The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Dutch GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

Rain stayed away from Zandvoort for qualifying at the Dutch GP but conditions remained tricky with multiple surprise Q2 eliminations. One driver that didn't struggle was Lando Norris who claimed a dominant pole over Verstappen and Piastri. Ben and Sam are on hand to give their thoughts! 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. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hawking, reviewing qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix, a qualifying session where Lando Norris has claimed pole position ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, the second row occupied by Oscar. Piaastri and George Russell. Very good day for McLaren. Very good day for you, Sam. It's all right.

I'm okay. It's very wet, very wet here, you know. Um, nothing to your F1. I got a haircut. Looks, uh, looks sweet. Thank you. I've got a skin fade. I don't know if anyone cares about that. Also, I don't have McLaren as my constructor in my fantasy team. Oh, okay, sure. Good. I'm over the moon because, you know, Lando Norris two-time's driver. I've got that, done that. McLaren as a constructor. Don't have that. Albin's pulled it out of the bag.

I am loving life right now. I got piastry. No, yeah, and I've got Gasly and I've got Russell. So I'm all right. Filling out Q3 with those drives. I'm okay. I'm all right. But yeah, it was a good old day for Maca, wasn't it?

It was indeed. We've got plenty to get through on today's episode. We've got surprise Q2 eliminations for the likes of Louis. Hamilton and Carlos Sines, our thoughts on a double Q3 appearance for Aston Martin, Sergio Perez making it through into the top five, but we will naturally start out front. Lando Norris, Vastappan and Piastri, it looked like it was going to be one of those three that had the potential to claim pole position. Indeed, it was fairly close through the first runs in Q3, but Lando Norris pulled out a great lap towards the end of the session that Vostappen

and Piastri could not match. Were you surprised at the margin that Norris had? a half tense around a 70 second lap. That's unusual. I'm going to bring the word back. Marvelous is what that gap

was. And what is most surprising about that gap, three and a half tenths is at the end of Q2, the gap between first and

13th was only four and a half tenths. That's how close the field was stacked up against, right? Hamilton was out, knocked out in 12th place by 0.0.08 of a second,

which would have brought him under three tenths had he brought that gap under to pole, from tenth to pole, which is incredibly close for a line-up in Formula One. We don't really tell how lucky we are that the field spread is a couple of tents where it's that close together. So for Landon-Norris, like a track as short as this one to pull out three and a half tenths really is quite brilliant in terms of his overall capabilities. And he's put a bit of a slam dunk on the rest of the field there. I was quite blown away at how

big the margin was. I think Verstappel was out driving the car. I'm not actually sure the Red Bull should have been that close anyway. But the fact he's beating his teammates so handedly. The fact that Russell, half a second away, the fact that Perez also knowing here in the mix, I'm not surprised because it's not capable, really shows you that on his day, Ladin-Norris really can be the cream of the crop. Yeah, and I think Vostappen, even if he had any frustrations about his lap that got him to Q2, as soon as he saw the time to Lando Norris, he probably would have gone, okay, didn't really matter what I did. Because I don't think Vestappen had the ability with the car today to touch what Lando Norris did. I was,

I was blown away by the margin that he was able to create at the end of Q3, because you're absolutely right that it was nip and tuck through a lot of Q1, a lot of Q2, and not just between Norris and Red Bull, but certainly the whole field spread was fairly limited. But what Lando Norris did on that final lap, I thought was very impressive. And this is his fourth career pole position to this point. I thought it was maybe on a par or maybe even better than what he did at. Barcelona earlier this season where he really performed at the end of Q3, when we thought it was going to be quite close and he pulls out a great lap. It felt very similar to that today where he just,

he nailed that last lap. I think what makes it more impressive is that Piastri is much more on a high right now. Obviously, he's got exactly the same kit under him. So the fact that Piastri can't get past Vastappen, but Norris can put a three and a half tenth gap back to Vastappen really just shows you that on his day how much pace Norris has. And I, I agree in terms of Vastappan. I don't think he could have got up to where Lando Norris was today. I felt he was overdriving that car as much as he possibly could. I thought it was particularly the first sector was very telling on board Vestappan. Man was wrestling that car. That car did not want to do what Vostappen wanted it to do. No, we speak quite jokingly sometimes about what was it, the 2012 Ferrari,

about it having oversteer, understeer, all sorts. But that looked very similar in that moment, right? Every corner, it was running wide and the front end was catching and trying to pull him back in. And I was like, for Stappen, he's, you know, he's a man mounting when it comes to driving ability. But even he's struggling out there. And I think he pulled a brilliant lap out as being on the front row. I really, seriously, I don't think he should be on the front row. I think he's delivered a sublime lap.

