The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Saudi Arabian GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

The Saudi Arabian GP qualifying saw another easy pole for Verstappen, but also an F1 debut for Ollie Bearman in place of Carlos Sainz, who is out of this weekend on medical grounds. The LB boys cover the highlights from the session, discussing Verstappen's ominous gap, the best (and worst) of the rest, and their thoughts on Bearman's first ever performance in the Ferrari... 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 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. Everyone, welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing the second qualifying session of the year, qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Max Verstappan, I believe his name is, some up-and-comer has got pole position and he's done so by three times of a second.

Not too bad from him at all. No, it's so good to see this level of performance from a youngster. He's clearly new to the game, but maybe he's got a bright future in front of him. We're yet to see, but a tricky track and he's absolutely nailed it. Not got a poll here before because, of course, a youngster, up and coming in the game. I'm sort of I'm basing my hope on is that he got pole, so race is going to go badly for him.

That's obviously. that's how it's going to work right because all the other times he doesn't get pole he does well yes okay we'll go with that logic for any form of optimism sure let's go with that um naturally we will be talking about max vastappen and the i was going to say fight out front fight might not be the right word um the people that were behind vestappen but quite comfortably um but we're going to start with an actual rookie an actual up-and-comer something we didn't think we'd be talking about at the beginning of today, which was the second Ferrari driver,

Charles LeClair and Olly Behrman in the seat today because Carlos Seines appendicitis ruled him out of this Grand Prix weekend. Firstly, most importantly, Forts with Carlos Seines as he goes for his recovery. I believe he has had his surgery now and all went okay, which is great news. For this weekend, Olly Beerman standing in. So a bit of an outstanding question as to how he might do,

given he only had FP3 earlier today. then of course, the qualifying sessions made it through Q1, almost made it through Q2, agonizingly missing out on a Q3 spot by less than a 10th of a second, ending up in 11th place. Sam, it's tough to know exactly what the expectations are for a driver coming in fresh, but what do you think he did in terms of what you expected him to do? I think he ticked pretty much every box that he could. He got one practice session in the car. And, you know, out of all the tracks that you think, oh, I'm going to get thrown into a circuit here.

that, you know, I'm going to get a good go on. Jeddah, of all of them, is one of the most horrifying circuits that you could have been throwing in on for your very first attempt with only one practice session in one of the fastest cars ever made for mankind, for racing.

It is a sensational challenge. And I think he rose pretty well to it. You know, he finished in Q11, as you mentioned. At that point, he was only 0.036 away from Lewis Hamilton, which, you know, you argue that the Mercedes and the Ferrari are somewhat close. And so when a rookie, who is never driven that car before, is that close to Lewis Hamilton, of all people, you've got to pat yourself on the back.

No collisions, didn't cause any major problems. He did a great job that kind of put in the laps together around in Q1. He didn't let himself down at all. There was no embarrassment to his performances whatsoever. And I think he could pat himself on the back and think, I've set myself in a good position. There are no expectations of me right now. I just need to go into the race tomorrow and keep it calm, to the level head,

and deliver a consistent performance. If he scores points, any points, I think he's done a very good job. Indeed. Harry, what did you make of now the youngest ever driver to race for Ferrari? When he was born, Michael Schumacher had already won all of his championships.

I know. His dad is only five years older than Fernando Alonso. Yes. And he is a dad. dad of a Formula One driver. Or is Fernando Alonzo still a Formula One driver. Yeah, he

I was very impressed with Berman. I think throughout practice as well, I didn't really watch practice very heavily, but so that would have been so easy for him to throw it at the wall on multiple occasions today. And he didn't. The only blemish is really,

which I think he's been cleared of, I think I heard just before we start recording, was getting in the way of Botas or Bartas's lap, but, yeah, very, very impressed just, and even when a lap went, he had a couple of times where a lapse went wrong, got away from him, but didn't try and carry on or, or, yeah, try and keep the lap going, just backed out of it, you know, went for the, went for the next run. And like I say, was agonisingly close to Q3, which I'd, I wouldn't have even put, I know he's in a Ferrari, but he only jumped in the Ferrari today. So I wouldn't have

