The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Qatar GP Sprint Shootout Review

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Though Ferrari set the pace in Practice, it was McLaren that emerged as the faster of the two teams in today's Sprint Qualifying - but can they stay ahead in tomorrow's warmer sessions? Ben and Sam discuss the action from Norris' impressive pole, Russell's surprise performance, and another bad day for one side of the Red Bull garage... Get your friends or family the gift that they truly deserve... gift an LB Patreon membership HERE

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Find an agent today at Dejardin.com slash business coverage. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, here for the sprint qualifying review on this Friday, the last sprint qualifying review of the season. Qatar this time around, it's Lando Norris, who claims pole position for the sprint tomorrow,

his teammate in third behind him, Russell joins Norris on the front row. Hello there, Sam. Oh, hello there, Ben. Oh, hello. Oh, hello. Yeah, okay, McClara decided to turn back up. Vegas, not their kind of trap, but we did say that coming here,

this looks like the place that they might dominate. Ben, you even said that you think that McLaren will have the upper hand on Ferrari for the weekend. So using those powers of prediction, maybe you'll get a bold prediction right this weekend. Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure about that, mate. Come, though. It will be difficult for me to build on my two bowl predictions for the season. Again, it's one right.

Only one point. Sure, yeah. So, but Landon Norris seemingly had the pace the whole way through that session. He really wowed me where he kind of came out in SQ1. At one point, putting a lap that was seven-tenths faster than Charlotte Clerk. Now, I know that track evolution took place and we had a lot of development with tires. I was making it difficult to judge. Yeah, but the guy came out there heavy hitting from the start.

And you kind of followed that the whole way through the session. But this is what McLaren needed. With that title fight they're going into against Ferrari, whilst they are leading the way, they've kicked off the weekend the way they want to finish it. Yeah, let's start with McLaren, because a lot of the chat from our podcast and from pretty much everyone now that the driver's championship is over,

is towards that Constructors Championship, McLaren holding the lead versus Ferrari that are still within touching distance. Of course, as you've already mentioned, McLaren struggled in Vegas, have generally struggled over the last three or four races, whereas Ferrari have found a little bit of form, wins in the likes of Mexico and Austin. Here we are at Qatar, and in practice, looks very good for Ferrari. Turn up to qualifying, and as you say, Lando Norris is showing a lot of pace early on.

In Q3, manages to set the fastest time on the first runs. Doesn't improve on his second run. Actually abandoned his lap. It wasn't going to be any quicker after the first two sectors, but ultimately, even though there was an effort from George Russell that we'll speak about in a bit, no one could touch him. So how impressed were you by Lando Norris? Because we had a similar situation last year, of course,

where he bottled qualifying when he looked very quick. He didn't do that this time around. No, he didn't do it at all. He hasn't bottled it. The issue for him this season has been mentioned many a time before is that it's getting off the line and staying in first place. That's the problem for him. He's done realistically the hard bit.

He's beating all of his rivals to that top spot. And I was impressed with what he was able to put out the bag. where the likes of his teammate, Piaastri, who will start directly behind him, how a bit of a shaky session. There are a couple of moments where he had that lap time deleted. He wasn't looking as fast as his teammate on many occasions. It was good to see him up in third place,

but Lando really led the way. I think this will relax McLaren a little bit. The fact they've come into this weekend and they've seen that they are looking faster than Ferrari from the offset of competitive sessions, that is, feels positive. For me, though, the interesting thing about the practice difference and the sprint qualifying difference

is time of day. I do think that the cooler session that has come out of sprint qualifying is suiting McLaren further. The race day, where most points are going to be score, of course, on that Sunday, is going to be much closer to the time of day

where we had sprint, sorry, the practice times. Therefore, I think it's going to be warmer and therefore I think Ferrari might be far more competitive than what they currently seem. So whilst McLaren currently seem like the dominant car

having one and three, with Ferrari being five and six, I don't think that's going to be the status quo. I do think that might swap around a bit throughout the weekend. It will be interesting because, especially in terms of the sprint, Ferrari aren't out of things in fourth and fifth. Like that is by far, in a way, a competitive place to start,

