Max Verstappen grabbed third place on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix and was able to hold off the challenge of both Ferraris to keep his position until the chequered flag. The result is the 24th podium finish of the Dutchman's career. His team-mate Pierre Gasly put in a solid performance, starting and finishing the race in sixth.

Scuderia Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat and Alex Albon were similarly consistent, with both holding on to their grid positions of ninth and 11th respectively, despite a pit-lane mix-up costing them vital seconds.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen – Position: 3rd

“I’m trying to maximise everything I have and I’m happy with today’s result. We’re P3 again, which is pretty representative of our pace at the moment, and it’s great to score more good points. I knew we had a good chance in the race to fight with Ferrari and that’s what we did. At the start it was quite hectic with three cars going into one corner, so I decided to back out of it, but actually in the end I had a good line out of Turn 2 into Turn 3. To take P3 in that corner was very crucial as from there on I could do my own pace and strategy, which worked out well. The Mercedes cars were out of reach, but we were very consistent and we’re of course happy to be on the podium. Everybody is very motivated to close the gap and we'll try a few things in the test next week that can give us a better direction in which way to work.”

Pierre Gasly – Position: 6th

“The first stint was OK, but towards the end I started to struggle with grip and degradation. We had a lot of rubber debris in the front wing, which meant I was sliding around so the pace just dropped from the second stint onwards. I tried to push as much as I could, but I couldn’t keep up with the Ferraris in front of me. At the Safety Car restart, I tried a move on Charles but I couldn’t make it stick. It was a pretty good fight and I think at the start we actually touched in Turn 3. In the end, it’s good to score some points. We have the test coming up on Tuesday so we can try some more things and keep pushing. Looking forwards, I think we have good potential on some of the upcoming tracks which should suit our car better.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal

“It was a phenomenal first lap from Max as he managed to pass both Ferraris in Turns 2 and 3, and Pierre got a reasonable start too. We elected quite early on to be a little more aggressive and go on a two-stop strategy. Max was very consistent today and he was able to get everything out of the car, maintaining third position and holding off Seb after the Safety Car at the end of the race. Pierre had another strong race, however he picked up some debris about half way through the race which got lodged in his front wing and cost him quite a bit of performance. All things considered, it was a very strong race again from him and he brought the team more important points. It’s great to get our second podium of the year and now there’s obviously plenty to do before Monaco, where Mercedes will be the benchmark going into the weekend, but hopefully we can continue to close the gap.”

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Daniil Kvyat – Position: 9th

“There were a few exciting moments today, but unfortunately we lost our race in the pit lane as the tyres weren’t ready for me. It was a very last-minute call to pit, these things happen with such tricky situations and I’m sure we'll learn from this as a team. I think we could have finished in P7 as that’s where we were running before the pit-lane mishap. We still got a couple of points today which is always welcome. The car’s performance is improving and I’m feeling always more comfortable with the car. I’m sure we have some good days ahead.”

Alexander Albon – Position: 11th

“It was disappointing to be so close to points and come away with nothing, but it was good fun racing with Romain. I had to back out of it because I thought I might have had an incident when we both decided to go right at the same time. I had to hit the brakes and lost the momentum into Turn 1, I think if it wasn’t for that I would have got past. The race was lost for us in the pit stop, so we need to review what happened because we should have had two cars in the top 10. It’s a frustrating one, but I’m happy with my performance and I’m looking forward to fighting for points again in Monaco.”

Franz Tost, Team Principal

“The starting positions for the race were quite promising, Dany started from P9 with used options and Alex started from P11 on the new option tyres. This worked well and both drivers had a good start: Alex moved up a position while Dany maintained his. The car showed a strong performance and the drivers did a really good job until the Safety Car came out, when we lost everything because of a radio miscommunication between the pit wall and the mechanics. Dany pitted first, although the mechanics understood it was Alex, therefore we had troubles with the correct tyres and lost a lot of time. As a result, we dropped a few positions on track. At the end of the race we finished with only one car in the points, which is very disappointing because we know we could have achieved more today.”