The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Singapore GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: September 21, 2024

The guys are together in the same room to review an exciting qualifying in Singapore! The boys chat through Norris' impressive pole, Mercedes' surprising second-row lockout, a tough Q3 for Ferrari and difficult sessions for Perez and Ricciardo... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League BUY our Merch EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking. I can see you. Look, we're in the same room together. Hello. I can touch you, Harry.

Please don't. Sam's a bit further away, so you're safe. Purpose we moved away. I moved very quickly away to the outside of the room. Me and Ben are taking up a three-person sofa with two of us. Kirsty's on a shelf in the corner. Say hello, producer Kirsty. She's louder for the mic.

Hello. She loves being on the podcast. She loves it. It's probably not picked that up at all. It's just no noise. She's actually not a real... Ice cream van? Oh, it's not like me from home.

What should go to ice cream, lands? What's she go for? we're doing beer breaking afterwards this is about qualifying we've just watched Singapore qualifying together that threw up some interesting results we've got Sergio Perez out in Q2 we've got the Ferrari starting just ninth and tenth plenty to talk about let's start with the man at the front though Lando Norris two tenths of a second gap between himself back to Max Verstappen who will join him on the front row tomorrow Sam McLaren look pretty good throughout this and Norris ultimately able to convert,

just with that one attempt, of course, at the end of Q3. Yeah, I'm somewhat expected. The McLaren through practice seemed absolutely dumb, and we kind of watched the last pick of FP3 together and the gap that he had back to second place in that sting, which I think was Russell, was about six tenths, which is outrageous, converting it nice into qualifying.

Max was Staffing was more the surprise for me, actually with who was in second place. I really thought that would either be a Ferrari, of course, that was deleted for Lecler, and science, of course, put it into the wall before even starting his lab. Max was not the person I was expecting in second place. The car doesn't look comfortable here. The floor doesn't seem to perform as expected.

We saw Perez go out already. As much as I expect Max Verstappen to come to get through to queue through, regardless of what race we are at and how the condition of the car is. Second place, only two tenths away from Norris, I thought it was really, really impressive. I thought it was when Piaskri actually much closer. Him being in fifth behind both Mercedes was probably one of the biggest surprises of the session for me. And I'm sure Max Verstappen tomorrow is going to go with the philosophy of

a second's fine. he's not going to be a menace in any way to Norris, is he? No, not at all. He doesn't do menace. Dream of it. Nah, I wouldn't lunge one up at the inside of term one for the last one. Oh, boy. What are the odds on the crash here?

Come on. It's got 2017 written all over it. Quaking in his boots. Impressive lap, though, from Norris today. Impressive lap from Norris, yeah. I think from the pair of them on the front row, it's great. It feels 20, 2021 vibes this, you know, the two in the championship for the ones on the front row.

the two best ones out there today. So yeah, Norris looked comfortable throughout the session. Just you could tell, as you said, some from FP3 on once he was already in the groove. So yeah, very, very impressive by him. But I think equally as impressed by Vastappen because like you said,

I think Perez made the red ball look worse, but the Vastappen's made the red ball look way better than it is because I don't think it's very good. He had to hassle that car. He was a lot throughout all of the qualifying sessions, but obviously to get that at the end. We don't know if there will be anything that comes from his first lap deletion. I really be shocked.

I don't think so. But obviously he was just behind Carlos Seines that we'll get to in a bit, his crash earlier on in Q3. But yeah, excellent lap from Lando Norris. And I think he was certainly through practice, through the early stages of qualifying. It became clear that he was deservedly the favorite here, just based on the pace he was showing.

But you've still got to convert on that. Singapore qualifying, which, as we've seen before, it's difficult to judge pace around Singapore. You do really need to. I think it's one of the tracks where the drivers really do make the difference. And I think he has because it's not his teammate on the front row. So there is a gap there. Yeah, I've caught out enough this season.

And there was a very savage statistic from Sean Kelly that came up during practice that, you know, Max Verstappen has started on. Not Max Stappen. Not only or a start on polls five times this season. Never led a lap. from the moment that he's started upon, never finished the first lap in the lead, which is a pretty damning statistic

for someone like landing, obviously who's challenging for the championship at this point, now's the time to step up. I think he's about to run out of opportunities if he doesn't step up right now. And I know we said this at Zamvort, and obviously that didn't go his way, that first lap at least.

