Max Verstappen: I had to take good care of my tires throughout the race

Max Verstappen took his 17th victory of the season and was once again out of reach at the Sao Paulo circuit. His teammate Sergio Perez literally fought with Fernando Alonso for a podium place until the last meters of the distance, but only finished fourth.

Max Verstappen (1st): “Today it was very important to have a good start, and in both cases we did it well. Then we had to take good care of the tires throughout the race, but we handled that well and kept a good pace on tires of any compound. First of all in the second segment, when we managed to create a gap. Overall, we worked with a lot of confidence.

On the one hand, everything turned out very well, on the other hand, on this circuit there is a very high level of rubber degradation and you have to constantly adjust the behavior of the car, so it is necessary to maintain constant concentration. Fortunately, everything turned out well for us today.

The next race will be the Grand Prix of Las Vegas, and it will have a completely different character. It should be much colder, and we still need to understand what the grip will be on the new city highway. Overall, this will be new for everyone and there are certainly many surprises in store for us.”

Sergio Perez (4th): “The fight with Fernando Alonso was very intense, we tried to do everything possible. Unfortunately without success, but Fernando deservedly reached the podium.

I think we had a great fight, at the limit of what was possible, but at the same time everything was very correct. I think many riders should learn from our example because they should act exactly as we fought with him on the track.

It all ended with me being a loser, but that’s okay because we had a great match.

We’ve seen over the last few races that we’re capable of good pace and we’ve had a lot of confidence in it, but for some reason we haven’t really been successful, but I just know it’s only a matter of time is. .”