DRIVERS

1 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)

2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)

3 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)

PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Lando Norris, what a lap on a circuit where we expect it to be super tight. Half a second! Put us in the cockpit – where did that come from?

Lando NORRIS: Oh, it was a good lap, that’s for sure. I guess just little bit by little bit. I feel even like my Q3 run one was good, but I knew there’s a few places where if I just got it right, I could get still quite a bit more time. And I did exactly that. So, I did what I planned to do. And when I plan to do something and it goes right, it normally goes very, very well. So yeah, very happy. A good day. It’s been a good weekend for me so far, so hopefully we can keep it up.

Q: So, you didn’t do the first practice session, you’ve been top of the times every time you’ve done a lap around this track. I feel that I’m a little bit more impressed and excited by that lap than you are. Is this just a new, steely focus for this weekend?

LN: I don’t know. I mean, I’m still very happy. It’s just a long season. I still savour with this moment, especially because this has been some of my tougher moments in qualifying. So, to put in a lap like today, to have the performance throughout this weekend like I had, was pleasing for myself. But I’m excited. It’s a long race tomorrow. I’m very happy with today, but I want to prove it to myself over and over again, and hopefully this is just the beginning of it.

Q: Okay. Well, congratulations. I think that was an awesome lap.

LN: Thank you so much. Cheers, everyone. Thank you.

Q: Charles, after what was an average qualifying in Canada, here we are right there, front row, second place. You must be very happy.

Charles LECLERC: Yeah, I’m very pleased. I mean, it’s been a long time since… I think it was Monaco the last time we started on the front row, and it’s been a difficult season overall, but the team have kept pushing. We brought some new parts this weekend, which for sure made a difference because if you look at the gaps, everybody’s super close. So, it’s also thanks to the team, but I’m very happy with the lap. Overall, yeah, it’s a good start to the weekend. We know that we have a better car normally in the race than we do in qualifying, so I hope that we can put a bit more pressure on McLaren tomorrow.

Q: Well, you’re obviously happy with that performance. You’re right there with all your other competitors, but a half a second gap to Lando. Can you imagine that lap?

CL: I mean, not with our car yet, but we are going to work towards that. But it’s not to minimise Lando’s job, obviously. I mean, he must have done an incredible lap. I haven’t seen it because I just got out the car, but I’ll definitely look at it. Congrats to him. He deserves it. And tomorrow we’ll try and bring him a tough time.

Q: Congratulations on second place.

CL: Thank you.

Q: Now, Oscar, you’re a man that doesn’t really show his emotions. But when I saw you get out of the car, I sensed a sort of disappointment in your walk. Was there something on that lap that you didn’t manage to pull together, or is it just the size of the gap to Lando that’s a disappointment?

Oscar PIASTRI: It was the fact I didn’t get to start it. That was the problem. I had Gasly spin at the last corner, so I didn’t even open my second lap. And Lando’s been very quick all weekend, so it would have been a tough challenge, but I think we easily had enough pace in the car this weekend to be on the front row. So always a shame when you don’t even get the chance, but we can still have a good race from there. Sometimes it’s just not your day.

Q: Well, long game of course, the race, that’s where the points are. Good position to start. DRS is very effective here as we’ve seen in the other formulas, so still an opportunity tomorrow.

OP: Yeah, definitely. I think our pace this weekend has looked very strong. I think the Ferrari pace looked good as well, which was a bit of a surprise, but I think we still got some opportunities tomorrow. So, I’m not planning on finishing third, that’s for sure.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: What a session, Lando. Great job by you. Just how close to a perfect lap of the Red Bull Ring was that last lap of Q3?

LN: Always impossible to say, but as close as I would probably ask for. You know, in all the places I could be close to being in the gravel or over the limit, I feel like I was. So, it was a very good lap. I think I improved in every corner and, especially around here, with the high speed in Turn 6, Turn 7, 9, and 10, especially in quali, you’ve got to commit, and it's exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. So, yeah, again, rewarding when things go right like they did today. And to put the laps in that I did today, I was very happy with. So, yeah, it was a fun qualifying.

Q: And after going fastest on your first run in Q3, were you able to approach that final lap slightly differently? A bit more relaxed maybe.

LN: Not really. No. I mean, the others were not far behind. Even the Ferraris and Charles was a bit closer. I think all the way through quali, actually, the gap to some of the others was bigger than I was expecting. They were not miles away in FP3. But then as soon as we went out for quali, we seemed like a good step ahead. So, I wasn't too worried, but there's this guy here on the left, he's also pretty quick, and the expectation is for him to go out and put some good laps in too, especially in Q3s normally. So, yeah, I think the pressure was still there, and I still knew there were places to improve. So, again, just try to do Turn 1, 3, 4 correctly and then push it a little bit more in the high speed, and that's what I did.

