Track Interviews - Conducted by James Hinchcliffe

Lando Norris, sixth career pole position. It looked like a really tough battle out there. Tell us about your lap?
Lando Norris: It was tough. Especially through qualifying, I was finding it a little difficult to progress much and to get a lot of lap time and all the guys around seemed to get quicker and quicker, so it put me under a little bit more pressure, and especially with just one lap at the end. But it was good enough for pole. I'm happy with that, especially here in Singapore. So a good feeling. I felt good all weekend. I felt confident. Maybe not so much in quali, but we got the job done.

You were quick all throughout practice, but like you say, you only got that one lap in Q3. How difficult was it to know you had to put it all on the line just once?
LN: I mean, I like it. It gets your heart rate going, and it's good fun. My lap wasn't as good as my lap previous to the red flag, so there's always just a little bit more in it. But like I said, the car's been feeling good, and when you have a good-feeling car and you're confident, you can go out and push, and you can get the lap time. So I did the job I had to do today, and excited to see what we can do tomorrow.

Yeah, you said there was maybe a little bit more in it. We saw that your first sector wasn't quite as good as you had been previously. You would have seen that in the car. So how deep do you have to dig, knowing you're already digging yourself out of a bit of a hole off the start?
LN: I mean, a little bit of it's just. I had faith that we were quick, so I didn't have to over-push, and I could just do what I've been doing the whole weekend, you know, so... That's a nice feeling, that I didn't have to kind of go over and beyond. But it's tricky. Like, the car's moving around. It's bumpy. It's easy to brake one meter too late all of a sudden. So you pay the price for overdriving and over-pushing. But I kept it cool, and I did what I had to do. So I'm happy.

Exactly right, do what you need to do. Congratulations. Pull position for tomorrow's Grand Prix.
LN: Thank you so much. Thank you, mate.

Max Verstappen, you're lining up on the outside of the front row for tomorrow's Grand Prix in Singapore. Great result for you guys after a bit of a difficult start to the weekend. Tell us about the lap?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, I think the whole of qualifying actually went quite well. We managed to improve the car, run after run, already with FP3, and I'm happy to be on the front row, if you look at where we came from yesterday. Q3 was tough. You know, your lap gets, of course, cancelled with the double yellow. Then everyone only has one run to do the lap, so you don't want to overdo it. So you want to stay within the limit. I take second. I'm happy with that.

There's been a lot of talk about tyre preparation today in qualifying. How difficult was it to get those tires into that right window on just that one last run?
MV: Yeah, so they're always quite difficult. Tyres can give you a lot of lap time or lose you a lot of lap time. I think today, for us in qualifying, it worked all quite well, so I was happy with that. And, yeah, here we are, second. Tomorrow, of course, a bit difficult to say. Singapore, a lot of things can happen, but at least we have a shot at it like this.

Alright, guys, your championship leaders starting P2 tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton, P3 on the grid for tomorrow's Grand Prix. Huge cheer from the crowd. So much success here at this racetrack. You must be so happy with this result after some of the struggles you guys have had in practice.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, firstly, the crowd's been incredible today. When we did the Fan Forum [inaudible]... so, huge thank you to everyone for the support. So many of my followers have travelled here from all over so I'm really grateful. Oh man, qualifying has been a disaster for me all year long and I've just been working and working and working trying to get myself back up there, and all of a sudden the car came alive in qualifying for the first time in a long time in qualifying. It was a little bit of a shame because we were getting into rhythm, and it was the same for all of us, but getting that lap at the end was a little bit tricky. But I think there was maybe a tiny bit more left in the car, but I'm really grateful for it. And the mechanics, we've been moving up and down on balance, we've changed everything this weekend on each day, and the mechanics have just been faultless. So I want to say a big thank you to them, and I hope that we're in a good position to fight for the front tomorrow.

Yeah, I mean, huge improvement, obviously, over single lap pace. Do you think the changes you've made to the car are going to translate to good race pace tomorrow?
LH: That I have no idea. You know, one day at a time. I mean, it was a lot better today. It was the first time we had any front end. And, you know, we've seen that McLarens have been so quick each weekend. So I don't know. I think with management, I'm hoping we can try and keep up with these guys. Maybe not the McLarens, but we'll be given everything.

