Mercedes driver George Russell secured pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday, confirming the Silver Arrows’ dominance since the start of the weekend.
George Russell (Mercedes, pole position at the Las Vegas GP): “It’s incredible to be back in pole position. We’ve been so fast this weekend. I was able to find a time gain in my last lap of Q3, the one that counts. I had a hot moment in my first lap and had to change my front wing. For a while, I thought I wouldn’t have time to do this lap. We still need to find out why we are so fast, as it’s a surprise.
Sometimes, you have to take risks. I was confident that with a clean lap I could secure the front row. But pole position is incredible, and we now need to convert it into a victory.”
The story of the qualifiers
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari, 2nd): “It was very tricky. It was a tight and difficult qualification, and we are a bit closer to the pole than I thought, but George (Russell) pulled out a very fast lap. We start from 2nd place tomorrow (Sunday), it’s a good position. We will be able to fight at the front. We will have a chance of victory and that will be the goal.
Mercedes was very efficient on tyre changes, especially from the first sector, where they took three tenths from us. They were literally flying but we were catching up at the end of the lap. For the race, we start from a blank sheet and reset the counters.
(On the constructors’ title) Whatever happens, we need a victory. To beat McLaren, we can’t afford to just be ahead of them because they have a big lead in the standings. We then go to Qatar where we expect to suffer, so we need to win.”
Pierre Gasly, third in the Las Vegas GP qualifiers: “A nice surprise”
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, 4th, speaking to Canal+): “It’s a bit the same problem as at the beginning of the year when it wasn’t going well in qualifiers. This weekend, I never managed to get the tyres up to temperature, whatever we did, it didn’t work. After four or five laps, we are very fast, but we don’t have them in qualifiers, so I didn’t do a good job on that. Carlos (Sainz) managed to get them up to temperature much better than me. It was also the case in FP2 and FP3. I tried but I simply couldn’t do it. I have hope for tomorrow (Sunday) because in race pace we are very, very fast.”
Max Verstappen’s Commentary
“I tried to find those extra milliseconds by maximizing the width of the track, but I couldn’t have hoped for better.”
Pierre (Gasly) was exceptional, George (Russell) did a great job. We knew that getting the tires up to temperature was the most important thing here, Mercedes was extremely fast. I lost six-tenths in the first sector alone, which hurts. We tried to make up for this time, but it wasn’t enough.”
Max Verstappen (Red Bull, 5th): “I was too slow on the straight with our wing, but not only that. It was also complicated in the corners. That’s a lot. I tried to find those extra milliseconds by maximizing the width of the track, but I couldn’t have hoped for better. For the Championship, I start ahead of Lando Norris, but I want to try to win this Grand Prix and have a good race tomorrow (Sunday).”
Lando Norris (McLaren, 6th): “The car was too difficult to drive. I lacked grip. Others managed it like Alpine or Haas. Not us. I struggled all weekend. Tomorrow I’m not going to race according to Max. If I can overtake him I will, but what matters is overtaking everyone in front, not just Max. I hope to be able to make it to the podium.”
Esteban Ocon’s Commentary
“For now, the speed we’ve shown means we don’t deserve to score points.”
Esteban Ocon (Alpine, 11th, speaking to Canal+): “The whole weekend has been frustrating on our side. Unfortunately, we’ve been having difficulties with this car since Austin. We lack grip, we’re sliding a lot. It’s hard for us to carry speed into the corners. There’s a good 4-5 tenths that have been missing since Austin and on dry, it makes a big difference. We continue to work to find the reason.
I was happy with my lap. It was a very good lap and it should have made Q3 quite easily. We need to keep pushing until the end, try to seize opportunities. The car’s performance will matter less in the race because there will be a lot of tire degradation and we need to be on top of that, like last year. We’ll see if we can benefit from it.
I hope we’ll be able to fight for points, have a good race without too much degradation and move up. For now, the speed we’ve shown means we don’t deserve to score points. We’ll need factors outside of speed.”