I think his middle sector was phenomenal. Like, I thought he delivered a really great middle sector. the only, I think, blemish on the lap was turn, oh God, 12, maybe, I'll get my numbers confused. Or he dive through the, the Piff-Paff chican as Michael calls it. Yeah, I think he went deep in there and probably lost a little bit of time, but certainly not three and a half temp. So I think if you, I think he'll be closer to the McLaren's on race pace than he was on call offing pace. And I think it's, I know Vestappen is kind of a very much a, I want to win everything mentality. And that's why he's so great. But actually,

his team are probably looking at this second place and going, yeah, that's a fairly good result for us. Yeah, I think also if he carries on the second place throughout the rest of the season, it's pretty much on par with what he needs to do to still take home the championship, right? He doesn't really need to go on a massive winning street to make sure that the drivers is his.

He used to hope that Perez steps up and brings home the rest of the points for the constructors and starts beating someone like Piastri, but he's doing enough for his own ambitions if he keeps finishing second. And I guess Vastappen as well, I know this was mentioned by Jolian Palmer in the post-qualifying interviews that the rundown to turn one for Lando Norris is not as long as some of the other ones he's had where he's had pole position, which is obviously good news based on his poor

start so far this year. But actually what might encourage Vastappan is that if he does, if Norris does get a poor start, it doesn't really end at turn one, does it? Like if you get a poor start and you're side by side, that can go all the way through to that banking corner. So I think Vastappan, if he gets a good start, is in with a chance of getting him. The left side, I think, is actually more favourable around Zandvort. I know that the pole start is on the right-hand side, so you take the inside line through the first corner. But I do think that if you can do a little bit of late breaking, Trobark, and get alongside, if you follow that flow all the way through to where the long left-hander of turn four happens, I do think you might get the

advantage into the fast-flowing middle sector. So if a staff is on it, and Norris bottles, which I am slightly anxious about, then for Stafford could be able to run away with this one. I was disappointed by Piastri and Q3. I felt he should have, I felt he should have been on the front road with Lando Norris, even if Norris gets pole half a second away. That's as good as Norris as that was.

That is a lot of time around Zambor. And we're going to get into some of the other gaps between teammates shortly. We'll get into the likes of how Hamilton couldn't make it through to Q3, whereas Russell could. Same with signs and Leclair. Ricardo couldn't make it out of Q1, Sonoda could. All of those margins,

less than the margin between Piastri and Norris. So I, to be half a second behind on a circuit like this, I thought it was quite disappointing. I do see a point. And whilst I agree, I am disappointed in his final lap performance, it's okay to do that

when the worst that's going to happen to him is third place on the grid. Unlike all the... That was the beginning of the season, right? Right, yeah. And that's fine. We said this time and time again. if you're going to be the second driver for a season,

if the worst you're going to be is one car between you and your teammate, I'm all right with that. That's okay. That's good enough to back up your teammate if you're needed to. This is what Red Bull have always needed. A one three every single race, because if the staff is going to go on a march, you get the other driver there to battle with.

Pia's still doing that job. Unlike what Hamilton did. Unlike what Sankton did. Unlike what Sinoza's done. Right, they are not even in the same session as their teammate. They are well out of the count when it comes to fighting with their teammate to help them. But at least Piaastri is. is, if anything happens to Norris,

and let's say he has a D&F off the start, let's say he's angry he doesn't get going. At least Piazri's there in second place to pick up the points and fight alongside, right? At least he's immediately there to battle for the lead. So, yeah, disappointing lap, but he's still third on the grid. I'll take it all day long.

