The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Mexican GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: October 27, 2024

Ben and Sam review the Mexican GP Qualifying session that has given us a spicy Top 4 for tomorrow's race with the smooth operator coming out on top! The boys chat through the top performers, Haas' double Q3 feature, the Albon-Colapinto teammate battle, and of course, the disastrous Q1 exits of Piastri and hometown hero Perez... 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. Welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing qualifying from the Mexican Grand Prix. We're back in our home offices, Sam. It's boiling here. Temperature's great.

Yes, it's gorgeous sunshine outside. and I can see the arid landscape of, oh, no, no, it's misty and it's cold, and I'm next to London, and I am sad. Let's start the review before we start crying. We have actually got plenty to talk about on this qualifying review. Thank you to the F1 gods for giving us plenty to talk about. We've got Q1 eliminations for both Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri coming up. We've got a bit on Hasse and RB and how both Hasse cars made it for its Q3.

Both RB cars, not making it for its Q3. A bit on that and the reason why. Mercedes, fifth and sixth, far review of their third row lockout. But it makes sense to start out front. So the top four in tomorrow's race will look like this. Carlos Sines in his Ferrari qualifying on pole position and joining him on the front row in the same position he started the United States Grand Prix, Max Verstappen, Lano Norris, who was on pole last week, will be third.

And then Charles Leclair and the other Ferrari will be fourth. Starting with Carlos Sines, Sam, since he was on pole. he looked pretty good out there, didn't he? Didn't see it coming, but good Lord, the boy's fans of form. He was good in Singapore. He was fantastic in Cota, and I think results went against him in Cota, right? We saw going through turn one that he kind of just didn't get the lucky line that LeCler ending up guessing. And maybe that was qualified him there as well.

What's outqualified to Clure again there. And he was great in the sprint. We saw the pace was fantastic as well. And then we come to Mexico, the third track in this kind of orange run and circuits that we've got here. And he, we didn't call it. No one called it. No one on the show. I haven't heard of him.

I'm going to go on social. Science is going to grab pole. But he wasn't just on pole over his team, mate. He was three places in front of the kid. LeCler's back there and fourth. And it's baffering to me now that Red Bull didn't want to promote him. Ferrari don't want to keep him. He's having to go to a team like Williams.

That's no disrespect to Williams in terms of their heritage, what they've achieved. But look at where they are. For a driver like Carlos Sainz, he might not always be the absolute top dog in the sport, but good Lord, can he pull out a result. He's so consistent. He's so strong. So he slammed it on pole. And what a lap it was,

it was a brilliant, brilliant qualifying lap. He was probably my fourth or fifth pick for a pole position today, but he showed up. It was such a great drive. Especially when the car looked a little bit shaky throughout a lot of the sessions previously in practice

and then through the earlier parts of qualify. Coming out that final corner, a lot of fish tailing, you saw Leclero, his final lap actually, struggling to get the power planted. So it wasn't the easiest car to drive. Science Master did. The smooth operator is bad.

First of mine poll since Singapore last year. So over a season since that. Conditions were tough out there. That was not an easy poll position to go ahead and grab. And I'm only going to change what you said, Sam, by one letter. Because I don't think it was a good lap. I think it was good laps plural. One indicator that I always look towards is of true pace is how you're doing on both of those laps.

Obviously, only one needs to count. But certainly looking at both can give you a good representation of where a car and a driver's at. Both of those laps were good enough for pole, which given the strength of the field, given Ferrari had maybe a marginal advantage, but equally I think Vastappen and Norris and equally Piastrian Perez could have been in the fight. It wasn't like Ferrari we were expecting going in here. It's going to be a one-two, no doubt about it. There were multiple challenges to that pole position. So to not only deliver that final lap that was good enough for pole, to deliver two laps that was good enough for poll. I thought was incredibly impressive. Of course, he went purple,

purple in the first two sectors on that final lap. He didn't actually improve in the final sector. He didn't need to. But again, I think that just shows as he was able to get into the 115's, what a great effort he did. And to be honest, he was, he felt at one with the car really from the moment that they started. Even if Ferrari early on, it looked like they were going to be in a bit of a dogfight with Red Bull and McLaren. Charles LeCler was struggling at the end. of Q1. He was the one that was having to put together a lap quite late on to ensure he didn't avoid a, to make sure he avoided a Q1 elimination, a surprise Q1 elimination. Carlos Seins, there was no drama at all with him. He was straight through. And all throughout the session,

