The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Monaco GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

The LB boys review a thrilling Monaco GP qualifying that saw the home boy come out on top as Verstappen faltered and we saw some surprise Q3 entrants... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes, historic race reviews & more! JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: SIGN UP & create your team, and JOIN our league (join code: C3PHEQHPU04) BUY our Merch SEND us something! We have a brand new PO box - address: Late Braking Podcast, PO Box 821, TRURO TR1 9PE 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. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead. Sam Sage and me Ben Hocking today reviewing yet another thrilling. Monaco qualifying where Charles Leclair, the homeboy, managed to get pole position ahead of Oscar Piastri, who will join him on the front row, followed by his teammate Carlos Sines in third.

Sam, Saturday or Monaco never fails to deliver. Oh, is there anything better? It's the one thing that Monaco does well. It's the one thing that relinquishes my rage about Monaco. Saturday at Monaco is one of the best days of the whole year. A boy, that McClure, he'd be a bullsy little boy, didn't he? He absolutely threw that car around the Monaco track. And sensational, the curse, is it lifted?

Well, we'll have to see tomorrow. Oh, you can't say that. I can. I sang Mr. Street Circuit in the preview episode, and that's Perez down in the antique place. And now I'm asking if the curse is lifted for Lecliffe, I'm sure his engine will blow up on the way to the grid. It's just who I am. And I'm sure Piazzi knows as well that if he gets a good start, it could be the first full Grand Prix victory at Monaco. It's all it takes. So, oh, it's spicy. It could be good fun. Very spicy.

I need a shower after that because I was dirty, dirty, dirty stuff from Charlotte. I believe we call it a dutty. Dutty. With four T's. Dats C. Dutti. Anyway, moving on from that. There's plenty to get through on this very exciting qualifying review.

So Q3 appearances for Gassley and Album. We'll talk about that very shortly. Ricardo not being able to make Q3, a couple of drivers not being able to get out of Q1 that were unexpected. But let's start out front. Charles Leclair, as Harry rightly put it, a dutty lap. to get ahead of Oscar Piastri and the rest. He was looking pretty good, Sam, through practice as well.

But we also had that in Imola, and then that didn't translate to qualifying. How important is it that it did transfer here? It could not be more important. And I think what was worrying at the start was Ferrari didn't look perfect in Q1 or Q2. They never looked like they were outright in the pace. McLaren looked faster. The Mercedes-Hasse at one point.

were running 1-2 in Q1, but it never looked like Ferrari had the front legs. It never looked like they had the dominance to be able to sit there and stand it up at the front. So when it comes down to Q3, the most important qualifying session of the entire calendar. And LeCler, who doesn't even put together a perfect lap, I believe his middle sector was actually slower than his personal best, but his sector one and sector three were so good that it still was a 10th improvement on its first lap does just enough to get away from Piastri, who I want to shout out for also being superb so far in Monaco. The upgrades are really clicking with him.

This could be his first Grand Prix win as well as we've mentioned. But, yeah, I mean, LeCler had to get it done. It's his home Grand Prix. As we've mentioned, he's having very, very poor in terms of luck the last few years. But this could be finally coming together for him. And boy, was out of Bullsy lap. He absolutely slung it around there. And it paid off.

Well done to him. So to see a Ferrari McLaren, Ferrari McLaren, the first Red Bull all the way down in C, place. Don't want to jump the gun, but are we seeing a bit of a changing of the guard, or is it just Monaco? Don't know. Don't know.

But it feels like it. It's just Monaco. Okay. And my dreams are dead. That makes it three out of four years, Harry, that Charlotte Clair's got a poll at Monaco now. We said in the preview, he's quite good around here, isn't he? Yeah.

