Nyck de Vries achieves goal by staying out of trouble: ‘Embroidering on this’ | Monaco GP

“It was a solid race”, De Vries looked back afterwards. “In the beginning I think I asked a little too much of the tires when I was behind Oscar Piastri. Later you saw that Alexander Albon was pushing with me, but he paid the price for that.”

Later, De Vries himself ran into problems with his tires. “I had Bottas right behind me. But then he suffered graining and it got better for me. From that moment on I could go much faster and we were really competitive. I’m talking about the last ten laps before the rain came.”

In the transition phase, De Vries only had to leave Bottas ahead, who had made his stop earlier. “I don’t think we did anything wrong there. I think we responded well to the circumstances.”

Once on the intermediate tyres, it was a challenge for De Vries to stay on track. “I really had no grip when it started to rain. I suppose everyone was affected by that. You lost a lot of temperature in the tires and the brakes and then it was a matter of survival. But we managed. We got out of the problems remained. That was the goal today.”

It was a special experience for De Vries to drive a Grand Prix in his hometown for the first time. “Friday morning was especially crazy. I was first doing laundry at home, folded it and vacuumed the house. Then I went to the circuit.”

“And in the evening I received the food from the team here in a bag and I ate it alone at home. It was nice to sleep at home. I may be Dutch, but I also felt the support here. My father and sister were there to watch.”

De Vries went into the weekend under some pressure after weeks of stories about his position, but looks back on solid days in Monaco.

“Obviously I would have liked more, but we’ve learned you can’t force it. You have to be patient until it all comes together. If we can build on that that would be great. The speed in the car is getting better and we’re coming every race closer to the top ten.”