It's not a long run down to the first corner here. This one's even shorter, right? This one's even shorter. And I guess you could say there is the opportunity for side by side through the first couple of corners, but in theory at least Norris has maybe got a better opportunity to keep the lead here than he would at other circuits.

Yeah, but it's Lando Norris, so. He'll find a way. What an awful reputation to have developed already. In a couple of, we did our history review the other day and Max Verstappen in 2019 couldn't do start, so it's just one of those things. It will pass, but it's costly at the moment for him. But yeah, you'd have to say there aren't many overtakes

for the lead down to turn one here. Unless you crash into each other. Unless you are Ferrari, which we'll get to them. But yeah, you'd have to see. I think he might be able to hold on to this one tomorrow. For the whole race, so just to let one.

I mean, there's now four, as many as four, the RSS zones around here. The thing is as well, if I was Vestappen, if I was just happened, I wish. But you wouldn't, I'd be way richer. You'd be, wiser to not even try

if he gets a good start and beats him to the first corner then fine but no lunges into third one because you want to wait till the back straight and have a go then I think that would make more so like you say there are multiple opportunities and as good as that McLaren is in a straight line

if for Stappan is given a sniff of an opportunity then no special DRS wing either here of course that they rang in Baku and has now been banned since that race so it's interesting to see how the might play out, will McLaren have this distinct advantage in a straight line when overtaking someone from behind? Or is it going to be a much more even playing field? I wonder if Red Bull might find

it illegal easier to get passing the straight line sections of Singapore, which we know is quite difficult year on year. But now with 4 DRS zones, it feels like there's a lot of opportunity to make moves happen. What do you thoughts on Piastri's performance? Because we've seen in the last couple of Grand Prix, we've had Monza, where he was the faster of the two McLaren's, Baku was a bit more difficult to compare because obviously Norris was starting a lot further back than Piastri

but Piazsche does a great job in defending that win should he be disappointed that he's not only been beaten by his teammate and Vestappen but he's not even on the second row of the grid and we'll go from fifth.

Yeah, I am disappointing in Piastri. At the start of this season we kind of put him to be the B driver of the team and we expect him to play second driver and I think we are all kind of happy with that analysis of him maybe up until maybe Spain, Canada

that kind of type of a year where he really started to really be on the same level playing field as Norris. And this feels like the first time in a while that he's really falling short of Norris. You know, since the qualifying in Spain where he mucked up and basically started, what was it, ninth in Spain and Norris was on the front row, the wheel pole. This feels like the real first time that we've gone into a race day situation where there is a proper distinct gap between the two drivers. I think the most there's being when Norris has qualified on the front row is a position between the two of them. You know, if Norris is usually on pole, Piastra is regularly the third.

or fourth. So all the way back in fifth, behind two Mercedes, which on their long runs didn't look massively quick. This could be a real issue where he gets stuck behind some slower traffic.

While Max and Lando run off into the sunset, Piastri might end up being stuck in traffic, much like what Norris had to do with Albon around Baku. He just got stuck behind a slower car, really jeopardized the chance

of picking up a race wing or podiums moving forward. I expected more from him on this Saturday performance. I guess the good news for McLaren is that even with Piastri may be falling short of where he could have been,

they are still looking at a few of their rivals constructors championship-wise and saying, well, both Ferrari's 9th and 10th, Perez 13th, it's still not a bad day for McLaren in that regard. Just over four temps, the gap between Norris and Piastri, Harry. Do you think that...

We've seen Norris generally have an edge in qualifying so far this year, but you're surprised he's not closer. Yeah, I think based on current form, it's surprising he's not a bit closer, but it just seems the form this weekend has been... If you're in a groove, then you're on it.

And if you're not, you just miles away. We saw quite a few gaps between teammates, Perez and Vestappen, stroll and Alonzo, Ricardo and Sonoda. I think if you get in that groove, then you, it doesn't make you look better, but it's making your teammate look worse, I think. And Pistria just don't think seem to be quite as hooked up as Norris was. So like you said, it's not the end of the world, given positions of their rivals.

