DRIVERS
1 – Pierre GASLY (Alpine)
2 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes) 
3 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)

PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Davide Valsecchi)
 
Q: Pierre Gasly, pole position. Mamma mia, what a lap! It was impressive. Congratulations, my friend. How was your feeling? How was your sensation for the first pole position of your career?
Pierre GASLY: Yeah, it was amazing. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. It was an incredible quali. From the first lap in Q1, I felt very good in the car, and, yeah, trying to chip a little bit away every single session. And then, yeah, in the end, you know, it felt like a very good lap. But I’m so happy. It’s been nine years, you know, trying to chase and get the opportunity to get a pole position. To win my first race in Monza, get my first pole position on this track, I think is something special around here.
 
Q: Very well done, congratulations. And George, can you talk us through your lap? It seemed that not one driver could improve in the first sector, then you improved your lap. You were on pole, but it was tough enough to take the pole position today.
George RUSSELL: I mean, firstly, massive congrats to Pierre because that’s an incredible performance. We were actually finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there, and I thought, “Well, I think I’ll beat you in qualifying,” and here we are, he’s ahead of me again. So, yeah, huge congrats to him. Of course, I was disappointed not to get the pole position. It was a bit messy with Verstappen opening the lap. I did the lap very close, but, you know, Pierre and Alpine have been super-fast even from Q1. So, yeah, happy to see them get a good result.
 
Q: And Oscar, third position. You missed the chance on the last lap. You missed that corner in the first chicane. Did you feel you had the speed to fight for pole on that lap?
Oscar PIASTRI: I don’t think so, no. I mean, I think the first lap felt quite good and, yeah, I tried to see if anyone wanted to go in front out of the pit lane, but no one did. And I knew it was always going to be difficult and just misjudged the braking a little bit and locked up. So, yeah, that was the session. But, no, good to have a decent result at least. It’s been a little while, so I’ll take it.
 
Q: Thank you, Oscar. And Pierre, back to you. Now that you have a victory in Monza, and today a stunning pole position, for the race tomorrow. Is that a big advantage, this pole position?
Pierre GASLY: Shall we do it in Italian? Yes, because we’re in Italy, for all the people. I have to say thank you to my team, because they made a fantastic car today. I’m very happy. It’s been nine years that, every time, every race, I’ve tried to do my best, and this is my first pole position. It’s an incredible feeling. I’m very happy. Tomorrow, we’ll see how the race goes. I feel good in the car. We’ll definitely go out there and give it our best. Tonight is going to be a good night back home in Milan, and tomorrow we’ll try again.
 
PRESS CONFERENCE 
 
Q: Wow, Pierre, what an amazing performance by you. First of all, just tell us what this means.
PG: Yeah, I mean, I think… Quite a lot of emotions. No, I’m just extremely happy for the whole team. I’m extremely happy with our performance. It’s been nine years I’m in Formula 1, trying to, you know, give my best absolutely every single weekend and it’s not every time we get a car to fight for pole position. Today it was the case and, yeah, I’m really, really happy, really proud to have seized this chance and to make it work. It was a heck of a lap. We’ve been on it since the first lap in Q1, it’s been feeling good. And, yeah, nine years waiting for that moment, that feeling. I got my first win here in Monza and now I get my first pole position, so definitely a special place to me.
 
Q: How confident were you coming into the weekend? Have you exceeded your expectations or did you think you could run for pole?
PG: No, yeah, definitely not. I mean, Monza is a bit of a unique track. We know it, but, I mean, no, it definitely exceeded all our expectations. But since this morning, I think the pace has been better. We managed to make a good step, you know, from P3 to quali, and I think slightly bigger than the other guys around us. Yeah, straight from Q1, you know, we were a bit surprised to see us up there, as in mind, you know, our target was Q3. But then I think I was P1 in Q1, then P4 in Q2. I didn’t want to get too excited, but then first run in Q3, I think I was third again and then I felt, “Okay, I really have a shot at it.” And as I said, it’s probably the first time I really get a true chance and, yeah, I tried to leave everything I had out there. It was quite hectic through Ascari and Parabolica. I don’t think there was definitely much in there and, crossing the line, I knew it would be one of these laps that would be rewarded, but to the point to get the pole position, I didn’t expect that. So, yeah, very, very pleased.
 
