DRIVERS
 
1 –  Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
3 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
 
PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Davide Valsecchi)
 
Q: Oscar Piastri on pole position. Congratulations man, it was a mega lap. How was your lap? How was your car? You were the first one in for the second try and seems that it paid off. Unbelievable.
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, I mean, it was a great session. Very tough session, with all the delays, the red flags, and then also the tyres. The tyres have been very, very tricky today. I think after yesterday everyone thought the C6 was not too bad, and then today it was a real mystery. So, the team did a great job, got the car in a nice window. We’ve been trying a few different things this weekend and we got into a nice place for qualifying. So, the lap was good. I had about four cars in the last corner, which didn’t help, but it was enough. So very, very happy with the job well done, and yeah, I’m excited for tomorrow.
 
Q: Now, can you tell us why this strategy, to be the first on track for the last try? You were confident to be fast enough to get the pole?
OP: Yes, I mean, I wasn’t thrilled to be the first car on track, but I had quite a big gap in the run before anyway, so it wasn’t actually that much different for me. Of course, you lose the slipstream going first, but you don’t have any disturbed air, you don’t have any dirty air. I think that definitely helped me out a little bit. But yeah, that’s what we chose to do. I think we’ve got enough pace to be able to do that and stick to our guns, and that’s what we did. So the team did a great job of executing that one.


Q: Max Verstappen, second position. What a qualifying! Mega first sector. Talk us through your lap, please?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, I think everything was going really well. Just the softest compound is very difficult to keep them alive around the lap. So, yeah, Sector 1 was good and then the tyres again fell away from me from there onwards – tiny margins. But I mean, it was cool. But then you could see George, he set his lap on the Medium, so, yeah, maybe they were a bit too soft for this track and for us at least it was a bit more difficult to extract the most out of it. I felt a bit happier on the Medium, but the race is tomorrow. That’s where you score the points, of course, so that’s what we have to focus on. But I do think that today was a very good day for us.
 
Q: Yeah, it seems that your team-mate had a crash at the beginning, but with your Red Bull today, it seems that you were flying. So, we have some hope for another big fight again tomorrow against the McLaren duo?
MV: Let’s see. I mean, last race was not really a fight. I hope that we just pick up a bit of pace, have a bit more of a stable car and then hopefully we can look after our tyres a bit better. 
 
Q: George, congratulations. Third position. You surprised everyone with the brave choice to put the Medium compound just in the last try. How was your car, how was your feeling, why that decision?
George RUSSELL: Yeah, we were going for it. We thought maybe the Medium tyre would be a fast one and it turned out to be a good choice. Of course, a small compromise now for tomorrow, but it was worth it to be back in the top three. Really happy with the performance. Very close to Oscar, which again, is always a surprise when you're so close to the McLaren because they’re so good at the moment. But it was, yeah, a good afternoon.
 
Q: And to be honest, everyone was waiting for your lap time. You were the last on the line with that choice. Probably you made the difference in the last sector and that gave you the chance to be up there?
GR: I mean, it was very challenging because opening the lap, we almost missed the flag. I was in first gear starting my lap, I lost a tenth down the straight because I was so close to Sainz. But, you know, nevertheless, really happy with P3. I think we could not have really achieved much more today, but ultimately we need to focus on tomorrow and try and get back on the podium.
 
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Oscar, many congratulations. It's always thrilling to watch a pole lap around Imola. How good was this one from the cockpit?
OP: It was good. I was happy with it. I feel like in Q3 I really found my groove. It wasn’t the easiest of days, really. FP3, I think everyone put the Soft tyre on and started scratching their heads a bit, and then qualifying itself obviously had a lot of red flags, a lot of long delays. It was hard to build into a rhythm. But I think by Q3 I found my feet, and the last lap of Q3 was a good one. Yeah, I thought it was going to unravel at the last corner with a few people trying to start their laps, but it was enough to get through there and still get pole.
 
Q: What were you thinking going into that second lap of Q3 after Max had been fastest after the first run?
OP: I thought it was going to be tough to beat. I felt like my first lap was very strong. I think when I got back to the garage, I saw that there were a few things that could have been a bit better. And yeah, found a little bit in a few places, and that was enough in the end. So yeah, felt like I definitely had to find a bit more for that final run, and I think I did a good job doing it.
 
Q: Tell us about the C6 tyre. It was a talking point throughout qualifying. How did it perform?
OP: It was a struggle, to be honest. I think… [To George] after you and your banana — don’t get your banana too close to me. Your question was the C6 tyre? Oh yes. Yeah, I mean, we all put it on in FP3, and I don’t think anyone really went any faster. My car certainly felt worse when I put that tyre on. But when you have four of them for qualifying, you don’t have many options. So it was definitely a struggle. Had to be pretty careful through the lap to not destroy it straight away. And obviously, George qualified on the Medium at the end, which, if I had a few more, I probably would have wanted a similar thing.
 
