It was a tricky start to today’s race and I was a bit disappointed when I saw that the fifth position from which I had started from didn’t last much. But I kept my head down, started to save my tyres early in the race, as I know that our car behaves better with lower fuel, and I managed to extend my stint a bit on the Prime tyres. That enabled me to go for it during the final five laps and go for the last two points. It was a tricky moment: I had DRS and managed to get ahead of Daniil before Turn 1 and crossed the line in ninth position. It’s good to add another two points to the team’s tally at my first home race.

It was a difficult race today. It was very hard for the rear tyres. In addition to this, having to deal with blue flags at the end of the race also put me in a difficult position. It wasn’t the race we expected after a very strong qualifying session yesterday.

We had a very good qualifying performance yesterday, finishing fifth and sixth, which meant we started today’s race in a good position. In the first stint we were simply too slow on the straight and therefore we couldn’t do much to avoid being overtaken by a few of our direct competitors. As in the second stint on Prime tyres we lost too much time, we decided to change our strategy for the last part of the race, where Carlos went out on Option tyres and Max on Prime. This generated a very good fight at the end, especially from Carlos’ side, who did a good maneuver against Daniil Kvyat and I think he deserved this ninth position. I’m satisfied with our qualifying performance, but now we have to work and also improve our race pace.” The team will now remain here in Barcelona for the two-day test. On Tuesday it will be Red Bull Junior Team driver Pierre Gasly at the wheel of the car, while Carlos will drive the following day before heading to Monaco, where we hope we can show a further improvement.