Cool Kristoffersson claims fifth World RX win from six starts.

PHOTO CREDIT: PSRX Volkswagen Sweden. 

Kristoffersson began his home race, the same way he finished World RX of Sweden three weeks ago: fastest. The defending champion was in sublime form, just about missing out on a second World RX 'clean sweep'. 

Not since Timmy Hansen won second qualifying at World RX of Great Britain [ROUND 4] has Johan lost a session in World RX thus far. 

"There’s nothing quite like racing at home – except for winning at home," said Kristoffersson. "When I won my home round for the first time last year, I knew I would never forget that feeling and I really wanted it to come back again today."

The Swede delivered the perfect drive in front of 51,600 fans. 

“You definitely get a real boost from the fans in the grandstand – even if a few of them might have been cheering for some of the other Swedes around here!," he said. "I love this track and these fans. And I love this team – it’s their home race, so a win is special for them too."

The pair of PSRX Volkswagen Sweden Polo R Supercars were unbeatable through qualifying and moved into the semi-finals fairly easily. 

Despite the Swede's results on Saturday, he was not entirely happy with his Polo R Supercar. “I didn’t feel the car was completely perfect for me on Saturday, but as the second day progressed it just got better and better," Kristoffersson explained. 

Johan won from pole position in the first semi and his teammate was on for an identical result in the second race when his Polo R suffered a technical problem, forcing him to retire from the race. 

"In the semi, it was absolutely perfect," said Kristoffersson. "I felt so comfortable, I could just push and push and really work the car." 

The Swede lead from lights to the chequered flag, in an almost ice cool state. Onboard footage during the World RX Final showed Kristoffersson calmly going about his race, as if he was out for an afternoon drive. He did not put a foot wrong! 

"In the final I would say the tyres were probably a little bit hot towards the end of the race, but by then I had been able to just keep inching forwards and away from the chasing pack," said Johan. 

“I got a really nice start, the launch hooked up and we flew off the line and into the lead. That got me the Monster Super Charge Award, I’m happy with that – my first since France last year!," the Swede explains. "From then on I was just completely focused on every apex to make it happen and to build a lead. I did that."

It was a weekend of contrasting emotions for the PSRX Volkswagen Sweden squad, and even though Kristoffersson won in a dominate fashion, he still feels that his teammate should have been with him in the final. 

“I’m so happy with another win and so happy for the team – but I want to say I am sorry for Petter. I missed my team-mate, he should have been along side me on the front row. But for me this is another 30 points and another really strong result for the championship.”

PSRX Volkswagen Sweden leads the teams’ standings by 45 points, while Kristoffersson leads the drivers' standings by 40 points, and his teammate Solberg is third with 119 points.  

Petter Solberg: "This one really hurt so bad."

PHOTO CREDIT: PSRX Volkswagen Sweden

Norway's Petter Solberg entered the World RX of Sweden with renewed hope that his luck had finally turned around.

Solberg was the only driver who could stop his teammate, Johan Kristoffersson in Sweden. The Norwegian did not have the cleanest of Saturday's with a sixth place finish in Q1, but improved in Q2 to claim second place. 

On Sunday morning, Solberg showed strong pace edging Johan to win Q3. His teammate stepped up the pace in Q4, and Solberg ended the session in second overall. 

It all went downhill from there...  

"I have been disappointed before in my career, but I don’t know if I can remember a time when I am more disappointed than this," said Solberg. "This one really hurt so bad."

Petter secured pole position for semi-final 2, with Andreas Bakkerud alongside him on the front row. He launched off the line and immediately started eking a gap to second place Bakkerud. A few laps from end Bakkerud emerged in the lead. 

Moments later, Petter Solberg was seen opening up the bonnet of his Polo R Supercar with smoke rising from the engine bay. He suffered a technical problem and was forced to retire.

“I had the race in my hand, we were going directly to the final where I wanted a win," says Solberg. "I wanted it so much."

“Coming out of one corner, something wasn’t right with the car, I pulled over and that was the end," he explains. "There’s nothing more to say.”

Peugeot Total tries to find positives from Höljes

PHOTO CREDIT: Peugeot Sport. 

The latest evolution of the Peugeot Total 208 RX Supercar was introduced at Höljes in Sweden, with the team swapping the previous specification for a brand-new learning curve. The Hansen brothers got their 208 WRX Supercars into the final, but the overall result does not tell the full story. 

Timmy Hansen scored the best result for Team Peugeot Total in 4th, but was running 2nd until the last lap, when he was hit and ended up in the gravel trap.

Hansen was rapid in every one of his qualifying heats, holding a top 3 position overall after Q4. "The guys in the team - engineers, mechanics, and me too – did a great job to adapt to all the changes with the updated Peugeot 208 WRX," said Timmy Hansen.

Timmy was all set to convert the Q4 result into a strong finish, after he clinched 2nd position in semi-final 2, but the Swede was taken out in the final run through no fault of his own. "I was in 2nd position on the last lap during the final," said Hansen. "First of all, Andreas Bakkerud pushed me off line and passed me. And then Mattias Ekström completely pushed me off the track – and I actually dislocated my shoulder in the impact. So I am in a bit of pain."

Timmy Hansen's car being recovered after the incident in the final.
PHOTO CREDIT: Peugeot Sport

"We still have a lot of potential to discover in all of these updates. So it's easy to be motivated for what comes next," the Swede said. "We will become faster and faster throughout the year.” Nonetheless he can take away more positives than negatives from the weekend, having shown the clear potential of the new-specification 208 WRX.

Sebastien Loeb also had a taste of the all new Peugeot 208 WRX Supercar, but had an unlucky weekend. "I'm not so satisfied with the weekend, I have to say. I had a difficult Q1 and Q2," said Loeb. "In Q3 this morning, I hit Timur Timerzyanov and broke my suspension, so I finished last in the heat."

