Putrajaya victor Sam Bird dedicated his win to injured F1 driver Jules Bianchi. Speaking in the post-race press conference, he said: “It’s been an amazing week. First of all, well done to everybody who helped this track happen. For all of us drivers, it was a challenge. I certainly enjoyed it. We were quick from the first outing, in practice. Qualifying didn’t go quite our way, but we put that right in the race. In the first stint, I got a very good gap, which made it possible to take it easy in the second car, lots of lift and coast. I lined Servia up three turns before I made the overtake. I took the racing line, he took the inside line, I got the switchback. Congratulations to Virgin. It our first win, against teams like ABT and DAMS who have won many championships. I have to dedicate this to a good friend of mine who is currently very ill. This one is for Jules.”

Second position was picked up by Lucas di Grassi, who came from P18 to the podium. He said: “Everybody is here to win and pushing to the limit. This car has proven that this car is tricky to drive. Sometimes three or four inches of miscalculation can ruin your whole weekend. That’s what happened in quali from my side. To come all the way from the back to second on a street race is amazing. I ran a better race than Beijing, even though I won there. At the start, there were many crashes. I managed to overtake a few places. Then another crash and a safety car. Then in the pit stops I got higher, and then more crashes. ABT is a wonderful team to work with. I’m going to have a great party tonight.”

Buemi was also at the back of the grid but managed to pick up P3. He commented: “The first race just didn’t go well. Then quali went bad today. I felt I was not so quick. We did some set up adjustments that did not work very well. I felt the slowest in this car but I finished third. The team did a great job to repair the car after practice. We have lost a lot of points to other teams but the championship is long. If we manage to have a quick car like we normally do have, it will be fine.”