The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

Ben and Sam are here to review one of the spiciest qualifying sessions of the year so far! The guys chat through Leclerc's excellent pole position, Perez outqualifying Verstappen, the Williams Q3 blunder and Lando Norris failing to make it out of Q1! FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League BUY our Merch EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage. and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying, a fairly standard session. I doubt will be here for longer than about five minutes. Well, Ben, I'm not sure what qualifying session you were watching, but that was, I think the Kings call it spicy. Paxing a lot, ding it? In under an hour, we've got a lot of conting out of that one.

So thank you, Baku. We're going to look forward to this. Indeed, we are. Naturally, coming up on today's episode, we'll get into Lando Norris qualifying just 17th. A little bit later on, we'll be talking about a double Q3 appearance. So it was all going so well for Williams. They have at least qualified 9th and 10th.

We'll talk about them. The Mercedes duo, 5th and 7th, Red Bull duo with Perez in front of a stab and 4th and 6th. But naturally, let's start out front because it was looking quite an interesting battle for Pole throughout Q1 and Q2. and then Charles LeClerler said, no. Yeah, let me just have a divine intervention here and make sure that Gogler sits on the very top of the table.

I mean, the guy, four in a row, he's done this, but he's never ever converting it into a race wing. So, you know, the points are scored on a Sunday, unless it's a spring race. And so he actually is to make sure that he can deliver. I mean, maybe it is prime time. The Ferrari does look the best it's looked in many a year now. if he's going to grab a victory here,

then good Lord, Ben, I know you did some calculations close on Twitter. The championship order might get very close together. Yeah, I think if you went to Charlotte Clare before this session, do you want to take this result? You on poll, Vastappan and 6th, Norris 17th.

It'd probably go, yeah, okay, I'll have some of that. But yeah, that Ferrari was great because I, we'll see how it goes tomorrow. That is going to be a difficult car to overtake because LeCleur was on fire throughout the, particularly the final sector, the first and final sectors, he was very good. And obviously, if you, it's very valuable to be quick in the middle sector, and not to say he was slow in the middle sector, it was very good there as well, but where are you

passing? Yeah, exactly. So, I don't know, like that was, that was pretty special again from Charles Lecler, because as mentioned, this did seem like going into qualifying. It was eight cars in the battle here for pole. And then even throughout Q1 and Q2, you could have seen it going a few different ways. And then he, you know, looks into his pocket. Oh, hang on a minute. Oh, here's three temps that I didn't know I had. I had those.

I'll just throw that in there as well. That is 0.321 between Leclair and Piastri. That's a good margin given how close that session was. And we were picking up, remember how the last. cut the qualifying sessions when Norris has been so high up the table, where where's he pulled those laps from? This lap is very much the same, I feel, the same level of brilliance. That Ferrari, I don't think is the outright fastest car in the season. But round here, with the clerk driving it, he just had a special way around this racetrack where it comes

to a Saturday qualifying performance to pull out three-tenths over the likes of Piastri, your teammate, Verstappen, Russell, you know, Perez, who he's found his way into the mix as well. It is special. If the kid gets a race. swinging car on the regular, then we are about to unlock, I think, something truly remarkable. Yeah. And I think his teammate signs, who's not in a bad place at all in third, I think he'll be a bit disappointed that this isn't a Ferrari front row lockout, because I think signs throughout this session was a little bit scrappy. Like, I don't think he's ever, and to be fair, it might not just be just be this weekend. I don't think he's ever been at one with the Baku circuit.

He said that, right, in his post-qualify interview, he said, you know, I'm not at my best self here around Baku. So actually, for him to only be one spot behind his teammate, and they're in that prime position where they outnumber the McLaren driver alongside them. The Red Bull and the Mercedes doesn't seem to, again, have the outright pace to maybe match and we'll see how it goes through race pace. Ben, I know that you do your little bit of analysis now to see how the longer runs do, so maybe you could dig into that.

