Track Interviews - Conducted by James Hinchcliffe.

And here we are with your winner, Lando Norris. From pole position to victory here, back-to-back races, Lando. Wet to dry, dry to wet. There just doesn't seem to be anything that can stop you around this place. How intense was that Grand Prix for you?
Lando Norris: It was a very tough race - very, very tough. Obviously, not the best of launches off the line, but a lot of challenges today, obviously with the conditions. Going on slicks in the wet is always tough, especially when you're pushing for the lead and trying to catch up a little bit. The main thing today was I just kept it cool, I didn't make any mistakes, and I had the pace when I needed to. So, it was good. Nice to be back on the top step, and what a place to do it as well.

You talked about the start. Lost first place, lost second place as well. How confident were you that you'd be able to get that lead back?
LN: I mean, we're trying, you know. I'm trying my best, and I think this weekend we had an opportunity to get pole yesterday, we had an opportunity to win, and I feel like most times this year, when there's been an opportunity, I went for it, and we've been able to achieve it. I have to say a big thanks to the team because they're still working very hard, and it's annoying when you can't give them a good result back, like the last few weeks. But certainly, this weekend, I feel like we've been able to give something back to them and give them a little bit of reward for their hard work. So, always a big thanks to them, and you have to keep pushing till the end of the year.

All right, congratulations. Third win of the season, second one in a row here in Brazil for Lando. Second place, Max Verstappen. Max, you seem to be making a little bit of a habit of starting at the back of this track and ending up on the podium. Just walk us through those first couple of laps when you were able to cut through so many cars.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was a challenging race. I think the first few laps, of course, were very important. I overtook a lot of cars, and actually that first stint on the Inters was really, really strong. Unfortunately, after that, I don't know if we picked up some kind of damage because the car felt like the complete opposite to anything that I felt the whole weekend, with some really weird balance. Unfortunately, once I got into P2, I couldn't really make any inroads. So, we have to understand what went wrong there. But, I mean, starting P21 and being on the podium in second, I think is a very good result.

Very good result, indeed. Congratulations on a great comeback drive. In third place, his team-mate, Isack Hadjar. Congratulations on another podium, third of the year for you, Isack. With the conditions being as difficult as they were, just how proud are you of this effort to be back up here on the podium?
Isack Hadjar: Oh yeah, it was so, so difficult, so challenging, especially switching from the inters to the soft tyre and avoiding the traps. Yeah, it was extremely difficult, especially in the pit lane. You saw how tricky it was to drive, and then more rain at the end. So, happy to be standing third today, but yeah, I need to make a few less mistakes because I could have avoided a little awkward situation with Max. So, just want to apologise because I think on that stint I could have kept it a bit more on the track.

You had a great in-lap there when the rain started to fall. Big pressure for Antonelli. How difficult was it keeping the car on the track?
IH: It was so hard because he was behind me. I was testing the grip for him, basically. I could see he was challenging me a lot, and I was on ice and he was on ice as well. But yeah, it was well managed. I nearly shunted into my pit crew when boxing, but they did a fantastic job. They kept their calm and the pit stop was fast. So, big thanks to the boys.

Press Conference

What a race, Lando. One that threw a little bit of everything at you. Is this one of your best wins in Formula One?
LN: I think it's certainly up there in terms of challenge. A challenge to achieve, not made easy for, I guess, all the reasons possible. Not the best start and obviously coming back from there, but a lot of challenges from just strategy and conditions, whether trying out or managing the inters, getting on the slicks, not making mistakes on the slicks, especially into Turn 1 and a lot of the wetter places, and then vice versa, going back onto the inters at the end and managing the slicks in the wet conditions. So, a lot thrown at everyone on a day like today, but it was probably one of our best races in terms of execution and pit stops, timing of things. I was eight seconds behind Kimi before the pit stop. He boxed one lap early onto the slicks. I came out and was right behind him and forced him to push a little bit more, and obviously he went into a mistake and I could capitalise on it. So, I think in terms of always being there where we needed to be, being able to put people under pressure was a very good day for that. Also, from my side, just not making any mistakes, which is so easy to do on a day like today. So, great performance from the whole team. Certainly up there with one of the best I've ever had.