it felt like Charlerc, who was struggling a little bit with the car, even on his quickest lap, he was struggling through the middle sector. Carlos Seins was absolutely on it. He maintained that advantage. It was a tenth, sometimes three temps, as it ended up being here in the middle. the final part of Qualley. But yeah, Carlos Sainz, he deserves a lot of respect for what he was able to do. That was, again, not an easy pole position took time. What did you make of his reaction over the radio being? Good. Good. I love that. I love the way he was like, good. Get him. It's good to hear it. Man is not wrong. You know what? It was good. And I don't mind him saying good twice because it was that good. Yeah, you're right to bring up that first lap, actually, because

obviously Vestappen disallowed, cut the corner. And he was, I think, 0.0.05 away from Vastappen's time. with the corner cut. So essentially that both those laps, both clean maps, were quite dominant considering that that field is meant to be so, so very close. So before Vestappen got that lap time deleted, it looked like Vastappen might have had the edge, but you've got to do it cleanly. You've got to do it within the rules as Vestappen has preached so many times in the last week. He did not.

And science really really got the job done. I mean, I think with that Vestappen first lap, I could be wrong. I think that first lap was looking at a 1-163, whereas Vastappen's second lap was an improvement by about two attempts to a 16-1. Ultimately, I don't think that first lap from Vastappen ended up mattering. Of course, we didn't know that at the time. So Vastappen did put a little bit of extra pressure on himself. He still managed to improve on that invalidated lap, but it wasn't enough.

But given where his teammate is, is it still a good result for him to be on the front row? Yeah, Max Vastappen, front row of the grid. It looked a little bit uncertain for him. We had a lap deleting at the start there. But the gap between Max Verstappen and Perez, I think Max will still be very happy with this. We know that car hasn't got the same ability that it's high since the start of the season. Even with upgrades coming through, it's never reached the full potential that we thought it might have had at the start of the season. The development hasn't gone the way they're expecting it to.

They've never regained that dominant factor that maybe McLaren have picked up. Now, Ferrari seemingly looked like they have a little bit here and there. But Verstappen is driving the nuts and bolts off that Formula One car. To be 15 places clear of Perez at your home turf, it's embarrassing. It's not good enough. It's not good enough that the car has nothing different about them. Those cars are on parity. Upgrades apply to both cars.

Tires exactly the same as both cars. You're anything different. There are two factors. Set up. Set up does not make up 15 places. It does not make that much of a difference. Over a second in lap time is not good enough. The other one, of course, is the driver's ability.

Sergei Perez has been on a downward spiral. He's at one peak, and that was Baku. But the rest of the season has been a downward spiral, and this is really capping it off. So not only being not... You got got to talk with Piastri. Sure, some saving grace. You're still behind Piastry.

You're still the worst of the lot. At your home Grand Prix, you think with the home crowd as Nigel Mansell said, giving you a few extra tents in ability. this is a real letdown. Red ball will be looking at this and thinking, God, no wonder we're not going to winning any championships here in terms of constructors.

Max is fighting for his life for the drivers. Perez is letting the side down. Max is doing everything he can do. He's still qualified Norris. It's all he needs to do. And we'll speak more on Perez and Piastri's struggles a little bit later on in the episode two. In terms of Vestappen,

I think it was a good result anyway, but given the essentially full wipeout of Friday practice for him, Like he had engine problems throughout all of five laps. Yeah, exactly. Like he basically went into FP3 without having really run the car all weekend, which is why, if you look at the FP3 data from earlier today, pretty much everyone is focusing on those qualifying sims. The only driver who is at least somewhat focused on long run pace is Max Verstappen because

he's making up for lost time. So you would use that as a slight excuse if he was to underperform here. and he just didn't anyway. He's delivered a great lap at the end of Q3. Obviously, he tried his luck earlier on in Q3 in validating his lap at turn two. But even so, like, he was able to recover it. So ultimately, you only need one lap in qualifying to count,

and he delivered a very good lap. If it weren't for Carlos Sines, obviously, he would have been leading the pack. And we know that Vassappan's main battle right now, driver's championship-wise, is with Lando Norris. And in that respect, he's won today. He's one by one position. The only thing I will say, though, is would he rather start P3?