Q: Lando, you've had a couple of tricky qualifying sessions in recent races. Just how satisfying is this pole given what's gone before?

LN: I mean, it's very satisfying, but, again, it's about consistency. Everyone can be a hero in one weekend. It's progress. It's steps forward. I'm very happy with today, but it's still a long journey. It's a long season. The job I needed to do today, I did. And it doesn't make up for the last few weekends or anything, but I did it today, and that's what mattered. So, yeah, very satisfied and happy for putting it together when I needed to.

Q: And you've been quick throughout practice. Just how much confidence does that give you ahead of the race?

LN: I think a good amount. I'm starting in the best position. But we've been good since the first laps I did in FP2. We've been competitive, and I've been feeling confident and comfortable in the car. We've had some upgrades on the car this weekend, which is our first proper set of upgrades for the whole season. So, we've waited a good amount of time to apply them, and from what I see today, it looks like it's definitely moved us in the right direction – especially on a circuit where there's only eight corners really. So, yeah, I'm confident we can still have a good race tomorrow, but it's a long one and plenty of things can happen.

Q: Charles, let's come to you now. Great job as well. You're on the front row. What does this one mean?

CL: It's nice. It's been a long time. I think this year overall, we've been quite weak in qualifying and then pretty strong in the race, but it's good to be at least this time starting from the front row. At least we have a little bit less road to make before fighting with the guys in front. We're there. However, obviously, the gap is pretty big to Lando's lap, which must have been very special for sure. But I don't know if we've got the tools to fight for a victory tomorrow. However, as I said, we are normally very strong on Sunday compared to the qualifying pace, and this gives me hope.

Q: You're running some upgrades here. What difference have they made over one lap?

CL: Well, enough to be P2 because the gaps are very tight around here if you take off Lando. So it definitely helped us. I felt like there were some steps forward. How much, we need to see it in different characteristics of tracks. It's not only on this track that we've got to judge that, but over multiple tracks. However, the numbers that we expected, we had them, which is a good start. That means that we are working in the right direction.

Q: Still a long way to go, but do you think you can challenge for the win tomorrow? Is that realistic?

CL: I'll do everything to put more pressure than usual on those two guys. We have Oscar behind with a little bit of luck today, but tomorrow, try and look forward and see what's possible.

Q: Oscar, let's come to you now. A case of what might have been for you?

OP: Yeah, to an extent. I think through all of qualifying, I was missing that last tenth, but not getting the chance to do my final Q3 run was quite frustrating. Sometimes those things are going to happen. I was quite happy that I didn't lose more spots by not doing that. So, third's still an okay place to start around here. You can race around this track, so try and make some progress.

Q: I mean, Lando's clearly been very hooked up from the moment he drove in FP2. How comfortable have you been in the McLaren?

OP: Pretty comfortable. FP1 was a little bit of a messy start, but then I felt pretty good through the rest of practice. And qualifying again felt quite good. It's very difficult around here to get that perfect lap because there's a lot of corners that have gravel on the exit, and you’ve got to be pretty careful there. But there's also a lot of corners that you miss an apex by five centimetres one way or the other, and you've lost a couple of tenths easily. So it's not the easiest track to hook up even though it's short, and I just kind of felt like I didn't quite do that today. So, a bit of a shame.

Q: Can we also get your thoughts on the upgraded parts that you're running here? Do you feel the team has taken a step forward with them?

OP: It doesn't feel that different in the car, but on the timing sheets, it looks good. So that's all we ask for. I think the pace this weekend has looked very strong. So, hopefully, that translates to tomorrow as well.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell-Malm – The Race) Lando, you said on Thursday if you're going to go to any circuit and see if you've got the feel for a car, it would be here. Is this the best you felt in the '25 McLaren this season? And how much did that help going into Q3, because that's where it's gone wrong a couple of times this year.

LN: I think it's been clear-ish from the outside, and I think the feelings have correlated to inside, in terms of the car has just felt very strong. It clearly is very strong here, and very quick. I think where we expect it to be a little bit weak, or not as strong as some of the others in the high speed, seems to have been our strength all weekend so far. It's still trickier in some places, but on the whole, it was easily my best qualifying of the year from a delivery point of view from every single lap I did. I still made a couple of mistakes here and there, but none that cost me a lap or anything, just maybe a tenth here or half a tenth there. So, I think on deliveries, consistency and of course putting it in when it counts in Q3 was easily the best lap I've done for this whole season, probably even better than Monaco, honestly. Maybe not as exciting a lap as Monaco, but definitely a better put together lap than I did there. Some of that is small things that have allowed me to get that out of the car from the changes within the car. Whether that's the upgrades or not, it's always very difficult to tell still, but it was definitely, like you said, the most confident and comfortable I've been in terms of getting lap time out of the car and understanding that. I think it showed today that when I have those feelings, well, it's still not all there, but more there than before, I can have a day like today. So it shows that the feelings I've been requiring, the feelings that I've not been getting as easily, when they are more my way and more where I want them to be, I can put in better performances and have days like today. So, I think that's reassuring for myself, which is a very nice feeling. But it's still about consistency. This is one weekend, I’ve got to do it for another, what, 12 or 13 or something.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-magazin.com) Question for you, Oscar. You touched on it earlier that only FP1 was a bit messy for you, the rest was okay. But do you see a pattern where you lose time against Lando? Is it just a matter of Lando being exceptionally good here?

