Guanyu Zhou had his best weekend of the season in Las Vegas. The Stake F1 driver had slipped into Q2 in qualifying and he finished the race in 13th position, which did him good.
“Today I had a good race. It's been a while since we last fought in the middle of the pack, close to the top ten, and today I feel like we finally had a real luck” Zhou said.
“I think we maximized the result we could have achieved with our pace, especially considering there wasn't a lot of drama up front.”
“Nevertheless, it's encouraging to get back to where we were this weekend. It's a step forward and gives us confidence that things are looking more promising as we head to Qatar for the next round.”
Valtteri Bottas suffered degradation of the Pirelli tires and was unable to fight after starting at the back of the grid due to a penalty, and he was the last to cross the finish line.
“First of all, congratulations to Max on winning the title tonight, this is the perfect place to do it!” declared the Finnish driver before looking back on his race which finished in 18th place.
“For me it was a very difficult race because the tires didn't last as long as we hoped. We had planned a stop, but it became clear that we could only hold on until the end with two stops.”
“Starting on hard tyres, only a one-stop strategy could have given me an advantage, but that didn't work today, we were taken a bit by surprise.”
“In terms of pace, I couldn't make enough progress, and I focused on team play to support Zhou. It was a tough day, but the car seems to be improving and I hope we have two better weekends to finish the season.”