But it feels like having two of your cars up the front, as we saw previously with Mercedes versus Red Bull in the 18, 19, 20 years, it just gives you that little bit of eggs should be flexible with your strategy to bait them to go one way. go the other. It allows you versatility, which is what you want with strategy. Yeah, 100%. What about Piastri and set? I mean, was there any chance that Piastri could have got pole here or actually from Roastart? It's not too bad. I think it would have taken a wonder lap. Really, I really, really, really do. I think he could have been closer. He even comes out over the radio himself, doesn't he said, I locked up. Wasn't my best lap. One of the scrappiest laps I've ever done

is what he comes out and said. So to be second place in one of the scrappiest laps he's ever put together tells me that one, if it is good together, he feels very confident around this race track. He feels very comfy in that car, which is a great sign around a track like Baku. But I do think that Lecler just pulled it out of the drags today. I think he managed to find those three tents when no one was really expecting it. I think that is the difference between car being good, driver being good, and car being good, and driver being on just like another plane, a whole other level of excellence. I think Piastri second place is a very commendable finishing spot for qualifying.

I don't think there's too much more he could have done there. Yeah, and this was, as we'll get on to in a bit, with Lando Norris and maybe a few others as well, this felt like a very easy qualifying session for it to go completely wrong. The gaps were, particularly in Q1 and even through Q2, the gaps were small. There's always a chance for red flags. There's always a chance for yellow flags. So I think a front row start, Piaastri should be fairly happy with that. I know he did make that pretty sizable error into.

14, 14 of 15 of 15. The old kiss, wasn't it? Yeah, and I, look, there's not three, three tenths in that. There was maybe a tenth, but it wouldn't have been three-tems. So, yeah, I think he can be pretty happy with where he's qualified. And at least versus his teammate, I think he can be very happy, which leads us nicely on to Lando Norris. Now, going into this race, or going into this qualifying session, excuse me,

they, McLaren had had a 100% Q3 success rate so far, this season. Lando Norris, in a bit of trouble towards the end of Q1, needs to put together a lap. And in fairness, so does Piastri as well. Piastri puts in that lap. Lando Norris was still trying to fully diagnose exactly what happened, but it's certainly related to the slower moving Esteban Ocon and he isn't able to hook a lap together. And he qualifies just 17 for knock down in Q1. What did you make of it? Well, Lando Stangs have gone absolutely mad on Twitter, you know. It's not his Fault, he hasn't done anything wrong, yellow flag calls him to be down and out and it's just bad luck. What a load of old twaddle.

Absolutely hate these excuses. That car is more than good enough to get through on one lap, and it's on him for not being good enough on that first run that he put together, the men he got through. The fact that Mercedes went out on mediums at the start of that session, realized it wasn't the right tire, came back out on softs. Both cars get through without any kind of issue, despite Hamilton with who you'll get onto, it's seemingly struggling for qualifying pace right now. and yet Oscar Piascri manages to fly through on one set of tyres and Landon Norris is they're struggling in the arguably the fastest car right now in the championship and it's not even you know is 17th right now

yes yes so it's not even top of the pile of elimination and people are trying to blame this yellow flag which actually looks like it might have been a white flag which is kind of just means kind of clear it's a bit scrappy he made the error coming out of the final corner which is the kind of the effective actual final corner not the sweeping chican that they go through, which yeah, that sets up your run all the way down to the start finger straight. It probably is the most crucial corner on the racetrack. He panics. He gets it wrong. I think this is on him. Yeah, I think there are still details probably to come out on this because of that yellow panel, but obviously the white flag that you mentioned. I think there's

plenty of blame to go around, to be honest. I think there's some blame on Lando Norris not doing a good enough job earlier on in the session. I know that there was a lot of tracking improvement, but equally it didn't impact the likes of Sergio Perez as an example. Like Perez put together a good enough first run that he wasn't in that danger zone if, you know, a second lap was required and he was. So there's definitely blame on Norris. I think there's blame on the team as well in terms of where they put him out because as soon as it was the Yuki Sonoda lap for me, which really caught my eye of, okay, there's going to be a lot of improvement here. And I think with,

