The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Brazilian GP Sprint Qualifying Review

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Ben and Sam review the Interlagos sprint qualifying where a dominant McLaren was denied pole by their teammate at the very last moment! The boys chat through Piastri's stunning sprint pole, the Ferraris and Verstappen who will start close behind, Bearman's impressive substitute appearance, and a double SQ1 elimination for Aston Martin... 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

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. I want a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing sprint qualifying at Interlagos Brazilian Grand Prix, where Oscar Piastri tomorrow in the sprint is going to lead a McLaren 1-2. Lando Norris joining him on the front row. Bit of interlagos, mate.

Oh, I love a little bit of interlagos, I do. Yeah, delivers once again. Once again, we get the crazy weather conditions. We get the track temperature dropping throughout the session. We don't know what tyres are going to be the most applicable. Drivers out early in the session, but Landon Norris, not on pole after what, like a dominant display early on, Piastri,

seizing the day right at the death. Yes, and we will get on to that momentarily. Also coming up in this session, double knockout in Q1 for Aston Martin, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez both being knocked out in Q2, a little bit on the battles. The interteam battles within Hasse and within RB as well, Ferrari, third and fifth on the grid. But before we get to all of that, as you mentioned,

Oscar Piastri getting pole position on his very last lap in SQ3, not by a lot. I think it was just over a quarter of a tenth that separated the two drivers in the end. But as you rightfully mention, Lando Norris, quickest in SQ1, quickest than SQ2, looked like he had this one in the bag, Piastri delivers on his final lap,

Lando Norris does not, he abandons it before he even gets to the end because he was not going quicker. Your thoughts? Ah, it's baffling, confusing. I was blown away by just how fast Lando Norris was on that medium set of ties

in both SQ1 and SQ2. I think at one point, he was over eight tenths faster than the rest of the field. Can I quote you on this? You can. Sam, text message, 1853. Is Lando on crack?

Genuine question. I was so baffled by what was going on during that session. I was thinking, bloody hell, how was he doing this? Eight tense around what is effectively a 68 second lap time is mega, absolutely mega. My issue here, of course, is he's done it in SQ1, is done it in SQ2, and it actually comes down to delivering. the one session where he could have been ninth both of those. It wouldn't have mattered because if you get pole, you get pole.

And he hasn't again grasped this championship battle in the moment where he needs to where the stopings nowhere near him, where he's able to get up the front row and leave from the start. He's so lucky that the person that is starting in front of him is the person that's already accepted team orders and will happily move out the way because it's his teammate. Nick could have been anyone else thinking it would be a nightmare. I think he's been let off the hook royally because won a lap from Oscar Pia Astrid. the man who doesn't succumb to pressure, he delivered after what has been a really poor run of former Ben.

You called him out, right? He was your run to pressure, I think, for the weekend. Yeah, absolutely. And it has been a bit of a struggle for him in qualifying, really throughout the year. He's certainly been a better Sunday driver than he has been a Saturday driver. I fully appreciate the irony that we're talking on a Friday here, but you know what I mean.

But particularly in the last couple of races, we saw in Austin that he was knocked out in the last sprint qualifying that we had SQ1. And then he was knocked out in, actual Q1 in Mexico. So he's had some trouble navigating the earlier sessions. And to be honest, it wasn't that he's ever really close to being knocked out today, but he didn't look on form for our SQ1 and SQ2. It's a very different approach where Piastri, it seemed as if he really needed to build up to this final lap. His first lap in SQ3 was pretty good. It was in the mix. I think it was

about a 9-3 or so. But then he builds up to that final lap at the end of SQ3 where he goes, about three or four times faster than his previous effort. He did a great job of just, as you say, you can finish ninth in both of the first two sessions and get through and have a chance at pole. He did a great job of just building up to that final lap and then delivering when it counts. Landon Norris completely different.

He was phenomenal in the earlier parts of this session, and it's kind of meaningless. Like, he was, we're not, we're not unused to seeing Landon Norris be very quick and qualifying. Like he has achieved a lot of pole positions this year. He has been on front rows. But it was, as you say, that the margin between the two drivers that was really, sorry, not the two drivers, just the margin between him and everyone else.

