DRIVERS
1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
2 – Lando NORRIS (McLaren)
3 – Oscar PIASTRI (McLaren)
 
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by James Hinchcliffe) 
 
Q: We're going to start with third-place finisher Oscar Piastri. Twelfth career podium here in Suzuka. Started third, finished third. Was that a little bit a function of your fate being sort of sealed yesterday in qualifying?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yes, correct. I think the pace today was really, really good and I was very happy with that. Obviously got close a few times and tried to mount a challenge, but track position around here is just so important. So, yeah, I think yesterday was the day where you effectively won the race and I didn’t do a good enough job. So, I'll take the podium. I think there's still a lot of positives to take out of this weekend. I think the pace was mega. Next time I just need to make sure I'm in a better position to use it.
 
Q: You were the first of the top three to pit. Was that more of a defensive move against George Russell, or were you trying to force Red Bull's hand and get Max in early?
OP: Great question. I think for me it was more trying to just cover the guys behind. I was starting to struggle a little bit on the Medium and was in the window to take a pit stop anyway. So yeah, that was kind of the thinking there. I’ll speak to the team about what their plan was with it, but I think it was a good strategy. We were kind of a bit in no man's land.
 
Q: And you mentioned you tried to mount an attack on Lando. We heard some of the radio communication about trying to swap you guys. You thought you had the pace to catch Max. We heard your side of that conversation – what was the retort from the team and how much debate was there on whether to swap you two?
OP: I mean, there wasn’t much to be honest. For me, I felt like I had really strong pace and felt like if I had the track position I could go and get Max. But that’s what happens when you qualify behind, unfortunately. So yeah, I at least asked the question and I think that was a fair response. I think it was a good race, and that’s how we want to go racing.
 
Q: P2 on the day, Lando Norris. Front-row start, you gave it everything you had. It looked like a tough battle out there, but just came up a little bit short.
Lando NORRIS: I guess just lost out yesterday. You know, Max drove a good race today, no mistakes, and the pace was too similar today to do anything more. Long race, a lot of pushing. It was a flat-out race from start to finish – tough, but just not enough today. Nothing special that we had that could get Max on. They were quick, and no mistakes like I said, so he deserved it. 
 
Q: You guys got very close in the pit stop though – the McLaren team giving you a great stop, you had that easy launch out side-by-side, two wheels in the grass. How did you see that incident?
LN: It's racing, I think. He was still ahead, it kind of squeezes into one, and Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space , you know, in a good way, in a racing way, so nothing more than that. 
 
Q: Lost a little bit of ground in the Drivers’ Championship, but a nice haul for the Constructors. Overall, positive weekend for the team?
LN: Yeah, yeah. I think it’s still been a very good weekend. Didn’t get the positions that we wanted. We’re fighting for a win every weekend, but they deserved it – both Red Bull and Max deserved it this weekend. They’re quick. They've been catching up, they've obviously made some improvements, and as a team, we didn’t have enough this weekend. So we have to work harder for the next one. First and second in the Grand Prix so far – not a bad start.
 
Q: And your winner of the Grand Prix here at Suzuka for the 64th time in his career, fourth time on the trot here in Japan – Max. It was a lights-to-flag victory. Looks pretty standard on paper, but those McLaren guys were pushing the whole race. Was it as nerve-racking from inside the car as it looked from outside?
Max VERSTAPPEN: It was tough, you know, just pushing very hard – especially on the second stint. The two McLarens were pushing me very hard and it was a lot of fun out there. Not easy, of course, to manage the tyres, but yeah, I’m incredibly happy. It started off quite tough this weekend, but we didn’t give up. We kept improving the car and today it was in its best form. And of course, starting on pole, that really made it possible to win the race.
 
Q: Given that it seems like McLaren has a bit of a car advantage over Red Bull right now, how important is it to execute on these opportunities when you start in front and keep that championship battle nice and tight?
MV: Yeah, it’s very important to always try to maximise your performance and I think we did that very well this weekend.
 
Q: Right, Max – it’s finally here in Japan. Like you say, fourth win in a row. You obviously love this place, this place loves you. Honda’s home track, your last race in Japan with Honda – just talk about what this place means to you.
MV: It means a lot to me. It was in the back of my mind as well. On those last few laps, I was like, “Well, I need to try and stay ahead – it would be a great story.” Our final kind of farewell race together with Honda here in Japan. I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over all those years together. And I think this is like a perfect send-off.
 
