Laurent Mekies, director of RB F1, was pleased with the performances displayed by his team on Sunday at Interlagos. Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson qualified third and fifth at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, before scoring points despite less than optimal strategies.
“We had an incredible qualifying on Sunday morning. The drivers and team did a perfect job and we were consistently ahead of the times throughout qualifying. This strong performance is a testament to everyone's hard work.” Mekies said.
“The race was a real roller coaster. We knew it would be tough and would depend on the weather conditions. We were in a very good position in the first half of the race, with Yuki holding onto 3rd place with incredible pace and Liam defending his race in an incredible way.”
“Our race was however affected by the red flag, which reduced the advantage of both drivers, but that is part of racing in these conditions.”
“We came away with eight points, which is an excellent result. Congratulations to Max for his excellent driving and well done to Alpine, although the points they scored will make the fight even closer for us in the last three races .”
“It's still very close and we had a fast car this weekend. We now have 19 days until the last triple meet of the season and we will work hard at home to continue the momentum of the last two races and get the most out of the car We are going to fight in Las Vegas.
Jody Egginton, the team's technical director, explains that a somewhat limited pace and an interruption at the wrong time were costly: “The day started well, both drivers qualified in the top 5, showing good performance on the wet and intermediate tires. We were ready to have a good race.”
“The first phase of the race went well, with Yuki placing 3rd and Liam also having a good first stint in 7th position. With the rain intensifying and the track conditions deteriorating, both cars passed rain tires.”
“Both Alpines stayed on track, taking good positions, which they kept with the red flag, with free new tires as a bonus. Our pace on the restart was not as high as necessary to keep up with the cars in front. Yuki finished 7th and Liam 9th, spending many laps defending against Hamilton and Perez.
“It's good to score points with both cars, however, seeing what Alpine accomplished in the race, we are frustrated because there was potential for more points. We will go back and look at the race and the feedback from the drivers to determine what we could have done differently to be ready for Las Vegas.”