I'm not going to be particularly mad with him, but I'm sure Pistriol would have hoped for a bit. just to be a bit closer because quite big gaps this weekend. We've been used to quite small gaps in terms of qualifying times during this year, which is great. There were some big gaps, which again, I think just proves if you weren't in that groove,

you were nowhere. Yeah, and I think we've seen even with Piastri, I'm not quite sure what the head to head record is, but Norris quite comfortably is clear of Piastri in that regard. But even when Norris has been out qualifying Piastri, generally speaking, it hasn't been by a huge amount and it might cost Piastri a place or two,

and given Norris's difficulties on the starts, it's giving him opportunities. Here, of course, there are more drivers between them, which we'll have to see if he can make progress early on in the Grand Prix. Two of the drivers that he will need to make progress on are the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Russell. So Hamilton 3rd, Russell, 4th, both of them between three and three and a half tenths back

of the poll time of Lando Norris, which not ideal, as you might say, Sam. But equally, it's looking like it might be worse at one point, point? 153, by the way, that head-to-head, Norris and Pius. Yeah, well, there you go.

Comfortably and Hand for landing Norris. I am probably the most surprise at Mercedes' end performance there. It looked like they decided to only do... They might be more spores than you. Yeah, I think they were pretty shocked about it. Lewis Hamilton looked like an absolute dire practice session

that he was nowhere. Russell comfortably the faster of the two. Then we get into an actual competitive session. You hear Russell over the radio. I'm sliding. I can't get the tyres in the right window. They've got no grit. The session is so different for me.

He seems to really not understand what's going on with the car. and the conditions on the track. Hamilton, very quiet throughout a lot of qualifying. Either that, we won't play a lot of his radio. But I think we heard one thing from him, which is tracks ramping up at the moment. That was pretty much it. And he was continually better than Russell

throughout pretty much all of qualifying. So the fact they found themselves third and fourth, the fact they're in front of Piastri. I think it helps at Ferrari. One makes a massive mistake. One gets their lap deleted. I do think they probably would have both being outqualified by both Ferrari.

So I'm not being surprised. You've seen them two places back themselves. starting fifth and sixth. So I do think it looks a little bit more complementary than what their pace actually has displayed. But nonetheless, they're in the mix. They're a hell of one McLaren on pace. They're a head of one Red Bull on pace.

They're in the fight with Ferraris and it's Singapore. It's hard to overtake here. If we get some drama between Dostappan and Norris on lap one or even later into the Grand Prix, there's every chance they capitalize on this and they get at least one podium, if not a double car on the podium here. Surprisingly positive session for them.

In fairness to Mercedes as well with the Ferrari comparison Charles LeClair even if his lap time stood would have been just like Alkenberg. Now that could be more on LeClaire not delivering the Mercedes but yeah even so locking out the second row of the grid Harry I was surprised by that. First two sectors are overrated. Who cares about it?

Why even bother with their lame? Lame sectors. Might make them tough to overtake tomorrow if they're that quick in a straight line there. Yeah. Like you say, I think Mercedes will be as surprised as anyone else about that but it just started to come together for them towards the end of the session. Q1, I mean, Russell was almost out in Q1.

14th, 13th. Yeah, just scraped through. And even though Hamilton still had the upper hand, they were getting close and closer together in terms of their relative time. So it turned around for them, quite the last minute. And yeah, like I say, versus Ferrari, who, yeah, had a bit of a shocker in the end. It looks pretty good for them.

Maybe they are slightly misplaced in terms of their. actual pace, but they'll take it, third and fourth, second row. Yeah, I, I wasn't expecting it. I think, you know, given how Hamilton did struggle yesterday, where he was seriously doubting that he would get out of Q2 and he was wrong on that and quite comfortably so, getting all the way up to third. And Russell, despite his struggles early on in the session, they have, as I mentioned before we hit record, they've somehow managed to find their way back to each other, despite the fact that I don't think at any point this weekend, they have been for one reason or another. alongside each other.

So I think they're going to be pretty happy with this. And as mentioned, sector three, they were the best car. And that's just basically straight to this point. Both went purple, right? Yeah. So I think it might make it difficult if Piastri is quicker, if the Ferraris are coming through and they might be quicker. It might just be a difficult car to overtake.

