The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Qatar GP Sprint & Qualifying Review

Episode Date: November 30, 2024

After a Saturday full of action at Lusail, Ben and Sam are on hand to break it all down. From the Sprint where there was a controversial victory reversal, a Haas in the points, and a questionable pit lane start, to Qualifying where we saw a surprise pole ending up under investigation, a familiar face in P2, and impressive performances from 2 backmarker teams... Get your friends or family the gift that they truly deserve... gift an LB Patreon membership HERE

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage. And me, Ben Hocking, today reviewing two sessions, reviewing the sprint that happened earlier on today and the qualifying session. This just happened as we're recording this. That is an action-packed day.

of F1 Sam? We've had some rather interesting moments, poignant moments across the day of F1 action. A sprint race that had a rather controversial ending on the last corner, which we'll get into, and then a qualifying where we saw the results be much, much closer between many different teams and a different pole sitter for each of the sprint pole

and of course now the main qualifying. So a real change in the form book over the park firme break. Indeed. And we'll get to both sessions. We'll treat it chronologically on today's review. So we will start our review with the sprint that happened earlier on today. And as you alluded to, a controversial ending. Now, McLaren had the advantage for much of the day after Oscar Piastri managed to get in front of George Russell early on.

And McLaren won two, Lando Norris, using some strategy to give Piastri DRS to avoid him being overtaken by George Russell in third. We'll talk a bit about the Oscar Piastri George Russell battle in a little bit, but let's start at the end. Let's start with the decision that happened at the very last corner. Lando Norris, told by his team to keep position, as they were, decided to ignore that team order and give Piastri his win back from, you'll remember the sprint win that Piastri gave to Norris, the Brazilian Grand Prix. Are you surprised that he did this?

Was this a good idea? What do you think? not surprised that this has come from the McLaren camp and the communication that they've had overall. I know McClaren were kind of like, no, Norris was a bit like, I'm just going to do it anyway. The whole idea process behind that team seems a bit odd, seems very risk happy at the moment. But the fact that they actually did it when there was a direct rival under a second away in direct DRS range on the last corner where both of those drivers have made mistakes historically is absolutely baffling to me.

It is mind-blowingly risky. You're going toe to toe with Ferrari. You're in a perfect position where you've going to pick up a one-two. Who cares? Who bloody cares what way around you finish, whether you owe him one or not? Who gives a rat's bottom

whether you think, oh, I'll let him add that one back because he gave me one the other. I do not care. Cross the line in one-two, regardless of the order, pick up the maximum points and scurry away from Ferrari in the championship.

It would take a, a slight spit of overstayed that we've seen so many drivers have. I touch with the gravel on the outside of the curb and that sends piastri off one way. Norris has already started to break. Russell goes through to wing. You end up losing not just one position

but technically two because of that. It's just so unnecessary in a time where you just need to safely pick up positions, pick up points and stick two up at Ferrari and go, ha, we've done you there. You've got added us this time. You could have had it so easy.

And again, lucky. So, so lucky, like they were in Brazil. They've gotten lucky here again. I just don't understand why they need to put this risk on themselves. Why Norris felt they need to put the risk on himself, why they felt they need to time something almost Michigan possible level where they finished within a tenth of each other. I was baffled by the decision to do this when the championship for the first time

in over 25 years could come their way and you're doing silly games like this at the line. I just think it's a ridiculous call personally. So what's the team's response to this? Because as mentioned, the team told Norris to stay in the lead. So McLaren wanted it to go one way. Lano Norris has disobeyed that team order by giving Piastri the win. What do the team say to this? Do they, because the result was fine, brush it under the carpet and not really do

anything about it? Or do they need to say to Lando Norris, look, the result was fine, but it could not have been fine. You shouldn't have done that. Yeah, I think they need to sit him down and make him aware. Pat him on the back and go, you were great. Your Paceau race was good. The way you helped Piazori was really, really good.

You played the perfect game there to make sure your teammate wasn't passed. But why, for the first time, this millennium, where our team might have something incredibly successful come our way, are you going to put that in jeopardy? You need to kind of clip around the back of the ear and go, you're brilliant. You're so brilliant. But why are you playing silly games when we are one race away from possibly taking home our first Constructors' Championship? for so long, they need to put a bit of realistic fear into him, a little bit of a get the job done.

