Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by Alex Brundle

Oscar Piastri, an outstanding lap at the end of qualifying for the biggest pole margin of the year. You must be happy with that.
Oscar Piastri: Yeah, very happy. It's been a good weekend so far. It didn't start off in the best way - we were struggling a little bit - but I think last night we found some pace. And today, the car's been mega, and I feel like I've been able to put in some good laps as well. So thank you to the team for all the hard work. This was a pretty miserable scene 12 months ago, so to have turned it around in the best way is a great result.

Speaking of finding pace, it was that very last lap in Q3 where you jumped ahead. Where do you think you found the time over the earlier lap - without the cheeky tow available, of course?
OP: Yeah, I improved quite a lot in Turn 1, actually. And then there were a couple of other places in the lap where I'd been struggling a bit all day. I don't know if I necessarily did better, but it all just came to me mainly in the first half of the lap. And in the second half, could just about hang on. It wasn't the perfect lap, but I think around here, with the tyres going off so much through the lap, it's very tough to do that. So, I'm very, very happy with all the work we put in.

Two McLarens across the front row of the grid tomorrow puts you in a great position strategically, for what looks to be an extremely strategic Grand Prix.
OP: Yeah, definitely. It's going to be an interesting one tomorrow and I'm pretty glad that I'm starting from pole. It's obviously a long run to Turn 1, so I've got to make sure we try and get a good start tomorrow. But no, very proud of the work we've done today and starting in the best spot. So, I can't thank the team enough, and hopefully we can have some fun tomorrow.

Outstanding lap. Congratulations, Oscar. Bringing in Lando Norris. Lando, early in the session it looked like the pole position would be yours, but not quite there in that final run. Do you think you could have had pole today?
Lando Norris: Oscar drove very well. I think the pace is definitely there. Just a couple of little mistakes, but yeah, didn't do it. And Oscar, like I said, was driving well all weekend. So, a good result for the team, a nice one-two, and an interesting start for tomorrow.

We saw a little bit of gamesmanship between the two of you early on in Q3 with regards to the tow. Three points between you coming into this weekend in the championship. Is that a taster of the battle that we're going to see tomorrow?
LN: I mean, hopefully not. Hopefully it's just an easy race for me. But no, I expected it. It's a long run down to Turn 1 - normally always interesting. I mean, we've got a lot of quick guys behind us, so we won't count them out. But no, good result for today. I'm happy.

Looks like you're going have to keep hold of that left front throughout the race tomorrow. Do you have a good race car underneath you?
LN: We do. We have the best one.

Max Verstappen. Great job to take third position in the session. Was that everything that the car had today?
Max Verstappen: I guess so. I mean, I think we were lacking all weekend, of course, compared to them. But I think we executed well. And I think, yeah, that third position is where we more or less should be, even though I think it's quite close behind as well. So yeah, it's fun. I mean, around here squeezing everything out of the car - the grip is always quite good even with the hot temperatures - but yeah, let's see tomorrow what we can do from there.

Exactly the same lap time on our timing screens as George Russell. You, of course, setting the lap time first. You've been talking a little bit about the balance of that Red Bull through the weekend so far. How much work did you have to do overnight to put yourself in a position to be third too?
MV: Not too much. I mean, I think we had quite a decent Friday actually, and we just made some final changes to the car. But yeah, of course, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to really challenge for pole. But yeah, it's okay.

Do you have a good race car underneath you for tomorrow starting from the second row of the grid?
MV: Yeah, I'll try my best, but they will be tough to beat. But we'll see what we can do tomorrow.

Press Conference

Many congratulations, Oscar. It was a tight battle. Talk us through the lap that gave you the pole.
OP: It was pretty good. I think Sector 1 in particular felt quite strong and halfway through Sector 2. The back end of the lap was a little bit trickier, and I'd actually lost a little bit of time. But I think here, if you use up your tires in the first half of the lap, the second half becomes very tough. So clearly, it was good enough, which is a great thing, obviously. The car's been feeling really good today and I've been able to put in consistent laps, which has been nice and a bit of a contrast to yesterday. So, it's been a good day.