And those other drivers might have to rely on strategy rather than getting it done on track. It's not as severe as Monaco, but it's definitely. one of those tracks where getting qualifying right is very important. I don't know if they'll ever get caught by the Ferraris. I think overtaking might be too tough. So unless it's a safety car that comes out the right time or a reg flag, I don't know how far forward the Ferraris are going to come. I think they'll get past the likes of Alonso and Sonoda. But by the time they've got there, I don't know how close they'll get to Russell and Hamilton. If they're having a clean start, they're able to get away comfortably and work together as a team, especially with Piastri, pushing them along as well. I think that's

can be a difficult trio to catch up to. Before we go to break, let's focus on a few other drivers that made it through to Q3 where their teammate quite comfortably didn't. So you've got Holkenberg who's going to be starting this race in 6th, Alonzo in 7th and Sonoda in 8th. And of course, their teammates, Magnuson 14th,

Ricardo 16th, Stroll 17. So in all three cases, they have quite comfortably outperform their teammate. We'll focus on some of those teammates a little bit later on. So we'll just focus on the positives of what these three drivers have delivered. Nika Holkenberg to start with,

he's pretty good at qualifying, isn't he? Oh, blimey. Yeah, that Baku session might be the Ogwang out. We were kind of giving him a little bit of stick

that Bermen did a great job and maybe that was an off day in Baku for Holkberg. But he's turned up here, absolutely turned up to 11. The fact that he was, at one point, sitting on the front row

and it looked like he might be third or fourth for a little bit of time before those last cut of the rungs came in. He is sweating everything out of that house. I would be shocked if there was any more pace in that car. comfortably beats the likes of Syngoja and long.

So who are the teams that they're going up against in the championship? Obviously, Asim Martin a little bit further down the road, but those points are crucial at the moment in the back end of the season. It helps that both Ferraris are out. But as you mentioned earlier, Ben, Lecler, his lap was slower than Holkenberg's anyway. So he would have started this Grand Prix in front of Lecler. We don't know what science would have done, of course. Really impressed.

Genuinely, really, really impressed. And Audi can look at this. And, you know, the time for they go, youth experience. Well, you've got the experience. A bloke's still whacking him. You've got the experience Audi. Big tick. You can't fit another thing.

Is there room for a little one in there? No, no. The one-stick rule. Holgerberg is doing the business and he's getting the job done. I was so impressed with Holgerberg. The fact that, I mean, Magnuson, yeah, hang a week out. So he might be like slightly rusty, but he's been blitzed. It was a really, really impressive performance.

And good performances as well from Alonzo and Sonoda. You've got to give them respect for their starting positions. Yes, Sonoda is very impressive. again during that session sort of carried on the form that VKalb or Menardi had in practice, not quite so much, but

relatively so, especially against what Ricardo could do. And Alonzo running out of things to say about him. Yeah, I'm not saying Stroll was showing his actual pace of that car. I think he, again, like the Perez Vastapan situation, he was making that car look worse,

but Alonzo was making that car look way better. I don't think it's a top ten. car. So both, both impressive. Yeah, I think particularly in the case of Holkenberg and Alonzo, just because Sonoda and Arby looked pretty good in practice, I think both Holcomberg and Alonzo can look at some of the drivers they've outqualified and say, LeCler signs, Albin, Colopinto, Perez, realistically, all of those could have outqualified if they're on their game and they're not. So very good, not only to make it to Q3, but actually to have pretty good starting positions. Like if Holkenberg, given the battle between them and R.B., like starting sixth, could be incredibly valuable on a weekend where I think R.B., we've mentioned it, are in desperate need of a good result.