McLaren's pace, like obviously they should be sailing through Q1, no issue. I don't know why they're leaving it so late for, to be fair, not just Norris and Piastri as well. Piaastri could very easily been caught up in the same incident and they could have had two cars knocked out in Q1. So they avoided complete disaster. But I don't know why they didn't just go out a little bit earlier. Yes, you're not going to get 100% of the best track conditions, but you're in a McLaren, you don't need it. Like you need 90% of the track conditions and you've got the drive. that will get you through. So I don't know why they left it too so late. There is an element of bad luck because I think ordinarily when you see like a yellow flag or an incident at a circuit

like Baku, which is fairly frequent, you'll see multiple cars influenced. It is a little bit unlucky that only one car seems to have been affected by this. But you are right. If you get it right earlier on in the session, you don't get to this point in the first place. So I, again, I think there will be more details that come out, but I think there are multiple guilty parties on this one. Yeah, agreed. Something that fascinating me was once we got into Q2, both Ferraris went out about five minutes to go. And it became very clear over commentary that they went. We don't want to be caught up in any last minute yellow flags that come out. And immediately have learned from what happened with Norris, whether it actually was a yellow flag or not. They were like, no, thank you.

We don't have the drama. We've got the car. we've got the drivers. We'll just get on through nice and early and get out of the way. And that's the right way of play it. We said this before with the likes of Hamilton as well, who's gone out in earlier sessions, where he's been caught out by a yellow flag. You don't need to be there when the clock strikes zero. You are good enough.

The car is good enough. Get it done early and get your camp. Put your feet up. Relax. Look at what Lecler was doing in Q1. Parked up. The Red Bulls parked up. That should be McLaren at this point.

Yeah. And it's like, oh, an incident has affected a lap at Baku. That's a shock. Like that's never happened before. of all the circuits, this might be the one. I know there are a few runoff areas, but there aren't a lot. It's just this sort of incident is so frequent.

And again, I do think it is bad luck that only one driver was impacted by it. But you leave it that late in the session, you run the risk of something like that happening. So it will be difficult to, look, there will be, he'll make progress. He should make progress. But how much progress?

That's another question. it's difficult to follow. It is difficult to follow at Baku. We heard that in the post-qualifying interviews. So how far he can get up the order, that remains to be seen. I am really curious to see what strategy they employ tomorrow. I do wonder if they're going to go for a stick on the hard, to try and run long and hope that a safety car,

which is fairly common around here, allows them to basically play themselves into the strategy game. It wouldn't be the worst option. We've seen it before. If you think back to the Mexican Grand Prix last year, Lando Norris had to make a lot of progress. through the field. I can't exactly remember

why he was there on that occasion, but he, he, I think he made over, over 10 moves up on track that day. But I don't think

he's had to do it since then. So it's a bit of a, just based on how well McLaren have qualified this year, this is almost a first for the 2024 season of a challenge for Lando Norris to get

through some of these back markers. We're going to be in for a rather spicy Grand Prix if Norris is fully up for it tomorrow. I reckon so. Let's have a quick word on Perez and Vastappen. So we saw throughout qualifying that Perez did seem to have a little bit of an advantage over Max Vastappan. That did carry through into Q3.

So Sergio Perez is going to start in fourth place. He was about four and a half temps behind Charles LeClaer. And then another two temps back from that was Vastappen. He'll qualify sixth, which might be an improvement on last week or last race, but is still nowhere near what he or the team would have been expecting. what did you make of their session? We rock up to Baku and it's like who has awakened the ancient one

in Sergio Perez, where suddenly he's able to bloody perform here and only here. He's so good here. I don't understand what is it about this? Does he just love right angles? Is that his favourite racing squares, not circles? I don't know. But he seemingly is very comfortable

around this Baku race track. The most successful man in the history of the racetrack since we've been coming here, the guy knows how to deliver. out shone Max Verstappen, which is not something you get to say often by a race driver. I think what was actually more impressive for me, which I think we'll go unnoticed a little bit,

