The four-time world champion stormed to his first win for the iconic outfit, finishing well clear of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Here are some post-race thoughts from the the drivers.
"First of all, huge congratulations to Seb and Ferrari. You have to hand it to them - I wasn't expecting them to be as quick as they were today but they had some serious pace and deserved the win. It was a tough race out there. I was struggling with the balance today and never really felt comfortable with the car.
"There was so much understeer that tyre management was really hard. When I went to the option it was much better, so I thought we'd use it again at the end and was surprised we went with the prime. But I made the best I could with it and ultimately I'm sure the team made the call for the right reasons.
"They [Ferrari] were as fast if not faster than us today and once I had that gap to make up it was just a step too far. I'm now looking forward to the next race and fighting to get back to the front again."
Ricciardo downbeat after difficult race:
"A really frustrating race. I was ready for a fight going into the race and hoping for something special – but it wasn’t to be. I had a bit of contact on the first lap, which hurt us and then we had a few issues throughout the race, which we had to manage.
"It took a long time to pass cars as we didn’t have the pace and we had some problems with the brakes, which didn’t make our afternoon easy. It was a good job by Seb, a great drive from him."
Best result possible for the team - Massa:
"I don’t think we had a fantastic day today. We had a small problem in
the pitstop which lost a little time. Valtteri was able to catch me in
the final few laps, but it was good to race wheel-to-wheel. We have got
the best points we could for the team given the where the car is at the
moment. "
"It’s been a while – I haven’t been on the top step,” he said. “My first time obviously with Scuderia Ferrari. I’m speechless. Obviously a big change over the winter, and the welcome that the
team gave me has just been fantastic. I’ve only done two races, but it’s
really a great atmosphere.
"[I’m] proud of today. We beat [Mercedes] fair and square. A great achievement, we have a great car. It is a bit emotional. Last year was not a good year for me. I was struggling.
This year’s car seems to suit me very well, and the team has been
phenomenal.
"I remember when the gate opened at Maranello, it was like a dream
coming true. I remember the last time I was there I was a kid watching
Michael [Schumacher] over the fence. Now I’m driving that very red car…
it’s incredible. Today the race was spot on, great strategy, great race.
Thanks to the team. A really really great day."
Weekend better than expected - Alonso:
"This whole weekend has been better than I expected. The main positive to take away from today is the fact that we were able to run with other cars – Jenson and I weren’t simply fighting with each other. That was the first step we needed to take, and we’ve taken it already. Indeed, our race pace was surprisingly good; I was running with the pack, and I was even able to catch the Red Bulls before the pit-stops. That was a nice surprise.
"We still need a little more time to investigate the exact cause of my retirement. For us, these are the sort of reliability problems you’d usually discover in pre-season testing, but, given our lack of running over the winter, unfortunately we’re likely to encounter such issues in the first few races of the year. Hopefully, we can take another step forward in China."
Difficult day for Hulkenberg:
"It was a tough afternoon and I was always kept very busy with lots going on around me. I was really struggling with the general balance and the car was sliding around, especially as the tyres became older. We chose not to pit during the early safety car, which gave me good track position, but it was not an easy decision. We were trying to make the two-stop strategy work, but it just wasn’t possible with the degradation and so we switched to three stops.
"Perhaps it would have been better to commit to the three-stop earlier, but I’m not sure it would have changed the result that much. The penalty for the contact with Daniil [Kvyat] also dropped me out of the fight for points. I went a bit wide in turn one and chose to go back on the inside going into turn two. I was quite well alongside him, but he probably didn’t think I would try to come back at him."
Verstappen delighted with seventh:
"I really enjoyed that! I’m very happy to have scored my first ever points in F1 and to end seventh! I think we did a great job as a team. The first few laps were a bit tricky for me as I was struggling a lot on the Medium tyres, so we boxed early for the hard ones and that worked perfectly, the car felt great.
"We had a few good fights with other competitors and it was good fun. This was the right strategy and we did a great job managing the tyres. I felt well physically, it was quite hot at the end but I was still able to cope with it and be consistent, so I’m happy with that. This is a big boost for the team, we couldn’t have done a better job today."
"Overall we had quite a good race with a strong first lap and some nice overtaking, although I lost a lot of time behind Hulkenberg and then the spin with Perez in such a fast corner.
"I had some fun overtaking with Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India, which was great, and we had a good strategy but we lost too much time to benefit from it. I also had an issue with my drinks bottle which added to the fun. Overall the car behaved well though and we’re not far from the top ten so we’ll work to close the gap for China."
Tough second race for Nasr:
"It was overall a difficult weekend for me. I was struggling to find a good set-up for the car. We need to reflect and understand why we didn’t have enough pace. The race itself was not easy, as I had contact early on with Kimi (Räikkönen). I should have avoided this incident, but it can happen sometimes when we are racing. Now we have to look forward to the next race weekend in China."
Merhi happy to make the finish:
"I’m so happy for the team. P15 is not only a great result from today’s race, but also a huge reward for a fantastic effort over the past few months. I’m really proud of us. Coming into the weekend we knew things would not be easy; we had to work very hard and stay focused every step of the way. We missed out on some of our targets but in the end it was the race that mattered and we brought the car home with a full race distance.
"That was my main objective, as the information we now have is so important for our development, but it’s good to know that we got a good result along the way and finished ahead of some of the other teams. I’m sorry for Will that he was unable to race today but we have a very good starting point for us both to work from in China and beyond. My thanks to the whole team for a really positive weekend."
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