Also. Well, just qualifying. a shout out to the whole LeCleur family because obviously with Oscar Piastri in second it's a big day for him that's what's ridiculous thing I've seen on Twitter for a while if you're unaware of this definitely deserves some context

there was a whole Oscar Piastri being adopted by the LeCleur family that Formula One actually got involved in because in their official classification for FP1 they put LeCler hyphen Piastri Oscar's name so yes excellent work

but yeah it's going back to what we said in the preview Monaco more than any other track is where I think the driver can make the difference and the Ferraris were looking good in practice

but as you say we could have said that from Imola too but I think this was a this was God LeClair he'd be back thank you heavenly choir

yeah it's that's a that's a that's a Charles Leclair lap there. Because even, as you said before we started recording, then, we were sort of waiting for it throughout quality.

We knew it was there. It was bubbling away. But he didn't really show his hand until Q3. But it was a special lap. I think when he did the first, I know there were different tires in the start of Q3

was, you know, used in a new tires on a variety of cars. But his initial lap where he like dunked on two Mercedes by about half a second. I was like, oh, oh boy. five tenths over Lewis Hamilton.

Like that's not no one either. Yeah, exactly. So, and then, yeah, his lap at the end, he was, you know, the margins throughout quality were really tight, but the fact that he got a tenth and a half, given where we, you know, look at this time last year we had, it was a couple of, a few hundreds, wasn't it, between Verstap and Alonso, that's quite a big margin for Monaco. So, shall the clerk be shall the clerking? Yeah, and I thought, as you referenced, the penultimate lap that he put together in Q3,

as soon as he put that lap in, I was like, I don't know if anyone's touching that. And when Oscar Piastri got within, I think he was within a few thousands of beating that time. Again, just to put some praise on Piastri, we'll get to him a little bit more in a second. But I wasn't expecting that. And Charles Leclair, but he went even faster. Obviously, that last lap in Q3 was sensational. Not far off the 109s. I know we were talking about sort of mid-110s as a potential poll time at one stage.

and I think Charles LeClaire just decided, no, that's not quick enough. I'd like to go a bit quicker than that, if that's all right. But he was sensational. His middle sector throughout the whole weekend has been phenomenal. No one has been able to touch him in that middle sector. And he's being fast enough in the other two sectors, obviously that he can put together a complete lap and,

and I don't want to say comfortably take pole, but a tenth and a half, given how close some of the margins were throughout Q1 and Q2, is a thoroughly impressive achievement. So be exciting to see how Ferrari or himself mess that up tomorrow. Yeah, I know. You know it's Ferrari. You know they're going to do like a stop onto intermediates or something

and think they got the colour wrong or some silly thing like that will happen. To be fair, I was worried in Q1 when they went out at different times. And they were quite a way down the order. And I was like, no, no, no, no, come on. Come on Ferrari. No, no, go, no. I mean, to make this even more certain that something will go wrong for them tomorrow, they were very good race pace-wise as well in FP2 yesterday.

Actually, Carla Sines was even a little bit quicker than Charlotte Clare was, but those two were the top two drivers. So it's almost a given that something will go wrong. Oscar Piastri, we've already put some praise on him, and Lando Norris is also within the top four. Were you expecting it, Sam? Piascri in the top two. No.

And that, I think, feels a little bit expected in terms of how the season has run so far. Piaschri has been fine so far this season. He's not been a disappointment. No one's looking at him and getting worried. But let's be honest with ourselves that Piaschari has not wowed the field so far. He's had some bad luck. He's had a couple of collisions, Sites and Miami being one of those. And I think he's also been caught on the wrong side of some upgrades.

We know that Norris picked up upgrades before Pius did for the full car as well. So when it comes to Monaco and it comes to the driver making the difference, you just assume that the more experienced Lando Norris, who has now got a win under his belt, who has been performing really strongly all season, who's looked fantastic in the last few Grand Prix before this, will have been the leading of the two McLaren's. But for the entirety of Saturday,

Piascri has been absolutely dominant in terms of that display of the two McLaren's. Norris cocked up a couple of the moves. That's not to swear everyone, that's a normal expression before you'll go and get upset. He absolutely mucked up one of his runs. He was then a tyre set short for the final qualifying session, which meant he either had to do one final run or had to sit there getting his tyres colds. We saw timings were all wrong for Norris as well.

