F1 Grand Prix, GP Emilia-Romagna, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari

Following a disastrous showing on Saturday, Ferrari bounced back on home turf yesterday, but it was reigning champion Max Verstappen to claim his fourth consecutive victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers teams' and drivers' reactions.

Red Bull

“To have the win here is fantastic. The start wasn’t the best but I can say turn two was good! Once we got into the lead I think we showed what we could do with the pace of the car and I could push quite nicely.

"The race was a lot more promising than what I expected, which was really good for us, and the car felt a lot more stable. We have clearly made a step forward with the set up of the car. I looked after my tyres quite well and it felt really good on both of the compounds.

"It took a while for the car to be cleared during the VSC but we were able to pit which was good. It was a bit of a reset and I could also pull away as Oscar had used tyres. I am really happy with this result and from the Team’s side we did everything well: good strategy, good pit stops and really calm communication everywhere, which is what you need in a successful race. It was a big weekend for us and good to see that the upgrades worked on the car.

"Big thank you to everyone here and at the factory for this, this makes our 400th race even more special. Hopefully we can extract what we learnt here today a bit more often. It has been a really positive weekend for us and we will keep on going, keep trying to be better and of course enjoy it a bit tonight!"

"A tough weekend. A massive effort by the mechanics to get my car ready after yesterday, and I am glad that I was able to give back to the Team and thank them for the work they did, even if it was just one point. It’s small, but at least it is something for the Team.

"I am still frustrated from yesterday, but I shook it off and I gave it my all today to be in the top 10 after starting in the pit lane. We’ve made a step this weekend and the Qualifying setup was a big change, but we didn’t change much setup from yesterday and it was good to have more time to learn and experience the car in the race.

"I tried to keep the McLaren behind for longer today but they had more grip with fresher tyres. The safety cars also created some interesting situations. I still have more to adapt to in the car, and my focus is now on Qualifying in Monaco and getting results in the next few races. And of course, a massive massive job and congrats to Max on the win and the whole Team on the result today."

McLaren

“A double podium is a good result for the team. On my side, it’s always a bit disappointing to start on Pole and then not win the race, but we didn’t quite have the pace, and Max was quick.

"When we made the call to pit early, the two-stop strategy seemed to make the most sense as the tyres didn’t have the pace, but we weren't able to then maximise it after, and were then unlucky with the VSC and Safety Car. A few things to review, but we’ve got a solid chunk of points. We’ll debrief and then turn our attention to Monaco.”

“A good race - I’m really pleased with the P2 finish. It wasn’t easy to overtake but we did what we could. Max was quick, of course we would have loved to be there fighting him, but they had a bit more pace than we did. Oscar and I had a fun battle, but we raced each other well and maximised what we could. For us as a team, second and third is great. We go again next week.”

Ferrari

"In some races, things just don’t align and today, that was the case for me. We were really unlucky with the timing of the VCS and SC. I couldn’t take advantage of the first one, and during the second, we didn’t have the right tyres available, but I’ve got no regrets on this score.

"P6 is not that bad considering how difficult a weekend it has been for us, but this is not the result we are aiming for. Our real focus has to be on improving our qualifying performance, because in the race, the car is fast.

"Heading to Monaco now, we expect it to be a challenging weekend. It’s a circuit that will expose our car’s weaknesses. It is very specific and you have to run the car differently than anywhere else, so I hope we will capitalise on that and bring home the best result possible."

"Today I felt much more at one with the car, something I’d been chasing since the Sprint in China. Everything came together: the strategy, the pit stops, the balance, it all worked in harmony and allowed us to recover strongly from our qualifying position.

"There’s still work to do, especially over one lap, but if we can keep building on days like this, we’ll be in the mix for podiums. Grazie mille tifosi: your support means the world and I hope we made you proud today."