money on him being in Q3. So I think it was very, very impressive, very measured, which is probably the more impressive part rather than the speed, because like I say, I think there are opportunities to have a massive accident. He obviously set Paul and F2 yesterday, which you can't do anything with now, unfortunately. Well, I say unfortunately, not that unfortunately, but, and it's something like 14 seconds slower than the F1 cars are doing. It must have felt like a rocket ship. That's insane. The only logical metaphor that I understand as a normal human being that isn't a Formula One driver is my Wi-Fi in London and my Wi-Fi now. They're the only things I can understand that are the equaling speed difference. Sam is living as only been in. I did a download of something

earlier. It was six gigabytes. In my old house, that took 11 hours. It took me one minute, 10 seconds. Honestly, I am in the future. Sam has got such fast Wi-Fi now. Welcome to the prison. welcome dear welcome to the present mate finally joined us um anyway yeah i yeah in in summary i was very impressed by older burman yeah i have to say i was impressed as well i think the point you made sam is a very valid one in that if you had to ask all the f1 drivers rank the circuits based on where you'd like your debut Saudi Arabia is bottom three surely if not last because it is and no disrespect to the of, you know, Nick DeVries, who did a fantastic job when he debuted at Monza for Williams, right? That's probably at the top of the list.

Not to say it's not his own unique challenge, it definitely is. But Saudi Arabia having one practice session and then qualifying, that is a challenge that really defies description. And I think Behrman did a pretty good job. I mean, sure, it was a bit messy at points, but I think that was a given. And that is absolutely allowed in his spot. And he had good pace. I think as we've often said, I know Harry makes this point quite a lot, is that when we're looking

at rookie drivers and drivers with not a lot of experience, it's like you need to see the speed. Like, yes, there are going to be mistakes, but you can get around that. You can never get around a lack of pace. And that wasn't an issue with Berman. He clearly demonstrated good pace out there. And he was so close to a Q3 appearance, at which point, who knows? maybe he does get up to ninth or eighth place and he's in there. We'll see what he can do tomorrow, obviously.

But yeah, I think he did a good job. And, you know, again, I don't envy the fact that it was Saudi Arabia. I think to an extent any driver who comes in as late as Berman does as a debut, you're kind of in a win-win situation because there's nothing you can do that's going to get you criticism. Unless you are like five seconds slower, if Behrman had qualified 18th today, I don't think anyone would be throwing shade at him, right?

And of course, he outperformed that. But just to say, yeah, I think he did a good job. And Kevin Magnuson and Nika Holkenberg in the Hasse seats might be looking at him going, oh, don't do very well tomorrow, please. Speaking of those seats, I have a question for the class because it's something that I'm aware of. Why was it that Berman was picked and got someone like Schwartzman, who is obviously a Ferrari reserve driver?

Is it just convenience that he is already in Saudi Arabia? I don't know, but that would have been my guess. Okay. Yeah, I don't know either. So if anyone listening, if you know the real reason, if that is the real reason, I would just be curious. I guess flying someone, though, if he's not in Saudi Arabia, but he's probably not close, right?

No, yeah, exactly. Logistics is a logical one. Justice for Jevinatsy. I'm sure he's kicking himself. We're going to go 10 positions ahead of Bearman to first place. Max Verstappen took pole position by just over 3 tenths of a second back to Charles Leclair. And as heard over Team Radio just after that lap as well,

both of his laps in Q3 would have been good enough for that pole position. So pretty dominant session for him, Sam, a bigger gap than what we saw in Bahrain. Did that surprise you at all? Yeah, it did surprise me a little bit. In the pre-race preview that we did midweek, I did say that I thought it would be a little bit closer. I did think the Claire was actually going to be able to step up a little bit.

And I'm seeing pole here and maybe not win the race, of course, but I did think that the fight for polling in qualifying was going to be much closer. We saw it last season how regularly Max Mustafa didn't get pole position. He's still got a lot of polls, but half the season, he wasn't on pole position. And currently he's got a 100% record, which I'm a little bit gutting for and I think as he crossed the line

we heard that radio message come across there was an audible sigh across the world of Formula One that we may be in for another year of extreme dominance I tweeted this out as well afterwards that the reaction from Red Bull and from Stappan

when you do something that many times that easily it is so frustrating to hear such a mediocre reaction over the radio to picking up pole position in Formula One it's not Max's fault it's got Red Bull's fault they're bloody good at what they did and they are, it's up to everyone else to challenge them,

but it does always upset me when they cross their line and they go, yeah, cool, whole position, nice one. You think, oh, this is a big thing. You should celebrate this and it's nothing to them. But that's what they're fault and they're smashing it and they're more dominant apparently than they were last year at the moment, which is absolutely breaking my heart.

