It has been a fantastic day. It was looking good at the start when I passed Verstappen, but we didn’t have the pace to fight against the Red Bulls over the race distance. I was actually focussed on keeping the McLarens at bay. It was not easy to keep them behind and I had to drive carefully for the whole of the race. After the VSC I was able to get good temperature in the tyres and this helped me stay in P6. I am happy we succeeded in keeping our position, now we can celebrate a good day for the team with both cars in the points. We have an upgrade coming in Barcelona and I am looking forward to our performance there.

It feels good to be back in the points because it was a very challenging race from start to finish. This is a track that has no margin for error, keeping concentration was a key factor and that is what we did today. It was fun; we overtook cars on track and brought the car home in P9. We were fortunate with the contact between Kvyat and Ricciardo because we picked up a couple of places there, then we overtook a few more cars on track, but the car felt good throughout the race. I am really happy with where we are right now, fighting for points at every race but there’s no doubt that it’s very tight in the midfield and we are going to have to keep pushing.

We can leave Baku feeling pleased with a job well done. It’s our first double points finish of the season and our strongest performance so far. Baku has traditionally been a competitive track for us and it was important we took advantage this weekend. Sergio’s strong qualifying and great opening lap laid the groundwork for a clean one-stop race with few dramas. He delivered great pace, raced intelligently, and brought the car home for sixth place. Lance too drove incredibly well and was involved in some great battles in the midfield. His strong start brought him right into contention straight away – up inside the top ten – where he raced for the most of the afternoon to pick up a couple of points. I think we are beginning to see the potential of the RP19 be released, which is encouraging. This was certainly one of our more competitive tracks, but the car has been well balanced for most of the weekend and that should be a good sign for the races to come.