DRIVERS
 
1 –  George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 
3 –  Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
 
 PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by David Coulthard)
 
Q: First of all, George, you put everything on the line there. You were hard into the wall coming out of the second last corner. Brilliant pole position.
George RUSSELL: Yeah, thanks so much. Amazing to be on pole position. Yesterday was a very challenging day for many different reasons, but it's good to come back and get a good result today. Of course, there’s a long, sweaty race tomorrow, but I knew there was potential in the car. Kimi was doing an amazing job all weekend, and I actually gained quite a lot from seeing what he was capable of doing yesterday afternoon. So yeah, very happy to be on pole. Yeah, it was great.
 
Q: Max, you look like you were in the hunt, but I believe there might have been a mistake towards the end of the lap, the final sector?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, that's what happens when there's a car in front of you just cruising two seconds in front. So that's noted. Will be remembered as well.
 
Q: Who was that? We didn't see that on screen. 
MV: Not Oscar. So yeah, that was a bit of a shame. Otherwise, I think it could have been close for pole. It was very exciting here in qualifying. Of course, a little bit disappointed to not be first, but for us this weekend so far has been really good. Yeah, the car has been very competitive, so for us to be second again is very good.
 
Q: Okay, so, not Oscar. Oscar, happy enough with third? You know, this is all about big picture stuff as we get into the final part of this world championship battle.
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah. You know, obviously, I would have wanted more, but I don't think we had four tenths in it to go and get pole. So, ultimately, pretty happy. Feel like it's been a good weekend so far and built up through it nicely. And yeah, ultimately, it was a pretty clean session, so that's all I can ask for.
 
Q: Okay. George, finally just for you, and we'll let you guys go and cool off. This sets you up tomorrow. Best place to start. You've got some tough competition right alongside you standing here and tomorrow on the grid.
GR: Yeah. I mean, Singapore has not been the kindest to me in the past, and that's been through my own doing the majority of the time. So I'm not going to get carried away with this pole position. Of course, it's the best place to start. There's a good pole-side advantage here, so I'd like to think I can hold the lead into Turn 1, but obviously, this guy on my left is pretty good at race starts and sending it down the inside. So I'll be keeping an eye.
 
 
PRESS CONFERENCE 
 
Q: Many congratulations, George. Both laps in Q3, good enough for the pole. Talk us through it.
GR: Yeah. It's been a challenging weekend, to be fair. I've not been comfortable with the car, not been comfortable with myself, and it just sort of all came towards me in Q3, to be honest, even the end of Q2. That was my first good lap of the weekend and probably the first lap where I felt semi-reasonable, but I knew I had a bit of margin to go further. And then my lap one in Q3 was really strong and then obviously matched it on the second lap. So pretty pleased with that.
 
Q: Why has it taken you so long to dial the car in, given that you've proved it's good enough for pole?
GR: I don't know, to be honest. I mean, sometimes some weekends you just hit the ground running a bit sooner. Other times you don’t. I've found this weekend quite strange. The grip has been really high from the tarmac, but the cars have been sliding quite a lot. It feels a bit reminiscent of Miami, where it's really high grip, but the car is sliding. And I just didn't have much confidence in myself, and obviously the crash yesterday set me back again. But I always sort of remind myself, it doesn't matter what happens on Friday. It's Q3 when it counts.
 
Q: Talk us through the first lap of Q3, particularly the end. I think it was Turn 17. Do we call that a kiss, or was it actually a hit?
GR: Yeah. A bit more of a snog… in between the two. So, no, it wasn't too bad. And it's always when you're on a really strong lap and you just touch the wall like that, you're a little bit tentative going into the next corner because you just don't know if you've got a puncture or if the car is just going to spin out on you. And obviously, it's a very fast corner, but all good in the end.
 
Q: Alright. Well, let’s throw it forward to tomorrow. Ten of the last 15 races here in Singapore have been won from pole. You have the statistics on your side. What do you see as the biggest challenges over 62 laps?
GR: Probably these two next to me, to be honest. We know the McLarens are usually exceptionally good on their tyres in the hot conditions. I think we've all been a little bit surprised at their sort of lack of pace this weekend. We were probably all expecting them to run away with it, and we certainly didn’t anticipate being in the fight for pole position here. So, not sure going into tomorrow. I'm the only driver who hasn't done a long run, so that doesn't play into my favour. But, of course, overtaking is challenging here. Races have been a bit of a one-stop recently, but now with the 80 km/h speed limit in the pit lane, it probably brings it closer to a two now.
 