He never got the track time that he wanted to run and get the car set up. But Piascu was, as always, so calm, so collecting. He was so measuring what he was doing. And he delivered, you know, to be that close to the clerk, God Leclair, of all people, he should pat himself on the back because he's absolutely wowed. today and he has got a sensational opportunity to claim his first victory. What did you make of both for the Macquarie and Sari?

Yeah, and Piastri was the more impressive of the two. I thought Norris' qualifying was just a little bit scrappy. I wasn't terrible, obviously he was P4 in the end, but it was just a little bit messy from Norris. But yeah, Piaastri, I think Piazzi sort of had the legs on him throughout. But yeah, it still reinforces that form that they've shown in the past couple of races with that upgraded McLaren. So it's still good, good news. And I know I was saying it wasn't, you know, a time,

a changing of the tide. But it's encouraging for the rest of the year because that McLaren is working at all types of circuits. It's a Miami, Imola and now Monaco that it's up at the sharp end. So McLaren fans, you should be happy because I think that's a good sign. Yeah, McLaren fans should absolutely be happy because I wasn't expecting them to be as good as this after yesterday. Now, I appreciate this has happened a few times this year

where the likes of, particularly Mercedes, and you might throw Fernando Alonzo in that mix as well, is that they've been quicker on Friday and then maybe not able to fully convert it on a Saturday. They haven't been able to develop at the same rate as another team. But it really did look like McLauram might be just a touch behind the Mercedes duo after yesterday. and they've come out today, particularly Piastri, and done very well indeed.

And for me, and this makes absolutely no sense, but I'll say it anyway, the biggest surprise for me was that it wasn't a surprise at all. In the Oscar Piastri didn't pull out a lap at the end of Q3 that was unexpected, it wasn't out of nowhere, it wasn't that Lando Norris had been better all weekend long, and then Piastri just delivered at the end of Q3. Piastri has been quicker. Like, he just has been quicker. and what we saw in Q3 was reflective of that.

So he deserves a lot of credit. I thought it was one of his best qualifying performances of his career so far. In terms of Max Verstappen, sixth place, Sam. Sixth place. Sixth place is the highest starting position for a red ball at Monaco. Hugo thought it. After last year, when Verstappen picked up 19 victories, he's about to break the poll record

that Ayrton Sena holds with nine in a row and he's not even on the front row he's not even in the front four he's behind George Russell it's on the same bloody part of the track as Lewis Hamilton is who has now been beaten 7-1 by his teammate in qualifying this is a real fool from grace

from Red Boy you can hear just how frustrated Max Verstappen has got blaming the car left right and centre for its sliding having issues in turn 5 and 10 hit the wall going through Saint-de-Votte or Saint-de-Vos or have you want to say it. I don't speak French. We all know so badly how awful I am at French pronunciations. But the car clearly isn't working.

And I think they're starting to feel the pressure, just a little bit of the upgrades from McLaren and Ferrari. The gap definitely has come down. The Stappen is having to turn on the magic, I think to pull out the extra few tents that that Red Bull maybe can unlock. But I think make no bums about it. that Red Ball is no longer the dominant car. That Red Ball is arguably,

or even the fastest car on the track right this second. And I think this is the first time that we've actually seen that, especially in a qualifying session. Sixth place or that's a real kicker. So Max is going to have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Strategies going to have to be absolutely on point. We know Red Bull can do that. We know they can turn that around,

but I'm not sure the winner's on the cards from the sixth place. It's going to be tough. What did you make of Vestappen's qualifying effort, Harry, because I guess there's two schools of four where you could look at and say that Red Bull isn't working as well as it could have done. Therefore, he has to drive that way in order to try and get anything out of it.