This is the biggest pole margin of the season so far. Just how confident were you feeling coming into the session?
OP: I think it had been a good run through practice. FP2 felt strong this morning, and FP3 I felt pretty strong. So, I was pretty confident that was on the cards in quali. I obviously knew that Lando was going to be quick, but I also thought that the others would get in the mix as well. So yeah, it was nice that we had a bit of a gap as a team. I always felt pretty confident that I could achieve this today, so glad that we pulled it off.

You touched on tyres a little bit earlier. Can you talk us through the decision-making process in the cockpit about how hard to push in Sector 1 to ensure that you do have a little bit of tyre left in Sector 3?
OP: There wasn't any really. I learned that after the fact. But yeah, I knew I had some corners to tidy up in the first half of the lap, which I felt like I did a good job of. And then, I don't know, maybe I just got too excited for the second half of the lap or I don't know. It wouldn't be the first time. Maybe it was just a lack of talent in the second half, but I think when you push the tyres like that and get everything out of them, there probably is a bit of a price to pay because the last sector, the corners are so slow and so long. So, if I was to do it again, maybe I'd tweak it slightly, but I don't really care now.

Oscar, a quick word if we could on the technical directive that's been introduced this weekend. Have there been challenges dialling the car into this racetrack as a result?
OP: No. Not because of the technical directive. No. I mean, every weekend we've gone through, there's been some things to fine-tune, but we had the same problems as usual. So, it was nothing new.

Alright. Let's throw it forward to tomorrow. What's the key to winning the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday?
OP: Crossing the line first, Tom. That's the key! I mean, yeah, I think trying to get a good start and keep the lead is a good idea probably. But there's going to be some strategy involved tomorrow. The long runs yesterday were pretty painful for everyone, I think. So, it's going to be a different race to a lot of the races we've had this year. Hopefully, a bit different to last weekend. I think it will be an interesting race still and it's not as simple as take the lead at the start and cruise from there. It's going to be a challenge to manage the tyres, timing your stops right. There's going to be a lot going on.

Lando, let's come to you. After the first run of Q3, you had the pole. Did you think there was more time on the table after that lap?
LN: Yeah. For sure.

So, talk us through the second lap then. What happened?
LN: Just a couple little mistakes. Turn 1 - which is kind of the first place you don't want to make a mistake, just because it harms the rest of the lap with the tyres and things. So just a couple of little squiggles there and the exit of Turn 4 as well. So just not a perfect lap, not the cleanest lap, but still improved, surprisingly. So the pace was easily there. Just a couple too many mistakes.

Lando, can you talk us through the performance of the car throughout the weekend? How much confidence do you have in the long run pace going into the race tomorrow?
LN: Yeah, good. We've been good in all conditions so far. It's obviously very hot. So, like Oscar said, just a bit of a struggle for everyone. It's a struggle in quali to look after the tyres for one lap, so the race is then much trickier. But the car has been good the whole weekend, as you've shown today. So yeah, that's always reassuring before Sunday.

Just that first lap of Q3 - we did see you, at least from the outside, it looked like you might have got a tow off Oscar to start your lap. Did it make any difference?
LN: Hard to say. It was short-lived, but rightly so. So no, don't think so.

Max, let's come to you then. Talk us through the session from your point of view. Yet again, you delivered when it mattered right at the end.
MV: Yeah. It was fine. I think it was consistently the same delta behind. So Q1, Q2, Q3. Just my first one in Q3 was a bit more difficult because we tried a different out-lap approach and that didn't work. But yeah, clearly just lacking a bit too much. Sector 1 was quite tough. Turn 1 was never really good, even though I tried different approaches, but just didn't seem to find the grip there. The rest... It was fine. The car was in a decent window. Unfortunately, not fast enough, but I had fun out there. The car, around here, qualifying flat out, fast corners, it is really enjoyable.

You say you had fun, but did you expect to be closer to McLaren than you are?
MV: When?

In quali, over one lap.
MV: No.

What about the race pace of the car? You're going for your fourth consecutive win here, Max. How steep a challenge is tomorrow for you?
MV: It's going to be tough, I think. My long run wasn't bad, but if you look at the difference today, it will be tough to put up a really, really good fight. But that doesn't mean that we're not going try. So, we'll see tomorrow.

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