12 December, 2020
Transcript from the top three press conference after qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Round 17 of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship, at Yas Marina Circuit.
Featuring top three: pole winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull), second-placed Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and third-placed Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).
Track interviews conducted by David Coulthard
Q: Max, congratulations, your first pole position [of 2020]. Put us in the cockpit.
Max Verstappen: I said before I went to qualifying that it’s going to be the final send of the season and we did that, so very happy with that. It was quite a tricky qualifying in the beginning you know, to get your laps in, especially at this track the last sector, there are so many corners where you can make a mistake but yeah everything came together in that final lap.
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Martin Brundle)
Q: Congratulations Max, a stunning drive, pole position, led every lap, what a perfect way to go into the close season. You really deserved that.
Max Verstappen: Yeah, it was really enjoyable. Yesterday already of course, but today we had a good start and from there on of course you look after the tyres but the car was having really good balance. It was really enjoyable out there today. We did basically everything alright. Once you also start up front you can control the pace a bit more and it makes your life a bit easier.
LH: Is that right? I don’t think that’s the case.
VB: Maybe it is, but we don’t know.
MV: Maybe they just don’t want to tell you!
Q: Valtteri, well done. Ultimately, a pretty lonely race for you this evening. Tell us about your run to the 11th podium of the season.
VB: For sure, tried everything I could and I noticed pretty early on in the first stint that Max and Red Bull had more pace. The first stint was quite understeer-y for me. It was a short stint but I felt that was a bit of a limitation but then we made a bit of an adjustment on the front flap for the second stint and that felt actually, balance-wise, not bad, just not quick enough. So, for sure, it was surprising. We thought that the race pace would be pretty much identical to the Red Bull but it wasn’t the case today. So yeah, obviously I’ve had much worse races this year, so it’s actually, in this kind of season, one of the good ones for me. At least it was nice and clean. Start was good and everything �