Press Conference

Brilliant lap in Q3, Lando. Very well done. With the red flag, it became a one-lap shootout in the end. Just how good was the lap?
LN: Not particularly good. Just because it's difficult. It's hard to do everything around here in one lap. So I was a bit down in the first sector, probably a couple of tenths. And then I felt like I had to try and push a bit harder in the middle sector to make up for it and that kind of thing. But I mean, it still felt good. We've been good all weekend. Just struggled to progress much from practice into quali. Like we just found a good setup there and stuck and didn't really progress at all really. I went only a touch quicker than what I did in FP3. So expected a bit more and probably found a little bit more difficult than I would have liked in both Q1, Q2 and Q3. But the car's been amazing all weekend. So felt good and felt comfortable just to go out and put the lap in.

What do you put that lack of progress down to? Was it the track conditions in qualifying?
LN: No, I mean, I think it's tough to say. I think we've just done a very good job at arriving at the track and the car works well. I mean, we haven't touched the car all weekend. Mainly, because no matter what we do, it doesn't really make much difference. We've kind of just had the car and not had to do a lot to it, but that's also a good thing in many ways. But it was still a handful to drive in the end, like the Q3 lap at the end was tough with locking, with the bumps. I made quite a few mistakes. So the car was still tricky to drive, but very quick. And that just allows me to drive at 99% and still deliver. So just a combination of several things.

And it's a very, very hot and humid race here. How different are your preparations over the next 24 hours ahead of the race?
LN: No different, really. Yeah, just drink a bit more and that's it.

Alright, well, let's look ahead to the race. You sound very confident in the car. You've done some long runs yesterday. Just how much confidence do you have?
LN: I mean, quite a bit. We've been very good all weekend. People have caught up clearly, like we've gone into quali there and clearly Max improved and he improved a lot from yesterday into today. Mercedes as well, they were very quick in Q2, so they were there on my tail, a bit close for my liking, comparing to what I had in kind of FP3 and things. Confident that the car's good in both quali and race. We showed that already on Friday. So confident if I can just get ahead, then I get my head down and can go away.

And do you think the fourth DRS zone here will make your life a little bit harder?
LN: No.

Well, very good luck in the race. Thank you, Lando. Well done today. Max, let's come to you. It hasn't been the smoothest of weekends for you or Red Bull Racing so far. So how sweet does this front row feel?
MV: Yeah, I'm very happy with second today after yesterday. And I want to say also a big thank you to the team for continuing to push throughout the weekend, you know, to make the car better for me. So, yeah, very happy to be on the front row.

What did you change overnight? Because it seems there's been a big difference in performance lately.
MV: A lot.

Can you elaborate in terms of what you did?
MV: No, I might get fined or get an extra day, so...

Well, are you confident, Max, with the race pace?
MV: Maybe.

I mean, how much of a step into the unknown is the race given the problems you had yesterday in practice?
MV: It's an unknown. Yeah.

Tell us about lining up...
MV: This is not towards you, don't worry. I don't want to upset you.

We're fine. But can you just tell us about lining up alongside Lando then tomorrow in terms of the championship battle and your tactics in the race?
MV: I will find out tomorrow.

Alright, Max, thank you. Lewis, let's come to you. You weren't that positive about your car yesterday after practice. Is P3 a bit of a surprise in qualifying?
LH: I'm not saying it's a surprise, but I mean, through the weekend so far, we were looking, well, I was looking particularly very poor. I mean, this morning and all of yesterday, we were 1.2 seconds off this, guys. So we arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn't dial any in, no matter what we did. Nothing changed. And... made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing, and I was definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2 seconds behind Lando again. And then we just kept our heads down, kept not giving up, and we made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day. Such a big difference. Car was all of a sudden alive, and I was able to go where I wanted to go. It was looking really strong throughout qualifying and I think obviously with the crash in Q3 it made it difficult for all of us to put that final lap together. I think my lap was also nothing special. Very difficult to get the tyres perfect and not overslide them. I had a lot of snaps. So I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row with this guy, but I don't know whether or not we could have beaten him today. But still really, really happy.

How rewarding is it? Because you've had some struggles with qualifying and you've been very open about that this year. So does that make this that much more satisfying?
LH: Oh yeah, I mean, just to be up here with these guys, great drivers. I've not been up here for a while and yeah, qualifying has been a nightmare for quite a long time. So it feels great to be up here. I feel very, very grateful and very, very happy. And I think hopefully from here, George and I are in the second row, so hopefully from here we can apply pressure to these two and to even to be ahead of another McLaren and another Red Bull and also the Ferraris is mega, considering how fast the Ferraris particularly are here. So yeah, I hope that we can hold on to these guys tomorrow.

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