What do you think, Gary? I think the, if we were just counting from second down, having a banging championship so far. So close. Second or third. Yeah, LeCler-Perez-Harlonzo. Good Lord, what a session we had. Someone else was maybe in there, I don't know,

in actual first, but yeah, you can't fault him. I can't even, I know you, like you say something, they're smashing it. I can't even fault them for not being, they're just, they're just, they're just doing a job. Like, Max and Redboard literally just doing a job, they turn up,

they do it really well, and then they're like, yeah, that was good. We'll do it again tomorrow, probably. it's just car and driver working in absolute perfect harmony and Perez says something afterwards about how he just couldn't get he wasn't going to get close to that time which I know we weren't but last year when Perez won here some people not not everyone I know Ben definitely wasn't for some people were talking up a championship fight maybe between Perez and for Stappen

this year Perra and the Perez himself isn't even going for that one he's just like yeah no I'm not as quick just going to knit that one in the bud early. Yeah, count me out, guys. Count me out. Yeah, just... I'll be back next year. It just about...

My only real hope is... Not real hope, because things can swing throughout the year. It's only race too. Like, it's not over yet. But if the Ferrari can just improve a little bit, Lecler is... He's there. He's doing God Leclair things.

But he's nudging, nudging him a little bit. still three-tenths, but we can get a little bit closer. I feel, I think the Claire could probably give Max a bit of a headache. In the race, we don't know. Their long-run pace yesterday, Ferrari looked better than it has or did in Barrein, at least. So who knows? But in terms of quality, yeah, Max just like he did in Bahrain after the race,

just very, very relaxed afterwards. Like, he's not, it's just very easy, isn't it? I'm a quick guy. What are you going to do about it? I'm a quick dude. I'm a quick dude. I'm a quick guy, what you going to do? Get that out of a say shit.

New catchphrase that. Max Verstappen. Yeah, I don't think you can be overly surprised with what Max Verstappen delivers anymore. We've just seen so much of it. I think what was incredibly impressive about today's performance was, and you've kind of already referred to it, Charles LeCler, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonzo,

I think all three of them did a really good job. Like, I think all three, particularly Alonzo, who is driving the absolute wheels off that car. And when he came over to team radio to say on the first lap, yeah, that was a good lap. And you see his five tens behind the stop. And it's like, yeah, I'm, look, at least in Bahrain, I think Charlerc didn't quite hook up Q3.

I think Perez left a couple of positions out there. Here today, I can understand why Perez was saying what he said after the session, because again, I feel like he got everything out of the, car. He essentially did two laps in Q3, Sergio Perez, that were identical, which usually leads to they've got everything they can out of their car based on their ability. So you just have to watch in awe at what this happens doing, I guess. Do you think I'm overthinking that we miss science a little bit today? Obviously, I've just reset to bearman. Of course, he's a rookie,

he's had to jump in. He did a fantastic job. But I do think that science has felt very competitive. You know, coming out of Bahrain, you look good in the first at FP2. sessions that he was in. I'm not saying he could challenge for Stappen, but we really would have spiced up that fight right at the front of the field, I think, because he seems like a bit of momentum. Might have been good for the race tomorrow.

Yeah, that's a fair shout. I got a goddess, I know we mentioned signs already in terms of get better soon, but everyone drives a hardcore because he did all of Thursday, sorry, all of Thursday practice with a supposed stomach bug. And then they were like, oh, no, mate, actually, your appendix is going to burst.

You need surgery, son. Oh, no wonder if I was so wrong. Imagine that you've got a ticking time bomb in your stomach. I'm just going to do two hours of driving at 200 miles and hour. I'll run a trap though first. I'll get to that. Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll have it later.

What cool guy. And handsome. God damn it. God damn you. Hacks some cool, man. Yeah. Well, there you go. His appendix is weak, so he's got some of the good.

He's removed his only weakest. He'll be a tech faster. Weight saving. Weight saving. It's carbon five. Appendix. Go paint. The Alpine drivers turn up.

It's just a matter of no face. Oh, we can't be a pair of hands. Anything to go past that. I got to bodd it. No race suits anymore. Too much weight.

O'Con looks like Mike Rosowski. Just like eye with the hands and feet. Oh, podcast overboard. Good Lord. It's a good thing it is actually a natural time for a break. We're going to take two minutes. Oh, boys.