Loeb's 7th position in qualifying reflected his struggle to find a clean run and the right rhythm with the updated car in a very high level of competition. "After Q4, I qualified 7th overall for the semi-finals. With that place, you start on the outside of the ​2nd row, which isn’t the best position," he adds. "So the race started off quite badly for me and didn’t really get any better."

The Frenchmen finished 4th in semi-final 1, narrowly missing out on going through to the final: less than 4 tenths of a second behind 3rd position. "Our objective for the championship is to collect points and we didn’t get many this weekend," says Loeb. "In the overall rankings, Johan Kristofferson is moving further away at the top and that wasn't the goal either." 

"Overall, the updated Peugeot 208 WRX feels better than the previous one,  but we ​still ​need to improve in the future. I think we have some good directions to work in now," he concludes.

Kevin Hansen in the older specification 208 WRX Supercar.
PHOTO CREDIT: Peugeot Sport.

Timmy Hansen's younger brother Kevin Hansen put in a great performance and thus show how he has developed throughout the season. The Swede was delivering consistent performances in qualifying and earning valuable championship points after finishing 2nd in his semi-final.

“It was a really good weekend. We worked hard to progress throughout the weekend for our first round with the Peugeot 208 WRX in basic 2018 spec," said Kevin Hansen. "It's a bit different from the previous car I drove, so it took a while to get used to it with the set-up and everything."

He started the final race side by side with his brother on row 2 but was not able to deliver the desired result due to mechanical issues: after a decent start, his engine cut out and the car stopped. 

"I think we progressed a lot both in terms of set-up and driving. And to get into the final once again is really amazing," said Kevin. "Unfortunately, we stopped on lap two with a technical problem. It's a shame but making it to the final here in Höljes is really great.”

Team Peugeot Total is now 3rd in the teams’ championship standings with 233 points: however, 2nd position EKS Audi Sport are only 6 points ahead. In the drivers’ championship rankings Sebastien is 4th,Timmy 5th and Kevin 7th. 

Grönholm RX Taneco hampered by punctures in Höljes

PHOTO CREDIT: GRX Taneco Team.

The GRX Taneco team were struck with a series of punctures in Höljes, Sweden. But the team signs off the first half of the season with both cars in the semi-finals. 

“The punctures were with different tyres. So the only conclusion we can draw for the moment is that they were for different reasons,” said Jussi Pinomäki, Team Manager of GRX Taneco. "There were driving errors, but there were also pieces of metal on the track, so there’s an element of bad luck."

Timur Timerzyanov finished a promising seventh in Q1, but Niclas Grönholm lost a few valuable points due to a slow puncture. After knuckling down with the technical crew on Saturday, Timerzyanov then took an even more satisfying sixth place in Q2 while Grönholm got back into his stride to finish 11th despite another puncture.

“Höljes is quite unusual and a very technical track,” said Timerzyanov. “Every turn is challenging. In fact, the first corner is completely blind!” 

Timerzyanov kept up with the leading pack on Sunday morning, finishing sixth in Q3 and fifth in Q4, thus qualifying for the semis. Meanwhile, Grönholm gradually made his way back up the rankings finishing P11 in Q3 and P7 in Q4. 

Timur Timerzyanov with rear puncture, ahead of Jérôme Grosset-Janin.
PHOTO CREDIT: GRX Taneco.

With both Hyundai i20 Supercars making it through the heats, the team confirmed it's competitive run of form. 

However, Grönholm and Timerzyanov both had to bring their Swedish outing to an early close after another couple of punctures. Grönholm finished sixth so adds another point to his total, while Timerzyanov finished fourth in the second semi-final to claim three points. 

“We had a real chance to qualify for the final,” said Timerzyanov. “I made a small mistake in the joker lap, but I had still had the pace to finish in the top three. Then I had a puncture in the second lap, so then the only thing to do was to bring the car home to score as many points as possible. I hope we have more luck in the next race in Canada.”

“It wasn’t our weekend. We had three punctures, including one in the semi-final,” said Grönholm. “Otherwise, I might have been in a position to qualify for the final. We’ll have to examine the good and bad points of this race to come back stronger in Canada!”

At the halfway point, GRX Taneco team lies fourth in the teams' standings. Niclas Grönholm is eighth in the driver standings, and Timur Timerzyanov tenth. 

Andreas Bakkerud claims fifth podium in succession at Höljes

PHOTO CREDIT: Audi Sport

EKS Audi Sport driver Andreas Bakkerud clinched second place on a "Magic Weekend" in Höljes, Sweden. Bakkerud has also moved into second position in the FIA World Rallycross Championship drivers' standings with the podium finish in Sweden. 

After a strong home round for EKS Audi Sport, the team moved into second position in the teams' standings ahead of Team Peugeot Total. 
“It was a fantastic weekend with gripping races and a fantastic final in front of my large number of Bakkerud-Blue fans,” said Bakkerud. “Thank you to EKS Audi Sport that gave me such a good car. I’m proud of this result.”

Bakkerud was in fourth place after the qualification races. Following a victory in the semi-finals, he started from the front row in the final. Right from the start the Norwegian was following the subsequent winner, Johan Kristoffersson. The position was briefly in jeopardy on the final lap when Bakkerud did his “Joker Lap” and dropped behind the Peugeot of Timmy Hansen. However, Bakkerud immediately reclaimed the lost spot.

Andreas Bakkerud celebrating with his Bakkerud Blue fans.
PHOTO CREDIT: Audi Sport 

The duel between Bakkerud and Hansen indirectly meant trouble for Mattias Ekström who was immediately behind these two and overtook the Peugeot shortly before the finish. There was contact between Ekström and Hansen which meant the end of Hansen’s race. Consequently, Ekström was handed a penalty demoting him from third to sixth place.