It's one of the very rare tracks, maybe the only track on the grid, where you would argue that P3 maybe is a better starting position than P2. I think at the start tomorrow, it sounds very weird. I think Vastappen even needs to get an absolutely brilliant getaway, or one that is maybe the same as Carlos Sines. Because if he gets a slightly better start than Carlos Sines, he's going to be alongside him with no slipstream. and Lando Norris and Charles

LeClerh behind are going to have that slipstream and be really menacing into that first corner. Yeah, they brought up that Charlotte Clare has qualified fourth, two races in a row. And there is every chance that come turn one, he might be leading out of turn one for two races in a row. The slipstream down into that turn one is phenomenal.

There's probably three tracks on the whole calendar that I think you could probably get away with what's starting on the front row, have a good chance of leading. We just had one in Cota where you could probably be in the top five or six. And if things go your way, can lead. The other one before that is pretty

Monza. Well, yeah, Spain, I suppose so. It's a long run. It's a long run. Okay, it's a few. But, you know, Monser is another key one. And here, Mexico. And at this point of the season, where you're trying to fight off every single point, you need to make sure you hold off enough people as possible. Mexico is so tough to do that. So you

might be right. LeCler and Norris might actually be starting on what we might dub as strategic front row. P3 and P4 might be the best place to be tomorrow. Yeah, quite possibly. Looking slightly further back to fifth and sixth place, that's where we find the Mercedes duo. That wasn't quite how it went in Cota, but you would probably argue pace-wise, it seems pretty similar, in that they are somewhat in No Man's Land. I mean, George Russell is about a tenth of a second away

from being in that Lecler and Norris fight. Hamilton is a further three-tems back, so he was only a couple of attempts away from Magnuson and further back. But it does seem as if they are far too good for the midfield right now, but equally, just unable to compete with the top three teams. I mean, that Mercedes, what an absolute handful. Call it a Bayblade, you know, let it rip and watch it spin. Because the thing has gone off the track in what, three of the last four competitive sessions, one of them has put it in the wall, Antingelli had issues, Hamilton's had issues, Russell's had issues.

I think it's like the last four competitive days. Yeah, right? That is atrocious for a team like Mercedes. That is awful. It's abhorrent form. The car is, and I think we can rightly blame the car at this point. It's clearly got some natural pace to it. It's clearly faster than the likes of Aston Martin, R.B. Hars, yes, obviously.

But when it's that difficult to drive, when it's quite literally on an life edge, you've got drivers like Lewis Hamilton, who can't hold on to this thing after the cars, he's driven. Russell's doing a great job, putting it where he did, fifth place. He's the best it could ever be. And I think they're lucky. I think they're lucky that Piastri and Perez were knocked out in Q1, because I think if they were flying, if they were confident getting the results they should have been getting,

it easily would have been further back. It easily will have been seventh and eighth, and they're being even closer to a drop zone area. Hamilton didn't look comfortable in Q1. There was a risk that he could have gone as well. It's a state, isn't it? If they don't focus on 2026 and nailing these problems, this entire regulation change between 2022 and the end of 2025

will be a total waste of time for that team because they're achieving nothing. They just don't know how that car ticks. Yeah, I mean, the bad news is as well in terms of race-paced analysis on this. It doesn't look much better. It looks about the same as what they've displayed here in qualifying. Of course, George Russell, there's a bit less race-paced data to look at because of his crash yesterday.

But I think given that, Russell's probably done a pretty good job here. He's not, again, not that far off the two or three drivers ahead of him. And actually in Q3, I believe his fastest lap, he only had one personal best sector, which was his middle sector. He had yellows in sector one and sector three. So if he was able to pull together those three sectors, maybe he's able to get it on the second row. but even that would have been a stretch. From Lewis Hamilton's perspective, he set two laps and they were both over seven tenths of a second off.

He didn't improve on a second run, but he was only, I think, half a tenths slower than his first run. So two attempts, not able to factor in with that top five. That's a bit worrying from Lewis Hamilton's perspective. But like you say, that card does not look like an easy one to drive. Lewis Hamilton himself was questioning why it felt so. different from P3 to qualifying. We had some great George Russell team radio sprinkled in of,

am I safe? Negative. Negative. It's like a little child on a theatre show. He was so confident, bless him. Nope. But at least, you know, they've done one better than what they did at Coaseer, which is get both of their cars through to Q3,

avoid any real issues and qualify, quote, unquote, where they're supposed to. but it's still not great, obviously. I just want to give proper props to Russell. Proper props. Proper props. 154 in the qualifying battle head to head between himself and Hamilton. It was 144 before this race.