particularly if you do get off well off the line and you are, you know, fighting for second or third within the first couple of corners, then suddenly the race really opens up for you. I was really impressed by McLaren, as you've already mentioned, it is with Qatar and the fact that you don't necessarily have one run, go into pits, new tires, back for another run. We do have this continual improvement that happens, particularly in the first couple of sessions in qualifying. You've almost got to find

yourself on the fly adjusting times, don't you? Like, well, he's gone two temps faster, but he's only gone two temps faster when the other person did his lap five minutes ago. In fact, that might actually be a couple of times slower. But even so, early on, it was looking like McLaren did hold a bit of an advantage. And Lando Norris in particular, who always seemed to have the legs on Lando, on Oscar Piastri throughout this session. Having said that, you'll remember the last time we went into a sprint qualifying in Brazil. That was exactly the same. And then Piastri pulled it out the bag in Q3, SQ3, where Lando Norris couldn't.

Here, Lando Norris does a very good job on his first lap, is nowhere near improving that on his second lap. Oscar Piastri did he wasn't that far off Lando Norris it was only uh it was under a couple attempts but like you say Piastri made it a bit more difficult for himself with forcing himself onto onto one run so um yeah I was impressed by what Lando Norris was able to deliver but after some tricky qualifying sessions as of late I was impressed by Oscar Piastri too because we've seen him be knocked out in SQ1 we've seen him be knocked out in Q1 quite recently we've said on the podcast that In order to win that fight against Ferrari, it's going to need both drivers. And today, that's what we got.

We got both drivers. Yeah, well, it's a good return to form for Piastri. He's had five or six Grand Prix, where he's been lagging behind Landon Norris, both in race pace, typically and in qualifying. So to see him be right there, not alongside him, but within two tents to qualify and there to back up his teammate immediately, as it comes down to the wild, this fight against Ferrari, if you're going to pull it out the bag, now is the time to pull it out the bag. And he's clearly very comfortable around here.

Obviously, last year, he had an absolutely brilliant weekend, picked up his first sprint-quit-spring-quit-spring race win. He seems to be carrying over the form very well this year, obviously not pole, but competitive, very competitive. And if the Mercedes looks like it's not going to be as good in its race pace as it is in its qualifying pace, there's every chance that if Ferrari and McClaren get away, well, they can finish it one too. So it'll be fourth and fifth for Ferrari signs ahead of Lecler,

whereas we saw McLaren both set their fastest lap times earlier on, SQ3 and then try and build on them, but ultimately not able to do so. Ferrari found themselves scrambling for lap times quite late on in the session, in particular, Carlos Sines, who didn't really have any representative lap time on the board. Will they be disappointed that they couldn't get any better than 4.45th? Or is there enough hope based on the practice pace earlier that actually when we get to a change in time, they're going to be competitive again? Yeah, I don't think they'll panic immediately. I think they'll be a little bit disappointed that this form between themselves and McLaren has flipped so heavily between Vegas and Qatar. But if you look at running form throughout

the season, it has always been clear that Ferrari do tend to do better than everyone else when it comes to very hot conditions. Now, that spring qualifying, I believe, is the coldest of all the sessions we're going to have throughout the weekend if you look at weather reports and times throughout the day. So realistically, Ferrari, in terms of pure condition, should have a better chance of bringing it back to McLaren. I was a little worried about of science. I think they changed tact right on that final session to try and do two prep laps. And on that soft tire, we saw it die off so quickly that I realistically think that might not have been the right play. I think you might have taken a little bit too much life out of that soft tire.

So then once you actually got going on, your fast lap, you've had too much of the tire already, which meant that they sat for the fifth. I think they could have been closer. But the fact they are right behind Piastri and they're going to cut the cars away from Norris. It's not the end of the world. It's not like what we had in Vegas, the flip side, where there was a good two or three cars. between Ferrari and McLaren. They're right there.

