The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Hungarian GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

Ben & Sam review a scintillating Hungarian GP qualifying where Hamilton made a last lap charge to secure his first pole position since Jeddah 2021... SUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebraking   JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAm   JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: https://fantasy.formula1.com/en/leagues/join/C3CCEW8P704   TWEET us @LateBrakingF1   BUY our merch: https://late-braking-f1-podcast.creator-spring.com/   EMAIL us at [e-mail]   SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 Podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Very warm, welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam's age and me, Ben Hocking. Reviewing qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Sam, we're in new territory, a qualifying review. What are we doing? Honestly, Saturday podcast, I don't know what's going on,

but at least the world of Formula One blessed us with another sensational qualifying session. Yes, thank you to the racing lords. How good has qualified being this season, let alone just what we just watched, right? Absolutely phenomenal. They're onto something with this format. I know sprint races are prevalent,

but I think they might be on to something with this. The Q3, Q2, Q1 format really does seem to be rising through the rank. Sprint race is better be looking over their shoulder because it's coming. I think there's a future. for it, you know. I know it's a bit controversial. Give you a quick run-through of what happened in qualifying in terms of positions. So Logan Sargent 20th, Magnuson 19th,

George Russell was a surprise knockout in Q1 and 18th. We'll touch on that later on. Yuki Sonoda 17th and then Alex Albin was the last driver out in Q1 in 16th. Q2, Pierre Gasly and 15th, Stroll 14, Ricardo 13. We'll touch on that later on. Esteban Ock on 12th and then Carlos Sines. It was on the front row here last year, just 11th this year. And then finally, Q3, Nika Holkenberg, again appearing in Q3 and 10th.

Perez, 9th, Alonzo 8th, Botas, 7th in a good day for Alfa Romeo, Leclair 6, show Guanyu, starting in fifth place, two McLaren's on the second row,

Piastri 4th and Norris 3rd, Vestappan in second, and then Louis Hamilton, and we'll start with this, claiming his first poll position since Jedder. I think we're going back over 18 months since his last poll position.

What did you make of his, performance? I mean, there was a little part of me that remembered I used to be a Lewis Hamilton fan when he first came to the scene. And I think he, yeah, despite, no, despite him. When he crossed the line and it went to nought point, Nort, Nort three, the gap between, like, that, I don't care who it is. I don't care whether it be Sergio Perez of Stappen, it'd be Lecler in Science,

whether it be Sergeant and Albin. I don't care who it is. That gap in qualifying is what we live for. inject it into my racing veins because that is what Saturday is all about. The time limit there is so, so small. Like the things you could do in that time are, you know, impossible to really think that they are 0.0.03 across a whole lap.

Incredible performance from Lewis. And you've got to feel sorry, we're going to get on to this more detail later, but George Russell sitting down in 18th place has just watched his teammate capitulate the Red Bull dominance that we've seen. for the entirety of this season. It was phenomenal. It was made for great viewing. It shows that we've got some competition

and it is lit up the idea that this weekend, Hungary, once again delivering an already banger of a weekend. I mean, I loved it. Ben, what did you think? Yeah, qualifying is good fun, especially when we were two sectors into Lewis Hamilton's final lap as well because we noticed on the first run, especially for Max Verstappen,

the Red Bull was particularly good in that final sector because it looked like Norris and Vastappen on their first runs were very similarly paced. I was expecting it to be close. And then all of a sudden, Vestappen pulls out that third sector. So even with Hamilton having maybe two-tempts advantage or so through the first two sectors,

you thought, well, it's probably going to get very close to zero in the final sector. I remember just turning to Laura going, this is going to be close. going to be very close and 0.003 is about as close as you can possibly get. But yeah, you're right about George Russell. I think this is the type of track where clearly it's favouring Mercedes as a team. It's a track where overtaking is difficult and you've got one car starting in first place and the other car starting in 18th.