Q: Alright. Very well done to you. Thank you for that. Max, let's come to you. How frustrated are you after that one? Blocked by Lando. Do you think pole was on until that moment?
MV: Yeah. It was close. I mean, the lap itself was coming nicely. But, again, around here to nail all the corners is very tough. Unfortunately, I had a car, like, two seconds in front of me in the final chicane. So in qualifying, you cannot have that. You cannot have any kind of disturbance when you want to push in Q3, and that's what happened. I had to abort the lap because of that. So that was a bit unfortunate. Otherwise, I think it would have been a very close battle for first, but it is what it is. Nothing you can do about that. So you just move forward. I think for us so far this weekend has again been a very solid one. No major trouble. We were always kind of there, and I guess that’s good. So that is, of course, for us very promising.
 
Q: Does the car feel much more hooked up with the new parts?
MV: Yeah. Like the last two races, really.
 
Q: What about tomorrow then? Where do you see your biggest opportunities to get past the guy in the middle at the moment?
MV: I don't know. I guess we'll wait and see. Not really too bothered about it.
 
Q: Do you think that increased pit lane speed will open up strategic possibilities?
MV: Yes and no. It depends on the race, Safety Cars, when they come or not. You just need to be ready for everything.
 
Q: Final one from me, Max. Helmut Marko has been very positive about the car this weekend and the progress the team has made. Do you feel you've really got some momentum with you? Even though you're not on pole — we understand why now — but do you feel Red Bull has that momentum now?
MV: Absolutely. The last three weekends now have been really, really nice. I mean, up until that point, we were always throwing the set-up left and right because it was just not working. Sometimes you had a weekend where it was okay, but now, the last three weekends, it's been solid. We've just been fine-tuning, and that's exactly what you want throughout the weekend. Of course, some layouts will be a bit better for us, some probably a bit more difficult, but the basis of the car is a lot more solid, and I think that is what you need.
 
Q: Thank you for that. Good luck tomorrow. Oscar, coming to you now. You said a moment ago it was a clean session for you. Are you surprised by the pace of Mercedes and Red Bull, first of all?
OP: Yes. I mean, I think my first lap of Q3 felt reasonable. It certainly didn't feel four tenths off bad. So I just don't think we had the pace tonight, which is a little bit of a surprise for us. It has been very tight through all of practice, but I think we were relatively confident going in. So, yeah, some things to look at and see where we're lacking. But we've not had the easiest last couple of weekends. So it's not a huge surprise in some ways because of how it's gone recently, but I do think we felt after practice we had a better chance.
 
Q: Talk us through the incident in Q1 — the yellow flag which forced you to abort. Did that impact the rest of your session?
OP: Not really. Anytime on a street circuit you don't do laps is frustrating, and I did feel like through Q1 I was playing catch-up a little bit. But ultimately, it didn’t really affect much. It was obviously frustrating to have a yellow flag thrown for someone getting out of the way. There's been a lot of adjustments on the yellow flags and stuff like that, but I think there's still some tweaking to do there, because Alex did the best job he could to get out of my way, and it ended up costing me a lap anyway. So, some things to look at there.
 
Q: And how do you see the race? George has already said that the way McLaren looks after its tyres is notorious. Do you think you can make progress?
OP: I hope so, but it's very tough to overtake around here. You need a fair bit of extra pace to get past someone. So we'll see if we've got that tomorrow. But the long running has been kind of tough for everyone with red flags, and no one's really done that much. So I wouldn't say we've got more confidence than we had going into qualifying for the race, but we'll see what's possible.
 
