The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Las Vegas GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: November 23, 2024

It's a shock Top 3 for tomorrow's showdown! Ben and Sam discuss the Las Vegas qualifying session that saw contrasting fortunes for the Mercedes duo, a surprise performance from an Alpine, a less surprising Q1 exit from Perez, and an almighty crash from Colapinto that leaves his race participation in jeopardy... 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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Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying review. I am really trying my best to be upbeat and alive and awake. And it's not very convincing. I don't know. You did a very good job there. Because soon with the conversation we were having two. seconds ago before you started that, you really switching on, like a light switch, you are good to go. You are much more awake and alive in that Curiselle DRS section, which simply looks like

at HMV with some old posters stuck to the wall. It is an atrocious job. I kind of forgot what it was supposed to be until a couple of minutes to go in the session. I was like, oh, yeah, that's why that's, oh, yeah, okay, well, well done. It's like someone rang along with a stapler and a bit of paper and just thought, stick out on the wall, hope it works. It's a terrible job. Yeah, that's maybe how it actually went down. Shockingly, that's not actually making the rundown today

because there's too much to talk about on what happened during this qualifying session. A little bit on Colopinto's hefty crash in Q2. Vastappan and Perez contrasting fortunes in today's session. Some excellent Q3 appearances from not the top teams. We've got Ferrari and McLaren both getting through to Q3. but let's start out front with Mercedes. Again, contrasting fortunes of the Mercedes drivers, at least in Q3. They've been very quick all weekend long so far, leading all the free practice sessions.

George Russell, getting pole position when it matters most, Q3. Lewis Hamilton on the other side of things, he wasn't able to hook together a good lap, and he will be 10th starting tomorrow. Let's start with George Russell. Let's start with the positive. How impressed were you by him? Yeah, full round of applause to George. Russell.

It was, the season, as I've mentioned before, has been unlucky for George Russell. He has

regularly struck poor luck where he has been on the up when he's been having great performances. But finally,

it looks like all the die have rolled in his direction. If he were playing Yatsi, he would have a role of six,

which is a niche reference. I didn't think a game Yatsy. Yeah, a little bit of Yatsy on a Saturday morning. Why not?

But he smashed it. It's absolutely smashed it. The Mercedes is clearly flying here over one lap pace. The cooler conditions, as we predicted on our midweek show, are paying dividends to that Mercedes team. It seems like they can only run a car where it is 15 degrees or below. So maybe they

should start a new ice Formula One challenge or something like that and they might go back to being champions again. But George Russell is capitalizing. You need to get the heat into those tires. You need to make sure that you are mastering a very, very slippery surface on that Las Vegas track. And he's pulled it together. He had that little bump in the wall, which kind of showed a slight chink in the on that and you think, okay, a little bit of pressure here, but he masked it. He really conquered it. And he touched that wall almost at the perfect moment. If you're going to make a mistake, I guess that was the way to make it because it didn't cost him anything at all. He commanded that team that he go out last. He made sure that he was right at the end when the track was ramping up.

You saw the likes of Carlos Sines just how much time was available to these cars right at the end of that session. He was right to do such a thing. You saw the difference in how he handled it versus Lewis Hamilton, nailed it on poll. I think the weakness for them guys is going to be that their long run pace in comparison to the likes of Ferrari and McLaren just does not look substantial, does not look like they're going to be massively competitive.

So if George can hold on through the DRS zones, I'll be impressed. But he's put himself in the best position to do so tomorrow. Yeah, thoroughly impressive from Georgia. So as we know he can definitely hook up a qualifying lap. I don't think he gets quite enough credit for what he does compared to, I guess, a couple of years ago when he had the Mr. Saturday moniker,

which I'm very glad doesn't exist anymore. But there's some truth in it because, man, he pulled that out of the bag in Q3. There was a lot of chat about what sort of time would be necessary for a pole position and there was a lot of chat about a 132-5 would likely be enough. 132-3.

That's what George Russell had in his locker. So that's fairly impressive. Some of the margins that will get onto in Q3 were very interesting because he only gets pole positioned by just under one tenth of a second from Carlos Sines. But you look at some of his other would-be rivals, the McLaren's and the Ferrarians and well, at least the Ferrari of Charles LeClair, and he's got nearly half a second on Charles Leclair.