Yeah, I think that obviously the position is absolutely fine. It's more a case of we've seen other qualifying sessions this year where McLaren haven't had as big of an advantage as they've had today, where Austria and Spain are probably two good examples of that, where Piastri, I know on that occasion, he doesn't set any lap towards the end of Q3, but he's down in like eighth or seventh or whatever it was. And the gap obviously was not that far different to what we saw today. It's just there were other teams filling in the gaps almost.

So it's fine for in a position like this where, again, Piastri is going to start in a very good spot. But if any other teams are closer at, say, Monza or future races, Piastri will need to pick up his game to ensure that it's not five-tems between those two drivers. Yeah, this has to be more. more of the anomaly than it is the norm. Yeah, yeah, exactly. MP Astrid's been on such a great run that it might very well be because, yeah, he has done such a good job recently. George Russell set the fastest lap in P2 yesterday, but obviously Mercedes weren't able to replicate that today. Russell was the faster at the two drivers just under six tenths back from Lando Norris in fourth place. It's mad to think that

six times back is still good for fourth place here. But of course, he's eight positions higher than where Lewis Hamilton will start. I say eight, at least eight, depending on what happens with his investigation with Perez and whether he impeded him. We'll get onto that, I think, a little bit later on. What did you make of Mercedes-Day? Are they going to be a bit disappointed

that they weren't more competitive? I found Mercedes quite baffling. It was really bizarre because, okay, you can't read too much into practice, but you can read something into practice, right? Practice is like the movie poster for the main race. Right? you're looking at you go, oh, I think that might be the main character,

and I think that might be the storyline. But I'm not going to guess the ending just based off the poster. I'm going to have to go and watch the real film. And, you know, from this point, you assume that Russell and Hamilton were maybe two of the big stars on that poster. You go into and watch the race and you go, oh, actually, they're just kind of side characters that get along with themselves. And I don't think they saw that coming.

I don't think they knew whether they were going to be the star-sugged line up at the front row or if they were going to end up featuring here and there. And I think Hamilton was disappointing in his Q2 performance. He showed that he had pace, proper pace. And his first run in Q1 looked really, really strong. So much so that he didn't really need to go out again. He bailed on his second Q1 lap because he was so comfortable that even on new tires when people did a second run, he was only in fourth place at that point.

So he looked really, really positive. Once the track had rubber ding and lap time started to fly around, it looked like Russell managed to get his tires warmed up. He managed to get the car where he needed to again in that Q2 spot. And we saw Russell in that confident kind of mindset that we've seen. seeing him in time and time again. But the five-tenth gap between them, just underbat, was really surprising. I think that is more on Hamilton having two major wobbles through big corners that cost him. And it shows you what kind of a knife edge these drivers are wrong.

You get one corner at a slight disadvantage and you are out of here. There's no room for mistakes here. Russell got the lap together, got the tires warm. Lewis Hamilton did and he paid a very big price for it. And I do think it is an abnormally large price to pay at a racetrack to see, you know, four or five-tenths usually means that you're both. in the same session. And I think Hamilton and Mercedes have been caught out by both Aston Martin's being fast than expecting. Gassely getting into Q3, Albon getting into Q3.

You know, science, I think is very much the same. But I actually think science has done better in a worse car than what Hamilton's done. So, yeah, I think this has been quite a shock from the Sagan's that they're so far away from the top spot. Yeah. I was surprised as well. Based on their pace in, in P2, I thought they were going to be, I thought they were going to be better. And George Russell, I think it was established that they just were.

