22/09/2024
NEWS STORY
Yuki Tsunoda: "I was very frustrated with the start of the race, as unfortunately, I got past by some cars and I lost important positions.
"We went as long as we could with the first stint, and it was pretty tough going until Lap 33 with medium tyres. In that situation, we were just waiting for a Safety Car, which maybe could have been a good opportunity for us, but it didn't happen as it was a clean race. Then we changed for fresher tyres putting on the softs. That last run was pretty good and I felt better than the one on mediums, but the bad start was our main problem today, which deprived us of scoring points."
Daniel Ricciardo: "It was a tough race. After qualifying out of position yesterday, we knew we had to try something with our strategy. We went aggressive at the start on the soft tyre and looked for an opportunity. It was a difficult race for overtaking, not many people were carving through the field. Ultimately, we weren't quite quick enough, with Yuki also finishing outside of the points. We were in a position to go for the fastest lap at the end, and it was nice to secure this. It also felt really special to be voted Driver of the Day by my fans today."
Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance): "Starting from P8 we were hoping to finish closer to the points with Yuki. We lost some ground at the start and we were 11th at the end of the first lap, which was a big hit. We were on an aggressive strategy, going long on the medium tyre but we were missing a bit of pace to actually stay with the cars in front of us. The soft tyre was well managed and we closed the gap to Colapinto but we were too far to actually put him under pressure at the end of the race. With regards to Daniel, we wanted to offset him early in the race as the traffic effect is big here. The first part of his stint on medium tyres was competitive and well managed, but he started to lose a lot when fighting with Gasly. We are definitely missing a bit of pace compared to our direct competitors, so this is something we will analyse to see what we could have done differently, while preparing for the next triple headers in the best possible way."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "This was a better performance overall than in recent races, but not good enough for points. We did however look competitive right from Friday with both Daniel and Yuki. Yuki then produced a strong qualifying to get into Q3, which was a very encouraging result. Lining up eighth on the grid, we were hoping for points. Unfortunately, Yuki dropped 3 places off the line and from then on it was always going to be very difficult to pass. Our starts have not been good enough this season and this is something we are working very hard to improve. In a tight field like ours, it means the difference between points or not. On the positive side Yuki produced a very strong final stint on the soft tyre, it was a daring call to put him on that soft compound for so many laps, but it worked and gave us a good pace advantage, even if that was not enough to get back into the points. Starting from further back, we really needed a Safety Car opportunity for Daniel to get back into the fight for points. Dan was on an aggressive strategy starting on Softs and has put in some very good laps through the race, but had effectively no chance to get back into the good positions from so far back. He never gave up and fought all race long. Given this may have been Daniel's last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap. We have now a few weeks to prepare our last push for the final part of the championship and the 2 incoming triple headers. Competition is tighter than ever and we will give it our very best shout."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Marina Bay here.