Track Interviews - Conducted by David Coulthard

Q: Charles, congratulations. Your first podium of the year - it's only the second race - but after a great qualifying yesterday the pace of the Red Bulls just too strong for you.
Charles Leclerc: Yeah, we had quite a good pace because we had the fastest lap at the end. I got a bit held by a DRS, but overall the feeling was pretty good. It was a bit of a boring race because Red Bull were a bit too quick and behind we had a bit of a gap, but we took the maximum points we could today and that was the target, so that's great.

Q: Congratulations on that point for fastest lap. This is a tough race circuit. The pace of this race, I can see you're visibly sweating more than in some Grands Prix. How did it compare to last year?
CL: From last year, it's actually a step better. I don't know why exactly. Maybe because I was a bit more on my own, so you have a bit less adrenaline in the car, but all in all, it's definitely one of the most physical race tracks of the season. It's warm, but most of all, I think it's more for the neck. There are so many high speeds. Very, very difficult, but also very, very fun to drive.

Q: Excellent. Well, look, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask about your team-mate for this weekend. He was voted Driver of the Day. Oliver Bearman brought points home. How impressed have you been with him getting thrown in the deep end?
CL: I mean, he completely deserves it. He's done an incredible job already from FP3. He was straight on the pace in qualifying. He did a great job and missed Q3 by so little and I think today he's been incredible. I mean seventh in your first race in Formula 1, having done only in FP3 In a new car is just hugely impressive. So I'm sure he's extremely proud but everybody has noticed how talented he is and I guess it's just a matter of time before he comes here in Formula 1.

Q: And now we have Checo Pérez, the winner here last year, second this time. But I have the impression this was a stronger race this weekend than in Bahrain. Tell us about it.
Sergio Perez: Yeah, we definitely made some good progress. I think it was a shame that we just qualified out of the front row because we had a great start. Unfortunately, Charles really kept it together and we couldn't get through. It was a nice fight then later on. And it was quite a compromised race, I'll say, with the Safety car there so early. It was a very long stint on the Hard. And it was tricky at times, especially in the beginning. We had no warm-up at all. We were sliding a lot. It took us a long time to get through Lewis and Lando. But I think overall, it's a great day for the team. You know, very different track to Bahrain, and we keep being strong. So, yeah, we just have to keep this momentum going. I think we've taken a step forward from Bahrain. We've done good improvements from yesterday, so we still have some bits to tidy up, and our time will come.

Q: You mentioned there about the Safety Car. We just saw on the screen behind you, very tight with Fernando and the Aston. That's always going to be the case in those sort of double-stacking situations?
SP: Yeah, it was a shame that we got that penalty. Luckily, it didn't hurt our race but yeah I think in this scenario you know I was quite close to Max and everyone was coming in at the same time, we just need a wider pit lane!

Q: Enjoy the podium and congratulations on second place. And now for our winner. Max your 56thvictory in Formula 1 and your first century of podiums. You must be feeling good.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, I think overall, of course, a fantastic weekend for the whole team, but also for myself. I felt really good with the car. And, yeah, also basically it was the same in the race. Of course, the last stint was a bit longer than we would have liked, but with the Safety Car, you had to go for it. So the last few laps also with those back markers, with the cold tyres was a little bit slippery, but we had good pace all around. We could manage it quite well with the gap also. So, yeah, overall, very, very pleased.

Q: You mentioned yesterday in qualifying that the car was on rails. Sounds like it was a bit more challenging on this circuit, especially with the long stint.
MV: Yeah, exactly. I think ideally you don't want to do such a long stint on that tyre, but we had to. And that, of course, around here with all these high-speed corners, if the tyre falls out of the window a little bit, it makes it all a bit more tricky.

Q: We heard Charles mentioning that this is a tough one on the neck. Do you have any feeling of that when you were doing your Grand Prix?
MV: Yeah, this is always... Early in the season as well, anti-clockwise, a lot of Gs constantly throughout the whole lap, so it's definitely always one of the more physical ones.

Press Conference

Q: Max, very well done. That looked like the perfect race for you. Is that how it felt in the cockpit?
MV: Yeah, I think it was a very good race. Of course, after that first stint with the Safety Car, we had to box. And I knew that it was going to be a very long stint to the end. But of course, it was the same for most of us. And I think we just managed the pace very well to the end. And yeah, I think the whole weekend, the car has been performing really well, probably a little bit better than expected even. And yeah, overall, of course, very pleased to win here.

Q: Are you more pleased with the performance here than you were one week ago in Bahrain?
MV: Well, I mean, the race in Bahrain, I think, was also very good. So it's a bit difficult. You know, it's very different scenarios as well. So I mean, around here, you know, you naturally have low tyre deg. So you probably also ask different things from the car.

Q: Now, it seemed that Charles's best chance of challenging you was at the start. So talk us through those early metres of the race. How was your getaway, first of all?
MV: It was OK. Not very, very good, but good enough, I guess. So, yeah, that's the most important.

Q: Well, this is your 100th podium in Formula 1, achieved in just 188 starts. That's a very impressive strike rate. Can we just get your reaction to that?
MV: It's 88 missed podiums! No, of course, very happy with that. But I'm not really a guy, you know, looking at the stats. So I'm just happy to hit 100. But I want to, of course, continue and just focus race-by-race on achieving the best possible result all the time.

Q: Well, let's go race-by-race. Australia is next. Just how much of a different challenge is Albert Park?
MV: Yeah, it's a very different track again, especially also now with the new layout, the new tarmac. So, yeah, next week we'll go in the simulator again, try to set it up as well as we can before we get there. And then we'll just see throughout the weekend where we are. I mean, it's impossible to know how competitive we are going to be.

Q: All right. Very well done today. Thanks. Thank you, Max. Checo, let's come to you next. A great second place for you. Just give us an overview of your race, first of all.
SP: Yeah, it was quite a bit more chaotic. I had a great start. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep ahead of Charles because he kept it there and obviously I gave him the space into Turn 2 and it was his corner then in Turn 4. So that was a nice start, good start once again. And from then on, I was able to get through Charles, I think within two or three laps. And then it was looking good, the race. I was within three seconds from Max, and I think the degradation on that Medium stint was looking quite good. But unfortunately, then we were compromised with such an early Safety Car, and that meant that basically everyone just pitted. And when I was going out, it was actually my mistake, because I was told by the team to hold it back. But in hindsight, I looked on the right and there was nobody there when I looked. But in hindsight, I think the penalty was correct and that pretty much compromised our race.

Q: Tell us a little bit more about when you're in the pits. How much can you see from the car?
SP: You are able to have a bit of awareness of what's going on around you, definitely. And when I looked at the mirror, there was no one. I saw that I didn't have the proper release. But I didn't see anyone. So sometimes the team can be a little bit slower than you in the car. But this time was the other way around. So... Yeah, my bad in that one, but still happily didn't change a race.

Q: But final one for me, you've said this weekend that you're happier with the car here in Jeddah. Where is it better compared to last weekend?
SP: I think things that we are doing with the car. I think last weekend was really a poor race in terms of how we managed it, the amount of degradation we had. But we understood the reasons behind it. The race was quite strong today because we were able to make the progress from Friday to the race. But I think qualifying, we just went a step backwards. And that's the main key from our weekend, to understand why we actually went slower than FP2 when you correct for everything. So it's something we've got to understand the reasons behind it and make sure that we are able to keep progressing.

Check out our Saturday gallery from Jeddah here.