Toro Rosso delighted with double points finish

Toro Rosso left Texas with 18 points to add to their championship tally after two incredible performances from their drivers.

Max Verstappen started from 8th on the grid and was battling the Ferraris and Force Indias for 5th place. When the switch to slicks came, he suddenly found himself getting ahead of the two Red Bulls ahead.

While most drivers opted for a second stop, Verstappen made his tyres go the distance to match his best F1 finish of 4th place from the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“I’m very happy,” he said after the race, “Scored a lot of points again so I’m very happy with that as well.

“I think I can be very happy with my own performance, I didn’t make any mistakes. I think it was the most complete race.”

Team mate Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, had to make a recovery drive from the back of the grid for the second race running, after crashing in qualifying. An incredible start, where he managed to keep his nose clean through a chaotic turn 1, meant he was in the points by the end of the first lap.

Although he faced some gremlins, including a 5 second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, he managed to cross the line in 6th place.

“Very good race from our side, even though everything happened to us again,” he said, “I lost 10/15 seconds in the pit stop, then the pit limiter didn’t work when I exited the pit stop, so I knew I was going to get a penalty. Then the seat started moving halfway through the race.

“So many things happened that we finish the race 6th, and with the penalty 7th, it’s really good.”

#f1