Today's post-race press conference with Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso.

Track Interviews - Conducted by Jenson Button

Max, two-time Miami GP champion or winner? How does that feel from P9 on the grid?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was a good race. I mean, I stayed out of trouble at the beginning. And then yeah, just had a clean race, you know, picked the cars off one by one. And then I could stay out really long on the Hard tyres and that's where I think we made the difference today. And yeah, then a good little battle with Checo at the end. So we all kept it clean. And that's the most important and yeah, a great win today.

Does it feel extra special when you've come through from so far back, especially to beat your team-mate right at the end of the race?
MV: Yeah, I mean, yesterday was, of course a bit of a setback. But today, we just kept it calm, kept clean. And yeah, for sure, winning a race from P9 is always very satisfying.

And whose idea was it to do it a different strategy, starting on the Hard tyre?
MV: Well, you know, we started talking about it yesterday. We didn't know what the weather would do, but we were quite confident that this would pay off and luckily it did today.

Thank you Max for putting on a great show for us. Congrats. Checo, I'm sure it hurts a little bit, finishing P2 after such a great lap in qualifying yesterday. As you can hear, the crowd are going wild for you out here. What are your words for them?
Sergio Perez: Yeah, I mean, I tried. I gave it all, you know. I think the first stint was really poor, with the graining that we had on that initial pace. And that compromised, quite a lot, our race, because we didn't have too much of a difference on tyre. And Max was particularly strong today. So a well-deserved win for him.

You were saying about the places where you think you lost: do you think maybe that there was too much looking after the tyres in the race or not enough? What do you think you could have done a bit better?
SP: I think the Medium initially was really poor, worse than unexpected. And yeah, I think that really compromised our pace. And then, you know, honestly, I think also Max had tremendous pace on the Hard tyre and I think I've got to analyse what went wrong with today because we simply didn't have the pace.

Yeah, if you look at today as a bad race, you finished P2. We want to see you coming out fighting in the next one. Cheers, Checo. Fernando, what can we say? Four podiums out of five races. Now the smile is there, it's great.
Fernando Alonso: Not bad.

Well, you're not bad. You've always been there. The car's back...
FA: The car is amazing. And yeah, a little bit of a lonely race today. And nothing really to do in front of us, with the Red Bulls, and behind us. Maybe we did expect a little bit stronger opposition, but the Ferraris, they were little bit worse than expected today. So yeah, not easy, it's never easy, but it was a lonely race.

You still had a couple of good fights out there on track, obviously with Max and keeping Carlos behind you in the race. Must have still been fun.
FA: Yeah, it is. It is always. On the start, obviously, on the wrong side of the grid we were a bit worried but yeah, everything was fine, we take the podium and going into the triple - Imola, Monaco and Barcelona - so hopefully we can keep on going.

Well, we know what you're like Fernando, third place is nice, but we all know what you really want. So when are we going to see you challenging these guys?
FA: I think at the beginning of the year a podium was amazing. Now after four podiums we want obviously more and at least a second place. But, you know, the two Red Bulls they are always unbreakable and they are always super-fast. But as I said, maybe Monaco, maybe Barcelona we have a possibility.

Press Conference

Max that looked like a near perfect race for you, P9 to P1. Of all your victories in Formula 1, where does this one rank?
MV: Yeah, it's been a good one. I mean, just really staying out of trouble at the beginning. And because, of course, the people around me, you know, they tried to gain positions as quickly as possible on lap one. But knowing that, of course, you have a quick car, then once it all settles down, you just try to pick them up one by one. And that worked out quite well. I had even a three-wide on the straight, which was quite entertaining. And then yeah, we had good pace, I could look after my tyres. And then once I was in clean air, it was just about getting to that lap number we targeted. That's why maybe in the middle of that stint, I was not entirely sure if I was going to make it. But then I was getting close to the number and I said 'OK, this is good'. So then I started pushing, I could extend the gap again, which really made my race today, I think, because once we pitted, of course, then I had the fresher tyres to the end. But also the tyres, which also were a bit more fragile today, so, yeah, then I had a good battle with Checo. I mean, we were free to race, which was said before, and yeah, we had a good go at it. But of course, most importantly, is that we don't touch but that that all worked out really well.

How much patience did you have to show during those early laps when so much was going on around you?
MV: Yeah, I mean, I was in that situation as well in Jeddah, and maybe one or two times last year. So you just have to be careful not to have any damage on your car, but it worked out well.

And what was the key to the victory today?
MV: Well, I think the key was just the general pace, plus looking after the tyres, which again, you know, on a one-stop, it might always look easy, but it's not that straightforward. But today, I think was a very good day for that.

And there are going to be a lot of updates coming to many cars on the grid in two weeks' time at Imola. Do you expect things to close up a little bit there? Or do you think Red Bull have got such an advantage at the minute that it won't really change?
MV: I mean, I think we have a decent advantage, especially in the race. I think over one lap in some tracks, definitely some cars will be close or in front, like you could see in Baku. But yeah, that race pace advantage, I think is quite big at the moment. But yeah, it's not like, the others are bringing new bits and we're just standing still right. So hopefully we can just keep it going like we're doing now.

Checo, coming to you now. The 30th podium of your Formula 1 career. That's a great tally but having started on pole, how would you sum up your race today?
SP: Yeah, it started well, but very early on, I saw that the Medium was very fragile, initially, so I had to protect the tyre quite a lot just to make lap 15 or so. And it was really hard to lean on that tyre. Basically, the whole right hand side was really difficult. And yeah, I could see that Max was closing up on the Hard. And from that point on, I knew that the race was looking difficult. And then when I went onto the Hard, Max had very strong pace, so we didn't manage to open a gap. So yeah, he simply came too close to us. And we had a bit of a fight on track, which was quite clean - to the limit, but clean and obviously putting the team the team in front of us. Again, a great team result, but obviously, today Max deserved the victory because he was the strongest car out there.

Why do you think the Medium was so fragile today? What conclusions have you drawn?
SP: I don't know if the rain overnight did affect more the Medium than it did to the Hard. But yeah, it just felt quite fragile, quite easy to make some damage on it and that's my thoughts at the moment. I don't know more.

You said yesterday that you weren't happy with your car during practice. Were you actually quite happy with the set-up and today was all about the tyres?
SP: Yeah, I think, as I say, I wasn't able to look after them properly. I don't know how different it would looked, the race, for Max, if he was on the on the same strategy as myself, but he was clearly the fastest car out there. I have to understand what went wrong today. And it's pretty simple: when you don't have the race pace then it's really hard to win the race. So well done to Max today.

Did you even discuss starting the race on the Hard tyre?
SP: No. When you are starting on pole, starting on the Hard is much more like a gamble that can go right or wrong with Safety Cars and, I think at the time, none of us were expecting the Medium to be... because pretty much the whole grid went for the Medium start, I think none of us realised how weak of a tyre it was. I think once we did a few laps on it, we realised that it was quite a poor tyre.

And physically, how tough was the race today? You all look a little bit fresher than you did this time last year.
SP: It was a lot easier, compared to last year. I think yeah, the race was a little cooler, and it was much more intense, my race, this year than last year, so overall it was quite a lot easier.

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