Mercedes: "We needed five laps to get the same time"

In qualifying the Red Bull car was rock solid, but in the long runs it was Mercedes who came out on top. According to the Mercedes engineers, Max Verstappen's team was too busy with the set-up for Saturday. "In Q3 we lost to Max in every corner and not just the seven where he was faster on Sunday. We needed five laps to set the same time as him." That set-up meant the tyres were up to temperature quickly and were able to set good times, but were then slower during the race.

Tyre strategy not good

The Dutchman started the race on mediums while Lewis Hamilton opted for hards. According to the engineers this was the wrong choice, because he would have had more chances with the same tyre strategy. Yet the engineers also know that Red Bull wouldn't have done that anyway. "It wouldn't have happened like that, so it's not worth speculating. Max needed the medium tyre to have a chance against Lewis at the start."