The other school of four is, you've got to get your lap in at the end of Q3 and he didn't. So how do you view it? Yeah, I think he's not overdriving, but he's having to pull, where he was having to try and pull out the lap times because I think he still was in the mix.

I don't think he's not getting Lecler. I don't think he's getting Piastri. But I think, I know this is, you know, finish your lap, mate. But if he had finished that lap, I suspect he would have been higher up than P6. It's not like the Red Bull is now washed. But you're right. It's Monaco. You're going to get your Q3 lap in.

And he didn't because I think he was trying that much harder to try and pull a lap time out of it. I think it's Monaco is such an oddity. Like we've seen it with, you know, even in the Mercedes dominant years, you wouldn't necessarily have a Mercedes winning that race. because it was just a, it's such a unique track. You know, we saw, I know he didn't win it, but like Danny Ricardo in 2016 or 2018, for example, he won it then. So it's not always the track that favors the dominant cars.

So I'm not sure this is, you know, game over for Red Bull. It doesn't look good, 6 and 18th. But, yeah, Verstappen definitely trying to make up for a performance deficit the Red Bull clearly have here. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think Vastappen, you know, you have to put some blame on him in that first corner era because, again, like, with the way that the track improves at Monaco, you've just got to make sure you're on the right tires at the right time,

setting a lap time. And if he had done that, I'm pretty sure. The gap in front of him to Russell, Norris and Sines were so close that I think he can get Carlos Sines to start P3 without improving by that much on the time he already had on the board. But of course, you know, that that's for Stappen's style, is that he's going to give it his all to finish first. and he doesn't care a great deal about finishing worse than that. And I think that has probably slightly cost him today. It will be difficult for him from P6. I think he has some fairly solid race paces he usually does,

but the question, as always at Monaco, how much of that are you going to be able to show? Because if you do have a slow car in front of you, it doesn't really matter what your race pace is. It's about how much you can unlock it. You can unlock it from first. You rarely can from sixth. So be interesting to see what he can salvage.

Last point before we go to our break, Mercedes, fifth and seventh. A lot more talk again of them understanding their car more. This is a little bit better in terms of a qualifying effort, Sam. How did you see it? Is it a bit better in terms of a qualifying effort? Perez performs again as expected. He'd probably be in front. And we've already just spoken about how this happens at fault.

And if he actually gets the lap in, probably third. So they're at least sixth and seventh there. arguably again, they're still seventh and eighth thing. It's, is it better? The gap is slightly smaller, but the track is also one of the shortest tracks that we see. And I think a lot of people have had their hopes built up by the Friday and Saturday practice sessions

where Lewis Hamilton is apparently the world's fastest man and can go P1 whenever he wants when it's not a competitive session. Great, the points aren't scored till Sunday, Lewis. So that's not very helpful, is it? Toto as well, came out after free practice three, despite both of his cars being in the top five, saying we're going to have to make some changes and compromise qualifying at Monaco,

where his exact words, which was absolutely baffling, to come out with a statement where in the most important session of the year, you've decided to compromise the setup so you can, what, gain in the race? Where are you making these overtakes? Where is that happening?

They were slow on race pace, though. They were slowly. Are they going to lose anything? Yeah, but you get undercut at that point, surely. The way, you just wait for a safety car. Lovington will do us all a favour and put it in the wall by lap 13. You go on to the hard side, you run it to the end. That's Monaco, baby.

That's what happens. So, I don't know, yeah, we feel better. We know the car. I don't know if you do. I don't know if it is better. You're in exactly the same place. The gap might be slightly smaller overall, which I suppose is a net positive. But you're not any closer to winning.