He's got like seven tenths of a second on the McLaren's. So he had a really impressive margin. That Mercedes, you're right, it just does seem to suit these conditions, particularly, You can tell early in the lap as well, they're able to get those tires cooking early. George Russell in that first sector, no one could touch him. And he was able to keep that advantage enough through the rest of the lap to seal what is, I don't want to say a comfortable pole position, but again, he has been quick all weekend long. So it's not like this came out of the blue.

It's very much a case of carrying on the form from those practice sessions, which, as we know, that hasn't always happened with Mercedes this year. They have had practice sessions where they've looked quick and then come to qualifying day and it's just they're not able to keep that advantage going. So yeah, fair play to George Russell. I have similar concerns about long run pace, at least in terms of my analysis,

I had them third fastest, a couple of attempts, maybe three or four attempts behind what McLaren and maybe Ferrari are able to do, but comparable to what Vestappi, and actually Perez was able to do in P2 yesterday. So it'll be intrigued. I'm really intrigued if George Russell can hold on to that pole position, if he can actually compete for the win tomorrow.

And equally, what Lewis Hamilton can do from 10th place. Because Hamilton did very much look on form alongside his teammate through the other couple of qualifying sessions, Q2 and Q1. But obviously two attempts in Q3, Sam, and both of them end up with errors. Yeah, Lewis Hamilton is going to be seething at this. He's going to be absolutely fuming. So uncharacteristic from Lewis Hamilton to make mistakes.

I know that we've seen throughout the season that qualifying hasn't been his forte. And I put that down a lot to, one, just not jelling with this form of car that the sagas have created, but two, I think he's checked out from that Mercedes drive a little bit. And I do think he had the bit between his teeth a little bit here at Las Vegas. I think the car matched how he liked to drive. I think he was a little. fired up from some of the comments we've heard come out of the Mercedes camp, whether they've been interpreted correctly or not correctly. I still think it's got under his skin a little bit.

And I think he kind of wanted to show everyone that he still got what it takes. So the fact that he comes into Q3, arguably as competitive as George Russell for the entire weekend so far. And pole position very much within reach, just like to put him on 33 different track polls across his career, which was an incredible feat nonetheless to have 32. But 33 will be lovely for him. he just can't get the lap done, not once but twice, with two separate mistakes that we essentially didn't see a single other driver make for this entire qualifying period. No one ran wide enough to invalidate their lap through that turn one, turn two sequence, the back end absolutely stepping out on him. And the way he locked those tires up going into that final sector to then have to obviously chuck a dung out and get back onto the track. It's a real disappointment from Lewis Hamilton.

At a moment where you think he's about to bounce back, he's really going to be on the front row here, he's going to be on the front row here, going to challenge, we'll get to see Lewis Hamilton, do what he does best, deliver under pressure, and pull something special out of the bag, which looked like it could be on the car today. He's absolutely fluffed his lines.

And I do think that come tomorrow in race conditions, he's going to struggle to get, I reckon, back past the top six. I think that Vastappen might be too far gone at that point. I think the Ferraris and the McLaren's are too fast on race conditions. I'd be shocked if he beats his teammate from here. It's just a wasted opportunity. Sure, he could get past some hars,

sure he could get past maybe Senoda Gasly, who is we'll get on to, but in that, you know, top four, incredible delivery from him. I don't know if he's going to get that far up the greed. I don't know if the car's fast enough to make up that much time. Really disappointed for Lewis.

He got into Q3, well done. But to bottle it like he did, it's a real disappointment. Yeah, fluffed his lines. I can't really put it any better than that. He did everything he needed to do in the weekend up to the point of Q3. but as we mentioned quite regularly on these qualifying reviews,

it doesn't really matter where you're finishing Q1 and Q2, as long as you're making it through to the next session. It's all about converting when it gets to Q3. And he did whatever the opposite of that is. Yeah, you've described both moments. He's had two attempts at it. We've had instances in the past where a driver has, let's say, messed up a first run.

And then the second run, someone has brought out a red flag or yellow flags and they haven't been able to convert on that second run. And we've said there's a bit of misfortune in that, but also that's why you've got to get the first run in. He got both in. And in both instances, he's fallen short. And you're right about some of the comments that he's made. I think we'll probably get on to those at some point at a later date

because there were some interesting ones out there about how he didn't really want to come back after Sao Paulo. And suddenly he turns up at Las Vegas. competitive car on the Friday. Again, make some comments about if the car's the same tomorrow, then I should be all right. It seemed to be the case that the car was pretty similar to the day before. But whereas his teammate has managed to convert a pole position, he's languishing down in 10th. And yeah, I'm not sure of all the positions in front of him, which are going to be available to him.

