Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by Jacques Villeneuve

Oscar, that's P3. It's not pole, but it looked like a very tough day. Was the car hard to drive? You touched the wall a little bit earlier. You're still there in the fight, plenty in the championship. Are you in a good position for the race?
Oscar Piastri: Yeah, to be honest, after how practice went, I'm pretty happy with myself at the moment. So, no, it was a nice turnaround. You know, there's always the question: do you want a medium or do you want a soft for Q3? And we went with a soft because we were having a lot of problems. We just wanted to keep things consistent. So, I'm pretty happy with it, which is a bit different this year, but I'll definitely take it here.

Well, that's a good position for the championship with your team-mate so far behind. Good luck tomorrow.
OP: Thank you very much. Cheers.

Max, you almost had it there. That was close. But, you know, on a tough track to drive in qualifying, just like Suzuka - take wing off, be quick, look to have top speed, but you're also quick in the corners. How do you manage that?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, I think I felt quite good all weekend. The car actually was in a good window. I mean, this track is quite cool. It feels a bit like a big go-kart on the kerbs. And then, of course, you have the long straights, heavy braking. You need to be quite efficient on the straight, which I think we are in general. Yeah, so I'm very happy with qualifying. I think the car was again working quite well. Then, of course, the tough choice was the tyres, which one to use. But I think we did the right thing.

Now seeing the layout of Turn 1 and 2, is it actually a good thing to be P2, to be on the right side of the track?
MV: I mean, I would always pick P1. You just start a little bit more forward, but it's fine. I mean, we'll see what we can do tomorrow. I'm already very happy with what we achieved today, to be on the front row, and hopefully tomorrow we can have a solid race.

Well, have fun tomorrow. Good luck.
MV: Thank you.

Geroge, two years in a row, you don't have the top speed, but you managed to get that last lap in. And all season, you've just been getting there - not fighting for the win, getting the points, always staying in the championship hunt. But getting pole here today—was that the right moment?
George Russell: Yeah, today was awesome in front of this amazing crowd as well, to get the pole. I mean, to be honest, that last lap was probably one of the most exhilarating laps of my life because on my steering wheel, you've got the delta, and I just saw every corner I was going one tenth quicker, one tenth quicker. And I got into the last corner and I was, you know, six tenths up. I was like, alright, this lap is mighty. And crossing the line, seeing we were P1, was a real surprise, but I was, yeah, so chuffed with it.

Well, you have a tough fighter next to you. You're in the championship hunt, so tomorrow...
GR: We're mates, so it's all good!

Until you put your helmet on, yes! So, Turn 1, the start of the race. He's got the top speed over you. Is it aggressive, go for the win, maximize the points in the championship, or continue massaging the championship points?
GR: I mean, I've got a few more points on my license to play with. So, yeah, let's see.

Press Conference

George, two in a row! What an incredible final lap. How sweet was it?
GR: Yeah, honestly, it was probably the most exhilarating lap I've ever done in my life because around this circuit you've got to be so committed. It's not easy. It's quite bumpy. It's so easy to make a mistake. You know, I think I almost found seven tenths on that last lap. Every corner I was going a tenth faster, a tenth faster, and it was just like the car was on rails. I just felt in such a rhythm, and crossing the line, when you do a lap like that, to get pole position afterwards as well was just insane. I had goosebumps in that moment. I don't think I've ever had goosebumps after a pole position or a good result. That one meant a lot to me.

What difference did the Medium tyre make?
GR: I think that was definitely the faster tyre today. We've seen it a few times before. The qualifying was a tricky session. The people who were at the front—it was always variable. In Q1, I was further down the order. Then Q2, I had a good lap. First run in Q3, I was a bit off the pace—three or four tenths off—and it felt like a good lap as well, but the Medium really gave me that bit of extra confidence. But I think the gap still to Oscar on the Soft was still almost three tenths. So, I'm not saying I'd have been able to do just as good a lap on the Soft, but the Medium's definitely not three tenths better than the Soft. So I think whatever tyre we had on for that lap, it would have been the one.

