18/05/2025
NEWS STORY
Fernando Alonso: "The car was very strong today and I was having a good race until the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) turned our race upside down.
"I think without this VSC we could have been fighting for P6 or P7 and scored points on merit. At the restart we were out of the points but managed to overtake three cars in nine laps and we just ran out of time. It's a real shame but let's hope for better luck in future races."
Lance Stroll: "The start of the race felt okay: I managed to pull away from Gasly and hold onto Albon in front of me. Unfortunately, with the Virtual Safety Car phase and the way the race unfolded, it didn't play out well for us today. Without the Virtual Safety Car, we might have been able to finish in the points so bad luck and a disappointing result. We now need to look to Monaco next week and see if we can continue to show signs of positive improvements with the update as it's a very different track."
Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "We came within a whisker of scoring points, but the racing luck was not on our side today. A promising one-stop strategy was undone by the timing of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) which dropped both Fernando and Lance outside the points. With hindsight, we could have pitted again under the VSC, but we did not want to sacrifice track position. We then struggled to hold off those cars with a tyre advantage.
"Nonetheless, we take away the positives from a weekend where we have seen genuine progress. The updates have added some performance and given us direction for the upcoming events. Credit to the drivers, too, who did not put a wheel out of place this weekend. It's onwards to Monaco now which is a very different challenge."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Imola here.