Kevin started the race from P18 with a new set of Pirelli’s full wet tyres. He stopped on lap 7 for a new set of intermediate tyres, fitted new wets during the first red flag on lap 20, used wets during the second red flag on lap 28 and pitted on lap 41 for a new set of intermediate tyres.
Jolyon started the race in P16 on new wet tyres. He stopped on lap 9 for a new set of intermediate tyres and on lap 17 for a new set of wet tyres.
Kevin Magnussen, #20, R.S.16-04: Started P18, finished P14
“The conditions today were definitely testing, especially turn 12 which isn’t actually a corner in the dry but became a real corner in the wet! There was clear aquaplaning there, and even if there hadn’t been, it was still on the limit. I do wish we could have driven more today though. Of course you should have red flags to clear a crash and safety should always be the priority, but after that, I feel we were too careful with driving in the wet. At the end of the day, it’s up to us drivers to slow down enough to get around it. We just need to drive to the conditions and not go over the limit, which is exactly what we do in the dry.”
Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-05: Started P16, DNF
“The conditions this afternoon were very difficult and unfortunately we had to retire following contact with Kvyat. I had some more grip at that point on full wet tyres and I was faster than cars in front on intermediates. I wanted to make up some places. In the end the visibility was so bad that I couldn’t even see past my steering wheel. I didn’t see where the corner went, I knew that there was the pitwall and pitlane somewhere; I just couldn’t see anything. Kvyat in front of me was slower and I hit him. Around the lap, the visibility wasn’t too bad and there were some places where you aquaplaned but coming up the hill you had no traction and couldn’t see if you were behind anyone else. You had to guess where you were going, there was water on track and rivers of water running across. It was really tricky.”
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
“It was a tough afternoon for the team and a tricky race in wet weather conditions for everyone. The biggest issue we encountered was the performance of our car with the full wet tyres. We weren’t able to perform over long stints with these sets of tyres and had to switch to intermediate tyres whenever it was possible but in the end it wasn’t enough for us to get into the points with Kevin. Unfortunately Jolyon sustained front suspension damage when he hit Kvyat and we had to retire him. We are now looking forward to the ultimate race of the season in Abu Dhabi where I hope we can have a race in better conditions.”
