Track Interviews - Conducted by Jolyon Palmer

Well, Lando, you're back in the top three, but I sense you're a little bit disappointed with that one. Not able to hook up the final lap. How was it for you out there?
Lando Norris: Yeah. I mean, always disappointed if I'm not on pole, but Oscar deserves it today. He's done a very good job all weekend, so happy for him. His first pole in Formula 1, so it's always cool. Just a couple of mistakes again, kind of been my case this weekend, but the car was feeling a bit better today. I've got a lot more comfortable with the car, so a step in the right direction, especially from yesterday where I was struggling a lot and even this morning I was struggling a lot. A much better direction that we're going in. So yeah, not too disappointed.

And we're seeing so much pace from you so far this season, but we are seeing a few laps not completed quite as you would want them. Couple of errors here or there you allude to. Is the car really tricky to drive at the moment? Is it difficult to get it on the knife edge just absolutely spot on?
LN: I mean, yeah, I've said that plenty of times. It's still quick enough. We've never doubted it's the quickest car. It can just be a little bit feisty at times, but no, today it's not so much that. Today was just mistakes from my side and that's all.

And in terms of the race, yet the Sprint earlier didn't go your way at all, but can you learn from that? Did you change the car much? How are you feeling for tomorrow?
LN: Yeah, we changed quite a lot on the car because we were nowhere and yeah, we worked quite hard to make some improvements into quali and then hopefully for the race tomorrow. So we'll see.

Good luck with tomorrow, Lando. George, what a performance, on the front row in 2025. How was that for you?
George Russell: It feels incredible, to be honest. It was one of the hardest quali sessions I've done in a long, long time and I was trying all sorts with my preparation, with the tyres, and nothing seemed to be clicking. Did something totally different on that last lap and it just all came alive and the lap was awesome. Just yeah, so, so happy to be P2.

P2. What was the difference? What did you do different?
GR: Oh, I mean I was going fast on the out lap, slow on the out lap, prepping the out lap... it was just - and the last one was a bit of a roll of the dice. Had a big moment at Turn 1, but it just all came together and I was really surprised when I crossed the line. I knew it was a good lap, but to see that I was between the McLarens - yeah, just buzzing and looking forward to tomorrow.

And in terms of race pace, we saw earlier on you were honing in on the top three. Didn't quite get there, but degradation looks really tough out there. How are you feeling over the full distance?
GR: Yeah, it's going to be tough. I think the Medium tyre in the Sprint was really difficult. Obviously, I think most drivers will start on that at the front of the field tomorrow, and then the Hard - no one's ran all weekend. So nobody knows right now if it's going to be a one or a two stop. We know that McLaren are going to be quick, but we'll be doing everything to try and stay where we are or try and jump ahead of them. Should be a lot of fun.

Good luck, George. Oscar Piastri: Grand Prix pole position for the first time and what a way to do it. Two laps that would have had it there for you. You just seemed hooked up today.
Oscar Piastri: I'm glad it looked like that because it didn't feel like that. I think, yeah, Q3 - just found a lot of pace. You know, Q1 and Q2 I was genuinely struggling and yeah, the car just came alive in Q3 and I think I came alive in Q3. So no, happy with what I did at the end. Even still, the laps were a little bit scruffy, but no - very, very - I mean, I'm just pumped to be on pole. So very happy.

You've just done the fastest ever lap of this circuit. New asphalt, loads of grip, obviously a car that's working well. How much of a buzz is it to drive at these speeds?
OP: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I think with the new surface it's extremely grippy, which for us, you know, it's the best feeling in the world. The only thing that comes with that is when you lose grip, it bites at you. I think you've probably seen a lot of snaps, a lot of moments this weekend, and with the surface we've got it's pretty tricky. But when you hook it up, it feels pretty mega. So I'll take the fastest lap of Shanghai.

Big smiles from you, but there is still a race to do tomorrow. Still a Grand Prix win to add to this pole position. And yet the dress rehearsal earlier on - car looked good, but Ferrari looked exceptionally strong as well. How are you feeling? Obviously a bit of clear air for you hopefully at the start of the race.
OP: Yeah, I mean, I think that is hopefully going to be a help. Just got to make sure I keep that clean air. But I was pretty happy after the Sprint. I think we did the most that we could have. I was pretty happy. You know, I would have been happier with one spot higher, but how the race turned out I couldn't have asked for much more. So like, we learned a lot this morning and looking forward to trying to put that into use tomorrow.