This might have been a good opportunity for his last win at Mercedes. we don't know what they're going to be like Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Maybe in some respects, I know he got the win at Belgium, but also Silverstone being the last on-track win might be a special moment that will go down in history. But I'm sure he wouldn't have turned down another opportunity. And it's going to be difficult from where he's starting tomorrow. Let's have a look at Ferrari and McLaren.

They're the top two in the Constructors Championship. A better day for Ferrari rather than McLaren. So Carlos Seins is joining George Russell on the front row of the grid. Charlotte-Clau's on the second row of the grid in fourth. You then will have to go all the way back to sixth place for the lead McLaren of Lando Norris. And then directly behind him will be Oscar Piastri in eighth. So a better day for Ferrari, but equally not a pole position, not a one-two. Given they're the ones that need to make up the ground.

Can they still consider this day to be a good one? I think so. the one lap pace of that Ferrari never looks like it was going to be their absolute strength today. They look strong on qualifying as always. The Ferrari's been quick for this latter half of the season, yes,

but I don't think they ever looked like they had the outright pace. Same as McLaren, actually. It never looked like they were going to be the dominant force in qualifying from the practice stage that we had. The Seegis did look like they were going to be on top there, and we saw that today. I think what's positive for Ferrari is their long-form pace doesn't look to be as strong as McLaren's only marginally,

but it does seem to be slightly weaker, but they've got themselves in front, and they've got themselves in front by quite a margin at this point as well. There's a couple of cars in between them. If the likes of Gasley, who we've seen, hold up faster cars for a long period of time in previous Grand Prix, can do that job again for them, and they could get a good start,

they could produce enough of a gap between themselves and McLaren to ensure that actually they score the points they need to keep this Constructors Championship alive. I also think that the two cars they've got in front of them, of course, for Staffordes around them, George Russell's around them. I think they're both faster than those on race conditions.

If they can get that great start, getting front early and start building the gap out, Charles LeClerc and surprise of the session for me, other than Pierre Gasley, Carlos Sainz, who jumped up at the end there fantastically well, could really deliver a hammer blow to McLaren if they can deliver another one too, whilst the likes of McLaren

are trying to scrap their way back through the top 10 to fight for those top three positions. Yeah, imagine saying to Carlos Sainz, you're going to out-qualify your teammate, who doesn't make an error, by nearly four tenths of a second, but also it's not going to be pole. But even so, being on the front row,

very impressive for Carlos Sines. Yeah, I agree with your analysis on this one in that I didn't think they would be faster than McLaren in this session. I thought McLaren would have the edge on them, at least in terms of one lap pace. And I think actually leading up to Q3, that was roughly where it was looking like it was going.

But whereas Q3 to Q2, McLaren just didn't make any, progress whatsoever and what they were able to do in the middle session. Ferrari were able to, or at least in the case of Carlos Sines, really, able to make some ground up on where they were. You know, Carlos Sines' Q2 lap was a 32-7 and then he delivers a 32-4 when it comes to Q3. So I think their long-run pace looks pretty good. They'll like where they're at. And this track, these conditions, whereas Mercedes, as you say, should probably start their own form of ice Formula One. Ferrari would like the opposite of that F1 in the Sahara Desert every month because

they cannot warm up their tyres very well at all. I think that was evident. What was evidence of that was how good they were at the end of every lap that they did and struggling in the first sectors. Bear in mind, like against George Russell's first time, I think, not his second time. LeClaire was what, like four tenths slower than Russell in that first sector? There was a real gap. You saw the sector difference where George was purple, green. the Ferrari for regularly yellow, only just green in that first sector. Yeah, exactly. So they really, they really built as the lap went on.

I think Ferrari might have been secretly a little bit worried that if that tire warmup went really wrong, they could have faced an early surprise Q1 elimination or a Q2 elimination here. And I think they will be quite happy that they have avoided that. I am also quite happy that they've avoided that because I've gone all out on Ferrari in my fantasy team. Have you? Have you committed?

I was quite worried going into that session. So thank you very much to both drivers for pulling through for me. I'm very happy that I also put Ferrari and Leclair as my upper level for once. I've managed to change my constructors. I've got Ferrari and McLaren now. So come on, fingers crossed. Cooking with three to go. Yeah.