Was the track still ramping up in Q3, still getting better?
GR: I think so. Every lap you do, the track's always going faster and faster. Especially on a circuit like this, which is a street track, it's a little bit windy, so you get a bit of dust on the circuit between the sessions. That's why it's always that very last lap in Q3 that counts, and that's when... It doesn't matter how the whole weekend goes and we'd been having a really strong weekend up until qualifying, so the pressure's on. If you don't perform as well as you did in practice, it's a bit of an underperformance. But, obviously, getting that result was mega.

Let's throw it forward then to the race. There are a lot of variables to focus on. What do you think are going to be the biggest challenges for you?
GR: Right now, I'm not too sure. To be honest, we had good race pace on Friday, but it depends on the temperature. In practice, it was five degrees cooler than it was today, and the car was easily in its sweet spot. Now, it can easily go the other way tomorrow in the race. If the sun comes out—it's a 2:00 race, it was a 4:00 qualifying today—that makes quite a bit of difference. So, it's not going to be an easy race and, you know, of course, got some really quick guys around me. We don't know if it's going to be a one-stop or a two-stop, so it won't be straightforward.

After what happened in Spain last time out, do you feel you can lean on Max going into Turn 1?
GR: Yeah. I think, obviously, we're both fighting for the win here, and neither of us are really in a championship battle. I haven't had a win this year, so I want to get one on the board. Time will tell.

Max, let's bring it to you. Great qualifying session for you as well. Was there anything left in the car or the lap that could have made a difference in Q3?
MV: No.

Talk us through the session then. It seemed to get better and better. Certainly that run in Q3, Sector 1 in particular.
MV: It was fine. I mean, I made progress every qualifying. We planned it with a Medium like that, and everything worked well. So I'm happy with that.

Let's throw it forward then. How racy does the car feel over a long stint?
MV: It felt okay yesterday. I mean, I was fairly happy with the car. You just need to look after the tyres. There was a bit of graining for everyone yesterday, so we'll try to keep that under control for tomorrow, also with the warmer temperatures.

You said a moment ago that a solid race is what you're looking for tomorrow. What does that mean for you?
MV: I think being on the podium, trying to be as competitive as we can be, trying to extract the most out of the car. But I don't know. We'll probably find out after the race if we did so. But, yeah, hopefully we can just be good on tyre management.

And, Max, the penalty points thing, you're alongside George...
MV: I don't need to hear it again. It's really pissing me off. I mean, you were speaking about it on Thursday. It's such a waste of time. It's very childish. So, that's why I also don't want to say too much because it's really annoying, this world that we live in.

Okay. No change from you. Good luck. Well done today. Oscar, let's come to you now. Great job as well. How do you sum up qualifying from your point of view?
OP: Much better than practice, that's for sure. I mean, honestly, I'm quite happy here in P3. After all the practice sessions, I was struggling, obviously. I didn't have a smooth session this morning, and, yeah, everything just felt more back to normal. In qualifying, everything came alive again. So, you know, there'll always be the question—should we have gone for a Medium at the end? But I think with how we'd been going in practice, having just a clean run on the same compound seemed like the best idea for us, and honestly, I think it worked well. So honestly, pretty happy.

Can you just elaborate on the decision not to take the Medium? How close was it? Was it a live decision? Did you make that call just before Q3? Or was it something that you decided before the session?
OP: I mean, we always kept it on the table, but I don't think we were ever that—or I certainly wasn't ever that tempted. Like I said, practice was pretty miserable. So, I just wanted to have a clean run through qualifying, not introduce any variables that could have made things even more difficult. That's what we stuck to. I think it's been a strength of ours so far this year—sticking to our guns and doing what we think is best for us. Would we have been on pole position on a Medium? Maybe. But there's also the risk that it goes wrong, and you end up worse than we are now. So, I'm pretty happy.

The car came alive for you in qualifying. You just said that. Can you challenge these guys for the win?
OP: I think so. Again, Friday didn't look great in any run, but I certainly feel more comfortable now than I did this morning and then yesterday. Our pace on race days is generally where we're strong. These two next to me were very quick in the race runs yesterday, so it's certainly not going to be a slam dunk win, but I think we're definitely in the fight.

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