The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Spanish GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

Ben and Sam review the ultra close Spanish GP Qualifying that saw Norris beat out Verstappen right at the death. They cover all of the main stories from the session including the disappointment for Perez and Piastri as their teammates take front row, the shocking Q3 appearance from the Alpines, and double Q1 eliminations for the RBs and Williams... LONDON LIVE SHOW! Join us as we preview the British GP live in London on 2 July, full event info + tickets HERE FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes, historic race reviews & more! JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: SIGN UP & create your team, and JOIN our league (join code: C3PHEQHPU04) BUY our Merch SEND us something! We have a brand new PO box - address: Late Braking Podcast, PO Box 821, TRURO TR1 9PE EMAIL us at [e-mail] & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, today, reviewing qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, a session where Lando Norris at the death managed to get pole position ahead of Max Verstappen. four different teams getting pole position in the last four races, Sam. That's a nice statistic. God, that's a bloody lovely statistic, isn't it? I mean, as Formula One goes, we are going to, if you're max for staff, in fact, I'm sure

you bloody loved it. But last season, for general viewers, for new viewers, which are a lot of you are that listen to this show, you might have thought, need some variation, something going to go wrong. And Formula One is bringing that back. We're starting to see the balancing of form. We're starting to see a level playing field coming up. We did a live stream on Twitch before this,

and the title was, could there be eight different drivers going for pole position? And all of them feasibly were plausible, right, Ben? Right, but Mercedes seemed in the fight, Ferrari are back from their poor form at Canada, McLaren, there or thereabouts, and we just saw that he skips it right at the end there. And Red Bull, well, they're Red Bull.

They're always in it right now. So genuinely, incredibly exciting. Ben, you must be happy. You got to see turn one. I did. Excellent, as always. And like you say, it was an intriguing qualifying session because going into it, I mean, I would go with seven rather than eight, but there were, there were, it's not unfair. He did not show anywhere near the pace throughout

practice or qualifying Sergio Perez that he could be on poll. But I, I thought feasibly, yes, that there could be one of about seven drivers that could have got it. And I mean, that leads us quite nicely to the front row of the grid. That's where we'll start. Landon Norris and Max Verstappen, they'll start from first and second tomorrow. Because, they really distanced themselves in that second run in Q3. So Max Verstappen had provisional pole. He improved his time even further. And then Lando Norris, of course, by a very small margin able to defeat him.

But both of them, about three temps back to both the Mercedes, Hamilton and Russell, on the second row. Were you surprised that those two drivers were able to get ahead of the rest of the field as convincingly as they did? In comparison between the jump of Q2 to Q3, I was surprised. in Q2 at the end of Q2, the gap between first and sixth was 0.26, right? So two and a half tenths separated. Stapham, who finished the session on pole, provisional pole, the Q2, and sixth place, who I think was LeCler at the time. And a 0.2.26 gap between the top six is a really close spread.

Because soon in that in Q1, Daniel Riccardo was out in 18th place, and he was just over eight tenths away from provisional pole. So the laps here around Catalonia are so close. It's such a close field at the moment. But then when you get into Q3 and these two, I'm not surprised that it is these two. But the gap, I am surprised at, turns out to be over three-tenths between the top two and the rest of the field. They've stepped up. The margin of difference between what they're delivering in their first run and their second run really shows that these guys right now are the pinnacle of where we're racing.

And they are able to put their cars in the right place. We questioned it in the race preview. McCarran, they brought a load of slow-corner upgrades. Why do they think they're still going to be good at Spain? because the car is naturally strong at tracks with fast-paced corners. Spain has a whole heap of them. A lot of less curbs here as well, Cathalungia. So Red Bull able to resurgent, be resurgent,

and showcase their dominance. And they match themselves equally. The slap and second lap was fantastic, really delivered a strong lap. I thought that's it. Game over. Norris pumps it up. Another couple of purple sets from him.