“In the qualifying races, we were unlucky with our grid positions,” said Ekström. “This slowed us down somewhat throughout the weekend. We were also lacking speed. In the final, my car was the fastest, but from fifth on the grid it’s difficult to move forward. The last lap was a real challenge. Andreas was directly in front of me when Timmy apparently had a problem. I tried to overtake him as well. Our tires touched, but I managed to stay on track. Still, the weekend was okay. Andreas did a great job with second place and we’ll continue to fight.”

EKS Audi Sport are second in the teams' standings with 239 points (45 points points behind the leaders.) Andreas Bakkerud and Mattias Ekström are second and sixth in the drivers' championship standings. 

The first half of the World RX championship has drawn to a close, and the second half will get underway on August 4/5 at Trois-Rivières in Canada. 

REPORT: Kristoffersson claims fifth win of 2018 championship in Holjes.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World Rallycross Media

Swedish hero Johan Kristoffersson starred on the way to his fifth victory of the season in round six of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at the Swecon World RX of Sweden in Holjes.

PSRX Volkswagen Sweden’s Kristoffersson claimed his third maximum points score in a row to extend his lead in the World RX Drivers’ Championship as PSRX continues to lead the Teams’ Championship points race.

Norway’s Andreas Bakkerud continued an impressive run of Holjes podiums stretching back to 2012 with second, after overtaking Team Peugeot Total’s Timmy Hansen on the last lap of the final. France’s Jerome Grosset-Janin secured GC Kompetition’s first podium finish with third place in front of a record 51,600 fans at the famous circuit.

“It was an amazing weekend here again. I won last year – to be able to win at Holjes is something extra special. The track is amazing and it’s a big challenge for the cars, drivers and engineers. I felt more and more comfortable with every outing over the weekend and at the end of Sunday I felt very comfortable – that’s what it takes to win,” said Kristoffersson, who also secured the Monster Energy Supercharge Award for having the fastest reaction time at the start of the final in his Volkswagen Polo R Supercar. “This is the first Monster Energy Supercharge Award I have won since France last year so it’s been a while, I’m pleased about that. The atmosphere here is something amazing, today we had a big crowd and some nice weather so I think there were a lot of spectators who had a great time.”

EKS Audi Sport’s Bakkerud climbed to second in the World RX Drivers’ Championship with second place in the final, driving his Audi S1. “I’m very proud of my record of podium finishes here, but most of all I’m so happy with the work we have done to be able to get quicker in Q1 and Q2, so I just want to say a huge thanks to the guys that have helped me between the races and all of EKS Audi Sport,” said Bakkerud. “It’s nice to see that the work we put in is paying off and I’m super-pumped that we’re on the podium once again here at the Magic Weekend in Sweden in front of a record-breaking crowd. I just can’t wait for Canada now because that’s a good track for us.”

GC Kompetition’s  Grosset-Janin was tenth at the intermediate classification, battled through to third place in his semi-final to make it to the final in his Prodrive-built Renault Megane RS. From there the Frenchman went on to be classified third and earn the team’s first podium finish in only its sixth event.

“I am so happy the weekend ended this way. Of course I never imagined my first podium happening like this, but we were able to take advantage of all the opportunities that were presented to us today,” said a delighted Grosset-Janin. “It’s the work of the entire team and so many people that has finally paid off. We can’t forget that only three months ago rallycross was a world totally unknown to GCK and Prodrive. Now, we just have to keep up our good work and continue to progress.”

Timmy Hansen sent into the gravel after contact was made with Mattias Ekstrom.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World Rallycross Media

Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom finished third on track in the final but was given a penalty for ‘pushing and overtaking’ Team Peugeot Total’s Timmy Hansen on the last lap – Hansen retiring with just two corners to go. Ekstrom was classified sixth. Kevin Hansen also started the final but didn’t make it beyond the second lap.

France’s Sebastien Loeb finished fourth in semi-final one ahead of Team STARD’s Janis Baumanis and GRX Taneco’s Niclas Gronholm. His team mate, Timur Timerzyanov, had his best event of the season but was like Niclas was slowed by a puncture and finished fourth in semi-final two. Norway’s Petter Solberg retired from the lead of semi-final two with technical problems and Olsbergs MSE’s Robin Larsson was classified sixth.

The third round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship for Supercar was won by Championship leader Reinis Nitiss to increase his lead in the standings. Norway’s Thomas Bryntesson scored his best result of the season in second and Sweden’s Lukas Walfridsson was third.

Belgium’s Guillaume De Ridder became the first double-winner of the 2018 RX2 International Series presented by Cooper Tires by claiming victory at Holjes. Norway’s Henrik Krogstad and Sweden’s Simon Olofsson finished second and third after a dramatic last lap of the final, to make it three nationalities on the podium.

The first FIA rallycross Champion of the season was crowned in the final round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship for TouringCar. Norway’s Fredrik Magnussen won the race but second place was enough for Sivert Svardal to win the Championship in his maiden international season by one point ahead of Magnussen. Kenneth Johansson finished third to make it an all-Norwegian podium.

James Taylor, Vice President, Rallycross at IMG, concluded: “Congratulations to Johan on another impressive victory, his performances over the first half of the season are more than worthy of his World Champion status. Over 50,000 fans at Holjes were treated to some amazing action this weekend and although Johan has a strong lead in the points, the competition between all of the teams is fierce. I’m delighted for GCK to have achieved its first podium as the team has worked incredibly hard for that. Andreas [Bakkerud] continuing his astounding run of podiums in Sweden shows how well he has fitted into the EKS Audi Sport team this season.” 

Report By: FIA World Rallycross Media

2018 Austrian GP: Post-Race Press Conference.

DRIVERS
1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Mark Webber)

Q: Max Verstappen, your fourth grand prix victory. It felt like your first win, with Kimi Räikkönen closing you down, maximum pressure. A Red Bull victory here on the Red Bull Ring. Massive amounts of Dutch fans, it must feel amazing?

Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was amazing. It was very hard to manage the tyres as well. We really had to look after them, a little blistering, but we managed to hang on until the end. Of course it’s amazing to win here with a Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring and also so many Dutch fans around here. It’s incredible.

Q: So what does this mean for the future, mate. You’ve got Silverstone around the corner, in terms of it being a back-to-back, we’ve got this triple header, you’ve had this great run of results off the back of a tough Monte Carlo, so now you’re on fire buddy?

MV: Yeah, I needed to catch up with the points. Today was definitely a very good day for me and I just hope we can continue like this.

Q: Well done Max. Kimi, very solid second place there, buddy. It was a very interesting grand prix with tyres, I think there were a few unknowns, a lot of people weren’t sure what was happening. Double Mercedes retirement which was very interesting. Unbelievable start – if it had been Barcelona or Monza you would have led into Turn 1, right?

Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Yeah, I had to back off a little bit because we were squeezed together and my decision was already gone there – I was scared that we hit. After that, a bit running wide and that and lost some places. But the car came good but we just run out of the laps and I think we took it easily too long. It’s a shame. We had a great car today and in some points it was a little bit difficult but I think it was a good result for the team.

Q: Well done, Kimi. Sebastian, together with Max here. He did a pretty good job didn’t he? 

Sebastian VETTEL: I told him, very good race, very consistent, no mistakes. We were chasing him down at the end but couldn't quite make it.

Q: So tell us about your race Sebastian? It was a difficult qualifying, after a good start. Tough first corner, got pushed out and then you had to come back from there. One point in the championship, a very interesting day for the silver cars, so not a bad day at the office for you?

SV: No. Obviously it would have been nice to start further up. I tried to get some back at the start, in Turn 1, but it didn’t quite work. I was left with no place to go and then lost momentum. And then it was the same thing a little bit in Turn 3. I had to fight with the Renaults and the Haas in the beginning of the race and I lost a little bit of ground. Obviously we lost a little bit of time at the stop. So for us it was pretty much damage limitation but I think the pace was very good, the tyre management was good, so a positive day, it could have been better but a well deserved win for Max.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Question for Seb. I think you said on the pit radio, when you came behind Lewis, after his stop, that they should have informed you a bit earlier that he’s stopping because you had something in your pocket still. Can you describe the situation?

SV: I was aware that we were fighting him but I was of the opinion that we were ahead, and I didn’t expect it to be that close and to be on the back-foot, so I think, if I look back, and I was thinking about it in the race as well, I was told enough. So, I can’t blame the team. Yeah. I thought I was taking it a little bit easy in the beginning because I was anyways a bit further back. There was no point. I didn’t understand in the beginning obviously the necessity to close as soon as possible. So maybe it’s also a bit my fault. But I think I had a bit of pace in hand – but, you know, I looked down, I saw the pitboard as well and there was 55 laps from the time the VSC… well, it doesn’t really come it, but was turned off… so yeah, I tried to save tyres and make sure we make it to the end, not knowing what happens because the first stint was not easy – but yeah, I thought we could have done, I could have done a bit better with a bit more information – but nothing dramatic. I think overall the pace was really good. I mean, I was obviously losing a lot with the pitstop, the double-stop that we did, which was the right call – but I probably had to come back from the longest way. I think the speed was good so I’m happy with the race but obviously it could have been better today. So I’m not entirely happy.

Q: (Daniel Horvath – Motorspormania.hu) Max, congratulations, you’ve got almost 20,000 Dutch supporters here in Austria. Do you have any special message to your fans who stayed in the Max Verstappen village during the weekend?

MV: Yes, of course…

SV: You have a village here?

MV: Yeah! On the other side…

SV: You need to pay tax here then…

MV: No, we skip that bit. Yeah, it’s great to see. I mean of course we’re not playing in the World Cup so it’s a bit easier for them to come over here, but in general, great support. I mean the whole weekend. It was amazing to see so much orange. And then if you win the race and see all the fans lining up there. Yeah, it’s incredible. And this is in Austria, which is still 10, 11 hours away from Holland. So, yeah, amazing that they all came over here.

Q: (Jaap de Groot - De Telegraaf) Max, before the Max it looked like you had to overtake a lot of odds but during the race, the advantages occurred and you took them to the maximum. According to that, do you feel that this was your perfect race. And also explain how you underwent the process I just explained, getting all the advantages.

MV: Yeah, so I think it was a bit unexpected, especially after our Friday pace and in the long runs. I think in the first stint we could actually keep up quite well – and then yeah, I just tried to do my own race. I saw Valtteri disappearing with a problem, and then I think we made the right call when the virtual safety car came out, that we pitted. The team, again, great call on that, and then yeah, virtually I was in the lead, and I just tried to do my own pace. Initially from behind there was no pressure. I think I could build up a gap, and yeah, at one point, when Lewis pitted and Kimi started to put Daniel under pressure, and he started to struggle with his tyres, and then once I think Kimi was in second, and I tried to manage the gap – but at one point, yeah, I could see my tyres also opening up a bit on the rears and the fronts, so, yeah, I just had to drive around the issue and luckily I could manage it until the end of the race.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max and Kimi; although the race was 71 laps long, it was effectively decided by the move at turn seven on a frenetic opening lap. Can I just get your respective thoughts on the move – we don’t normally see overtaking there? It looked like a little bit of wheel-banging as well.

KR: I think there was a lot happening on the first lap. I think a little bit sideways into… or lost the line a little bit into six and then Max… obviously we were pretty close to each other, I think the car in front of me, the Mercedes, disturbed a bit… like the downforce and then obviously it got the run and I tried to hang on, on the outside but I got a little bit sideways because I guess we touched a little bit and lost a place but I think we got the best out of it and not taking each out and still fighting in that kind of corner that is fast speed and not very easy to stay next to each other when you try. That’s what happens sometimes. Not ideal for me but it was still fair enough.

