Verstappen: The team certainly deserved this victory

Max Verstappen, who has even won his fourth title, will not calm down and achieve another brilliant victory in Qatar.

His partner Sergio Perez withdrew from the race due to a stuck car.

Max Verstappen (1st): “It was a very good race! Although the car obviously worked much better in qualifying yesterday. In the first stint the speeds were very high, Lando Norris and I were about 1.8 seconds apart the whole time and we were constantly pushing each other.

Honestly, it was a lot of fun! The grip on this track was excellent, the tires remained efficient and I enjoyed getting the most out of the tyres. We did quite a long first stint, but then we had episodes with the safety car, where we had to act carefully, but in the end we were very happy.

We haven’t been this competitive in a long time and I’m very proud of everyone in our team because we managed to completely turn the situation around in one day. The team certainly deserved this victory.

After the restart there was very little grip on the hard tires because we had just left the pits and the tires were cold and when you drive behind the safety car you can’t warm them up properly. In the last corner I tried to do something else, but due to problems with the grip of the rear tires I had difficulty accelerating.

But this only added spice to the battle in Turn 1. I think it was very interesting to watch this from the sidelines. And then we were just able to get to the finish at a good pace and I am very happy that I won on this track.

It is still difficult to say how events will develop at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, but we have performed well at this track in the two previous seasons, so I think we can be quite competitive again. I hope we can fight for victory there too!”

Sergio Perez (departure): “I had warmed the tires before the restart, pressed the gas pedal too hard and on cold tires I could not hold the car – and it stopped.

I think we were able to find a good direction with the car this weekend. I hope we can confirm this during the Abu Dhabi stage and deliver a strong performance next weekend.”