Don't muck about, celebrate afterwards. Do you have you want after we've won it, but don't muck up the job right now. Also, if you're Piastri, how is this benefit Piastri? You can see him when he crossed the line, wasn't happy, but given the wing, had to be supported the whole Grand Prix. You even heard him in his post where his interview say,

hopefully we can find something that not only makes the car faster, but definitely makes the driver faster because he was aware that he was not on the level of Norris God, even though he managed to be second the whole Grand Prix and, of course, win. He's not going to be happy with that. He's not going to take that one home. It just felt like a risky decision for all. I don't know, Norris feeling a bit better that he was giving a win the last time in Brazil.

I'm not sure what the need was. Yeah, I think I'm not sure how much of a discussion this was in the talks leading up to this sprint race because we know that Piastri wasn't starting in second. place. He was starting in third. So the fact that it was a McLaren one, two, was possible, maybe not probable, based on the starting positions. George Russell had some good pace. I'm not sure how much of a discussion this was, but if it wasn't, how it should have gone down was something like, I know, Lando, you'd like to give the win back as a thank you for what Oscar did at Brazil. But please, unless we've got a very comfortable,

one, two, please don't, don't bother. Because at that point, Oscar Piastri could speak up and say, yeah, you know what, mate, it doesn't matter that much. It's a sprint win. I would have known at that point that he did it for the championship. Norris, of course, didn't do it for the championship. He did it to give a win back. I'm sure Oscar Piastri would have piped up to say, yeah, I don't need it.

Like, so unless you feel really comfortable, unless the situation's really comfortable, don't worry about it. as it has happened, the way that it's gone down. I understand Lando Norris's logic on this in that for this season, it doesn't really matter. He's just trying to buy his way into the Good Books for a future situation that's yet to unfold. We've seen the likes of Schumacher and Hamilton in the past give their teammates wins or podium positions where it's made sense, where the championship's already wrapped up or something along those lines. here if Norris needs Piastri next season, which is entirely possible, maybe this is a bit of

goodwill, this gesture of goodwill could help him out in a situation like that. So from a personal point of view, I understand what Lando Norris was doing. I think you're right. It just wasn't worth it in this spot. That gap was, it was needless. I also don't think it buys him that much goodwill. I think with Piastro's reaction, it says to him, he didn't really want it anyway. Didn't really feel like it was deserved. Didn't feel like he'd earn it. And so therefore,

it's not like, it's not like where we had hungry, where we had that awkward debate between the two of them. And it was kind of like, I'm doing a really good job here. It's got my fault that the strategy wasn't played out the right way.

We'll do this out or the other. Piazsche was just never quick enough. I think Piazri knows that he didn't deserve to win. So like you said, I think Piazry probably, if he'd been asked, would go, I didn't really need that.

Oh, well, I would have been fine coming in second place. Thanks for helping me out enough to keep second. because that's what Norris was doing, right? Kept dropping back into the DRS to allow Piastri to put away from Russell. That would have been enough, in my opinion. This felt unneeded. I think it was less about the pace that Piastri had here

and more about the pace that he had in Brazil and how he helped him out there. So I think it's a case of the last two sprint races. Norris has been quick enough to win one of them and Piastri's been quick enough to win one of them. And the way that it's worked out, they do have one win each. It's just that they haven't won the one that they were quicker in.

whether it does actually help him out in future seasons next season remains to be seen to be honest. But I think this was probably a way of saying thank you to Piastri, thank you to the team for prioritizing him in this second half of the year in the championship when it wasn't completely cut and dry. There were times where Piastri was maybe on the fringes of getting in that fight. But yeah, like we say, we'll only know next season as to how much that will actually help things. The battle before that, Lano Norris was using DRS strategically, or rather he wasn't using the IRS, but he was giving the DRS to Oscar Piastri, creating something of a train behind him where he wasn't going to be overtaken by Piastri, but the DRS for him was able to keep him in front of George Russell and eventually Carlos Sines as well. What did you make of the strategy

that was deployed? I think it was the right strategy. I think it was a great call. McClearn noticed it early and you can hear Norris and McLaren communicating regularly over radio odds to how they should keep giving the toe. Should they keep giving the toe, are the ties being affected too much for Piastri? Is it working the right way round? And it was a logical conversation to have. And I do think that if Norris had disappeared off into the sunset and put kind of a three, four, five second gap between himself and the cars behind, which I do think was at one point possible. I have no doubt that Russell had the ability and the speed to get past Piastri. You saw how many times, even with the DRS assistants that Piastri had,

Russell went toe to toe with Piastri in that turn one. He went wheel to wheel with him. Never quite enough, never quite close enough to make the moves. All fair in my eyes, all fair, all very, you know, as close as you want to get, the same with Hamilton and Lecler as well. Absolutely perfect. On the level of space left, you know, how close they got to each other. Brilliant, brilliant racing.