And based on their practice form, they still might, but based on their practice form, they were thinking, we've got one up on Hasse here. And then suddenly a wild Nika Holkenberg comes along. Oh, hello there. Hello. Here's a sixth place. But yeah, it's pretty impressive. and we know Sonoda will be out on lap 1 so that's kind of relevant to be fair here hide Sunoda run and hide you can get points here to be fair stroll is well behind him so I'd be surprised if he gets another treatment from him just pull your denim jeans pull your denim jeans up

oh it's like one so stroll will be up in the top 10 by the end of that's true he'll over take everyone crash into yuki and it'll be game over my job today's done that's that's me down for the other week see you in texas you're going to take our break on this episode we focused on a lot of positives on the other maybe not quite so much. We were going to be talking Perez, Ricardo and Ferrari. Okay, welcome back. We're going to finish on the top 10, rounded out by Charles Clare and Carlos Sines.

Apart from McLaren, they were looking pretty good. Then Q3 happened. Carlos Sines decided to crash his car before he even started his lap. Charles LeClau decided to invalidate his lap. Two corners in. Oh, Ferrari. It's good to have you back.

Oh, we sew back. We're so back. Everyone was there going, wait, McClan hang a wing band, Red Bull don't know how the floor works, Ferrari's upgrades have actually worked. Ferrari, you can win the next seven Grand Prix. You could be in this. Both championships are technically still available.

You can do it. No, no, no, no, no. And then I put Charles LeClaherom of a fantasy team. Yeah. And that sealed it. What did you call them, Ben, while we were watching qualifying? I can't remember.

Red bankers? I might have called them unlucky. Like bakers? Yeah. Something like that. No, I could. No, I'm not. Yeah, no.

An absolute capitulation in Q3 from Ferrari. They look really solid. LeCler always inside the top three throughout the previous session. Sikes as well, looking pretty comfy other than the end of Q1 where it looked a little skeptical for a while,

then he saved himself. But they were definitely in the making for probably both cars inside the top five, top six. I think they're comfortably being inside that fight alongside Holkenberg and Piastri, enough to go forward throughout the Grand Prix. Works has to be done on scientists cast out from 10th place.

If they have to take any penalties from that because of any changes that might as we had, could be even worse than that. Lecler lap and validation on lap too. Come on, man. Get it together. We call your bloody God, LeCler, for a reason. And usually you're so good on Saturday, but this is such a disappointing result from them. He was good on Saturday until the last three minutes.

Yeah. That's not, what you're doing? Not good on Saturday. It's good to be good in those three minutes. Yeah, that's the three minutes that matter. Do a minute, like opposite of Mercedes, be bad for 57 minutes, and then the last three would be good. Good.

There you go, Shal, you've got that one to use next time. It's an uphill climb right there. They're going around Singapore here. It's not like we're at Monzo, where overtakes come to a penny. It really is going to be a struggle for them to get around that race track and make progress. Even with the DRS zones, I think, unless they're running their 2019 engine again. What 2019 engine? Just the standard Ferrari engine.

Yes, the same as the 20-20 engine. Very normal engine they ran for those period of races. Nothing different about that. No. Because, you know, anyway, it's going to be tough. I would be surprised if they see major gains on McLaren, let alone Red Bull. They're only saving grace. Sergio Perez not inside the top 10.

Your thoughts on the performance of both Ferraris and should they, will they strategically try something different tomorrow? Should they? Yes, will they? Probably not. Yeah, you'd hope they'd go for something. something different. They have to because they're going to throw a bit of a gamble here to get back in it.

I think I'm a bit more hopeful about their progress during the race. I think they can't make up positions. I don't think they're going to be in it for the win. But it's Singapore and we could have some safety cars, etc. And a little bit of rain maybe. Maybe. And yeah, they could well be back in the in the hunt. So not ideal end to the to the day.

Not so much. Not so much. It could have gone better. As I said in the last few minutes, because it was looking pretty good up until that point. Carlos Seins didn't even do a lap in Q3. Start the lap. Sorry, let's just ball that down.

Absolutely bottled it, Carlos. I mean, we've all done it on the F1 game, but we are also not F1 drive. How much shall I get paid to play the F1 game? Minus money. Minus money. Losing time. Yeah.

Losing youth quickly. Losing time and money. Carl Sikes, an actual millionaire, gorgeous man, with wonderful prospects in life. Stop barking, mate. Cannot help but put him into the wall on the last corner before you start a laugh, Carlos.

Oh, thanks, goes. Who let the dogs out? Carlos sides. We can move on to the drivers that didn't do too well outside of Q3. Oh, yeah, it wasn't great for Ferrari, was it? Like you say, the last three minutes, that's a good time to be good.