Like you saying, if one of them gets a good start, maybe jumps Russell and Piastri. They're right alongside Norris are going into turn one. The fight is very much on for the race. So I think they can walk away with this knowing that the weekend

for them should be on the up, whereas McLaren, it could be a little risky. It might go downhill. One of the surprising things, are not necessarily surprising, but one of the interesting things that we get about sprint weekends

is obviously the lack of practice time means that the running order, but also the strategies of teams is far less known than when we have three practice sessions across Friday and Saturday morning. Here, we had so many teams opt for different strategies of how they'd approach this qualifying session. So you had Hasse were like one extreme. So Hasse would do one flying lap and then come into the pits, almost like a traditional

qualifying session. And then on the other extreme, you had the likes of signs, and particularly the Mercedes actually, that would go for. for multiple cool down laps or even like warm-up laps out of the pit before they would go for a lap. And then maybe McLaren was somewhere in the middle. It was really fascinating and seemingly McLaren have got it right. From Ferrari's perspective, there was a lot of pressure on their drivers late on to actually deliver something. And I think Charle-le-le-le-will-be disappointed not to have mixed it with the McLaren's and George Russell. I think he'd look at George Russell's lap and say,

my best effort, I could do that as well. And to be honest, I think signs can probably say the same thing as well. Now, it hasn't really cost them. They have both got ahead of Stappen and Hamilton, which is crucial because if they were starting sixth and seventh, I think that would be a much more difficult task. But fourth and fifth gives them something to fight with for sure. What about that Mercedes battle? So we saw both cars get through to SQ3, which hasn't necessarily always been the case in qualifying sessions so far this year. They were. as high as second and fourth in Q2. They make it through to SQ3.

George Russell, his second attempt is the faster of his two attempts and manages to get within one tenth of Lando Norris and we'll start on the front row of the grid. Lewis Hamilton struggling a little bit more. He'll be down in seventh, really, the fastest of the leading teams. Sorry, the slowest of the leading teams, I should say. What were your thoughts on the Mercedes in their battle?

Very juxtaposing in their performances. I'm so impressed with George Russell. I really am so impressed with him because I think he's outperforming what that Mercedes is he's capable of. I think the Mercedes pace is somewhere between where Russell is and where Hamilton is. I wouldn't be surprised if it's currently around like a fifth maybe and a kind of a normal driver's ability. And I think Russell has outperformed.

What worries me for Lewis, we've said this time and time again, he hasn't bounced back after Vegas. I thought he would have done. He hasn't made that immediate impression in a qualifying session like we thought. And the fact that he was on regular occurrences, five, six tenths away from George Russell is a worrying gap in qualified

between two teammates who are now very experience, especially in Lewis Hamilton's case. So the fact that it's taken Lewis Hamilton so long to warm himself up, as you mentioned, they finished SQ2, second and fourth. That was the best lap time that Lewis Hamilton essentially did on that meeting ties all day long. It took him so long to build up to that pace.

But George Russell, every single time of asking, was straight in there, mixing it with the Ferraris, mixing it with the McLaren's. He was always fighting in that top four or five pack, whereas Hamilton, it felt like it took him so long to get the pace under his belt to really challenge. And even when he was challenging, he was slower than both McClaren's, his teammate and was regularly fighting with the Ferraris, who, as we saw, also struggled to maintain regular pace up there at the frontrunners. So I don't know if it's just Hamilton's head dropped and he struggled with this car.

He doesn't want to do it anymore until he gets to that Ferrari. But Russellman is 0.63, conveniently his race number away from spring quality pole, which, you know, I love that for him. he's really impressed me this season. I think he was very unlucky through a lot of the first proportion of this season. He's really come good. Now the luck's going his way a little bit. Equally, he's matching that with such strong performances.

I think he's a real threat possibly for this race tomorrow. Yeah, it's not even as if he and let's say, four drivers behind him are separated by a few hundreds of a second. He's got comfortable gaps to the drivers behind him. He really was the only legitimate challenger, I think, to Lando Norris. He is a full tempth, essentially away for a head of Oscar Piastri. He is two temps clear of the lead Ferrari of Carlos Sines.

And he's four temps clear of his teammate. And as you've already said, four temps was kind of the lowest the gap was between those two drivers throughout most of qualifying. He did seem on it really from the off. Again, going back to the whole point of track evolution and trying to, trying to adjust times. We had Lewis Hamilton essentially match a time of George Russell, but George Russell had set that time like five minutes prior.

And as soon as George Russell, a few seconds later, sets his next lap time, he goes again, six tenths or so faster. So, yeah, Russell, a clear advantage over his teammate, but also a clear advantage over some of his rivals. Really, at this point in the season, we've got, Max Verstappen has kind of done what he needs to do in terms of the driver's championship. he'll take a win if one presents itself at any point, but his job is done for the year. Ferrari and McLaren are very much in battle for this Constructors' Championship.