It really stood out because we have become, I think, accustomed to seeing a lot of close qualifying session so far this year. Early doors, Lando Norris looked like he had this in the bag. But push comes to shove and it's Piastri that delivers. Yeah, it looks like that track-specific new rear wing that McLaren have brought a lot of for Interlagos is really performing. It's meant to improve DRS advantage. We know that there is only one DRS

something around the track here. It's going to be interesting to see as they're both starting at the front if that makes any difference to their actual race pace now because of course, unless you're in second place or further back, you don't get DRS and you're in the lead.

I think it's going to be fascinating because as you mentioned, we have got the two McLaren's on the front row and Piastri has, you know, at this point in the season, he is condemned to team orders. he's accepting of this. But it's an easier one to say than to put into practice. Like if we have the first lap and Piastri keeps first and Landon Norris keeps second and it turns out that McLaren

are just faster than everyone else, there may be a couple of laps into this Grand Prix. You can very safely make that transition over and Landon Norris can have a chance to go on and win the sprint. But it might not play out that way. I know it's not a long run down to term one, but Vestappen will be starting directly behind Lando Norris. that two space gap between Norris and Vestappen be a lot more comfortable with it was three because I can't see how Vestappen gets by Lando Norris if he's starting fourth and Norris is first,

but second and fourth? What if a Ferrari gets in the middle? All of these things start to come into play where yes, I'm sure they will make the play if they need to, but are they going to have a chance to do it? We don't know. We've seen Lando starts this season. They've not been up to standard

and we're seeing how Max Verstappen is willing to treat Landon Norris over the last two Grand Prix alone. I think the Yoltsonga dive down that inside into turn one from Max Verstappen back and forth are pretty high. Yes. And it might be a case of if Piastri has the inside into that first corner tomorrow, maybe he's accepting of Landau Norris going straight around the outside of him if they're close enough.

That does then leave the door for Vastappen starting on the outside to do exactly the same thing, at which point you might be looking at Norris first for Stapp and second, and Norris is going to be vulnerable. So there's a lot riding on the start tomorrow because of what the result was today. Yeah, it's not going to be as simplest than pulling away and, in theory, running to a 1-2. The form team of the last couple of Grand Prix has been Ferrari. Now, it's not like they were uncompetitive in this session,

but equally they weren't on the pace of the McLaren, similar to everyone else. Third and fifth place for them, So Charlecler will start third. Carlos Steins will start fifth, and then Max Verstappen is sandwiched between them in fourth. What did you make of their sessions? Surprised, genuinely surprised. I knew that McClaran were bringing this updated rear wing to Interlagos,

but I wasn't expecting to have so much of a difference in form that it would almost flip that front three teams on its head. It's now gone from having Max Verstappen still kind of planted somewhere in the middle with McLaren, possibly the maybe not slower of the three, but not on par with Ferrari. and Ferrari leading the way to it being flipped now where McLaren seemingly have the edge and it's Ferrari who have the difficulty

in trying to climb back up the grid. LeCler, as much as he always has fantastic pace, never looked like he was able to really match the McLaren's at any point. Carlos Sites is always a bit hit and miss when it comes to actual qualifying. We saw how good he was, of course, in Mexico, but that's not a consistent feature of Carlos Sites's game. He's never usually the kind of guy

that would stick it on pole three out of four times in a row. And that show today, he was the slowest of that. pack of five, Max Verstappen, I think, has once again done a good job to be in the mix. Yeah, Charles Lecler gets a good slip stream from Max Verstappen on that crucial lap, but equally, yeah, Lecler seemed to have the measure on signs today, similar to how signs just seem to have the measure on Lecler. Last time out in Mexico, it just sometimes when you turn up to a weekend, your car's working better at one venue compared to another. I think given their pace, third and fifth is probably about what they deserve. Maybe a second row lockout is what they would

of ideally wanted, given the, well, obviously, ideally they'd want to be one too, but I think given the pace of the car, they didn't have a shot at beating McLaren today, which has to be frustrating. Now, we've only had one practice session, so we don't know really how this is going to translate into race pace, which is be all and end all when it comes to points, but they won't be particularly encouraged by what they saw today. We know that Ferrari have been playing catch up in the championship. They've just about got themselves. into contention, I think you could say. They've obviously surpassed Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship.

