The Gentleman Magazine Issue 14 | April 2019 | Page 30

VERSTAPPEN STARTS HONDA ERA WITH PODIUM FINISH
Max Verstappen got the new Formula One season off to a
hugely positive start, improving on his fourth-place grid
position by passing Sebastian Vettel on the outside of Turn 3
of lap 30 to finish third for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. The
result also hands Honda their first F1 podium since the British
Grand Prix in 2008.
The race was dominated by Mercedes, who saw Valtteri Bottas
pass Lewis Hamilton off the start line and never really look
back. Bottas, who didn’t win a race in 2018, finished over 20
seconds clear of his team-mate. He also claimed the new point
for setting the fastest lap, despite a late effort from Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly put in a fine drive on his team debut, making
up six places from his grid position of 17th to finish in P11,
one place outside the points. Gasly employed a long first-stop
strategy, but was unable to find a way past 10th-placed Daniil
Kvyat after emerging from the pits.
Kvyat himself enjoyed a successful drive for Scuderia Toro
Rosso, coming from 15th on the grid to grab a point. His team-
mate Alex Albon finished in a creditable 14th place in his debut
race.
Max Verstappen
Finish position: 3rd, Start position: 4th
“I am very happy for the team and also for Honda to finish
on the podium today. Since we started working together it has
been amazing and I am really enjoying the partnership, so this
is a well- deserved third place for all of us.
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To be able to challenge Lewis at the end of the race and
overtake Seb on-track, which around here is very difficult, is
very positive. We had a little advantage with the tyres, but it
was satisfying to pressure Lewis even though I couldn’t get
quite close enough to overtake him. The car was working
really well and we also look strong on the straights, which is
hopefully a good sign for the rest of the season. I heard this is
the first podium for Honda since 2008 so I am very happy that
I managed to achieve this for them today.”
Pierre Gasly
Finish position: 11th, Start position: 17th
“It was a pretty difficult race. With the new bigger rear wings,
I couldn’t see the lights on the grid, so I had to react with the
cars around me and I lost a couple of places. Then I got stuck
in traffic and even with the DRS, it’s super difficult to overtake
here. Plus, I had some debris in my front wing which didn’t
help.
I spent the whole race five 10ths from the car in front, but my
tyres were just sliding and I couldn’t get past. I pushed as much
as I could, and I tried everything, but it wasn’t enough to make
it into the points. In general, the pace over the weekend was
really good. In qualifying, we got knocked out of Q1 but I was
happy with my first lap and it was just unfortunate that we
didn’t make it through. Bahrain is a race I really like and we’ve
seen the car is competitive so we’ll keep our heads down, stay
focused and give a big push in two weeks’ time.”
, Security in Motion”