Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by Naomi Schiff

Congratulations, Kimi Antonelli. Another pole position for you this season. How does it feel? You're standing next to two half-Belgians. Does it feel good to steal the glory from them here?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, it's great to be on pole. It was not a very straightforward session. The track changed a lot, but we were able to improve lap by lap and bring home pole, which was nice. But, of course, tomorrow is another day. Obviously, I have Max starting next to me, so it's going to be important to get a good start and then try to be ahead into Turn 5.

You mentioned early on in the session that the balance wasn't quite right, but you were able to change that quite quickly. How proud are you of your lap? You've been looking in a league of your own.
KA: Yeah, I mean, the last lap was good. I improved a lot in Sector 2 especially, so it was a nice lap. Of course, there was still a little bit here and there, but it was very clean, so I'm very happy with that.

Fantastic. Well, coming over to you, Max, you've been looking like you're in with a fighting chance all weekend so far. At the end of that session, it looked like maybe the tow cost you rather than gave you an advantage. How did you view it from your point of view?
Max Verstappen: Oh, no. I mean, it was definitely helping me. Otherwise, I would not be standing here. I think otherwise you are, like, P6 or something. I think Isack, today, knowing that he has to start at the back of the grid, did a really good job giving me a tow in the final sector, and that's why we're standing right here. For sure, tomorrow I think I'll be looking in my mirrors with the people around me, but at least today I think we had a really good result. I think the car, honestly, has been quite decent the whole weekend. Of course, not on the level of what Kimi was doing, but we're happy to be on the front row with how we executed it as a team.

The long runs did look quite positive on Friday afternoon, so with that, in front of what I guess we can call a home crowd, what can you do for them tomorrow?
MV: Yeah, I mean, it's always tough around here with the tyres in the long run, but I'll just do my best and then see if we can hang in there or not.

Lando, coming over to you. A positive weekend for you as well. You were best of the rest yesterday, best of the rest this morning. Unfortunately, you're taking a ten-place grid penalty here. Is it the wrong weekend to be doing that now that you feel the performance is back?
Lando Norris: I mean, we've not really changed anything. We're just a bit quicker on this track. But it's nice to be standing here, just not nice knowing I have to go ten places back tomorrow. It's unfortunate that this isn't where we're genuinely starting tomorrow, because it would be nice to have a little fight with these guys. But we made the most of it. It was still a very good qualifying, a very good lap for me. So, honestly, I've been pretty happy all weekend. It's a little bit of a home race, like you said, for me, so it's always a little boost here, and I've performed well all weekend so far. Hopefully, we can still have a good race tomorrow and have some fun.

So, what do you think is going to be possible? Will you be fighting through the grid tomorrow?
LN: I mean, that's certainly the plan. I don't know how far up you'll get, but the car is obviously performing well and good enough for P3 today. So, we'll see. I think there's plenty of opportunity. It's a long race. Hopefully, it's good for overtaking and we can put on a bit of a show for everyone.

Fantastic. Well, Kimi, just one more for you. You have an 80 percent conversion rate from pole position. What can you do tomorrow to improve those stats?
KA: Yeah, a good start and try to have good pace. Of course, the degradation is going to be very big, but we'll try our best in order to maximise the performance. It's going to be fun tomorrow and, of course, thanks to everyone for coming this weekend. It's been amazing seeing you all.

Press Conference

Brilliant lap, Kimi. You looked very confident out there. Just tell us about that pole lap.
KA: Yeah, it was a weird qualifying because in Q1 I felt a bit lost, because the wind picked up a little bit and the balance was a bit more on the edge. But then, obviously, the session came to us, and Q3 was good because we did a decent first lap and then, on the second lap, found a lot of time. But, yeah, I feel like the track was cooling down and it was helping us a little bit. It was a good lap, and now we'll focus on tomorrow.

Tell us about the jump between Q1 and Q2. Did you change anything on the car? Because you found more than a second.
KA: Front wing. Just changed a little bit of flap, and that's it. Also, the lap was much tidier. Q1 was a bit all over the place.

And in Q3, tell us about the sectors. Where was the car strongest?
KA: Well, we brought a little package that helped us a little bit more on the straights, but in Sector 2 the car still felt good. Especially in Q3, it was good that we were strong in all the sectors.

