Grosjean fought hard to move up the order and grab a point for Haas at their home race. It wasn’t such good news on the other side of the garage though, as Gutierrez retired his VF-16 with brake issues.
Romain Grosjean, 10th: “It didn’t go too badly today. It was a bit of a messy first lap, but I managed to get through everything. Then we went with an aggressive strategy trying to go for it. That worked out pretty well, so I’m happy with that. We were lucky that a few cars retired in front of us but, in the end, we needed to finish the race. It’s great to score a point in front of our home crowd. I’m very pleased with that and for the guys, as well. It’s been a long time since we scored. It’s obviously a great thing to be able to score points at the end of the season.”
Yeeaah, home sweet home ! Finally back in the points #Haastin @HaasF1Team #USGP
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) October 23, 2016
Esteban Gutierrez, DNF: “Quite a disappointing home race. I really want to thank everyone for all of their unconditional support as we really wanted a better result here in Austin. It all started well, optimizing everything we had in qualifying, and we got off to a great start in the race. The first stint was very strong and we managed to get into the top-10, fighting hard and pushing to the maximum. Unfortunately, a brake problem ended our race. It’s not what we wanted or expected to happen, but we need to continue working very hard as we head to Mexico.”
I'm disappointed on not being able to give you more this race. But without brakes, impossible! #USGP🇺🇸 #EG21 #Haastin pic.twitter.com/4XEtA39NVu
— Esteban Gutierrez (@EstebanGtz) October 23, 2016
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “Half a happy ending to a tough U.S Grand Prix. Romain in the points is fantastic, especially from where we started and how we were struggling at the beginning of the weekend. Very unfortunate race for Esteban. He was doing a good job when he experienced a brake disc failure again. We’ll be investigating what happened and see how we can move forward and sort these problems out, as they are not acceptable. Romain couldn’t race any better with the car we had, so congrats to him. The strategy, which the guys worked on overnight, was just right and it certainly paid off. The team worked hard and really pulled together. We had a difficult Friday and Saturday but we don’t give up. We are racers.”
Sainz had what his engineers described as his best race for Toro Rosso, with a battling drive to sixth. On tyres running out of grip, he was unable to keep a charging Alonso behind in the closing laps, but his was still a better than expected result. Kvyat had a tougher day, picking up a ten-second time penalty for hitting Perez at the start, which dropped him right down the order.
Carlos Sainz, 6th: “Today’s result is a very special one for myself and the team, it’s a top, top, TOP result!! What a boost and what a way to motivate the team and keep our heads up until the end of the season! I don’t know what this track has, but I just get such a good feeling every time I race here! It’s a weekend I will always remember! To equal my best result in Formula 1 makes me very happy, but this P6 is a bit more special than the one in Barcelona because here we didn’t think we really had the car to do so – our simulations before the race said we would only finish in P11 or P12 and here we were, fighting for a P5! We were able to make the tyres last during the first stint, staying close to the Williams and then managed to create a good gap to Fernando on the Softs. We also got a bit lucky with the VSC period, which was great news for us, as we were suddenly in front of the Williams. We knew it was going to be very difficult to get to the end on the Soft tyre, but we committed to that and went to the end on that set – during the last two laps I had no tyre left and just had to hold on to it as best I could! The battle with Fernando was so much fun! I knew that he would end up getting past me but I said to myself, ‘let’s make it a bit complicated for him!’ I perfectly know how he attacks and how to defend against him, as I’ve been watching him race for the past 12 years… And I think that to be able to keep him behind for all those laps until he just opened the DRS and said ‘ciao, ciao’ was pretty decent! I’m so pleased, so happy, you just can’t imagine what’s going on inside me now, even if I’m not showing it on the outside, I’m delighted! I will definitely celebrate with champagne tonight, for me this feels like a win!”
.@carlosainz, delighted at the #USGP: "We bring home a P6, this is like a victory" https://t.co/4gkHjOMVeZ #F1 #carlo55ainz pic.twitter.com/3Q114ueoVm
— Carlos Sainz Info (@carlosainzinfo) October 23, 2016
Daniil Kvyat, 11th: “Quite a tough day for me today. I think I had a good start, but we then had to switch to a one-stop race after getting a 10-second penalty for my incident with Perez during the first lap. This compromised our race and it wasn’t easy to make it work, but we tried our very best and kept pushing until the end. I have to say we did a very long stint on the Medium tyre and the management was very good. It’s just a shame that we lost the opportunity to fight for some more points today.”
Franz Tost, Team Principal: “Carlos started from P10 and was very clever in the first corner, defending against others very well – especially Alonso – and at the end of the first lap he was already P8. From then on he drove a very clean and competitive race as well as managing the tyres in a very impressive way. Towards the end of the race he was racing in P5 and was able to defend this position until the very last laps against Alonso. In the end the McLaren driver was able to get past him, but we can’t forget that we are much slower on the straights and therefore Carlos had no chance to defend himself. Today he also did a great job when Massa was attacking him, so Carlos really showed a solid performance: he deserves this P6, it’s one of his strongest races with the team. Regarding Daniil, after the start he collided with Perez, resulting in his front-left wing endplate getting damaged. He therefore lost downforce and, consequently, performance. He was also given a ten-second penalty for this, which compromised his race and was only able to finish P12. Generally speaking, the team did a very good job and the cars were more competitive than expected. We are now looking forward to the race in Mexico in seven days’ time.”
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