Track Interviews - Conducted by Alex Brundle

Q: Carlos, great lap. You seem to have the car underneath you at Ferrari this weekend. Is that the way it felt to you? Really, really strong performance throughout qualifying.
Carlos Sainz: Yeah, I think we had a solid quali, a solid day in general with the two cars. And I think we put ourselves in a very good position for tomorrow. I've never really been 100% hooked up around here in my career. It's a track that I tend to struggle a bit, so to be P3 is a good position for tomorrow, as also my race pace yesterday seemed strong, so all to play for tomorrow.

Q: The track was moving around all over the place underneath you. How difficult was it to keep up with the swift evolution of the track early on and then it tailing off towards the last part of qualifying?
CS: Yeah, definitely. The track was ramping up a lot and we were getting more and more grip as the track cools down and the sun goes down. So it was all about adapting. I found something going into Q3 that gave me a bit more confidence. Yeah, probably wasn't the best of build-ups to do that Q3 lap, but at least I found something that allowed me to put it into the top three, which is a decent position for tomorrow.

Q: Was the Ferrari front row available today, or was Oscar a little bit far away from you?
CS: If I would have been a bit quicker, yes, but it's Baku where I've never been my best version of myself around here. But I think tomorrow we can be.

Q: Great job. Thanks so much. Oscar, second on the grid. Brilliant job. You seemed to find a little bit extra into Q3. Where did that come from?
Oscar Piastri: I just got a bit closer to the walls and on the last lap got a little bit too close! But yeah, just tried to really get the most out of it. This track really rewards commitment. So yeah, the last laps in Q3, I knew I had a lot less to lose. So just try and maximise the car. I was feeling good all the way through. Just didn't maximize it that much in the first part of qualifying. But no, very happy with Q3.

Q: Looking at your race pace, are you going to have the speed to be strong and challenge for the victory tomorrow?
OP: I think from where we're starting, yes. But I think following around here is going to be really tough. We saw yesterday that it was pretty tough once you get behind someone. So hopefully I can get some clean air and that would be good. But yeah, we'll see what we can do. I think our race pace is good. But again, the Ferrari is certainly not slow.

Q: And given the qualifying performance, it goes without saying, you have the green light to go all out for victory tomorrow.
OP: Definitely.

Q: Charles Leclerc, mesmerising lap. From an evocative win for the team at home in Monza to continuing your amazing run of form in qualifying here. Just talk us through the challenge of setting a lap like that between the walls. It's been so low grip all weekend, but you absolutely nailed it.
Charles Leclerc: Yeah, well, I mean, it's one of my favourite track of the season. I really like it. It hasn't been an easy weekend because obviously the crash in FP1, which didn't make me lose confidence, I knew that the pace was there, but obviously you've got to build back up to speed. Then in FP2, we had a problem on a new part we brought on the car and there was something wrong there. So we lost another half an hour and then it's laps that you don't really recover. So I was not worried, but I knew that we had to make up some time. But the pace was always there. And then in qualifying, until Q3, it was all about trying to stay as far as possible off the walls. And then in that last lap, I went for it a bit more. And the lap time came very nicely. I mean, the car felt really good and everything felt great. So, yeah, it's amazing to be on pole.

Q: You have yourself and Carlos up in the top three positions. Is that a benefit strategically moving into tomorrow with two Ferraris near the front of the field?
CL: Let's say it's the best we could have hoped for. I mean normally the even side of the grid has a little bit less grip, so first and third is where you want to start and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win that race. But it's going to be a long race. In the past we were very strong in qualifying struggling a bit in the race. This year we have a stronger race car, so I hope that we can finally make it tomorrow.

Q: More whispering with the tyres, just like in Monza, to take it through to the end of the race perhaps?
CL: Oh, definitely. I mean, tyre management will be a big thing tomorrow as well. So we've got to do a good job. We've done a really good job in Monza. But yeah, as I said, we have to reset every race as we do. And that's what we did. So tomorrow is another race with other issues, even though tyre degradation is there. It's with different tyres. So you've got to adapt to that. And we'll do our homework tonight to get ready for tomorrow.

