What the teams said – The day of the race in Brazil

Mercedes

Hamilton moves away cleanly and seeks to have his hands full with a brave Verstappen behind. He started playing moderately fast tires, but Verstappen emerged just behind him on a cooler and faster compound. That was the party lead … or was it? Hamilton capitalized when Verstappen spun in the lead to win an unlikely tenth win of the season to secure Mercedes another constructor title. Bottas struggled with tire wear throughout the race and slammed into fifth position at home, lamenting his run on the radio.

Lewis Hamilton, 1st

"This is a real story in the making for the team.If I had to stop today, with Mercedes, I would always remember that day and the I was part of it, and it's so cool.This year was seriously hard and all the members of this team fought so hard, stronger than ever and we're the best. united that we have never been – which was not expected if you had been successful in previous years and you could easily drop the ball guys are still raising the bar.The race was so difficult for me today but I really wanted to deliver and win this for the team.This has such an important training effect: all team members can now participate in the last race and at the same time. Winter, knowing that they won the world title and that they "I am very grateful for all the hard work done – here on the track, at our factories, at PETRONAS and all our partners – I am so proud to be part of this team. In fact, I'm a little worried about going back to the factories and hearing the roar – I think the atmosphere is going to be amazing. I did not expect the Red Bulls to be in the race like that today, I thought they were going at the same pace as us, but they were a little faster. We had problems with the tires from the first stint and they were able to handle the tires better than us. At the second stint, I was on the average tire and I had an engine problem. I was really trying to get the car over the line. Max exceeded me, which was painful, but they had a problem and all of a sudden, I got my head back. I was on the radio, telling my engineers "I do not want to give up, tell me what I have to do" – I was pushing so hard at the end, taking all the risk of bringing him home with a victory. It's high, but I want to stay on this wave and also win the next race. "

Valtteri Bottas, 5th

" I am really happy and proud to be part of this team. This is due to the hard work of every member of the team, both in the Brackley and Brixworth factories, as well as here on the racetrack – they really deserve this title! These are usually only a few people who are in the limelight all the time, but there are many, many hidden heroes in our team – thank you all! We kept everything together even under immense pressure, minimized our mistakes and did a great job of developing the car – congratulations to all. The race of today was a little tricky. Everything went as planned early and we were able to take the lead at first, but after that it became more difficult. At the first stint, I had problems overheating tires. In the second stint, I had problems with blisters on mediums. So we had to stop a second time. I think we had not quite the pace today. It was a race a little harder than expected, I was a little more optimistic before the race, but overall, it's a great day for Mercedes. "

James Allison, Technical Director

" This is an incredible, amazing group of people built over the years. The skill and dedication in a sport that is deemed complicated – lining up all those ducks, not once or twice, but season after season – is just amazing. What was difficult with this season is that the opposition has been so fast. We came to the races without knowing if we were going to win, without knowing if they were going to crush us. It has fluctuated throughout the year. We thought we hit them so many times – only to bounce back and give us a very difficult time, and it's still happening now. The fact that this year was so desperately close shows that the difference between the teams is quite minimal – and that's Lewis who made the difference for us this year. He does not stop taking the pole, in the races one can make mistakes and he will recover them by doing something unexpected on the track that no one sees coming and he spent all the time there. year not to make mistakes. He is just the racing driver consumed. We are very lucky with the pilot partnership we have. Valtteri had a lot of bad luck at the start of the year when he could have won some races and he did not have the same success as Lewis. Valtteri was stronger this year than last year. He was a brilliant teammate for us all and a considerable badet. "

Toto Wolff, Director of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

" We have just written the history of the championship, but winning the fifth double of the world championship is so surreal. Who would have thought that would be possible when we embarked on this mission eight years ago? If anyone had mentioned this record at the time, we would have told him that he was crazy. And yet, we are here today, having equaled the Ferrari record of the Schumacher years. It is a great honor to represent Mercedes on the track and I can not thank everyone for their excellent work, both on the track and at Brackley and Brixworth, as well as for the continued support of Daimler in Stuttgart and PETRONAS in Kuala Lumpur Turin. None of this would have been possible without their contributions and the hard work and pbadion of all members of the team. I had a conversation with Lewis on Sunday night in Mexico; he had just won his fifth world championship, but we were not both happy because our goal was to win both titles. That 's why he' s fought so hard today because he wanted to finish in style, win the race and win the constructors' championship for the team. Valtteri had a more difficult season than Lewis, but he improved his performances this year and played a vital role in the success of this championship. Five consecutive titles – I am extremely proud of this incredible achievement.

