What the teams said – Race day for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

RB

Tsunoda and Lawson drove excellent qualifying laps and secured third and fifth places. From then on, both looked competitive in the early stages. But Tsunoda made an unfortunate mistake when he pitted for full wet tires as the rain intensified. Although it looked like he was going to climb back up the rankings and be extremely quick, the safety car and red flag prevented him from moving back up and after the restart he didn't have the same pace.

Lawson was in the middle of the action. He was sent into a spin by Piastri, thrown into the rear wing by Bearman and then went side-by-side, almost colliding with Perez. He took home two very hard-fought points.

Liam Lawson, 9

“It was such a crazy race, with crazy conditions today. I'm really happy for the team, we got some really good points, which is important for us. I feel like we missed something. We were just a bit unlucky from where we started. Our race faltered a bit when we were turned around by the McLaren at the start, which cost us a lot of time; From then on it was quite a battle and then we fought for the extremes where we also lost time. We had good speed, especially at the beginning of the stint, but we had a little more problems towards the end. Alpine made the most of a double podium, which is great for them. They are now only five points ahead. It’s absolutely doable for us, so we’ll obviously focus on getting a few points in the final triple-header.”

Yuki Tsunoda, 7

“I achieved my best qualifying result ever this morning and was extremely happy to start the race in third place. Overall the team did a fantastic job and we had a good turnaround from yesterday when we made a lot of changes to the car after the sprint, although it was difficult to make a true comparison as the conditions were different.

“Coming into the race this afternoon, I had a good start and a good first stint and I'm generally very happy with my driving, but unfortunately a few things went against us. During the race the red flag came at the wrong time for us and the Alpines scored a lot of points, which is a shame for our place in the constructors' championship. Overall the rewards don't really reflect our results on paper so it's definitely a mixed day but it's nice to get points. There are again a lot of positives to take from this weekend and we will in the final three race weekends keep pushing.”

Laurent Mekies, team boss

“We had a fantastic qualifying this morning. It was an incredible job by the drivers and team as we were consistently at the top of the timesheets throughout qualifying. The strong performance is a testament to the hard work everyone is putting in.

“The race was a roller coaster ride. We knew it would be difficult and dependent on the weather conditions. We were in a very strong position for the first half of the race, with Yuki holding on to P3 with incredible pace and Liam defending brilliantly. However, our race was marred when the red flag was shown; This reduced both drivers' lead, but that's part of racing in these conditions. We got eight points, which is a great result. Congratulations to Max on a brilliant ride and congratulations to Alpine, although the points they scored today will ensure an even closer battle in the final three races. It's still very close and we had a fast car this weekend. We now have 19 days until the last triple-header of the season and will be working hard at home to build on the performance improvements from the last two races and get every second out of the car. We will fight hard in Las Vegas.”

Jody Egginton, Technical Director

“The day started well, with both drivers qualifying in the top five and putting in strong performances on both wet and Inter tyres. We were prepared for a strong race. The first phase of the race went well, with Yuki running strong in P3 and Liam also delivering a solid opening stint in P7. As the rain increased and track conditions deteriorated, both cars switched to rain tires. The two Alpines stayed outside and took the position on the track, which they retained with the red flag. Our pace on the restart wasn't as high as we needed to be to keep up with the cars in front of us. Yuki finished seventh and Liam finished ninth, spending many laps defending against Hamilton and Perez. It's good to score points with both cars, but when we see what Alpine achieved in the race we are frustrated as there was potential for more points. We will look at the race and driver feedback to see what we could have done differently to be ready for Las Vegas.”