I'd love to see it. It would have been way better if the driver on the inside had just forced him off at the first possible opportunity and then we didn't have wheel to wheel action for the rest of the sector on it. Spoiler, it's going to be a rant for the ages when we come to talk about that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not going into it.

I actually can't believe the quote, though. I thought it was satire. I thought it was a joke. Yeah. You are in for something, folks. Yeah, I've, I've, I've holding back because we haven't got onto it as a topic, but I genuinely look to get and laughed. I went, wait, this is real.

yeah so that was fantastic wheel to wheel action Russell can't get the move done the optimal way to get the move done was I think round the outside unless you left it until right to the death like the Clair did on Hamilton but I do think Russell would have had enough to pass Piastry had he not had that DORS assistant so all for it we saw it working Singapore to remember a couple of years ago now

where Science and Norris worked together last year season last season sorry where science and Norris worked so well together to kind of maintain that league in front of the two Mercedes cars and the same thing took place here They worked together to staying in front of Russell and Science behind them at this point. It was logical. It makes sense. They got the one to, apart from the silly business at the last corner, I think this is a pretty perfectly run Grand Prix from McLaren.

Yeah, there were a few, a few laps where they didn't get it quite right. And Piastri was left to defend without any DRS. So I don't think they did it perfectly, but at least the intention was absolutely perfect. And look, you can agree with what George Russell is saying that it wasn't the best in terms of entertainment and it's not what we want to see and how he was infuriated in P3. And that's all valid. But if you're McLaren and you don't do this, everyone would very rightly turn around and go, why on earth didn't you? If you've got a tactic that's perfectly legal to use at your disposal, you've got to use it. So I don't blame from McLaren for taking the option that wasn't the.

best for entertainment. Lando Norris, I'm sure, had the pace to quite, he would have got away from Oscar Piastri, I'm fairly sure of that, whether George Russell could then have followed him through and given us a fight between those two drivers for the win. That remains to be seen.

Maybe we get a little bit of that tomorrow. But yeah, I don't blame McLaren for what they did. Like I say, the execution was very good, but not perfect, but the actual intention of what they were trying to do, of course you would do it. What about a little bit further down in the points? We saw Holkenberg get another two points for Hass that opens up the advantage they have over Alpine a little bit more. Gassley, very close to the points, but being overtaken by Max Verstappen means that he was just outside the points.

What did you make of his effort? I thought Holgerberg was fantastic. And I know we'll get on to it, but the juxtaposition between Holgerberg in qualifying and Holgerberg and that sprint race was very surprising. The way Holgerberg was able to hold off Max Verstappen for pretty much the entire Grand Prix. pre, especially as Max got past, Gaslow. No threat, so never got into the DRS zone, really. Really impressive from Hulk, really impressive. And again, I'm more surprised that he's out in Q1 in the qualifying discussion than I was

that he could hold off Max for staff on a track like this now. That's how good I think Hulk's been this year. Gassily, I'm a bit gutting for. I think the Alping is not good here. As you've seen by Ocon, I know O'Conn is running the Ongus spec, but I do think the Alping is really poor around a track like this. The characteristics of Qatar are so fast flowing. so few slow corn is long straight lines

and that's what Alping do excel at this is really alien for Alpine so the fact that Gasly has been knocked out in Q2 in P11 and has managed to be one place off the points in the sprint race I really think that new spec is one helping but he's still excelling. Ocon you can see I think that's where the car

originally was and where Ocon's pace is currently in comparison Gasly bless him I think he deserved a reward but yeah surprising that the Stappen was only able to pick up a point and wasn't able to get past Holgerberg a great drive from Holkberg. That's what he needs to do to extend the gap between Hars and our paying

in the constructors. Yeah. Again, it comes down to these low points finishes that might not mean a lot for these top teams. But when you're in that midfield scrap, those points really do become valuable.

And it wouldn't surprise me at all if come the end of this season. It is a result like this that is the difference between 6th and 7th or 7th and 8th or 6th and 8th. It's highly impressive. We saw that overtaking

was generally very difficult in the sprint race. And it remains to be seen whether the introduction of strategy in tomorrow's race will help that a little bit. But at least when there were no pit stops and everyone was on the same tire except Jo Guanyu, everyone really struggled to get by. We saw Vestapp and make one overtake. We saw a few drivers at the start make really good starts. And that was almost the difference between having a good race and a bad race. Like Liam Lawson, for example, who had a really good sprint qualifying, lost seven positions on the first lap. That was his race done and dusted. And equally, even though he didn't quite get in the points, Magnuson was the opposite.