Williams

"I’m very happy. P4 was possible today if the Safety Car didn’t come out at the end or if you take away the Charles incident, but I’m not going to say I’m disappointed with P5! When I look at the battle with Charles, I would probably have done the same; it wasn’t that crazy, he was just trying to hold his position, but then I lost out to Lewis. Maybe I could have been a bit more patient with my overtake of Charles, but at that point in the race I was feeling so good that I was thinking: ‘Oscar is up ahead on worn tyres, maybe I could go after him!’

"I’m still very happy with the race; on pure pace we were running P4, P5, so we were able to extend the first stint and that set us up for the whole race. The consistent pace we’re showing opens up the window for what else we can do, so let’s keep going and enjoying it."

Carlos Sainz, 8th
"Obviously I’m disappointed right now after another weekend where we had good pace and I felt really good all weekend, but for one reason or the other, we don’t seem to catch a break on Sundays.

"It hurts to miss a top five finish on a day that we were quicker than Mercedes and Ferrari. In hindsight, stopping early and then the VSC compromised our result. We need to keep making steps forward on communicating better during the race and I know better days will come, I have no doubt about it. We keep pushing team! On to Monaco!"

Mercedes

"Today was challenging and, obviously, P7 is not where we want to be. I struggled with the rear end of the car from the beginning and was not able to get into a good rhythm. With a relatively high track temperature, we were suffering from overheating on the rear axle. It was therefore tough to keep the tyres in the right window and the pace reflected that. We couldn’t match the leaders’ pace, so it was very much damage limitation.

"We will take the learnings from this weekend and move quickly on to Monaco. I am looking forward to getting out on track there. We’ve been good and consistent in qualifying this season with strong single laps and this will help next week. Monaco is one of these races where a lot depends on Saturday and I am confident in how we can perform there."

"Today was a disappointing way to end my first home Grand Prix. You never want to have a DNF but for it to come here at Imola is even more bitter. That said, I will treasure the memory of this weekend. The support from the fans has been incredible. They kept cheering for me each and every lap, despite the struggles with our performance.

"Sadly, we just didn’t have the pace to fight for the top five today. I made a good start despite being on the Hard compound, but the speed in the car wasn’t there to move forward after that. I defended really hard in that first stint and managed to keep Lewis (Hamilton) behind me. We took advantage of the Virtual Safety Car to make our stop but after that, I started to have an issue with the throttle.

"I started to lose power on the straights and every lap it was getting worse before we had to retire the car. We have the opportunity to bounce back straight away in Monaco so we will take the learnings from here and apply them to next weekend."

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar, 9th
"It was a good weekend here in Imola and I’m happy with my performance. I had a difficult start to the race and lost two places; that definitely didn’t help us, and I know I’ll need to work on that to improve it.

"The pace was strong and I’m really satisfied with the job of tyre management we did throughout the race. There was a point in the race where we were P7 and I thought we were bringing it home, but unfortunately, it was just a shame for us when the safety car came out, so we’ll review everything with the team to understand if we could have done something differently.

"It feels good getting a couple of points; I’m proud of the team as they did a really good job. Looking at next week, I think that racing in Monaco as a rookie is going to be impressive and very hard, but I’m really excited and I can’t wait to drive an F1 car there for the first time.”

Liam Lawson, 14th
“Pretty disappointed for everybody, we just got caught by safety cars today. We had good potential and had pace all weekend but unfortunately we weren’t able to show it and that’s what put us down the back.

"It’s been a difficult weekend but I’ll keep working hard to turn it around. We are always learning with the car, every weekend I’m getting more used to it, we are heading in the right direction. Monaco is an iconic track and it is my first time, I’m excited to get there; it is very special and will be one to get up to speed with quite quickly. I’m looking forward to going there and getting right back into it."

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso, 11th
"The car was very strong today and I was having a good race until the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) turned our race upside down. I think without this VSC we could have been fighting for P6 or P7 and scored points on merit. At the restart we were out of the points but managed to overtake three cars in nine laps and we just ran out of time. It's a real shame but let's hope for better luck in future races."