MV: Yeah, it was hard racing but good racing. I think Kimi is experienced enough to handle the situation well. We had a little touch but I think it’s also good for the sport.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, it seems to me that this one race every week really suits you fine. Can you improve as much as you did from France to Silverstone in one week also?

KR: I don’t know. Obviously Silverstone is a lot different circuit, layout and I think if you purely take it it wouldn’t probably be the best place last year so maybe there for us but I think I’m looking forward and I think we have certain things that we are trying and probably will help there. Obviously it depends a lot on the conditions there but I think the last two weekends have been quite similar so I will keep pushing and trying and try to do better all the time and obviously try to do better than today in the next races but there could be a slightly better end result but I think as a team we got solid points and we go to the next race.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Max, you had the first six races of this season very difficult and then from Canada it started to change…

MV: No, Barcelona already.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) … so tell us about how it works inside you, coming from one extreme to the other one, what you are living now?

MV: I think it’s just racing, you know? Sometimes you have difficult moments and then you try to work hard and you keep working hard even when it’s difficult and you overcome the situation. Yeah, it’s as simple as that. It’s racing.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Racingline.hu) Sebastian, you are the only driver on the internet who has not a social media account, Twitter, Facebook, whatever. Even Kimi has Instagram now this year and he’s doing very well. Why are you not present on the internet?

SV: I rather spend my time on something useful. It’s a shame that I lost Kimi. It was nice to be alongside. I don’t know what happened. I don’t blame anybody, people are free to do what they want. It’s just not my thing, I don’t have the need to share. If there’s anybody who has a question, obviously ask but I don’t find great motivation in telling people where I go, what I do. I find it’s quite boring so yeah, it’s not my thing.

Q: (Rik Spekenbrink – AD Sportwereld) Max, could you hear the Dutch fans on the final lap and secondly, how would you rate this win among the others?

MV: No, I couldn’t hear them, I think I was…

SV: Say yes.

MV: Nah. You always have to be honest.

SV: You have to say yes though.

MV: No. OK, Sebastian says yes.

SV: I heard them!

MV: But I could see some orange smoke, I could see them cheering so I think that’s good enough. Special moment. And I think this was one of the nicest victories but I keep saying that so I think at the moment they are all nice. But maybe hopefully, at one point, you just say yeah, it’s just another one. But at the moment I’m really happy with it.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, we heard how emotional your celebrations were with the team over the radio after the race. Can you just explain when you thought that it was actually possible for you to win the race, when you felt under control, and how much does this win mean to you?

MV: Yeah, it was difficult to tell because Kimi was catching, Sebastian was catching and you were not sure maybe they had another half a second in them at the end of the race, so it was just difficult to say. I think with three or four laps to go I was more comfortable and it was not going to happen but still, maybe from one to the other lap my blister opens up even more and then you’re really in trouble. Probably three laps. My fourth victory, I think it’s a good one, very unexpected one so I think they are always good.

2018 Austrian GP: FIA Team Members' Press Conference.

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Toyoharu TANABE (Honda), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso)

Tanabe-san, we’ll start with you. Your sitting between your current team partner and you future partner. Just tell us, why Red Bull from next season?

Toyoharu TANABE: I’m not involved very much in contractual discussions, so I’m not sure how many options we had for our future PU supply. But in reality we will be in a good position, because Toro Rosso and Red Bull are already linked, centralised in Red Bull Technology. That works very well for us, I believe, because we don’t need to discuss Team A or Team B individually. So we centralize our discussion into the Red Bull group. I hope it will help our task for next year.

You say it’s a good position for Honda, but Red Bull has been winning races this year, so isn’t it a lot of pressure on Honda next year. ?

TT: Yes, it is. But we already have a lot of pressure and stress supplying PUs in the Formula 1 series. We are working very closely with Toro Rosso and of course we have pressure. Then, Red Bull and I respect their success in the Formula 1 series so we have another pressure but we supply same spec of course, that is the regulation, and I would like to work very efficiently with these teams.

Thank you. Christian, it’s a lot of pressure on Honda but is it also pressure on Red Bull, returning to a works partnership deal?

Christian HORNER: It’s a positive. We had the option to change or the option to stay where we were and having looked at the progress that Honda have been making over recent months, having had the benefit of looking at the progress of Toro Rosso and how Toro Rosso have worked with Honda. It’s been really very, very encouraging and for us we see it as extremely low risk and of course the upside is what we’re interested in, in terms of what is the potential and I think the commitment, the resource, the facilities that Honda have available to them is really exciting for us. And to be the focal point of attention with the two teams is a fantastic position for Red Bull to be in. We’re certainly very excited about what the future holds and very much looking forward to working with our colleagues from Honda.

We saw you last week in the press conference, just after the news had been announced, but what’s next? What’s part of the immediate process of working with Honda?

CH: Well, as has been explained we’ve got this construction where we have Red Bull Technology, which is the engineering centre effectively and which will have a large amount of interface with Honda. Red Bull Technology already supplies transmission components to Toro Rosso. It’s at an embryonic stage. Obviously discussions are already starting to focus on 2019, but we have been extremely encouraged and impressed by the collaborative nature that we’re finding. That’s certainly refreshing and we’re looking forward to a new era for Red Bull Racing. We’ve had 12 years with our current partner and we’ve enjoyed an awful lot of success. We’ve had highs and lows but the time was right to make this move. I think it’s an exciting time for the team and for Red Bull.

Thank you very much. Franz, you’ve had works status this year with Toro Rosso and Honda. Is the news of the Red Bull partnership for next year good news or bad news for your team?

