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2019 Formula 1

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2019 Singapore Grand Prix : Honda's Verstappen On Podium In Singapore

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September 23, 2019 — MARYSVILLE, Ohio

•Max Verstappen claims sixth podium result of 2019 campaign

•Rookie Alex Albon earns third consecutive top-six result

•Pierre Gasly makes late-race run to finish eighth

Honda's Max Verstappen used timely strategy from his Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team to move into third in Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix, then used a heavy right foot to defend that position over the final laps to score his sixth podium finish of the year.

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Rookie Alex Albon continued to impress after his call-up to the Red Bull car three races ago, starting and finishing sixth while Toro Rosso Honda's Pierre Gasly had his best finish since his return to the team with an eighth-place result. Gasly's teammate Daniil Kvyat suffered mid-race contact and was the lone Honda runner to finish out of the points.

Verstappen started fourth and maintained his position on the tight Singapore street course as the leading group of six cars, which included Albon, settled into a rhythm of managing their tires. The team called the second-generation driver in on Lap 19 to switch to the harder Pirellis, a move that paid off when points leader Lewis Hamilton was held out for a few more laps, allowing Verstappen to leapfrog the Mercedes driver during his stop and move into third.

The Honda driver maintained that position and crafted a healthy gap to Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas throughout the middle of the race. Verstappen was forced to defend his spot during two late-race restarts after incidents brought out the Safety Car, but the Dutchman was equal to the task in both instances as he kept Hamilton at bay to secure the third spot.

Toro Rosso strategy and the Safety Car periods did help Gasly gain positions late in the race. The Frenchman started the race on hard tires and ran a long first stint, allowing him to have softer tires at the end of the event. He used them to his advantage, making strong passes on both restarts to vault three spots and finish eighth.

The result moved Verstappen into a tie for third place in the season standings with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc while Gasly remains in sixth. Albon gained a spot and is now eighth, while Kvyat is tied for 10th with six races to run.

Formula 1 will now head to the streets of Sochi for this weekend's Russian Grand Prix, competing on a street circuit that was created using the internal roads of the park built for the city's 2014 Winter Olympics.

Toyoharu Tanabe

Technical Director, Honda F1

'As usual, Max produced a very strong race, making up one place from his grid position to finish on the podium, thanks to a good strategy that saw him undercut Hamilton. It was a good way to end the weekend. However, after their win in Monza, today we saw that Ferrari is now also quick on a technical track. As for Toro Rosso, Gasly produced some excellent overtakes, scoring a valuable four points. Kvyat's pace wasn't bad but he was unable to finish in the points. Overall, we got three of our four cars in the points, including Albon who delivered a solid performance on his first visit to this track. We know we must continue to push hard to get on terms with those ahead of us.'

Max Verstappen

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Start: 4th, Finish: 3rd

Of course we always want to win but finishing on the podium and gaining one place on a track where you can't really overtake is positive. It's true that we came here hoping for more but this is still a good result for us, especially with the pace that the others had yesterday in qualifying. Most of the race was about managing the pace to keep the tires alive and luckily that worked out for me. Charles (Leclerc) was managing his tires out front and the pace was pretty slow but that kept everyone really close and allowed me to get the undercut on Lewis (Hamilton). We had good pace after the pit stop and I was comfortable in third even with all the safety car re-starts until the last few laps when Lewis was pushing hard to overtake me on newer tires, but luckily we were able to hold on. I wouldn't say that today was that exciting from a racing perspective but Singapore has a lot of plus points being a street circuit, really tough on the body and just being a cool track to drive on. This wasn't exactly the weekend we hoped for but we will keep pushing before next weekend.'

Alex Albon

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Start: 6th, Finish: 6th

'Most of that race was just managing my tires so it was physically easier than I expected. It was only in the last 20 laps when I was really pushing it that I could feel the strain. So, I would call it a battle of management as I started P6 and finished P6. At times it felt more like a procession than a race for me. It was also a bit frustrating as I spent the whole race stuck behind a Mercedes. In the middle stint I wanted to get past Valtteri (Bottas) but I didn't have the pace to overtake the Mercedes. When he pushed I pushed and when he saved his tires I saved mine so I felt like I was just going backwards and forwards and it almost felt like he backed me up so Lewis could get ahead. All in all for my first time here it was a positive race. My pace was a lot better so I'm definitely making progress. Even during the race I was finding little tricks to improve my speed.'

Daniil Kvyat

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda

Start: 15th, Finish: 15th

'Today wasn't my day. When you have a race like this you just have to raise your hand, take the blame, and move onto the next one. There were chances for me to score points today but, unfortunately, I didn't take them. I got stuck behind drivers and didn't show my best driving. I don't want to make any excuse, but I also had to deal with some kind of 'fog' on my mirrors, which made it harder to defend - I just had to give more space due to the lack of visibility. Finally, the collision with Kimi (Raikkonen) damaged my car making it even harder, but at the end my race was already compromised.'

Pierre Gasly

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda

Start: 11th, Finish: 8th

'I enjoyed that race so much! The beginning went pretty well for us, and I didn't know it at the time, but we were running in P2 for a couple of laps before our pitstop, and that was cool! Then, when the safety car came out, we lost three or four positions which was a bit annoying. I gave it everything I had to pass Kimi and had a couple of exciting battles with Kevin (Magnussen) and Lance (Stroll), so it feels very good to score these points. It was a tough race, but a great result for the team in the Championship battle, as it's quite close. I'm really happy with the way we're working as a team, every weekend it gets better and we make a step forward, so we just need to keep pushing in the same direction for the next few races.'