was definitely on my list, so to be here and to win in front of such an amazing crowd is very special and I’m pleased that the race is back on the calendar.”
SERGIO PÉREZ – 3rd
“The safety car cost us a little today. It would have been close, but unfortunately it came at the wrong time for us and put us on the back foot, and we lost two places. Fighting with Charles Leclerc damaged my tyres a little too much and it made it hard. The level of degradation was a little too trying on this track to make better progress, so we struggled. I wanted more today, I did expect a little more from the race. The sprint looked very promising, but today we weren’t able to capitalise on that. We made some changes that potentially took away some of our performance. We will review those for Miami to make sure we keep this progression going to keep these better weekends. We’re having a lot stronger weekends and it’s just a matter of now being able to lead from lap one and do our own race. Hopefully that will come soon.”
Visa Cash App RB
DANIEL RICCIARDO – DNF
“We started to make up a lot of ground in the stint before the Safety Car, but during the restart, I got a pretty big hit and the car was damaged. We decided to retire because I wasn’t really driving an F1 car. It’s very frustrating. I watched his onboard and it looked like he wasn’t even looking at me, it seemed that his helmet was looking at the apex. We’ll never know what could have happened later in the race, but I think we were looking in a good place. Getting ruined by someone else makes me frustrated and this is where the disappointment comes, because today we had an opportunity and we missed it. I think there’s a lot of disappointment for everyone in the team. When I got back to the garage, I saw the mechanics looking at the damage and they feel as heartbroken as I do. I think we definitely had a better weekend from a pace point of view and I think the team could feel some momentum and some shift to the season. We go onto Miami and we’ll just try to keep working on that.”
YUKI TSUNODA – DNF
“It’s unfortunate and frustrating how it ended up today. I was happy with how I progressed in the race until my contact with Magnussen. After the Safety Car, the start was good and I gained five positions, so I feel I maximised what I could do, but the pace itself hadn’t improved as much as we wanted. We’ve been sliding more than other cars and the team has been pushing hard and helping me sort it out, but, overall, this week we weren’t able to show our true strong performance and that’s a shame. We’ll look into why back in Faenza and I know as a team we’ll come back stronger in Miami. It’s a shame also that Daniel had to retire because he had good pace in this race, so as a team it’s frustrating that neither car finished the race and we couldn’t score points.”
LAURENT MEKIES – Team Principal
“It’s a disappointing Sunday for us with both cars taken out of the race in separate incidents, which our drivers could do nothing about. It’s painful, but we have no other choice than to accept it and move on. On a positive note, and even if the weekend had started on the slow side, everyone has been working very hard to recover enough pace to be in the fight for P10 again. Daniel produced a very strong drive all weekend, especially today, battling with Lewis Hamilton just before the Safety Car came out. It was a trickier weekend for Yuki. It’s always going to be difficult to drive for the first time here during a sprint weekend, but he kept fighting hard and drove a good race today where he made up a lot of positions. We will be regrouping with Daniel, Yuki and the whole team in Faenza and in Bicester to analyse the weekend together and come back stronger in Miami for another ultra-tight battle – and hopefully a less frustrating Sunday!”