You say you made no mistakes. Just how tough was it being the lead car today?
LN: I don't think that matters, honestly. I don't think that matters too much because, by a certain part of the race, you also have people ahead of you again. So, you're not necessarily the lead car, you're just observing things. I'm watching the TVs as I go around to see what's happening, and the team is always giving me information to say where people are making mistakes, where I have to brake earlier, where I can gain lap time, all these different things. So, today there was just a lot of information that I was giving to the team, a lot of information that I was getting from the team. It was very, very tricky from that perspective. It's hard to describe it, I guess, to people because unless you're in the car, it's hard to show and describe the difficulties of a slick tyre in the rain and how easy it was to lock up into Turn 1, lose the car and all these different things. Nasty conditions, as always, sometimes around here in Brazil. Otherwise, it was just a very well-executed race from that side.

Can you tell us what you were thinking after Turn 2?
LN: I probably can't. I'd probably get a fine. I wasn't too pleased. I didn't honestly know if it was something at Turn 2 or Turn 1, sorry. It was just on me. I think Liam was in my blind spot and I just couldn't see where he was. I don't know if he was behind me or what, so it was difficult to know where I needed to be. That one I just had to accept. The launch? I'm not too sure what happened. I thought I did things correctly, but just went straight into wheelspin, so I just need to review that one. Otherwise, I wasn't too pleased, but I also knew it was a race where things could easily change, whether it was with Safety Cars or the rain. It was a race where a lot could happen, so I was patient. Normally, I probably would get a little bit more angry in that situation, but I stayed patient and things came back to me beautifully.

Just give us a word, if you could, on performance. You brought the new front wing here this weekend. How much does that kick things forward, do you think? If this had been a dry race throughout, could you still have won it?
LN: Who knows? I don't. I won the race, so that's all I care about for now. I think if we look at the stats of the practice sessions and stuff, we were generally always a tenth or two tenths behind the top. The upgrades we brought this weekend were great. They worked as they should have done, so if we didn't bring them, we'd be further behind. Simple as that. But it's still not enough. They're not enough to say you're suddenly always the quickest. I think on a day like today, it's not all about that. It's about good strategy, good pit stops, driving well and not making mistakes. I certainly had a car that I could fight for a win with today, and that's very important. Those things would help. It's hard to quantify how much it's helped, but upgrades always do, and they worked well. So, the team has done a very good job. But as much as we're happy we've managed to bring things and take a step forward, and come away with a pole and a win, we're not as happy as we could be because we also know we're not good enough. We're not at the level we need to be. We're not confident in the package we have just yet. We're getting there slowly. We want to do it quicker, but that's difficult. We know we still have work to do, and we're not at the level we need to be to fight for a World Championship just yet. So, I'm proud of the team for the work they're doing, but we all know that we still have work to do.

All right, well, very well done to you. Thank you, Lando. Max, if we could come to you now. Another incredible performance by you, up 19 places. You gave us an overtaking masterclass. Just how much did you enjoy yourself out there today?
MV: Yeah, I mean, when you start that far back, you need to try and get by the guys ahead of you as quickly as you can. I do think that first stint went really, really well. We got very quickly back into the top 10, and I think the pace wasn't bad. But as soon as I switched to the slicks, I had an extreme amount of oversteer in the car in the high-speed corners, which made it super difficult to drive. So, we need to understand if something broke on the car, some kind of aero loss or whatever, because this was not normal. I sit here, of course, very happy with second, but at the same time, I know there was more in it if the car had been in good shape. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I actually did most of the race with a car that was not in good shape, and to finish second, of course, is fantastic. Maybe next year I'd love to start a bit further up front instead of starting from the back or the pit lane, but we'll find out next year. It's been good. In the wet, it probably also gives you a few more opportunities to get by cars. You can do some different lines and have more opportunities, so that definitely helped me today. But we also have to understand why or what went wrong with the car as soon as we went to the slick tyres, because even when I switched back to the Inter tyres at the end, the car was night and day different to my first stint, which shows that there is something wrong.

Where did you do most of your damage on the opening lap? You went up 10 positions. Where did you get most of the overtakes?
MV: To be honest, I had a very slow reaction time off the line because I was holding the clutch wrong, so I had to react very quickly. Then I was slow off the line, and that was my mistake. But then I just got a bit unlucky in the first three corners, where it was just like a traffic jam. There were three or four cars in front blocking basically how much I could pass. Actually, Lewis had a very good first lap. He could really get through those cars, so I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn't make the same headway. But then, within two laps, I was just flying by cars, almost every corner. We had a lot more grip, I guess, than most in the midfield. I don't know what lap I was in the top 10, but it all happened very quickly.