And then you've got Mercedes who are just so far out of contention for any championship battle, but seemingly with a car that might be good enough to take a race win. So surely at this stage, it would be, it's kind of their only objective. Like, if they've got an opportunity to win, I think George Russell is just going to go all out and try and win it. I don't think there's going to be any, I might as well play it conservative here to get me some points and move us closer to the top three. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. So you can imagine that George Russell, even in a sprint off the line tomorrow, might be quite aggressive. I wouldn't be surprised at that at all.

It's a threat that Ferrari and McLaren aren't going to want to have when they're trying to just work it out between themselves who's going to finish on top. McLaren will not want to deal with a boisterous and rather feisty George Russell going into turn one at all. They won it smooth sailing. Feisty one you are. George Russell is definitely the kind of guy that will just bring that out of nowhere as well. You are so correct. So correct. Just sitting on the team bus or something.

Just go, feisty, like what are you are doing, George? I saw something on doing. Sorry, this is definitely not sprint qualify related. I saw something on Twitter, which was like putting British phrases, and it was snug as a bug and a rug. Yeah. And someone was like, I know George Russell said this at some point. Finds an Instagram post that is exactly that when he's doing a seat fitting. It's like, yeah, of course.

He's such a snucking as a bugging a rug kind of guy. Yeah. 100%. Let's take a short break on this spring qualifying episode on the other side. We've still got plenty of chat throughout Q2 and Q1. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is taking. on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today

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Let's move on to Red Bull, shall we? Max Verstappen, three tenths or so off the pace that he was needing. Set two very identical lap times. Did Max Verstappen in Q3? Of course, Sergio Perez knocked out in SQ1. It was very close between himself, Yuki Sanoda, Liam Lawson. Ironically, those two drivers in that mix. But ultimately, Perez, on the wrong side of that elimination,

it looks like he'll start from 16th tomorrow. Your thoughts on both of their performances? Yeah, I think Max Verstappen is performing, as I would expect, a man who's just won his fourth title and maybe is a little bit checked out for the rest of the season to perform. He's exactly where I thought the Red Bull would be. This is the kind of pace I expected from Red Bull around here, how the car's been developed.

The third fastest team beat Hamilton. I think he's doing a good job there, but sitting in behind both the Ferrari's McLaren. I think Russell, as I said, who was outperforming the car. It's exactly what I expect from that Red Bull. Nothing more, nothing less. Sergio Perez, on the other hand, once again, knocked out in the Q1 part of qualifying. I know he's had some problems with his brakes.

I know he's had some issues with the car set up and the development of the car, but after a while, it becomes a little bit comical when Liam Lawson, in an RB, is able to get into SQ3. He's once again all the way down there at the back of the pack. I'm not going to dig him out. I'm not going to go on about it,

but I did say that he's my under pressure this weekend. I've also said that it'll get a podium one of the Grand Prix, so now I'm hoping for the main race to go to swing, my way, please, Sergio. It's just, I don't, I do not think there's that much of a difference between their cars for their positions to show this much without being driver led. I think Max has done a good job as always.

I think Sergio was once again let himself down. And his reaction over the radio very much displayed that. Just a couple of swear words. No complaints, no, he had that issue where he was slightly blocked maybe by Lecler going around the first corner. I'm not sure that counts enough for him to be knocked out. He should have got the job done soon, or there are multiple opportunities to do so. And multiple cars did it.

earlier on in the session that had similar car presence to him. It's disappointing. Yeah, because it was a similar instance with Pierre Gazley, who was blocked on his fastest attempt at the end of Q1, but he had already done a time that was good enough to make it through anyway. And realistically, if Gassley's in that position, Sergio Perez should definitely be in that position. I haven't got much more to say at this point.

I was borderline this isn't a talking point because of how regularly it happens at this stage. And there was a time, I think, that it was anger of him not doing better. And then it maybe went to disappointment. I haven't got either at this point. It's just half of the course now. Yeah, I don't think, I mean, I live streamed watching it. I don't think I really even reacted.