You're not any closer to podiums. I'm not convinced by it. I thought they saw a lot of their fans. some false hope due to the practice performances. I don't think they're going to get anything more than they usually would out of this Grand Prix. What do you reckon, Harry? We're looking at Russell, at least in terms of qualifying pace, 0.273 behind LeClauze pole time

and Hamilton 351 behind. What do you think? I mean, yeah, other face fit, it is better for Mercedes, but whether that's car or the two drivers making that difference, it's hard to tell. I understand what they've done in terms of, because as, as, We said they were slow on race-based in practice, but it's probably worth, given the pace they had in practice over one lap,

it was probably worth a punt, just leave them on that setup. And of all the races, you could try and do this, it's Monaco and try and hold them up. I'm thinking about like 2013. Rosberg won in 2013 and Mercedes that used to chew its tires up,

but they just drove, like, the slowest pace humanly possible. And it worked for them. So, I don't know, given the seasons they've had, I would have probably gone with a punt and just tried to get a pole and hold everyone up, maybe even sacrifice. Whoever finishes P2, they just have to be like, well, I am the sacrificial lamb here and do that.

But yeah, it looks better on the face of it, whether it actually is, I don't know. And saying that at a weekend like Monaco is an odd one because it's quite an anomaly, as we already know. Yeah, exactly. I think it's a bit better, but not as dramatically better as they would have hoped. certainly time-wise they are closer. But yeah, in terms of position, I think you are right, Sam. It's still time is one thing, but time is all about where it's going to get you in terms of positions. If that's still not getting you positions over the likes of McLaren and Ferrari,

then you're not moving a great deal up the grid. So, yeah, I think a little bit better, but not anything more than a little bit. We'll take our break at this point. We've got Alex Albin, Pierre Ghazley, and a couple of shot Q1 eliminations on the other side. I need to go. Oh, and we're talking those things, but not with Harry. I don't want to talk about a second consecutive Alonzo Q and Elimination.

So I'm going. Bye-bye. Bye. Okay, everyone, welcome back. A couple of surprise Q3 appearances today, Sam. We had Alex Albin, who eventually got to P9 with a lap. He very much loved in Q3 going, yes, as soon as he crossed the line. and Pierre Gazley, who will start just ahead of his teammate in 10th place.

What did you make of both of their efforts? Yeah, Albonne there, P9. The reaction was clear from both himself and from the garrings, straight over the regular, as you said with that, yes, and he's racing and air colours back with nice. You know, that is a belter for Williams, a team that is absolutely languishing down at the bottom of the points tally and in pace. So on a track that is so hard to get an overtake done,

that they're starting in the points, this is phenomenal for them. This is what they need. This could be the difference between finishing last in the points tally or maybe finishing somewhere like eighth if it continues to go their way. This might be a kickstart.

We've said so many times already just on this episode that Monaco can be an anomaly and you can score points. Remember, when was it, 2013? Shul Bianchi, he picked up the first ever points, of course, for Manor, and, you know, rest in peace, casual.

But it can really change the form of a team just by having this one Grand Prix go your way. And maybe that's what's going to happen here for Williams and Album. So great lap, going to the 110s, not too far off that front pace. That's the album we came to know a little bit last season. I thought that's the first time in qualifying that I've really gone. Boom, Alex Album, there he is. And the same with Pierre Gasly.

It seems to be that, you know, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, pretty much always guaranteed. And then you have these kind of one or two spots where a team has to fill these spots in every single Grand Prix and you've got to try and be the ones that fill that in. This time around it's Albon and it's Ghazli. The same thing here has happened to Ghazli as I think in Imola where in Q2

he has an absolute belter over time and then in Q3 he kind of lets himself down or the previously in Imola I think it was in Q1 he has a belt of a time and then in Q2 he lets himself down. And it's happened again here. Now Gassley in 10th is great but he's actually only one place in front of his teammate. And I do feel like if he took the same step forward from Q1 to Q2

as he did from Q2 to Q3, he would have been in front of Albon, I think. And I do think there's a chance he finishes in front of P8 as well, maybe. I think so. Yeah, there is a real chance. He's what, Sanoda? Yeah, I do think that he maybe could have beaten both Albon and Sanada here if he got the same quality of lap together. We saw him go very deep into the absolute final corner.

