06/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "Ultimately today we were not quick enough; the safety car did not help us but we still had plenty of opportunities to win the race and unfortunately we lacked pace.
"When we took the car back to the garage, we also found that the floor was damaged and had a hole in which could have been picked up from hitting the cone. We also struggled with the tyres and balance of the car all weekend and I never felt too comfortable in the car. In the high speed I was understeering and we also struggled a lot with the grip with the tyres. It wasn't our best weekend and it really shows that everything needs to work well to win races and it is not as easy as people might think. However, I am happy for Lando. Your first win is always emotional and he drove a great race: it was a long time coming and he deserved it today."
Sergio Perez: "Overall it was quite a tricky race, especially at the start when I went down the inside and ended up narrowly avoiding Max. There was no grip at all, which we hadn't expected and I ended up losing a place to Piastri and damaged my tyres for the first stint. Basically, everything was running a little too hot and I was struggling to get through the people ahead as we lacked pace today. We were struggling on both mediums throughout the race, we came back a little bit towards the end but I couldn't get into the rhythm until late in the race. We knew McLaren were very, very strong this weekend, and we just didn't have the pace of the McLaren today at the front. We made some changes overnight, that in hindsight were not in the right direction, so we'll need to debrief from this weekend to come back for Imola."
Christian Horner: "Firstly, congratulations to McLaren and Lando. They ran a great race and it's a well-deserved victory. Max was a little unfortunate to sustain floor damage when he hit the bollard around the 21st lap, he did well to maintain his position, but it was difficult for him to recover from there. Checo was also struggling with his tyres, he came back a little to the end but it was hard to find a rhythm. We were also a little unfortunate with the safety car today but that's racing, we still scored the most points in the Drivers' Championship and in the Constructors' so can take that with us back to Europe and the fact that it's still been a strong weekend."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami here.