Parc Ferme Interviews - Conducted by Naomi Schiff

Lando Norris, a huge congratulations after a very tricky qualifying session out there. Your first pole position since Madrid. How was it out there? Just tell us everything about it.
Lando Norris: Thanks. Well, it's been a long day. It's been a great qualifying, obviously. To be on pole again here two years in a row, in different conditions to last year, but I'm very happy. It's not easy conditions out there, especially when you know it's going to rain a lot more. It was about getting two laps in at the beginning, not making any mistakes, and that's exactly what we did. So it's been a very good day.

Just tell us, obviously, we haven't had a lot of competitive running with this generation of cars in these conditions, so any more learnings from today? And are we expecting more conditions like this tomorrow?
LN: Well, this was my first time driving the car in the wet, so I think I figured it out pretty quickly. I mean, your stuff was your wet into all different tyres. It was very windy as well over the last couple of laps, so it's certainly a good day for learning for me and good to take into tomorrow. I mean, these guys are also very quick, so just happy. Having today, it's about getting on pole. It doesn't really matter how you do it, so very pleased with that.

Well done. Also, all of the practice sessions looked great out there, so you look like you're in good form for tomorrow.
LN: Thank you.

George, congratulations. We do sense a bit of frustration there. Obviously, we saw you were clearly fighting for that pole position with Lando, but you were told to abort that last lap. Do you think you could have had pole position there?
George Russell: Yes, I mean, obviously, to Lando, but yes, that was definitely the pole lap. Misjudgement on our side. Need to understand what happened. Obviously, the rain was coming and then we should have just finished the lap.

The conditions looked like they were working for you. You were really quick out there. Obviously, tomorrow you take a five-place grid penalty, so what do you think is going to be possible tomorrow, George?
GR: Yeah, it depends on the weather. I mean, I felt good out there. It's the first time in a while I've felt confident in the car. I felt more confident in the wet than I do in the dry, so I don't really understand why that was. Felt more like myself in the fight for pole every single lap. But yeah, unfortunately, when it mattered, we didn't execute.

Kimi, our new World Champion. I haven't seen you since. A huge congratulations. I wonder, did it feel any different out there as a World Champion qualifying today?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, it was very tricky, to be fair. I didn't really know what to expect. Obviously, I never drove here in the wet, so didn't know what was coming. But yeah, I struggled a little bit in the inters, to be fair, and made a big mistake, almost went off in Turn 5, but still ended up P3, so happy with that. And now we'll focus on tomorrow.

Well, you're going to be inheriting the front-row start as George has his penalty. We've seen you be quick all weekend long so far. What do you think is going to be possible tomorrow? Will you be challenging Lando for that victory?
KA: Yeah, I mean, first of all, let's see the weather, how it's going to be. But overall, yeah, you know, we'll try to be ready for anything. If it's going to be wet, obviously a lot more knowledge ahead of tomorrow. But yeah, let's see, because the weather has been very unpredictable. But as I said, we'll try to be ready for anything.

Okay, well, good luck tomorrow, Kimi. Good to see you, and congrats.
KA: Thank you. And thank you to all the fans for staying up with us tonight.

Press Conference

Lando, very well done. What a session. Just talk us through Q3 first of all, on that lap for pole.
LN: Thank you. Well, tense session, especially knowing the weather was only going to get worse. You could already on that lap see that it was getting... I could see that it was getting a little bit wetter and starting to rain more, so I knew that was probably my only chance, those two laps. It was tense when you want to push so much. You need to kind of learn about the conditions, but you also need to not make a single mistake. It's a lot to try and do and be correct on in such a short amount of time and under such pressure. But actually, I felt pretty confident through the whole of qualifying. Q3 was definitely the trickiest because it was also difficult to see, because of the light, where were the dry bits, the wet bits and puddles, things like that. So, more rewarding for that instance. And yeah, nice to be back on top.

