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1 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
2 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Alex Brundle)
Q: Oscar
Piastri, an outstanding lap at the end of qualifying for the biggest pole
margin of the year. You must be happy with that.
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah,
very happy. It's been a good weekend so far. It didn't start off in the best
way — we were struggling a little bit — but I think last night we found some
pace. And today, the car's been mega, and I feel like I've been able to put
in some good laps as well. So thank you to the team for all the hard work.
This was a pretty miserable scene 12 months ago, so to have turned it around
in the best way is a great result.
Q: Speaking of finding pace, it
was that very last lap in Q3 where you jumped ahead. Where do you think you
found the time over the earlier lap — without the cheeky tow available, of
course?
OP: Yeah, I improved quite a lot in Turn 1, actually. And
then there were a couple of other places in the lap where I’d been
struggling a bit all day. I don’t know if I necessarily did better, but it
all just came to me mainly in the first half of the lap. And in the second
half, could just about hang on. It wasn’t the perfect lap, but I think
around here, with the tyres going off so much through the lap, it’s very
tough to do that. So, I’m very, very happy with all the work we put in.
Q: Two McLarens across the front row of the grid tomorrow puts you in a
great position strategically, for what looks to be an extremely strategic
Grand Prix.
OP: Yeah, definitely. It's going to be an interesting one
tomorrow and I’m pretty glad that I’m starting from pole. It's obviously a
long run to Turn 1, so I’ve got to make sure we try and get a good start
tomorrow. But no, very proud of the work we've done today and starting in
the best spot. So, I can’t thank the team enough, and hopefully we can have
some fun tomorrow.
Q: Outstanding lap. Congratulations, Oscar.
Bringing in Lando Norris. Lando, early in the session it looked like the
pole position would be yours, but not quite there in that final run. Do you
think you could have had pole today?
Lando NORRIS: Oscar drove very
well. I think the pace is definitely there. Just a couple of little
mistakes, but yeah, didn’t do it. And Oscar, like I said, was driving well
all weekend. So, a good result for the team, a nice one-two, and an
interesting start for tomorrow.
Q: We saw a little bit of
gamesmanship between the two of you early on in Q3 with regards to the tow.
Three points between you coming into this weekend in the championship. Is
that a taster of the battle that we're going to see tomorrow?
LN: I
mean, hopefully not. Hopefully it’s just an easy race for me. But no, I
expected it. It's a long run down to Turn 1 — normally always interesting. I
mean, we’ve got a lot of quick guys behind us, so we won’t count them out.
But no, good result for today. I'm happy.
Q: Looks like you're going
have to keep hold of that left front throughout the race tomorrow. Do you
have a good race car underneath you?
LN: We do. We have the best one.
Q: Max Verstappen. Great job to take third position in the session.
Was that everything that the car had today?
Max VERSTAPPEN: I guess
so. I mean, I think we were lacking all weekend, of course, compared to
them. But I think we executed well. And I think, yeah, that third position
is where we more or less should be, even though I think it’s quite close
behind as well. So yeah, it’s fun. I mean, around here squeezing everything
out of the car — the grip is always quite good even with the hot
temperatures — but yeah, let’s see tomorrow what we can do from there.
Q: Exactly the same lap time on our timing screens as George Russell.
You, of course, setting the lap time first. You've been talking a little bit
about the balance of that Red Bull through the weekend so far. How much work
did you have to do overnight to put yourself in a position to be third too?
MV: Not too much. I mean, I think we had quite a decent Friday actually,
and we just made some final changes to the car. But yeah, of course,
unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to really challenge for pole. But yeah, it's
okay.
Q: Do you have a good race car underneath you for tomorrow
starting from the second row of the grid?
MV: Yeah, I’ll try my best,
but they will be tough to beat. But we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Many congratulations, Oscar. It was a tight
battle. Talk us through the lap that gave you the pole.
OP: It was
pretty good. I think Sector 1 in particular felt quite strong and halfway
through Sector 2. The back end of the lap was a little bit trickier, and I'd
actually lost a little bit of time. But I think here, if you use up your
tires in the first half of the lap, the second half becomes very tough. So
clearly, it was good enough, which is a great thing, obviously. The car's
been feeling really good today and I've been able to put in consistent laps,
which has been nice and a bit of a contrast to yesterday. So, it's been a
good day.