was not the gap between him and Max Verstappen in two tenths, which I think is a fairly acceptable gap between teammates, two-tamps is going to have all right. It was actually the gap between himself and the front row of the grid. He was only about a tenth thing a bit away from being right where Oscar Piastri was and could have been, I reckon half a corner done better, and Sergio Perez starts on the front row along Charles LeClau. This is what, and we're saying,

take it so many times and we know we're not going to get it, but this is what we should be seeing from Sergio Perez, constantly in around that top three fight, constantly a threat, and where Verstappen nine times out of ten will be the guy on the front row of the grid, if the car is performing, Perez needs to be right there supporting, but fair play to him today,

he turned up and he has shown out. What a performance from Sergio. Yeah, he was exceptional. Great effort from him and I know I've already mentioned almost the negative of McLaren getting caught at the end of Q1, and I mentioned, and Perez in that point, he put together such a good lap early on in Q1 that he wasn't in that

spot. And that's, we've seen, let's face it, Perez has been caught out in qualifying in situations like this in the past. And today he was just too good to get sucked into that, which is great to see from him. And to stick two attempts on your teammate. And it wasn't an anomaly. Like he was quicker than Vestappen pretty much all the way throughout the session. So a great job from him. Vastappen, I was disappointed. I think he didn't hook together a good lap in Q3. Certainly the first run that he did, he has that really poor error out of, again,

what could be the most important corner in all of the calendar. And that costs him maybe three attempts. And then the second time around, he doesn't produce anything better. He has two yellow sectors to start off that lap. So I think Vestappen will be disappointed that he's not, at least where Perez is. but again, I think if he hooks together a lap, he could be second here. So there's a little part of this season that feels like for Stappen put in the hard graft early enough in this season when it mattered,

that he's kind of getting a little bit of luck with these Norris issues, right? We had it in Spa, right, going into the summer break where even though he hadn't won a Grand Prix, barely been on the podium, he was still extending his championship lead. And yet there's a chance here again that actually, if he finishes where he starts and Norris finishes behind him, even if Lecler wings, he still extends his championship lead, leaving this racetrack. And at the end of the day, that's all he needs to do. He just needs to keep beating the guy in second place in the championship. So, yeah, disappointed turnout for Max.

But again, mega fitting for the misfortune of others. Yeah, absolutely. And he raised pretty well at Monza, but the last two qualifying sessions now, I've been pretty poor from Vastafin, at least by his standards. Obviously, we're still talking about a pretty quick time of here. I just wonder if the car's going away from where he's comfortable. What if they're having to be a little bit more experimental with upgrades or setup? And that's not what Max is happy with in terms of the car driving.

And maybe this one off is where Perez is suddenly found themselves comfortable again. I don't know. I'm a little worried for Red Bull tomorrow. I think they're going to get gobbled up. I think their race pace, they'll be disappointed. They weren't quicker here, by the way, because qualifying Sims looked fairly similar. And I thought they'd be in the fight and they weren't. In terms of race sims as well, it looked fairly similar.

but that sector three, they are not quick through there, at least compared to the other teams around them. I just, I can't see him making overtakes. We'll see, but. My biggest worry for them is the very hungry Lewis Hamilton behind them, whose pace on a Saturday is terrible, but I think that car is set up for pure straight-line speed advantage. So I think in the race trim,

I think he might absolutely sail past those Red Bulls. Okay, let's take a break on this episode. We'll talk about the Mercedes drivers right after this, as well as Williams, has plenty more. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further? To Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination.

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to get started. So Mercedes, they looked again, pretty competitive going throughout practice, but come Q3, not quite there. George Russell half a second or so behind in fifth place, Lewis Hamilton and another two positions back in seventh.