Q: Was that your best lap in Formula 1?
PG: I mean, it’s not my first race in F1. It’s too many and I don’t remember all of them. I don’t know. It’s definitely one of these laps that I’ll put up there. I’m just happy, man. I’m just happy for the team and also, you know, the whole weekend, a lot of emotions, everything going on, etcetera. So just trying to stick at doing my job the best I can and that’s what we did today. So very, very pleased and very proud of my team here.
 
Q: Pierre, let’s throw it forward to the Grand Prix on Sunday then. Is the long-run pace of the car good enough to allow you to at least fight for the win?
PG: That’s a problem for tomorrow.
 
Q: Okay. Well, look, overnight, where is your focus going to be? Is it that first 10 seconds of the race and the long run down to the first chicane?
PG: I mean, you know, it’s going to be obviously great. I’m in the best position, right? I’m starting first, got no one ahead of me. I just got to focus on my driving and, you know, I know what it looks like having no one around this track, so that’s a good advantage and probably the best place to do it. But then, yeah, it’s going to be a long race. I think our— and I feel I actually felt quite good. Obviously not to the pace of these guys around us, but we seem to have picked up more pace from yesterday to today. So, you know, we’ll obviously give our best shot and see what we can get out of it. But, yeah, I’m excited.
 
Q: Very well done, Pierre. Just final one from me. Tell us about this chess game that you mentioned earlier, with George.
PG: Well, I mean, since the briefing last night, I figured out that he’s obsessed with chess. I am obsessed with chess. We have a few in the paddock, a few drivers, to be obsessed with it. So, we’ve just exchanged our ID on Chess.com and we’ve had a little game going on, one yesterday, another one that carried on to today. And I must say, before the quali, I felt pretty confident because I was picking piece after piece. And, yeah, again, for the fun story, Ben told me, “Well, you’re getting George here, but he’s going to get you in a few minutes.” I was like, “Yeah, f*** off.” Turned out that, yeah, it worked out well. So, yeah, it’s been fun. I think we are very competitive and, whether it’s on the track or off the track, we do need to find our little battles everywhere we can.
 
Q: Brilliant. Well done. Thank you, Pierre. Now, George, let’s come to you. So close to pole, just those six hundredths. Can you envisage where you lost that time to Pierre?
GR: Yeah, I mean, it was a very scrappy session. The car was— didn’t feel quite as good with the car as I did in FP3. I was struggling with locking up and then, come Q3, we had a bit of a mess with Verstappen entering the lap. He wanted to go for the tow, Kimi was there as well, and I did my lap a second and a half behind Max, which wasn’t ideal. It takes nothing away from what Pierre achieved because, as he said, they were flying all day, quickest in Q1 and right up there from the beginning. So, yeah, I’m happy for Pierre and, of course, disappointed we weren’t on pole ourselves. However, great place to start for tomorrow.
 
Q: George, at what point in the session did you take the threat from Pierre seriously?
GR: I mean, they’ve looked strong the whole weekend, but we’ve often seen in Q1 some midfield teams have competitive laps, and you’ve seen it with VCARB a few times where they’ve been sort of top three at the beginning of a session, and I didn’t think too much of it. I just thought they looked fast. Pierre clearly did a great job in Q1, but, no, to be totally honest, I don’t think we thought they were in the fight. And it goes to show what a great job he did and their team to get the pole, and one of the few drivers to improve on that last lap. And, yeah, pretty impressive.
 
Q: Okay. Tomorrow, what does the long-run pace of your car look like?
GR: Definitely in with a shot of the win. It’s going to be an interesting fight with Pierre as well. I think they’ve got a car that’s got some good straight-line speed, which will be nice for them in the race. I don’t really know where the fight is tomorrow, but, yeah, confident I’ve got the pace to go for the win.
 
Q: And, George, with the world title in mind, how much do you need the win here at Monza?
GR: Every race is very important. To be honest, I’m more pleased just about the performance in general. You know, I’ve come back from the summer break, every lap, every session, I’ve been sort of in the mix of the top three positions, similar to where I was at the start of the year. I had that very tough run of form prior to the break where every lap, you know, I wasn’t even inside the top five. So just to come back, I’m just sort of pleased to have found my feet again. Of course, the win is going to be very important tomorrow, but I’m more pleased about the performance.
 