So I don't think that lap from George Russell in fourth place is a bad one. But yeah, you're right, they never, at the same time, they weren't on it. So like Q1, obviously, George Russell is disappointing and has to burn an extra set of tires in order to make it through to Q2. He then sort of rectifies that by being so quick in Q2 that he doesn't need to go out at the end of Q2 where the likes of Hamilton, of course, needed to. And then of course, yeah, Hamilton's the law. one that pays the price and can't make it through. I thought that was a majorly disappointing

result from Lewis Hamilton because there are a number of drivers that should not have outqualified him. Certainly, even signs one position ahead of him, but Gasly and that Alpine should not be ahead of Lewis Hamilton. So yeah, and it's same as last year, obviously. He qualified 13th last year, so he's going to have to... He's improved, actually. Good for him. Yeah, I'm sorry, we're such a negative view on this. But yeah, it's not an easy track to start that far down. So we'll see what he can make of it. But I don't think this Mercedes, even if they should have been fourth and fifth,

I think today. But based on what I saw yesterday in long run pace, I don't think they'll have enough to touch McLarenov's happening anyway. This screams of a start on the hard tire and run until there's a safety car. I think this avon's got quite a high risk safety car chance. You know, that grass and gravel around the edge. We see cars fly. You saw how Sergeant Crash can practice.

Awful crash, brutal crash. but he put a wheel on the damp grass and he was out of here, to the point where he couldn't take part in qualifying, I reckon we're going to see a safety car tomorrow, and I wonder if the Sakers will try their best to take advantage. Before we go to break, just a quick chat on Sergio Perez, who's made it through into the top five, starts fifth place. He was seven and a half temps down on Lando Norris's poll time,

about four temps, just under four temps, behind his teammate in second place, which I think was fairly consistent with what we saw throughout all three qualifying sessions. It seemed to be around the three-tems, four-tamps gap. What did you make of his performance? He winged a lot. And then he did the bare minimum for what I expect something in that car to be doing.

He beat LeCler. That Ferrari's a dog. It's not good round here. It's not having a good time. I actually think he should have beaten George Russell. I think the car is there to beat Russell. I know he said that Max Verstappen's out driving the car, but I even think just performing well in that car

is that you go and beat Mercedes. He's too far away from his teammate. I said the same with Lewis Hamilton. I'll say the same thing like Carlos Science. He's too far away from his teammate. As we said, with Piascary, too far away, but got Fulkesha, that third place is still a great starting position. I don't think it's good enough again.

It only looks positive because Hamilton and Science are out, and I do genuinely believe that if they did make it through into Q3, more likely than not, they beat Sergio Perez or get very close to him, and he finds himself much further down. So I really do think this was a, he looks better than he actually is. I'm sorry, Perez fans, I know that's harsh, but I do think fifth is the absolute banding of them. Yeah, I thought it was okay.

Certainly better than okay, but I thought it was fine enough. Again, yes, I think he has probably benefited from the likes of definitely Hamilton, not being in the mix, but ultimately that's on Hamilton. Usually Paris is the one that goes out, so at least he got through. Yeah, and I think this was established by Christian Horner earlier in the weekend as well, is that this run of races, for the most part, goes. to Perez's strengths like Baku and Singapore where he's had results before,

but it was also identified that this Grand Prix, the Dutch Grand Prix is one that he has struggled at in the last few years and might be the most difficult in the next sort of four or five races. In which case, a fifth place qualifying position if he can pretty much hold that, that's good, but that is based on him

being slightly better at the upcoming circuits. Yeah, I think this was not too bad, but he, He will have been annoyed, obviously, that he burned through an extra set of tyres in Q1, but I don't think that really mattered in the end. Yeah, I'm not going to diss him, but I'm also not going to appraising for doing exactly why I expect that car to be doing. Okay, let's take our break on this episode.

On the other side, we're going to chat a bit more on Ferrari, a bit more on Aston Martin, and a bit more on Hamilton and Perez's incident. So much like Mercedes, we saw one Ferrari make it through to Q3, one fallout in Q2. So Charles LeClau is going to start in sixth place. Nine tenths behind Lando Norris. Oh, just the nine. You can leave if you want, Charles.

There is still time. So yeah, he'll start in sixth place on the third row of the grid alongside Perez. Carlos Sines obviously missed time yesterday in FP2, thanks to a gearbox issue. The only dry session, of course, of the weekend so far. It was struggling to make it through to Q2. made it through to Q2, put together a better lap, but still not good enough and went out in 11th place. What did you make of their session? Usually I don't like to give excuses to drivers when it comes, like we said, they're missing a lot of the one dry session.