A bit disappointed, they weren't a bit closer? Disappointing in the car for Russell, disappointing in the driver for Hamilton. But I didn't mention before the break that I do think that Hamilton has maybe got a little bit of an ace up his sleeve, that he is very much going for race trim and is aware that overtakes in that middle sector are nigh on impossible. And I think that, you know, pure defensive in a straight line of pure attacking, offensive

in a straight line for Lewis Hamilton is the aim of the game tomorrow. I do wonder if Mercedes are aware that beating Ferrari and Piastri is very unlikely. Over a full race period, I don't think they've got the car for it. I don't think they're going to be capacity enough to get all the way to the front. So beating Red Bull, and I guess now Norris isn't in the conversation, at least immediately. finishing fourth and fifth is the ideal situation for Masegas in this Grand Prix. Russell's already a heck of them. Good job for him.

He's got a fight with Piastro of the start, sorry. And I think Russell is more than capable of doing that. I think Hamilton is the dark horse here. I think he's the one you've got to look out for. I really do think the way that he will pick up a purple final sector, but then be about eight tenths down in the middle sector, if he could just keep within the RS zones through that middle sector, I think he's going to be a monster through that first and third sector.

it's going to be a very interesting and tactical race from Lewis Hamilton's point of view. I'm intrigued as well. And I think for his sake, he's got to hope he does have an ace up his sleeve, whether it is set up related or not, because if he doesn't, oh, he'd be slow. Oh, boy. Because he wasn't, he wasn't close to Russell today. Like six tenths regularly. Yeah. And you look at like other sets of teammates. There weren't many that there was such a pace difference. I appreciate there are a couple where it's difficult to compare, like say, Piastrian Norris, but you know, you look at,

even when we've got rookies like Behrman and Holkenberg and Collopinto and Albin, like very close in both instances, Hamilton was nowhere compared to, to be honest, and this is going to sound weird. Seventh is almost a good result based on where it could have been.

That would have been eight if Norris was through. It would have been eight if Norris got through. There was, I don't know, going through Q2, I was thinking this might on the stream I called out

Hamilton's out in Q2 that's how so he was I wouldn't have been shocked if that happened because yeah it would have only Alonzo was ahead of him in that session as well

obviously in Q3 at switch back over you've got the two Williams there as well all it takes is one of the Haas guys I think probably Holcomberg to deliver one of his

normal laps and he's probably gone so I think he was a bit lucky to get through to Q3 to be honest but yeah, if he's got a better race set up, then maybe he can make progress. We'll see.

He's definitely one to look out for. I just, I hope that that is what he's aimed for. He's not going to end up being the stuck in the Nomadsland kind of race again, where he just sits in seventh place for 51 laps. Williams, they have given us both ends of the spectrum to talk about here. Very positive and very, very, let's call it not positive. Let's focus on the good things, first of all, because they got both cars through into Q3.

We saw Colopinto. He was knocked out in Q1 at Monza. Here, he crashed in FP1, let's bear in mind as well, Baku. He's made it through to Q3 here. Alex Albin will talk about what happened to him in Q3 in a bit, but he's made it through to Q3 as well. Seemingly pretty competitive. You would think there are points on the board tomorrow, right?

Oh, unless they both get whacked with penalties. Actually, even if they do get whacked with penalties, let's say they both get a five-place penalty through unsafe releases in various guises because we saw Colapinto launching front of a couple of cars in the pit laying and we'll get onto what happened

with Alex Albon as well. There is every chance that both those guys get moved back to the proper midfield pack. But on pure pace alone with how that car looks like it's set up which again is very similar to what we're saying about Lewis Hamilton,

fast in the first, fast in the third. There is every chance that they can be monsters when it comes to overtaking and defending, especially if they work together. They're right next to each other on track. If they could be a team,

If they can help each other defend, help each other with almost DRS sharing, where you kind of jump over each other and kind of piggy back off of each other as you go through, they have a real chance of securing 9th and 10th. If not beating a couple of cars that might be around of them that could be falling further back. If Red Bull was struggling, it sounds ridiculous. There could be a victim waiting for them as well there. I think points are properly on the cars. And if at least one of them doesn't score, this has become a massive disappointment for them. Yeah, great work from Colopinto, particularly after he crashed. in FP1 as well to rebuild the weekend. And again, him getting through to Q3 was no fluke

because he was getting through quite comfortably. The only thing I would say about Colopinto that I think he maybe should have revised, he was absolutely on the limit in Q1. And he didn't quite need to be. Like, that car was good enough easily to make it to Q2. And I think he, you know, he was a little bit fortunate not to not to get some damage on a couple of, attempts where he was incredibly close to the wall. But he did a great job. I'm interested to see how he does against Alburn in Singapore qualifying, just to give us more of a rounded picture.