Q: Okay, well done. Thank you. And Oscar, let’s come to you now. It was looking good after that first run in Q3. Just talk us through the thinking of what happened in terms of where you were running on the racetrack and what happened into the first chicane on that second run.
OP: Yeah, I mean, the slipstream here is really important, obviously, and, I mean, we kind of knew going into the session that, just where we are in the pit lane, we often have to leave the garage first because if we don’t, we end up being last. And, you know, obviously there was a fair bit of mess behind us, behind me and Lando, and, you know, if you don’t go early enough, you get stuck right at the back of that and you don’t get a lap. So, the second lap, yeah, I was leading the train around and, yeah, I think I was already like two tenths down into Turn 1, so I tried to kind of compensate. Obviously, you know, your braking point changes quite a lot with that speed difference, so I tried to probably be a bit too ambitious, locked the front and that was it. So, yeah, I think the first lap was pretty solid, to be honest, so not too disappointed. I think there was only a couple of guys that really improved on the final run, so I’m pretty happy still.
 
Q: Now, in terms of where you start the Grand Prix tomorrow, you’re off to see the stewards just after this press conference. Can we talk about what happened with Liam Lawson in Q2? You impeded him. Just from your point of view, what happened?
OP: Yeah, I was coming out of the pits and, I mean, the speed difference out of the pits is so big here. So, yeah, don’t really know where he came from. I need to review it with the team.
 
Q: Wherever you start tomorrow, what is the long-run pace of the car like? How hopeful can you be?
OP: I don’t think it’s as strong as the Mercedes or even Ferrari yesterday, really. But I think, you know, the first few laps of the race tomorrow could be quite chaotic and not necessarily the quickest car is going to be leading all the time. So, yeah, let’s wait and see what we get. I definitely don’t think we’re in quite as strong a position as we have been the last couple of races. But, yeah, I think it’s going to be an interesting one, so we’ll have to take our chances when they come.
 
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Pierre, one for you. Congratulations on the pole. Obviously, you mentioned it’s been a crazy weekend?
PG: I’m just going to apologise first, yes. I forgot about these cameras.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) You talked about it being a crazy weekend for you so far. Obviously, the decision from the ICA to remove your Monaco podium, is that a bit of extra motivation going into tomorrow’s race? How nice would it be to get a bit of silverware back?
PG: I mean, I don’t think I can say much about this and all I can say is it’s not a nice situation, not ideal. Obviously, I try to use everything I can into something positive and, you know, extra motivation, but I think I could have dealt without it this weekend. Yeah, that’s all I’ll say.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) For you, Pierre, again, do you have any explanation where that performance came from? Was it just perfect execution? Was it less fuel in the tank than in the practice session? Did you change set-up massively? Where did it come from?
PG: No, actually, I mean, didn’t drive in P1. Yesterday in P2, things felt decent but, you know, for top 10. I think we made a few tweaks for P3, which again gave me a bit more confidence, and in practice I’ve never really had any tows. We knew that there was a bit more on the table in the practice sessions and then I think it was a very good execution from the team, you know, always putting me in a great position on track, managing the gap as best we could, really. So, I think my last lap, managed to target, you know, slightly over 2.5 seconds behind Lewis when he was going to be fast and sort of, like, drag me with him. So, I think it was perfect execution. The car balance is probably one of the best I’ve had so far this year, really. Again, gave me the confidence to, you know, attack all these corners and sliding around and playing around with the car, and we managed to make it work in that last run when everything mattered. So, I think it’s not down to, obviously, one simple parameter. I think everybody did a very good job and we’ve been rewarded for it.
 
Q: (Matteo Venezia – F1inGenerale.com) After this strong quali performance on such a fast circuit, can we say that from now on McLaren can fight basically on each circuit?
OP: I mean, I think today was incredibly close between a lot of different teams. Like, after the first run of Q3, I think it was like a tenth covering the top six or seven cars. I think, to be honest, we’ve been a bit stronger than maybe we thought, but I think the whole field’s been closer than we thought as well. So, yeah, we’re definitely not as strong here as what the car has been the last couple of weekends and we don’t seem particularly strong on the straights. But, no, I think we’re still definitely in the fight, which is good to see.
 