0.0.0.0.02 seconds, the gap between Norris and Piastrian. Then, like you said, Ben, 3 tenths back to Hamilton. Good to see Hamilton as well. be Russell, by the small risk of margin, 3,000th to the second. But yeah, the gap between second, back to third, larger than the gap between third, pretty much back to the rest of the field on average, it's pretty crazy. I genuinely think today we saw three of the best qualifying laps that we've seen all season, one of which being Lando Norris, the other being Max Vastappan, the third of which I'll get onto a bit later on. Vastappen and Norris, as soon as

Vostappen improved on that first run because he was very good in the final sector. He was a long way clear of everyone else. And then of course he gets the toe from Sergio Perez in his second run, which helps him a lot in the first sector and he doesn't lose time in the rest of the sectors to obtain that sort of three-temp's advantage on the likes of the Ferraris and the Mercedes. At that point, I was wrong because at that point, I said no one's touching that. Even with Orlando Norris pretty good through two sectors. I thought third sector, Verstappen's been a beast. Norris will get a bit closer, but I still think that lap won't be touched. And I was very wrong. Those two laps were phenomenal. I was not expecting there to be much of a gap at all between the top six or seven drivers.

So at a fairly quick circuit, we're looking at sort of 72 second laps here to get that advantage over the rest of the field. Highly impressive from both of them. Highly impressive. It's like being three tents clear at Monaco. that's the type of level we're talking about. These lap times are the same as Monaco's at this point. There's a few seconds between it, but nearly half a second clear is crazy levels. And compared to Monaco as well, I would argue the driver can make a little bit more of a difference

at Monaco than the likes of Spain. So if you think of like the first sector, for example, if you hook up that first chicane, turn one and turn two, that's kind of it. Everything else in sector one, the car's doing the work for you because it's just flat out. And obviously you've got another flat-out section on a straight in the end of the second sector, right? So it's similar to Bahrain, actually, where a lot of the time you can struggle to make too much of a difference versus your teammates at this circuit.

So I think that just makes the gap even more impressive. Yeah, it doesn't help as well, of course, if we're speaking entirely about McLaren, the Pia Astri, who looked like he was having a very good rung on that final run that he had going through. The rung, I think he was about a tenth away from the scaffold all the way up to going through terms. He owns 11, 12 and 13. He bottles it. He runs completely wide coming through the Pallosur, runs into the gravel. Yellow sector, fortunately, didn't last very long. He impeded anyone else, but it sets him to be 10th place right at the end of the session.

Or it will be moved up to 9th, of course, because Perez has got a free place grid penalty from Canada. But the lap there was there from Piastri. So he's got the pace for the race. But we could have had both McLare's up there because I think he was about a 10th away or so from his teammates. So it was looking impressive up until that point. Yeah, and that's probably a good time to bring in both Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri into the discussion because they would have seen both of their teammates get on the front row. And as you rightly say, Sergio Perez to qualify an eighth, but that will turn to 11, thanks to the three-place

group penalty. And Piastri technically didn't set a lap time in Q3. He had one run at the beginning of the session that was invalidated, although admittedly it wasn't all that good anyway. And then the second run, he makes that error in the third sector. given particularly in Piastri's case, he has been qualifying-wise not that far away from his teammate. How disappointed would he be that he's not at least on the second road of the grid here? Oh, he's going to be gutted. Fortunately, it looks like overtaking at Catalonia is far easier than it

has been in previous years. Since we've had, as I said, in the preview episode, since we've had the reinvigoration of the rulings, we've got this ground effect cars now, the Spanish track, Barcelona is one of the best for these new regulations. So overtaking, now is highly possible and regular. You know, going down the start, finish rate, heavy braking into turn one. You can follow through Corr was much closely, much more closely. So he's going to be gutted that he's not at least fifth, I would say. But equally, the car clearly is working well here. And he's got a few slower cars in front of him. He's already moved Perez out the way due to the penalty. So that will be helpful. That's probably one of the fastest cars

is going to have to pass immediately. So that's nice to have. But in front of him, he's got the two Alpine cars, which I want to get on to later because the, I don't understand, but somehow both cars in Q3, absolutely baffling, but well done to them. He could get through those guys pretty quick as well. Then he's immediately backing with the big boys, right? He's got to get through both Ferraris and both Mercedes to find himself back near the front again. I think Piaska, if he plays his Graskey well, can see him get towards the front. The problem is, you shouldn't have to.

He shouldn't have to be overtaking. You shouldn't have to be strategizing to get past. And the reason why you do a banker and then a fast run in your qualifying session, so if you muck up the fast run, well, you've got the banker to rely on. Okay, I'm only fifth, but fifth isn't too bad. I can't have to take a couple of cars and I'll be in the top three. He should be starting third, fourth or fifth at worst. He's not.