Okay, welcome back. We're going to move on to Mercedes now because it was another slightly underwhelming session for the Brackley outfit. George Russell just about out-qualifying Lewis Hamilton. George Russell, of course, on his first run, got his fast lap in,

second run he had to abort it. Lewis Hamilton, similar to Bahrain, I think it's a question mark again as to whether easy sacrifice and qualifying pace for race pace. Do you think that's happening, Sam? No, I don't. I don't. He's coming out of an interview and said quite comedically, if you take out of context,

I just need to find the comfy rear end. And, hey, we've all been there, mate. But my point is, you're a seven-time world champ. You've got over 100 pole positions to your name. This kind of start to a season, I don't think is good enough. I genuinely don't think it's good enough. if George Russell is able to pull out performances that are this much better and I do think that if George Russell didn't have to have bought his second run

it wouldn't be a tenth of a bit between them it would have been three or four because the whole weekend every single time they finished a session Russell as being at least three tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton it's not good enough and he should know how to set up a car he should know how to make a maximise it and I just think he's letting himself down a little bit at the start of this season this is a really shoddy start to another campaign for him.

I don't know if he's checking out a little bit. Or maybe he's off the peak of his power was completely now. That's totally fine. You know, we've got all Fernando Alonkso who can absolutely rag it about until we're 100 or 4 years old. But Lewis Hamilton is not on his A game right now and it's going to start costing him sooner rather than later because Russell is, I think, I think Russell is putting everything out of that car that he can.

I'd be quite impressed with him at the start of this season. Lewis Hamilton is the disappointment currently, which you don't say often. What do you think, Gary? Just to go back on being a child and laughing at rear-end jokes, race fans tweeted this yesterday,

it really made me chuckle. Hamilton had a couple of really big moments due to unstable rear-end. Hey. Come on. Don't put a man down. We've all gone through it. I'm lactose intolerable.

We've all had a curry in our time, but come on, Lewis. We all know what a boonah does. Yeah, just a bit slow, wouldn't he? he wasn't really I know Russell he wasn't that far ahead in the end but if Russell got that final lap in

we don't really know why that he didn't I'm assuming he just was slower I feel like Russell might have pipped him by a bit more because he seemed to have an edge on him all session um Hamilton yeah is he going for a race set up again but I don't know because as in Bahrain where he went for a race a race setup

and George went more for a quality setup they ended up in the same position on track anyway so come the end of the race so I don't know whether that's worth doing or not but I don't think that's what it was Hamilton just seemed to be struggling just needs to be struggling this weekend and we've seen it before

I know he won the first one obviously but since then with this new regulation Mercedes no matter of the year he's not really clicked with this track in terms of the ground effect cars so I don't know why but yeah he struggled here in 22 I can't quite remember what happened last year

but I don't remember being a belter. Yeah, he didn't get through to Q2, I don't think. That was definitely 22, yeah. That's right, sorry. But 23, I don't know. He wasn't, he didn't beat Russell again last year anyway, because Russell was the, and Alonzo were the one swapping podium position. So Russell's never been out qualified by a teammate here.

Russell was the goat of Saudi. That's what we're saying. Yeah, just odd one. Maybe this is just a bogey track for Hamilton. And again, I know I'm aware he won the first one, but at the moment, it just doesn't seem to click for him. Yeah. It is a bit disappointing from Mercedes because I think with George Russell, let's say he hooks up that second lap.

It's a bit of a guess. But I think he might have been just clear maybe of the two McLaren's. I think he'd have been short of the other four, though, in which case, that's still a little bit of a disappointment versus what we thought might be achievable come the beginning of this season. I think from Lewis Hamilton's perspective, it was reported yesterday that again, Russell and Hamilton have gone in completely different directions with this car, in which case maybe Hamilton is going for more of a race setup. Now, the good news for Hamilton is they are closer on track here than they were last time out in Bahrain. As you've already mentioned, they sort of eventually came back towards each other in Bahrain.

But of course, Russell at one point was fighting as high as second. That's very unlikely going to be the case early on in the race tomorrow. So maybe this does end up working out for Hamilton at least versus his teammate. But I do get the feeling that at least at the moment, Hamilton is sacrificing too much when it comes to qualifying pace. I think it cost him ultimately a position or two in Bahrain. Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow. And I don't think that car is capable of from Rose at this point,

but certainly based on what Hamilton's produced in the past, he could be qualifying far higher than the backends of the, Q3 as he is right now. So, yeah, it's disappointing for the team. And as I said to Sam, just before we started recording, I think the worst moment almost, or the moment of realization came when Hamilton was like eight-tempst slower than Vastapen-thruc Sector 1 of a fast lap.