Lance Stroll, 15th
"The start of the race felt okay: I managed to pull away from Gasly and hold onto Albon in front of me. Unfortunately, with the Virtual Safety Car phase and the way the race unfolded, it didn't play out well for us today. Without the Virtual Safety Car, we might have been able to finish in the points so bad luck and a disappointing result. We now need to look to Monaco next week and see if we can continue to show signs of positive improvements with the update as it's a very different track."

Kick Sauber

“This was one of the better races for me this year. We’ve been more competitive compared to other weekends and I had a better feeling in the car today compared to Friday and Saturday. In the race, we were lucky with the timing of the virtual safety car which put us in a position to fight for points.

"Unfortunately, the safety car towards the end of the race was of no help for us. At the restart I was surrounded by faster cars, and I was unable to keep Yuki (Tsunoda) or Fernando (Alonso) - on fresher tyres - behind me. In the end, everything combined to prevent us from scoring points. On pure pace, we still have some catching up to do, but the margins are so tight that small improvements can make a big difference.“

Gabriel Bortoleto, 18th
"It wasn’t the easiest race for me today. As a positive, our pace was good, especially on hard tyres, and I was glad to see that. The first stint was going well, but the Virtual Safety Car unfortunately came at the wrong time for us and cost us a lot of momentum.

"From that point on, it was difficult to make the most of any opportunities that came our way. It’s obviously frustrating, because we pretty much were in the wrong place at the wrong time for most of the race.

"Still, I am happy about this small improvement in terms of pace, even though the results don't show that. Now, it's time to analyse and understand where we could have done better and go for the next one in Monaco next week."

Alpine

Pierre Gasly, 13th
“Personally, I am not happy with my race because I made a costly mistake and I know that should not happen. I had a good start, up to ninth place and then had to fight hard with Charles [Leclerc]. I thought I could make the corner at Turn 9 by going a bit wider with Charles coming up the inside. I turned in, had no grip, did not make the corner and it cost me five positions.

"We decided to do the two-stop, which was looking decent and we were probably going to be in a fight with the one-stoppers towards the end of the race. The late Safety Car gave those ahead a free pit-stop and we did not have enough tyre life to go towards the points in the end.

"Overall, we showed some good pace throughout the weekend. I felt happy with the car over one lap. We know next week [in Monaco] how important Qualifying is and hopefully we can capitalise on some of our strengths.”

“We had pretty good pace today but we were a little unfortunate with our strategy and, in the end, it was not the result the team was aiming to achieve. I think we had pretty good pace at the start of the race. The Medium tyre lasted very long and we were on a one-stop until the VSC came a few laps after I made my stop.

"It put me in a very difficult situation already with eight laps on the Hard tyres when the full Safety Car came out and after that I was struggling to keep the pace with the other drivers on new tyres. We had good pace in the car and we learnt a lot and gathered more valuable data for the team. I think better tracks are coming for us, especially Monaco.

"It is a place which requires very high confidence. I’m not quite there yet, I’m still learning more and more each time I am in the car so I’ll build it up and I’m looking forward to it next weekend.”

Haas

“We had an air consumption issue, so I had to stop the car at the exit of Turn 7. It will be investigated but it wasn’t ever going to be a great race to be fair, so plenty for us to review from this weekend and hopefully we can come back stronger in Monaco. I had a really good race start and made a few positions, and we boxed to try something different – and were ahead of quite a few cars at that point – but unfortunately degradation was a lot higher for me, which was unexpected.”

“Honestly it wasn’t a bad race at all but unfortunately, I had a problem in my pit stop. We were in a really good position going for a one-stop race so when the VSC came out, we switched onto the medium tyre, and I was coming out behind Russell and he was P7, so we were on for a good race, but my wheel wasn’t attached properly in the pit stop.

"The pace was good, the car felt good all weekend. There’s been quite a few points we need to brush up on, yesterday was completely out of our hands, but we have a bit of work to do to put things together.”