George Russell:
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.
Kimi Antonelli:
What an incredible day! This win is a fulfilment of one of the dreams I've had ever since I first drove a go-kart. I want to say thank you to my amazing family and the incredible team at both Lauda Drive and Morgan Drive. I couldn't have done this without any of them, and it means so much to take my first victory in F1. It was a very special moment for all of us.
The race itself wasn't easy. I lost a position at the start and had to fight back to get ahead. We then had to manage the Safety Car restart which wasn't easy on the Hard compound. It was difficult to get the tyres working but fortunately we were able to before we were under threat from those behind.
This has been a great way to close the first double-header of the season but there is lots of work ahead. We aren't taking anything for granted and will make sure we work hard ahead of Japan and arrive in Suzuka in the strongest position we can.
Max Verstappen:
"It's been a very challenging weekend for us overall. We unfortunately had to retire today in the race due to an ERS cooling issue, which is not what we like to see. We faced the same problems that we had in Melbourne: we had a lot of degradation and were still struggling with the pace and the grip. We tried a different procedure to help with the start, had a similar issue and lost quite a few positions at the beginning, ending up at the back of the grid. There are quite a few things we need to go away and analyse and learn from in order to improve our overall performance of the car. It is not where we want to be and something we will be looking at in detail ahead of Japan. The Team are very talented and working on doing everything they can and I have a lot of confidence in them but at the moment we aren't where we want to be. We do have a bit of time after this race to work on the car so hopefully we can work on improvements. Finally, congratulations to Kimi on his first race win: the first one is very emotional and it was only a matter of time that he was going to achieve this."
Isack Hadjar:
"It's a shame I wasn't able to score more points today. I had a good start and had decent initial pace in the early laps. I enjoyed the fight with Ollie, it was good to race, but then the rear snapped out so fast and I lost the car. I had to then come through the pack, but I got some good overtakes and managed to work my way into the points. We got a little lucky with some of the cars ahead, but it's still nice to get my first points with the Team. At the moment, we're just lacking pure car performance to be competitive with the teams at the front but we're understanding how to improve the car and its balance with each weekend."
Charles Leclerc:
It was a really exciting race with a lot of fights. These new cars are really fun to race, it's all about tactics and energy deployment, and you can really play with that to get ahead of your competitors.
Lewis was strong all weekend, so it's not a surprise he's P3, he deserves it. We had some great fights, and I am sure we will continue to see some more good battles this year.
Congratulations to Kimi (Antonelli) for his first victory. It's always touching to see raw emotion like that, and he did an exceptional job today, so I'm very happy for him.
Lewis Hamilton:
Huge congratulations to Kimi (Antonelli), I'm really happy to share this moment and podium with him. Overall, it's been a very positive weekend for us; we've learned a lot and improved the way we optimise the car. Today was one of the most enjoyable races I've had in years, with hard but fair battles, especially with Charles. Racing in front of this fantastic crowd made it even more special. We still have work to do, but we're on the right path, and I'm hugely grateful to everyone back in Maranello as we push to take the fight to Mercedes even more in the weeks ahead.
Alex Albon:
"There's not much to take away from today as on the laps to grid we identified a hydraulic problem that resulted in me not being able to start the race. We were hoping we might be able to get back on track at some point to get some laps in and shake down the car again before Japan, but unfortunately we couldn't fix the problem in time. We need to go through our issues and feedback with a fine tooth comb and we need to understand our reliability problems in able to find more performance. As a team it's important to separate what's in our control and what's not and we need to pull together for Japan in just two weeks time. The silver lining is that Carlos was able to bag a few points for the team today, and a big congrats to Kimi on his first win."
Carlos Sainz:
"It feels good to get some points here in China thanks to a strong start, effective tyre management and good defending at the end of the race against Colapinto. We know we're not in a position to score points on pure pace at this point in the season, but we got everything else right today and that's what made the difference. We need to be proud of maximising everything and I hope that these points bring motivation to the entire team, here at the track and back in Grove. Everyone is making a huge effort and we need to keep digging deep over the next few weeks to bring more performance to the car. Vamos!"
Arvid Lindblad:
"It wasn't the easiest weekend for us. I had a good start and the race was going okay until the Safety Car came out. Unfortunately, that wasn't the ideal timing for our strategy as it was too early to pit onto the Mediums, so we were forced to stay out on the Hards. It was a different weekend compared to Melbourne. It was built differently, as this was a Sprint event on a new track for me, and with only a few laps completed during practice. There are definitely learnings I can bring forward, as well as things I can improve and look at together with the team before going to Japan."
Liam Lawson:
"I'm really happy with our result today. To be honest, we didn't quite expect it, but our pace was strong towards the end. We had a poorly timed Safety Car, and at that moment I thought our race might be over. It turned out to be a really enjoyable race and we managed to pull off a few overtakes. Bringing it home in P7 feels great. Full credit to the team from a strategy standpoint, we did everything right this weekend and securing two point finishes shows how well the team executed. We'll keep pushing to find a bit more speed for next week and the coming races, and hopefully we can fight even further up the grid."