It's not disastrous for McLaren down in sixth and eighth. They can definitely make some overtakes in this Grand Prix. But yeah, they, Ferrari have got an opportunity tomorrow to really make up some ground in that constructors' championship. And of course, time's running out. So they probably need to get that done. Yeah, if Ferrari could bring home the one to a McLaren finish three, four, that's what about an 18 point swing in terms of Ferrari's difference there.

That really brings it into contention. We go to under one race wing in the difference for that fight for the constructors. It's immediately risk, you know, risk for McLaren, you've got to start delivering immediately. Ferrari almost can put the pressure on here and I've got nothing to lose. Yeah, I think they'll be hoping that, especially George Russell, they'll be fast enough to pass him. But the gap, at least between Piastri and Russell on the starting grid, of course,

first down to eighth, maybe Russell would be fast enough to keep one or both McLaren's behind. We'll see. Okay, let's take a short break on this episode. On the other side, we've still got plenty of chat about Pierre Gazley, Sergio Perez, and Franco Colopinto. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine.

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Let's focus on some of the other members of the top 10 because they absolutely do deserve some attention, the spotlight for what they were able to achieve. kind of got this battle now for sixth place in the Constructedist Championship between three teams. And each of those teams had a representative in Q3, Pierre Gasley for Alpine, Yuki Sonoda for RB, and then Nika Holkenberg for Hass. Holkenberg's going to start ninth, Sunoda's going to start seventh, but we'll start with the star of those three. Pierre Gasly, who qualified fourth here last year and was probably thinking, I'll do well to beat that. He did. He'll start third tomorrow, I can't believe it. The man has been on such a role of fantastic performances. Even the outlier in

Brazil where he was beaten by his teammate, you almost feel harsh for saying that P3 was the lesser performance of the two because that was a sensational drive from him there again as well. He's had multiple Q3 appearances now in a row essentially. I don't know if they're giving Gassi all the upgrades at Al-Ping and maybe just the severe weather made the difference between Ocon and Gassi's car in Brazil. But he's destroying O'Conn at the moment when it comes to qualifying performances. And it wouldn't make sense to favour Gassley, considering that he will be their lead driver next year. And as we know, O'Con is leaving for Haas after they fired him for crashing into his teammate in Monaco. But this is just almost a bizarre turn of form. The Alping has struggled

so much for about so much of the season. And to see it up there beating both McLaren's, beating a Ferrari, beating a Mercedes, beating Red Bulls. It is a very bizarre. our turn of form. But well done to Pierre Gassi. He's absolutely delivering and he's keeping their P6 in the championship hopes alive. I am, this one of being a bold prediction that if you have turned out to me, I've said, I don't think so. I mean, it'll get into Q3 maybe, but I don't think this is going to happen. He's absolutely delivered another worldly performance. Speaking of bold predictions, if my bold prediction of a Mercedes in the top two doesn't come true tomorrow.

I'll be really annoyed. Also, showing 13th and Isaac Salma Pete top 12. Fair point. If that could happen, please. We'll give Joe a mention a little bit later on, I reckon, because that again was a fine effort.

Yeah, what an effort from Gassley. I don't think, and I've said this a couple of times this season, I don't think O'Conn's massively underperformed here. I think there was an opportunity for Ocon to get through to Q3 like his teammate, but equally, I think this car probably would be around 9th or 10th. I think it's just Gassley has massively outperformed what that car is capable of doing. And we saw the sign of it, like, there was a lot of attention on Franco Colopinto naturally at the end of Q2. But just as Colapinto crashes, Gassley gets fourth place in Q2, which, at least on UK commentary, David Croft, very quickly mentions before understandably getting back to what was going on with Colopinto.

So it would have been easy just to, I don't know, forget that that actually happened. But then he follows through into Q3 as well. He does a 32-7, which was a great effort in Q2, and then realizes, actually, I've got a bit more time than that. I've got a couple more attempts, if you'd like them. Which, yeah, what an effort. The fact that he's out-qualified Shaolachar by over a 10th, he's out-qualified a couple of McLaren's by a few tenths of a second.

Completely unexpected. But, yeah, a real chance for him tomorrow, even if he falls back down, as you would expect he will. If he falls back five positions, he's still getting valuable points. He's against the two cars. He's in front of the two cars rather than he needs to be in front of. At the end of the day, that is all that matters to Alpin. Speaking of those two cars, Sonoda 7th, splits the McLaren's.