They're within 30 points of McLaren now. But they would have been hoping that they could have maintained a pace advantage until the end of the season. And who knows? Maybe we turn up for Qatar, Vegas, Abu Dhabi, and they actually still do have that advantage there. And it's a one-off at Brazil. But this isn't overly encouraging.

No, if you're Ferrari, you don't want one-offs. You want to see that consistent pace rolling all the way through to the end of the season. and I imagine they might have looked at this and gone, ah, wasn't expecting someone to bring such a powerful upgrade so close to the end of the season, kind of thought that we'd manage should kind of time our run to the line correctly, and the upgrades worked, and we were going to lead the way for the last three or four Grand Prix.

It doesn't seem to be the case, but as you've already mentioned, let's see how powerful those upgrades are at other racetracks, which are very different to what we see into Lagos. Vastappen, a bit slow in the middle sector. Yeah, I'm quite surprised, was usually that is the Red Bull's strong suit. They very much enjoy usually the slower,

more technical elements for racetrack. And we know that in the higher air density that we sell at Mexico and what we're seeing at Brazil, usually the Red Bull thrives. But it seems as though actually their main strength is through sector one, which is unexpected, I'm expecting indeed. But I just think that Red Bull's having a difficult time anyway.

It's not being on form for a while. I do think Max Vastappen is outperforming it. You saw again, Sergio Perrits, who will get onto, unable to even get into the close to the top 10 is thirteenth place. So I think Vastappan is outperforming the car.

I think he's having to drive through a lot of weaknesses and not saying it's not quick because you compare it to a sail, it's an absolute missile, but in comparison to its direct Kepestka, so he needs to be competing directly with, it's not where it needs to be. And I do think he's doing a great job

at keeping it in the mix. I think a lesser driver would be down with George Russell maybe further back. It's going to be really intriguing because if Vastappen is able to stay close enough to competitors, then maybe he has opportunities to make DRS passes through the first and final sectors.

But that's only if he can stay close enough in that middle sector today indicated he will struggle to do that. Generally speaking, if you're quick in the middle sector, usually your race pace is quite strong. Like you've been able to compensate on some of that top speed to be good in that middle sector. It's a tad worrying, I think, for Vestappen. And what will be interesting is after the sprint tomorrow, whether they do opt to change that in any way, because it will be set up orientated.

It would be intriguing if they stick with what they've got and the sprint will obviously determine a lot about whether they stick or not. But I wouldn't be shocked if they change tack going into the main race, maybe to struggle a little bit more in that first and final sector to be a bit quicker in the middle. I do think that's one of the better changes we've seen from Formula One in recent time is the allow. parks of park firmate changes between kind of sprints and then into normal qualifying for the full Grand Prix. It does allow for potentially different results to play out, more players to understand the game and to maybe emerge as Kempascus later on in the weekend. So in theory, if they do struggle, it's not like they're stuck to it for the rest of the weekend. They've got options to come back. Okay, we're going to take a quick break on this episode. On the other side,

we're going to be talking about some more drivers that made it through to Q3 and then some that didn't. Okay, welcome back, everyone. Obviously, we've got the main team's main drivers out of the way. We've got George Russell, we haven't really mentioned, finished in six. So he'll start on the third row of the grid. Again, Mercedes kind of occupying, or at least Russell occupying that quicker than everyone else, but not quicker than the main characters vibe. But we've got some other drivers that made Q3 appearances.

Let's start with RB. So Liam Lawson makes it through to Q3. He'll start eighth, which is exactly. where Sonoda's starting if you put a one in front of that number. It's a fair gap between those two drivers in Q1. And obviously Lawson then able to make it through SK2 as well, our good friend won Harry Yead put Yuki Sonoda under pressure middle of this week.

And he's doomed him, apparently. Well, apparently so, the curse of late breaking strikes again. Liam Lawson, let's start with him, because that is a real positive. That's the kind of guy that, you know, A lot of people claiming, oh, he's got made for F1, he's not ready for F1. Even Sergio Perez, you know, has got the mentality for F1. He's outqualified you by five places.