So I know Lewis Hamilton had some bad luck in Q3 of last year from MEP here. Yeah, DRS failed to work. Yes. So that at least helped George Russell get pole position or I guess you could say that Hamilton probably would have been in the fight for pole position last year. So it feels like it's taken a year to come around, but the karma has eventually come through for Lewis Hamilton as he claims poll here. Based on his pace, and obviously just happen has been something of a constant on pole position over the last couple of months, do you think therefore Hamilton can challenge? challenge for the race wing I don't know

I mean when you look at Hamilton's record here this is what his ninth pole at the Hungara ring I think he breaks Schumacher's a record at Japan I think it was

which don't be wrong that's an incredible feat to take nine pole positions at any racetrack I think it's not Lewis Hamilton that will be the factor tomorrow I think it's whether

the car during their long runs can hold back the Stappan and actually the McLaren's on that medium compound tie McLaren look absolutely phenomenal. They look so fast. And I don't know about you guys.

I'm a little bit nervous about turn one when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen potentially go wheel to wheel into a breaking zone for the league of the race for the first timing, arguably since the season that ended with Abu Dhabi. It feels like a long attention could happen there. But the Stappan is publicly said, starts are not good for the Red Bull car.

And Lewis Hamilton is publicly very good at getting off of the line. So you never know. Down to that turn one, we could see some real chaos. But I do think that, unfortunately, despite it being a hard track

to overtake on, which might benefit Lewis, I can't see the Mercedes going on to win this race. I genuinely believe that Landon Norris has more chance of winning this race than Lewis Hamilton does

come the end of Sunday. I think you're right about the starts. And, yeah, Vastappen, particularly at Silverstone, which is not a long run down to turn 1. at Silverstone. It's one of the shortest runs that we have on the calendar was obviously overtaken by Lando Norris. So it hasn't been his forte. And you're right, Hamilton has been seemingly great at starts this season, which is weird to think given, I know it's like 10 years ago now,

but it used to be his like defining weakness was his starts, if you remember back to early Mercedes days. So yeah, I think Hamilton's certainly got a chance to lead the first lap. I think that they have a chance. And I would include McLaren in that as well. I think this is the most vulnerable that Red Bull have been in a very long time. That's not to say that they won't win, but I do think that there is a chance for both McLaren's. I think Hamilton's got a chance as well to beat the Stappan here. It's going to be so strategic. Strategy is going to be the ultimate decider here because there are talks that might be a three-stop race and it wouldn't shock me if it does end up being that. I think we are looking at least two. Lord. Give me a third.

three-stop race between three different constructors to potentially win this. I will leave my body and have an outer-body experience if that's what we get tomorrow, because we've been craving it, we've needing it all season long. We need that level of strategic yet pace-based brillixt. And I think the undercut here is going to be, you know, so crucial. If you could get your car into a moment of clean air where you get a couple laps before the next car pits, that could be the decider. Break that DRS, get ahead, keep your tires clean.

you know, if Hamilton were to risk it, go for that undercut early and drop into a five-second pocket, that could be the race wing or the race loss if it all goes wrong. Safety car is obviously really crucial here as well. You never know who's going to end up binging it. I'm so glad that weirdly the Red Bull update doesn't seem to have all tied together. Messagis seem to work brilliantly here and McLaurang are back on that pace again. And the race pace longer run estimations are very, very exciting. So at the front of the grid, we've got some real, really, really exciting stuff happening. Vastap and two stop and Hamilton three, sorry, the other way around, Hamilton two stop versus

Vastappan three stop. It's not the first time we'd have seen that round here as well. And it was pretty good the first time around. So would not be against that whatsoever. Of course, today is our first qualifying review and completely not intentional this, but we've managed to pick a weekend where the format has at least temporarily changed. So, what are they calling it again? Alternative Tire allocation or something along those lines?

Whatever they call it, whatever. Okay. So hard tires had to be used mandatory in Q1, medium tires, mandatory in Q2, and then soft tires mandatory in Q3. This was something they were going to introduce earlier in the season. I think it was Imala from memory, which didn't end up happening. So this is why it's been postponed until here as a trial, and it could well be taken forward into next season's regulations. What do you make of it?

So it was a bit weird at first seeing cars doing qualifying laps on the hard tire. Was it just a bit, you know, like this is wrong. Not sure what's going on with it. But I believe that the tire compounds are actually much softer than what we had last year. I believe the medium compound is a set softer than the soft compound last year. So, you know, the hard tire is equal to what the soft tire was last year. So, you know, these tires have got real pacing out, I believe. They can really book it around.

the track. And I didn't hate the format. I understand the reason behind it, right? It's completely for sustainability. It's completely help for freight. The teams have got less to carry around. It saves rubber. We're saving energy. If you think about it, it's saving, I think they say it's saving every single car, two sets of tyres for the whole race weekend. So if you break down what set of tyres is, that's four tires. So eight tires per car, 16 tires per team. Your time's up by the 10 teams, that's 160 tires a race. And then you do what 160 times 24? I'm not doing the maths, but you can work it out. I think that was done on commentary to work out.

