He behaved like a sniper at the start, so Charles Leclerc won a confident victory at the Formula 1 American Grand Prix starting from fourth place. Thanks to the second place of Carlos Sainz, Ferrari could celebrate a double victory in Austin, while the bottom step of the podium – after Lando Norris’ penalty – was Red Bull’s world championship leader, Max Verstappen.
After the 56-round competition, the 2009 world champion, Jenson Button made by it interviews with the first three places.
“It wasn’t an easy weekend because I didn’t feel the harmony with the car, but I trusted that the race would be better, and it was better,” he said after his third victory of the year and the eighth of his career Leclerc. “We saw what happened in the sprint and we didn’t get scared, even if we thought the others would improve. We still had the advantage.”
“We did a great job, thanks to the engineers the pace of the car was very good. They’ve been working like crazy on the improvements in Singapore and the last few races, and it looks like it’s paying off. The whole team did a great job. The pit stops also went smoothly, everything went well, and I’m very happy about it. The goal is still the championship, but we have started these three weekends well.”
“Congratulations to the whole team and to Charles on the wonderful result. With this, we have reached exactly where we want to be in the fight for the constructors’ championship,” he said optimistically Sainz about Ferrari’s championship chances. “I knew that most of the race would be decided at the start. I expected Lando and Max to battle hard in Turn 1, but unfortunately I came out the worst, so I couldn’t take the lead.”
The podium of the Formula 1 American Grand Prix. (Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
“Despite the fact that the pace was very good and very fast from the start, the track position would have been important, so I had to settle for second place, otherwise it was a good race,” the Spaniard continued to summarize. “Definitely one of the strengths of this year’s car is that we can extend the stages and it doesn’t wear down the tires as much. I really enjoy that and it makes me enjoy racing a lot more than last year.”
“Last year we spent all the races defending and losing positions, but this year we went on the attack. We don’t have to think too much about the tires, we just push and overtake, which is fun. Hopefully it will stay that way until the end of the year.”
“It was a tough race, I never had the pace to attack,” he began Verstappen, who thus increased his lead at the top of the table to 57 points. “Many times I was understeer, it was difficult for me to brake, which also made it difficult to defend. Every single time someone attacked, I just couldn’t brake as late as the other side.”
“I tried everything to put it behind me,” said the Dutchman about his battle with Norris. “It’s a great result to finally be able to stand on the podium.”
“I have an opinion (about the incident), but I don’t have to say it here. I’ll let the race officials do their job. For me, it was a competition from which we learned a lot, and we will analyze it,” concluded the three-time world champion.
Source: www.vezess.hu