Press Conference

Q: Brilliant job, Charles. Both of your laps in Q3 were good enough for pole. The car seemed very hooked up. Just talk us through that final lap.
CL: Well, it was a good lap. I just took a little bit more risk compared to the first attempt in Q3. It was important to just have a lap on the board, and then in the second lap, you just take more risk and see what happens. Luckily, I finished both of the laps, and they were good laps. The car felt really good since FP1. Honestly, we barely changed the car from FP1 to now. Straight away, I felt happy and the balance remained really good. We had to counter a little bit the track evolution because there's a lot of track evolution here, but the feeling was there straight away in FP1, even though there were not many laps in FP1 and FP2. That didn't stop us to recover after that and to be at ease for all the weekend.

Q: What is it about you and this racetrack, four pole positions, where do you find the time?
CL: This I don't know. I've been thinking about it. And obviously, whenever you have a good weekend, you try to analyse. But I don't really have a strong answer to it. I guess it just goes with my driving style very naturally, because most of the time, you have to work a lot to try and gain lap time. But there, I just feel good with the rhythm of this track for some reason. And yeah, that makes it a particularly good track for me.

Q: You said you haven't had to change the car much this weekend. So what about your race pace? Let's throw it forward to tomorrow. How confident are you?
CL: I mean, I didn't do a lap with high fuel, but it's been a pretty strong point of the car this year. So I am not worried going into tomorrow's race, but obviously we need to do things right. So I'll have to do a bit of homework tonight in order to get ready for tomorrow, but I'm not too worried that we'll do the best job with our package and then we'll see whether it's good enough to win the race tomorrow or not.

Q: And after all these pole positions at this racetrack, what would it mean to finally win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
CL: It would be nice. I mean, in '21 and... No. Yeah, '21 and '20, I think, it was quite unexpected, the pole position. So we didn't have the pace in the car to win. No, sorry, '21 and '23. In 22, we had a good car, and then the engine blew up. So, hopefully tomorrow the pace is there, and we don't have anything that stops us to win it. But again, before thinking about the final result, there are still lots of laps around this track, and it's a very difficult track. So we'll see tomorrow. But in the meantime, I'll just make sure that I am doing the best preparation possible.

Q: Alright. Very well done today. Thank you, Oscar. Let's come to you now. Front row start. But you said over the radio that that second lap of Q3 was the messiest one you've ever done. Really?
OP: Maybe not the messiest ever, but it certainly wasn't the cleanest. A few big moments in there and a couple of love taps with the wall. So, yeah, I mean, I pushed to get everything out of it that I could. And, yeah, maybe a little bit too much in some places, but I don't think I had enough to get polled today, so... I'm pretty happy with the front row. And yeah, hopefully we can try and put up a fight tomorrow.

Q: You only had the one set of new tyres for Q3. How much did that hold you back?
OP: I don't think that much in the end. I think the used tyres I did, I did more or less half a lap on it. So it wasn't completely used. And around here, the tyres have been a little bit strange, I would say. And just with the track evolution, it's more about doing a good lap rather than having the perfect set of tyres. So I was pretty happy with P3 after the first set. And then I found a little bit more on the second set of tyres. So yeah, I was pretty happy with that.

Q: You've mentioned the track evolution. Charles mentioned it. How much did it ramp up during the session? And did you get to a point where it stabilised?
OP: No. It was just getting faster and faster. I think from the start of FP1 to now... Normally we go maybe three seconds faster or maybe four in some places, but here it's been, I don't know what the number is, but it's like seven or eight. So, you really had to adapt a lot through the weekend and try to adapt your driving to the track you've got and adapt the car to what the track is going to be, which always makes life a little bit more difficult for the engineers and for us. But, yeah, it's never stabilized. And I think on a street circuit, it never will. It will just continue to get better and better.

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