PRESS CONFERENCE
 
Q: Huge congratulations, Max. Your race engineer called it perfection over the radio. Is that how it felt inside the car?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a fun race. I mean, the whole race I saw two orange cars in my mirror, and yeah, especially those last 20 laps, we were pushing quite hard out there. You could just feel the tyres were degrading more and more. But you had to keep on fighting it, basically being on the limit. But yeah, it was better than expected, to be honest. My race pace—I do think that probably the cooler track helped us out a bit. Less tyre overheating, and yeah, just very proud with this result. I think most of it of course was done yesterday being able to start from pole, because around here I think it's just very hard to follow. You know, the cars are improving every single year, more downforce, and probably you'll see it's just a bit harder to follow. You only have one DRS zone as well here, so it's very tough. Plus the degradation seemed quite low, so you do a one-stop. So I think that definitely helps. But still, we take it, we really maximised the weekend, and I'm very proud of everyone.
 
Q: You maximised the weekend. At what point in the race did you think, “I've got this”?
MV: It's impossible to tell because you don't really know how long the tyres are going to hold up. But I would say with like five laps to go, I felt like, “This is OK, the tyres are holding on to a normal extent, they're not fully falling out of the window” So I was like, “well, from here on it's just make no mistakes and it should be OK”.
 
Q: Now, the closest Lando got was at pit exit. Can you give us your view of what happened there?
MV: Yeah, I think the grass was a bit—it was not really well cut on the right-hand side. So I think Lando saw that as well, and he made sure that it was nicely cut. 
 
Q: Any more comments? 
MV: What do you want me to say? 
 
Q: Well nothing. If you feel that’s it, then that’s it!
MV: Next question then!
 
Q: Look, Max, where do we go from here? Is this performance circuit-specific or do you feel you can now challenge at every race?
MV: I don't think so, but honestly, like I said, today we take it. It was very hard to pass around here. Bahrain—completely different track, very tough on tyres, tyres overheating as well. We still have work to do. But it does show that if we really nail everything, we can be up there. But from our side, we want to be better than just sometimes being up there. So we just keep working hard and just see where we can be at in Bahrain already. Hopefully we keep on improving the car, you know, with the through corner balance, and then hopefully it unlocks also just in general a bit more pace.
 
Q: Alright, very well done to you, Max. Thank you very much. Lando, let's come to you. Many congratulations. You showed great pace today. Just how do you rate this P2?
Lando NORRIS: Tough. I mean, I could see Max quite clearly for the whole race, but just couldn't make any inroads from that point onwards. So I think him in clean air was enough to stay in that position and he didn't make any mistakes. He drove a good race. So, I don't know, like he said, the race was won yesterday in hindsight, and I guess we always kind of know the better position you start, the more chance you have of winning. But I think our pace was probably slightly better, but not enough to get through the dirty air, kind of get into the DRS, and then passing is a whole other story because it's pretty much impossible to pass here. So yeah, I think it was a good race. We tried some things. Maybe we could have tried a bit more with strategy. Overcut or undercut—we just boxed on the same lap for some reason. So some things we'll discuss, but good points for us as a team. Decent points for me. Of course, would have liked a little bit more, but have to take second sometimes.
 
Q: Can I ask you a little bit more about strategy? I mean, Oscar was the one who pitted first. Was there a discussion over the radio that maybe you pitted first?
LN: I mean, we obviously planned some things beforehand and we kind of know what to expect. But yeah, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think probably could have gone longer, could have tried going earlier, yes, but then you're at risk of Safety Cars and other things. So it's easy to say, “Yeah, you should have done that.” But if I box three laps earlier or two laps earlier and the Safety Car comes out, then we look stupid. So can't win them all and we take it on the chin. I think we've got areas to work on. High-speed we were very, very strong and I think definitely the strongest car out there. Slow speed—we’re quite a chunk off the Red Bull, and that's where we lost yesterday in qualifying. So we lost again consistently in the race today. So yeah, a lot of areas we have to try work on.
 
Q: And Lando, can we get your perspective from the pit exit with Max?
LN: Yeah, I mean, like you said, the guys just did a very good pit stop under pressure. It was our one opportunity to try and get a bit closer. I wasn't even trying to race Max, I was just trying to cut the grass like he said! Didn't even know he was there, actually. So no, nothing. He had the position and he had the right to do what he did, so fair play.
 