Magnuson managed to make up, I think, either four or five positions on that first lap. And he was a comfortable P-10 towards the end of that Grand Prix. So, yeah, I don't hold it against Ghazley whatsoever for coming up just short in his quest for points. But another great effort from Niko Holcomburg. Can we talk about the incident that started us all off in the pit lane, Sergio Perez and Franco Colopinto? What was your take on this? What on earth was going on there? So, race has begun, sprint race has begun.

And you can see the medical car is kind of waiting for them to come out the pit lane, which is very unusual. It doesn't usually just sit there standing still next to the pit lane exit. So light's gone green. Perez hasn't reacted at all. And when that light goes green, you bolt, you go. You need to catch up to the back of the field so you don't know. lose as much time. But Perez has said, I want space, which weirdly, he wants clean air is the

words he's used, which to me implies that Red Bull have decided from the get-go, this is a testing session for them. They never expect Perez to make any grounds further up the track, and therefore it's a testing session. We see this, I think, more given by the fact that he pits halfway through the sprint to put on a new front wing and nose, which has got a completely different spec to it, which means that he could do testing of a different setup. But Colopinto is a lot of. going, I actually want to go racing, so I'm now just going to drive around you in the pit lane because you're just sitting here for no reason. I actually think it's rude that Red Bull have done that. I think it's uncompetitive and I think it's poor behaviour that they've got a car

behind them who wants to get on with it, wants to go racing, and it's almost considering, in my eyes, blocking. You're blocking a normal route with a green light, you're not moving, and in the pit lane, if you sat there for that long in a, either pit sequence or qualifying, you'd be penalised for it. I just think it's really, bizarre behavior that I don't think we've ever seen before on a Formula One Grand Prix where a race has begun, the pit laying is green, and a cargo simply decides intentionally not to move off. And only goes, of course, with collar pinto, Gassarice, he's just going to overtake him on his own terms anyway. Very bizarre. Something doesn't add up. Yeah, I don't believe what Sergio Perez said.

And even though it would make a lot of sense. So he, as you've kind of de, detailed. He obviously doesn't go straight away and Colopinto has the opportunity to go by him. And after the race, Perez has asked why it happened and he said, we wanted some space to try some things. I think that makes complete sense why you would do that in Perez's position because, yeah, the nature of sprints, if you're outside of like the top 12, you're not really fighting for anything. So I think. And we saw with overtaking, it was incredibly unlikely. Yeah, yeah. I think that probably would have been the case for pretty.

much anyone starting in that spot. So that all makes sense. So Colopinto goes. But Christian Horner's also asked about this. And he's as confused as anyone when he's interviewed after the sprint happens. Perez's story doesn't add up because as soon as Colopinto gets by him, Perez just joins the back of the queue. He states about a second away, right, from Colopinto for the whole Romperee.

Yeah, he's tempst behind Colopinto, who is in turn temps behind Lawson and Sonoda and Joe. Guan Yu and eventually they all buy Joe Guan Yu. But there is just a massive train of cars. And Perez is very firmly on the back of that queue. If Perez was correct that they wanted all the space in the world, on lap one, he would have just hung back and let Colopinto go and build like a 10 second gap. And then he could have, then I would have believed him 100%. Or he could have gone the same time as Colopinto and they box him after the first lap. And then again, give him free air to try some things out, try that new nose, whatever it might be. That doesn't happen.

He spends half of this sprint just stuck behind other cars. So, what do you think it is? I think Paris is lying. But I mean, he hasn't gone on the green light. Why do you think that is anything? Either he's checking his mirror. I think he's most likely he has seen Colapinto come out into the pit lane. He's not directly behind him, which is kind of the norm.

is that Colopinto would be directly behind. Yeah. So maybe he's just caught out by seeing him in his mirrors or he's distracted by something else, whatever it is. It's just it doesn't add up. If he then didn't get on the back of this queue, I'd be like, sure, that is really sensible to give yourself a test session by being away from everyone else.

Instead, he doesn't have that space. So what he's saying is just not true. Yeah, which is even more embarrassing if he has simply just not been paying attention to any of the start procedures. I mean, Colopinto shouldn't. Why wouldn't Christian Horner say the same thing? Yeah, exactly.

You pre-agree it, wouldn't you? Even if Perez had mucked up entirely, if, you know, that's the case that we're agreeing on. And it wasn't ever a test session. You sit there and go, we planned a test session. It was really badly communicated from both sides. And actually, we ended up having to kind of divert halfway through the Grand Prix.

You go, all right, sure, bad communication. We can accept that. You're right. It screams of covering up something, which is a total mistake at a, a really bad point for Sergio Perez at the end of the season where it's already very bad for him. Anyway, that's going to wrap up our sprint review. On the other side, we're going to take a look at qualifying.