It was something around 3,000 to 3,500. I can't remember the exact number, but it was a lot of tyres. That is a lot of bloody tyres, folks. Three and a half thousand tires being saved. Now, I was always so tall when it comes to Formula One talking about sustainability, because it's a sport.

It is the most ridiculous hypercar race of all time to hit, you know, the very best, the very fast, it's the ultimate way of doing things. So to see that we're doing it in a cleaning and effective way is fantastic, but it's also very difficult.

And Lewis Hamilton spoke about it both before the race weekend. And when he was interviewed after taking pole position, they also brought it up. And he said that it removed, possibly removed entertainment for the fans on a Friday session,

which is a bit of a confusing comment because I think realistically, if you're a fan, you're coming to watch the Friday session, you kind of know what you're getting, you're watching, practice sessions and you were aware that teams are doing things. It's not competitive. You know, you're getting stuff done. You're learning. So I was a bit confused by that comment and I must

admit, quite liked it. Didn't mind having them all on the same tyre for each run. Ben, did you have any initial thoughts? People think, because of my opinion on sprint races and other stupid things that F1 have trialled over the last few years, people think that I hate change. I don't mind change as long as it's a good idea. I think this works. I like it. I think it provides more of a rounded challenge for the teams where, yes, they need to be quick on all three compounds of tires. And we saw there were teams that were better on the softs than they were on the mediums and better on the mediums and better on the mediums than they were on the hards. If we turned up with last year's tire compounds, McLaren might well have been on pole. They might have had a one too because they were very quick on the medium tire, which would have been last year softs.

So I think it's, I think it really worked. We saw Q1 and Q3 were very different in terms of approach from the teams. And actually, I think having both on the same session really worked. So Q1, we had teams doing multiple laps on the same compound of tyre. And in a lot of instances, they improved on their second lap on the same compound. So we had basically a full session of Q1 with cars almost constantly going around the track. There wasn't really any break in the action as we naturally have when it's just soft tires being used, which I liked. We often get that with wet sessions as well. Again, really enjoy it when they're fueled up a bit more. Q2, somewhere in the middle. And then Q3 was what we're used to seeing, which is two very

specific runs on the soft compound. And that last dash for pole, which was incredibly entertaining as well with Lewis Hamilton claiming that right of the death. So I really liked it. If it put the sustainability thing to one side just for the moment, purely from an entertainment factor, I thought it was a good idea. But when you add in the sustainability factors as well, yeah, I'm, Hamilton's comment was curious about the Friday running. I don't think we got a true test of it because of the rain that we had yesterday. So I would like to see how that would actually impact a Friday on a fully dry, weekend, sure. But actually here in terms of entertainment, I think it was great. Weirdly as well, what you brought up about the Q3 rungs being on those soft tires.

Because we had not seen a single car do a soft tire rung in anger, you know, full chat on a Saturday in a qualifying session up until those last 10 minutes, I get excited like a small child anyway when we go into qualifying. And when you hit Q3, I get a little bit, you know, butterflies, time you get stinking. I get very into it. So when you go, this is now unknown. We don't know what level of, you know, times are going to be hit, what speeds are going to hit, what seems to actually sit where. It gets really exciting.

Two runs, two chances. You're mucking up. That's all you get. And it delivered. I mean, qualifying has been sensational all year. We've had so many brilliant Saturdays. I would argue this might be the best qualifying Saturday we've had. Monaco was actually sensational and was the one to beat, I think.

but this one might just have beating it. And I think the new tyre trial that they put in there played a massive part of leaving a lot of it to be discovered going into Q3. I think honestly you could go back to pretty much any qualifying session we've had this year and go, yeah, that was great. Yep, that was great. If someone wants to actually go through and fully review it, I think that's what you'd likely find.

But overall, I'd like to see how it impacts the race as well tomorrow. I think it was good fun. And I'd like to see it maybe trialled once more, just to give it a bit more of a sample size. But based on this one outing in Hungary, I'm for this idea going forward. Yeah, agreed. Should we have a quick chat on Alfa Romeo because they turn up? They're at the wrong end of the grid, mate. We spoke about them in the midweek.

