Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by Davide Valsecchi
Pierre Gasly, pole position. Mamma mia, what a lap! It was impressive. Congratulations, my friend. How was your feeling? How was your sensation for the first pole position of your career?
Pierre Gasly: Yeah, it was amazing. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. It was an incredible quali. From the first lap in Q1, I felt very good in the car, and, yeah, trying to chip a little bit away every single session. And then, yeah, in the end, you know, it felt like a very good lap. But I'm so happy. It's been nine years, you know, trying to chase and get the opportunity to get a pole position. To win my first race in Monza, get my first pole position on this track, I think is something special around here.
Very well done, congratulations. And George, can you talk us through your lap? It seemed that not one driver could improve in the first sector, then you improved your lap. You were on pole, but it was tough enough to take the pole position today.
George Russell: I mean, firstly, massive congrats to Pierre because that's an incredible performance. We were actually finishing a game of chess about 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there, and I thought, "Well, I think I'll beat you in qualifying," and here we are, he's ahead of me again. So, yeah, huge congrats to him. Of course, I was disappointed not to get the pole position. It was a bit messy with Verstappen opening the lap. I did the lap very close, but, you know, Pierre and Alpine have been super-fast even from Q1. So, yeah, happy to see them get a good result.
And Oscar, third position. You missed the chance on the last lap. You missed that corner in the first chicane. Did you feel you had the speed to fight for pole on that lap?
Oscar Piastri: I don't think so, no. I mean, I think the first lap felt quite good and, yeah, I tried to see if anyone wanted to go in front out of the pit lane, but no one did. And I knew it was always going to be difficult and just misjudged the braking a little bit and locked up. So, yeah, that was the session. But, no, good to have a decent result at least. It's been a little while, so I'll take it.
Thank you, Oscar. And Pierre, back to you. Now that you have a victory in Monza, and today a stunning pole position, for the race tomorrow. Is that a big advantage, this pole position?
PG: Shall we do it in Italian? Yes, because we're in Italy, for all the people. I have to say thank you to my team, because they made a fantastic car today. I'm very happy. It's been nine years that, every time, every race, I've tried to do my best, and this is my first pole position. It's an incredible feeling. I'm very happy. Tomorrow, we'll see how the race goes. I feel good in the car. We'll definitely go out there and give it our best. Tonight is going to be a good night back home in Milan, and tomorrow we'll try again.
Press Conference
Wow, Pierre, what an amazing performance by you. First of all, just tell us what this means.
PG: Yeah, I mean, I think... Quite a lot of emotions. No, I'm just extremely happy for the whole team. I'm extremely happy with our performance. It's been nine years I'm in Formula 1, trying to, you know, give my best absolutely every single weekend and it's not every time we get a car to fight for pole position. Today it was the case and, yeah, I'm really, really happy, really proud to have seized this chance and to make it work. It was a heck of a lap. We've been on it since the first lap in Q1, it's been feeling good. And, yeah, nine years waiting for that moment, that feeling. I got my first win here in Monza and now I get my first pole position, so definitely a special place to me.
How confident were you coming into the weekend? Have you exceeded your expectations or did you think you could run for pole?
PG: No, yeah, definitely not. I mean, Monza is a bit of a unique track. We know it, but, I mean, no, it definitely exceeded all our expectations. But since this morning, I think the pace has been better. We managed to make a good step, you know, from P3 to quali, and I think slightly bigger than the other guys around us. Yeah, straight from Q1, you know, we were a bit surprised to see us up there, as in mind, you know, our target was Q3. But then I think I was P1 in Q1, then P4 in Q2. I didn't want to get too excited, but then first run in Q3, I think I was third again and then I felt, "Okay, I really have a shot at it." And as I said, it's probably the first time I really get a true chance and, yeah, I tried to leave everything I had out there. It was quite hectic through Ascari and Parabolica. I don't think there was definitely much in there and, crossing the line, I knew it would be one of these laps that would be rewarded, but to the point to get the pole position, I didn't expect that. So, yeah, very, very pleased.
Was that your best lap in Formula 1?