But he did very well here. Albon was brilliant. I think in one definite way, he's going to be disappointed about what happened in Q3 that he didn't get an attempt. In another weird, lesser sort of way, he might be quite glad that he didn't give Colopinto the chance to out-qualify him, like, properly on base, because I don't know. Might have been close.

I don't know. Then again, we've seen from Albin, he might well have delivered a great lap. It wouldn't be the first time. Speaking of, what on earth happened there? I've just got five words. Jonathan eats fuming. There's a massive yellow fang. Like, what are you doing?

I don't know. I've ever seen them leave the dry ice fang in the intake in my life, ever. And it's such an experienced crew there down at Williams. They know what they're doing. What are the chances that on a day of all days where you look like you could possibly move on and qualify closer to the likes of Hamilton in seventh place? I thought the pace was there or thereabouts.

This kind of thing happens. You've got poor Alex Albaughan reaching above his head to try and throw off this dry ice fan and lob it off the side of the car. It's been a real weekend for that, actually. Did you see Fernando Alonso trying to get the bag off his halo? That is as well. being directed by his engine here.

Oh, God, it's one of those weekends. But this is a real shambles from Williams and a real shame because it's like they're hampering themselves at this point. They're fully prepared. Oh, we're climbing up the mountain. Oh, the weather's much nicer. So we've got good conditions. We're really, really climbing here.

Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. I forgot to take off my flippers and put my trainers on for the final stink. So now I'm going to fall down the hill. What are you doing? Harry, where are you? What are you doing? He's definitely saying that right now.

He's definitely been, him and his father, I imagine, are doing the same thing at the TV. My word. Like, it's neon. It's so bright. Like, you can't miss it. The real telling thing, because mistakes happen. Sure. Ted Kravitz, at least for Sky Sports commentary, he's in the pit lane.

He has seen so many qualifying sessions, races, pit stops, releases, like, He has been there for so many over the years, and he went in on Williams for this. And if that man has seen pretty much everything you can see in a pit lane, and if he's going, like, because he was at 100% like blaming Williams for this. How on earth could they make this error? It probably indicates that this is a really bad one from them. And eighth place was getable. Eighth place for sure.

And like you say, I don't think seventh place for Hamilton is completely out of bounds either, but they've given up a position or two, I think, from this. They're still in a very good spot tomorrow. I hope, I know that it's being investigated. I would hope that Albin's not going to move down from 10th place based on whatever they decide. But yeah, they've got a chance at real points. For a team that doesn't have a lot of them, Alpine better be worried because that's

going to get close very quickly. I think that's a very frustrating thing, isn't it? Is that actually, if it all gone to plan, let's say they're going to. end up in PA. Well, actually, they could end up down in P15 if they get penalized for unsafe for release. That's a net loss of seven places by not being good enough to start with and then paying the price for being bad in your organisation. That's a real kick for a team like Williams. You know, you might get points in four out of 24 races across the entire season. Yeah. But I mean, good news is they look very quick, very quick indeed, which is two races in

a row now that they've had some solid pace. Quick shout, I mean, Fernando Alonzo. How? Where's that come from? Was he like pushing the car? Adrian Nui has already helped with morale, also he's just in Rainbow Road, having a lovely time all by himself. He was in Q2.