We said they should be further down. And they've decided we don't want to be further down. So now they're further up. So they were, if my on-the-spot maths is correct, the only team other than McLaren's have two cars in the top seven? I believe you are correct. Pretty good. I mean, Alfred Mayer have shown hinks of goodness.

And, you know, show, Guangzhou. Yeah, no, it's a great word. Showingu has been consistent. And I think he's been consistent in a bad car, right? He's not been letting anyone down. and Bottas has been asleep for most of the season and arguably hasn't even made the most of a bad car but all of a sudden,

the chucks in a new set of engines. I don't know if maybe just the extra horsepower they had coming out of corner and that extra grunt was setting them up there, but it felt like aerodynamically, the car just fit really well with how the track works. It feels like this is one of those kind of one in one instance where across a whole season, your car, the track, the conditions just completely marry up.

it's not a fluke because both cars were there. Botas was incredibly close to Joe Guangyu. Both of them could challenge a strong point. This really could be the difference for a team like Alpha Amaya between being 9th or 10th in the standings and possibly coming sixth or seventh if it goes really well for them, you know, and that's a lot of money. There's a lot of quiche in the old pocket.

So I think, you know, I'm not going to talk about it too long, but if I questioned when it got brought up that they had new engines in the car, I really went, you've brought new engines to Hungary. That's like bringing new engines to Monaco. What are you gaining? Something's worked for them. That extra oomph down the straits has helped, and the aerodynamics are clearly functioning brilliantly.

Both drivers turned up. Props to them. Perhaps even more encouragingly, because I think they did very well to get through to Q3, and they put together a good performance to get fifth and seventh, and you're right. I mean, Joe had the better in Q3, but Bottas was right on the pace

throughout the first couple of sessions as well, so they're right in there. They were at their best, Q1 with the hard tires, I think. Long race space. And that bodes very well for tomorrow because that is surely going to be a tire that is quite frequently used throughout the day. So we'll see how far they can get up. But that is an encouraging result for them.

Okay, we're going to take a quick break. On the outside, we'll discuss Daniel Ricardo in his return to qualifying in Formula One. Daniel Ricardo has been the talk of the town for the last week or so after his return to F1 via Alpha Tauri, got in the car and qualifying his first qualifying since last season, made it through Q1 and then put together a fairly solid lap in Q2 to get 13th place. By comparison, his teammate Yuki Sunoda did not make it out of Q1. So what did you make of his return? Oh, he's quite good, is he? I forgot about that. Forgot that he was good in the car. I mean, that is exactly. that. I mean, I knew that he was not going to be bad. I think Ricardo was never going to be bad,

but I must admit, I had come to the conclusion mentally that he was not on Yuki Sanoga's pace this race. And when I say not on his pace, I just meant a tent four two behind. And that is no disgrace. That's no embarrassment for your first race back. Totally fair. You're getting used to a car team, track again, whole experience. It's a lot to take on board for a lot of people. If you were going only be two tents behind your team out and your first go back, no one is going to look at you and go, that's not very good. Genuinely would be like, yeah, fine, that's okay. But he wasn't. He turned up on this Saturday, and it all worked so well for him. It was the Danny Rick that we know. he elevated that car, which was, I do think, a high Q1 car, you know, 16th and 17th. And at one point,

I thought he was going to maybe sneakie to Q3. He was only just outside of that Q3 bubble. It was only when the Ferrari's turned up that he kind of got knocked back a little bit. And Holgerberg being the Hulk, being some kind of qualifying master. You know, I genuinely was surprised. So this is so promising. He has delivered on his word currently. We're yet to see what he does on that Sunday. But he did say, I'll be back race one.

I don't need more time to settle in. I will be back. I'll be delivering. And so far, he is back. He is delivering. I'm impressed. And it is good to see him turning up. This is exactly what Red Bull wanted, exactly what Alfa Tari wanted.

Two drivers pushing each other, fighting for that seat, they've got their competition back, and that's what Alpha Tauri is all about. So I'm really chuffed. I'm glad he's back and I'm glad he's performing. Yeah, for me, he exceeded expectations. Not massively, but yeah, he quite confidently exceeded what I thought he might get done. I went into the session thinking if he finishes 16th, that's fine. I think that would have been a fairly good result. Even though that would have been a Q1 knockout, I think if he was at the top end of those drivers that got knocked out, based on where that car is, based on how long he's been out of a sea, 16th, even 70th, I think would have been okay.

