Track Interviews - Conducted by Jolyon Palmer

George Russell, a podium to start the year. I'm exhausted, having watched the race. How do you feel having driven that one?
George Russell: Yeah, it was a great race to come home in P3. I just want to say a massive well done to Lando. I think in a race like that, when you're leading, it's probably your worst nightmare. But he did a great job. Also, really well under Kimi to come back to P5, which is a really impressive first race. For us, it wasn't our strongest weekend, but to end up on the podium - super happy. Yeah, let's see what we can do next week.

That looked like some of the toughest conditions I've ever seen - a crash before the start of the race, a delayed start, crashes under safety car. How do you keep it on the island in conditions like that?
GR: Yeah, it was good fun. I was quite enjoying it, to be honest, because I was hoping the two guys ahead would make a mistake and I could slip through, but that just didn't seem to be the case today. Really tricky, but that's what F1's about, and that's what makes it exciting for us. I hope everyone enjoyed it at home.

And the best start of the season that Mercedes have made since you've been at the team - podium, you've got Kimi Antonelli, your young teammate with you as well. It's got to be confidence-boosting?
GR: Yeah, absolutely. It's been, all things considered, a really good weekend. We know McLaren are out in front at the moment, but this was a strong result.

Well done, George. Enjoy the podium. Max, unbelievable race. So much going on to unpick through it, but let's start with the finale - pressuring Lando all the way. Somehow through it all, it's you two at the front again, and you've just missed out this time. But brilliant job. Well done.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was a difficult race, of course, but at the end, it was fun. Lando had a little moment on entry of six, so he lost a lot of momentum there. That's why I got close, and then I got DRS. I got close but it's very hard to pass around here. It was fun those last laps, you know, pushing at least, when you're fighting for the win. I'm just very happy to bring it home, score good points. This is, let's say, a decent starting point for us.

Talk us through the call to stay out on the slicks because that looked like a split-second decision. One McLaren was off, one pitted, and suddenly you're in the lead of the race.
MV: Yeah, it started to rain a bit. They went off, so it was a bit like a panic. Like, "Oh, I need to box." So, they went. I stayed out the first time. Honestly, the first lap, I think it was alright. But then, unfortunately, the weather continued a little bit more on the other side of the track as well, and we had to box. At the end of the day, even if we had boxed one lap earlier, we would have still been P2 after that stop. I think it was worth the gamble. It was quite spicy out there with the slick tyres, but it was alright at the end.

You certainly gave it your best shot. So, what about the car in general? Moving towards China next week, is it better than you expected to be able to fight for a win straight away?
MV: It is what I expected it to be. You can see also in that first stint, we were lacking a little bit of pace compared to McLaren, but it's still 18 points more than what I had here last year so I'll take that.

Alright, well done, Max. Thanks for giving us a great race. Lando, what an unbelievable victory. How difficult was that out there? So much to deal with.
Lando Norris: It was amazing, thank you. A tough race, especially with Max behind me. I was pushing. The last two laps were a little bit stressful: I'm not going to lie. But an amazing way to start the year. A tough one because we went off, made some big mistakes. I went through the gravel, a lot of damage. Just tricky conditions, but these are the ones that are enjoyable, fun, and unpredictable. This time, we got it right and ended up on top. So, I'm very happy.

And what were your thoughts? You seemed so calm the whole way through the race. You had a delayed start from pole position, you had Max behind you, Oscar behind you, Max again at the end. And then there was this threat of rain coming under the Safety Car. How much is that playing on your mind when you've just got to keep it on a difficult race track as well? How do you keep calm? How do you keep the communication so good?
LN: We got it wrong a lot last year, so I guess we learned from our mistakes. We lost out on Silverstone and Canada through a race like this. We've learned from our mistakes. I think it's still only Round 1 of 24, but dealing with the pressure, dealing with Max, dealing with Oscar behind me - I was pushing the whole way through. I could relax inside, but I wasn't relaxing from how much I was pushing. A tough one, so to not make too many mistakes, not to have a mistake that cost me anything. I guess I can take a little bit of credit for that. A tough, challenging race, but for McLaren, I need to give a big thanks because they've given me an amazing car, so I have to start with them.