Once again, my friend, in a significant and slower car. And what a lap it was, both laps, actually, to get him through into SQ2 and then SQ3. I really think he's grabbed it by the horns to not play any bad jokes on the team game. And it's making a real go of this. He's pretty much Rby's only hope at the moment of even coming close to combating Haast, who are seemingly on a real upswing of form, out qualifies both Hars. today. We'll get on to Bermann in a moment, but more surprising that loss has been able to out-qualify both of those heartsies. I think a really solid result. I don't really think

moving forward was more realistic. Yuki Snoga on the other hand, as we've mentioned, Harry Eid put him under pressure and said, you know, you've got to shine. Now's the moment to kind give it a go. And boys, he letting himself down. It's really frustrating. Like, genuinely, we all love little Yuki, and we all think that he deserves a go in the spotlight. And when he started this season so brightly and he kind of took it to Daniel Ricardo. And Daniel Ricardo, maybe due to the car's form, maybe due to his own form, was never able to really catch back up to Yuki in the point standings. You think, all right, well, if you've done it to Daniel Ricardo in theory, you continue that form and you can probably do enough to stick it out to the end of the season that you put yourself in contention for a possible red ball drive. But this is now the third racing a row where something has gone drastically wrong to make himself look quite inferior to Liam Lawson.

P18 is a real shocker. To be outqualified by the likes of Bottas is just not good enough. And Bottas obviously is a premium qualifier, but the Salba is an absolute bag of balls and it cannot do anything quickly. So the fact he's that far down when he seemingly didn't have any proper issues,

it's a real worry. He's going to get back together for the last four grand prix, or he will be in a real state of worry. A quick shout out to Valtry Bottas, by the way, because he is doing everything he can to... What more can he do? He's doing everything he can in the car for this.

season, but also doing everything he can secure that seat for next season, because I'm not sure what else he can do outside of somehow out qualifying five drivers to get through to SQ2. And fair play, because it wasn't even, he didn't make it through by a thousandth of a second or a few thousands of a second. It was over a tenth of a second that he had on that bottom five. So fair play to him. In terms of Lawson versus Sonoda, I think Liam Lawson has done a pretty good job today in that, you know, you navigate SQ1, navigate SQ. to. SQ3 is more of a one-shot quality based on the reduced time that you have in that session. And he's essentially just taken advantage of Behrman, and we'll get onto him in a moment,

not getting that lap in, taking advantage of Albin, trying something a little bit earlier in the session and it not really working out as well. The only real, and it's not really even criticism, it's 7-48 for Lorsin at that point and he's lost out to Gassley. But outside of that, he's done what he's needed to do, which is just take advantage of where others have slipped up. And at the moment, that RB versus Hasb battle, which will probably come down to the wire, you've got three of the four drivers inside the top 12, and Lawson's the only representative of RB in that fight. Sonoda, it's disappointing because I remember going back to that gap we have between US and Singapore. I said, Sonoda has got the most pressure of any driver in the second half of this season, or the last

of this season because he could realistically make a run at the Red Bull seat. And it's still possible even now. But these sorts of performances against the guy who's come in somewhat last minute, it's really costing him. And that gap between Sonoda and Lawson was over half a second in SQ1, which you look at some of the other gaps that were in that same session. Stroll and Alonzo was three-tempts. Sockon and Gasly was four-tenths.

they're not great obviously, but they're still less than five and a half. So not a good session whatsoever for Yuki Sonoda. Let's see if he can bounce back in the main qualifying after maybe some changes are adjusting on the car. The other sort of intra-team battle that I wanted to look at was Behrman versus Holkenberg. So Behrman unexpectedly racing this weekend, or at least the first half of this weekend,

it remains to be seen as to whether he'll follow that through. So Kevin Magnuson came down with an illness today, which means that Bairman filled him for him in the only free practice session. Did sprint quality today. We'll do the sprint tomorrow. Remains to be seem as well. He does main quality and main race as well. He manages to qualify 10th, gets through to SQ3.

Holkenberg doesn't make it. He's 12th. Once again, very impressed with Olly Beerman, right? It's come straighting. He's not had any more particular time in the car. I think he did a practice session somewhat recently. Yeah, yeah. Mexico, maybe.