But with the group being so compact in terms of their time and the fact that Carlos Sites goes out in 11th. And at that point, he's only three and a half to four tents behind the pole time of Q2. It's such a small margin that I do genuinely believe that if he got the full hour or so of running in dry weather, he probably could have worked himself up to have the confidence to pick up another tent or so and usually would have got himself through. It's still disappointing. It's still not good enough from him. But I do understand that there might be some mitigating circumstances.

Equally, the Ferrari, as I've really mentioned, is a dog. It is not performing well around Zambor. Lecler, I think, is again doing a really good job in a car that maybe shouldn't be competitive with the Red Bulls. It shouldn't be right alongside the Mercedes cars. He shouldn't have beaten Hamilton so handedly. I do think that realistically, science being out is not good,

but equally I don't think they're going to be fighting anywhere near the front at all. So I can't put too much pain on Carla's sights. I think they're going to struggle tomorrow. I think it's going to be a tough day for them. And like last year, I wonder if they're going to be made to look a little bit like a proper MIG field car

once they get overtaken. That car is awful. That car is bad. I think LeCler qualified it where that Ferrari actually is. It's a little bit quicker than the likes of us. Martin and Williams, but equally, it's closer to those cars than it is the likes of McLaren, Vestapp and even the Mercedes. I think it's very much in between those two groups

right now. LeClaire, yeah, like I say, I think he probably put it where it should have been. Carlos Sines, I do think there are mitigating circumstances with missing half of FB2 yesterday. Again, the margins are quite small. I don't think that car was that much better than what signs delivered. So even though it is disappointing, I think it's probably at the lesser end of disappointing compared to some of these other results. But to be honest, it doesn't matter all that much. Well, it's far more worrying. It's not signs missing Q3. It's the fact that even if he made it through to Q3, he wouldn't have made much of an impact as really, let's say, Charler-did didn't. Like, there was never any doubt that he was not in the fight for poll. And that's, that's

annoying. I actually want a compliment Ferrari for how they counteracted the issues in Q1. They got the car out exactly the right time when the track ramped up, the tires were the right cool and that saw him go through comfortably into Q2 because I do think if they got that wrong, there could have been a Q1 elimination. They were very close to it, right? He was, what, 15th before he put that laping. And there were cars behind him that were going to improve. So they did time it well and science did get a good lapping. But as you said, the car doesn't work well around here. It is not very strong. And I think if he did get through to Q3, maybe P9, maybe P8 on a really good lap is all he's getting out of it.

And I agree in that I don't think they're going to be competitive tomorrow either. I was I was reviewing times from yesterday's session. Obviously, we don't have signs as times to look at because he only did half the session. But if you look at the long run pace of Charles LeClaire, he did a set of mediums. It was basically the same time. I think album was a temp faster on the hard tires across. And I think the hard tire might be a bit better. So I would expect on the same time

that LeCler will have a marginal edge on Albin but that sentence in itself is worrying, right? Yeah, a Williams. A Williams. Like, I'm sure science is going, cool. That's giving my car next year. Yeah, yeah, it's an upgrade. Yeah, woo-hoo, which is baffling. Because if you look at the start of the season

where Williams were and where Ferrari were, Ferrari were as good if not better than McLaren and Williams were alongside the likes of steak. And yet now they're being beaten by them around a track like Zangvort, which is a proper aeros, needing track and they're being outqualified by them. A fair play to both Williams and Albin as well,

because they've brought extensive upgrades for this weekend. I think probably the biggest upgrade package of the grid seems to be working. You know, they were fairly good earlier in the season at Monaco as well. It seems as if tracks where the weight of their car is less important, they seem to do okay at. I think Albin has qualified. Alba has done a very good job, but equally, I think he's qualified where that car was capable of.

this weekend. And I think he can stay there as well. What was your bowl prediction, Ben? Well, I went for the Mercedes one, but I should have gone for the Albon one. I thought you went for the Williams one. I very nearly did as well. It was out of those two, but never mind. Albin will be disappointed if he doesn't finish in the points tomorrow. I think he can stay roughly where he's qualified. Another fairly good performance, at least relatively speaking, for Aston Martin.