I think I had a little bit of a giggle of a kind of a course. I was more surprised to know to got knocked out than Perez. Genuinely, was actually disappointed that Scott got knocked out because I thought he was going to continue that strong momentum that he had against Lawson. but Lawson did a fantastic job today. Yeah. And we'll get on to Lawson very shortly. Vestappen I think did a great job as always.

Again, this is one of those qualifying sessions where he does two laps that are basically the same lap and one of them ended up being six thousandths of a second faster than in the other, in which case, that's probably all that car had. Yeah. So on his absolute best day, maybe he gets one of the Ferraris, maybe he gets both of them. but I don't think there's any, there's no disappointment from my side that he's qualified behind both of those. And indeed, the fact that he's out-qualified Lewis Hamilton is in itself an impressive achievement. That midfield battle, we've kind of got this the last few races,

really, with these qualifying sessions where one representative from each team seems to be able to get it through to Q3 and whatever happens, the other one can't. So we've got Pierre Gasly, who will start eighth place, who has just been doing such a phenomenal job. So good. So consistent and strong. It's really impressive. how good his qualifying is being. I know he was always quick, but this feels like he's really started to pull it out the bag on the last four or five Grand Prix. Yeah, I think, and this might not be quite right, I think it's maybe four of the last five qualifying sessions. He's got through to Q3 or SQ3 and the one he didn't was Brazil when he went and got a podium anyway. So he's doing a brilliant

job. Holkenberg will start ninth. He actually qualified 10th and Lawson ninth, but Lawson had a lap time deleted at the end of Q3, so those positions swapped right at the death. I mean, you've already given the flowers to Gasly. Hulk and Lawson, what did you make of them? Yeah, I mean, Hulk's doing what I expect him to do every single weekend at this point. Someone in the live stream said, is it a bold prediction to say that Hulk won't make it to SQ3 at this point because he does it every single week? And I think it is now over 50% of qualifying sessions this year, Holkerberg has been in Q3 or SQ3,

which is a real phenomenal achievement in that Harscar. I know it's not anywhere near as bad historically as it used to be, but it's still going up against stiff competition. You know, you've got to remember that you've always got, realistically, one or two Red Bulls, two Ferraris, realistically two McLearons, realistically two Mercedes. At the start of the season, you have both the Ashton Martins were regularly fighting in that spot as well.

Williams are being about it. R.B. have been thereabouts. It's just something that is really difficult to do. So once again, so impressed that Holgerberg has got. the job done to be in that fight and keeping Harton's fight for sick alive. Lawson, shame you got that laptop deleted, but he's lucky he only loses one place. He's absolutely obliterated Senoda and Perez. I really, again, was disappointed with where Senoda was in comparison to Lawson.

But this is the bounce fact that Lawson needs. He was not going in Las Vegas. He was one of the poorest drivers on the day. If this is how he's setting up his race weekend, he's doing a great job at cementing himself for next year as well. Yeah. I'll quickly give my credit to Pierre Gazley as well as you. He was great again.

He has qualified extremely well in this second half of the season. And it's what he's doing above and beyond what Ocon is doing. And I know Ocon doesn't have the full. I know Gisley has an upgrade on the car that O'Conn doesn't have. Probably an upgrade. I mean, Gisley was still three times faster than O'Con in Q1 when Gassley, I don't think, had the best possible lap time he could have got. So, yeah, Gassley is proving at least in qualifying he's got the legs on O'Con at the moment,

even if it is a little bit closer in terms of the actual race pace. Holkenberg and Lawson. Holkenberg, him and Magnuson were very close in SQ1. And then it got to the second qualifying session. Magnuson has a lap time deleted, and then his second lap isn't very competitive at all. Holkenberg does a really good job of doing what Holkenberg does, which is when it gets to the nitty-gritty of these qualifying sessions,

he's the one that's just able to raise his game. I don't think this is a weekend where Hass have, a clear and obvious advantage over the rest of that midfield pack. I think it's all very close as it normally is. And he's the one that's making the difference. And then from Lawson's perspective, I was very critical of Lawson at Las Vegas, and I think rightly so. But what he's done here is a great achievement.

And it goes back to one of the things that I love most about qualifying. And that is SQ1, Lawson and Sonoda. I didn't note down the exact time difference, but there was hundreds of a second. There was hundreds of a second between Albin, Perez, Sonoda and Lawson. Sonoda's on the wrong side of that. He'll start 17th. Lawson was on the right side of that.