The young little practice run out? Little practice right out? Yeah. He's done a free practice recently anyway. Yeah. The last couple of Grand Prix, he's been out there at some point. So he's becoming somewhat familiar with the car. But you're going up against Nikon Hulkeberg, who we have non-stop praise all season

and has been, apart from maybe the last Grand Prix and a half, significantly better than Kevin Magnuson, has scored the majority of points for the Haas team. Rightfully has been signed by Audi as a person to lead them forward for the next couple of years. and Ollie Berman's come back in for his only third Grand Prix of the season and absolutely smoked him. I think actually it was a real disappointing end to the story for Ollie Berman when he absolutely mucked up these Sennaresi at the start of his qualifying lap

and I really don't know why the team didn't say to him back out of it. I am thoughtful by this. Right, he invalidating his lap time by running wide. Immediately everyone can see that. It's well over the white line. Why an engineer didn't come over the radio. Even if it's not validated, it's uncompetitive, right? Exactly.

go stop, call the tyres so you've got you've got two minutes go round and go again it's eight tenths down in that first sector why I commit to that

why you never get in that back and you know what I don't blame Olly Beerman for that I blame him for the mistake but I don't think he's on the team yeah that's a team call and I think they've let him down a little bit there

obviously it is on him to make the drive properly the first time but he's also only his third ever grand brie mistakes are bound to happen so the fact he has gone beaten Holkenberg really, really impressive.

Do I think this form's going to stay throughout the entire weekend? I'd be very surprised. I think Wanks Park Fermi is lifted in between the spring and the qualifying. Hulkeberg will probably make some adjustments. And the main points are scored on the Sunday. So if Bermann is in that Grand Prix, I wouldn't be shocked to see Hulkeberg back in front of Berman. But this is a great sign for Hars.

This rookie that's being in three separate Grand Prix, throwing at the deep end is competitive every single time. It's a really exciting thing to see how good Bermen is already. I have real confidence in what he can do because SQ1 and SQ2 not only does he make it through to SQ3 he does it pretty comfortably he's not like scraping through

in any of these situations he dunks three temps on Holcomberg in SQ2 which is impressive in its own right and your analysis of what happened in that flying lap right at the end of the session in SQ3 of course he basically did exactly the same thing in SQ2 when he delivered there yes the mistake is

on him. He overzealous, isn't it? It's understandable. But it's absolutely on the team then to tell him to back out of it. Because yes, you could tell it was probably going to be invalidated. Kind of didn't matter whether it was valid or invalid because it was, he would have been ahead of Albon to be fair, but he would have surely had a far better chance of getting alongside Lawson and Gasly. I actually don't think if he nails that lap, I don't think he's far of Russell. Like he showed real pace. The hearth is showing real pace. It is.

And where you say you expect Holkenberg to sort of match maybe Bearman later into the weekend, I tend to agree. But I do think it will be Holkenberg making his way up rather than Bearman making his way down. This team genuinely looks like it has the legs on the rest of the midfield, in which case 10th and 12th might actually be a slight underperformance. But yeah, given he didn't. know he was going to be racing until earlier today. That is a fine effort to make it through to SQ3.

You may not know this, but I always like to peek inside the brain of Benjamin Hocking. When was the last time we had one driver appear on three separate non-conceptive race weekends, but for two separate teams? I've got no idea. Or if it's ever happened. I'm sure it will have happened at some point,

but it's far from a common place, isn't it? He's earned his place already. It'll be excited to see how we don't. next year. A couple of Q2 eliminations just wanted to focus on. So Lewis Hamilton, unable to make it through to Q3. He'll start 11th. Sergio Perez will start 13th. Your thoughts on both of those? I'm not actually surprised anymore, which sounds awful about Lewis Hamilton especially, but he's just not being on it in terms of qualifying. I don't know if it's the type of car, if it is this car itself, or if it's just that he's checked out from this Mercedes drive.

but in practice he didn't look good on the medium tires it's probably only person to run the medium tires and even then the pacing it looked particularly strong but you've seen the four book against Russell when it comes to qualifying. I think if you include Springs and they did this on the sky commentary

it's something like 186 in favour of Russell which is for Lewis Hamilton that is a domination that is an obliteration of what you expect from Lewis Hamilton who is being one of the most prominent qualifiers of all time. Obviously holds the most pole positions of all time. The guy is fantastic.

over one lap. So to see him get obliterated like that by George Russell, it's a real tip of the cap to George Russell. And that is a great first step in making himself a team leader when Lewis Hamilton leaves. And we've had discussions on that previously. But I'm disappointing in Lewis. The car is not good.