So Alonzo starts seventh, Landstrol starts ninth. I mean, again, the car was far better last year, but this is probably a good result based on where that car is right now. I feel like they're building a good sense of form now. They're escaping this kind of slump that they had a few races to go, where they were regularly qualifying 12th, 13, 14, 15th regularly in that region. And now they seem to be the team that is the last team to get both cars into Q3. And that's not bad.

At least they're taking steps forward again. At least they're moving in the right direction again. And actually, I think both drivers, others, more strolling along so, we'll walk away from this qualifying session a little bit disappointed, because I think that that, Aston Martin,

up until the very last run that they put together, looked like it could have been right up there with at least the Ferrari of Lecler. I think if they put together a perfect lap, if Stroll puts together his Q2 lap, I think he could beat Lecler. I think they could be starting sixth and seventh here because they're lucky, of course,

that Hamilton not in the session. Science also not in the session. On a better day, Ferrari might have more power. I do think they've missed an opportunity to start further up, but it is good to see that, both drivers and Strull, who will we give credit to, is coming along icy this season, are regularly putting their car back into Q3 and they seem to be somewhat competitive again.

The upgrades are moving them in the right direction. Stroll was great through the first two qualifying sessions. And he should have or could have outqualified his teammate. I think he was quicker today. And Alonzo has pulled together, I think, a very good lap at the end of Q3 and Lanchdoll hasn't, which, again, might be telling of the two drivers and pulling it out of the bag when you need to is certainly an Alonzo quality and no disrespect to stroll,

it's not a stroll quality. But in terms of pure pace, yeah, I don't think there was much in it. Stroll probably had a minor edge. Well, if Stroll gets his coveted good start, it might be a second. He might be leading the race by the end of that one. Lano Norris needs to watch out.

I think Stroll might have him. He's a gunman. And a Q3 appearance for Pierre Gasley. Good to see the P. Gazelle back. The sausages are back out again. We're having a great time after summer. How do that? Obviously, he just snuck for each time.

I was like, oh wait, Pierre is there. He just kept delivering these really solid laps. Ockon wasn't nowhere to be seen. Yeah, I mean, Ocon, he seemed to be disappointed with a certain element of the car that, anyway, he was out in Q1 and deserved to be, if that makes sense. But I thought Gasly would be probably knocked out in Q1 as well, or maybe just scraping through to Q2

and ending up where the Hasses were or where Sonoda was. but his lap to end Q2 was great. I don't think that Alpine is quick enough to be in that top 10. No, I actually think that gas is going to be looking over his shoulder a lot in the race. And I think he's quite fortunate that it is hard to overtake here. If they play the cards right, the strategy's good. Maybe they get a lucky safety car. There could be a point on the cards for them.

But let's not get our hopes up here, folks. I don't think it's going to be a given. It's not going to be another podium for him. Unfortunately not, although I would take it for Teammate Wars. Of course you would. Yeah, excellent performance. I will say as well, just on the point of his excellent Q2 lap, I think Red Bull got a bit lucky. Yeah.

I was going the wrong way. I was surprised they, I was surprised when they didn't send him back out because I thought it might be touch and go. And I think he finishes eighth in Q2. If Gazley is, was it like 4,000th faster or something like that, he's ahead of the Stappen. Alonzo didn't put together a great lap in Q2 and only just scrape through. obviously signs in Hamilton, we know both of their teammates out qualified for Stappan in Q2.

I think Red Bull got away with one there. Yeah, proper little lucky, lucky move. But hey, sometimes the swings around about going how Formula One works. You get the right, you get the rub of the green and you end up getting lucky with it. And he's ended up P2. So it's done the job. What did you make of the Minardi team? So Sonoda made it through to Q2, has qualified.

He's qualified 13th, but to be fair to him, he was a. few temps faster than both the Hasses behind him. And he was only, he was less than a tenth away from both Sines and Hamilton in front of him. So I think the 13th might be a little bit misleading. He was right there with the two cars in front of him. Ricardo out in 16th place. What do you make of their day? I think Sango is in a little bit of Nomeg's land. I think once Hamilton and Sainz settled and they become a bit more comfortable, I think they'll be faster than Sengoda during the Grand Prix. And actually, it might be interesting to see where Gassley versus Senoda ends up.