And certainly early in the session, that's roughly where they were. I think there was a time where the two Alphotari drivers were indeed the two slowest cars in the session. But we saw them jump up to, was it, fourth and eighth or something? something along those lives. Fourth and seventh. With Yuki Sonoda being the lead of those two on that run, at which point you think that's probably what we were thinking in that they were out on fresh tires before everyone else. They both made a jump as the car was getting quick. Sorry, the car was okay, but the track was getting quicker. But Yuki Sanoda maintaining that 10th or two advantage. But then on the final run, really that's where the greats come out.

Daniel Ricardo pulled out the lap that he needed to to make Q2. And arguably, I think his lap in Q2 was just as impressive as his lap in Q1. I think that no one was really expecting him to make Q3 because that Alvatari just hasn't made appearances in Q3 this year. But he was in the mix. Like he outqualified, he outqualified Gassley, who I appreciate did have a lap taken away. I can't remember off the top of my head who was 14th in that session. But did it stroll? Stroth 14th?

I think, yeah, I think Ocon lost his lap, so he went down to the bottom, didn't he? That was, Gassley went down to the bottom. But, yeah, Ocon, I think was, Ockon was 12. But yeah, he was in contention, which is exactly what you needed from the first day. Now, it is going to be the Sundays that are going to be the all-important factor for him. Can he perform? Can he consistently get back in the car? Because it's all okay having that one-lap pace and rediscovering that, but can he do that

over the course of a 60-70 lap Grand Prix, it remains to be seen. But yeah, this was, if I had to rate it out of 10, I'd probably go 7 or even 8. I think that was very good. Yeah, I'd give it a solid date, if not 8.5, actually.

I think if he was P11, if he got to that spot just before the Q3, I'd be knocking on the doors of a strong line, I think. Probably not one we were expecting, but Daniel Ricardo did out-qualify someone by five positions, that man being George Russell.

George Russell had to sit on the sidelines as he watched his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, mop up pole position. George Russell's starting 17 positions lower than that, at the track where he got pole position last year. So clearly the Mercedes did have pace here that George Russell couldn't extract at the dying embers of Q1

with traffic playing a huge part in that. What did you make of the closing moments of Q1 and George Russell's predicament going into the race tomorrow? Firstly, the emotional damage that this must have done, to any driver, you know, to see, not only was your poll here this time last year, he's out in Q1 and his teammate has managed to completely emulate what he managed to do last time out,

just shows you the level of promise and capability that that car had. He should, and could have comfortably been in that top five, and I've argued he should be on the second row, Nexon Norris as a minimum, really. He should be sat there, I argue, fourth or third as a real minimum. The car clearly has that capability. So not good enough from George Russell. And why don't Masege send the cars out earlier in these early sessions? They were really playing with fire.

It came round to the end of Q1. All the cars are out there getting ready to set up laps. And I'm looking down the timing sheets. And it says next to Hamilton P, Russell, P. No chance if there's a reg flag, if there's a yellow flag, if you're knocked out on your lap by any mistakes by a brake being locked up, if there's traffic that occurs. And that is what happened to George Russell.

He was caught up in the very slow-moving set of cars, right at the end, back to start their lap. Couldn't get the tyres in the right place. They didn't get the lap in. It's not good enough, both from team and driver. Now, I'm not going to do the thing that some people do where, you know, we've laid into Perez, right? He's not been good enough in qualifying,

and we're going to speak about Perez again properly in a minute. But that's Perez's fault. This is also George Russell's fault. He had the same capabilities as everyone else. He's got the same conditions as everyone else. he's got the same car as Lewis Hamilton. He should be putting in the lap to get himself out of Q1. Now, I've got Russell's qualifying record for the season currently on my phone here,

and I want you to hear a bit of a trend here. So, Bahrain, 6th, Saudi Arabia, 4th, Australia, 2nd. Sounds great, right? Azerbaijan, 11th. Miami, 6th, Monaco, 8th, Spain, 12th, not good. Canada, fifth, Austria 11th, Great Britain, 6th, Hungary, 18th. He's had four occasions now where he's not made it into Q3, and he's had over half of his occasions where he's outside of the top six when he does get into Q3.

