Track Interviews - Conducted by Jolyon Palmer

I think I've got three very happy drivers after an outstanding São Paulo Grand Prix. Lando, let's start with you. You looked a little bit tired coming out of the car, but you didn't have to work too hard in that one, did you?
Lando Norris: Well, I did. I was pushing. An amazing race. Nice to win here in Brazil. It's an amazing track, amazing fans. And yeah, this one was for Gil [de Ferran], one of my mentors growing up a couple years ago. Yeah, so this one was for him. I'm sure he'd be very proud about it all, so I was thinking of that while we were driving. But yeah, a perfect, perfect weekend.

Absolutely an amazing weekend for you generally. I mean, things just seem to be clicking right now. Mexico, a big 30-second win. It wasn't quite 30 seconds today, but it always felt like you had it under control. How have you managed to find this rhythm at this stage of the season?
LN: Just ignore everyone that talks crap about you! Yeah, just focus on yourself and, you know, the team... McLaren are doing an amazing job, giving me a great car. We're pushing hard every single weekend and I'm pushing hard away from the track. So, rewarding. Rewarding - it doesn't come easy, that's for sure. And to be honest, I don't think we were the quickest out there on track today, but glad to take home the win.

Absolutely. Well, fantastic job. Stay there because we're going to come back to you, but I want to bring in both of you two if I can. Kimi, Max - what a finale at the end there. An amazing drive for both of you. Best ever result, Kimi. Max, third place from the pit lane, but talk us through the finish first of all because it looked like it was almost going to be a drag to the line.
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean I don't know where this guy came from, to be honest. I didn't see it coming. But yeah, to be fair, I was lucky to come away with the restart, with the contact. Need to check with the car, it felt a bit weird afterwards. But, you know, still a good race and the last laps were very stressful with Max coming on fresher tyres. But luckily with free air, we were able to maintain a decent pace and to finish P2.

And how do you stay cool? Because I'm sure everyone in the mirror, seeing this guy behind, is - is a difficult one to manage, knowing he's come from the pit lane to be in third, hunting you down for second. You did a great job there, but how do you stay cool?
KA: Yeah, I mean, I found my rhythm. Obviously, when he was closing in, I raised the pace, I started to push a bit more. And yeah, I found my rhythm. And obviously, you know, with this car, with dirty air it's a bit difficult to follow, so I tried to use that to my advantage and yeah, it paid off.

Well, a fantastic job and a best-ever weekend and a best-ever race. Well done, Kimi. Max, I bet when you woke up this morning, you weren't thinking you were going to be on the podium. You said you didn't mind if it was rain or dry today, and it's true. What an outstanding job. How did you make it happen?
Max Verstappen: Yeah, I think the race was quite full on - a lot of action. I had to overtake some cars, of course, coming from the pit lane. And I think our pace was quite strong over all the stints, of course sometimes it's a bit difficult to know fully with traffic and stuff. But yeah, I mean, to be on the podium from the pit lane, I didn't expect that at all - even with a puncture as well in the beginning of the race, that's why we had to box again. So yeah, incredible result for us. Very happy with that and just very proud of everyone within the team as well. I mean, yesterday was very tough for us, but, you know, we never give up. We always try to improve and try to find more lap time. And luckily, we found that again today.

Yeah. You made the extra pit stop as well. It meant you had to go really attacking. How much balance did you have to judge whether to take the risk - because you had to overtake so many cars - but of course, you can't afford to crash into anyone either?
MV: Yeah, I mean, you're just trying to pass as fast as possible as well, because you don't want to lose too much time. But then some cars are also in a DRS train, so it was not always very straightforward. But I mean, with all that, to finish only like 10 seconds from the lead, I think for us is incredible.

Yeah. Outstanding job. Go and enjoy the celebrations. Lando, coming back to you. I'm sure you don't want to hear it, but I've got to talk championship. There is no Oscar alongside you. The gap is now 24 points. There are three rounds to go. You're on great form. Do you start to think about it? Where's the mindset with three to go?
LN: No. Not at all. I mean, it's a great win, but to be honest, seeing how quick Max was today - I'm pretty disappointed we weren't quicker. So that's where my mind is at the minute - probably going to see the team, congratulate them and see where we weren't quick enough. But that's me. And we'll see what we can do. Obviously, not a long way to go, but it can change so quickly, like we've seen today already. So just focus on myself, keep my head down, ignore everyone and keep pushing.