Q: Can we throw it forward now? Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend. How strong do you think your car is going to be there? And are you expecting Max to be a similar threat in Bahrain as he was here?
LN: I mean, it's always so difficult to say. Probably yes. I think after today, our weakness was the slow-speed compared to them. There's a lot less high-speed, so we’re kind of losing some of our strengths and we're going more into our weaknesses. Clearly, they're quick. You know, I feel like between Oscar and myself, we got a lot out of the car yesterday. It was probably a little bit more, yes, but both our theoreticals were not that far ahead. So Max is doing a good job and Red Bull seemed to maybe have caught up a little bit. But they've also not been that bad the whole season. When you look at Australia, he was fighting for a win. When you look at China, he wasn't miles away. And this weekend he's done very good. So I expect him to be challenging us every weekend.
 
Q: Thank you very much for that. Oscar, let's come to you. Great birthday present for you today and a very competitive P3. Just how do you reflect on this Grand Prix?
Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah. I mean, I think obviously the result is not exactly what I wanted, but I think in terms of the pace and the way I achieved the result is what I wanted. So yeah, I think yesterday was the day that kind of dictated your weekend a lot and I didn't get the most out of the car. So that unfortunately kind of dictated a lot of what I could do today, and that’s led to the result I've got.
 
Q: Has this whole weekend just emphasised how important qualifying is this year? Is it even more important than it was last year?
OP: I don't know if it's necessarily more important. I think it's always been important. I think in a race like we had today where there's very little deg, it's a pretty easy one-stop, and you're pushing flat out for a lot of it, then yeah, it becomes very difficult to have an advantage with tyres. And I think in Suzuka in the past that is how you've generally tried to overtake people. This weekend, that wasn't the case. So I think it depends on the track. Bahrain, for example, might not quite be the same. But I mean, qualifying has always been important. It's not rocket science to work out that if you start on pole, it makes your life a lot easier. So yeah, I think that's the main opportunity from this weekend.
 
Q: And Oscar, can we just get your thoughts on your strategy today, both in terms of when you pitted but also was there a realistic chance of you swapping with Lando and having a crack at Max?
OP: I mean, I think on the pit stop timing, Russell had pitted I think the lap before and Leclerc wasn't that far behind and we didn't really know what the undercut power was going to be like. And you know, we'd gone a fair way into the race on the Mediums anyway. So I think from my side there wasn't anything that was obviously wrong with what we did. And then at the end, yeah, I said what I felt. Clearly the team were happy with the way things were. I mean, if I was in Lando’s position, I would also be pretty happy with the way things were. So that’s fine. Just said what I felt in the car and yeah, that's how we want to go racing.
 
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
 
Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) Max, congratulations on the win. Fernando yesterday called your lap "magical." I think Tom mentioned GP said "perfection" about the race. Christian said your drive was "inspirational." There have been so many superlatives about just the way you're performing with this car at the moment. Does it feel as special to you what you're doing at the moment as it does outside of Red Bull, in the paddock at the moment?
MV: Yeah, it does. I mean, it also means, I guess, that I really care, even though of course it's not been the easiest start to the year for us. You know, we are not where we want to be in terms of performance. I think that's no secret. But yeah, this weekend has been really, really nice. Sometimes you have those kind of moments where you get some really great laps out of it. And luckily, of course, also the balance got a bit more together throughout that qualifying. So yeah, we just have to keep on working. I mean it's nice, but I'm a bit of a person—I don't listen to the positives and the negatives. I'm just in the middle, you know. So I just focus on my own performances and yeah, just keep working, keep grinding.
 