154 now. I never thought I see the day where Hamilton gets absolutely washed like that in qualifying. I know the car's a nightmare, but the fact that he was still two and a half tenths, three turns off his team mate again today. I think Hamilton has checked out mentally, yes. I think he's regging for the nice big shiny,

shiny-reg Ferrari, as we all would be. But this is a real drop. This is a real drop. So I wonder if Ferrari are a little bit nervous about the trade-off they've just made and how much it's cost them. Yeah, I think Lewis Hamilton's rebuttal to that would be look at the points table, which is still just about showing him ahead of George Russell, but it is fairly close as we head into the last few races of the season. Let's take our break on this qualifying episode. On the other side, we've got more chat about Perez, Piastri, and the battle between Hass and R.B. Welcome back, everyone. Dealer's choice, Sam.

Would you rather talk Hass R.B first, or Perez and Piastri? I'm going to keep the people waiting. Let's go Hass RB. Let's do Hass RB, because both Has cars managed to make it through to Q3. Kevin Magderson qualifying 7th, Nika Holkenberg qualifying 10th. Both RB cars unable to make it through to Q3 with Sonoda in 11th and Lawson in 12. Of course, that, though, doesn't tell the whole story. Yuki Sonoda crashing in the final sector on his last round.

run in Q2, just after both Hascairs had set their best lap times and before Liam Lawson was able to set his. So quite a costly crash from Yuki Sonoda. In that battle between those two teams, Mexico typically not an easy track to overtake on. That's a big one up for Hass. I mean, Yuki Sanoda, meet the cact phrase shooting yourself in the foot. Shooting yourself in the foot, meet Yuki Sanoda because the damage that that might have just done. So not just R.B, but to himself, this is a bad time, a very bad time to have damaged the team's ability at this point. He obviously had a poor run in Coatser spinning on his own, finishing outside the points. Lawson gets points on his return to the sport.

Lawson looked good again in qualifying. It looked like the lap he was setting might have be good enough to get himself into Q3 as well. Yuki Sena technically out qualifies Liam Lawson at Mexico, but it's at a very bad cost because he looks so bad for doing it as well. So technically two races in a row, Lorsing has been pretty flawless, pretty comfy. Sango goes to have a problem so far on each weekend. You'll see what the race can do. But as you mentioned, both Harskars get into Q3 basically because of the mistake that Yuki Sonoda made.

And the Hasse is looking good. Kevin Magnerson, again, turns up for another weekend that's looking positive for him. I think out of all of those drivers, you know, apart from Yuki, Hulkaberg's going to be the one most disappointed. He had a lot of pace, made them mistaking his fight. or run a Q3. It looked like he could have at least being alongside Magnuson,

if not in front of Magnuson. They've locked out seventh and eighth. That half car really is starting to look like it could be the fourth-stash-fifth-fastest car on the grid and they look like they've got the leg up on R.B. So this mistake, costly, and I think it's going to damage UK's reputation. It's, I think you're right because RB's form,

at least in the last couple of Grand Prix, has come on quite well. I said it as early as the Singapore Grand Prix, where they didn't, it didn't materialise in any points there. But it does feel as if they've turned a corner since that long break that, you know, just before that long break that we had and going into these two races. From Yuki Sonoda's perspective, like R.B.R, you know, you can question how much they desperately want to beat Hass based on the objectives of the team.

But the people in that team will still care. And they have made changes such as bringing in Lawson for Ricardo to help that. And right now, that is looking like a very good decision from RB because Lawson is proving his worth. The problem is Sonoda then also needs to keep doing what he was doing early in the season, and he's not. I appreciate strategically he was hampered at the United States Grand Prix, but he also spun by himself. Here, he's put himself in a good spot to make it through to Q3, with his teammate also in a good spot to make it through to Q3. and that crash has not only cost himself, it's cost both sides of the garage.

And they had the pace. I think overall, I think they might have been the best team after the top four this weekend. And they still might be. We don't know how the race is going to go. But from everything I saw in terms of qualifying sims, race pace, steltas,

they look competitive within that midfield, which hasn't always been the case this season. And Mexico is tough to overtake it. We might well see, in a bit of a reversal of roles here, Nika Holkenberg might well be able to defend against those two drivers to help Kevin Magnuson go off up the road.