Welcome back, everyone. After the sprint qualifying and the sprint race, if you were to put together a list of favorites for pole position, I'm not sure Max Verstappen would have been at the top of that list, but whether it's related to the work that they did testing in the sprint or whether it's just some park firmate changes that they were able to make. Max Verstappen, able to claim pole position ahead of George Russell. George Russell again, coming up short just to a different driver this time. Sergio Perez also able to make Q3, where he was knocked out in Q1 in yesterday's session.

A pretty impressive recovery from Red Bull. I'm incredibly impressed with Max Verstappen. So impressed once again from him. I do think this is a classic case of only one practice session, so the car can only be set up to one extent. shorter qualifying periods in the spring quality, so therefore less time to get your rung sorted, less time to feel comfortable on the tyres. And then you combine that with the fact that

Park Ferming is lifted between the sprint race and qualifying. I think all of those factors combined for Maxwell Stappen, probably resulting in a few minor tweaks, understanding of the tyres, more comfortable with the track and the car, boom, pole position. And it was close, mighty close. And I will get on to George Russell in a minute,

who again deserves massive props. But this is again, this is what we used to see from Lewis Hamilton. This is the kind of behavior we used to see from him, kind of, you know, 2017, 2018, 2019, where all of a sudden at the death, you just pull out a lap. They're the guy that pulls out a lap.

And the fact that Perez is ninth, which is a very good qualifying in his capacity right now, but for Stapel is on pole again, beating both McLaren's, both Ferraris, Russell, even Hamilton, is really spectacular. And that's why he's the four-time world champ. I was so impressed.

I, as you said, never had him down as the guy that I thought would be leaving qualifying on pole position. It was always going to be a Norris, a Leclerc, maybe even a Russell, I said in the live stream. Russell could be up for this. It could be his to lose. Vastappen came out and nowhere in my eyes. Yeah, I figured Vastappen and Red Bull might be quick here this weekend.

It just took them a little while to get there. Vastly different from what we saw from them in sprint qualifying, but also the sprint, because as we alluded to before the break, he wasn't close to overtaking Nika Holkenberg. He wasn't close to threatening some of the other drivers in the likes of the Ferrari, the McLaren and the Mercedes. So see that turnaround from that to what we saw today, which was pole position. We do know he is under investigation as we're recording this for going too slowly on his out lap. But we'll just assume for now that he's not being penalized for it.

But even if he was, the lap that he put together is worthy of a lot of praise. yeah, thank goodness, I don't give F1 too many credits like the organisation, but thank goodness that there was this change for sprints where part-firmate changes can actually be made because one of the major complaints I've always had about sprints and I still have that same complaint, but it's lessened now, is that the race is spoiled because we know what's going to happen because we've already seen it. least here we can see a team can make something of a recovery. If they haven't got it quite right for sprint and sprint quality, they can make some changes, maybe off the back of some testing

that was done during the sprint. And look, Vestappen has improved his performance massively on what we saw at exactly the same time 24 hours ago. So credit to Max Vestappen, he pulled it out the bag when he needed to in Q3. He looked good for all of qualifying, to be fair. And now we get to see if if he can hold on to it. It's not like Vostappen has been claiming a lot of polls recently. I think this is first one since well, technically Austria,

although he did also get first in Belgium qualifying, you'll remember, but got a 10 place, great penalty. But in any event, it's been a fair while. So credit to him. Yeah, George Russell, P2 merchant at this point,

I mean, in that car, fair play to George Russell. I think we were right when we came into Qatar and we said, this is going to be a weaker track in comparison to Vegas for Mercedes. I don't think they were ever expected

to turn up here and have that same level of dominance and assurance that they would be comfortably fighting one and two for the wing here. And I think that's proven, although I do fit the drop off is less than I expected it to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, the car is better here than I thought it was just not as good as it was at Vegas. So the fact that George Russell has, I think, it's combined time to pole position on both sessions is less than two tents, which, you know,

fair play to the last. lad. Fair play. He's a real good qualifier. I know that we hate the phrase Mr. Saturday, and I despise it. But the definition of Mr. Saturday is that he was very good at qualifying. He's proving it again, just how quick he could be. He used to get a better start. He started in the sprint race wasn't fantastic, as what resulted in the overtake from Piastri. If he can make sure he runs alongside, or he slots into second place alongside Max Verstappen, I'm very intrigued you to the lack of practice. How the long runs between Masekis and Rebel are going to play out, because I think he's a real.

threat for this race wing. I think he could make it two in two if the strategy is bold. If Mercedes do go through the whole gunho, nothing to lose, throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. I think Russell could be a real menace and could come out on top of this. Just another pat on the back for George doing everything he can at the moment. Yeah. And it should in theory be a better situation than what he had in the sprint where of course he's overtaken off the line and then he's facing team strategy ahead of him, which made it very difficult for him much. It would be a surprise if he's put in the same situation in the Grand Prix itself, because he'd have had to have lost two positions to both McLarence for that to take place.

