Track Interviews - Conducted by Jolyon Palmer

Lando, you're back to the top three at the end of that one. You had to work for it at the start with Charles Leclerc. Obviously, the start and the first run up towards Les Combes is tricky. The Ferrari came past but you dealt with him quickly.
Lando Norris: Yeah. I mean, not a lot going on. Obviously, a bit of fun at the start with trying to overtake Charles. Maybe could have positioned myself a little bit better but otherwise a bit too difficult to get past Max. Max drove a good race and I wasn't going to get past anyone unless Oscar got past Max. They drove good races. Not a lot we could do on a day like today, so looking forward to tomorrow.

So, what are you thinking then when you're stuck in there? You could obviously see the top two very close together. Are you hoping that there's a bit of action ahead? Are you hoping that Oscar makes a mistake to fall towards you?
LN: Yeah. It's tough. Obviously, I hope for a bit of battling or something but the Red Bull was just too quick on the straight for us to catch up. Maybe some tweaks for us to make into qualifying, I don't know. We'll reassess and see what we can do.

And it wasn't the easiest day for you yesterday, but only one point lost to Oscar in terms of the championship, and you can regroup now ahead of the Grand Prix. You're off the back of two Grand Prix wins in a row. Can you make it three?
LN: This is the plan. I'm not too fussed about Sprint races, but obviously main races I prefer to win. We'll see. I wasn't too bad yesterday. I was comfortable, just a couple things didn't go my way. But I'm confident we can have a good result later and put in some good quality laps.

Well done, Lando. Six more points in the bag.
LN: Thank you.

Oscar, second place. We knew the start was going to be tricky for you on pole position. That Red Bull is very slippery. I guess it played out kind of how you expected it on the first lap.
Oscar Piastri: Pretty much, yeah. I tried my best to snake my way through the straights and not give too much of a tow but I just didn't have enough straight-line speed and then obviously didn't have enough straight-line speed for the next 15 laps either. Still a good result, still good points. It is only the Sprint, the main points are tomorrow. Pretty happy with it but just a bit frustrating that I couldn't get past.

I imagine you know the back of the Red Bull pretty well by now, having followed so close for so long, but the opportunity didn't quite come to you in that one. What do you do with the car then? Do you trim out some downforce? Are you looking at the weather? How can you stop this happening tomorrow?
OP: It's a great question. The weather is looking pretty bad for tomorrow, which obviously means you probably don't want to take off too much wing, but I don't really want to repeat the Sprint we've just had. We'll have a look, see what we can do. There's a lot of things to look into before tomorrow.

Well, you've still been on fire this weekend, the man to beat on one lap so far. We've got that coming up later. Going to go and give it the beans again on Soft tyres only?
OP: Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Spa is my favourite track of the year and especially in qualifying it's just mega around here. Looking forward to some more laps this afternoon.

We're looking forward to them too. Well done, Oscar.
OP: Thanks.

Max, a Sprint win, a Spa special for you as well there getting the run on the first lap. I guess you knew that was your big chance with the Red Bull pace you've got on the straight line and you executed it to perfection.
Max Verstappen: Yeah. It worked out really well. That's the only real opportunity you're going to get against them and we got it into Turn 5. Then I knew it was going to be very tough to keep them behind. It was just playing cat and mouse, DRS, battery usage. The whole race was within seven tenths. I couldn't really afford to make big mistakes. I had one tiny lock-up in the last corner but apart from that it was a great result to keep them behind and to have a win here in Spa. Of course it's a Sprint win but it still counts and I'm very happy with what we did out there.

It was a great performance. Lots of eyes in the mirrors. I want to talk to you about the brakes though because you mentioned at one point it was difficult to hit the peak pressure. We saw you as you referenced have a little run-on in the Bus Stop. What was going on there?
MV: Basically, you're keeping faster cars behind so you have to drive over the limit of what you think is possible. Tyre management is out of the window so that is what makes it really difficult. I'm just doing 15 qualifying laps to try and keep them behind on a track where tyre management is important. It wasn't easy but we managed to do it so I'm very happy with that.

