Track Interviews - Conducted by David Coulthard.

George Russell, your second victory of the season, the seventh of your career, and it seems to me that you aced qualifying, you knew the rules. That was a tough race, you guys so close together at the end, but a beautiful victory.
George Russell: Yeah, incredible to be back on the top step. It's been a little while, so I'm definitely going to enjoy this one this evening. A lot of hard work with my team to get us on track. Obviously, there was a tricky run of form at one point. Max and Red Bull were incredibly quick this weekend, so kudos to them. But yeah, thanks to everyone, thanks to the fans. It was pretty toasty out there, so looking forward to a drink now.

Yeah, I can see drip on the underside of your chin. It's still coming off you. So put us in the cockpit in these hot conditions, because you had to be on point the whole way through. We saw you go a little bit wide up into Turn 3 towards the end there, as the tyres were starting to struggle, but otherwise a well-managed race.
GR: Yeah, I mean, I was having to push every single lap, and when you push those boundaries, there's bound to be a small mistake or two there. And I knew just how quick the guys were behind. Obviously, Kimi's been extraordinarily quick this whole season, so every lap I was looking at the time. And boy, we pitted on the early side, I knew it was going to be a long stint, but the team timed it to perfection.

Excellent. Moving along to Max Verstappen. Congratulations, your second podium of the year. You were in the hunt. You really had a chance out of the difficulties of qualifying. We saw you take that big hit in Turn 9, and then to come and be that close to a victory, you must be very happy.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, I think it was of course a very good race for us. The first two laps were quite fun, and then it was basically just trying to manage your tyres. And honestly, I think the car was in quite a good window for, I would say, half of the race, and then we just picked up a few, let's say, issues with the car, which prevented me from basically finding that nice rhythm. But still, to be second, that close to a win, I think is extremely positive for us. So, in that sense, for sure, I'm very happy.

Yeah, very strong race also from your team-mate. You took that big hit in qualifying. It looked to me when you got out of the car you were moving a little gingerly. Are you carrying a residual injury or you're all good?
MV: When I got from the car? Yeah, I knocked my knees. You hit the bones, it's not very nice. But today was OK, so that was the most important.

Congratulations. Kimi, a little bit of an interesting first lap for you, struggling to keep it on the track, and thereafter you had to fight back.
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, I was a bit too excited in the first few laps and definitely didn't drive well. I did too many mistakes. And even in the first stint on the Medium, I lost three, four seconds with mistakes. I was struggling with the brakes, but then I think after I changed tyre, I reset, and the pace was again very strong. And it was a shame that I joined the party a bit too late.

Well, you joined maybe a bit too late, but it gave us what was just a fantastic finish to this Grand Prix.
KA: Yeah, I mean, it was going to be, you know, two, three, four laps would have been a lot of fun. But yeah, of course, congrats to George and Max, great weekend. On my side, there's a lot to improve, but still minimised the mistakes.

Congratulations. And George, finally back to you. You've managed to pull back ten points, within 40 now. You're back in this hunt. You needed a weekend like this, and you've delivered.
GR: Yeah, absolutely. The tough races definitely test you psychologically, and these last two weekends for me have been vitally important to remind myself I can do it. Single lap, race pace was very strong this weekend, and on a track that is probably not very well suited to my style. So, looking forward to heading to Silverstone next week, seeing all the home fans. I'm sure it's going to be great.

Press Conference

Very well done, George. Melbourne feels like a long time ago. What does this victory mean to you?
GR: It feels like a long time ago, to be honest. It's been a tough couple of months with some really tricky races, with races that felt like everything was going against me, then some races with some tough performances. Obviously, I've got a really incredible team-mate next to me, who week in, week out is delivering some pretty spectacular performances. So, for me, going into Canada, going into Barcelona from quite a low point, I needed a lot of resilience to be able to get back and deliver some strong performances. So,to get the last two poles, to get the win here this weekend, especially on a track which I don't think is so suited to me, I'm really, really proud.

Toto Wolff has described this win as a cold-blooded one by you. Is that how it felt?
GR: It didn't quite feel like that, to be honest. It felt a really calm and controlled race. I think if we took Max out of the picture, you'd say it was a really strong performance from Mercedes, 20 seconds ahead of McLaren, more ahead of Ferrari. But with the upgrades on the Red Bull, Max was in the fight for pole yesterday, really great race pace from him today. He pressured me in the middle stint and forced me to stop with 28 laps remaining, which was quite uncomfortable. But I had a really strong first 20 laps of that stint, which allowed me just to bring it home in the final eight.

How crucial was yesterday's pole position to this win?
GR: Yeah, for sure, it was crucial. Everything got hooked up. I still think we'd have been in the fight regardless of what happened yesterday, but for sure, starting from pole position, everything is made easier.