OP: I mean, it was changing a little bit throughout practice and qualifying, to be honest. I think some of my weaker corners at the start of the weekend became a bit stronger, some of the better ones became a bit weaker, so it wasn't a clear thing that was different every single time. I think it's been, like I said before, it's a difficult track to get everything together every lap, and maybe that was slightly the difference today. I felt like I was in the game and there. Just first lap of Q3 was a little bit messy, and then, of course, I didn't get to do the second one. So, yeah, I think there was a lot more potential out there today, just it didn't show.

Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com). It's another one to Lando, following up on the feelings that you just mentioned. How much of that do you feel is down to your own process where you talked about some weeks ago of constantly improving qualifying and working on those weaknesses, and how much is the car and more specifically the team working on the front end of the car and giving you the feeling that you want from it?

LN: I mean, it's a bit of both. Hard to put a percentage on it. But I said at the beginning of the weekend when we all sat down, like, I still expect more from myself at times. No matter what car I get given, I still expect to do a good job in whatever car that is, whether I struggle with some of the feelings or not. But, you know, when you're fighting against the best, you want everything to feel the best possible. This weekend, I feel like I've had a little bit more of that. It could also be a bit track-specific rather than just car-specific, because there have been some tracks this season I felt more comfortable than others. But it is a small element from the team, and it's also down to myself quite often. I was quick in Canada for the most part and made mistakes there and misjudged many things there, and didn't put the laps together when I needed to. But the pace was there, and that wasn't through a lack of feeling. That was through not doing a good enough job for myself. So, I'm never going to just blame the car, and I'm never going to say I blame anything, but there are reasons for different things. What's most reassuring for me is when I've got some other feelings that I need, I do do a better job. That's the best news that comes out of some of these things.

Q: (Luc Domenjoz – Le Matin) Charles, you have new parts here which allow you to be on first row again. But where do you think you lose out to the McLarens? And will the new parts you will bring at Silverstone allow you to catch up with the McLarens?

CL: There's nothing been confirmed yet for Silverstone, so I won't comment on that. Of course, there are upgrades in the waiting, but I don't exactly know when they will be ready. However, I think we are losing mostly on the high speed this weekend, which was expected. We expected to lose a little bit compared to McLaren in the high speed, but probably we expected to lose even more in the low speed, which was a little bit less the case. So, we'll analyse that. Obviously, we've brought an upgrade as well, and we are still in the learning process of understanding exactly what it does to the car. However, it seems to be working as expected. To reply to your question, very happy to be second. It's been a very difficult season for us qualifying-wise. We've always been fighting for P5, P6 in best cases apart from Monaco. That was a one-off. So, it's good to be starting a little bit further up, and to be straight away with the fast guys, straight from the start.

Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) It's one for both McLaren drivers. I guess the two of you said yesterday that you can never rule out Max Verstappen, especially not on a track like this, given his qualifying record. So are you surprised to see Red Bull struggling as much as they did today? And also, even though Charles is up there, does it make you believe that this championship is looking more and more like a fight between just the two of you?

LN: I mean, Max has been our main contender for every race this season. I think just because he's had a slightly worse qualifying today, definitely not going to count him out of the race tomorrow and definitely not going to count him out for the rest of the season. They brought upgrades. Maybe they've not worked as well as they wanted or maybe they have. I don't know. But I think we expected them to be quicker here this weekend. They've still looked pretty good for the most part this weekend, but I don't know what happened to Max in Q3. So, no. I think, of course, we as team-mates are probably the main rivals of each other at the minute. But at the same time, I don't think we're ever – until he's out of the race – I don't think we're ever going to take Max out of the equation. It's still a very long season. So, I think people just need to chill out a little bit. And we'll see tomorrow.

OP: I don't have that much to add, but I think at this point of the year, it's still too early to rule out Max. I agree. I think we expected more from him this weekend, or in qualifying, because he looked very close in a lot of the practice sessions. So, I don't know if he also got caught out by the yellow flag. It's too early at the moment.

ENDS