We've seen it quite a few times this year where it's been the other way around. That could, you know, if Kevin Magnuson is able to hold on to something like a seventh place, we don't know how far Perez and Piastry will get. That could be six valuable points going back to the Hasse team.

So RB, that is a pretty costly, pretty costly crash from Sonoda. From Hass's perspective, yeah, you're right. Holkenberg would be disappointed with how he performed in Q3. I think a fourth row lockout was definitely on the cards. But Kevin Magnerson, full respect, he's finished within one second of the poll time of Carlos signs.

We've questioned him quite a lot this year, particularly in qualifying, actually. But there have been a few signs over the last few races, ironically, when it's probably far too late, that Kevin Magnuson can still pull it out the bag. Perez and Piastri, let's focus on those two drivers. We saw in Q1, five different teams were represented in those knockout spots. we had Joe from Salber, we had Ocon from Alpine, we had Colopinto from Williams, but perhaps the two notable knockouts in Q1 were the Piastri of McLaren and the Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Let's start with, let's start with Piastri.

We've seen over the last couple of races, he also had an early knockout in sprint qualifying last week. After that win in Baku, it's been a little bit tougher for him. Yeah, I feel like this second's going to be a little bit like putting the kettle on spoil. We've just clicked on and the water's starting to get a little bit warmer, but you wait until we get to the end. And I think it might start to be overflowing. Piastri, Piastri, Piascri, Piascri, Piascri. He is on a run of poor form.

I'm not shockingly worried here because, you know, as we've said so many times, I will continue to be fair on Piascri here. He's still only a second year. He's in quite a high-pressure scenario where he is in technically a championship fight for the constructors on his side, but he's also going to help his teammate in the drivers, if he can. It's a lot to deal with. We know that that guy is able to cut through the field.

I'm not worried that if overtakes are possible, Piastri probably is the man right now that can get those overtakes done. The issue is you don't want to be in a place where you need to make the overtakes in the first place. And the car is definitely capable of being in the top five. Piastri can put that car there. This is no bones about it. A really disappointing session for Oscar Piastri.

One of the worst we've seen, probably the worst we've seen since the likes of Austria and Spain towards the start of the season, where qualifying mistakes entirely made on his own cost him a real chance to any success previously. And the same happened in Austria, remember where Norris and Vestappen crashed. And because Piashri had poorly qualified, he wasn't there to mop up,

possibly a race wing as well. So it's been quite a topsy-turvy season. We've seen some real highs for Piastri. And now we're seeing some loans. Perez, on the other hand. I mean, I know I say it in the first segment, but if he isn't going after this Grand Prix, then I don't know what he's got.

to do to go. This is embarrassing. He's letting the team down. He's not bringing anything to this unit right now. He is 200 points behind his teammate. Max Verstappen, as I said, is driving a champion's drive, the way he's holding off the likes of Norris and fighting with the Claire. And the only person in fact of him is science,

he pulled out a wonder lap was spectacular. And Perry, you're down with 17th. Valtry Bottas out qualified both of you. The guy's driving a literal brick with wheels. You know, it's not to got an engine. He's just rung in. Don't do bricks like that. They serve a purpose.

That's very fair. He's no serve a purpose. But Perez hasn't been good for a long time. But at least in the last few sessions, he's kind of being somewhat getting there. But the fact that last race, he was beaten by Russell, starting from the pit laying. And now he's starting from 17th on a trap that's harder to overtake behind Piastri, behind Bostas, behind so many other cars that are so much. The fact that he's only got, what, one salber, collar pinotos in front of him. Who's behind him?

O'Conn and Joe. O'Conn and Joe. O'Conn and Joe. That Alpine and a bloody green toaster is stuck behind you. Pathetic. Really. It's really horrible, isn't it? It's really terrible.