I do wonder if Gasly is overqualified. It's Senoda might actually end up being right on the back of him throughout the lot of the Grand Prix. I reckon they might be scrapping for that last point. Ricardo's going to be disappointed. He's going to be looking at this going. I've still not got a seat sign to me. There's rumours of me maybe going to Red Bull,

but also there's rumours that Lawson might be kicking me out of my seat. And we've all said over the summer break, what does Ricardo need to do? He used to beat Sanoda every single time. He's got to be on his A game. So he's knocked out and be that far away from his team, mate. with no obvious benefits going slow this way. It's not like he's running a massive new

upgrade system that Ricardo doesn't have. That's a big gap. That's a bad performance. And Ricardo is going to be very disappointed with how that's turned down. He's got a lot of work to do. I mean, points of score on the Sunday, but he's going to have to do a lot of work to get back up there with his team, mate. Yeah, it was disappointing from Ricardo because if you look at the four drivers, he's out qualified.

Well, Logan Sargent wasn't in the session. Two of them were salber drivers that aren't really F1 cars. And then you've got Esteban-Ockon. So I think really, Ockon is the only true driver that he's out qualified there today. And he was three temps away from Sonoda in Q1. But I think the gap almost to, because it was Holcomberg in 15th. He was a tenth away from Holcomburg, who in turn was, I think, a tenth away from Ghazley in 14th.

So he would have had to improve by a few temps just to make like two positions. Like, it wasn't good. And I think Sonoda has done a pretty reasonable job in Q2. That car, I don't think he's all that quick this weekend. but even so, Sonoda has made more of it than Ricardo has to this point. Ashton Martin have got the legs on Arby at the moment. They seem to have got themselves back into that fight. I think it looked like Arby were maybe closing the gap,

not in points but in pace to Ashton Martin. They seem to have taken a step forward again. We mentioned earlier the Hamilton and Perez impeding incident or the potential impeding incident that is being reviewed after the session. I don't think we've had any results on that yet and we might not do before we wrap this thing up. Of course, the fairly standard penalty

if it is proven to be impeding is three places. Do you think it will end up that way? What did you, how did you see it? Have a day off, man. Have a day off. Impeding, apart from leaving the track and driving on some wet grass, potentially endangering his own car and whatever,

I don't know what more a driver could do. Sancho Perez was going, oh, there's a car there, and then drove into the impediment himself, I feel like. Lewis Hamilton is driving as slow as possible, right around the outside, off the racing line. It's unfortunate they've met each other where they have, but in a full track, the chances are this is going to happen occasionally.

I really don't know. Apart from Lewis being told by his team, you've got a set quality pace to get well out of the way at this point, which you shouldn't have to do. There's enough track for both drivers to get through. I really just think that this is an unfortunate timing. I do not think Lewis Hamilton has done anything. wrong at this point. I thought it was touch and go. And I think that because, again, I agree with

that last statement of yours. I don't think Lewis Hamilton did anything wrong there in that, I don't think Hamilton can do more to avoid that incident at that point. However, if you are going to put blame anywhere, it's on the team. And so again, I don't think Hamilton did anything wrong, but is it the team's fault that he's in that spot anyway? I've kind of gone towards, I think it's incredibly unfortunate, but equally I wouldn't penalise this one. I think what Perez is ever so slightly done is he's been distracted by Lewis Hamilton and he's bailed out before the chance to be impeding happens almost. If Perez goes through a little bit more into that corner and Hamilton is there as he reaches the apex and he has to slam on the brakes and abandon the lap, then maybe. But I think

Perez has almost bailed out of it a little bit too soon. I think it's a close one. And I think you could argue that the team should have done more before the incident happened. But it is such an awkward corner because obviously you can't hug the inside because that's where Perez is going to be. But equally, that inside becomes the outside so quickly on that corner that it just leaves so little room for anyone to get out of the way. So I ended up with, no penalty. I think it was close, but no penalty.