Q: (Michael Butterworth – Xinhua News Agency) Lando, given the way things transpired in the race, was it the right call to pit the same lap as Max rather than trying something different—maybe going longer, trying to overcut him or something like that?
LN: I don't know. I probably should have tried to undercut, I think. The thing is there’s always the Safety Car risk and so forth. I think I could have gone longer because I don't think I would have lost position. So that wasn’t off the cards, but yeah, I think we probably should have just tried to run the card and then tried something different. But it just wasn’t today. So yeah, things we’ll talk about. Honestly, I think the undercut is not easy here because the Hard is not mega in the first sector. So whether that even would have worked, I’m unsure. And Max still always had a little buffer to me. So even if I did have a good out lap, I don’t think it was enough to probably get past anyway.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lando, question for you. You've spoken very highly of Max throughout your career. Does a weekend like this really prove why he's going to be such a championship threat, even if he doesn't have the quickest car compared to you guys?
LN: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I feel like I get a lot of questions like, “Are you surprised by Max?” when he does a day like yesterday or a race like today. And I guess people always expect me to say yes, but I don't think there is a reason to be. I don't think I ever have. Like you said, I've always had a lot of respect for Max. But you know, there are those moments that when you're in the car and when you're driving, you know what is good and what is not. And I think I don't need anyone to tell me what Max is capable of doing or whether I should think this or that. Of course, I've always got my own opinions, but I'm always going to have the respect. I know how good he's been since, you know, we shook hands back in 2015 or something—2014—and I was half the height I am now. So, you know, I don't need people to tell me these things. And people seem shocked when I say I'm not surprised and stuff like that, but I know how good he is. I know what he's capable of doing. So I would say nothing is a surprise anymore. But yeah, I still believe that we're going to have some good races and we can go toe-to-toe and that some days he'll come out on top and others I will.
Q: (Nate Saunders – ESPN) Just a question to all three of you. You've all got a pole position each or win each. Does it feel at this stage like it's a three-way title fight? Is it too early to say? What's the kind of the vibe for you guys at the moment?
MV: The vibe? The vibe is alright. I don't know. I mean, it's a very long season. A lot of things can happen, right? I think what is important is that you always try to just maximise your performances. That’s the only thing that you can control. So that’s what I’ll try to do and we’ll see in—what is it, 21 races—where we're at. Good or bad.
LN: Yeah, seems like it. I mean, I still think at times we're going to see some more competition from the guys behind. Charles was not that much slower. I mean, there was a bigger gap, but I think his second stint on the Hards was just as quick as mine. I didn’t think we dropped him at all. So other cars are quick. I think we pushed a lot in the beginning, and it was a race where you just flat out from the off. It was a quick race. But I think we're the three who are the most consistent at the minute and putting in the times in quali and putting the good races in. But George has been quick this weekend. I don't know, maybe again, you know, they struggled a bit more in Q3 for whatever reason and then therefore in the race. But I'm sure like if you put a George starting on pole today, I think he probably still would have won the race. So I think anytime someone does that bit of a better job on Saturday for qualifying, they can have those opportunities come their way. But at the minute, I think McLaren, Red Bull, and probably between us three, we're doing a better job than the rest.
OP: I mean, I think yesterday I was disappointed to be third. I think our car is in a very strong place at the moment. It's still got some things that we want to try and improve. But I obviously know that Lando’s going to be strong opposition given we're in the same car, and I know Max is going to be strong opposition, you know, given everything he's achieved in his career. So I think as Lando said, it doesn’t take much of a mistake from us—or certainly from myself—to let the others in. And I think that’s what we saw yesterday. And as Lando said, Mercedes looked very threatening at times this weekend. And I think Ferrari – I think people forget that Charles’s race in China he did with, essentially, half a front wing. So I think if anyone else had tried to do the race he did in China, they would have had to box pretty quickly. So I think we have a small advantage, but I think this weekend has really shown that any small mistake and there's a lot of competition there to capitalise.
 
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Max, Christian talked about the changes that have been made throughout the weekend on the car. Do you feel a step closer to getting the best out of it? Like how much progress has been made through this weekend to get you a bit more comfortable and happy with it?
MV: I think we know our limitations. So we just have to try and run against that limitation as much as we can. But yeah, it's still not fixed. So this is hopefully going to be fixed soon, but I cannot give you a timeline on that. It's just about trying to find that limit, which is really sensitive for us at the moment.
 
Q: (Dan Yiyi – Titan Sports) Question to Oscar. At the end of the race, how big was your chance to actually overtake or try to overtake Lando? Or was it just too difficult under that condition?
OP: I mean, it was too difficult. I think I needed the straight to be about another 100 metres longer and then maybe I could've had a small chance. But I got close a couple of times, but never close enough to do anything realistically. So yeah, I feel like I had strong pace, but just not quite enough to be able to do anything. And yeah, with the dirty air, once you get so close, it's very difficult to stay so close. So yeah, I think the chance of anything happening realistically was pretty slim.
 
Q: (Joel Tansey – The Japan Times) This one's for Max. Obviously, the last Japanese Grand Prix with the Honda power. Maybe you could reflect on that relationship and what it means to go out with the win here in Japan.
MV: Yeah. I mean, of course, already yesterday was a very beautiful day for us. And then of course to follow it up with a win is just fantastic. Honestly, the relationship that we've had with Honda has been amazing. I've really enjoyed my time with them—how they also work, how professional they are and how dedicated they are. They've given me so much. Together we've won four Drivers' Championships and two Constructors'. It’s been unbelievable and also, of course, something you’ll never forget. And it did cross my mind while driving as well. I said it would be insane to win here today, also for Honda on their track as well. So maybe gave that extra motivation to try to stay ahead. But yeah, it’s a proper send-off. I mean, we couldn't have wished for a better weekend to be honest.
 
 
ENDS