Verstappen: It was important to take the lead at the start

The Red Bull Racing drivers finished in the top three in the sprint on the Brazilian circuit, but while Max Verstappen took another victory thanks to a good start, Sergio Perez, on the other hand, failed at the start and then had to fight back.

Max Verstappen (1st): “Of course it was important to take the lead at the start. I wouldn’t say the first acceleration phase, when I took off, was excellent, but the second part of it was very, very good, so we overtook Lando Norris.

And then it was necessary to carefully work with the tires and use their resources wisely – this is the first thing. This track has a very high rate of rubber degradation, the tires wear out very quickly, so 24 laps on one set is a lot, and we were just trying to do laps with consistent times. I think we had a very good race.

Last year we had big problems because of the intense degradation of the rubber, but today everything went much better. However, the problem remains, and everyone felt it: here you cannot always attack at full speed. It is important to keep tire wear under control and I think we have done a good job in that.

Overall it’s a great start to the weekend and I think we’ve gathered a lot of information as the race progresses. Let’s hope that we can hold the Grand Prix tomorrow in much the same way.”

Sergio Perez (3rd): “The sprint was not easy. I had a very bad start and ended up losing position to George Russell and then making way for Lewis Hamilton at Turn 4.

After that I struggled, completely used up the life of the tires and had to pay for it at the end of the race. But overall it was a good day, we earned a lot of points. Without the problems at the start I think we could have climbed even higher.

I have increased the lead over Lewis in the individual competition, but it is even more important to try to keep the momentum going. Tomorrow we have the main race of the weekend and I hope we can build on today’s result.”