So his qualifying is starting to let him down. It's starting to impact him. I do think the difference is showing in the points tally between Hamilton and Russell. He's not allowing himself to be in the right. like placing the race now to challenge to be that lead driver. Now, compounding on that factor, Hungary is not a race track where you want to be starting that far down the grid. It's not a track like a Monza or a Silverstone where you can fly past cars using DRS or you can get them going around the outside of big wide open corners. This is a sit in the traffic, wait and wait and wait

and have to take your moment when it presents itself. Very similar to Monaco. This isn't looking good for George Russell this race. He needs a lucky red flag. He needs a lucky safety car if he stayed out long. I would be gutted if it happened on this racetrack. Yeah, I think overall, George Russell, I think you're probably right to say that a top four start was definitely on the cards. There was a considerable gap between a considerable is probably a harsh word on Piastri here, but there was a gap between third and fourth, which was Norris and Piastri, which I think Russell would have, at the least slotted into. But that's if buts and maybes.

Obviously he didn't make it there. His last run in Q1, it was never going to happen. He was three tenths down by the time he got to the first corner because of the lack of momentum he had going out of the last corner. So I think it was pretty much doomed from the start based on that traffic situation. So I do feel bad for Russell in this instance. I think overall, based on what you're saying,

saying, and you're right, he has had a number of outside of the top 10 starts this year, I think a lot of it is balancing out that naturally happens when you spend enough time in Formula One. So we mentioned a lot of times last year with George Russell picking up results and Lewis Hamilton struggling to mention it quite a lot of times that whilst it was impressive from George Russell, generally speaking, these sorts of situations were going his way and not Lewis Hamilton's way. And it just seems as if that's completely. reverse this year, which is natural because luck over time is going to balance out something close to 50-50 in that this sort of thing, it feels like, happened to Lewis Hamilton last year.

This year, it's happening to him instead at a time where he really could have used a good result and who knows what he's going to be able to do from 18th tomorrow. So I don't put the lap itself, I don't put on him really, just based on that lack of momentum out of the last corner. It was so, it was so tight qualifying as a whole in that three temps really was the difference between a Q3 appearance and a Q1 knockout. That's how close things were. I think this is on the team for not putting him out earlier. And Red Bull nailed the exact situation in Q2 because we saw Vestappen didn't get a lap in at first because he was invalidated for going wide at turn 5. They put him out on medium tires before anyone else made an appearance on track, if you remember. It was

about four minutes to go. Yeah, something like that. That's what Mercedes should have been doing in Q1. I appreciate the track was ramping up and you do want to be out there as late as you possibly can be. But based on how much pace they had, they would have been comfortable enough

going out a few minutes before everyone else and just securing that place in the next round. So, yeah, I put this more on the team than I do, Russell. But as a trend, I think you're right, that there is something that he needs to turn around here. What about Sergio Perez? he bucked a trend by his qualifying today. It's his first Q3 appearance since Miami, but was unable to take much advantage of it as soon as he got to Q3. He'll start this race in 9th. What did

you make? It's like complimenting a naughty child, isn't it? It's like saying, you know, five out of six times, you've been a very naughty boy on the sixth time when you behave. Should I compliment you or are you just doing what is expected of you? And even then, it kind of felt like the bare minimum. P9 is better. I'm not going to. ever debate that with anyone. It obviously is better than a P14 or a P17, obviously. But it's still P9 in the car that was 0.403 away from pole. You know, you are arguably skilled in the fastest car on the track.

You realistically should be in the top five, I think. And, you know, fifth place, I prove we're being, all right, you've got yourself in a good spot for the race. You can make it out from here. I still think ninth place with how the track is is going to be really tough for him to move forward. It's better. It's not good. You know, that's my analysis of

this situation. I think he maybe has taken the pressure off himself a little bit due to the fact that Russell underperformed. Sykes swung out, of course, in Q2 as well. Forstappen didn't get pole position. But I think when you dig down into this, he's still massively underperforming with the car. And of course, he bended it in practice one.

