1 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
2 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari)
3 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)

PARC FERMÉ INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Alex Brundle)

Q: George Russell, an absolutely thrilling lap. A gap of eight tenths of a second. Mr Saturday returns on Friday. That was a pretty special one, wasn’t it?

George RUSSELL: Yeah, it’s been a while. It’s been a while, so it definitely feels good. It’s probably the biggest margin in my whole career, even including F2, F3 days. So, the lap felt really sweet. The car’s been feeling great this weekend and, on a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing.

Q: You topped FP1, you topped FP2. A little bit more of a challenge in FP3, but it was never in doubt, was it?

GR: I was feeling good. I was feeling good, to be honest. I think Max has been very fast this weekend. I don’t know what happened to him at the end, maybe, I think, with the yellow flag of Lando, he didn’t get that last chance, so it would have been interesting to see. But it was just the perfect lap at the end. I was in a good gap behind Hadjar, which gave me a nice little slipstream, probably by another tenth or two down this back straight. So, yeah, it was great.

Q: Charles, can we borrow you for a second? We saw a little bit of a tow for you across the line from Lewis Hamilton. Was that assistance up into the top three?

Charles LECLERC: Honestly, it was quite a good lap. Lewis was in front, three, four seconds, I think, in front, and I managed to do a good lap at the end. But when I see the gap to George, maybe the lap wasn’t good enough. So, yes, but overall, we’ve been on the back foot all weekend. We kind of expected to be very far off after a difficult Friday, but this morning I had a little bit more hope. So, yes, I think in terms of position that’s where we expected to be but in terms of hap it’s a lot more than what we expected.

Q: How do you go about trying to race a Mercedes tomorrow that could be eight tenths up the road with a little bit more straight-line speed. is there a chance down into Turn 1 and get ahead, or are they going to be too far ahead on pace?

CL: I mean, we’ll see. We’ll see tomorrow. Surely our straight-line speed is not our strength, but the pace has been quite strong in FP1 for the high fuel, so I hope it will be the case tomorrow.

Q: Oscar, you fooled us all again. You’ve been talking about how McLaren is struggling for pace all weekend, and here you are once again in the top three. That must have been a great lap.

Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah, it was good. I think in qualifying we found a bit of pace. So, yeah, it’s not the first time that’s happened to us this year. We seem like we’re a bit on the back foot through practice, we come out in qualifying and, yeah, we just find that bit extra. And I was pretty surprised to see us one-two after the first lap of Q3, but unfortunately, we had no hope against George. So I’m very happy with how the weekend’s gone so far. It’s never easy around here, especially when it’s so gusty like today, so I’m very, very happy to be back in the top three.

Q: How much of a challenge was the wind out there? We saw a lot of moments for various drivers. Give us a feel for how difficult it is to drive these cars in the gusty conditions.

OP: Yeah, I mean, honestly, trying to keep it between the lines, you know, the highway lines down the straights, is not easy. Especially, you know, it always sounds so dull talking about the wind in a Formula 1 car, but even when the walls disappear and you get a bit more open, you really get a massive gust. So, it’s not easy at all. You know, there’s 30 or 40 kph difference sometimes between laps, so you really got to be on your toes and adapt on the fly.

Q: George, I know you’ve only just finished qualifying, but pole position, a decent car underneath you, we’ve seen some pretty good race pace as well. Must be pretty confident going into tomorrow?

GR: No, I’m feeling good. I think we’re in a great place to go for the win, but of course this is Baku and anything can happen. Of course, Charles is going to be motivated to probably throw one down the inside of Turn 1, but whatever happens, I feel confident that we can go for the win.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: George, what an extraordinary performance by you. Very well done. You said over the radio it was a very good lap. How did you do it?

GR: Yeah, I mean, I’ve been feeling in a great spot this whole weekend. From FP1 I felt confident, I felt hooked up. You know, as I’ve said recently, I’m just getting more and more on top of this car and what it requires, and it’s just all feeling more intuitive. And, you know, I felt very confident we were in the running for pole, but when I crossed the line and I saw the gap, I was, yeah, I was shocked. I knew the lap was great. I had a nice slipstream at the end, which gave me an extra probably tenth and a half, two tenths, and it just all perfectly came together.