He was a second faster than strong. What have you ever heard of a teammate? One second. One. That is a lifetime in Formula One. Anyway, yeah, I have to give him his props, as usual. I think he did a very good job. rookie Oliver Berman first race out in Ahas

didn't have the best start to a Saturday because he crashed in FP3 doesn't matter does it? Comes out in qualifying, dunks a couple of attempts on Holcomberg going to start 11th where his teammate is going to start 14th. What did you make of his session?

Yeah, a bit of a rookie writer passage so far this weekend, both of them in the wall. Of course, Antingelli, a couple weeks ago in the wall in Monser as well. So the rookies are starting to push their grounds here but, and we did come out and say in the race preview, he needs to build into the weekend,

and he needs to be safe and just, you know, get the, get the laps under his belt. But you know what? He's done both. He smashed it into the wall, and then he's come out fighting, and you hear the frustration in his voice over the radio,

where he makes a little mistake and probably costs himself a Q3, which I think that's very much on the car. His pace was there. And he goes, oh, mate, I've locked up. You know, what an idiot. I don't realize how well-spoken he actually was over the radio. We had some great radios,

you know, tag shouting about the math. of yellow fang. George Russell talking about a plateau, which, you know, don't often hear, underrated. Underrated work is plateau. Well,

don't George Russell. And the Bermann, bless him. I absolutely love that he's already going. There's a tent there I could have found. I can have moved up there. There's better, you know,

he's already seeing the next level. The ambition is already there in him. And he's delivering a brilliant result. I don't think Kevin Magnuson would have been put in that car in 11th place that far in front of Holkenberg. I really, I think there being 14th to 15th

if Magnuson was in that car. I think Holcombberg did fine. Berman smash get. If Pangletes are applied, he could be starting P-9. Yeah, I thought he did. He did a very good job. He put together a couple of good laps.

And again, I think he'll be disappointed that he didn't get through to Q3. And he was disappointed, as we heard on the team radio. And I said it in the preview that what are our expectations for Berman? And I said,

if Holkenberg is able to compete for points, he's going to be disappointed if he's not. Like, he's not going to look at Nika Holkenberg and say, I can't right now in my career match that. I have to settle for less. That's not his attitude. I was not surprised at all that when he qualified 11th, he wasn't happy about it. He's just finished three positions higher than a teammate that we consistently praise for his qualifying attempts in his first race in this car, in his first qualifying

session in this car, and he's gutted about it. Yeah, that that checks out because he does have incredibly high expectations for himself. Based on today, I can understand why. very interesting to see what happens there. And I know I've said it once before on the podcast, but we'll see how tomorrow goes, but Kevin, do you mind us? Yeah, step aside. Step aside.

Pay off the rest of that contract to get him in the car. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if they want to keep him for the rest of this year. We'll see on that one. Shall we have a quick chat about R.B., because they didn't have a great session. Yuki Sonoda managed to get it up to 12th. Daniel Ricardo not making it out of Q1. He's 16th. That car's just not quite there, is it? I don't think they know what they're doing with it.

They keep developing it in different kind of directions. They don't seem to understand what the upgrades are affecting properly. One of them seems to excel and maybe works in their setups work with the upgrades. The other one seems to fall back. We've kind of had the period at the start of the season where Sonola was really beating Ricardo and then some upgrades went on the car, some changes happened. And then Ricardo came. into its form and started to really be quite decent and have some great results. And it almost feels like it's now flip-flop back the other way. And Sanooga's having a couple of good races in a row where he's really starting to improve again.

Because this was a good lap from Sondoda. And I was quite pleased for what he was able to do in that R-B. And I think Ricardo, pretty a little bit disappointing. But at the same time, I don't know how harsh I could be on Ricardo, because this car is so untameable. It's so uncertain. You never know what you're getting with it. So I think it's more Sengoda's blowing out the water.

And Ricardo's just not got to. grips with it again, but that RB is a state. And as a team, they need to get some consistency under their belt. They have the ability to maybe beat a few teams around them. I just think they shoot themselves in the foot. Yeah, that Hasse battle is becoming more and more precarious by the weekend, because I don't think there was more in it than 12th. I think Sonoda does a pretty good job to get it there. And Daniel Ricardo, yes, he gets knocked down in Q1 and Sonoda makes it through to Q2. There were two temps between Sonoda and Ricardo and Q1. Like, That's half the gap between Lecler and signs in Q3.