I think that cost him. But this is a good turn of four from Pierre Gassie. couple of races, including the qualifying session today, we've seen him switch on a little bit. He's taking it back to Ocon a little bit more. The pace is far more balanced than I think it looks on kind of overall results now. You heard the exasperation in his voice when he got P5ed in Q2. He was ecstatic with himself.

So well done to those three, Sonoda, Albon and Ghazli. Let's see if they can convert that into points. Alpine Williams definitely need it. Senoda once again dunked on his teammate a little bit. Yeah. From Alex Albin's perspective, I think through practice yesterday, it was clear that this would be Albin's best opportunity to make Q3 this season. And it's great that he's been able to convert that really good pace so far. The issue with Alex Albin, well, maybe not even the issue with Alex Albin this weekend is that at least in terms of long run pace in practice, Alex Albin had quite high dig. My prediction for tomorrow, at least, right now is that we are going to see this race split into two parts. We're going to see whoever's in front of Alex. And this is no disrespect to Alex Albin. I think he's out qualified where that car belongs in terms of race pace. And I think whoever's behind Alex Albin for tomorrow's race might

well be stuck, in which case someone like Ghazley, Ocon, Holcomberg, Ricardo, might fancy a bit of a different strategy. It sounds crazy, but I honestly think one of the Alpines could go with a huge undercut and make it work because like you say, I think Ghazley qualifying-wise had the pace to get to, I think he had the pace to get to P-8. I don't even think he, I don't think it was crazy to think he might have had Hamilton

for 7th. I think the Alpines had really good qualifying pace. With the exception of maybe Charles LeClaire, middle sector, they were really, really good. And actually, race-pace-wise, they ran a little bit different runtime in terms of practice, but they seemed to have some

solid race pace as well, in which case, it's just going to be, can they clear, Alex Albin? I think that would be the question for them. Can they clear Alex Albin, either at the start or via strategy. But in terms of qualifying, great effort from Alex Albin, great effort from Gassley to make it to Q3 at least. I think with the Alpines, and we've discussed this before, it's often a case of whatever one can do, the other one can probably do as well. They're very similar in terms of their ability. This time out, it was, it was Gassley that hooked up the lap in Q2 and Ocon, I don't actually know why, but didn't set a lap at the end of Q2. It could have been the other way around.

It has been the other way around. But that's a benefit for Alpina is that they do have two drivers that can hook it up on any given Saturday. Let's head outside the top 10. Daniel Ricardo qualifies third team. So that's five positions behind his teammate. I think in Q2, the two drivers were separated by roughly four tenths of a second, which, as we've discussed at Monaco, fairly big gap. Four tenth is a massive gap at Monaco.

When your lap times are in the one tens at this point at the front end of the, the spiky end of the grid, four-tenths is huge. You kind of expect a four-tenth gap between teammates around tracks like ones that we've had previously already on the calendar. So Yerimilar's maybe a Bahrain. That's where you expect a four or five-tenth gap if you're having a good or bad day.

But there's only so many seconds you can play with at Monaco. So you can see Ricardo not just four-tenths down, but five positions down as well. it shows you just how costly it is. So you can not be able to hook up that lap. He comes over the radio and says you just couldn't get the tires in the right working window. And that was an issue up and down the grid. The temperatures were constantly changing.

We know it could be quite windy near the coastline there and the clouds could blow over differently to cause very high peaks and very low loads of temperatures on that track surface. Remember, it's a street circuit. So the rubber ringing is different as well than a normal classic street track. And we saw how much the time's ramped up between the start of Q1 and the end of Q3. but Ricardo to go, I think he just showed what's happened to Ricardo as of recent. He's just not seemingly got that spark anymore to go the extra mile,

to put in that extra little bit that means that he can separate himself from those around him. And Yuki-Sanoda has seemingly found that extra little bit that allows him to take that step outside of those midfield runners, that midfield group. He's almost in a little world of his own at the moment with the front teams that we've really mentioned, you know, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes. And then behind him, you seem to have Haas, Ricardo, Nau-Alpine, Al-Bong. That seems to be the group either side of Sonoda. Seno seems to be more regularly than not putting himself in the middle of that group.