No one was ever going to make this one easy for you. The last laps - Max is on your tail. You've got Will on the radio saying, "Don't over-push it." You've got the Red Bull just there. How do you deal with that pressure?
LN: I don't know, just drive, I guess. Max was quick. I knew I had good pace, but I made one mistake in Turn 6, and he got within the DRS. The DRS around here is probably like a second or something. That allowed him to keep staying within that second and have a couple of little looks. I had to check my mirror a few more times than I would have liked, but I stayed calm, kept it together, and listened to Will, so that's the most important thing.

And it's just race one. You're now the championship leader. You have the car that put it on the front row with a lock-out with Oscar Piastri as well, and you won the race with everything thrown at you. This must be a confidence booster ahead of the whole year?
LN: You would hope so. It is. My weekend's been amazing. From the get-go - from FP1, FP2, FP3, quali, and now the race. It's not easy to put a weekend together like this, especially when I've got a lot of pressure from Max and Oscar because they're hungry, competitive, and want it just as badly. Stressful, but I know what I'm capable of. I know what I can do. But like you said, it's just Round 1, so we need to go and do it again next weekend and continue from there. A long season ahead - we just have to keep our heads down and keep pushing.

Press Conference

Lando, very well done to you. Lots of pressure, lots of weather throughout the race, yet you executed everything perfectly. Just how satisfying was this win?
LN: Very, yeah. I mean, to start the season off with a win is good enough, but to do it in such a stressful race, where it's so easy to make a mistake, so easy to ruin everything, you know, so quickly, it can all go wrong within any second of the race - you lock up, you hit the white line wrong, you have a big snap. It was just very difficult at times to not go into a wall or a tyre barrier somewhere. That's a big enough challenge, but then when you've got the weather changing and the track conditions changing, knowing when to make the correct decision to change onto a slick tyre or stay out on the Inter tyre, and then even more when I've got Max behind me and Oscar behind me, it's stressful, but that's what makes it rewarding and such a nice win.
Yeah, difficult. A lot of tough moments. I guess that's what makes it sweeter. But, you know, we worked a lot over the winter to prepare for a race like this because it's where we threw away a lot of opportunities last season - Canada, Silverstone - where we were not the best at preparing and knowing how decisive we've got to be. And today we were very decisive. Calling to box five minutes before I boxed, but it was the right call in the end, and that won us the race. Stressful, but rewarding.

Just talk us through the peak stress moment, when you ran through the gravel?
LN: Yeah, I mean, this is a tough one. Max was on the Mediums, myself and Oscar on the Hard. So, I think we knew if it started to rain, we'd struggle more than Max. At that time, we still didn't have all the temperature in the tyres. Also, being first, you just take the risks - how much do I push it? You don't know if you have to... You see some drizzles of rain on the visor, and I got a call from Will saying that it's drizzling a bit in the last sector. But you don't know if you have to slow down five kilometres an hour, 10, 11. If you slow down 11, maybe it's perfect; if you slow down 10, maybe you're off. Making those decisions two metres before you brake, it's not easy. You've got to do a lot of things on the fly and just wing it. Obviously, I went in a bit quick for how much rain was coming down and I've completely gone off. I've managed to just about get it stopped for the corner, but I looked in my mirror as I was off and saw Oscar go through the gravel as well, and Max then catching. It's a very stressful moment because it all could have gone wrong there. If I stayed on track, I think Max probably would have passed me because he was on the Medium and probably in a better window than I had with the Hards. But we boxed, and then half the track was completely dry, and half of it was wet - kind of like a Spa kind of race. You don't know how much to push in the dry bit because you destroy the Inters quickly. I think that's why I struggled a bit at the end of the race - my Inters were just a little destroyed from when it was still dry. A lot of things to factor in, so to get it all right and deal with the stress in a good way was very nice.

Lando. I'm sure there are going to be lots of questions from the floor. So, final one from me - just how sweet is it to lead the Drivers' Championship for the first time?
LN: It's great. Doesn't mean anything. I've not won it, so yeah, I don't really care at the minute.

Alright, very well done to you. Max, let's come to you now. You ran Lando very close at the end. What were you thinking? Just one more lap?
MV: No, not so much, to be honest. I just tried my best, tried to be close, tried to put a bit of pressure on, but it's very hard to pass around here. There was only one line. Even if I had gotten a run into whatever, Turn 9, you have to go onto the wet part, so you can't really do a lot. But at least it was close. It looked good on TV.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Albert Park here.