Okay, and let's throw it forward to tomorrow. What kind of race are you expecting? Lots of overtaking?
KA: Well, I don't know. Hopefully not. Hopefully, it's just off in the distance. But we'll see tomorrow. We'll see what the weather is going to be like. For sure, it's a long run into Turn 5, and of course we'll try to get a good start. But also, the degradation is going to be fairly big, so we're just going to try to manage those tyres in the best way possible.

Okay, very well done to you. Thank you, Kimi. Max, let's come to you. Great performance by you, your third front-row start of the season. How pleased are you with the session?
MV: I mean, I think overall, the whole weekend, the balance of the car has been quite decent. I think we're just a bit slow on the straight, but the car has been in the window, just trying to fine-tune it a little bit. It was the same in qualifying. At one point, you're a bit stuck in terms of how much more lap time you can extract out of it, to be honest, because every lap that I did was a little bit faster. But at one point, flat is flat, so there's no more time to gain in corners. That's something maybe we have to review. Maybe we're too easily flat, I don't know. But the car was good, and then, of course, Isack in Q3 helped me a lot with the tow in the final sector. That's why, of course, I'm sitting here. Otherwise, it could have easily been P6 because the gaps behind were so close. So, yeah, thank you to him for that. I think, as a team, we did everything we could.

Can you tell us more about the tow from Isack? Because it looked for all the world like you had to back off on that last lap.
MV: No, it was flat out. I would have just pushed him! It was close, but he did amazing. I initially thought, "Oh my God, it's too close," but then actually it worked out well to the last corner. It was close, but I trusted him.

Now, we've just heard Kimi say that the straight-line speed of the Mercedes is very good. What does this all mean for your race tomorrow?
MV: Difficult at the start, I guess, as well. Plus, honestly, I just want to do my own race. I mean, the gap, even in qualifying with a massive tow, is still over three tenths, so I don't really expect to race them tomorrow. I think it's more for me looking in the mirrors and fighting them, or trying to fight them, but mainly just trying to do my own race and see where we end up.

Very well done. Thank you, Max. Lando, if we could come to you now. Very well done. You were fastest after the first run of Q3. How much did that moment at the Fagnes chicane cost you, do you think, on that second lap?
LN: Which chicane is that?

How much did it cost you? You went off, but without that, do you think you could be sitting in the middle?
LN: No, I don't know. I don't have a delta on my dash, so I don't know if I was up or not. Honestly, I didn't think I was going any better than my first lap. My first lap was pretty amazing. I was quite shocked to be at the top, so I was very pleased. I just don't know if I was up or not. I don't know if I was green, yellow, white or purple, so that was a shame. The thing is, I knew if Kimi was going quicker, he wasn't going quicker by half a tenth. That's never been the case all season. So, again, I guess it just hurts when you see a car go four tenths quicker. But he's done a good job, and I'm so happy with P3. Honestly, I'm pretty pleased to be here. It's just a shame I have a ten-place grid penalty, so I won't be anywhere close to here tomorrow morning.

Focusing on you for a minute, how pleased are you with this performance, and where has it come from? Because the team, at least, tells us that there's nothing new on the car this weekend.
LN: No, there's not really. I mean, we have a different rear wing, which is probably not even a tenth, more like half a tenth, which still makes a difference when you say how close it is. But really, over the last three or four weeks, we've not had anything that's helped that much in performance or is really going to move us forward. I think there have always been little bits, and we always try to bring little bits every weekend, but there's not been anything. It's simply the car performing better on a different track. We performed well in Miami. We've had a couple of other races that were not so good, but we're up and down simply because of how the track suits the car each time. I also feel like, honestly, I've been doing a very good job. I feel like all weekend I've been very confident with the car and getting everything out of it since FP1. My lap in Q3, honestly, was probably one of the best laps I've ever done in qualifying, so I've been very pleased with my performance all season. But, like I said on Thursday, it doesn't matter if you do the best lap of your life. It doesn't mean you're on pole all of a sudden. We just need to add more performance to the car. It's quite simple, and everyone in the factory is working on that.

With the ten-place penalty, you're going to start P12 tomorrow. What's possible?
LN: It's tough to say. I'll just do my best to come back through and get well into the points. I think we're clearly much quicker than quite a few of the cars. Gabi has done a good job, as always. The AlphaTauri, or the upgraded one of Arvid, looks pretty racy at times, so I'm confident we can at least get past all of these guys. It's more about how far into the top six or eight, from a Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari point of view, we can get back in the race with these guys. So that's just the target.

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