Track Interviews - Conducted by Jolyon Palmer
Q: Lando, so it's the last race here in Zandvoort. They've all been won from pole, but my word, you really had to work for that one. What a job.
Lando Norris: Yeah, amazing. A tough race. I think yesterday I said, "Need to put on a bit of a show for everyone for the final race here," so, yeah, I made it tough for myself today. But a good race, well fought. Probably one of my better wins. We had to fight for it, but the pace was very strong and managed things incredibly well today, so over the moon, very, very happy, and nice to win the final race here in Zandvoort.
Q: Yeah, such great work. All of the drama at the start, the restart, obviously you lost the lead to Kimi, but talk us through the overtake because that was brilliant.
LN: Yeah, the move was good. I mean, I knew I was not going to get many chances. Every lap I spent behind him my odds were getting lower and lower. So, I saw Lewis defended and I knew that was my moment. I did a couple of clicks of brake balance. I knew I was going to commit to the braking, and that move won me the race. So, well played from my part. I knew I had to make it, and I probably had one chance to really make it happen, and I made the most of it. So, yeah, another win here. Very, very happy.
Q: Superb. Well done, Lando. We'll come back to you in just a moment. Don't go anywhere. Kimi, championship leader, you put on a show there. Not quite to be in the end. You were talking about a little bit of aero degradation. You felt like the car went away from you?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, it was a very intense race and managed to get the lead, and stint one I felt actually okay. But then from stint two onwards, just didn't have the feeling with the car. It was sliding a lot, a lot overall. And, yeah, at the end Lando passed me and I knew I had no chance after that. But then, of course, George was, you know, a great team player and really happy for him to hold on to P3 as well, and still great points.
Q: I mean, it doesn't feel like that long ago we were talking about your starts being really difficult, but we had two of them here today and both times you moved forward, so things are looking good on that front.
KA: Yeah, definitely. In that regard, we've done a tremendous job and improved a lot, and today paid off, so really happy with that. But, of course, now as a team we need to find a little bit of time because McLaren have done a huge step. So, yeah, we've got to keep pushing.
Q: Well done, Kimi. Thank you so much. George, I mean, it's been a good weekend for you. Started on the front row, you had a Sprint win, you're back on the podium. The start was difficult, the end was tense, but talk us through the battle with Lewis to start off with.
George Russell: Yeah, it was a difficult start for me, obviously losing the position, and these two were very quick in the beginning. I mean, Lando was just exceptionally fast towards the end of the race, so it was tough to hold on with those old tyres. Happy to be standing here on the podium because it could have gone either way.
Q: And you weren't very happy with the team later on. We heard you trying to get a little bit of team orders to stay ahead of Kimi, I guess to help the defence. In the end, the team might feel exonerated because your defence was superb. It looked like the tyres were going away, but you just positioned the car exactly where you needed to be.
GR: Yeah, I mean, Kimi was ahead of me anyway, so he deserved to finish ahead. And, of course, when you're in the race, you want to fight for every single position, but with the pace, with a new tyre, he would have overtaken anyway. So it's the right decision and, as I said, just happy to be standing on the podium. It's been a little while for me. It's been a strong weekend overall, so I take the positives.
Q: Yeah, well done, George. It's been a good weekend. You're right. Thank you. Lando, if I can interrupt you two for just a moment, what a weekend it's been. Back-to-back race wins for you, upgrades working, championship lead just sniffing down. Are you thinking at all that this might be on for the big Max Verstappen-esque comeback?
LN: I mean, it sounds boring, but one race at a time. I know a lot of people say it now, but it's the truth of it. There's no point thinking that far ahead. I need to concentrate now on having a nice little break. Obviously, two great weekends, but, yeah, we just need to reset, to learn as much as we can. I think there's still plenty of things we can do better, and we need to do better if we want to fight for a championship. So, I'm very pleased with the team. I'm pleased with how much work everyone's doing and so happy that I can deliver it for them and bring two wins in a row. But it's still harder than I would like, and I don't want a bigger gap, so we have to keep working hard. There's still plenty of races, plenty of opportunity for everyone. So, keep my head down, keep working, and they'll keep coming.