Red Bull

Verstappen will need some space to digest this one, pumping quickly when it matters and doubles Hamilton for the head. He had not imagined, by doubling Ocon, that something untoward would happen … but the Frenchman tried to unveil himself, the two entangled and Verstappen lost his mind. With extreme ground damage, he did well to finish second, before embarking on post-race handbags with Ocon. That will make the headlines, but Ricciardo also had a stellar training, pbading a lot of clean overtaking to go from the 11th to the 4th place. A few more laps, and he could have stepped onto a podium …

Daniel Ricciardo, 4th

"I'm happy with my race, I'm happy with the team's efforts but I'm still a little disappointed to miss the podium. I caught Kimi and I could see the podium, but unfortunately it was not enough. The strategy was perfect again, so we can not blame ourselves. I had a lot of fun and I had some great battles, including my pbad on Bottas. I told the team on the radio that I was going there and I made it stand. The battle with Seb was cool, I think we may have been hit once or twice, but I always respected him and his way of running. We have already been involved in some on-track fights, sometimes a bit hot, but I think we know where everyone's limits are. It's frustrating because every time we have a penalty, it seems like we have a fast car. If we were closer to the front, I'm sure we could have a great result. It's a little bitter, I guess, we played well, but if we started where I was qualified, we could have done better, you can not ask for much starting from the 11th. In any case, I have no regrets about the race, I did everything I could and I know the team did, so that's what it is. With the pace we've had today, I'm really optimistic in Abu Dhabi. I feel like it's a stronger track for us, so maybe we could go out and drink fake champagne. "

Max Verstappen, 2nd

" First of all, I want to thank the team. The car was amazing any race, even with a damaged floor towards the end. The configuration, the balance and the strategy were perfect today. Being as competitive on a track as we did not expect to be is really positive and makes me look forward to Abu Dhabi. We left with a P2, which should have been a victory. This shows that we performed really well, beyond expectations. It's a shame we did not win because of the incident with Ocon. Of course, a late marker may come off himself, but he took unnecessary risks, especially against the race leader. They inflicted the penalty for causing a collision, so I think that says enough. At the end of the day, I am a pbadionate athlete who wants to win, this situation is frustrating and shows the emotion of the competition at the highest level. It is now important to take advantage of the benefits of the race and the rest of the weekend and to build on our momentum in Abu Dhabi. "

Christian Horner, Team Director

" After a fantastic run in the race today, it is incredibly disappointing. losing the victory with Max as a result of what can not be described as irresponsible behavior on the part of the rearguard. Nevertheless, Max and Daniel have shown a phenomenal pace.

"Outstanding driving and excellent strategy allowed Max to take the lead after the pit stops and Daniel quickly advanced to eleventh place on the grid with remarkable overtaking, Bottas and Vettel in particular. fourth is a good result for the team, but we can not help but think we were stolen as it should be, Daniel was so close to reaching the third podium and without the penalty who knows what he would have This is encouraging today, it is our pace of progress and all members of the team must be proud of their performance and their contribution. They have been the dominant team this year and hope we can give them a tougher time next year. "

Force India

Perez had a quiet run, coming home far away from the Haas boys, but managing one point at least. But the Mexican is hardly the news. Ocon was at the back of the pack and had just been overtaken by the race leader. He asked permission to deflate as he had cooler tires. Force India said yes, he stopped next to Verstappen and … there was not enough tarmac to go around. The collision caused the Dutch leader to lose to the Netherlands and allowed Ocon to pause for ten seconds. They blamed each other, exchanged burning words after the race and will certainly not share the plane at home on Friday night … or in the future.

Sergio Perez, 10th

"I really hoped we could get some rain this afternoon." During the whole race, I was looking at the clouds and they were darkening, but at the end, the weather was dry, I do not think we had the pace of the race to score more points today, I had to save quite a bit early and for a good part of the day. It was a rather lonely race for me, we made our strategy work the best we could, and tenth was all we could do, it's too bad we could not win more and capitalize on Renaults' scores, but we hope to finish the season with a better result in Abu Dhabi. "

Esteban Ocon, 15th

" It's disappointing not to score when we had good pace, I had good overtaking throughout the race, but everything happened after contact with Max [Verstappen]. He came out of the stands, I stayed behind him for almost two laps, but I was much faster than him and the team advised me to deflate. I went outside at the first corner, as was the case for Fernando [Alonso] and many others before, but Max left me no place. Once next to him, I could not just disappear. So we collided. But that was my corner and I had the right to space. His behavior saddened me after the race: he was very aggressive and the guys from the FIA ​​had to intervene.

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Director and Chief Executive Officer

"Saving a point was realistically the only result we could get in view of our difficult Saturday. Sergio ended a good race by facing the Renault in the early stages and opening a gap. It was a pretty lonely race after that, as we could not narrow the gap between the two Haas cars in front, but given the circumstances, it was a good result. Esteban had done a good job of catching the back of the grid and would probably have finished in P11 if he had not faced Verstappen. The rules state that you are allowed to unlock and Esteban was much faster than Max at this point. Unfortunately, he left no room in the corner and it ruined the race for both. "

Ferrari

Vettel struggled to get out of the line during the formation lap, which was a sign of his race, which was overtaken by Bottas and Verstappen at the start, even his team-mate had pbaded because the German did not could not take advantage of his soft tires, he ended up stopping twice to reach a disappointing sixth, but Raikkonen showed a good pace to overtake Bottas and take third place. keep a fast Ricciard o in the finals, but was well defended to clinch his 12th podium of the season during his 150th race for the Scuderia.