Like, it's not a massive gap that Sonoda had back to his teammates. So even though Ricardo will be disappointed, he didn't feature in Q2, it's not massively egregious. So I think it's just roughly where the car is. I think Sonoda's 12th. Ricardo's 16th. Where's the actual pace of the car? Probably 14th, somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, I don't think they'll be getting anything out of this weekend unless they get very lucky with some kind of safety car moment or a lot of failures. is that from? I quick shout out as well. I think Gassley did a good job. Gatsley smashed it. Yeah.

And particularly in Q1. That was a great laugh in Q1. But we saw with, actually with Gadsley, Holklenberg and Stroll, 13, 14, 15th, they all went slightly slower in Q2 than they did in Q1.

So I don't think it would have really mattered, to be honest. I think 13th was probably the peak for him. But yeah, good job from him. Yeah, really, really good job. Are you impressing Q1? that alpine we know is an absolute box to drive. So he's doing what he can with it.

It's trying, bless him. He's fair and better than Ocon this weekend. He has a power unit issue that keeps him out of P1, has another issue that keeps him out of P3. And then he comes along to qualifying. He grazes the wall, which in fairness, he was not the only person to do,

but he's the one that picked up a puncture from it because that alpine is as fragile as anything. I mean, it literally doesn't weigh anything at this point, of course. And yeah, he's going to, I was going to say he's going to start 20th, but it'll start 19th for which I go on use penalty. So I'm sure he can make progress from the driver of the session. Have you got? Lots to shout out. A very positive, very spicy session.

The rookies did a fantastic job. Ben and Colopinto really, really impressed. Even though Album had the awful intake, I still think he drove brilliantly. Gassi was another one. I wanted to shout out as well. So, I know, that was really strong and long so fantastic. But I've got to give it to the lad in P. delivering four in a row,

Charlotte Clirth, just a cut above the rest. He is, I hate to say it, Mr. Saturday? I mean, he is, but still. We're never using it.

The problem is, I feel like I've given my driver at the session for a while now for the guy on poll, which of course makes a lot of sense, but it keeps being the case where the guy on poll is like putting a couple of attempts

on everyone else around. It's a big gap. It's not like he's done it by half a tenth here. No, exactly. I will add some variety. Why not? I'll say Alonzo because I don't think that car was better than Williams or Hasse. So the fact that he's got to eighth, I think is a pretty good job. Yeah, I can't see it staying in eighth, but well done to him. Yeah, if he stays in eighth,

he's having himself a good day. But of course, Adrian Nui morale was worth like three tenths. So that's probably why. I love that Alonkso's going. How much of my salary can I give up to bring him in? I love it. That is Alonzo mentality, isn't it? Yeah. I will be poor to make sure I win a title. I don't care. Literally anything.

Right, that'll do it for today's episodes. Good news is Sam. We're back tomorrow. We're doing it all again tomorrow. And it's even bigger. Yeah, I'll be streaming throughout the race. And then we will be back for the race review. And if you think, oh, that's got enough back here.

I want more chik chat. Then we've got Patreon. So get down in the link below. Support the show. It means the world to us that so many of you already. do and you'll get power rankings on Monday. Everything on there is ad-free. You get loads of extra episodes. You get a history episode. Beaver breaking, which we're recording next weekend, along with all the Singapore stuff as well. Honestly, check it out. I promise you,

it really is good value for money. Thanks for listening. Please join us again tomorrow. And in the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. You've seen Kelona change over the years, and it's growing faster than ever. The city is working to make sure enough homes are being built for people of all incomes and stages of life. But growth isn't just about more buildings. It's about building community. Every new project helps us fund the things that matter most, safe and dependable infrastructure, transportation options to keep us moving, and beautiful parks where we can relax, play, and connect.

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