And Max Verstappen, whilst he will be desperate to claim a win, he's not going to have a teammate alongside him unless Sergio Perez gets the greatest start of all time from 9th. So he's got a real shot at giving Vastappen a headache tomorrow, either off the line or, as you say, maybe in the long run pace, because we don't really know what the long run pace is for a lot of these teams, particularly for the likes of Russell, who was just stuck behind another car throughout the entirety of the sprint. We didn't really get to see what he had available to him. We should get to see that tomorrow. But yeah, really, really great effort. Obviously, it didn't quite come together at the end of Q3, set a purple sector on his second run, but then had a poor

middle sector. I think if he hooks together that lap, he might well have been looking at a pole position, but I think we're nitpicking again based on him being temps and tempsps ahead of his teammate who's on the third row of the grid. Great effort from George Russell. Yeah, two things I want to bring up about Russell here. He mentioned how he got blocked by Vastappen at the start at the end of his warm-up lap his final run. I don't think it's affecting him by the sense that he put in a purple first sector.

Well, yeah. You know, to me that says that you were just fine. So there are a few people saying it should Stappan pick up a penalty. He was on a warm-up lap. the Staffen was on a warm-up lap. Usually we don't peeing a lies. I think it's evident that didn't affect him. But to Russell's positives here,

to his positive way in the race where he might end up coming out on top, he was following Piastri for pretty much every single lap of that Sprint Grand Prix. And his tyres never seemed to fall off. He was right behind Piastri the entire time, never dropped out of DRS, was always pushing. That tells me he's got the ability

to run those tires long even in Dirty Air, which is something to say he's been historically really bad at, If that's the case and he can stay on for Stappan's tails, you never know. There might be a fight on. McLaren have lost ground in terms of qualifying compared to sprint quality. So they were first and third in spring quality. They're third and fourth here. Is it negative because of that?

Or is it positive in that they weren't replaced by Ferrari? They're still ahead. Both McLaren's ahead of both Ferraris. And that's obviously what they're paying attention to at the moment in terms of the Constructed Championship. I mean, it can be both things, right? I think it is a negative that they haven't adapted between the sessions as well as the likes of Stappen or maintained the level of pace like Russell.

The fact that Russell was behind one of the McLaren's and now has beaten both of the McLaren's tells me that time was on the cards from McLaren there. There's something they've missed, whether it comes to setup or the transition in between the session times, they could have still been in that fight with Russell and Max Verstappen. The fact they did it the first time and Russell's still there tells me the cars are capable of doing it. So they were disappointed that they're not having at least one car on that front row after they got the one three in the spring.

But equally, they only need to care about one team. That one team is Ferrari. They're still in front of them. Unfortunately, they're not in front of them to the same margin that they were in the sprint qualifying. And this is going to be an opportunity for Ferrari. Big points are taking home on the Sunday. Yes, they picked up a marginal gain on that sprint race.

I think the gap is now 30 points between McLaren and Ferrari. If Ferrari get a good start and manage to jump both of them, it could very quickly come back down to 14, 15 points going into Abu Dhabi. And it could all change very, very quickly. So they'll be happy they're in front, but I don't think they'll be feeling comfortable. Yeah, I, it was a scruffy Q3, really scruffy. So from Lando Norris's perspective, he obviously has one attempt that's invalidated due to track limits. He then has another go and he abandons that after about a sector.

And then he has that final run, which was a pretty good lap. But that was his only attempt, whereas a lot of other drivers managed to get two solid efforts in. So not a great session for Lando Norris, even if he did get P3 right at the end. Piastri similarly, he had some solid pace again, but you never quite felt confident he was going to be in that battle for pole position. Even so, starting on the second row of the grid, they have a good chance of outscoring Ferrari again here because I just don't think Ferrari's got it.