And it's two different worlds at the moment. What is going on with Mercedes? You think, you know, they were the most dominant seat by a country mile less than five years ago. And now they're barely, they're a mid-table side at the moment, right? They're, the Alpha Tauri is right next to them.

Lance Stroll, who, you know, I think he's doing an all right job this season. Maybe what it comes to his team, mate, but it's all right. It's right behind them as well. McClaras have comfortably looking like they're jumping them at the moment. Ferrari's taking a big step forward.

Where are they? It's just not going right for Mercedes. I'm surprised they've got it so drastically wrong at the moment. Where are you? Where are you? Lesby Avenue. That is a Delia Smith reference. Anyone who would like to look at up?

It's a very British thing because my mind went to exactly the same place as well. Delia Smith-Straway. And that's why we're friends. McLaren. So they're going to be starting the race again alongside each other as they were in Bahrain, although a little bit higher up

than where they were last week. But interestingly this time, it wasn't Norris leading Piastri. It was the other way round, which was actually the case in both runs in Q3. Was this, do you think this was quite an encouraging result for Piastri to out-qualified Norris, sir? Yeah, it's encouraging. I'm not going to read too much into it.

It's only the second race of the season. And as I said, at the start of the season, when we did our predictions and things like that, I said that Piastri might be a bit of the surprise of the season. I do think that over the course of this whole 24 race campaign that we're running through, Piascri is going to take a step forward. Landon Norris has been operating at incredibly high standard. for a good couple of seasons now, arguably overperforming what that McLaren is really capable of.

And he's not really having a teammate some action, not since science left, has he really had proper competition in that car. So the fact that Piastri got his rookie year, he settled in, he got that sprint race win, of course. The improvements required were the race pace, though, not the qualifying pace. More regularly than not, Piastri and Norris across the whole season

were quite close together when the cars were equal in their development. Piascri needs to take this qualifying pace, which he's picked up today, and did a good job, right? Just beats Norris. Well done. He needs to turn that into solid, consistent race pace and tire management tomorrow. And then I'll feel a little bit more boy, a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more excited by what Piascri is actually able to deliver. Because it's definitely in there. He's definitely got that capability to really be a world superstar Formula One driver.

But I've not seen it from him 100% just yet. So if we finish Saudi tomorrow and. Piastri's beating Norris. He's, I don't go, six or seven seconds clear. Nothing's gone wrong for either driver. I'll go, that was a really strong performance from Moscow Piastri. That's the first time I can tick a box and go, he's outperformed Landon Norris across the entire weekend in all areas.

That's what I need to see from Piastri. So yes, good first step, encouraging signs. Not there 100% just yet. I need to see a bit more. Harry, good stuff from Piastri today. Yeah, I think where we hope he's going to be, basically, versus Norris in that fight. obviously he's leading it after quality. But it sounds right.

I think he needs to show it tomorrow because race-paced last year for Piastri was pretty his main weakness, I think. But I think even if Norris beats him, as long as it's close tomorrow still, I think that's an encouraging sign. So that for McLaren it's ideal. They've got both drivers there in the complete opposite way

that Astor Martin don't, with Alonza in fourth and stroll in 10th. So if that's, that's going to be a battle, which it may well be, for a place in the championship. Then, yeah, this is good. Good news for Macca. And yeah, encouraging for Piastri,

I just, yeah, he needs to carry that on to race day. Yep, my thoughts, exactly. He out-qualified Norris seven times last year, so it wasn't, even though Norris comfortably beat him in qualifying across the full season, it wasn't unheard of for Piastri to get that win on qualifying day. So, yeah, it's just about whether he's, can convert that tomorrow.

But he looked pretty good out there. Apart from when he was hitting the wall, I've never heard anyone so unaffected by hitting a wall. Just clip the wall. Man doesn't care about anything though. Just like, you punch me in the face. All right, okay, fine. Do you think like when he has his birthday or it's Christmas,

he's like, cool, a gift, appreciate it. You know, do you think he's like, oh, it's my birthday, it's okay, I forgot. It's just so calm. I love it. Speaking of McLaren, ex-McLarron driver, Daniel Ricardo, struggled a bit out there today. He qualified 14th,

which I think was exactly the same position he qualified last week, but whereas last week, Yuki Sonoda was also knocked out in Q2. Today he made it through to Q3 and we'll start the race from 9th. A fair gap between those two drivers in Q2 as well, Sam. That's quite a showing from Sonoda.