Q: This is the biggest pole margin of the season so far.
Just how confident were you feeling coming into the session?
OP: I
think it had been a good run through practice. FP2 felt strong this morning,
and FP3 I felt pretty strong. So, I was pretty confident that was on the
cards in quali. I obviously knew that Lando was going to be quick, but I
also thought that the others would get in the mix as well. So yeah, it was
nice that we had a bit of a gap as a team. I always felt pretty confident
that I could achieve this today, so glad that we pulled it off.
Q:
You touched on tyres a little bit earlier. Can you talk us through the
decision-making process in the cockpit about how hard to push in Sector 1 to
ensure that you do have a little bit of tyre left in Sector 3?
OP:
There wasn't any really. I learned that after the fact. But yeah, I knew I
had some corners to tidy up in the first half of the lap, which I felt like
I did a good job of. And then, I don’t know, maybe I just got too excited
for the second half of the lap or I don't know. It wouldn't be the first
time. Maybe it was just a lack of talent in the second half, but I think
when you push the tyres like that and get everything out of them, there
probably is a bit of a price to pay because the last sector, the corners are
so slow and so long. So, if I was to do it again, maybe I'd tweak it
slightly, but I don't really care now.
Q: Oscar, a quick word if we
could on the technical directive that's been introduced this weekend. Have
there been challenges dialling the car into this racetrack as a result?
OP: No. Not because of the technical directive. No. I mean, every
weekend we've gone through, there's been some things to fine-tune, but we
had the same problems as usual. So, it was nothing new.
Q: Alright.
Let's throw it forward to tomorrow. What’s the key to winning the Spanish
Grand Prix on Sunday?
OP: Crossing the line first, Tom. That's the
key! I mean, yeah, I think trying to get a good start and keep the lead is a
good idea probably. But there's going to be some strategy involved tomorrow.
The long runs yesterday were pretty painful for everyone, I think. So, it's
going to be a different race to a lot of the races we've had this year.
Hopefully, a bit different to last weekend. I think it will be an
interesting race still and it's not as simple as take the lead at the start
and cruise from there. It's going to be a challenge to manage the tyres,
timing your stops right. There's going to be a lot going on.
Q:
Lando, let's come to you. After the first run of Q3, you had the pole. Did
you think there was more time on the table after that lap?
Lando
NORRIS: Yeah. For sure.
Q: So, talk us through the second lap then.
What happened?
LN: Just a couple little mistakes. Turn 1 – which is
kind of the first place you don't want to make a mistake, just because it
harms the rest of the lap with the tyres and things. So just a couple of
little squiggles there and the exit of Turn 4 as well. So just not a perfect
lap, not the cleanest lap, but still improved, surprisingly. So the pace was
easily there. Just a couple too many mistakes.
Q: Lando, can you talk
us through the performance of the car throughout the weekend? How much
confidence do you have in the long run pace going into the race tomorrow?
LN: Yeah, good. We've been good in all conditions so far. It's obviously
very hot. So, like Oscar said, just a bit of a struggle for everyone. It's a
struggle in quali to look after the tyres for one lap, so the race is then
much trickier. But the car has been good the whole weekend, as you've shown
today. So yeah, that's always reassuring before Sunday.
Q: Just that
first lap of Q3 – we did see you, at least from the outside, it looked like
you might have got a tow off Oscar to start your lap. Did it make any
difference?
LN: Hard to say. It was short-lived, but rightly so. So
no, don’t think so.
Q: Max, let’s come to you then. Talk us through
the session from your point of view. Yet again, you delivered when it
mattered right at the end.
MV: Yeah. It was fine. I think it was
consistently the same delta behind. So Q1, Q2, Q3. Just my first one in Q3
was a bit more difficult because we tried a different out-lap approach and
that didn't work. But yeah, clearly just lacking a bit too much. Sector 1
was quite tough. Turn 1 was never really good, even though I tried different
approaches, but just didn’t seem to find the grip there. The rest… It was
fine. The car was in a decent window. Unfortunately, not fast enough, but I
had fun out there. The car, around here, qualifying flat out, fast corners,
it is really enjoyable.