I can't be complimentary anymore. If you're a Checo fan, surely you've got to see the light here and that this isn't good enough, that he's letting the team down. I have no words to say that are complimentary. He's got a hope for an absolute miracle of like a safety car or a red flag

to come out the right moment for him to have any of the very moment for him. to have any involvement in that fight in the top six. I'll start with Piastri. There was almost 1.1 seconds between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Q1. Over one second. Even Perez didn't do that, which is pretty impressive, given how poor his qualifying effort was,

and I will get on to Perez in a moment. Piazri referenced the issue that he had on one of his laps cost him about a second of lap time, in which case it had been comfortably through, but you made the error. That's kind of the point. And it's not like he had one attempt. I know the track was ramping up, but there was an attempt, there were two attempts and neither were good enough. And ultimately, he's paying the price by having to try and overtake on this notoriously difficult track to overtake on tomorrow. He referenced Lando Norris. And I think, thinking back to last year's Mexican Grand Prix. Landon Norris had to go from, I think, the exact same position,

17th. And he managed to get back to fifth. And I remember thinking that was, forgetting why he was there to begin with, it was an incredible drive to get back to fifth. I think he absolutely nailed it, in which case, it's going to be difficult to match that, let alone beat it. So Piastri's got a long, long day ahead of him tomorrow. From Perez's perspective, Today's result does now mean he has more Q1 eliminations on the year than Yuki Sonoda, which is not a good stat

if you're Sergio Perez. You could tell, they had a look on the sky pad. Like the iPad. Like it's for Sky. I can't believe I just said it. Do you get it, Ben? It's like an iPad, but for Sky?

I've wanted to hit myself in the face. I'll do it for you. That's all right. The TV that Sky used to look at previous replays, they highlighted how difficult Sergio Perez was finding it, particularly in that final sector. Yeah, you can tell. He was not at one with the car.

And I do just want to make the point overall with Piastri and Perez being knocked out in Q1. Not that I enjoy seeing big names being knocked out, but I enjoy when there isn't such an advantage. for these top teams that if they aren't on it, they are actually punished for it. We saw so many years where the top three teams were so far clear that even if you didn't get a good lap together, you're probably fine for Q1. Here, Piastri and Perez have not been able to perform punished for it. Even Valtrey Bottas able to outqualify these two drivers. So again,

Sergio Perez, he didn't have a great Mexican Grand Prix last year. It's going to be tough for him. He has a sadness in his eyes. You can only find in something. No, no, no, no. Really sad. Yes, yes, that's fine. We're going to swiftly move on. So, yeah, hopefully, hopefully tomorrow he turns it around.

Other point I do want to make, actually, before I forget. Ferrari, we spoke about the Constructors' Championship quite a lot in the buildup to this. They've got two cars in the top four. McLaren and Red Bull definitely do not. There are two ways Ferrari getting this construct. at a championship fight. The first of which we saw at Cota, which is Verstappan and Norris dueling

and giving up positions and time. The second side we've seen today, which is if Piastrian Perez can't be on the form of their teammates and signs and Lecler can match each other, that's a recipe for success. So Ferrari, not only will be happy with their pole position, they'll like where their other rivals are at.

What happens when Norris and Vestappan take each other out on lap one? Well, that's my point, right? Like you've already taken care of one of like the, the, not reserve drivers, but like the second drivers of Perez and Piastri, they're going to have a lot of work to get through the field. If the other two can take care of themselves, suddenly, hmm, that looks interesting. If they do take each other out and Ferrari romp away to a one-two

and Piastri and Perez make it back to maybe, I don't know, eighth and ninth, then they're gaining almost 40 points on their rivals. that puts them well into this championship fight. They're less than 20 points away from McLaren at that point. That would be interesting. And that Ferrari, even if that doesn't happen tomorrow, that Ferrari is lightning in the first sector, which means, and that's pretty much your only opportunity to make overtakes here,

if they can get out front early on, they are going to be tricky to catch, even with those other teams having DRS. I wanted to also quickly speak about Williams because Albin versus Colopinto has become more of a discussion in recent weeks. And of course, the weekend didn't start particularly well on Albin's side of the garage as he crashed.

Firstly, I mean, the incident where he crashed, a quick, quick thought on that. Obviously, Behrman was just ahead of him, but was he in his way or is this 100% on Albon? I think this is on Albon. Bearman was comfortably ahead. The visibility is good through that part of the track. I'm pretty certain that Ferrari also let Bearman know and Williams let Albon know. So it's not like this has come out of nowhere. It's also practice.

It's practice. If there's a car in front of you, you don't need to be taking risks and getting that close to them. He had two wheels off the track already to give you as much space as possible. I get what people have maybe said. Why is Ben on that side of the racetrack?