He then gets the rest of the session together, and he'll start 10th, could have been 9th. And it's just one of those where what the drivers are doing in qualifying really matters, and every 10th matters. And that's how it should be in qualifying, right? We want to see these drivers really tested against their peers. And here we have Lawson who does just enough in Q1. And that then propels him on to have a good Q2 session. He was really happy with his lap in that session.

And then manages to make it through to Q3. The fact that he's had his lap time deleted is a shame to lose out on one position. But hey, if that happens in either of the previous two sessions, he loses out on a lot more than one spot. So you've got to pick your moments. And Lawson on a day where Perez and Sonoda, have been knocked out in Q1 and Colopinto for that matter as well. That's a good time to make an SQ3.

Slightly better from Aston Martin. It almost sounds patronising, given that they're qualifying 11th and 14th, but no Q1 knockouts is a bit of a rarity for Aston Martin these days. Yeah, I can't believe earlier with the point I made that they were the team that were obviously fighting for the end of, you know, P9P-Tenning races and were the issue for Haas,

but it now seems like they're a backmarker team, and we've quite rightly, I think, compared them to the pace of Salba over the last three or four Grand Prix. So, so especially, but Strohl had some very good pace. Through SQ1 and SQ2, they both regularly make appearances inside of the top 10.

I think the transition between SQ1 and SQ2, they both dig finish inside of the top 10 at one point. So really, really positive that makes a big step, really confused what the development is. I've got to go and do some research, do some digging, because I don't know if it's just a spec change,

if it's a setup change. Track specific, maybe. It could just be track specific, and we have seen that happen multiple times where the car just feels more comfortable, but they look like they're more in that fight. They look like they're kind of there around Alpine, around Haas,

very much kind of bookmarked by those two teams actually at the moment. So also, let's see what he could do in the race. Strong might get one of his master class starts and end up in the points, who knows. Let's just hope they can carry it over to the full qualifying and the full Grand Prix, because if they are going to score, that's realistically where they need to be making those impressions.

I can't see them getting much higher than a P-Gyang or P-Teng this weekend. So points need to be scored on that Sunday for them. Yeah, fortunately for Aston Martin, and that's been the case for pretty much every race after about the sixth race of the season, they don't really need points in that they're safe enough from everyone around them. But it will at least be encouraging that they have made some progress, even if it's not substantial. The fact that both Alonzo and Stroll were quite similarly paced throughout these qualifying sessions,

and Alonzo has finished very close to making it through to Q3. I've said over the last few Grand Prix, I don't think that car is much faster than a Salba. And I still think that's kind of true. What I think has almost happened is those bottom six teams now, with Salba and Aston Martin maybe making a small step forward, there's not much between them all. So, yeah, Alonzo to be 1.2 seconds off the fastest time in SQ,

out-qualifying Albin, Magnuson, of course, being out-qualified by both Stroll and Alonso. I think, relative to their recent form, they can be happy with that. What about Williams? Albin P-12, Colopinto, somehow got a car in the end,

but not a very good one. Literally dragging around some bolts and a couple of wheels attached to the side of it, I think. Yeah, he's got dead last. He's got a logo mixed car parts on that car, old suspension has been brought in. I don't blame Colopinto for being on the back row here.

I would have liked him to put a bit more pace into it and maybe challenge the likes of Senoda for that kind of P-17 area. But he's driving an absolute bag of bones, as we say. Albon, this is a bit more like it from Albon. This is a bit where I wanted to be here. He's actually a bag, like obviously he didn't make it through the Grand Prix last time out.

He's like some topsy-turvy moments. Of course, the crash that happened at one point in Brazil as well. He needed a better performance. and this is a good start to the weekend for him. He's up there challenging with the maybe improved Ashton Martin.

He's beating a hearse. He's beating an RB. He's beating a Red Bull. He is only behind currently, if you remove a longsoe from the equation, one RB, one Harsst, one Alp. I really think there's only, I think he probably could have beating a longso,

but I think there are only other three cars in front of him that are tough to beat, tough competition. 12's not a bad start. I don't think points on the car if for Williams has something absolutely wacky happens, but I imagine Albaughan will come away from this to think that's a good step in the right direction.