Sebastian Vettel, 6th

"Obviously it was not an easy race and I'm not happy with sixth place I tried to do my best, but the car was difficult to drive and I even struggled to ride in a straight line, but I'm glad that Kimi was on the podium because it's a good result for us, even though we did not win the championship Honestly, I do not think it's an advantage for us to start with soft tires, because the supersofts lasted longer than expected, but the first part of my departure went well, but the second was not very good, because I had nowhere to go with Lewis in front of me, I think we simply did not have enough grip in the second part of the "esses", Lewis and Valtteri worked together and I did not had no chance.In addition, Lewis was a little faster on the f kidneys to give the outside line to Valtteri and then turn 2 or 3, Max pbaded us because he was faster. There is not much to say, this year Mercedes has been stronger than us and we can only congratulate them. "

Kimi Raikkonen, 3rd

" It was a great race. We had good battles and the car worked well throughout the race. The speed was there and we had no particular problems. The first tires were very good at the start and I was very happy, but I destroyed them a bit trying to overtake the Mercedes. Once the tires changed, the car was absolutely perfect. we knew in a way that once we had problems, we could have overcome them. After that, the behavior of the car was still very good, but at that time we were a bit late because it took us too long to get there. Regarding strategy, we did what we thought was best for us. We can still debate many things, but today we have made the most of it. Obviously, this is not the best result, but I do not think we could have gotten more; we did not make any mistakes and we fought. As for the constructors' championship, we knew it would have been difficult; we did our best, but unfortunately it was not enough. The best team has won this year, it's like that. "

Maurizio Arrivabene, Team Director

" Unfortunately, even though Kimi finished on the podium today, we could not reach our goal, which was to keep the battle go for the title of the builders. As early as the training lap, we became aware of a sensor problem on Seb's car. This meant that for the entire race, he had to perform different settings than we would normally have used and it made the car difficult to drive. Congratulations to Mercedes for winning the team title. "

Sauber

Ericsson had problems even before the start of the race, when part of his diffuser flew to get to the gate, then hit Grosjean early, suffered more Leclerc took advantage of his teammate's disappointment to inherit seventh place, which he kept throughout the race, judiciously choosing his fights.

Marcus Ericsson, DNF

I'm ending a good weekend, I've had a contact with another car just after departure, and after that, the car was difficult to drive. The balance was different from the rest of the weekend and the damage got worse. We had to withdraw from the race – a shame, especially after a fantastic qualification, but we will come back stronger during the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. "

Charles Leclerc, 7th

" I am very happy with the race; finishing in 7th place is a positive result that we can be satisfied with. It was fun to ride on this track and add more points to our account to consolidate our 8th position in the Constructors Championship is a positive feeling for the entire team. I can not wait to see what we can do in Abu Dhabi. "

Frédéric Vbadeur, Principal of the team

" Overall, this weekend was positive for our team. Both drivers performed well in qualifying and started the race at the top of the midfield. Charles finishing in 7th place is a good step forward in consolidating the P8 championship. We leave however Sao Paulo with mixed feelings, because Marcus had to withdraw from the race. After contact with another car, his ground and front fender were damaged, which prevented him from finishing. Nevertheless, our pace is good and we are fighting for positions in the championship. Our progress continues and we reward the hard work done on the track and at the factory in Switzerland this year. I am looking forward to finishing the season in shape in Abu Dhabi.

Haas

Grosjean was confused with Ericsson at first, losing some of his bodywork which cost him valuable support. Going home eighth was impressive as a result. Magnussen was close to his teammate but could not get close enough for a late move before he was told to stay in the job. A doubling of points reduces Renault's deficit among builders, even if it is difficult to see them again with a race to make …

Romain Grosjean, 8th

"I am very happy and very happy for the team. With the damage we had on the car after the first lap, I am impressed. We were missing about a second of support on the car. Being able to do these times around, I think we did an amazing job on the settings. I am very happy with that. I think that without that, being the best of the rest would have been easy on our side. I'm glad we finished eighth and ninth. Even if we are far from Renault in points, doubling the points in the last two races would be great for the winter. "

Kevin Magnussen, 9th

" It was not a chance in the first round. I had a good start and I did very well turns one and two. Then, I pushed at turn four and lost a few places there. I had to regain those positions and reduce the gap to Romain. We stayed away from there. I'm happy that the team has a double finish again. It's good to come back from the hard luck we had yesterday when I was not really qualifying. We limited the damage. I am happy that we are leaving with points. "

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal

" It was a good result to have both cars in the points. Everyone has done a good job throughout the weekend, and that's what you get when you do a good job. It was fantastic to have the Renault in front of us at the championship.