Press Conference

Lando, let's start with you. What a race. What a weekend. Just how satisfied are you feeling this Sunday evening?
LN: Well, I've been pretty satisfied the whole weekend, honestly. It's been a great day, a great weekend, all-in-all. I'd say challenging. It's not been completely straightforward. It's still been difficult out on track, but that makes it better. I think it was just a well-executed race: good start, good pit stops, good strategy, decent pace. I wouldn't say the pace was quite as good as what I would have liked today, so a few things to look into, but otherwise, every session that I needed to be on top, I was. And that's why I flew to Brazil. So yeah, very happy.

You say you've had a few difficulties this weekend. Given your level of dominance and the points you've got for the championship this weekend, can you just talk us through what they are?
LN: I mean, I think everyone... We're drivers, so we're always going to complain about something! The car balance was difficult. I'm sure the others will say the same. But it's a realistic thing to use. In terms of when I was a bit happier with the car balance last weekend, we won by 30 seconds. This weekend, we only won by 10 and, you know, Max was coming at us quite quickly. So yeah, the pace was not on another level and we set our standards high, as a team, as we rightly should. So to win by 10 seconds - I'm going to sound like an idiot saying it - but yeah, we just wanted a bit more. I still had to fight the car a lot to win by those 10 seconds. So, just a little bit trickier than what I would have liked. But I'm still very happy with how the weekend's gone, of course, and I'm very proud of the whole team and what they've been able to give me.

You looked very happy on the Medium tyre. Just how was the pace on the Soft?
LN: Not as good. Even the last stint was not quite as strong. I thought the first stint was very, very good. But that was also the time I was on the most, let's say, relative tyre to everyone. I think my used set of Mediums at the end was like seven, eight laps used, so not as nice as, say, a second set of new. But yeah, I think the pace on the Medium all weekend has been very good. The pace on the Softs - alright. Pace on the Hards - I don't really know because I never used them. So there's always little things. We're always looking, as a team, to see where we can do better, what can we improve on, especially when you're fighting for wins and for championships. You've got to look for everything. So that's what we're trying to do. I definitely had preferred feelings of the Medium, but we'll see what we can do next time out.

Lando, you're now leading the championship by 24 points. Does this weekend feel like a turning point for you?
LN: No. It just feels like another weekend where I came here to try and win, to get the most points I could, and did that. I did that also last weekend. So yeah, I think neither are turning points. They're just strong results, which is exactly what I need, exactly what I'm fighting for every single weekend and every day. So just very pleased, but it's still a long way to go. So no point getting too happy or excited just yet.

Let's throw it forward to the next race in Vegas. Will the expected cooler conditions there help or hinder McLaren?
LN: Hinder, for sure. I think it was our worst race last year. So I'm not really looking forward to it. We've been trying to work quite hard on improving those things. We know Mercedes were incredibly strong there last year, as well as Red Bull and Ferraris. I think we were the bottom of those four. So yeah, we'll wait and see. Obviously, we've improved a lot of things this year, so I'm not going to be too negative about it. I think there's plenty to look forward to. We know Abu Dhabi and Qatar are ones we are looking forward to. Las Vegas just a little bit less, because they've been probably some of our weakest races over the last two years. So let's wait and see.

Alright. Very well done to you. Thank you, Lando. Kimi, let's come to you. Your best result in Formula 1. Very, very well done. How stressful were those closing laps?
KA: Way too stressful. I mean, obviously, when Max did the last pit stop and Bono told me the gap, I was like - ah well, I cannot say because they're going to fine me now - but I was like, "I might be in trouble," you know, because he was just nine seconds behind. And obviously, he was on new Softs, so he had... I think this race he had very strong pace. He did an amazing job coming back and he just put me under a lot of pressure at the end. I had to really push the tyre to the limit, and it wasn't easy. But I think we did our best and I'm really happy with that.

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