Still a lot going on in a race where there's no position change after the first lap but you're having to work that hard. So what about qualifying later on? The McLaren looks a little bit too quick but can you make some changes and get to pole?
MV: Do I feel pole is possible? I'm not sure but we'll try our best, try and set up the car how we want. After this race we'll have a few more ideas of what we want to do and then try to be as close as possible to them.

Press Conference

Very well done, Max. A perfectly executed sprint by you, a game of cat and mouse throughout. Just how much satisfaction does a win like that give you?
MV: Yeah, I'm just happy that I was able to hang on to it. I knew, of course, in the start there were possibilities up to Turn 5. We took it. And then, from there onwards, I knew also they had new Mediums. I knew that it was going to be even more difficult. Just trying to hang in there with the top speed that we had. I knew the middle sector was going to be the weaker area for us and just trying not to make any mistakes there, basically. And it worked very well. The only thing that I had was one time the braking into the last chicane. But it's also, you know, you're driving a bit over your own kind of management, so it's easy to just overheat the tyres a bit too much. But we hung in there and kept the two McLarens behind. Of course, very pleased to win here. I mean, it's my favourite track, home crowd, home feeling. So, yeah, just very nice always to be here.

Max, just talk us through the move going into Turn 5 on Oscar on lap one. Were you surprised by your straight-line speed advantage?
MV: No. I knew that we had a little bit of a pace advantage on the straight. So, as soon as we got out of Turn 1, I knew that I would have a run to Turn 5.

The setup worked well today. Do you see any reason to change it for the rest of the weekend?
MV: Need to have a look. Silverstone wasn't particularly fantastic for us on Sunday. So just need to have a double check, yeah, double check the weather basically, and we'll have a look what we'll do.

Oscar, congratulations on P2. Although it was a slightly frustrating race for you staring at Max's gearbox for so long. Just how close did you get to making a move on him?
OP: Realistically, not that close. I think there was one or two times where I got within a car length but the problem is I didn't have enough. And Turn 5 is not really a corner where you can make a lunge on someone. Once they defend the inside, it's difficult to do anything. So I think realistically I was going to have to try and get past on the straight, which we were no chance of doing. A little bit frustrating, but we knew that was a possibility going into the Sprint and I was prepared for maybe not to be within eight tenths the whole race and not be able to do anything, but for this kind of result.

And when you saw how easy it was for him to get past you up to Turn 5 on lap one, did you know at that moment that it was going to be very difficult for the rest of the race?
OP: Not necessarily. I was hoping we would be super quick in the middle sector and be able to hang on, but I think I could for the first part of the race. But spending that much time right behind someone, you overheat the tyres very quickly. Especially around here, they deg as well. It's not just getting hot. I think the back end of the race I lost some of the advantage in the middle sector that I had and obviously you don't gain anything more on the straight. So realistically I don't think we had quite enough to even get close enough, but we'll see what we can do for qualifying.

What about tomorrow? The weather forecast looks like it's going to be rainy in the afternoon. What's the balance? Do you think you need more straight-line speed or are you going to play on the conservative side?
OP: I don't know yet. We'll wait and see. If it is wet, then naturally you want a bit more downforce, but if it's not wet, then I don't really want a repeat of the sprint race we've just had. So we'll have a look for sure, but it'll be interesting to see if anyone changes and which way we go.

Lando, very well done on the P3. Just how much confidence does that sprint give you for the rest of the weekend?
LN: The same as what I had before. Like Oscar said, I think we knew we would find it tough to pass Max if he got ahead at the beginning. I got past Charles and from then it was just kind of a bit of a waiting game to see if anything happened, but nothing did. So I had confidence before that we would be quick. But here, you still need to be a bit quicker in this race than what we were today. Difficult. I think we probably have a quicker car altogether, but just not enough to overtake.

Lando, what did we learn in that sprint that can help us for the rest of the weekend in terms of tyre wear? Franco Colapinto set his fastest lap on the soft tyre on the last lap. Just give us your thoughts on that.
LN: I don't know. Impressive. I don't know. The tyres are nowhere near good enough at the end, so I don't know if he just had some clearer air or something. I don't think that means anything. We'll see. We've just got qualifying ahead now, and then we'll wait and see what the weather makes us do tomorrow.

Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa here.