He's in ninth place, Scooter Paris, his penalty. He's mucked up that final run because he gave it too much. And he let himself down. And his qualifying pace has been very good. It was very good on that run until he pulled it off into the gravel. And I do think it would have been good enough for third place. So it's a real disappointment on his level because qualifying has been a strength of his that he's not delivered there at the final moment.

Yeah, I think it's, got a good chance of being quite costly because I have confidence that he can overhaul the Alpine drivers on race pace and maybe he'll have a shot with the Mercedes as well. I appreciate the Mercedes are starting in front of the Ferraris, but I think race pace Ferrari might just have a little bit of an edge. I think the problem is the Ferraris and the McLaren's, and you can probably throw Vistappen in there as well, they haven't looked too dissimilar from one another in terms of race pace so far this weekend. So if that does happen, Piaastri might find it's a couple of places gained early on, but not able to put any more pressure on than that. You know, that's where, like you say,

strategy might come into play. He'll be hoping for some rain, who knows. But I think he, there is a good chance that his performance today has cost him quite a few points tomorrow. And it's probably, it's good evidence as well what happened today with Piastri of just how, you know, Q1 seems inconsequential a lot of the time to these top drivers. It's not because the whole of the qualifying session feeds into one another. The reason that Piastri, I think, was trying to push so much on that first run in Q3 is because he was on used tires. Why was he on used tires? Because he wasn't as quick as he should have been on new tires in a previous session. He didn't have two sets of new tires in that final session. That invalidates his lap. What does that

cause? That causes McLaren to put him out first. He was the first car on. on a flying lap of all the 10 in the last running Q3. And of course, the pressure of not having any time on the board leads to the mistake. So it all leads into one. It is a real momentum game is qualifying. And I think Piastri has found out in the worst way possible today. Yeah. I mean, it could have been worse because it could have been, it could have gone out on that QCD session, right?

But yeah, I mean, not the place tomorrow after penalties are applied currently. I think a good day for him is a top five finish now. Yeah. In terms of Sergio Perez as well, I think that was his pace. I just, I don't think it was, I can't come out here and say it was a great lap, but at the same time, based on what his pace is this weekend, that's about it. It's not good enough, is it? No, it's not.

But at this point, I'm not quite sure what I can say that is constructive because you're right, it's not good enough, but there's nothing I can say that should, I don't know, give him reason for optimism that it could have been better. That was his pace. Yeah, that was his pace. And Sergei Perez is driving around in a car that is, you know, good enough for a front row start. Arguably, Landon Norris was the only person that could have stopped Max for Stafford from claiming another pole position anyway. So probably should have been on pole position. And he never looks like he was going higher than maybe seventh or eighth ever. He was never going on. The fact that both Mesaigis had beaten so comfortably and they, I know they're

spain merchants. We know that they love it around here. at the same time, the Red Bull is more than good enough. And the fact he's again going to be starting outside the top 10 once penalties are applied, it's just so poor. I expect more from him. So, yeah, I was disappointed, not surprised. Let's focus on the two Mercedes drivers, because one of the leading questions coming into the Spanish Grand Prix was,

can they repeat what they had in Canada, which was a much improved performance? At least in terms of qualifying, the answer seems to be mostly. George Russell had pole position in Canada, wasn't really a threat in the second half of Q3 this time out. But they do start third and fourth with Hamilton, out qualifying Russell for only the second time this season, albeit by I think two thousandths of a second. So they are very close on the grid. That probably implies that that's what the pace of the car was, right?

The biggest takeaway for me through that session is that Lewis Hamilton is able to match George Russell in qualifying. Too many times throughout this year we have seen George. Russell put the car in a somewhat acceptable qualifying position. You know, it could be a fifth. It could be a sixth. You know, close enough to be in the fight. And Hamilton will regularly be not just right behind it, but three or four places behind. If Russell is fifth, Hamilton is eighth.