They look very good in practice, ironically, but ever since then, they haven't quite seemed on the pace. We saw in the sprint that Charles Leclair was struggling to keep pace with the top four guys. Color signs was in that fight, but you have to question whether he would have been, if not for Russell and Norris

being slower than they potentially could have been. I'm not convinced their car is especially quick here, in which case they might need, like you say, a good start, they might need one of them to DNF, they might just need some shenanigans that we're not expecting from this Grand Prix because otherwise I could see McLaren

making a sizable step towards sealing that Constructors' Championship, even if it's not confirmed here, they could at least leave Ferrari needing a miracle in Abu Dhabi rather than it being a realistic target. Quick question, irrelevant. We're not irrelevant, sideline. How are you feeling like your fantasy? Oh my God. Because you went full Ferrari last time. I am an idiot. What have you done this time? So my plan, great plan. Okay. Two races to go.

Two chips left. All right. Three times chip. Yep. And the chip where you can basically sub in whoever you want for one weekend. For a sprint weekend. I'm going to do that chip for this weekend. I forgot.

So I'm still all Ferrari. Guess who didn't forget? Oh, you didn't. This guy. Yeah, very excited. Manish, get the Stappen, Russ. Russell, Norris, LeCler, and Sikes, which is annoyed, that it's Sykes, not Piastrian, as my pick.

And I've got Ferrari McLaren, so fingers crossed. Come on. I was so annoyed. I was like, right, I'm going to put both McLaren's in. We're going to put both Ferraris in. And then I'll have, I think I was going to go for George Russell alongside those four. It's like, yeah, this is a great idea. When to do it last night.

And I was like, ah, yeah, it's all right. I'll do it tomorrow morning. Nope. Totally negative is I have times two, Lecler, which I'm really annoyed about. Never, never mind. What else have we got from qualifying? We had Fernando Lonzo. Sorry, hang on, who's that guy?

Fernando. A Lonzo. Better go as a two-time world champ, I think. I only pay attention to the top ten. I don't see him very often. What's going on with Master Martin? He's a newbie. This has got to be track-specific.

I don't know what they've done. Because, I mean, Stroll didn't make it, but Stroll was also significantly better than he has been the last cut of Grand Prix as well. but fair play to Fernando Alonso whilst he's still right at the back of that top 10 pack the fact that he in Q2 stuck it well inside

the top 10 I think he was P6 I think it was when he went from Q2 and Q3 considering that we were claiming that that car is the same pace of the Salba who will get onto as well because they look massively improved here I don't know if they're building their cars in the same aerodynamic direction and it means

that actually something about the Qatar set up means that both Ascom Martin and Salba have become massively improved, which would be track-specific. But they've done well to adapt between the part Fermé lift, between the two sessions. They've qualified well, points are back on the cars. It's just whether this qualifying pace can transition nicely into race pace, or they're going to be very quickly bumped back out the points by the likes of Gassley, perhaps, moving up. Old Kerburs will want to make big moves, whether he can come all the way back through,

I don't know. There is some competition further back that Alonso is going to be looking over his shoulder for. Yeah, I mean, he went marginally quicker in Q2 compared to, Q3, not by much, it was about half a tenth, but yeah, Fernando Alonzo, very impressive effort. And it's not like he was a million miles away from the cars in front. He starts eighth. And he was pretty much as close to the two cars behind him as he was the two cars in front of him. He's overall just over seven temps away from the poll time of Vastappen, but he is only two temps away from Carlos Sines and Lewis Hamilton. So that's the Martin had some serious pace.

And you're right to say Land Stroll had some good pace as well. Now, he, I was going to use a phrase that I definitely can't use on the podcast. I'm excited to hear that when we stop. He pooped the bed, Lance Stroll in Q2. Because he was about seven tenths away from what Fernando Alonzo was able to do. And Alonzo, as you say, was very safely through to the final part of qualifying. And Lance Stroll knocked out and he'll start 15th. This was an opportunity for Beaufast and Martins to get through to Q3.

having just one there is still a massive step forward on what they've done recently. So credit to him. What about Salba? 12 and 13th? Yeah, I don't understand. I don't get it. You've been the worst car we've seen in Formula 1 since Haas in the 2020 season. And then before that, since manor were about, I don't understand.

How are you 12th and 13th? But like, we've got a position now, right, where I don't know who you want to say is the fifth fastest car here. But Haas, maybe, I don't know. But that's the question. Right. Yeah. Fifth to 10th. Let's call Hass 5th and maybe Williams 10th.

There's nothing. But that's the point. I don't know who's 10th. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I love that. I wish it was the whole grid. But fifth to 10th, you don't know where anyone's going to be every single race.

That's what we want. That's what we want. And well done to both show Guangzhou and Bostas. This is the first time since Spain that they both being into Q2. It's the first time in a long time. That is what? It's 15 Grand Prix that they both. got out of that Q1 elimination zone, mental, mental to them.