Franz TOST: Fantastic news. We are very much looking forward about this. I think a company like Honda, which is so well know overall, has to win races and with Toro Rosso that’s difficult as we don’t have the infrastructure for winning races in Formula 1 and therefore Red Bull Racing is absolutely the correct partner. Toro Rosso will profit out of this because the synergies between Red Bull Technology will increase. We will have next year the complete rear end from Red Bull Technology. Therefore, I am convinced about this, we will also improve our performance. Currently we are very much involved in all the bench tests and everything. Although we are very low, limited with resources and so on, it’s really a lot of work on our side and in future this is being done by Red Bull Technology, which means we have resources for other performance differentiators, which is quite important for Toro Rosso. In the end I think all three partners will get the most out of it and will profit from this co-operation.

Toro Rosso have enjoyed really some strong races this season – namely in Bahrain and Monaco – but you’ve also has some tricky races at times too, so what are your expectations for this weekend’s race here in Austria?

FT: After some races, which were not so good, especially the last ones where we were involved in crashes and so on, I hope that here in Austria we are coming back to the successful part and I am positive about here in Austria and the next few race. We brought some new upgrades on the aerodynamic side. As it looks it works quite well and as we know Honda brought the new upgrade already in Canada and therefore I think that we have quite a competitive package. And looking to FP1 I think that we are able to be at least with one car in Qualifying 3.

Thank you. Toto, a similar question to you. Mercedes has really dominated at this circuit in the V6 era. A strong start in FP1 as well, with first and second. Is that form you are expecting to see continue for the rest of the weekend?

Toto WOLFF: The Friday has been giving little indication as to how the weekend goes in the last few races. It is more a learning process. Team have introduced either new upgrades on the power unit or upgrades on the chassis side and therefore it’s about mileage and understanding and working on various set-ups. I’m happy how it went. Austria was a kind track on us in the past. Lots of power up the hill. But you can see that the new reality is there are three teams capable of putting the car on the front and winning races and just a few hundredths or tenths between us and I have no doubt that tomorrow in qualifying that story will continue.

Both of your drivers were praising your power unit that you introduced a week ago in the battle among those top three teams and Lewis said yesterday there was an upgrade on the chassis side as well. Can you just explain, aerodynamically, what work you have been doing on the car?

TW: Yes, we were supposed to introduce the new power unit in Montréal and we weren’t quite sure whether it matched our reliability standards and you could see that once everybody introduced their upgrade we fell behind. A track that suited us, suddenly we weren’t good enough anymore. Then we brought the next step to Le Castellet and directly the drivers felt the difference between an engine that was in there for seven races and a brand new one. The same applies now to the chassis side. We have tried to compress what we had in terms of aero development and bring it at once, so the whole concept… there is this little change in concept in our aero development and so far the drivers seem to be happy with it. It is a necessary step. Red Bull and Ferrari are not going to rest on their laurels. We keep pushing each other from race to race, from upgrade to upgrade and even if you can put on another 50 milliseconds for the race you will do it, because that might be the difference between pole position and P3.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Toto, based on what you have seen from Honda’s recovery from their time with McLaren and the prospect of what they could bring to Formula 1 as a race-winning engine manufacturer, what are your thought on that, and how important is it for Formula 1?

TW: First of all, as a Formula 1 fan, we all remember the glorious years of Honda in the sport and I have no doubt that they can come back to that situation. For us, as Mercedes, it is extremely important that we have top brands in Formula 1, be it OEMs that have joined the sport as engine suppliers or be it multinational and global brands such as Red Bull, and the more we can attract the better for all of us and the better for the sport. I have also no doubt that they will be competitive. Franz mentioned it before, the collaboration will make another step between Toro Rosso, Honda and Red Bull for next year. And with Red Bull’s technical capabilities and resource they will certainly be of great assistance to make the power unit progress. This is certainly the right step forward, looking from the outside, for all parties. It was important for Red Bull to have a works status. Long term probably the best chance to win a championship. Maybe short term, more work to do. But long terms, from where I sit, absolutely the right decision. Looking forward to tougher fights and tougher battles with Red Bull Honda.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Christian, I believe internally the conundrum at the moment is SOS – Spielberg or Silverstone. When do you Danny’s contract extension? What are the chances here and what are the chances in Silverstone?

CH: Well, things are progressing well with Daniel. I expect things to be concluded prior to the summer break. But our priority had been firstly to get the engine situation sorted and now things are progressing with Daniel. Our intention is to retain both drivers and I’m sure during the next couple of weeks we’ll be entering into the finishing straight to get things concluded prior to the summer break.

Q: (Ralf Woodall - l’Equipe) Question for all of you. We’re in the middle of a triple-header. I’d like to know how challenging it is for you to have these three grands prix back-to-back and how are you organising yourselves?

FT: That’s a real big challenge, because going from the South of France to Austria and then to England is a big challenge, especially from the logistics side, because as we know, we are now in holiday time. That means there is a lot of traffic out there and we have a lot of problems on the borders because of the checks which they make over there. I hope they will not lose too much time, the trucks over there, and I am worried about coming in time to England. I was not worried from France to Austria because here we have everything under control – but once it’s going to Belgium, to England, then it’s a little bit difficult. If, for example a truck strike or something like this. I think this is at the absolute limit and I hope this will not be the case any more in the future because people are really working day and night in this three weeks.

Christian, your thoughts on the triple-header.

CH: It’s certainly expensive, for moving cars, parts, people in such short succession. You’ll see here we have a different hospitality facility. The usual Energy Station just simply wouldn’t have been possible for it to complete the triple headers, so, of course, there’s cost associated with that. There’s a drain on resource because obviously an awful lot of components going backwards and forwards to the UK. We’re fortunate that the final race of the triple header for us is where the team is obviously based. Obviously harder for teams not based in the UK – but it’s certainly tough. On the upside, it’s three home races in three weeks. Our engine had its home race last weekend, it’s obviously the team’s home race this weekend and obviously next weekend it’s our local race up the road in Silverstone. So, yeah, it’s pretty insane how busy it is.