It still doesn't feel like it's got the stability that it had before we got into the summer break where they were obviously winning those grower breeds. It still feels very shaky and all over the place. But Hamilton again, I expect you'll be beating the likes of Albon. or a ghastly, realistically. Those cars aren't matching that Mercedes.

Sergio Perez, not the return to formulae would have wanted after an absolutely abhorrent Mexican Grand Prix. Turns up, 30th place, beaten by a number of different drivers from different teams, outqualified by Lawson, who he now has a personal vendetta against. When your teammate is able to stick it in fourth place in a car that, yes, isn't acceptably great,

I just think this is a real low point for Sergio, and he's clearly not dealt with the pressure that I think is probably being put on his shoulders very well right now. I agree with the Lewis Hamilton take. He's not off by much, but it's enough. And that's kind of where the Mercedes is right now, where him being two and a half temps off his teammate is enough to get knocked out in SQ2.

And I think middle of this season or maybe parts of last season, that would be fine. And he would make it through and maybe he qualifies seventh or eighth. here, it just makes that small difference between making it and not making it. So that Mercedes is still a dog. Yeah, it's all over the shop. Throughout practice, again, it just doesn't look planted in any way.

And even George Russell delivering a pretty good performance in sixth, there were still moments on board where I didn't like what I saw on a track. The back end be waving. The back end be waving. Yes. I don't know if any team would be more disappointed at the fact that the new server, is incredibly bouncy than Mercedes because it doesn't help their issues in any way whatsoever. Perez, I don't actually have anything to say because I put that on the team in terms of that

second attempt in SQ2 for not, how on earth do you not get him across the line in time? Oh, it's such a rookie error. And it comes an awful time for Perez as well. And I feel bad for him because, yeah, I mean, I could sit here and say that based on previous qualifying efforts, he probably wouldn't have matched for the. happen, which is probably true, but equally, if we just go ahead with that attitude, we might as well not go racing at all. We need to actually see it happen with our own eyes. So the fact that he was knocked out in SQ2, I don't hold that against him. And he was somewhat competitive in the earlier

parts of the session. No idea whether that would have carried through, which is a shame. Let's also look at Aston Martin. So a summary for what they've done here. They brought an upgrade to Boston, a floor upgrade, and it hasn't worked. They tried to say in the first place it did everything they wanted it to. That can't have been true because they've taken it off the car. They've gone back to, and I'm not lying, their Suzuki spec, you're probably thinking, Japan, that was a long time. It was a long time ago.

They've gone all the way back to that spec car, and they're still slow. Yeah, I think the most worrying thing about them still being slow is I've been believe their pace is there or they're about to the salber now. I think they might be the ninth fastest car. You look at Gastley, who, I don't know what's happened to Pierre Gassley recently either, but he's an absolute qualifying phenomenon at the moment. But that Alpine was struggling big time, as was the Williams earlier on in the season.

And look where they are regularly now. Even O'Con who is having a bit of a struggle bust moment currently. He's still ahead of both of the Aston's. So they've never had a sprint qualifying elimination, SQ1 elimination before this. session, both cars out. The fact that a lot of a stroller so evenly match tells you that the car is so bad

to drive, they've just got no pace from anywhere, and they must be screaming out for Adrian Newey to put them a little post-it note on a desk or something that's going to give them a direction to go in until he arrived, because their development has been poor for a while. They seem to,

as I've mentioned many times, copy, copy, or we don't know what else to copy right now because the big changes have kind of stopped. We'll do our own thing. Ah, that has it worked anymore. Now we're going to have to wait. And this happened last season. Really good, really good, really good, really good.

Get to kind of, you know, the American leg, the coat of leg, suddenly seemed to fall flat. Really struggle for the rest of the season. No premise or promise of moving forward. And it's happening again. They're just falling backwards again. So they've got a hope that they could buck this trend this time next year. And actually they can kickstart 25 in a real positive place.

