Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by David Coulthard.

Well, Lando Norris, welcome back. It's been a while. Your first pole position as world champion.
Lando Norris: Yeah, thanks. Very, very happy. Very happy to be back on top. A tough qualifying. Obviously, these guys here were very quick, and it's been pretty tight the whole weekend. But we've seemed quick from the first laps that we did, and we brought a few upgrades. It's hard to know how much it helps in terms of lap time, but it certainly helped today. So, yeah, very, very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you certainly want to be on pole.

It's been great for us as fans not to know who was really going to end up with pole position. In the end, it was one hundredth of a second. You knew Lewis had pole when you were going into that lap. You nailed that first sector. It's been a sector that's been strong for you all weekend, so was the confidence building around the rest of the lap?
LN: I mean, honestly, I had confidence the whole of today. My laps in Q3 were not the best, even the one at the end, so I'm pleasantly surprised to be on top. But we've been doing a good job. The car's been feeling good. I've had good confidence. I certainly pushed it a little bit more on the last lap. Some paid off, some didn't, but the main thing is we did it in the end. So, I'm very, very pleased for the team. A big thanks to them for working so hard and, yeah, another big job for tomorrow.

Okay, we'll come back to you. If we can just move on to Lewis, I can see the disappointment as you're standing there. You were sort of reflecting on that last lap. It just didn't come to you at all because you laid down the position, you knew where the track was, but the final set of tyres didn't talk to the car.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, firstly, congratulations to Lando. It was a great lap. We've been doing a great job all weekend. I felt solid throughout qualifying and, yeah, for some reason... I mean, we went out first, which I don't think was the right call. But then, on top of that, the grip for some reason wasn't there on that last lap, I think for both Charles and me. And, yeah, it's obviously a track that I love. I think we're obviously competitive, but I think tomorrow is going to be a hard day.

Yeah, you've got an amazing record around here. If you'd managed it by one hundredth and a little bit, that would have been your tenth pole at this track. You've got a real connection here. You're teed up nicely for the Grand Prix tomorrow, but I'm still sensing that that's a pole that got away from you.
LH: I mean, ultimately, yeah. We were quickest throughout qualifying, so it definitely got away from us. I think my mind is just elsewhere right this second because, at the end, once I finished my lap, I don't know if I got in the way of someone. So, I'm just trying to run that through my mind because I wasn't aware anyone was coming.

Okay, well done on that second place for tomorrow. Charles, again, like Lewis, you were not able to find any improvement at the end on that final set of tyres. Lando, of course, was. So put us in the cockpit. For you, what was happening with the balance of your car?
Charles Leclerc: I mean, today there was quite a bit of a wind change, and I don't think I did a great job anticipating it with the car set-up. I felt a little bit off from this morning, and then qualifying has been quite messy, to be honest. We've been a bit unlucky in Q2 with a yellow flag in the last sector, and then we were kind of trying too... We were playing catch-up, but the pace was never at the level of Lewis. So, yeah, it was all about trying to maximise today, and I felt I kind of did it.

Okay, well done on getting that third place. Finally, back to you, Lando. It's just one part of the weekend, but it gives you a clean run from the right side of the grid and what is a long run down into Turn 1. So what can we expect tomorrow? We've had a little insight into some of the longer-run pace, but tomorrow is another day.
LN: Yeah, it certainly is. I mean, I'm in the best position for it, of course, but these guys get good starts. They've been fast all season, so I'm still expecting a tough race. Obviously, they did Q1 on the medium, so it'll be interesting to know what tyre they're going to start on tomorrow. They may potentially be in a slightly better position with some things. But otherwise, we did the job that we had to do today, so I'm pleased with that. Tonight, we'll make sure we prepare in the best way possible for tomorrow.

Press Conference

Lando, a superb final lap from you. Just how good was it, and what was the car like to drive?
LN: How was it? It was good enough for pole. It wasn't my finest. Honestly, just difficult to put a lap together here, that's for sure, with the new tarmac and it being grippy in places and not grippy in others. At times, it feels like a bit of a lottery in certain corners. But I certainly did a good amount of the lap, the best I've done. I had the confidence to push more and push more. I kind of got into unexplored territory with what happens to the balance when I push it to that next level, and I lost a bit of time in a couple of places. So, if I had a third run, I certainly think I could have gone quite a chunk better, but I didn't have a third run. Still, very happy nonetheless to be here again. It's been a while, and I've felt confident all weekend, so it's nice to be able to turn it into something like that.

