Hamilton: “This feeling is incredible”

Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) – Pole position

“It’s been an incredible year and a half. This feeling is incredible, I am so grateful to my team who work so hard, we pushed so hard to come and get this pole position. I didn’t expect to take pole today (Saturday), I gave it my all, there was nothing more. It’s a challenge taken up by each person in the team, we went through a roller coaster of emotions. We had to keep the faith, stay focused together. I was losing time at turn number 4 compared to the others, it was complicated. But what we have just done shows that we are on the right track. The tires change the balance of the car, but it went well on every type of tyre. Having a well-balanced car in the different corners helped us a lot. I must try to sleep this (Saturday) evening, and tomorrow (Sunday), we will give the maximum, raise our level to the maximum. Lando Norris has also done a great job and Max Verstappen is still on top. »

Max Verstappen (PBS/Red Bull Racing) – 2eme

“We struggled all weekend to find a balance, today (Saturday) it was very difficult to feel confident enough to attack in the corners in both Q1 and Q2. My first lap in Q3 was okay, but for the second I had no feeling, I tried to attack but I lost the front, the back. We are still second but we should be in front with the car we have. For the moment this weekend, we are really not in the game. Everything will depend on the temperatures tomorrow (Sunday) to manage the tyres. It will be difficult. I think things will balance out in the race, but I didn’t have the right balance in qualifying. The changes worked, but we didn’t put everything together. Clearly, we were off target, that’s not where we wanted to be. »

Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren) – 3rd

“I’m a little surprised, and a little disappointed. We were very close to pole position today (Saturday). Overall I’m happy, the team did a good job, we finished third and fourth. It’s been a good weekend so far but as a driver I’m not as happy as I would like. There are always little things, it wasn’t the cleanest lap I’ve done, there are risks to be taken. I don’t know how far it was, maybe a tenth… But it’s a good position to start tomorrow (Sunday), it’s still a good day. I’m excited, our race pace yesterday was good, maybe not as strong as at Silverstone. It’s a track on which it’s difficult to pass, that’s why it makes me a little more frustrated today (Saturday). Maybe we will be able to use the two cars in front tomorrow (Sunday) to give us some rhythm. »

Oscar Piastri (AUS/McLaren) – 4th

“It was a very encouraging day for the team, which is still ahead. From my side, it was not the cleanest laps in Q3, but to challenge the Top 3 would have been difficult, I would have had to do a very good lap. I’m happy with fourth place, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow (Sunday). We will try to do the best, we can go there hoping to be on the podium in a realistic way. We saw this weekend how tight it is for everyone, including Red Bull Racing, so we’ll see what we can do. We will try to get on the podium, the race will be very different from Silverstone. It will be tougher, there will be more degradation, and certainly more pit stops, so we’ll see what happens. »

Guanyu Zhou (CHN/Alfa Romeo) – 5eme

“I feel really good, I’m very happy. A huge thank you to the team for giving me a car that allowed me to fight for Q3, and to be able to get fifth place, we didn’t expect it. But we saw that we had the pace this weekend, and qualifying was on the limit at every lap. In Q1 I was at the top of the standings, I was very surprised and I knew I had a chance. I made a few mistakes with the track limits but when necessary we succeeded, especially at the end of Q2 and Q3, and I’m very happy with this place. There was a lot of pressure on my last lap in Q3 because the previous lap had been scrapped. I gave it my all and there wasn’t much left. »

Charles Leclerc (MCO/Ferrari) – 6eme

” I’m not happy. I put everything in order but we just don’t have the hoped-for and expected performance. It’s hard to understand, there are plenty of cars that we didn’t expect. We thought McLaren would have a harder time here and that’s clearly not the case. We have an Alfa Romeo which did a good job this weekend. We have to work, we know our weak points. We will wait for the new package to hope to take a step forward. It’s very difficult to understand, some cars go fast in qualifying but go slower in the race, for others it’s the opposite. We will try to overtake Guanyu Zhou at the start, and then we will see. »

Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine) – 12eme

“I don’t think there was more in the car unfortunately today (Saturday). Yesterday (Friday) we were going very fast with the soft tyres, I was hoping that we would get through this Q2 and that we could try to put on the soft tyres, because I have the impression that the more you put them on the more the car works. But we couldn’t pass this stage of Q2. It was better than with the hard guys but the lap was very good, there was nothing better to do. We need more performance right now. The points are on the table, we will give everything for it, that is the objective. We will try to make a good start, be aggressive with the strategy and be in the points. »

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/AlphaTauri) – 13eme

” It’s good. It was difficult to attack the weekend knowing where I was going to end up. Any position would have been fine but I wanted to show everyone that I could get back into the rhythm. I didn’t spend a lot of time in this car but after yesterday (Friday) I already knew I could have some pace, the confidence started to come back. He missed a practice session but today (Saturday) I took a few steps forward. I’m quite happy. On the positive side, the car seems rather balanced, it lacks downforce but it is something that we can work on. It’s really a racing car, we can do something with it. I’ll try to give a constructive feedback, but it’s my first weekend, I know there’s still a lot of work to do. »

Pierre Gasly (FRA/Alpine) – 15th

“We had a lot of trouble, especially with the medium tyres. Already this (Saturday) morning, it had been complicated. I have trouble warming up the front tyres, and I understeer a lot. We’ll have to work, we’re not fast enough. We will have to try to go up with the strategy. »

George Russell (GBR/Mercedes) – 18eme

“Throughout the session, I was on the track in the wrong place at the wrong time. Collectively, we took far too many risks. The car was so fast! We didn’t have to put in fuel for a lap and just pull out at the end in all the traffic. I was trying to respect the gentlemen’s agreement, I was overtaken by several cars, in particular Pierre Gasly, who overtook me in the last corner. I was three tenths behind even before starting my lap, he was done for. I’m not going to blame any driver, it’s everyone for their own skin. Collectively, we should have done a much better job. »

Sources: official Formula 1 interviews, Canal+, Autosport, Sky Sports