Yeah, I think Colopinto was nailed on to start last, and I think a lot of it probably is car dependent in that he was a long way off show Guan Yu in 19th place, not far off five tenths. So, yeah, that isn't much of a surprise. What album was able to do, I was pretty impressed by, it seems like he's got himself in this sort of position a few times recently, ever since Colopinto's come on board, to be honest,

where he has got close to proving something and then not quite been able to do it. And some of it's been self-inflicted, some of it has been bad luck. He's bemoaned his bad luck on Team Radio recently. And I think he's looking to catch a break. In one of these last few sessions, whether it's tomorrow's sprint,

whether it's Sunday's race or whether it's Abu Dhabi next week, I think he'll just be looking for one more race where he can prove not only to Williams, but to himself as well that actually even when Carlos Sines comes on board like he's going to be able to stand up to him whether he'll be the better

driver or not remains to be seen but he could do with getting his mojo back to use a bit of a corny phrase. Any other points that you want to you want to look at? We've got a Valtry Bottas in Q2 again

anything that caught your eye. That was the one. Valtry Bottas has he had a tough Vegas. He really did. He was far off the pace of showing all sessions, but that's the bounce back that we wanted. So the fact that he's sat there in SQ2 and he's not even far off. It's not like he's at the back of that pack. He's right.

Exactly, right? A tenth of way. I thought at one point with the way he's sexed to improving, I thought, is there a really small chance he's about to qualify for SQ3? I wouldn't bid shot. No, out of all the people to do it, to put a lap out. Bottas is a qualifying maestro. He really knows how to deliver on a one lap shoot.

So really impressed with him. He's again, absolutely yanking that totally. by the lead around that race track. And he's pulling something out of it that isn't embarrassing. So impressed with him. I don't think there's anything realistically more you could be getting out of that salvo right now. Yeah. And this isn't the only time he's got through to the second part of qualifying recently.

He's doing all he can. And it remains to be seen what his plans are for next year or more likely what other teams and people have in their plans that might feature Valtrey Bottas. I think it's probably that way around. But he's doing all he can. I don't think we can look at any of these performances or very few performances recently and say anything, but he's doing all he can. To make it through to Q2 in itself is a good achievement, to out-qualify Stroll,

to out-qualified Magnuson, of course, the Red Bull and Sonoda as well, to only lose out by a tenth of a second to the couple of drivers ahead. Pretty good guy. Yeah, pack this up on the bat, Valcru, or on the bottom, if you'd like. Or on the bottom, if you'd like. It's another corker of a line, I reckon. Driver of the session, who've you got? Always want to mention poll.

Norris is a fantastic job. I think I'm going to give it to Georgie Russ. To being less than, essentially half a tenth away from that poll time, I know McCrower are capable of that. I know Norris is capable of that. I think George Russell is driving a car that should be on that front row. I think Piasker should be eating him. I think one of the Ferrari should be challenging him.

It was just him. Equal mention to shout out to Gasly and to Botow. as they're only spoken about. But yeah, Georgie Russ really has impressed me. I'll join you. George Russell was the driver of the session for me. Yeah, like you say, you've always got to give props to the guy on pole.

And I think the other two shoutouts were very legitimate too. But George Russell, what he's doing to a seven-time world champion teammate who has over 100 polls in this sport, it's not bad, you know? It's quite impressive. He's quite good at the F1 brackets on Saturday. Saturdays. I always see George in a really competitive car. I think people are sleeping on them a little bit.

Hey, maybe, maybe we get that next year. That remains to be seen. This is only your first podcast of three in a row throughout this weekend. We've got a sprint and a qualifying session to review tomorrow, Sam. We do. We do indeed. Yes, we will be doing a review session for the whole of Saturday. So don't expect one after spring.

If it's your first time with us for the weekend, we'll be back at the end of Saturday. and then again after the race on Sunday and then power rankings will be delivered to you for your Patreon subscriber on Monday. If you'd like to find that, the links in the description. You can sign up for it. Massively helps the show.

Make sure if you're not, get involved in the Discord because you can get your submissions on Sunday for your moment of the race and chat with loads of other people as well talking about Formula One and follow us on social social, break in F1 to make sure you are up to date

with all of our thoughts and sitting us across the F1 weekend. I think that's it for now. We're going to get back to you in 24 hours time. 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.