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
 
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Max, just to clarify, can you say who it was who was in front of you on that lap? And then for all three of you, the cooling vests — what sort of things have you taken into account when deciding whether to wear them or not? And if you are wearing them, is it going make this race less demanding than it was in the past?
MV: I mean, you said it already. No? Lando. To clarify, well, in qualifying you always try to leave gaps of six, seven seconds at least because you want no disturbance. Normally in Q3 you don’t see a car — unless you're on a different programme. But I think around here, it's quite clear what you want to do. So you leave quite big gaps, everyone. But then, of course, sometimes it happens on a street circuit that people are bored, make mistakes. So, yeah, when you get a car two, three seconds in front of you… I mean, you need every kind of clean air that you can have on a lap, especially because you're fully on the limit with braking and everything. And I lost a bit of downforce with that, so I went straight on. Yeah, that’s it. And then with the vest, I haven't used the vest. I'm also not intending to use it because I feel like this needs to be a driver choice. Of course, from the FIA side, they will always throw it on safety, but then we can talk about a lot of stuff that can be improved on safety — including pit entries in certain places. I think that has a bit more priority than a vest in the car because I don’t like it. I don’t like the tubes that are on you, on your body, with the belts that go next to you. Then they can say it’s a bad design. I disagree. It just needs to be an option for the drivers to choose. Some like it, some don’t, and that’s fine. It should be a personal preference. And I know this year we can, but probably next year they don’t want to do that, and I feel that is not the right thing. The problem is that in GT cars or any other cars, prototypes, you have a bit more space to put stuff or at least put the cables. In our cockpits, it’s so narrow that there is no space — or at least not enough space. And that is also a little bit of a problem I find. Plus, where are you going to put the dry ice? The cars are not designed really to have this extra kind of space, and within 15, 20 laps, it’s anyway gone. And then you have hot water… or tea.
GR: Yeah. I'll run it. I've run it in a couple of races this year. It isn’t the perfect solution yet. And the fact is you have no testing — you can only test it in a race environment. The race in Bahrain, I was happy with it. I ran it in Saudi as well, I was happy with it. But of course, here it is much hotter. The dry ice will melt faster. To be fair, the team have made a big improvement with the car cooling itself. We recognised some major issues of hot air seeping into the cockpit, massively exceeding 60 degrees at certain races. Just moving a few electrical boxes around and hydraulic lines that are running at 120 degrees around your feet has a major impact on the heat. But as I said, I’ll trial it. I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.
OP: I still don't know if I'm going to use it. I used it yesterday. I think the problem with the suit is it's great when it works, but if it fails, it's even worse than not having it. And like George said, there’s no testing to really try it out. There is winter testing, but I think everything’s going to feel pretty good when it's 10 degrees. So, yeah, I still don't know if I'm going to run it. I think the initiative is good, but like Max said, having the choice to use it or not is important because there are benefits and downsides.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Max, will you look to talk to Lando about what happened there in Q3?
MV: No. I think it's quite clear, you know, that's something that is not nice when it happens to someone. I think in general, we are always quite good at that — all the drivers. We try to stay out of the way. I mean, sometimes of course it's always a bit more complicated in certain scenarios. So every scenario is a bit different. But in this case, in Q3 with only 10 cars on the track, I think it could have been avoided.
 
Q: (Ben Waterworth – SpeedCafe) Question for Oscar. Given that you sort of talked about the pace and the guys ahead of you and not sure if the win will be possible tomorrow, does your race just become about keeping Lando behind and thinking of the championship? And also, if George called his little brush of the wall a snog, what do you call your little brush of the wall in Q3?
OP: Did I hit a wall in Q3?
 
Q: (Ben Waterworth – SpeedCafe) You were brushing it with the back, kind of.
OP: I think that probably answers it. I didn't even know I touched the wall. No. I mean, I think tomorrow's race is just all about trying to do the best I can. There’s a lot of things that can happen around here. It’s a tough race — Safety Cars and stuff like that. So, I’ll do the best that I can. Obviously, if there's an opportunity to finish higher than I'm starting, then I'll try and take it. I'm not just going to settle for the position I'm in or any position just ahead of Lando. I want to maximise the race I can get because any extra points I can win is only going to help me. So, just try and do the best job I can and see where we end up.
 
Q: (Deepanraj Ganesan – The Straits Times) Question for George. We remember in 2023, you were running a very good race and eventually did crash out. Something similar happened yesterday. With today’s performance and getting pole, how much does that vindicate (sic) what happened in the last two years? How much does that motivate you to go out there tomorrow and win the race itself?
GR: Yeah. Thanks for reminding me! 
MV: The walls, they actually move around the track (laughs). I don’t know if you guys noticed but it’s quite tricky in some places!
GR: I'm a very different driver today than I was a couple of years ago. Yesterday was my first crash in over a year. But this season, I'm sort of more within myself. I know the limits better. But the fact is, on a street circuit, you’ve only got to have a 1% lapse of concentration. My mistake two years ago, it wasn’t a big mistake. It was a mistake of five centimetres, but the consequence was massive. And that's the thing on a street circuit. You can't afford one single corner not to be 100% focused. But that’s the greatness of it too.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Another one for Max. I know this circuit hasn’t maybe been your favourite over the years. I’m sure you’ve seen the stat about it being the only track you’ve not won at, but it seems very different this year. How much more enjoyable is it having a car underneath you that, as you say, you can push? And is it a surprise given that we knew the last two tracks went well, but it was such a different configuration to what we’re now on?
MV: Yeah. I mean, what can I say? You never had pole here — you can ask that to many drivers why they never had pole here, right? That’s just what happens. The last few years, it's not been easy. I mean, 2022 — that was a good opportunity, but you need to, of course, put enough fuel in the car for qualifying. And then, of course, it would have changed the perception a bit, because I hear this now the whole week: “Never had a pole. Never won here.” Well, fantastic. But yeah, now finally, the car is a bit more all-round, it seems. We've always been, I would say, a little bit weaker on super high downforce for whatever reason. But for us to be this competitive, for sure, is very promising. Whatever happens tomorrow happens. But even for upcoming races, where you're not always running the super high downforce, I think it will be nice if we can just keep this momentum going.
 
ENDS