Get that in the book. Yeah, absolutely. I think the most important thing and remains to be seen strategically if they do something a bit different to the cars in front, but how quickly they can clear Sonoda or Alonzo Holcomberg is probably going to define what's the ceiling in this Grand Prix. Because if they can get back to where Piastri and Russell are fairly quickly, then suddenly that opens up some results that could happen. But if they take a few laps to get through those cars,

then suddenly they might just be settling for the sixth and seventh, which on a weekend where it has looked like most of the time they have had the second fastest car is going to be a disappointment. And again, that's probably my fault for saying that Ferrari just need to be the team that don't make mistakes from here until the end of the season, because of course that would prompt a result like this. But yeah, I'm intrigued to see.

with the DRS owns, whether it's going to be as difficult as it's historically been to make progress in a race like this. So get there, because Alonzo will probably let them through really easily. Oh, yeah. That's what Alonzo's known for.

It doesn't defend anything. Fight like a lion. It's the bun. It's the bun. In before Williams beat them both taggerton one. Yeah, sure. Quick word on, Williams. 11th and 12th.

Should they be content with that result? Yeah, I actually genuinely think they should be. When your drivers are separated by such small margins, 7,000. So tiny. And the car historically not good around tracks that are slow

and have lots of corners. This track is slow and has lots of corners. So suddenly they are the middle of the pack now. They're all right. Monaco, to be fair. That's true. Maybe severe downforce and no downforce.

They're just like the street circuits now. Apparently. They didn't use to do. Yeah. Is it Sergio Perez in both cars? They call the Mr. Anyway. Mistors.

When both. Mr. And Mrs. When both cars are that close together, I feel like you've really extracted the performance and I feel like there's not too much more you can really ask for. I think 11th and 12th, not bad.

Not bad. I think they'll be happy. Second driver of Williams once again beating Sergio Perez in qualifying. So that's six times this season at that seat's beating a Red Bull. It's going real well. Not great.

Of course, they are beating an Ashton Martin. They beat in a hearse. They've beaten an R.B. They've beaten both Alpins. They've beaten. both salbers. You know, they're working their way up the grid. This is a good turn of form for them.

And the track where they think originally probably wouldn't be great hunting ground for them, points are not far away. I think this is okay. I guess realistically, now they have cleared Alpine for eight from the constructors. Points-wise, it's going to be tricky for them to catch Hassan RB.

But on the off chance, they could. Does this sort of result, even though neither of them have got to Q3, they have, as you say, 7,000 is in it, 11th and 12th, they have both out-qualified the second driver of the two-teamers. ahead of them.

Is this further justifying the decision to bring in Colopinto? Yeah, I'm becoming super fan of Colobate Bean. We are the Pinto Beans. And he drives every lap like it's the last thing he's ever going to do on earth. I love it. It's just no reserve. He drives it with Riz. Well, that's true.

So much Riz. He's just flying around. Just aura. Yeah. A thousand aura points. He's like on a terrible. driver's just just so much

Riz. The curves are like, whoa, let that guy through. Whoa. Terrible commentary. I, I,

yeah, I'm very impressed by him. I think it's, yeah, it's the right cool. And actually, it's a shame

they didn't make it earlier because what he, what he could be doing. We're, I know Singapore and Baccair both street circuits, but they're different types of street circuits.

So he's had, he's had three very different tracks now, Monza, Baku, and Singapore, and he's impressed in all of them. So, it's not it's not a nick de free situation I think he's actually the real deal so

Nick did a frost gig situation it's a nick to freeze all right thank you how many minutes we done time up for Sam it's 27 minutes in um speak drink tank I don't know what to say anymore no that's fair Williams be pleased

yeah I think they should be in theory maybe one of them sneaks through to Q3 and they'll be a little bit annoyed to see what happens to science and the club because suddenly that's not one extra position, that would be an extra three positions. But even so, I think they should be happy. And from Colopinto's perspective, how close he was to Albin, that for me is the most encouraging thing I've seen from him so far.