Yeah, half a second was the gap between those two when he got through to that session. The only reason that Ricardo is perhaps even 14th is because Holkenberg, of course, has the failure and couldn't get a lapping either, and Magnuson did beat him. And considering that we've argued many times on this show, that qualifying is not Magnuson's strong point,

not a good look for Daniel Ricardo. This has not been a good start to the season for him. Beep Sengroa, of course, in Bahrain, but controversially with team orders and the silliness that went on between those teammates. But Sanoa has fueled whatever fury he collected from Bahrain, and he has used it to really deliver pace on the track here for qualifying around Saudi.

Getting into Q3, ninth place, not even at the back end of things. This is a good showing from Yuki Sanodia considering that out of all the drivers in the Red Bull family, he's the one not in contention for the senior Red Bull seat, it makes you think that Daniel Ricardo has got to take a massive step up

to really show that he's what Red Bull need over the next few seasons to partner Max Verstappen. Realistically, as a sample size, it's a very small one, but why would you get rid of Sergio Perez and not have Daniel Ricardo in that car right now? Why would you swap,

make the swap? I can't see the arguments being made. Daniel Ricardo needs to step up, he needs to start beating Sonoda, and he needs to hope that the race tomorrow where the points are scored is a far more prosperous session for him than what this Friday has been.

Harry, as some mentions, that's a fair gap, five temps, five positions in the end. Yeah, I... It was not ideal, say it's not ideal. Not an ideal session for Ricardo, but you're right, it was, it wasn't, it's a fair gap between the two in the end. I just wonder whether it was actually Sonoda outperforming the car rather than anything the other way around, but Sonoda very impressive. I just, he needs to turn that around in the race, which hopefully he can do. But yeah, you're right,

right now Ricardo does seem to be struggling for a bit of pace versus, versus Yuki, but again, early, early doors in the season. I don't know. We don't know the full story of how Corley went, but Ricardo can't afford to keep having that gap between them this year if he wants any chance of a Red Bull seat. But like you say, Sam, right now, why would you swap it? Yeah, and as to be said, I mean,

Bahrain, roughly speaking, they qualified where they finished. They weren't able to make a great deal up in the race itself. So if Ricardo's stuck in a similar spot here, it might be a long day for him. We'll see how, you know, the opening couple of laps goes, but I mean, if Harry's prediction for the race is to be believed,

there's going to be like five safety cars anyway, so, you know, he might end up in top five. Can't wait for that. Yeah. P4, mate. Exactly. But yeah, I, I was impressed by Sonoda, though. To out-qualify stroll was a good effort. I think, you know,

realistically, you can't look at what Sonoda did and go, there should, there was more in the car than that. he should have finished higher. So I think he's certainly one of the better performance of qualifying today. Before we give a driver of the day, you mentioned Holkenberg qualifying 15th. Those yellow flags took a fair while to come out.

Were the race directors asleep? What's going on? What's happening? That's unbelievable. Quite grumpy about this. Sounds like grumpy. You took 10 seconds to answer. I'm actually really sorry, folks.

had my Sky Mini Box delivery mists so I'm trying to really... Oh no! Pause the podcast, everyone. Sound Skype Minibox has not arrived. I was quite annoyed because I paid for that for a month and it's not turned up. He's spewing about the yellow flags and the Sky Mini Box. Honestly, speaking of Sky, that's why I get my off-C-F-1 stuff from. Can't watch it in the bedroom at the moment.

Devastated. Oh my God. It's what everyone wants on in the bedroom. It's Crofty talking about FP3, I'm sure. It's a real, real moot setter. No, back to the actual session. Sorry. This is not on.

not on. And the same thing happened in F-1 Academy as well, when there was a yellow flag. It took an absolute age to bring these flags out, and safety is paramount. I don't care how entertaining or not entertaining with anything is safety is 100% paramount. And a yellow flag being deployed, obviously allows drivers to know that there's an issue. It tells them to slow down, and it keeps them aware that they have to be on the lookout, potentially for people coming onto the track,

which has become a double yellow wave flag, or a red flag as this became. They couldn't get the car off the track. And it was in a head. heavy braking zone at that point. And we know what Jedder is like. Walls get hit, cars lose control. You saw what happened to Joe in practice. He absolutely wrecks his car on one of the corners nearby to that exact place where Alkenberg ran the car off the track.