Q: You say you had fun, but did you expect to
be closer to McLaren than you are?
MV: When?
Q: In quali, over
one lap.
MV: No.
Q: What about the race pace of the car?
You're going for your fourth consecutive win here, Max. How steep a
challenge is tomorrow for you?
MV: It’s going to be tough, I think.
My long run wasn't bad, but if you look at the difference today, it will be
tough to put up a really, really good fight. But that doesn't mean that
we're not going try. So, we'll see tomorrow.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Maria Clara Castro – Car Magazine Brazil). Oscar, I’d like to
highlight your reactions to pole positions and race wins. On social media,
it's been pointed out your, let’s say, your nonchalant attitude – as if you
were like Ice Boy – Formula 1’s Kimi Räikkönen, the Iceman’s son. Do you
agree with that portrait, and is it accurate?
OP: I'm not sure I want
to go under the name Ice Boy! I think the emotions are different each time.
Certainly, there’s been qualifyings and races where it’s not been nonchalant
and there’s been a lot of emotion behind them. But then there’s others where
you go out and you know that if you do a good enough job, you can achieve
the result you want. Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly satisfying, but I
think I’m just not a particularly emotional person. That’s just how I am,
really. Don’t get me wrong, there are still moments that I am emotional, but
I also know that today… It’s a nice thing to have, starting on pole, but
it’s not the end of the weekend. The points are tomorrow. After the races,
it depends a bit on the race. If you’ve had a battle with someone the whole
race and then you win, then yeah, you’re pretty pumped up. But if you’ve got
a bit of a gap, then you kind of know with a few laps to go that it’s going
to go your way, and then it doesn’t spill over so much. So yeah, that’s just
how I am.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lando, you talked in Monaco
about the importance of that pole in terms of the work you’ve been doing to
get that extra final bit in qualifying. After today, I guess it gives
another sort of sample in terms of how those gains work. Do you feel that
you’ve still made that progress? Was it just a case of not being quite tidy
enough today?
LN: Yeah. The speed was easily there today. And
sometimes you just don’t put the laps in. Today was good. I think I was a
little bit behind at the start of qualifying and I caught up nicely. I know
where I lost that time on the final lap. It was just trying a little bit too
much and just not being quite tidy enough – especially around a lap like
Barcelona. One little oversteer in Turn 1, Turn 2, you kind of already know
it’s going to be a tricky rest of the lap. So, it’s still good. I still feel
fine. I’m happy with second, especially in Barcelona – it’s not the end of
the world. So, a positive weekend.
Q: (Giuseppe Marino –
Motorioline.com) Max, do you think the start tomorrow can be the most
important moment of your race, or is your race pace good to stay with these
two guys?
MV: I think it's time to shine in Turn 1, yeah. Make it
three-wide for the pictures. Why not? I don't know. Honestly, I think
looking at pace, it will be tough. Like Oscar said, it’s not all about the
start and Turn 1. You need to be good on tyres. It’s a long race. A lot can
happen. So, I’ll just try to maximise what I got.
Q: (Filip Cleeren –
Motorsport.com) A question for both McLaren drivers please. On the tow –
Oscar, you said it was cheeky of Lando to try and grab it. Can you explain
the plan beforehand? Were you guys supposed to stay out of each other's way?
And did you guys feel confident you had enough on Max to just do your own
thing?
OP: I went out very early for the first run of Q3 and I think
it was just coincidence that Lando ended up behind me opening the lap. Of
course, when you cross the line to start your lap, it’s maybe not the nicest
feeling, but we’ll discuss it. There was nothing untoward going on. Unless
Lando’s going to spill his master plan that him and Will had! But I think it
was just coincidence.
LN: We planned it the whole weekend! No. I
didn’t know Oscar was going out first, to be honest. I tried to get a
slipstream from someone. I think I was unlucky that it was Oscar. It was
just a coincidence. I was tenth or something in the queue. I don’t know who
I’m going to get a slipstream from because you’re waiting two minutes in the
pit lane. So yeah, just coincidence. |