Because even if outright it wasn't the most impressive in that he's done a very good job at Baku, he's done a very good at job, job at Monzaa. But we do often see with those two circuits, there are these small margins between two drivers. Singapore, as Harry's already referenced, you can have. quite large margins, particularly in qualifying between your two drivers, if one of you's in the rhythm of it and the other just isn't. And clearly they were incredibly well matched here. So I think Colapinto and Williams can be very happy with what they've done. Sergio Perez is next. Oh, we're back. We're so back. Yeah. Well, I'm very back. Back to Baku.

He was doing a very good job, even with the crash late on, outqualified Maxfostap and, of course, that weekend. Here, nine tenths, separating for Stappen and Perez in Q2. Perez out in 13th place. And as we know, Vostappen getting on to the front row, tough session for Perez. Everyone has their day. Sergio Perez has day in Baku.

And that is come and gone. And we are back to normality. We are back to back end of Q3 or eliminating in Q2. He's had multiple sessions so far this season where he's been out in Q1 or Q2 and the train now continues again. I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. We're back to exactly what I expected to happen.

but behind both Williams like this is very, very disappointing to be so far behind Max Verstappen immediately after he bigged up the fact that, oh, we're suddenly so similar, look what we are on the racetrack, you know, we're all experiencing the same problems. It really, it's not me, it's the car. Immediately 11 places behind your teammate is not good enough. And weirdly, we've kind of mentioned this as a trio off camera,

I wouldn't be surprised if the announcement that comes after Singapore has got something to do is. Sergio. It feels like they were a little bit too quick to not only extend his contract, but then to say that nothing over the summer break is going to happen to him and he gets continued. This isn't good enough. They are in a championship fight. They're already lost the constructors lead to McLaren last time out. Everything else is going the wrong way for them. They need a big of an invigoration. They need a bit of a kick up the backside. Sergio is not giving them that. This is a very, very bad performance. Now that McLaren do have the constructors lead,

we were talking midweek about what Red Bull and maybe Ferrari as well would need to bring to the table to wrestle that lead away from McLaren again. One of those things that was mentioned was Sergio Perez continuing his form from Baku very much hasn't happened today. No, and I really thought I didn't think he was going to be, you know, up on the front row or anything. But I just thought the form he showed in Baku was so encouraging. And I know the result didn't show it in the end. but I thought, you know, he did pretty much all the race and it was really good. I just thought that would be enough to give him that confidence boost.

And again, I know I said about this, you know, not finally grueve and it's clear he didn't versus Vestappen. It was a difficult car to drive. But Repel can't afford it. They can't afford to, if they want to catch them up, they need both of them up there. And even if Piastri didn't have his greatest qualifying in the world, he's still fifth at the moment.

So, yeah, I'm with Sam. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few seat changes that happened this week, not just that Menardem. Mnardinem. Nardin. We've spoken a lot about gaps between teammates on today's episode. One that we'll speak about in just the moment's time is Ricardo to Sonoda. That was about four temps, which isn't great.

That's still about half of what the gap was between Vastappen and Perra. I mean, nine tenths of a second is a lifetime. Nearly a second off of your teammate. in F while that he's a lifetime and he had two attempts at it as well we saw that the second attempt he was already sat 13th he improved his time but didn't improve his standing at all and then obviously to be out qualified by the likes of the two williams drivers um I mean as mentioned piastri has at least somewhat open the door for red bull if they were to be second and third or second and fourth um but the fact that it's nowhere near that um is quite telling for for how red bull have got themselves

into the position that they're in right now, where they have already lost that lead. Daniel Ricardo, 16th place. I know there's been a lot of rumours about his future at the team, at the Red Bull organisation as a whole. Obviously, he would have been very, he would have been very happy to silence some doubters this weekend, but instead it's a Q1 knockout.

Yeah, he looks a bit of a shell of a man that he was before at the moment. I think he's giving all the right talk. He's trying desperately to, you know, use the old Dan. your PR, the old razzle dazzle that Ricardo brings to the arena, but we go on love. We love that about Daniel Ricardo to try and shield himself from a lot of the questions, the rumours, the doubters that are coming forward. Him and Sonoda are, I think, eight all in terms of beating each other in terms of races.