So not good enough. It needs to be far faster. And I just hope and pray that tomorrow in the race, they are far snappy with it because 20 cars on track, full pelt, you know, foot to the floor in a race condition. If they take 30 seconds too long and there's another mistake, funny enough, we watch the 2019 German Grand Prix, and you see Charles LeCler in the barrier, and then Lewis Hamilton comes and hits the barrier right in front of him. It doesn't take long to realistically put a car in the wall in the same place, one lap after another. So it needs to be faster, not good enough,

quite worrying, actually. That's the second time in this weekend alone that that's happened. Yeah, that needs a proper look at because it's not even like they were delayed by five seconds or 10 seconds. Merck had basically done a full lap by the time they came out. It was really, ridiculous. And we obviously weren't on board with it or weren't looking at cameras of it straight away. So I feel like, at least from my side, I was, okay, surely Holkenberg has pulled off in a very, very safe place for there to be absolutely nothing in terms of a yellow flag. Pant to him, nope, that ain't true. He is right in a very dangerous position. So, yeah, they need to be way more on that tomorrow. Before we go then, driver of the day, driver of the session.

Again, can't really remember what we call this, but I think you know what I mean at least. Who have you got, Harry? Fernando Alonso, head of the fan club, obviously. But yeah, like you said, he are not entirely sure that Astrid Martin deserves to be in P4. I mean, it wasn't far off P3, even P2, if it was a couple more hundreds. But yeah, he was, he's been on in this weekend since the word go yesterday. So hopefully it nets out and took a good result in the race. We'll see.

Hopefully the Aston Martin race pace isn't what it was like last weekend, but it remains to be seen. But I'll go Alonso. Again, Verstappan, obvious choice. It was very good, but I'll go for something different. Sam? Yeah, I think there's some contenders. A lot of them are already been spoken about.

Also, Harry's an absolutely fantastic shout. The Stappan definitely deserves a mention. I think Charler is getting everything he can out the car. Piascrib beating Norris is strong. And Sonoda, absolutely wiping the floor with his teammate, is a really positive sign. I am going to give it to Berman. I guess this is one of those tracks

who you have to be so switched on, you have to be so precise with everything you're doing. And I think a lever to place is a really valiant effort in a grid that we've seen if you remove Max Verstappen from is incredibly compact, incredibly close. It would have taken, what, half an inch of steering in a slightly different moment to have given him the 0.03 that he needs to be in front of Lewis Hamilton rather than behind him.

He deserves a shout-out, and he's got a brilliant job. I'm excited to see what he does in the race. Alonzo for me. I thought he was sensational. I know Landstrol's not a strong qualifier, but just over seven tenths separating those two guys at the end of Q3. And I know this is crazy to say for a driver that has been in F1 for as long as Alonzo has and has had so many great qualifying sessions. I don't think there are many that were better than that one. I really think that might be towards the top end of that list. Not saying it's his greatest qualifying session ever. But

could it make a top 10? He was that good, I think. Even though on paper Q4, so P4 doesn't sound like much, does it? But every lap he did was good. There wasn't a lap he went, oh, that was a bit off. Just every lap he did. Good lap, exactly. I think realistically

if Alonso puts in a standard lap, he could easily be seventh or eighth, quite comfortable. Yeah, I really thought he was great. Normal kudos to Vastapen. It was phenomenal as well. but I'll give it to Alonzo. Should we do this all again in 24 hours time?

Buzzing, mate. That's what we live for. Do the onus then, mate. So many podcasts. Folks, you've got 24 hours to filling everything before you return here for your race review. Of course, if you want to be a Patreon subscriber,

you'll get the power rankings which will be delivered. Kirstie, please nod at me on Sunday evening. Maybe Monday. She's saying yes, but if got, we'll aim for Monday. But the power rankings will be coming

and that's obviously a benefit that you get on the top tier. So please go and check it. out. It's more content. There's loads of other stuff that come with it. Enjoy your Saturday mornings, or wherever you are in the world. We've got a lot to do. Remember, the race is a Saturday, not on a Sunday. I know a lot of people are still very confused by this. I'm going to trench down to the post office to get my Sky Mini Box, and I will see you all in 24 hours. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. What a thrilling story. I have been

Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. Follow along and I'll tweet updates. Please do. Say hello to post my fat for me. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.