Good. I'm glad we're in agreement. And lastly, two more things before we go. Logan Sargent obviously couldn't even compete in the session thanks to his crash in FB3. How did you see that crash, by the way? It was his own mistake, wasn't it really?

I mean, he puts a fast-moving tyre, which is rubber, remember, onto very wet, grassy surface. Those two things don't really... out of it. Like, come on, man. If you're struggling and it's a practice lap, you don't need to be pushing it.

It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't not mean a single thing. I think he's ruined any chance for impressing anyone anywhere by this silly mistake. The car looked good. He could have saved it for another couple of laps in qualifying, even if he could maybe have got to to Q2 today. I really think that with his improved pace,

with his improved form recently, I think Q2 was on the cards. I think that he could have beaten the harsh drivers, to be honest. Maybe at least Ricardo. though, I think he's let himself down, and I think he's costed the team here, which is a shame,

because I've tried to almost be quite fair with Logan Sargent recently, but I can't put my hands up to say anything other than this is entirely on him. I don't mind the error, because drivers are making errors left, right and centre this weekend. It's a damp track, it's very windy.

Conditions are tough. The issue is what he does with that incident, because so many drivers have had similar detours and just gone, okay, I'm going to abandon the lap and just, Logan just, he sticks in. He tries his best to carry it on. And there's just no, it would have been a risky move if it was qualifying,

let alone FP3. Like, he just needs to bail out of it as soon as he gets on that grass because it's not going to win well. Yeah, a silly mistake from a driver that is clearly down on confidence and this isn't going to help. Driver of the session? I'll have to go, Lando. When you plog three and a half tenths on the railing world champion,

it's home Grand Prix after the crew was that close together that was really quite marvelous it really was yeah I had three standouts Norris, Albin

and Gassley and honestly if Stroll continues through from Q1 and Q2 he'd have been in there as well but I am going to give it to Lando Norris as well

because if this was if this was spa and you stick three and a half temps on your nearest competitor that's impressive but this is not a long lap folks This is one minute tens that we were looking at there. More echo lap times.

Yeah, so three and a half temps. That is a long time in this format. So, yeah, I think it was very impressive. Be interesting to see if he can hold on to it tomorrow. Indeed. All right. I think that brings us to the close of our qualifying review. Ben, have you got a little quiz going on tonight?

I do, yes. It will be very, very close by the time you listen to this. So it's 9pm British time. So that makes it 4 p.m. Eastern, 1pm Pacific, if you're in the US. We've done a few of these before. It's usually last about an hour. Multiple choice questions.

Do not worry whatsoever based on your knowledge of F1 because it's just a fun time. It's not a series. Silly fun. Everyone is welcome. It's usually just, it's a good social hour, isn't it? Yeah, we have a good laugh. Yeah, excited to see as many views as possible.

It's in the Discord. There is a quiz channel if you're not in there already. And everything will become clear when we get going at nine. Good. Come and join us. It's a good old laugh. That is in the Discord. Join us. You can also get involved with the race review tomorrow when we ask for submissions on your moment of the race. You'll be asked through your audio submissions that we play.

That's where we do that as well. Patreon is available. So you think, oh, I've really enjoyed this review. We do loads of other stuff on Patreon that you can get for a very small amount of money. Classic race reviews. We did beer break, which we recorded last night. We did more Q&A questions. And we also talked about what car we're going to hire when we go to Oskin, Texas, which is a brilliant chick-chat. We also do things such as your birthday shoutouts, which will happen next week for August.

We do two other classic episodes that are just kind of normal, standing episodes, but everything is ag-free. You get loads of good value for money when you go over to Patreon, so check it out. There's literally a handful of tickets for the live show available. So if you are coming to Austin, Texas, there's a few tickets left.

You can get your hands on, and we'd love to see you there. Thank you to everyone that's bought them already. And I will be streaming on Twitch before and during the race tomorrow. So late-breaking podcast and Twitch, come and follow us. We appreciate them, love. and we will see you then in the meantime. I'll be Samuel Sage.

And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.