Q: Fine, you had a slipstream on that last lap that gave you a tenth, but you found a second from your first run in Q3 to that last lap. Where did that time come from?

GR: It’s been a very challenging weekend with the tyres here for everybody. We only used one set of tyres in all of Q3. That was my third lap on the tyres. Most of these guys also did two laps on the tyres. I think it was only McLaren who pitted for a new set. But it was just like these tyres could keep on going and going, and we certainly were not sure what the right strategy was going to be come Q3, whether using two sets of tyres or keeping the same set on. But I just wanted to stick with what we knew. I knew my first lap wasn’t going to be the best because we had all of the fuel in the car, so I just kind of wanted to put a banker on the board because this track requires a lot of commitment. So, I just put a banker on the board and then, obviously, my next two laps were good enough for pole.

Q: Look, much pace. Does this feel like something of a breakthrough moment for you?

GR: I wouldn’t necessarily say so. It’s definitely just being perfectly hooked up for me this weekend so far. But, you know, me and my team have put so much work in to help me get on top of the limitations, and I think since the summer break it’s been great. The performance has been substantially better than the results have shown. So, you know, it’s three front-row starts in the four races since the break. I’m very pleased with it.

Q: Looking forward to tomorrow, what sort of advantage do you expect to have over the field? Not as big as today.

GR: No, for sure, for sure not as big as today. I think, looking back on yesterday’s practice, I think Verstappen was the biggest threat. I think he probably got a bit blocked, I think, by Lando with the yellow flag at the end, so didn’t have that chance to improve. But, yeah, I think we really don’t know. McLaren also threw out a big surprise at the beginning of Q3. They were one and two, and that was a surprise. But I feel Verstappen is going to be a threat. Obviously, you can’t discount Kimi. You know, started 19th in Monza and now he’s in 16th, so, yeah, he should be leading by a few laps early this time.

Q: George, very well done. Thank you very much for that. Charles, let’s come to you now. Your fourth front row this season. Just how was the car? How was that lap in Q3?

CL: Well, I felt hooked up as well, but maybe not to the right hook when I see the gap with George. It’s quite a significant gap. So, yes, I mean, the car felt better than what it felt for the rest of the weekend. We’ve had our struggles this weekend and we were definitely not as competitive. But as George said, I think it’s very difficult to get these tyres in the right window, and particularly this weekend. I think probably McLaren and ourselves were a bit in the same boat, where we were really struggling in free practice. Some laps were good, but never really consistently there. And in qualifying I felt like we did a better job in that. But, yeah, it’s all relative, and eight tenths and a half is a lot. So, there are plenty of things that we should look at and try to improve, particularly because our weakness normally is straight-line speed, but today Sector 2 is also where George made the difference.

Q: Are there any areas of performance where your car has surprised you, either positively or negatively?

CL: Overall, the predictability of the car this weekend it has been very difficult. Normally, I feel like one of my strengths coming here is being very precise and taking a lot of risk with the distance to the wall. This weekend I just couldn’t do that because the car was was not exactly reacting the way I wanted. It was just quite unpredictable. I still had that unpredictability in qualifying. It got better, but I couldn’t take the... yeah, I had to take a bit more margin compared to what I usually do here.

Q: Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race, how much confidence can you have? Do you have anything in your armoury that can help you challenge George Russell and Mercedes for the win?

CL: We’ll try, and we’ll do our best. Whether that will be enough, only time will tell. But we know that we have a good race car, more often than not better in the race than in qualifying, and I hope that it will be the case again this weekend.

Q: Okay, Charles, thank you very much for that. And Oscar, let’s come to you now. Just one thousandth of a second from the front row for you. Very well done. Just how much of a surprise is this quali performance? Because the messaging from McLaren after practice wasn’t so positive.