Press Conference

Oscar, huge day for you. Just first up, what does this one mean?
OP: Yeah, I mean it means a lot. Been close a few times now and yeah, nice to finally have my first pole. I've had a couple of Sprint poles, but to have the first Grand Prix pole means a bit more. So yeah, pretty pumped, to be honest. I've worked hard for it and I feel like the start of the season has been strong. Obviously the result in Melbourne was a shame, but I feel like I've been doing a good job otherwise and yeah, just happy to have ended up on pole.

Talk us through those laps in Q3. You said over the radio that you'd done the hairpin of your life. Just talk us through that.
OP: Yeah, my first lap was honestly better than my second lap, but just at the hairpin at the end of the straight I lost a bit of time and didn't do the best hairpin. And then the second lap I was about two-tenths down on myself, so I kind of just went, why not send it into the hairpin, and I gained those two-tenths back and then found a little bit more in the last corner. So yeah, honestly, without that, I was tempted to box before that. So I'm pretty happy now that I didn't, but it was - I just did a good corner, that's all.

Oscar, it's been a better qualifying today than it was Sprint qualifying yesterday for McLaren. What lessons did you learn overnight that you were able to apply this afternoon?
OP: I think our car was fast yesterday, it was just the run plan we went for in Sprint qualifying I don't think was the best one in the end. I think today we knew that the session's obviously a little bit longer so you can do two proper runs. So I think there were just a few things that in hindsight we could have done differently. And yeah, today I think the pace in the car has been more or less the same. We just executed it the way we should have. So yeah, I think it's been a good day overall. I think we learned a lot this morning. I think we learned a lot from Sprint quali yesterday to translate into qualifying this afternoon and yeah, happy that it's worked out.

Let's throw it forward then to the Grand Prix. What do you think is going to be key to securing P1?
OP: I think just making sure your tyres survive is the biggest thing. I think we saw this morning that those that could - or I would say look after their tyres, but that wasn't even really true - the people that could manage the best one way or another were the quickest. And I think for my own Sprint I felt like I did a reasonable job, it was just difficult trying to get past Max. But I think we saw with Lewis being out in front all morning, it probably helped him in the long run. So yeah, I think it's going to be a pretty interesting race. It's the most deg we've probably seen and the most graining we've seen in a long time. So it'll be interesting to see if it stays the same tomorrow.

Well done today. Best of luck tomorrow. George, let's come to you now. You ran Oscar very close. You also said it was one of the hardest sessions of your Formula 1 career. So talk us through it. How good was the car?
GR: It was really, really challenging because the weekend has been difficult for everybody to get on top of these tyres and knowing what the best sort of strategy in the session is - if you go hard on your formation lap or do you take it easy? And I was just sort of going all over the place. And on the last lap, I tried something very different, it worked, really strong lap, and the P2 was a real surprise. So really pleased with that one.

What did you try differently on the last lap?
GR: I just came out the pits and went dead slow round that warm-up lap ahead of my fast lap. So the first lap in Q3 I was full gas on that lap and it seemed OK - I think I was in P5, but two-and-a-half, three-tenths behind Oscar. And then found four-tenths on my last lap. Just really came together and it feels really rewarding when you do your best lap of the weekend when it matters. And to be in the front row is a really great place to start for tomorrow.

Great place to start. Just how much confidence did you have coming into the session that a result like this might have been possible?
GR: I think we've known realistically anywhere from P3 to P7 is where we are on a given day. And you saw, I think it was only two-tenths to P6 between ourselves, Ferrari, Kimi and Max. And just to be between the McLarens, I'm really proud of the job we've all done to secure that. We know how quick they are. So anything more than a P3 is a big result for any team at the moment.

And from everything we've learned so far this weekend, do you think you've got the race pace to match these guys?
GR: I think that would be a bit of a stretch. Like Oscar said, it was a really difficult race this morning. I do think they're still a step ahead of everybody. Ferrari were a real surprise in the Sprint, but tomorrow's a different game. And we've got the Hard tyre - nobody's run that yet. So I expect a slightly different outcome.

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