The issue is, on the surface, that looks great, all look shiny. A lot of the times where Daniel Ricardo is beating Yuki Sonoda, Sunoda has DNF from the Grand Prix, and that is due to mostly being taken out by someone else in the race. It's only been about three or four Grand Prix where Ricardo has completely outpaced them, everything being the same. It's very difficult for Daniel Ricardo to really kind of big himself up

walking with that Ricardo swagger that we've seen and go, look, I'm still here, I can still fight, I'm the guy you need. When you're getting knocked out in 16th place and your teammate is there in eighth. It's genuinely shocking the gap between the two of them. R.B. is a unit. Both teams are in a bit of chaos. They have been since the start of the year. There's no leadership.

There's no direction. Christian Horner before qualifying started, spoke about how much young talent they've got coming through and yet they seem so unwilling to actually put in any kind of process to allow them to actually utilise that and have an order put in place. They need to get this sorted as much as we love Danny Rick. And he does bring so much brilliance to Formula One. He is not delivering regularly enough.

And that team is there to build and grow and nurture young talent. what is being delivered on at this point, 16th place. I'd rather have a rookie in that seat who's 18 years old finishing 16th for a whole season. At least you go, whatever, we've got raw talent here. Ricardo's letting himself down. That is a real disappointment.

I know for RB, it's been a difficult stretch for them where the car hasn't necessarily been competitive enough to score points. We come here to Singapore on Friday. They look pretty good. Obviously, both cars in the top 10. Is this just even more frustrating for Ricardo? versus previous races where it has potential and he's not been able to convert on that. Yeah, undoubtedly.

And obviously, there's the pressure of this, you know, all the chat to this weekend. It's already been mentioned. But yeah, it's clear that the car had some pace. I don't think, as I said, I don't think it was as quick as it was in practice. I think it was maybe whether that was overstated or, you know, the lights of Red Bull and co. Caught up again because Red Bull yesterday looked awful. But yeah, that car shouldn't have. been out in Q1.

I think maybe cube two is, you know, that middle there was probably where the pace was and sometimes got a bit more

out of it, but yeah, it's going to be a frustrating one for him. You could see it in his, in his post race,

post-qualifying interview. He was, as you said, I'm a shell of a man. Driver of the session. Have you got some? I'm going to Hulk.

I think that was spectacular. So good. Harry. All right, Neil Diamond. I will go for Holkenberg as well. I think Alonzo Sonoda, those three are all up there.

But Holkenberg, I think, is, I don't know, because Alonzo would look like he was on the peripheries, you know, sort of throughout today. Sonoda, obviously, the Menardi looked good yesterday. But, yeah, the house hasn't looked good all weekend. So that's a bit of a shock, a shock surprise. So, Holkenberg. Yeah, Hulkkeboe for me as well.

I'm not convinced that's better than the eight fastest car. It's quicker, obviously, than Alpine and Salba, who I mean, will give a quick bit of attention to both of those teams. They were both really slow. They were bad. Move on. Yeah. Joe Guan Yu, if he improved by nine tenths, would have been knocked out in Q1.

It's not good. Three seconds away in practice. I know it's practice, but three seconds. But yeah, I've got to go for Holcomburg. I don't, I didn't think that car was capable. of what he delivered. And I know we're used to seeing him makes, that you shouldn't be surprised anymore,

but making Q3 appearances, I don't think this has this weekend. Lecler's lap deletion has made him look worse than what he actually did. Yeah. He was beating Lecler lap deletion or not. Yeah. And I think he's got about a 10th on Alonzo as well,

who did a great job himself. But yeah, I'm three for Holkenberg. Three. Three. I think that's going to do it for our qualifying review. good news is we're back tomorrow in the same room again we're all together for the whole weekend oh my goodness me it's a lot of time

we're going to do bill of breaking in a minute yeah we are this can be quite saucy I imagine goodness me a lot of Texas planning yeah all right that's enough chit chat folks thanks for listening

come back again for the race review and for power rankings we've got that on Patreon as well get yourself into Discord the links in the description and you can do your submission you might hear yourself on your favourite Formula One podcast I'm sure you can follow us on social media late breaking and 4

and you can watch the other content that we have on YouTube, low breaking afunk as well. That's it for us for now. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep barking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.