So you retake second in the championship ahead of your home race itself. Just how much confidence do you have going into the British Grand Prix?
GR: I have a lot of confidence in myself, knowing I can do it. I have less confidence in being able to get everything aligned with the car, the set-up and the tyres, because it's just been so up and down for me. And even this weekend, at points I was six tenths behind Kimi, and then come Q3 I was two tenths ahead. And I don't honestly have a major answer for that. But those times where I managed to deliver the pole laps, the car and the tyres have felt more akin to last year, when I could deliver those performances every lap throughout a weekend. So, I'll be working hard with my team to try and emulate that.

You've said already that the Red Bull Ring isn't a track that necessarily suits your style. Is Silverstone more akin to a George Russell track?
GR: I think so. It's a track where you're leaning more on the front tyres, ordinarily more of a front-deg track rather than a rear-deg track. We should be seeing some more normal temperatures. It was 60 degrees track temp at one point today. But this season has thrown so many unknowns. We may both go to Silverstone, have a great weekend. We may go there and Max could be on top. So, I'm just going in with an open mind.

All right. Very well done today. Thank you, George. Max, let's come to you. Many congratulations as well. Your ninth podium here at the Red Bull Ring. What's the most satisfying aspect of this P2 for you?
MV: I think what was satisfying is that this was the first time I felt like actually I could fight for the win. I do think that the first half of the race, we were more competitive, because for whatever reason in the second half, something felt off on the rear of the car, where everything was just extremely difficult, from bumps, kerbs, traction, it was just completely gone. So that's something that we need to understand again, what went wrong there. But yes, the first half I felt really good. I mean, I was closing the gap even after the battles that I had with Lewis. It was cool, but it made us of course lose quite a bit of time. So yeah, every time catching up. But then in the middle of the second stint, something happened with the car on the rear axle, which made me lose pace, and that just stayed there until the end. So that's a bit of a shame. But still, to be that close to a win, I think is great effort from the team. They have worked really hard to get these upgrades on the car here, and this is the first time, I think, in the race where I felt really competitive. And I could push a bit more. So that is definitely the positive, I think, of this weekend.

You say you could push a bit more, but just in what areas of performance is the car better with these upgrades?
MV: It's a bit more grip. Just goes a bit faster around the corner.

You mentioned the second stint. Do you wish you'd stopped a bit earlier for that second stop?
MV: It's easy now to look back at it. I do think I had the deg over George, but I also knew that it was going to be a very long stint to the end. But we'll look at it again. I personally felt like the laps that I stayed out, I probably lost a little bit too much compared to what I gained back of those extra laps on new tyres. But it's easy to say now. We still had a very good race, to be honest. It's been a pretty long road to be here and actually to sit here in the top three and have a real shot at it, that is I think already very positive.

Do you think it's track specific, or do you think you can be quick everywhere now? And let's throw it forward to Silverstone while we're talking.
MV: Let's take it race by race. Silverstone, I love the track, but I did a few laps on the simulator, I just started laughing. It felt like a different track, to be honest. You barely have battery around the lap. It's just constantly flat. So yes, it's going to feel very different compared to what we are used to around Silverstone, because of the layout of the track. Here you have long straights and big braking zones, so you can charge the battery. There you have long straights but in a fast corner, for example, so you can't really charge the batteries, and then the next straight you don't have a lot to spend. It's going to be a tough one.

Well done today. Thank you, Max. Kimi, very well done to you as well. We didn't get to see what you could do in quali yesterday. Just how do you reflect on the weekend as a whole?
KA: It was a weekend where I started very strong, and I think because of that I kind of lowered the intensity a bit too much. And coming to qualifying, I just felt a bit tense, driving-wise. We were still up there, but I felt like I wasn't driving that well and not as free. Of course, the last lap, it went like that, but I was a tenth behind George, so it probably would have been P2, very close, but P2. Of course, it went like that. And obviously starting from P4, first lap was really bad for me. And then I really struggled with brakes, and I just lost a lot of time because I started to do mistakes. But then second stint was a bit better, and then third stint was really, really strong. The pace was just there but of course fell a bit short.

Are there any moments in the race where you think could have been different, could have maybe got you challenging George for the win?
KA: Well, the whole first stint, I think at the end of the first stint, I had a couple of mistakes and I lost probably one, one and a half seconds each lap, because one time I almost went off in Turn 4, one lap I went off in Turn 3. So, I lost a lot of time. But of course, it's easy to say now. The mistakes were made and definitely without them, probably could have had the chance to fight for P2 or even P1. But of course, easy to say now, and need to make sure they don't happen again.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Spielberg here.