Toto, something you agree with as well? Very difficult for Mercedes?

TW: Yeah, similar for us. Obviously, it’s our home race here as Austrians, then a home race in Silverstone, then a home race in Hockenheim thereafter. If you a hundred years back, then another one! But you have to understand where Liberty comes from. We have the football world championships that happens at the moment, then obviously when that goes towards the semi-finals and the finals it’s becoming more and more difficult so this year needs to be compressed. It’s not something I guess they particularly enjoy to do and for us, like my colleagues said, it puts stress on the organisation. Many of us won’t be seeing the families a lot in these three weeks. It’s not perfect – but it is what it is.

And Tanabe-san, what’s it’s like from a power unit manufacturer point of view?

TT: Yes, so we have a lot of those things between the race and the race. We need to maintain the PU ready. So we removed the PU from the chassis and maintain some of the parts and then ready to go for the next race. So logistics, and then also the workload, is tight. Then, the distance between the races in one week is similar but some difficulty with three races in a row.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Racingline.hu) Toto, last week Susie was promoted to team principal of Venturi team in Formula E. Can you give some advice for her how to make a successful team. And if you both will have a race weekend together somewhere in the world, who will take care of the kid?

TW: You’re laughing – but it’s a serious problem to figure out the logistics since she has been involved in Venturi we cross each other at home. Obviously, I try to be as modern a dad as I can be in supporting her – but it’s a great challenge for her. She’s found a very good partner to join up with Gildo [Pallanca Pastor] and she always had the aspiration of doing something entrepreneurial after her racing career, and here she goes. Now, when I’m at home talking about Formula E I have to close the door, so she is not able to listen. But it’s good fun, we enjoy the banter between us and… we’ll see how it works, family-wise.

Q: (Julien Billiotte – AutoHebdo) Question to Christian. There have been some reliability issues with the latest spec of the Honda engine. Is this a source of Red Bull moving forward – or are you using Toro Rosso as a sort of a test bed and pushing for performance?

CH: I think reliability has improved enormously over the last… certainly this season with Honda. We’re not exactly sitting comfortably in our own situation with our current supplier. So, of course, performance and reliability are both things that have to go hand-in-hand with the regulations that we have. I’m sure it’s an area where that Honda are working together very hard on, together with their performance. We’re confident that things are very much moving in the right direction.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) To the three team principals. In political terms, they normally give an incoming president one hundred days before they start commenting. Liberty has now had 500 days since they completed the purchase of Formula One’s commercial rights. How would you summarise their first 500 days as owners of the commercial rights?

Toto, why don’t you take that one first?

TW: That’s very kind of you. Obviously with every new change of regime, the style changes, and we have all been used to Bernie’s way of doing things and lots of credit to him for having built-up the sport. We all wouldn’t be sitting here if he wouldn’t have been as visionary and powerful in the past in building Formula One. Now, with the new ownership, it’s not one person any more than makes the decision but a broader group of people and the transparency that has kicked-in is refreshing and makes things easier to deal with. And then obviously we, as a sport, face tremendously challenging times. Like any other sport, the way sports are being broadcast has changed, and will continue to change and we are all having the challenges of seeking additional income, and that has been equally difficult for Liberty. But they have been trying things: some good, some bad… or some less good but I think overall we’re all in the same boat. We want to see the sport grow, we want to see revenue grow and, bottom line, we can all understand that there is a financial reality that needs to be respected. The top teams are spending too much and we need to get that under control. In so far, summarising, I would say it was positive.

Christian, your 500-day summary.

CH: Yeah, I think there have been some very good things. I think Liberty are very much fan-focussed, so things like access to content for opening up digital media, social media. I think the engagement with fans, creating a better experience trackside. I think the promoters, certainly the teams, have found that there’s a different approach, a different attitude regarding that side of the business. I think what’s by far Liberty’s biggest challenge is how to address the future, how to address 2021. I think the problem, and the risks that I see, is if the FIA and the promoter aren’t fully aligned, we end up with compromises and vanilla-type regulations. I think there needs to be a real clarity going forward as to what the sport is going to be, what are the regulations going to be, that both parties ultimately have to buy into? Liberty have paid $8billion for this sport. They’ve got to turn it into something that’s even more attractive. That’s fantastic racing, obviously there are cost issues, there’s revenue issues that need dealing with. The FIA, obviously as the governing body, they’ve got to be fully-aligned with that, and what concerns us is discussions of where things are going with engines, where things are going with chassis regulations. Everything seems to be getting watered down somewhat from what the initial concept is. So, I think the next 500 days are going to be very telling for life, post-2020.

Franz, your thoughts on Liberty so far?

FT: I can only see positive aspects from them, and I’m also convinced that they are going in the right direction for the future of the sport, because it’s important that Formula One will be changed, from the cost side and what they want to do is absolutely the right thing, to come down with the costs. Whether it’s a cost cap or whether it’s regulated by the sporting and technical regulations is another question. Then, to distribute the money in a fair way, not that some teams get everything and others nearly nothing. They will come up with a new technical regulation for the chassis as well of from the engine side – I think from the engine side should be finished soon, and they will also change the sporting regulation and, so far, all the topics which are being discussed are going in the right direction. They brought in a new attitude for the media, they’re concentrating on the social medias are being preferred more and I think all of these aspects together are important, that Formula One will go in the right direction. Because what we need is not a two-class society like we have now: three teams and the rest of the world. No, it needs ten teams that are close together. Or at least four or five teams are fighting for the championship, fighting for race wins, and this must be the goal, otherwise Formula One is not interesting in the future. I think Liberty Media understood this and they are going in the right direction. I can only support them.

Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Christian, with your engine plans sorted and your driver line-up for next year nearing completion, will the next goal to be resolved be Carlos Sainz Jnr’s future? And can you see him staying in the Red Bull fold if there isn’t a seat available at the top team?

CH: Well, all of these things are obviously interlinked in some way, shape or form. I think the whole driver market is waiting for Toto’s driver to kick that off. I’m hoping… at Silverstone are you finally going to get your finger out, sign a contract? He’s worth it. Come on, he’s worth every penny. So as soon as Toto signs his contract, yeah, two contracts, that then will cascade throughout and Carlos Sainz will just be a mechanism within that so it’s all down to Toto really.

Q: Part of the question there was can you see Carlos staying within the Red Bull family if Daniel stays with you?

CH: I thought I’d successfully managed to swerve that question! Look, Renault have a desire to keep Carlos. It really depends whether we have a requirement for him or not. Our intention is to retain both drivers so once that’s clear then we will sit down with Carlos.

Q: (Ian Parkes – New York Times) Toto, your car seems to be more subject to the vagaries of any given circuit this season than perhaps potentially in the past. Do you fear that continuing this season and potentially undermining your title challenges or do you feel that at this stage of the season you have a better understanding of it and you will be able to limit the losses at certain tracks where you are generally weaker, shall we say?

TW: You’re right. We’ve seen in the past oscillations with all of the teams but ours were pretty obvious and visible. The fast tracks were the ones that suited us more and then once we came to Budapest or Singapore or Monaco these were our weak ones and I think we’ve made some progress, we’ve addressed the problem and we’ve identified the issues but obviously every car has a certain DNA and has evolved over the years and you don’t want to undo the positives of the car, just to optimise the car in the slow speed. And insofar as we are looking at things, Monaco was a good step in the right direction. We didn’t fall off the cliff like we last year and now we have… the next proof is going to be Budapest, pretty soon, to see how we go but definitely it has become more of a challenge, because Red Bull traditionally was on the other side of the curve but they have progressed tremendously on the fast tracks and are now a competitor pretty much everywhere and the same for Ferrari.

Q: (Daniel Horvath – Motorspormania.hu ) Christian, did you have any sleepless nights before making the decision to switch to Honda or was it an easy decision to make, considering their recent gains?

CH: I think, in the end, obviously we were waiting to see the outcome of the second round of engines which were introduced in Montreal and in the end it was a very straightforward and logical decision for us and one that was very much driven by engineering and certainly there was unanimity within our senior technical group, that this is absolutely the right way to go.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Toto, can you allow Porsche to hold the outright record at the Nordschleife or could you imagine yourselves building a Formula One car to challenge that?

TW: Funny that you say that, I thought about that this morning when I saw the time. It’s obviously incredible, what they have achieved, 5m 19s is almost a minute faster than Bellof did in a sport car, one and a half minutes faster than what I thought of doing and it ended up in tears. I’ve spoken with the guys this morning and they’ve said it’s just unbelievable, it’s like flying a spaceship around the track. It would be interesting to put a Formula One car on the Nordschleife and see what it does but it’s pretty more my spin than a realistic idea that somebody’s going to finance.

Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Can’t afford it?

TW: No.

Q: (Maria Reyer – Motorsport-Total.com) To Christian and Toto, there won’t be a German race next year, and Austria still has a contract to 2020 I think. What are your views on the future of these particular two races and do you think Austria is maybe the more important than Germany?

CH: I think Austria is naturally far more important than Germany and very good that we have a Grand Prix here for years to come. It’s always been surprising, the last few years, that there hasn’t been more support at the German Grand Prix, especially with German world champions, German teams and hopefully at Hockenheim this year there will be a good turnout. I remember going there in the Schumacher time when the places were packed. Hopefully the fans get behind the racing, we have a great crowd. If the stadium is full in Hockenheim it’s one of the biggest atmospheres that Formula One can produce. Yeah, it’s a shame that it’s not on the calendar but what’s encouraging is there’s so much competition for races on the calendar these days that races like Germany are struggling to have a continued presence.

TW: Well obviously from an Austrian standpoint I’m very proud that Red Bull or Mr Mateschitz have created such a fantastic infrastructure around Spielberg. It’s not only on the track, you look can look at everything: the hotels are first class, the options for entertainment are really great and the variability is what makes Formula One and I think if you look at this race and these three races now, the back-to-backs: we’ve been in the south of France in Le Castellet, now we are in the mountainous area in Austria and we go to traditional classic Silverstone and that is great for Formula One. To your question on Hockenheim, obviously for us it’s not an easy situation because we would like to have a German race for our fans in Germany and all the Mercedes staff but you need to draw a line between operating a team and getting involved in race promotion, as far as it comes back to Mercedes as a team and this is what we’ve done. And the reason why we have a little bit of a hangover in Germany is maybe because the Germans have been so successful. We had seven years of Schumacher dominance and pretty soon thereafter four years of Sebastian winning it all and maybe you have to go through a bit of a dip to recover.

CH: Like the football!

TW: Like the football.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Toto, just going back to what Christian was saying about the 2021 rules. Do you share his concerns that if the FIA and F1 don’t completely agree on things it could be watered down or vanilla and if there is anything missing, what more would you like to see from them?

TW: Traditionally, if you look at the objectives, Christian and mine are maybe a little bit different. We would like to have a little bit more emphasis on the power unit and Christian on the chassis but that maybe changes, but I think transparency and a clear path is important.  We need to know what’s happening in 2021, what the regs look like on the power unit side and on the chassis side in order to get things moving and avoid a cost escalation, a cost rush last minute. That is important. I hope that with next week’s meeting, we have a little bit more understanding and input and then we see where it ends up.