Lewis was fastest after that first run of Q3. Just how confident were you that you were going to be able to do enough?
LN: I was confident. I knew I could do it, honestly. My first lap was also not the best. I just had a big snap of oversteer in Turn 12, so Turn 13 I messed up, and Turn 14 I was basically drifting. So I knew I could go quite a bit better. I was surprised my last lap was not better, but again, I tried to push it more. That's why I say, with a third attempt, I think I would have understood the best of both worlds. But as I sat in the garage, I knew the pace was certainly there. It has been all weekend. Even though these guys have been insanely fast, I knew I'd been driving very well, I'd been consistent, and I knew the car had potential. We also had the upgrades this weekend, and it doesn't feel that different, but it certainly seems to be going a little bit quicker, and that's always a good thing.

It's your first pole of this year. Does this feel like a bit of a turning point for you?
LN: Let's just wait and see. I mean, it's just qualifying. It's a long race ahead tomorrow, and it's going to be a difficult one, so we'll see. Certainly, if we just go back to Spa last weekend, like I said then, I thought I had good enough pace to certainly not be on pole, but certainly fight for a podium and potentially a win, just in terms of pace. I obviously didn't, but the potential was there. It's nice to see that's kind of carried over to this weekend. We brought some good upgrades, like I said, and that potential has turned into a result, which is always a very nice thing to see for the whole team and very good for the motivation and the atmosphere within the team. It's rewarding to see work going in and rewards being taken out. So, very pleased for all of them. But you can't just rely on one good qualifying, so I need a good race tomorrow. Then we obviously have a nice summer break, but after that we need to try and repeat it several more times. We've been working hard. We know we've been on the back foot, but we're making progress, and today certainly shows that.

Lewis, let's come to you. Lando has just been telling us about his session and how confident he was in Q3. Do you feel this is one that got away, or were you nervous about his pace throughout?
LN: I mean, it's not particularly relevant. At the end of the day, Lando did the job and did a great lap, and I didn't on the last one. It is what it is.

Tell us about that last one, because you were quickest after the first run. You said earlier that you were the first guys out. If you had been last, McLaren ran much later than you, do you think that would have made the difference?
LH: I don't know why we went first, and that was a bit of a shock to me. I definitely wouldn't have chosen to go first, but it is what it is. I had a clean out-lap, and when I started my lap, already into Turn 1 I had a snap and I was already a tenth and a half down. It just cascaded from there. So, the last lap was the worst lap of all, and all the other laps were really good. We clearly had the car to be on pole today, and I just didn't deliver. So that's tough to swallow.

Points are delivered tomorrow. How confident are you in the long-run pace?
LH: I think the car is just strong all around. I think the team have done a really great job, and a really big thank you to everyone back at the factory for continuing to push and to bring parts each weekend. We're continuously innovating and evolving the car. It's night and day different to the car that we had last year, and I'm grateful to have pushed the car to this point and helped develop the car to this point, that we're fighting at the front for wins. But it's awfully close between the top runners, and you need to be perfect ultimately to get that first place.

Thank you for that, Lewis. Charles, let's come to you. Sum up P3 for us. Was there a moment in Q3 on that last lap where it slipped away from you, or was Lando just out of reach?
CL: No, I'd say it slipped away from Q1, to be honest. Getting into the car, the feeling wasn't great, and then it was just a messy session overall. We had to put, I think, two new sets on in Q2, and then it was just kind of tricky from the beginning. Turn 1 and Turn 12 are the question marks I have going out of qualifying, and I'll have to analyse the data. I've been off by maybe two tenths between the two, throughout the whole qualifying, and I didn't truly find a solution to it. So that was a bit of a shame, but that was purely driving. I'll look into it and try to understand.

What about tomorrow? What about the long-run pace?
CL: The long-run pace was actually very, very strong, so that's good. But again, it's difficult to take for granted what we've seen yesterday because everybody seems to have made a big step forward from yesterday to today. So I expect it to be much tighter tomorrow in the race.

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