Holcomberg 9th, obviously out-qualifies Hamilton, who didn't get a representative time in. What did you make of their efforts? Yeah, I think Sonoda has, after some rather interesting comics before the weekend, about his Red Bull evaluations where he said, I'm just going to keep destroying my teammates until I get promoted.

Some spicy comments in there. For a legal man, that is big talk and I respect it. I'm not sure how true it necessarily is in comparison to some teammates currently, but we could get into those at a later date. But he has delivered here today and after nearly being denied entry

after they didn't believe he was a Formula One driver, which is also a hilarious story. Yeah, he sticks it well inside the top 10. P7. really good result. The fact that he's the closest Red Bull family driver to Maxa Stappen, again, says a lot to you. And he's managed to be a hars car,

where I would say due to practice, the harsk has some moments where it looks really, really pacey. I do think Kevin Magnuson probably falls victim of the Colopinto ink scene and means that he can't get himself into Q3. We'll say it before, though, get the lap in first time. You're able to then deliver it, but bad timing. He doesn't make it through. It's got Kevin Magnuson directly behind him on the starting grid, of course.

it's going to be difficult for him to hold off that heart car. I do think he might be one of those that maybe slips to the back of the top 10. It's going to be difficult in comparison to Alping as well. I do think that that RB is the slowest of those three teams fighting for P6. So I think he's done a tremendous job to outdo his teammate and

to stick it comfortably inside that top 10. I think it'd be easy to look at just Gassley's effort and give him all the attention. And it would be somewhat understandable. But I think Sunoda's done up really good job there to get to seventh because I'm not convinced that car's very fast around here. And actually, you know, Liam Lawson is 15th. He was 15th in Q1. So he barely scrapes

through does Lawson into Q2. And then he abandons his lap before the Colopinto Pinto crash in Q2. So you've got 15th in back-to-back sessions for him. Sonoda obviously delivers to get through to Q3 in the first instance and then puts together a lap that's good enough to beat a McLaren, which on any other day, would be even more of a talking point on a day where Ghazly beats both of them and a Ferrari. It becomes less of a talking point. But yeah, I was really impressed by what Sonoda was able to do. Holkenberg, maybe he'll be a bit annoyed that he couldn't hook up a slightly better lap in Q3

to get ahead of one or two other drivers. Obviously, he takes advantage of Hamilton not setting a lap time to at least get ninth. But yeah, I think Hasse did look like they were the kings of the midfield. So it'd be interesting to see if on race pace, he's able to get by Yuki Sonoda, if he's able to challenge Ghazly at all. But in all three instances, actually, Ghazley-Sinoda and Holkenberg, I think they've all delivered on what they've needed to today. Yeah, that Hulk performance, whilst the worst of the three,

I think it's going to end up being looking like a disappointment for Hulk, but it shouldn't. He's once again put himself into Q3. It's his 10th Q3 appearance of the season. He's essentially been there for 50% of the season. And a car that, especially for the first half, looked very, very uncompetitive in comparison to those like the Aston Martin, and the Sages that, of course, was struggling, but still far better than that Haas.

So the fact that he's been there for 50% of the sessions is a real credit to how consistent he has been. I think the race pace will be interesting to see how that turns out against the RB. I wonder if Gassie's already done enough to separate himself on those two behind him. It was a stellar drive. And it's also one of those instances as well where the positions themselves don't always give everything away and you need to look at the margin. between the drivers.

He's half a tenth off of Lando Norris. So those sort of four drivers, he's at the back of those four drivers, but they were very close to McLarence himself and Sonoda. Let's get on to the only other person we haven't spoken about in Q3, Max Verstappen. He's going to start on the third row of the grid in fifth, which is 11 positions higher than where his teammate Sergio Perez will start, was knocked out in Q1.

what did you make of their efforts? Max Verstappen is starting exactly where I predicted that Red Bull to have been. It very much feels like it's playing around that third, fourth, fastest car level, but it's got Max for stabbing in it, so that immediately elevates the ability of that car immediately. Fifth place is very solid. He's got cars in front of him that I think he'll go, yeah, fair enough until you get to third place, you go, wait a minute,

what's that pink thing that's sitting in front of me now? that will be the only one I think he's actually disappointed to have lost to. The same way I go full circle and get him back as a teammate. Imagine. To be fair, if these performances currently, they'd be stupid not to consider it. Yeah, that would be the one that I think he's gone, damn, I get Leclero, I get science, I get even Russell at this track at the moment. But how has Ghastly done that?