You know, that's how often we've seen it. And we've said so many times that points on the table from the saying is, and they could be close to that fight, not not winging it, but closer. And they're not because qualifying has hindered them. And it feels like for the first time as a total unit, as a total team, they've not been hindered by qualifying. Third and fourth, if for some reason something goes wrong with the front two, if we see a repeat of 2016, Rossburg and Hamilton,

where Norris and Vostappen take each other off, they're running one too. They're in a perfect position to work as a team. They are the closest team with both drivers together, right? Norris' teammate is going to be starting ninth. Staphn's teammate is going to be starting 11th. If they somehow do have race pace, that means that they can relatively keep in touch with Vostappan and with Norris,

strategically, they're in the prime position to try, something different can one car pressure can one car undercut can one car go long they've got the luxury to finally do this i'm just hoping that we're not seeing this only as a spain moment and it isn't an outlier and we go to the next race obviously we're at the start of a triple header for us here we go to those next few races and they can apply this pace to be in that fight again in britain in austria and we're actually able to see a continuation of pace and they've understood the car properly because they beat ferrari now they beat ferrari last time in canada because Ferrari didn't know where Canada was,

and so they just didn't turn up. Whereas here, Ferrari had pace, and they both looked like they were quicker than Piazari to a good degree, or they were at least on level terms with him, and they were both fast for the Perez properly. So they're in the mix properly. Let's just hope it continues.

But this is a good start to the weekend from the stage, probably the best they've had all season. Yeah, and I was surprised. I thought the Ferrarians would have the edge on them today. Going into qualifying, I thought fifth and sixth is probably about where they'd be. So the fact that they're going to be starting third and fourth, I think, is an accomplishment from their side.

And as I mentioned, because Hamilton and Russell were so close, Hamilton by 2000s, edging out Russell, I do think that probably implies that that is the maximum they could have got out of the car. I don't think first and second would touch with. Just over three attempts, that's a lot of time to find. And I think they can call today a success. My instinct based on what I've seen in practice is that they won't have the, they won't quite have the race pace to contend with the cars around them and they might fall back a

little bit, maybe to maybe behind the Ferrari drivers, but we know how important track position here is in Spain. So even if they don't have a faster car, maybe they can still use that track position to their advantage. But regardless of how you look at this, this was a good day for Mercedes. It makes two good Saturdays in a row. We'll see if it's two good Sundays in a row. And like you say, we've got five races in six weeks, so this would be very useful for Mercedes to take through until the summer break. Let's take our break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to be talking about Ferrari, we're going to be talking about Alpine, and a struggle for a couple of other teams, including Minardi and Williams.

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It's the Nissan Black Friday event where you can... Wait, wait. Isn't it like a month long now? Nissan Black Friday Month? Does that work? It's the Nissan Black Fry Month event. On remaining 2025 Rogan Centra, get 0% financing. Plus, get $1,000 Nissan bonus on kicks models.

This Black Friday, you've got a whole month to catch all the exclusive offers waiting for you. See your local Nissan dealer or Nissan.ca for details. Conditions apply. Okay, everyone, welcome back. We used the end of the last segment to talk about Mercedes, who will be starting third and fourth. That is ahead of both Ferraris, who will be starting fifth and third. 6th. Charles Leclair was three and a half temps behind Lando Norris at the flag, which was pretty much exactly what Carla Sines was. Those two teammates were separated by just five thousandths of a second.

Leclair 5th, sign 6th, Sam. How did you read their day? I think they maximised what the car was able to do. Much like with Mercedes, when your drivers are that close together, it often tells you that if both drivers of incredibly high talent are able to extract a lap time that is less than one, one hundredth of the second depart from each other, going around the track at different times, we'll meet different levels of traffic, or possibly have different wind levels, or whatever it might be, they're able to extract an almost identical time

from the same machinery. You think, okay, that's as good as it's going to get. Interestingly, though, on full pace that they were behind both Mosei's cars. That is a real first for this season on pure pace when Ferrari are performing. I'm going to take Canada out of the mix because that was the outlier,

but in every other Grand Prix, Ferrari have turned up, and this is the first time that both cars have sat behind both Mosei's cars, which is interesting to note. I also thought the track might suit them. I thought they might be closer up here because you look at the tracks that they have done quite well on. Australia, I think, is relatively similar.

Lecler was very good around Saudi as well. So I thought that they might be slightly higher up the track than they are. But fifth and sixth is okay. Again, much like the saying is they've got both cars together so they can strategize nicely. But I'm sure that Frilly Bass will be looking at this and go, okay, it's one step forward from Canada. But now we're behind where we were for both Monaco and Australia. So what's going on with the upgrades, what's going on with the development? and are we falling behind here possibly?