Q: (Frederik Hackbarth – F1-Insider.com) Oscar, when we rewind this 12 months ago, last year, at that race, you arrived as a clear championship leader and then we had quite a weird call after the pit stop situation with Lando, and that somewhat, at least from the outside perspective, seemed to start a downward spiral that harmed your championship. In hindsight now, do you wish you would have reacted differently back then? How are your thoughts on that?
OP: No, I mean, I don’t think it was, you know, one thing that led to the back end of last year being difficult. It was a number of different things week to week and, yeah, you know, you always think about different decisions you could have taken, but I think for me, how I responded, how I handled last year, I wouldn’t change it. So, yeah, nothing to change.
 
Q: (Luca Vaccaro – MOW Magazine) Pierre, first of all, congratulations. Which is the first thing you thought after the chequered flag?
PG: It’s been a long time. It’s been a long time since I did a pole position. So, yeah, probably, I don’t know, if you’re Formula 2. So, yeah, Formula One is quite tough because, you know, you work as hard as you can to try to put your best performance out there and, you know, as I said, in nine years I was never really in a position to get a shot at it. I think the closest I got was in Qatar some years ago, but never really had the car that allowed me to fight up there. And today I think, to be fair, was probably the first time. And it’s just such a nice feeling knowing that you are in the mix. You know, all these last few hundredths you’re going to squeeze out of that last lap potentially are going to be rewarded, because sometimes one of those laps, you know, will barely get us to Q3. Today I was very lucky and I’m super grateful to have had the car that I had and gave me the chance. But, yeah, when I passed the line, honestly, it was the same as last time. I just shouted. I have no idea what I said, but I probably made absolutely no sense. I just screamed on the radio and just pure happiness, a lot of emotions, and extremely happy for my team.
 
Q: (Josh Suttill – The Race) Pierre, obviously the Zandvoort upgrade was a step forward. Was this pole position possible without it? Did it make a difference here or not really?
PG: Absolutely not. Yeah, I mean, the package brought us a lot of performance already in Zandvoort. We saw we were a lot more competitive and I think it’s also, like, sort of giving me a little bit more what I need inside the car in terms of pushing my entries, being able to come into the corner, having a bit more consistent feeling with the car. No, the package definitely brought us good performance. Again, never imagined that we’d be in that position following Zandvoort.
 
Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segodnya) My question to Pierre Gasly. First, congratulations, Pierre. We are very happy to see you in first place. My question: how long will you be staying in first place tomorrow in the race?
PG: That’s a very good question. My plan is to stay first as long as I can. How long is that going to be? I have no idea. And my focus is going to be on my driving and making no mistakes and making the best out of what I have. So, I’m obviously really hoping we can stick, you know, to that position, but as we know, it’s racing. Time will tell us and I’m just going to make sure I do my work as I always do, and Saturday night I come as prepared as I can tomorrow and give it my best chance.
 
Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsport-Magazin.com) For you, George. You mentioned in Q3 that Max was there in between. Was it just coincidence, bad luck, or is there anything that the team could have done differently? I mean, you had three practice sessions to practise.
GR: I think, no, everything was all looking fine, but then going into Parabolica, Max just slammed on the brakes and he didn’t want to be the lead car. So, it’s just one of those things. You know, you can’t control what other people do. Kimi was there to give me the slipstream, which he did perfectly on the first run, but obviously with Max, I think it also made it difficult for Kimi to know what to do as well. So, it was just a little bit unfortunate. In hindsight, probably would have been better off not trying this, but, you know, we wanted to give it everything. And nevertheless, you know, P2 is a good place. We’re ahead of our rivals and still have a great shot to fight for the win.
 
Q: (Frederik Hackbarth – F1-Insider.com) George, another one for you. Of course, Kimi has his penalty this weekend and we all know you look a bit healthier on engine parts, but I think you don’t have a big margin as well. Any thoughts on that for the rest of the season? Because you can take it here now on the track where you could overtake quite easily.
GR: Yeah, I mean, most likely I will be taking a penalty at some point in the future races, hopefully once we have the upgrade on the car, which should make it slightly easier than it is currently. Of course, Monza is a great place and a very normal place where people usually take grid penalties, but it’s honestly something I’m not thinking about. The championship isn’t what I’m thinking about. I’m solely thinking about my performance and, you know, this weekend has been a very strong performance. We didn’t nail it when it really mattered, but we’ve still been in the top three every single session this whole weekend. And again, at Zandvoort, qualified on the front row in both the Sprint and the main race. So I’ve been pleased with this momentum since the break.
 
ENDS