#gr 26

That was a tough afternoon for us out there. The early laps felt OK and I thought that we were in the fight, but my pace wasn’t strong on the Hard compound. We did make some changes near the end of the final stint which helped but this place has never been my favourite, and it showed. We gained a couple of positions at the end at least so the result was potentially better than it could have been. Kimi did a great job and showed that the car could challenge for victory. Congratulations to him; it’s more great points for the team. I am looking forward to going to Canada for the next race. It’s a circuit I like and have gone well at in the past. From Montreal onwards, we have seven races in a short period of time up until the summer break. Those will be really important for us so I’m looking forward to getting back in the groove.

I am proud of my weekend, no matter that it ended in a retirement today. I took pole for the Sprint, won that race, took pole for the Grand Prix and was leading before we had the Power Unit issue that finished our race. I know there is nothing more I could have done this weekend to perform and that fills me with confidence moving forward into the rest of the season. It is of course a painful way to finish our Canadian Grand Prix weekend, but I will leave here satisfied that I did my best. Up until lap 30, I was thoroughly enjoying the race. I loved the battle with Kimi, and I am sure he did too. It was like going back to karting days where you are racing wheel-to-wheel, swapping the lead multiple times. I hope everyone enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed being in it. I just wish we could have continued it until the end of the Grand Prix.

That wasn’t a straightforward afternoon, but this win feels very sweet! Congratulations to the whole team; they’ve done an incredible job and this victory is for them. We had a difficult and chaotic start and from there, were yo-yoing with the overtakes between Charles and me. I could have perhaps used my energy more smartly to defend when I first overtook him and that cost me when he passed me back. It was quite stressful from in the car but hopefully meant we put on a good show for the fans. We stopped quite early on when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed and knew we were going to have to manage our tyres from there. We were not clear on whether the one or the two-stop was going to be quickest or which one was the right decision to help us take victory. The strategy team made a great call though and I am really happy we could take the victory and the 1-2. It’s a perfect way to start the season and we will enjoy this moment, but it is still very early days in the championship, and we know our rivals will be trying to close the gap quickly. It wasn’t easy for us so let’s see how we perform in China next week.

We’ve had a lot of bad luck this weekend and that is unfortunate as we were definitely in the fight for the win today. After a difficult start, we’d managed to get ourselves back to P2 but stopped just one lap before the safety car was deployed. That changed the complexion of the race and unfortunately, after taking the restart in P3, we lost two more positions as a result firstly of hitting the harvesting limit and then an unexpected superclip. It was pretty frustrating but that’s the way racing goes sometimes. It’s clear from this weekend that our competitors are beginning to optimise their cars much more now. We have enjoyed a great start to the season, but our rivals are hot on our heels as we saw today. The upcoming gap in the calendar will also give everyone a chance to develop further so we know that, once we’re back on track in Miami, we are in for a proper fight.

Firstly, huge congratulations to Kimi on his first victory in F1. He drove a great race, and it was brilliant to be up there on the podium with him. I am sure it is a moment he will never forget and to do it with the team scoring a 1-2 is fantastic. My own race was not straightforward. I lost positions both at the start and then at the Safety Car restart as we struggled to switch the Hard tyres on. The Ferraris were quick, particularly in the early stages, and we had to get back past them twice. They were fast in all the right places and that made our job a lot more difficult. Happily, we were able to do it each time, but it cost us the chance to fight for the win. It has been a great way to start the season, and we are definitely the team to beat at the moment. We have been put under a lot of pressure at these first two races, and we need to keep pushing hard. The package is strong though so I’m looking forward to heading to the next race in Japan.