A mixed bag, I think, for Ferrari. I think there'll be some learnings for them that they hope won't be repeated in both Silverstone and Austria. I'm very disappointed in them. From a personal level of like signs and Leclair, I think you're right. I don't think they could have given too much more. But in terms of the car and the team,

I'm disappointed because I was expecting them to be far more competitive, at least today than what we saw. And we'll see what race pace looks like. If they've sacrificed some qualifying pace to be good in the race, then I'm okay with that. But at least in terms of this headline pace that we saw today, that wasn't as close as I thought it was going to be. If you cast your minds back to say Imola, when these upgrades came in, they were only a tenth and a half, or at least LeCler was a tenth and a half behind the pole position on that day.

Here, they're three and a half temp's back. It's quite a bit more. And I think Charlotte Clare has done well to out-qualify Carlos Saincy. I think Sines has been the better driver so far this weekend. and LeCler was able to hook up that lap in Q3 to just about get ahead of him. Science was fastest in practice three. And I know it doesn't always translate, but that gave me some encouragement that this would be a fight out front.

And even through like first part of qualifying, I still thought that they might be in the mix. And then Q3 came around and they just weren't there. They just didn't have that last little bit that they could extract from their car that others around them could, which, yeah, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed by. but we'll see about race pace because race pace did look a little bit better yesterday

they seemed to be in the same sort of conversation as McLaren so yeah I thought they would have had more do you think if they had maximised the car for the race and remove some qualifying pace overall that they're going to have enough to possibly fight up front or you think just beating Masege's is kind of the best it'll get for them yeah probably that I yeah

unless you know Lanner Norris has had a few dodgy starts so far this year Yeah, he has. Maybe that could give them an opening if either the top two fall behind one of the Mercedes at the start. I think if Norris and Vestappen get away first and second, regardless of which order that is through term one,

I think they'll float off into the distance. I don't think, unless the Ferraris can get clearer of the Mercedes quite quickly, I just don't think the pace is all that different. So if you've got a track position, that's going to give you the edge. there's a real chance that Mercedes could be acting as a bit of a moving roadblock for a few of the faster cars behind.

Same without being. Yeah, and maybe, maybe Mercedes race pace is going to be better than what I think it will be, which I hope because that would be a more entertaining fight. But yeah, we'll see. I liked what I saw from, particularly signs in terms of long run pace yesterday. But it's just about how is he going to have the opportunity to show it or is it going to be stuck behind other cars? I think Thai choice is going to be really important as well. Lola is so tough on tires.

You saw how quick the softs were going off in their qualifying run. So I doubt we'll see any soft tires running, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see like a medium, hard medium as the overall strategy. It's going to be interesting to see what team runs their tires further. So we had a rare occasion today, actually, within the top 10 where five teams had two cars. So we've already spoken about four of those teams.

The four teams, I think we were expecting to be there. That's McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. And then, of course, the fifth team being Alpine. Well, actually, because of Perez's penalty, they're both going to start on the fourth row of the grid tomorrow. How? Why? Oh, I'm so baffled by what's going on with Alpine. When I saw them get into Q3, I was like, what?

What come was at one point fastest in the speed trap? Yeah, what is going on? The car was so pounced like four or five races ago. And the progress they make every single race, albeit it feels like small but mighty. They're making really small, incremental, but solid improvements every single time. If it can translate over into some solid race pace,

and both cars again look like they're going to finish in the points, everything that's going on behind the scenes at Alpine seems irrelevant if they're continuing to take these steps closer and closer towards the front. You know, Gasly was less than five-tenths away from pole. What's that all about? Gasly was closer to Hamilton and third than he was to Perez and eight. Yeah, that is unreal from him. Like the lap was so good from Gasly.

Yeah, I mentioned in the first part of this review that I think we had three of the best qualifying sessions of the season so far today. One of them was Lando Norris, one of them was Max Verstappen, and the third is Pierre Gazley. I genuinely think Gasly's lap was in the same category as what we had

from both Norris and Vestappen. It was phenomenal because throughout the first few stages of qualifying today, And Ghazly and Ocon barely anything in it. I think Gasly had a minor edge for most of the day, but it was half a tenth. It was always less than a tenth of a second. And I don't think O'Con delivered a bad lap in Q3 either because he was only half a tenth away from out qualifying Sergio Perez. So I think O'Conn's lap in Q3 was fine.

But for Gasly to dunk nearly three tenths of a second on his teammate when the gap was very small throughout all of the rest of qualifying, Peres was two temps more than two temps away from Gasley in Q3 I think that is one of his best laps of all time and it will go under the radar

it will because you know that car can't do any more than what he gave it but I genuinely would put that in the A plus tier of what we saw today hopefully the race pace

is somewhat solid and he's actually got the machinery underneath him to convert that into points because I think I think Alpin need that lift I think they need something Yes, yeah.