But the fact that he's still, a heck of Lando Norris, who is essentially the only driver he needs to consider beating to make sure that he brings home his key objective and realistically Red Bull's only objective. the driver's championship. He's done everything in each. He's three points. He needs over Norris. Currently, he gains that three points

difference and it's enough for him to be champ. So he's done the job once again. Sergio Perez, though, watching the giant sphere version of Sergio Perez roast real-life driver version of Sergio Perez as he goes around the track on his out lab is absolutely brutal. See a colossal version of yourself,

giving a big thumbs down at you. He's smiling while he's doing it. as well. That makes it worse. It's right. Rubbing it in, isn't it? He's really rubbing it in. Yeah,

real savage turn of eggs. And a new meme, Ben, as you showed us in the picture, a new meme unlocked for us to use when something goes wrong. But Sergio,

you're at a street circuit. You are Mr. Street Circuit, as dubbed by not me, the F1 community, I'm sure. That song came out of them. And I think

that realistically, he should have done more. The Red Bull hasn't been phenomenal here. It's got been phenomenal. realistically for a little while now, but the pace has been improving over the last few Grand Prix. A Q3 appearance should have been a definite here. I'm again, disappointed, but the worst part for Sergio, I'm not even surprised anymore.

When that happens, I went, okay, yeah, sure. And that's the worst part about this for Sergio Perez now. It's just the norm, which in a Red Bull is a shocker. I very want to quickly, I want to quickly get out of the way my half-baked Timpho hat theory that I have developed 30 seconds ago when you mentioned Pierre Gasly and how he was ex-teammates to Max Verstappen and how Alpine is showing interest in Franco Colopinto, which on paper doesn't make any sense because they haven't got any availability next year. Maybe it's because Red Buller Fancy and Gasly for that second seat. Hey, if they're thinking about Sonoda and then think, actually, What if we get the guy who was very comfortably beating Sonoda before he left? Ooh. If this turns out to be true, I want this clipped.

If it doesn't turn out to be true, let's forget about it. Let your junior drivers have more time to develop, and you just won't have the problems. And how you're giving the old guy too much time? Anyway, yeah, Max must happen. I don't have too much to say about him in that he delivered roughly where I thought he was going to be as well. In fairness, like it looked horrible yesterday in terms of that one lap pace.

If you'd have offered him, I don't think Vestappen will ever be happy if you offer him worse than first place. But given what happened yesterday, he probably would have been okay enough with it. Sergio Perez, it's really disappointing actually this one because his long run pace looks fine. At least in terms of what he was able to do in Q2, him and Vestappan's times, nothing in it. Vastappen maybe by a 10th, but barely anything in it. And it is a street circuit. He did get a podium here last year. He's shown competitiveness at this type of circuit and this exact circuit before.

And you just think if he's able to get through to Q3 and give himself something of a solid starting position, he might be able to make something of this race. But that's a long old way from 16th. It's not like he had plenty of attempts to get through. And none of them did he show a lot of pace, a lot of grip. it's going to be really tricky. Christian Horner yesterday had comments about how we need two cars in the fight

and here's an example of where they haven't. It's not great timing in that regard. So like you say, you can't be overly surprised by Q1 eliminations for Sergio Perez at this point because he's had a fair few of them. But at this particular circuit, given the pace he showed yesterday in long run, it's pretty disappointing.

it is a real disappointment. I still think it's a bit up in the air what they do with that seat at the end of the season. I know the Kit Kat Sponsorship a lot of people feel that means he's locked in, but maybe it is really time for him to take a break. That was crafty levels, that was? It's five past eight in the morning, come on.

Leave it out. One driver who did make it through to Q2, but very definitively made sure he didn't make it through to Q3 was Franco Colopinto. He out-qualifies his, teammate. Alex Album was knocked out in Q1. Colopinto makes it through to Q2. In his last run, in the dying seconds of the session, he crashes into the wall. I say crashes. That was a big old hit, Sam. Mate, he spaffed that. He's absolutely spaffed it into the wall, is what he's done.