Sure, I see your point. But this is on album. The guy's sitting in the lap and he is really pushing it. So, yeah, I mean, all I can say is, good job at recovering album. Well, that's going to be the main question is that we've got two,

qualifying session separating the two drivers here. Colopinto knocked out in Q1. We'll start 16th. Alba made it through to Q3 and we'll start ninth. So seven positions separating those two drivers. How much does that help Alex Album? Oh, immensely. And I'm not sure who it helps more, actually. Albon or James Vowles, who sounded absolutely ecstatic. The guy was having a great reaction over the microphone when he realized that album has still got something in him. Yeah, a little Pinto being, the Riz rang dry. a little bit there. Riz, folks. Yes,

Riz. Riz. I think so. I think he seems so gutted in himself. And because of his form, I can let him off. If he turns around out

to good performance next race weekend, he's still feeling in. This is the good thing about being Colopinto. You can have a bad weekend because it's not even your job to be in next year.

As long as you keep overperforming, people aren't going to be too mad at you. Albuhr, on the other hand, kind of has everything to lose. He has to be on his age. game on the Albon game. And today he was.

Today he was. After the silly mistake in practice, he pulled it out the bag. One of my drivers of the session got himself into Q3. And the Williams, I think he made it look quick because I think it was pretty uncertain just how good that car was going to be. But the fact he's beaten a horse, he's beating both RBs, helped by the red flag, I think, but still, it was a really solid performance from Albon. And he can go, after a pretty tricky couple of races up against a seemingly very strong young

teammate. He needed this. I think he needed this. Yeah, I think from Albon's perspective, he's probably about where I thought he was going to be, maybe just missing out on a Q3 appearance, but of course, Piastrian Perez not making it helps his case there. They look fairly good throughout practice, quite close with the RB drivers. Maybe one of those two drivers, maybe both of them knock Albin out of Q3 if they get their lap in. But ultimately, you can only do what you can, what's in front of you. And Album, wasn't negatively impacted by the red flags, the other two were. So you take advantage of that and you make you through to Q3. He might be a little bit disappointed that you couldn't out-qualify

Pierre Gassley, who has done another sensational job in qualifying today. But even so, getting ahead of Nika Holcomberg, that puts him in a good position for points. And suddenly, that Alpine versus Williams battle is quite interesting. You've got Ghazley starting 8th and Albin starting 9. So both of those, in theory, could be a factor for points tomorrow. From, Golipinto side of the garage, obviously that's back-to-back Q1 knockouts, although he did make it to SQ3 last week. So it's not all bad news for him in terms of qualifying performance. Albin does seem to have maybe just a little bit more than him.

I think overall in qualifying, the gap in Q1 was four-tenths. And I think that was roughly the same first run versus second run. So it does seem as if this weekend, at least Albin might have had a little bit of an advantage. but equally of the five drivers that were knocked out in Q1, that four-temp's gap between Collopinto and Albin is the smallest between the teammates that they got knocked out to. So it's not a disaster. He made the points from 16th last week.

So alternate strategy wouldn't surprise me in an attempt to do something similar again. Yeah, as you mentioned as well, final point, sausage is out for Gasly. Teammate was king. Right, like what he's doing to that Alpine. I think he's just driving last year's Red Bull. with a different livery on it. And Bottas, obviously, getting through to Q2.

Yes, some real shockers there. So well done to the guys. Big up, Botties. Driver of the session before we go. I'm going to give it to Carlos Sikes. I really think that that poll app was something special from the smooth operator. But as we've already mentioned, I want to shout out Bottas, Gassley and Albon. I do think they did very, very well.

And they surprised me. Yeah, I think that's a fair list. I would probably say, I'll give it to signs as well, but Gassley would probably be a close second for me as well based on, I think he was 20th in FP3. So to pull it out and get a Q3 lap in that is pretty impressive. Where is Ockon? He's driving the China spec car.

He's still driving it. I thought he'd upgraded by now. If Gassley beats Ockon this season, which seems possible at this point, it's up to you, obviously. I probably wouldn't take the point because it just feels unfair. Again, it's up to you in time. I'll have a think about it, mate. I'll think about it.

I could, my conscious, I couldn't do that. Well, you have always been a better man than me. Oh, please, I'll con. Right, we'll get out of here. We're going to be back tomorrow, of course, so Sam. Yes, we will be indeed. Folks, I'll be live streaming the race watchelons. Come and join us on Twitch.

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and that is the best way to help support the show. We'll speak to you tomorrow. Can't wait for it. Hopefully it'll be a good old race. 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.