And they're right next to each other. So the car is, they're operating that car the best it could be. Both drivers are turning up, the wrong form. Something goes wrong up there. Points? If, if, I'm sorry, if Shoguan, you end up scoring points and Bottas doesn't, that's, oh, boss. Fair play to me, he does and Bottas doesn't, still.

Yeah. Yeah. You know the Walter White giff of someone cooked here? Yes, correct. Joe Guan Yu. That's who Walter White was talking about many years before Joe Guan Yu was anywhere near Formula One. It's impressive. Impressive foresight from Breaking Bad as a TV program.

If you get 99.9% pure meth, and he knows that Joe Guan Yu will smash it, 2024 Qatar full qualifying. Nice one, Mr. White. Yeah. He was not far off Q3. That was a serious possibility. that Joe Guan Yu firstly was over two temps clear of his teammate, who was directly behind him, which if you can work it out, folks, means he had an even bigger gap to the likes of Sonoda

and to stroll as well. And he only needed to improve by, I think it would have ended up being about a 10th, maybe just over a 10th, to make it through to the final part of qualifying. And we saw that he was consistent throughout the sectors as well. They were a little bit slower in the final sector. But that first couple of sectors from Joe Guan Yu was. lightning quick. I think he ended up doing a 29-8 in the first sector on his, on his fastest lap, which was only a couple of attempts away from the fastest we saw all session by anyone.

So credits to Joe Guan Yu, credits of Altri Bottas. That salber has come alive just in time for absolutely no reason and for nothing, but I like to see it. But also is rubbing his hands together. He's got the stove out. He's absolutely frying up a storm back there. Maybe he's the reason. Somehow. I don't know. He'll claim it. I would.

Anything else caught your eye in qualifying? I'm really disappointed with Holkenberg. I know that it wasn't on pure pace and they had a battery. It didn't recharge properly, but they claimed it was their own fault. They claimed it wasn't, there wasn't a car failure

or a battery failure. It simply was timed wrong. And the fact the Magnuson starts P-10 at Holkenberg's in P-18, really, really disappointing. I mean, Holcombberg probably could have got a better lap in to start with when the battery was charged. I don't know if that would have saved him at that point with all the improvement we saw. But this was really disappointing from ours.

It's the first real drop of the ball that I think we've seen from them in quite a while now. Yeah, what's interesting is that again, looking at that three-car battle in the Constructors Championship, it's only Magnuson that's made the top 10 in that battle. So Holkenberg, yeah, Holkenberg's going to be the last of those six. and Magnuson's going to be the first of those six, which is something of... Don't forget Ockon back there. Oh, yeah. Very much last.

Sorry, I forgot about you, Esteban, as I think Al-Pie might have done as well. You know, it's for you, M-Knight. Damn. But, yeah, Holkenberg eight positions off his teammate, and Hass are going to be looking at their departing driver as their biggest chance of points, which will be interesting. Yeah, yeah, but well done to KMack, a really good session for him. do you have a driver of the session for for both sessions um for both sessions for both sessions for the one one for each yeah what for the spring um for the spring i'm going to give it to holkenberg holding off max for staff and so convincingly um but props to norris despite that silly decision

at the end i do think he had pays hand over fist of everyone else there and probably could have scambled off if he wanted to um and for qualifying i'm going to go with a long so um as much as that Ascom Martin has clearly improved. The fact that he, I know Strohl bottled it a bit, but to be in P8, to be in front of Perez, to be in front of Magneton, in front of Gasly, and so close to the likes of Hamilton and science, so impressive in that car. So yeah, Fernando Alonkso, still proving the old man's got it. Yeah, I'll match both of your answers, I think.

I'll give it to Holkenberg in the sprint. In qualifying Alonzo Verstappan and Joguan Yew, the three names, I'm sure we were all expecting to be in contention for... Triver of the session, I'll give it to Alonso though, because eighth place in that Aston Martin is a long way from what it's been the last few Grand Prix. Indeed. We have still got one more review to come from Qatar, and of course it's the main race. So give it about 24 hours. We're going to be back here again.

We'll be back. We will in 24 hours' time. Don't forget, folks, I'll be live streaming the reaction to the race that unfolds, late-breaking podcast and Twitch. Come and say hello. Come and follow there. Look at us all over social media, late-breaking F-1. for action as it unfolds, we'll give silly responses,

comedic responses, serious takes. You might see an outbursts. Something like McLaren's overtake on the last corner happens again. You never know. And yeah, stick around. Check out Patreon if you want power rankings as well because that would be coming on Monday

for all of you subscribers. So thanks for listening. We're going to December now, the last month. We've got one race proper to go. But let's enjoy guitar. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage.

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