I think they've got a chance. I don't think anyone behind them outside of obviously Sergio Perez who will be behind them on Oscar Piaschew, and you've got those two probably clear in the Alpines. They would at that point be running ninth and tenth. Do I think anyone outside of the top ten has... Is definitely going to overhaul the Alpines? No, I don't think so.

Big Bottas is coming from 11th. Actually, he's going to be 10th now, wasn't he? Well, he qualified 12th. Oh, he's 12th. So he'd be downing 11th, but okay. Well, I think Perez will go to 11th, so Alonzo will go up to 10th. Then Perez will slot in 11th and then Bottas will be 12th. The lucky boy.

All right, well, Bottas and I'll have one to start. Hang out what big botty's could do. I might as well just feed into the conversation about Salber, actually, because they did something that they don't normally do, which is both drivers made it through to Q2. Now, I show Guan Yu admittedly couldn't get any further up than 15th place, which is the worst finishing position in Q2. But Bottas did out qualify both Holkenberg and Landstrol,

and he was only about a 10th of a second or so, I think, from getting into in Q3. So this feels like a slightly better day for them. Yeah, first time that both drivers have got themselves into Q2 all season. Joe Guangu's first time out of Q1 all season, albeit, as you said, Ben, to 15th place. But a positive step forward for the team. I actually am unaware of any proper upgrades that have been brought to them from the team,

but maybe the car just is suiting how Cattalung your rungs. it's possible, but Botas is doing what Botas has done all season. He is going under the radar, but delivering really strong performances time and time and time again. And it's so regularly the car or the team that let him down when it comes to actually, you know, capitalising on a really strong position, actually scoring some points. But it looks like it could be possible here this weekend. The car is running well. They've outqualified some key rivals.

They're absolutely dominating RB and we'll get on standing on moment, both drivers out in Q1. So arguably, the people that they need to be, Alpine, they should have a good chance at doing. The cars aren't too separate from pace. So Bossas looking positive. Let's see if Shulking can get himself back up the field. Be interesting to see what Holkenberg could do. But yeah, fair play to Bottas again.

I think he's just shining where Noble is looking. He's doing such a good job this season. I'm really impressed with the form he's bringing this year. Yeah, I think Bottas was very good. To out-qualified Holkenberg, who's been doing a great job in qualifying all year, and that means out-qualifying both hash-drivers. That was very impressive from Botas.

Shoguan Yu, I surprised, because of how many times he's been knocked out in Q1 so far this season, it looked as if he was going to be knocked out in Q1 again. But his lap to close Q1 was very impressive. I think he was within about one-tenth of Valtry Bottas in that Q1 lap, which was better than he's been pretty much all weekend so far. He didn't pull it out in Q2, obviously. But the fact that he got there is a step in the right direction. And yeah, we don't know what's going to happen inside the top 10.

So if they don't mess it up, I think Bottas could be in with a chance of a point or two. Another team that had two drivers knocked out in Q2 was Aston. Fernando Alonso was the closest to making it's Q3. He was 11th and he will start 10th as a result of Perez's penalty. And Landstrol was 14th. What did you make of their two days? Ashton Martin is so frustrating. I feel like they found where they belong.

moment this season and that is sitting around that fifth to sixth fast is team bubble. Much like the fight we're having at the front where Red Bull of the constant and every other team kind of seems to gravitate around them as to what one can match them then they fall back and another team matches them then they fall back

and kind of repeats. So Aston Martin almost doing that in F1.5 right? Astor Martin seems to sit around that 11th place and they're always around that 11th place. Although this week it's Alpine that beats them. Kala weeks ago it was Haast that beat them. a couple weeks before that, it was RB that beat them, right?

And it seems to be circulating. Alongside, I think it's done a pretty good job. And I don't think the car is much faster than where it is. So I think getting into Q3 in this current field is a tough, tough ask. So that's why I think it's so impressive that Alpin got both cars in there. But I'm not sure what more along took could have done. Stroll again quite far off the pace, which was disappointing when it comes to matching his teammate.

It's a tough ride this season for Austin Martin. I don't think they're going to score too many more points on the regular. I don't think they're going to get big points. I don't think they're going to be picking up podiums like they were regularly last year. They just continue to be making their car worse and going backwards. And they need something to reinvigorate this season. They need a good upgrade to bring it back in because the momentum's really gone. They had a great season last season.