Well, Lando, it was such an intense session. How difficult was it to stay on top of everything through Q1, Q2 and Q3?
LN: Very. I mean, especially when you're changing tyres and in Q2, obviously going from the Wet to the Inters and adapting, and then into Q3, knowing how to turn everything on in the quickest time possible and obviously not make a mistake. So, it's hard to, I guess it's hard to explain. It's just very, very tricky conditions and it's so easy to lock up a front tyre or do something that you feel like you want to push so much more, but you just can't. And it was also my first time driving this car in the wet, so I was also trying to learn things on the go and understand how the tyres worked through the session, how they got up to temperature and those kinds of things. So, it was also a good learning experience for this season, even though it's so late in the year. Otherwise, it was just a good lap, just putting it together when I needed to, and that's always the most important.

And give us a word on Interlagos. This is the third pole in a row you've taken here. What is it about you and this place?
LN: Well, we're lucky it's wet, because if it was dry, I wouldn't be sitting here. In the dry, we definitely didn't have the pace. So yeah, I was questioning how we were going to be in the wet, and also because I've not driven the car in the wet, I didn't know how it was going to perform. Already in Q1, I seemed very quick from the off and had a lot of confidence in the car, so that's a good sign. But I mean, I try and get pole everywhere. It's just they've come together well here, and I do like the track. I do feel like I have a good understanding of what I want to achieve, and we've looked better this weekend for sure. I think we still had some small issues, and we've not been up to the pace of the Mercedes, but otherwise the wet kind of gave me an opportunity and I made the most of it.

Tell us a little bit more about the upgrades and the effect they're having. Where is the car better?
LN: Just little bits. It doesn't feel, honestly, that different. I think as we kind of just got out in the car through the weekend, honestly, I feel like we've dropped off a little bit in pace. FP1 was quite an easy session and I felt like, "Oh, we're quite quick." Through the weekend, it's almost got a little bit harder and the others seem to have got more out of the car. But the upgrades have worked. They've brought performance. If we didn't have them, we'd be slower. So, I think I have to say a big thanks to the team because they're still working very hard on trying to give me this opportunity to go quicker and put the car on pole, and I'm very happy that I managed to do it for them today.

Well, Lando, let's throw it forward to the race tomorrow. Given everything you've just said, are you hoping for a wet race?
LN: Yes, I'm hoping for a wet race. There's a good likelihood it'll be wet. I mean, there's a bit of rain, I think, tomorrow at times, and it'll still be damp through the day, so we could just have an exciting race with a little bit of everything, honestly. But I was certainly more confident in the wet and inters than I was in the dry. I think in the dry we just didn't have the pace compared to these guys, so I'll certainly be happier if I wake up and see rain in the morning.

George, let's come to you next. A great session for you, but you did seem frustrated at the flag. Just talk us through what happened in Q3.
GR: Yeah, I think it was just a bit of miscommunication. I need to speak with the team because we believed we'd get another lap before the rain came in. So, I was on a really strong lap and I was asked to back off because I caught up with Albon, and then obviously the rain came. So yeah, it was very disappointing. Need to understand how it happened and why we got that wrong. But I felt very strong the whole session. Similar to Lando, I had more confidence in the wet than I had in the dry. But yeah, definitely felt pole was there for the taking.

I mean, George, you were the man out there in the conditions. Were you tempted to overrule the instruction from your race engineer?
GR: They've got the weather forecast in front of them and I don't. And, you know, this is where you need that trust and you're relying on one another. Obviously, it was the wrong decision, and it was a decision that I think as soon as it was made, I think we knew it was the wrong one because already they could actually feel the rain pouring harder. So, we need to understand, you know, we're relying on a lot of systems, and we can't point the finger at somebody. We need to understand why we made that decision and whether our systems were telling us what we needed to know, because you're relying on the radar. But it doesn't make it any less frustrating for me, and it's not my engineer's fault. He's relaying information. He's ultimately the one who passes the message on, but he's got 12 people talking to him, giving him that information to relay on. So, we just need to understand why we made that decision.