Ricciardo got the jump on Rosberg at the start, but was unlucky that the timing of the Virtual Safety Car gave the German essentially a free pit stop, allowing him back in front. Verstappen meanwhile had a more eventful race – having lost time when he pitted at the wrong time, he then pulled over with transmission issues. His retirement prompted the Virtual Safety Car period that hampered his team mate’s quest for second position.
Daniel Ricciardo, 3rd: “In the beginning of the race the supersoft tyres helped me but the actual start I felt wasn’t really that much better than the Mercedes. Then I saw Nico going to the outside so it gave me an opportunity on the inside. Obviously I would have loved to have lead out of Turn 1 but second was good enough. I tried to stay with Lewis the first couple of laps but then his soft tyres were able to go a bit better. I think we were looking good for P2 but then the Virtual Safety Car didn’t work in our favour today. I’m not going to be too disappointed, it’s just cool to be on the podium here. I love coming here, the anthem was pretty awesome before the race, I had goosebumps, I’m not gonna lie, and then the podium after was great. It’s another big bag of points and we at least had Nico’s pace so that’s encouraging and we’ll try and do what we can in the next few days. Obviously Max and Kimi had their misfortunes today so it was just me and Seb out there, but we still gained a little bit on Ferrari so we’re looking good. We’ll try and keep going like this and get on the podiums for the last few races.”
Some pics from the day 😊 great atmosphere, anthem gave me goosebumps. All in all a pimpin good time. pic.twitter.com/xCf1dcPyOQ
— Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) October 24, 2016
Max Verstappen, DNF: “It was a very unfortunate way to end the race, especially as the first part was so positive. The start was OK, being on the harder compound means it is always going to be tricky but we managed to get away and stay in front of Seb. I was happy with the pace and I felt good out there, it was a nice battle with Kimi who I was glad to pass. I’m sure there was the ability to race the Mercedes today but it is just very hard to pass them due to the straight line speed. I backed off Nico in the end to save my tyres and maintain the gap from the Ferrari. The pit stop issue was my misunderstanding, the team had asked me to push the lap before so I thought I was going to be coming in. I pitted and then realised they hadn’t actually made the call, luckily it didn’t affect the end result. Shortly after I had come back on track I heard a banging noise coming from the engine so I pulled the clutch, they then asked me to release it again and keep going so they could try and work out what it was, unfortunately we couldn’t solve it and it ended my race. At the end of the day the race pace was good and the setup felt strong so I am positive and looking forward to Mexico next week.”
Very disappointed to not have finished #USGP. Pace was great, let's continue in Mexico next week. #keeppushing More https://t.co/fKJq8E7lIL pic.twitter.com/4ykBphB0XQ
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) October 23, 2016
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “Taking away a podium finish and extending our lead over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship to 53 points are positives. A DNF on Max’s car due to a gearbox failure is a negative out of today. But Daniel drove an excellent race, he did everything he could, he got the track position at the start with the softer tyre and held that through the first round of pit stops. Unfortunately the Virtual Safety Car (VSC), ironically caused by the issues with Max’s car, gave Nico a free stop and track position on Daniel. Without that we would have had track position on Nico, who would have had a softer tyre available to him, but it would have been a fight on the circuit between the two guys rather than dictated through the VSC. So all in all, positives to take out of this race and we look forward to the Mexican Grand Prix in one week’s time.”
Ericsson made up three places at the start and, helped by a one-stop strategy, ran as high as 11th before losing places to those shod on fresher rubber at the end. Nasr likewise opted to one-stop, and spent much of the race passing and re-passing Bottas.
Marcus Ericsson, 14th: “I had a good start moving up to P13 after the first lap. It was a tough beginning to the race with some nice fights. On the soft tyres I had a decent pace. Then we decided to take a gamble and went for a one stop strategy. We knew it would be tight, but we felt that was the only chance to score a point. Therefore, my second stint on medium tyres was a long one, and so it was too difficult to keep the pace up in the end. All in all, it has been another decent weekend as we are taking steps in the right direction. We need to continue with that next weekend in Mexico.”
Felipe Nasr, 15th: “Starting from the back we decided to choose the medium tyres for the first stint. I tried all I could to keep the car on track at the beginning of the race, as I had low grip on that tyre compound. As soon as we saw the data, we knew that we could extend the stint and switch to a one stop strategy so I did my best to stay out on track as long as possible. Because of the one stop strategy, I was able to recover some positions in the end.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “We have to choose different ways to get us in a position to score points. The strategy as well as the performance of our drivers was good. The team faced the difficult challenges well and put in a solid performance. Although we haven’t scored a point yet, we are heading the right way. I want to thank the whole team for their efforts.”
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