So the fact that they both out-qualified Perez, but Sanos 10 places higher at a trap like Monaco, if they don't start talking about Senegal for a Red Bull seat, then I don't know what more has really got to do, because Ricardo is surely now counting himself out of any move upwards. Yeah, I think the worst thing for Daniel Ricardo is that, again, it's not that surprising. In the, I don't think this was a case where his pace was good enough for eighth or ninth, and actually he just didn't get a lap together in Q2. Before the session, if you'd have told me where, you know, you've got £100, you need to predict he'll finish a position. Where are you going to say? I would have said probably 12th, 13th or 14th, because that is roughly where he's at now,

which is a shame for him. I don't think he's going to have the pace to get too far tomorrow. It's always a question of strategy, how good you start is, of course, and any other weird factors. But if we're talking just, does he have the pure outright pace to go much further ahead than 13th? My honest answer is not really. So it might salvage a point possibly, but I wouldn't expect anything more. A bit further down.

we had two hash drivers knocked out in Q2, but we'll go to Q1. Logan Sargent, pretty regular fixture in Q1. Joe Guan Yu, fairly regular fixture in Q1, and Valtrey Bottas, fairly regular as well. The other two drivers, of course, much less common. Fernando Alonzo and Sergio Perez. What happened to them? Oh, Fernando Alonso, to start with, this is two in a row for Fernando Alonzo out in Q1. So I don't know what's going on here.

the fact that he's been out qualified twice and away by Lank Stroll as well, who is not disappointing himself. I think other teams around them have taking a step forward, so the Aston Martin isn't as quick as it was at the start of the season. Both drivers qualifying positions respectively are evidence of that. They are both moving further down the grid with every race that we find ourselves. But it's very interesting to see that Lantzroll, I was taking such a step forward over Fernando Alonso of these last two Grand Prix.

It's not like Alonso is out in P16 and Lance Stroh then finishes in P5. there's three or four places between them, and that's been the case for both sessions. So I was really surprised to see Alonso so far down, seemingly no answer for it as well. He wasn't out there blaming the car. It wasn't like they had a fault. It wasn't like in Imola where he crashed it in practice and had to put the car back together, and that maybe would have changed the setup or something. He just was slow.

He was just slow. And that is not good for Fernando Alonso, because the one thing that makes him stand out, considering his age, is how he still has this outright. pace. On the other side, Logan Sargent manages out-qualify Sergio Perez, and there are no issues for any cars. So, Sergio Perez, without any problems, no breakages, is just bad. And Harry Ead, who's no longer here, in our preview episode, stated, you know, all right, son, don't get knocked out in Q1 again. That's a good start. What does he go do? Yeah, okay, he moves up to places. Of course, that's the one thing that he somewhat predicts right.

Doesn't actually predict it, though, does it? Well, he references it, so of course, it comes true. Normally anything he references immediately is false, so... Not for Sergio Perez, who we also sung Mr Street Circuit for, and now he is behind us. That's a royal we, if I've ever heard one. All of the nation, the late-breaking nation, sung Misker Street Circuit in a choir-esque form. This is really bad. for Sergio Perez. Now, we talked about how he started the season so well, and we were very

complimentary of him, but he moved into the European leg of the calendar. We're back to the classic tracks, the anomaly here being that this is a street circuit, which famously he's very good at, but now he's been bad at Imola. He wasn't great at Miami, and now he's really bad again at Monaco. This is three in a row. We're only at the eighth Grand Prix of the season. One more essentially is like 50%, which are not good. That good start to the season is going to rapidly fall off a bit of a cliff in terms of form, he's got to start looking over his shoulder. He was begging for a two-year contract.