Unperated word. Yeah, it is smeared down the side of that Las Vegas barrier. God, I feel bad for Williams and their mechanics. That is five serious crashes. is in the last three Grand Prix now, four of them being for Franco. They were struggling to make this race. They were. Parts are limited. It's costing them a lot of money.

They've got to build them and turn them around, of course, there's a cost cap to think about. There's development for next year that budget is getting eating into. It's not as simple as, oh, you've crashed. We'll just produce another part

and ship it out quickly. This is a really difficult turnaround. And because of these triple headers that we have, it means that they have so little time to produce any new parts and get them out as should. They crash again and say practice next week in Qatar, despite having a whole country of runoff.

You know, it's going to put them under serious pressure at the end of the season. Colopinto was brought in to mitigate the risk that Logan Sargent was bringing to that team. And I know that Brazil was tricky conditions, but he has now had quite a few incidents. It's his seventh Grand Prix. He's had some time to settle. The place really is there. He's a very quick young driver. But these are mistakes that you shouldn't be making.

No one else is coming here that wall. No one else has made a mistake like that. And risking it for a lap that could get you maybe a Q2 such Q3 performance, it feels like an unnecessary risk. And there's a real chance. He doesn't start this Grand Prix now. He's already beating his teammate quite comfortably. Just stop risking it every centimeter of the way

and causing your team millions of damage and hours and hours of difficult labor. I was disappointed when I saw it. But, of course, the main part is he got out. He was fine. immediately and the safety of these cars, despite that car being absolutely shredded, it looks like he was totally okay, which again is always amazing to see. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I don't have all that much to add because I agree with your thoughts on this.

He does the first part well in that Alex Albin does not make it through to Q2 and he does. That's what you're supposed to do against your teammate. Well done. the problem is that Franco Colopinto was at least in part drafted into this role because of the amount of crash damage that Logan Sargent was causing and he's not solved that. He keeps crashing himself. Now, of course, he's showing a lot more pace than Logan Sargent really ever did, which is certainly a plus point for Williams. And I do think at least it is cool, like they do have a good driver there, but rough around the edges probably wouldn't cover it. it because a lot of people were quick to crown Colopinto in those first few races, and I was a bit more hesitant to do so, because whilst there is a lot of pace there, if you're driving at

what Colopinto seems to drive every lap at 103%, which on a lot of laps is going to get you some quick times, and on a lot of laps, it's going to get you something like this. And he needs to tone it down ever so slightly. Now, the good news for Williams is that I, I, again, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't start the race tomorrow. The good news for them is they don't really have anything riding on these last few races unless you think that Salba are going to make the most epic comeback of all time. Because of Alpine's points hall that they got in Brazil, they're kind of just by themselves in ninth place now.

So that's good news to an extent in that it's probably not going to cost them anything in terms of championship position. But yeah, if this is, if Franco Colopinto doesn't race tomorrow, that's one race less of experience that he could have got. Yeah. Again, he looked like he had solid plays. Maybe he gets through to Q3. Maybe he has a chance.

But this sort of incident is currently what's holding him back. We have to remember he's still a rookie. He's only done what a third, a quarter of a season. These sorts of mistakes do and can and do happen. But that's three crashes in two races. That's too much. Yeah, that gets a lot of damage. The only team that had two cars knocked out in Q1 was Aston Martin.

Thanks to Joe Guanyu making it through to Q2. Your thoughts firstly on Joe's performance to get out of Q1 where he has frequently been the slowest qualifier this year. And then also some more difficulty for Aston Martin. Yeah, I mean, Joe Guangzhou, you do deserve a little bit of a round of applause here because we, and we've given credit to the Botteys for getting himself into Q2 on a regular basis, it feels like,

on the last few Grand Prix. But Joe, different level to get in comparison to Bottas. It looked like Bottas came up matching. Joe only his third time getting into Q2 and maybe one of his most impressive qualifying performances that I've seen from him since he came into Formula One. He really elevated that car.

I think it's the flame shirt that they're definitely wearing underneath those overalls. I think you're right. It's bigger green. and it's a flaming machine. That's all they needed was a flame livery. I respect it, honestly. They've gone all out with it,

and I think it looks, wait for it, flames. Well done to show you. Well done. It was a really, really good performance. And I'm glad that we're giving it some recognition. But Aston Martin, the lame green car, what it feels like for this Grand Prix, where's your pace gone?