PG: I mean, it's not my first race in F1. It's too many and I don't remember all of them. I don't know. It's definitely one of these laps that I'll put up there. I'm just happy, man. I'm just happy for the team and also, you know, the whole weekend, a lot of emotions, everything going on, etcetera. So just trying to stick at doing my job the best I can and that's what we did today. So very, very pleased and very proud of my team here.
Pierre, let's throw it forward to the Grand Prix on Sunday then. Is the long-run pace of the car good enough to allow you to at least fight for the win?
PG: That's a problem for tomorrow.
Okay. Well, look, overnight, where is your focus going to be? Is it that first 10 seconds of the race and the long run down to the first chicane?
PG: I mean, you know, it's going to be obviously great. I'm in the best position, right? I'm starting first, got no one ahead of me. I just got to focus on my driving and, you know, I know what it looks like having no one around this track, so that's a good advantage and probably the best place to do it. But then, yeah, it's going to be a long race. I think our- and I feel I actually felt quite good. Obviously not to the pace of these guys around us, but we seem to have picked up more pace from yesterday to today. So, you know, we'll obviously give our best shot and see what we can get out of it. But, yeah, I'm excited.
Very well done, Pierre. Just final one from me. Tell us about this chess game that you mentioned earlier, with George.
PG: Well, I mean, since the briefing last night, I figured out that he's obsessed with chess. I am obsessed with chess. We have a few in the paddock, a few drivers, to be obsessed with it. So, we've just exchanged our ID on Chess.com and we've had a little game going on, one yesterday, another one that carried on to today. And I must say, before the quali, I felt pretty confident because I was picking piece after piece. And, yeah, again, for the fun story, Ben told me, "Well, you're getting George here, but he's going to get you in a few minutes." I was like, "Yeah, f*** off." Turned out that, yeah, it worked out well. So, yeah, it's been fun. I think we are very competitive and, whether it's on the track or off the track, we do need to find our little battles everywhere we can.
Brilliant. Well done. Thank you, Pierre. Now, George, let's come to you. So close to pole, just those six hundredths. Can you envisage where you lost that time to Pierre?
GR: Yeah, I mean, it was a very scrappy session. The car was- didn't feel quite as good with the car as I did in FP3. I was struggling with locking up and then, come Q3, we had a bit of a mess with Verstappen entering the lap. He wanted to go for the tow, Kimi was there as well, and I did my lap a second and a half behind Max, which wasn't ideal. It takes nothing away from what Pierre achieved because, as he said, they were flying all day, quickest in Q1 and right up there from the beginning. So, yeah, I'm happy for Pierre and, of course, disappointed we weren't on pole ourselves. However, great place to start for tomorrow.
George, at what point in the session did you take the threat from Pierre seriously?
GR: I mean, they've looked strong the whole weekend, but we've often seen in Q1 some midfield teams have competitive laps, and you've seen it with VCARB a few times where they've been sort of top three at the beginning of a session, and I didn't think too much of it. I just thought they looked fast. Pierre clearly did a great job in Q1, but, no, to be totally honest, I don't think we thought they were in the fight. And it goes to show what a great job he did and their team to get the pole, and one of the few drivers to improve on that last lap. And, yeah, pretty impressive.
Okay. Tomorrow, what does the long-run pace of your car look like?
GR: Definitely in with a shot of the win. It's going to be an interesting fight with Pierre as well. I think they've got a car that's got some good straight-line speed, which will be nice for them in the race. I don't really know where the fight is tomorrow, but, yeah, confident I've got the pace to go for the win.
And, George, with the world title in mind, how much do you need the win here at Monza?
GR: Every race is very important. To be honest, I'm more pleased just about the performance in general. You know, I've come back from the summer break, every lap, every session, I've been sort of in the mix of the top three positions, similar to where I was at the start of the year. I had that very tough run of form prior to the break where every lap, you know, I wasn't even inside the top five. So just to come back, I'm just sort of pleased to have found my feet again. Of course, the win is going to be very important tomorrow, but I'm more pleased about the performance.
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