Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen picked up eight crucial points around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit on Sunday to keep a healthy FIA Formula One World Championship lead heading into the last four 2024 races.
The Dutchman had a mixed race but dug into bank sixth place to hold a 47-point lead over McLaren title rival Lando Norris, while Oracle Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Pérez finished back in 17th place.
Max Verstappen, Driver, Red Bull Racing
It was a tough weekend. The start was good, but after that we had no pace, we struggled on both compounds for the rest of the race. Because of the penalties, we had a long pitstop, and it was a recovery drive to score as many points as possible after that. It is what it is. We need to understand what went wrong this weekend, but there was not much else we could have done today. We want to do many things better, and we will need to work hard to come back stronger in Brazil.
Sergio Pérez, Driver, Red Bull Racing:
It was a very difficult one today, we were recovering well in the race, we had a really good start and although we unfortunately got the time penalty, I think we were making progress and were going to score good points. Then, I had the incident with Liam. He was the first hard tyre, and we were a lot faster. We targeted the inside, we had the corner, and I wasn’t expecting him to be there; I had the position going into turn five, he was off the track, came back on, and I wasn’t expecting him to carry on straight. He took the whole side of the car off, and he damaged my whole sidepod and my floor. I don’t get it; it was avoidable; he just went for the incident, which ruined both races. I am very frustrated at how this weekend went and am very sorry for my team and people. It was simply the worst GP I have had at home.
CHRISTIAN HORNER, CEO and Team Principal
Not the race we had hoped for. Penalties and damage impacted our race. Pace was an issue for us today, which we will need to look at to understand where we lost out in the race. We had a good pace yesterday but were lacking today, so there will need to be a lot of hard work between now and Brazil. Checo’s race suffered, which was a massive shame for his home race. He picked up some significant damage early on, and that, coupled with the penalty, meant his race was shot.