Well done to the team for getting Lance Stroll out and onto the racetrack. But essentially, you may as well not have risked it. you may as well not have bothered and giving up your time because if the setup, of course, would have been super poor. The lack of running means that he wouldn't have been able to maybe send him up for qualifying properly.

Longstrol isn't the quickest driver anyway. So you're kind of putting a lot on the line for what could have been a one glory run and could have turned into more damage repair. A longso as well. The car is clearly poor. It's clearly a big bag of poo because if Alonkso can't get himself into Q2

and stroll is languishing right on the back row of the grid, what's going on? with that car. What's going on with development? I hope they are saving up absolutely everything for a 2026 push because their form is tumultuous. That's the thing, because when you've got Fernando Alonzo in one of your cars, you've got nowhere to hide in that you can't really point a finger at your driver's not being good enough because Fernando Alonzo has won two world championships. So if Fernando Alonzo is slow in your car, it's probably because your car is slow. And that's that's where they've got to at this point.

This wasn't some flute result. This is legitimately where they are. They are on the same pace of Salba now. The slowest two cars on the grid are Aston Martin and Salba, and then there's a big jump to whoever you want to put in eighth. Of course, Aster Martin secured enough points at the beginning of this season that it's not going to hurt them too much. They'll still finish in the top half of the championship,

probably just when the season comes to an end. But it's a good thing they did get so many points early. on because they have no prospect of scoring at this point in the season. Obviously, Landstrol had the issue, which meant he only got one run in. Based on that, I don't think he's actually done a bad job at all, Lance Strohl. I know he's qualified last, but to be within just over two tenths of your teammate, when you do only have that one run at the end of Q3, I think that's all right. But yeah, they're just, they're not on it.

And to both be outqualified by Zhoguan Yu, Zhugean Yu did a great job. We don't give him a lot of credit on this podcast in the nicest way possible. He doesn't give us too many reasons to be nice to him. But he does a great job today. He's within one second of the fastest time in Q1. He's within one second of the fastest time in Q2. And he out-qualifies Valtry Bottas by three and a half tenths of a second. Good stuff all round.

Yeah, fair play to you, Jouang. Well done. I suppose the only positive Aston Martin could take away is if they've pulled development of this car after going, we have enough points of where we are in the championship. We aren't going to move up and we aren't going to be caught, put all development into the next couple of years,

which would make sense. My only worry there is, every time they try and go rogue on their development, it backfires and they have to go back about six races to find an older chassis that was the same level of pace anyway. So I'm not convinced. I'm not either. I mean, they brought

a significant upgrade to Austin, which is roughly where all the other teams brought their last significant upgrade. Based on that, they're probably on the same development path as the other teams. We'll wait and see. Again, 2026 is clearly the target here, but they, I think they are right there with Salban now. Before we go, driver of the session, Sam. Pierre Gasly, easy. Ling green, no, it's pink, the hot pink machine, in P3 as a French baguette, it's pretty damn impressive. I mean, it's quite right that you get your sausage is out for that one, I think.

I love how that sentence, if it makes no sense without context of being an LB fan. Garry, yeah, you put that on a quote somewhere on like a billboard, like everyone would go, what is this guy on about? Baguette, sausages, is he thinking about his breakfast? Like, what's he talking about? It's 10 past 8 in the morning.

I'd love a sausage baguette. Oh, yeah, I'm all over that. Pierre Gasley, yes, is driver of the session for me. Shout out as well to, obviously, George Russell getting pole position. Sonoda as well I do think did a great job

and Joe Guan you in 13th deserves a shout as well but I am I am going to go with Pierre Gasley like you well that'll do it for our qualifying review Sam we're going to be back in about 24 hours time yes we will be up bright and early and we definitely love that

and we're not complaining about it thank you Formula One and Las Vegas 24 hours we'll be here for the full race review if you are a Patreon subscriber you will get your power rankings as well on Monday where we go through every single driver's performance. We give them a rating and we have a full season of ratings that we'll be talking about at the end of the season to see who our driver of the season and worst driver of the season is.

That's the link in the description. You can check that out and it supports the show massively. Discords there as well if you want to get your submission in for the review show that comes tomorrow. You can do that there. Follow us on social's late breaking F1 and you can watch all of our content on YouTube late breaking F1 as well and we will see you in 24 hours in the meantime. I've been Samuel Sake. And I've been Ben Hocking and remember keep

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