They were maybe going to offer him a one-year deal as a plus one offer. It'll be lucky maybe if he gets that at this point, because if he carries on for another three or four Grand Prix into the summer window, oh, that's really not looking good for him. I don't think he'll make up too much. I think Paris gets to be one of those guys

that is bold and scratch you tomorrow, sticks it in early, tries to catch up to the back of the pack as they come in and maybe jump a few people. That's his best chance. Maybe a red flag might go his way if he wants to stay out super long as an alternative. This is the worst place you could have done this and it's two years in a row now.

So, yeah, real shocker, not good at all for Paris. Yeah, and like you say, his options are very limited for tomorrow because you can go long. To be honest, it's Monaco. You could probably go to the penultimate lap and then pit and make that work. But you're just going to lose so much time

behind cars that are slower because his race pace seemed all right. And that's the most frustrating thing for him is that he probably would have all right race pace, but it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter when you put together a qualifying effort like this. And what happened with Alonzo and Perez was very similar in that they had solid enough pace in practice, but where other cars were able to, at the end of Q1, build on their practice times by a few temps. Alonzo and Perez couldn't. I think Perez was a temp slower than what he

did in FP3, whereas other cars like the Hasse drivers and the Alpine drivers and, um, Alex Albon, like they were all going a couple attempts faster than what they were able to do. They were building as the weekend went on. Both of these drivers could not do that. And from Fernando Alonso, Fernando Alonso, in terms of pure pace, I think could have got much, much higher up the grid. Bear in mind, like, there wasn't much between himself and Lewis Hamilton in practice. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Asthma Martin's true pace was somewhere in the middle of that top 10, which is one reason why I don't actually want to put much compliments towards Lance Stroggs,

I still think that's way down on where the Aster Martin could have been. And from Sergio Perez's perspective, it's quite ironic because when Christian Horner was asked like this two or three-temp's gap that is between Vastappen and Perez, do you have any cause for concern on that? And his answer was no, but because of how close Q1 is, that is three-tems. That's enough to get knocked down in Q1. And the fact that he can't get closer than that is the reason he's. he's out. Obviously, massively disappointing for both drivers. It's Monaco. They'll both be lucky to

get anything out of it. Oh dear. Well, we're going to the race tomorrow. Everyone, get your pillows ready. Little hot chocolate, because the fun bit's done. Yeah. Driver at the session, Sam, before we go. I've got to give it to LeClair. I mean, that lap was sensational, full commitment, Home Grand Prix, East Smashit, it was so good to watch. Well done to LeClau. Yeah, as a fair shout. I genuinely think Piastri was almost, if not as impressive as LeClau.

I really was... I really was impressed by how we got P2 in that car. I didn't think that was going to be the case. So I'll give it a Piastri by an edge over La Clau. Like you say, Sam, we now go until the review episode tomorrow. One final with more shout-out. I don't think you're a fan,

but more than I call that at McLaren Livery. I'm a bit bored of the Sena tributes, but it is a special anniversary, and I love having a big yellow car on the grid. I'm not acknowledging it. Okay. They use their one special livery. So anything else they do this season that is apparently different. I don't care.

I'm not going to say it's good, bad or anything. I'm not going to, I'm just going to treat it like it doesn't exist. I love that. I love that from you, Ben. Anyway, I love it. I think it's really cool. And I love seeing a yellow Formula One car. So well done, McLaren.

I don't care who it's for or what it's about. But I love that it's yellow. Do we get a side of it? Yeah. Cheers for listening, folks. make sure you come back after the race. Boring or not, we'll have the spice, okay? We will be bringing the hate because it's the late-breaking podcast,

and we don't do things in a boring manner, I promise. Remember, if you want to get involved on the show, though, join the Discord. You could do your submission for your moment of the race. We will request those pretty much straight after the race finishes. So be in the Discord and then do a voice note, submit it in the channel, the submissions channel at less than 30 seconds, and you could hear yourself on the show.

We love to hear them. the participation we get. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow 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.