OP: Yes, it’s been not an easy weekend, for sure, from a few areas. You know, we’ve not been particularly quick. We’re also running cable ties on our car through Friday, which is never a great sign. So, it’s been a little bit of a tricky one for us. But it’s not the first time this year, I feel like, that we get to qualifying, we take all the fuel out and the car just comes alive more. You know, clearly compared to George and Mercedes, we’re still a long way off. But, yeah, it’s certainly not the first time where we get to qualifying and things look a bit brighter. So, yeah, happy with how we’ve tried to evolve this weekend. It’s certainly not been easy to get the most out of this car around here with how much you have to push and, obviously, the consequences. So, to end up P3 is a really good result.

Q: And in terms of your own confidence with the car, do you feel you’ve taken a step forward this weekend?

OP: Yes and no. I mean, similar to what Charles said, to be honest, I think some laps here and there have been strong, but it’s been a lot in between that haven’t been very strong. And I feel like we’ve been reasonable at points, but, yeah, you know, our car needs some specific things, and trying to find those things on a street circuit is really tough. And again, I think in qualifying we just come alive a little bit more, everything becomes a little bit easier and it’s a bit easier for us to get the pace out of the car. But, no, on a personal level I feel like we’ve been building up well and, yeah, was pretty happy with my lap in Q3.

Q: And the different tyre strategy that you guys had compared to Mercedes, for example, how seriously did you consider just the one set of tyres in Q3?

OP: We considered it. I mean, it was unclear for us as well what we wanted to do. I think Q2, we went back out on the used set of tyres and didn’t need a warm-up lap, and we were good to go and we improved. So I think we kind of just committed to... We managed to do a warm-up lap on the first set, which was good, but we knew we didn’t have time for that on the second set. But I think after that second run of Q2, we were relatively confident that we could at least nearly make it work. And we, you know, we didn’t really have any other option than to make it work. So I think for us that was a good idea.

Q: And where do you see your battles tomorrow? Can you challenge George?

OP: If he’s got a tow bar that I can hook onto the back of, maybe. But, yeah, we’ll see what we can do. I think the Mercedes look incredibly quick here, but I think everyone else looks like they’re in a similar-ish kind of pack. And our race pace looked pretty good yesterday, to be honest. So, yeah, I think we can hang on and battle in the pack behind George and, yeah, see what lap Kimi starts coming through as well.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Sergey Podosenov – News.ru) My question to the three pilots. Baku is celebrating 10 years of Formula 1. What feels special to you about the atmosphere this anniversary weekend?

GR: Well, I think Baku, as drivers, we do enjoy coming here because it’s a very unique circuit. It’s a unique Grand Prix. It’s different to a lot of others that we go to, and I think we also enjoy that. And the races are quite exciting as well, so it ticks quite a few boxes.

CL: Yeah, same. I mean, not much to add. I think the track is really cool. It’s really challenging, and the castle part also makes it quite unique. So, yeah, it’s just a track I really enjoy driving.

OP: Yeah, I mean, the other guys have said it. This year there seems to be a lot of Australians as well, which is cool. So, yeah, the Aussies are adding to the atmosphere as well.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) George, you said you needed a bit of luck to get back into this championship. Obviously, you’ve secured pole, you’ve got Kimi back in 16th. Do you feel as though the championship comeback starts now? And from Kimi’s side, do you think that’s a few signs of perhaps title jitters? I mean, I can’t recall many mistakes he’s made this season.

GR: You know, I think the performance outside today was great, but, you know, he’s been flawless this whole season. I think when you look at every championship campaign, even for the winners, there are mistakes along the way. So, yeah, I still keep on believing and keep on fighting until it isn’t possible anymore. But I don’t feel any pressure. I feel excitement every time I jump in the car now, purely because I feel more confident in myself. And we spoke about it on Wednesday here: when that confidence starts to build, it’s just like this upward cycle. On the flip side, when you’re on the back foot, you start losing that confidence and then you start pushing the limits more, and that’s when mistakes happen. But, as I said, he’s been flawless this season. It’s the first mistake he’s made in a qualifying or race this whole year. So, yeah, let’s see tomorrow.