Q: What about tomorrow then? You're going for your fourth win in a row. Just how confident are you after taking pole?
OP: I think as long as I can get a good start, then confident. You know, it's a difficult track to overtake on. I think our pace has been strong. Our long run pace yesterday looked very encouraging. So yeah, as long as I can get a good start and have a good first lap, then that would be good.
 
Q: Max, let's come to you now. Great job by you as well. Oscar's just said your first lap of Q3 was a good one. It was going to be difficult to beat. What were you thinking at that point in the session?
MV: Not a lot. Yeah, it was alright. I think compared to yesterday, we improved a lot again. The car is a lot nicer to drive. The only problem I had in qualifying was basically the faster I wanted to go, the more problems I had with the tyres just overheating. That was holding me back in Q3 already, run one. And then when I tried to go faster on the second run, Sector 1 was great, and then I just ran out of tyres. I just started understeering more, and just tried to keep the lap together, really. But yeah, that's a bit of a shame. Of course, we came in and I saw George was on a Medium. And honestly, I also felt better in FP3 on the Medium. But you don’t really have the tyres to qualify on it properly. And of course, for tomorrow, we want to make sure we have the tyres in a good window.
 
Q: When you're managing the tyre over a qualifying lap, how much are you experimenting from run to run?
MV: Quite a bit because it’s the first time with the C6 as well, so I think no one is really on top of it yet. But it’s clear that probably for a track like this, it’s really on the limit or already a bit over the limit.
 
Q: Tell us about the car. The developments are now coming through at Red Bull. Do you feel the team is making progress now?
MV: Yesterday was a tough start, but I think today we definitely put it in a better window. I was a bit happier with how the car was coming alive and also the balance of the car. So that’s a positive. It’s just that the tyre compounds this weekend didn’t really help us by being that soft because we know we overheat our tyres more than we would like. So that is still a focus point for us.
 
Q: Let's throw it forward to tomorrow. Where do the opportunities lie for you?
MV: I don’t know. I’ll just try to do a good start and see where I’m at with the pace, because yesterday wasn’t particularly good in the long run also. And then yeah, just see with the new set-up we have on the car. Hopefully it all sticks a bit better on the tarmac and, hopefully, in general a bit more competitive.
 
Q: With Pirelli's tyre choices for this weekend, do you think there might be more strategic opportunities?
MV: I don’t know yet. I don’t think many people will touch the C6 if you need to do a lot of laps in a row, but we’ll see tomorrow.
 
Q: George, great job as well. You did something different at the end of the session. Just how much of you being here now is down to you being on that Medium tyre?
GR: I was P4 on the Soft tyre, only half a tenth behind Lando, and I had a mistake on that lap. Somehow, I accidentally short shifted coming out of Turn 12 and it just bogged down into fifth gear, and I lost about a tenth. So, I felt that I should have been P3 after the first run. And then it was really tight at the end. I almost missed the flag, and I opened my lap in first gear coming around the last corner because of traffic, and I lost a good tenth down into Turn 1. So that Medium tyre was definitely performing well. But I think had I been on the Soft, I probably would have still been P3.
 
Q: Had you always planned to do that last run on the Medium, or was it just a decision that was made during the session?
GR: No, that was always a plan from before the session. I felt quite strong on that tyre yesterday and today. It was a bit of a risk because nine times out of ten, that will be the start tyre or we will use that tyre at some point in the race. So, in the unlikely event of a puncture or a flat spot, you’re pretty destroyed because then you’d have to use a C6 soft tyre in the race. It didn’t come without any risk, but it was a risk worth taking. We wanted to put it all on the table and I’m pretty happy with P3.
 
Q: What about the general performance of the car here?
GR: It’s been a bit of a challenging weekend to be honest. I was very surprised how close we were in qualifying. But like Max said, the tyres have been very challenging to get on top of. You look at Sainz in Q2 being the quickest — that came out of nowhere — and I think he then went slower in Q3. When you find that sweet spot, there’s a lot of lap time. And both of my laps in Q3 felt very strong. I found that sweet spot with the tyre and found about four tenths compared to every other lap I did this weekend. So I was pretty happy, but it’ll be challenging for all of us to fight with Oscar tomorrow, and we’ll do our best to hold off Lando.
 