But I think as we all know, Raskin Martin, are very much pushing for 26. You know what? The absolute worst thing about this for Aston Martin is this. Fernando Alonzo was 16th and 1.5 seconds back. Is that the worst thing? No. Landstrol. He was 19th. He was 1.8 seconds back from the fastest lap of Lando Norison SQ1. Was that the worst thing? No. Double Q1 knockout. Nope, that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is, as mentioned, they put on a spec of a car from six months ago, Could you tell?

This result was pretty much what you would expect from them based on what we've seen the last few races. They have reverted back to something, again, that was valid over six months ago. Same result. Not worse, not better, just the same. And that's really got to hurt because that shows that in all of that time, you've really made no progress. And you're correct in saying the likes of Williams have made progress.

They have, has have made progress. Even R.B., who really struggled mid-season, have come back for last few races. Aston Martin, going nowhere. You're right, the focus is on 2026. So in the grand scheme of things, it might not be the worst thing in the world. But the fact that they as a team cannot wrap their heads around what is and isn't working and why it isn't working, it's going to really hold them back if they can't sort that out long term. Yeah, questions again, I'll be asked.

Money is being spent. And I'm sure that internally they are, one, very confused and two, quite frustrated. that this really hasn't gone the direction they were going to want it to. We've already quickly mentioned his name, but GASley. I just don't get it. I don't understand how he's doing it. I think the car is genuinely a bit better than it was, but he's still outperforming that car. Massively.

He was up there in SQ1 and SQ2 as well, and he's ended up, what, seven tenths back of Piastri? It's pretty good. I mean, if the Alpine has genuinely made proper upgrades where they have allowed them to strike forward, I don't know who they've secretly hired back there in the back room and magician, the genie from Aladdin, but he's apparently conjuring up something that has allowed to take real progress very quickly. There must be a difference in spec between O'Conn and Gasly. Those two are so evenly matched so regularly. Let's have three Grand Prix in a row where Gasly is essentially fighting inside the top ten,

and O'Cog is so close to fighting in the bottom five. I don't believe that that's on pure pace alone. I think there's got to be something in development there. There might well be. There was four temps between Gazley and Ocon in SQ1. I think they were closer on their first runs, but Gasly found a way to just pull it out the bag on those crucial laps in qualifying over the last few races.

And I mean, let's face it, Alpine would be wise to focus on Pierre Gazley at this stage. Gasly is going to be there next year. O'Con is not going to be there next year. I can't believe O'Con decided to leave, right, Alpine? That was his call. Anyway, it makes sense. for Gazley to be the focus of the two drivers. And I still genuinely think race pace there's not really anything in it.

And it's just qualifying wise, Gazley is able to find a little bit more than Ocon can. And I still think Ocon might be winning the qualifying head to head. It's very close. There might be one race in it. So this advantage that Gazley seems to have obtained in qualifying over the last few races is a little bit out of the blue. It's not in keeping with form from the rest of the year.

But credit to Gassley, man, because he's just, he's doing exactly what he needs to do. It makes SK3 alongside Lawson-Alburn, Behrman. Alburn doesn't deliver a great lap. Behrman doesn't deliver a lap at all. Lawson delivers an OK lap. Gazley's like, all right, then. I'll beat you all. I'll love it.

I'll love it. Yep. Top eight, of course, get points in the sprint. So there is a realistic chance he could be in that fight. And that fight against Williams is not over yet. Before we go, driver of the session. We just spoke about him. Gassley makes it for me.

was fantastic. Yeah. I credit to Bottas, man. I want to give it to it. I think I might actually go with you with Pierre Gazley. Of course, Piaastri Gay, anyone who gets pole position deserves to be in the shout. But given Norris did have the advantage for most of the session,

I think I will give it to Gasley as well. Fair. Brilliant stuff. All right. Well, I guess that's it for today. That is it for today. I'll be back for a sprint and main qualifying review tomorrow. else you want to say before we go. No, folks, thanks for listening. Thanks for

tuning. We'll be here all weekend. Ben's on his own tomorrow. So make sure you give us some love. But then we will be all back together on Sunday and then power rankings on Monday as well on the Patreon. So getting the link, subscribe. It helps us out massively. We appreciate you. And we will chat to you over the weekend. 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.