Of course, the red ball, got the red flag to come out, broke the red bull car himself. Wasn't really a great weekend for him. he's still got work to do. He's still going to make it up. I just hope he's made his life a bit easier by at least being in Q3 this time around. Yeah, I think overall, Q1 and Q2 were pretty good. In that Q1, there wasn't really much to separate between him and the Stappen. And even in Q2, I think it was about two temps, maybe two and a half temps. In which case, if you emulate that gap into Q3, Perez is probably starting fourth here, which is at five positions higher than what he's actually

starting. And ultimately, Vestappen being able to pull out an extra temp for two in Q3 and Perez not being able to do the same thing is the reason there is such a gap between these two drivers. Overall, there was only four tenths between Vostappan and Perez, which isn't the end of the world. And I think in other qualifying sessions prior to this one, a four temp's gap probably would have been good enough for somewhere in the top five. But clearly, at least on a Saturday, at the moment, other teams are becoming a factor. It was enough today for Hamilton to get Paul. It was enough for Norris to be in contention today and indeed last race as well. The Ferraris of Charlerc today, they're still in the mix too. So I guess we're entering a

stage here where actually four temps behind Vastappen isn't quick enough from Perez's perspective. And it does need to be something closer to two temps for him to actually still start within the top couple of rows. I think at least as a starting point, I appreciate you, you're right. It's almost patronising praise to say, well done to getting into Q3, but it is a starting point. And I think it's okay for this race, but certainly ninth isn't enough for a, for a Q3 effort. So he will need to drag out a bit more than that in the coming races and next week, the last race before the summer break. Yeah, agree. He needs that boost going to the summer break. He needs that confidence lifter.

Hawger said, we're not looking for anything until 2025. If it keeps up like this, I really do think that that's going to be a bit of a publicity line, and they will be looking elsewhere. Before we leave, who's your star of qualifying? Lewis Hamilton takes it. I mean, it's the first person to knock off a Max Verstapp and Pole positioning over six races. It was great to see him break a record. It's always cool where you see a bit of a history bit made.

And it was great. There was a little part of me that almost missed here and getting there, Lewis. over the radio, just a little bit. You're just so overwhelmed, wouldn't it? Can you even bring it out? No. And you know what? I know, and we've said about this before,

when you see one of the, the youngsters coming up or a driver that doesn't expect, you remember when Magnuson got pole at Brazil? You saw the reaction from the team from the driver. You got that from Lewis Hamilton today. His voice had gone. He was screaming over the radio. I love it when they're driving.

It's that excited by getting something like pole position. That makes the sport so enjoyable for me. So, yeah, here was my star. And that's fair enough. I'm going to go with the same name. The only other driver I want to mention that hasn't been mentioned too much today is Nikolkulkenberg because it doesn't feel like a star performance because it's what we've come to expect from him where Kevin Magneton is getting knocked out in Q1 and Holkenberg is making it into Q3. It's got to the point now where it's become such a normality that we don't bring it up. When it happened the first time, it was like, whoa, okay, it's very rare that this sort of thing. happens, it's becoming quite commonplace, so we don't mention it as much. So I think it is at least worth a mention there, but star of the day is Lewis Hamilton for me as well. Yeah, Joe Guangyu gets a mini shout out as well, I think. Yeah, yeah, both Alfa Romeo's doing a great job. I think that's going to do it for our first ever qualifying review on the late breaking F1 podcast. Of course, this is our

first time. So we are very interested to know your feedback for this. Do you like this as a format? We're sort of trialing this out at about 35 minutes or so. There's a bit of a shorter, snappier one for just a qualifying session. If you like it, let us know and we'll continue to do them. If you don't like it, again, please do let us know. Our feelings won't be hurt. We just want your honest feedback on this. Of course, not myself, but Sam and Harry will be back for the review of the actual race tomorrow.

Anything else you want to add in, Sam? No, no. Just a reminder that being Harry are getting drunk later to night, so we will be doing this show incredibly hungover together. Sorry, Ben. Sorry, Ben. You don't get to say or do anything

to prevent that one. So if you're going to join in for a good time and review what could be an absolute cork. I remember last year, Hungary was the most underrated race of the season. It was voted by the group of us, the race of 2022. So it could be a phenomenal one tomorrow.

Make sure you're joining. Come and give it a listen. We really appreciate all the support. Discourse in the link. If you're all enjoying for the race, we always chat through that as well. You know what our social is. I'll go and follow them.

And I think we'll catch you tomorrow in the meantime. I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. Meow. Nice. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.