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
 
Q: (Filip Cleeren – Motorsport.com) For all three: Can you explain from the cockpit just how much fun you had today on a circuit like this with the gravel and the walls quite close by? And especially with Imola looking set to disappear from F1 for the time being, how much are you going to miss a session like this? Is it important for F1 to keep going to this type of circuit?
OP: I said on Thursday, if we don’t come back here, it is going to be a shame. Again, I think having two races in the same country in today’s F1 maybe doesn’t make the most sense given how many countries want to hold a race. But I agree, we need to be careful. We need to be careful not to lose all the historical tracks that have been here forever because at least 75% of them are the favourites for the drivers. If you ask the drivers their top three favourites, it’s probably a mix of Silverstone, Suzuka, Spa, here and probably Zandvoort. Here is probably going to disappear, now Zandvoort is disappearing, Spa is on a rotation. I think Monza is pretty safe — we’ve got some other problems if Monza disappears. But we do need to be careful to keep all these tracks. A qualifying session around Imola and tracks like Imola are definitely more exciting than some other tracks on the calendar. But it's obviously a balance.
MV: Yeah, I 100% agree. It depends also a bit on the cars, right? I do think the cars that we have now just don’t really work that nicely on a street circuit, unfortunately. They’re way too big, too stiff, too heavy. I would say they don’t really come alive compared to like 2016 even. I know the lap times were a lot slower, but at least then on a street circuit the car still came alive a bit. You could take some kerbs and it was working. Now everything feels a bit dull. But yeah, on tracks like this, it is a lot of fun. So many fast corners, and the limit is the gravel or the grass. That makes it more exciting and more difficult to nail.
GR: For us, it’s definitely the most exciting of all of the season when we come to these types of circuits. I do also appreciate the fans watching — I don’t know if they share the same excitement on a track like this versus a track that isn’t as enjoyable for us to drive. So, you need to find that balance. As we’ve said before, we do love that character, but it is very difficult to race around here in Imola. It’s difficult to race in Zandvoort. And Japan wasn’t straightforward either. The new tracks, although they do miss some character, do usually produce good racing.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazine.com) Another one for all three: Yesterday, the C6 looked pretty okay, looked straightforward. Today, it was a completely different matter. Is it just a few degrees of track temperature, lower pressures on the rear, pushing more throughout the lap? What was the reason?
OP: I think it's just us all going faster. Dropping the fuel, increasing the engine modes, pushing harder. You probably don't explore the limits of the tyre or overheat it as much yesterday when we're going about… I don't know how much slower we were yesterday — maybe not that much in the end. But I think when you start to push things even further, the tyres eventually just gave up. They were struggling yesterday already, but today I think the C5 was faster than the C6, probably, or it certainly felt nicer. So, I think when you push it even further, you just expose the weakness of the tyre even more.
GR: Yeah, like Oscar said, I do feel the concept of going softer to create more variety in the race is the right idea. But we sort of pre-empted this — that there will be many tracks where the C5 is better than the C6. So, then it begs the question: do you want to go back to the alternative tyre allocation where you've got to do a Hard, Medium, Soft in qualifying? And then you have more sensible tyres during practice sessions — then we can do more laps, the fans can watch us drive more. I feel that would be a sensible midpoint — sort of mandating the Hard, Medium, Soft for the three sessions. Otherwise, based on today, next time we go to a relatively medium-high speed circuit with a C6, everyone will be qualifying on a C5, and it shouldn't be like that.
 
Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) One for all three: On a similar topic, where do you stand on the principle of F1 doing this and bringing a tyre that wasn’t really conceived for here? Obviously, it creates interesting situations, can liven up the show — but is it compromising things a little bit too much because you’re having to, if you’re using the C6 in qualifying, manage it just to excess in qualifying and that’s actually impacting the spectacle?
OP: I mean, let's see tomorrow. The softer tyres are more with Sunday in mind to try and add more pit stops. I think Pirelli have done a better job this year with the tyres, and I think that's why we're seeing more one-stop races. So, there are positives — for us anyway — of these one-stop races and tyres that feel a bit better. But we'll see after tomorrow. If tomorrow is still a one-stop race, then obviously it's probably back to the drawing board a little bit more. But it's not easy to make a tyre that performs well over one lap and then doesn't destroy itself in the race. So, we'll see after tomorrow. That will be a better test of whether these soft compounds have worked or not.
MV: Yeah, I think it's just the layout of this track. Too many high-speed corners. Probably when you go to a more low-speed corner track, it probably will be a little bit better. So, let's see next week how that will go.
 
Q: Anything more?
GR: No.
 
Q: (Panagiotis Seitanidis – Ant1 TV) a question for all three: We saw two big shunts during qualifying, especially Yuki's car flipping over. Most of you asked if he's OK and got confirmation. I was wondering, does it end for you when you get the confirmation that he's OK? Or the next time you go around, do you have it in your mind maybe to approach the same corner a little bit easier or something?
OP: I mean, not really. Obviously, when there's a shunt that big, it's hard to not look at it. But I think generally in racing — and in a lot of things in life — when you start to second guess or doubt what you're doing, that's when things go wrong. You need to commit, especially on a track like this. So, of course, you probably think about it a little bit, but by the time you get to the corner, you're back in the groove of doing what you've done the rest of the weekend.
 
Q: Max, for you — it was your teammate who crashed. What were you thinking immediately afterwards?
MV: Well, first, of course, I asked if he's OK. And I heard yeah, he's OK. But then I saw the replay — I'm like, “Jesus, is he really OK?” It was a big impact, a lot of damage as well. But the most important is that Yuki is okay. I'll probably see him in a bit.
 
Q: George?
GR: Yeah, it was great to see that he's OK. With a crash like that, it shows how impressive these cars are in a situation like that. But I think for all of us, once the helmet's on and the visor's down, you have to get cracking, and you’ve got to take anything like that out of your mind.
 
ENDS