Press Conference
Q: Our race winner, Lando Norris, will be joining us shortly, but we thought we'd kick things off with our second-place finisher, Kimi Antonelli, and George Russell in third. Kimi, let's come to you first. How hard did you have to fight for this P2?
KA: Yeah, I mean, it was a difficult second half for me, especially in the last stint on the Hards, just really struggling. Had little confidence in the car and, yeah, it was not easy. And then obviously we pitted, and also that was a bit tricky. But then also George, you know, I have to thank him because he made my life a lot easier. But I still think probably could have stayed out and gone until the end with the same set because it put us a little bit at risk. Also, I feel we put George at risk with having to let me by and everything. But I still think, at the end of the day, it was a great team execution with how things were, and I think today P2 was the maximum we could have done because the pace of the McLarens, especially in the second half, was just too strong.
Q: You say great team execution, but tell us a little bit about your car. Judging by the radio messages, you weren't that happy. Was that the case all the way through the Grand Prix?
KA: No. It was really weird because I felt good with the Medium. I felt decent on the first Hard, but then on the second one it just felt really odd, really odd to drive, and just sliding a lot. I need to see why it was that, but for sure it's something that we need to look at because the drop in pace was quite significant. I mean, I think in the first stint I was almost matching my second Hard in terms of pace, so for sure I need to look into it and why it went like that. But, yeah, happy with the P2 today.
Q: Contrasting fortunes for the two Mercedes drivers at the start. You did very well. Were they the best starts you've made this year?
KA: Well, they still didn't feel great, but, I mean, the conditions were very sketchy, very slippery, and I think together with the team we did a great execution, especially trying to read the grip in the best way we could. So, I think, in that regard, probably the best start of the year, yes, because I did gain places finally, so I didn't just lose them.
Q: Now, Lando Norris was very quick today. Just how do you view the threat from him and McLaren now?
KA: I mean, for sure, we're clearly not the fastest car anymore on the grid. We're probably second or third, at least in today's race, and McLaren has taken a huge step, especially since Hungary, since the big upgrade package they brought. But I'm confident with the team. You know, the team has been working super hard on this next package that is coming up, and they just want to make sure that it's going to work out well once we put it on. So for sure, in this race, it's going to be more difficult, it's going to be challenging, but we're ready to do our best and to maximise every opportunity. And then hopefully it's going to be our turn to bring the package that's going to give us a little bit of the upper hand again.
Q: Kimi, very well done. Thank you for that. George, let's come to you now. That was a hard-fought P3. Can we start by talking about those closing laps when you had Lewis Hamilton filling your mirrors? Just how tough was it to keep him at bay?
GR: Yeah, it was tough. The first VSC came at a pretty awkward timing for me because I felt really strong on the hard. I think Kimi's and my race was kind of the opposite. I had a tough medium stint, he had a very strong medium stint, then I had a strong hard stint, he was struggling. But that VSC gave Lewis the free pit stop and obviously Kimi pitted as well. And from there on in, I knew I was going to be under threat, but I was managing enough in the high-speed corners to allow me to be fast in Sector 3 and defending into Turn 1. So I was pleased with that performance. But as Kimi said, it's been a challenging couple of weekends now for us as a team. McLaren are mighty impressive and Ferrari's race pace today also looked really strong.
Q: And given your pace in the Sprint yesterday, what's your assessment of your own car's performance here?
GR: Yeah, I think, you know, when you're out front, things are always much easier and always very challenging for the car behind to overtake unless you're on an offset strategy. But I don't think it's a major surprise for us, seeing how competitive Lando was this weekend, considering he won in Budapest. It's a very similar circuit with the long corners, high tyre degradation, with the two-stop strategy, so there's a lot of similarities between the two circuits. I think this may continue for the coming two or three races until we start to bring more to the car, and fingers crossed our competitors don't.
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