Lance Stroll:
"The car just switched off going into T1. We need to look into it, but suspect it was a battery-related issue. Overall, we've done more laps this weekend, collected more data and learned more about the car and the engine so that's a positive to take from China. We have lots of work ahead of us in all areas and need to push for improvements. It's not an easy time for the team, but we're all working together and there is a lot of potential to unlock."
Fernando Alonso:
"I had fun at the start again and it seems this is a strong point of our car as we jumped up to P10. However, from about lap 20 I was struggling with the vibration levels, and we were already one lap down, so in the end we decided to retire the car. The vibrations seemed worse today than on any other day of the weekend, so we need to investigate why that was. It's clear we need more time to fix everything, but we'll go again in two weeks' time in Japan."
Esteban Ocon:
"We were on for a very good race, looking at the pace we had on the Hard tire. It's the second race in a row that we've picked up the safety car or virtual safety car at the wrong time while in a points-paying position, so it just didn't go our way today. I made a mistake with Franco and misjudged the gap, but we had some good fights throughout the race until then, so it's a shame that it ended that way."
Oliver Bearman :
"It was a great race, we couldn't have asked for more, and I just want to keep pushing like this now. On lap one, I was very unlucky with Hadjar spinning in front of me and I thought our race was over, I was put back to P12 at that time. Luckily, the safety car came out at the right point for us when we needed to have that pace. We took that luck, and the car was very quick today, I'm super happy."
Nico Hulkenberg:
"It wasn't the smoothest race, but the main thing for me was finally getting a full distance under the belt after missing Melbourne. These cars are still pretty new territory - especially with the energy management - so every lap is useful right now. There's a lot to unpack from today. We'll go through everything next week, tidy a few things up and go again in Japan."
Gabriel Borteleto:
"Unfortunately, a technical issue prevented us from even starting the race today. I still want to thank the team for having put in extra work until the very end to try and get me back on track - I really appreciate that. I think this race offered a lot of opportunities: many cars didn't start or finish, so there was probably a chance for us to score points today. While this was obviously frustrating, it's something that can happen at the beginning of a new era of regulations.
"There are still some positives to take from these first two races: Melbourne was amazing and here in Shanghai, the weekend was going well up until the race; we were fighting for good positions and had decent pace. Now, with a week's break before Japan, we'll be back in the factory working hard with the team and finding more performance in our car for the next race."
Pierre Gasly:
"It's a great result for the team today and a solid weekend overall to get both cars in the points. Of course, I'm happy with the result, even though deep inside the competitor in me is a bit annoyed not to get fifth place, which I think was achievable in the end. I felt really comfortable in the car again today, and the pace was there. We were keeping the leading group in sight in the opening stint. With these new cars, we knew it wasn't a matter of if there was going to be a Safety Car but when. It eventually happened and bunched up the whole field. At the restart for some reason I didn't have the power or boost and Ollie [Bearman] passed me. With all the fighting with Max [Verstappen] and other cars around me, I lost ground to Ollie and had a big gap to make up. I pushed like every lap was a Qualifying lap, which was enjoyable and I managed to catch him, however, couldn't get close enough to make a move. It's a fantastic result and there are still many things to fine tune. Hopefully the pace we showed this weekend we can carry over in the coming races."
Franco Colapinto:
"What a race and a great day for the team with both cars in the points. I'm happy to score my first points for Alpine, but I'm also equally frustrated and was hungry for more. Some things didn't go our way today and while getting back in the points is a nice achievement, I know there was more out there, which bodes well for future races. We made an amazing start and made up a lot of places. We were comfortably running in P5 and P6 before the Safety Car was deployed. This neutralised the field and all the Hard tyre runners stayed out, including myself. After that, we ran long and then was unfortunately hit by Esteban [Ocon] exiting the pits. He came to apologise afterwards and it was all fine. We lost a bit of downforce with damage to the floor and didn't quite have enough pace or laps left to get Carlos [Sainz] at the end. Extra points were literally in our grasp! Well done to Pierre also. There was good teamwork out there today and some enjoyable battles out on track."
Sergio Perez:
"It was a good race today and we can be happy with our performance as a team, getting both cars to the finish in just our second Grand Prix. My race wasn't straightforward - I had contact with Valtteri at the start, which was on me. I was a bit over-optimistic and didn't realize he had nowhere to go, which cost me some time. Then, every time I was closing the gap, I had a couple of issues with energy deployment and ended up losing more than 20 seconds overall. But we should be proud of what we've achieved over these two race weekends, and I'm looking forward to building on this at the next race in Japan."
Valtteri Bottas:
"A great result for the team to finish with both cars in P13 and P15 in only our second Grand Prix. It's not something I expected as other teams had multiple issues across the race. From my side, I had a relatively trouble-free race, which put us in a solid finishing position. We were racing and managed to get Aston Martin with some good battles. We've clearly made progress in all the areas needed from race one to race two. I'm really proud of this team as we're heading in the right direction, but we know there's still work to do."