We saw it start to Peter off when they went back to old chassis and went back to old version of cars. And upgrades stopped working. And this feels like a continuation. I feel like they've lost their way a little bit. They need someone to clear the path for them. Yeah, I don't have too much to add. 11th from 14th is what the pace was. And I'm not particularly encouraged by what I saw in the race pace Sims either.

It's where they are. It's not where they should be, but it's where they are. I mean, Cassie minds back to Spain last year. They were, what, like seventh and eighth in the race or something along those lines. And that was considered a massive disappointment based on where they'd been at that point. If they had seventh and eighth tomorrow, I think they'd bite your hand off. That's how much of a downgrade Aster Martin has become and where they were a year ago. very disappointing.

But like I say, I think that's about where the pace was. It's still a better day than a couple of other teams. We had two teams occupy the back four positions. So Sonoda 17th, Ricardo 18th, obviously both representing Menardy, Albin 19th, Sergeant 20th, both representing Williams. Let's focus on Minardi, first of all. They basically brought a brand new car to this circuit. It's at least on the evidence of today.

Not worked. It was a brand new car bought from, like, the bin lorry association. It might be the bin lorry. I mean, it's got the aerodynamics of a bin lorry, apparently, because it was absolutely rubbish around this racetrack. God, that was a good tie-in guy, and that joke stinks. And it's true. Just flat out true.

It was bad, wasn't it? Really bad. They went out super early in the qualifying session. Obviously, they went out in Q1, but they were pretty much the first to set laps. I think there was one car before them. I think Joe Guangyu and Logan Sargent were the two cars that went out before them.

But Ricardo and Sanoa were swift to follow afterwards. And they were not much bigger at all. And I thought, oh, okay, maybe the dodgy start. Maybe they're just getting the fill of the car a little bit. But these two drivers have been on it, you know, Sango especially all season. But Ricardo's really starting to come into form. And I thought, you know, he's improving.

He's getting there. And Sago seemed like he was beating. No, so Ricardo feel like he was beating Sengoda for a long of the session. I thought, Riccardo's really got something here. This could be a good laugh. It felt positive.

It was the faster driver all weekend to that point. It was the faster driver all weekend. Come the end of the session, Sang Oga's beaten by a tiny amount, less than a tent between the two of them, I believe. But nonetheless, he starts in front of him, and that's what the statistics will show you, but it means nothing when you're 17th and 18th.

So whoever has run this through the data, whoever's put this through the wind tunnel and done your analytics, go, I can't speak. Fire them, take them back to the jury ball. because the fact that you were claiming top fives at the start of the season and it looked like you were starting to be the team that could regularly get both of your cars into the back end of Q3,

eighth and ninth, ninth, then 11th, things like that. And now you're 17th and 18th. Disaster. What an absolute fallback. I don't know if you've just got the setup wrong. I hope the Cargagos doesn't perform here at Catalonia, but it does not feel positive. So I was really shocked to see both of them,

not only out in Q1, but so far away. Ricardo, over eight tenths away from pole, but 18th, shocking. In the absence of my good friend Harry Ead, I will say the immortal line for him. What are you doing? There it is. So bad. They really brought a lot.

I can't call them upgrades because 17th and 18th does not represent an upgrade, but they brought a lot of new parts that have clearly not worked. And only they will know at the moment whether how much of an issue that is, because they might be thinking it hasn't worked for a lot. this weekend, but you know what, give us some more practice time at the next race in Austria and we'll be all right. But it could just be, we've brought a load of things, they haven't worked, and now we're stuck with them. They'll be very much hoping it's the former. It might well be the latter. Sunoda was utterly shocked that he didn't make it through to Q2. He was so happy

with his lap at the end of Q1 and then to be, he assumed he was through. And then he was told, yeah, it's not enough. He's like, what? What do you mean, it's not enough? play the Sonoga scream from Saudi. He might as well. I mean, yeah, it was baffling to him that he wasn't through. And Daniel Ricardo, again, he looked like the faster car up until the point where he needed to be the faster car. And that's when Sonoda just about pipped him.

But like you say, it doesn't really matter. 17th and 18th. It's going to be a long day for them. It might be an even longer day for the Williams team. Alex Alba 19th, despite showing some OK pace in practice, but just didn't materialize in qualifying itself. Logan Sargent, I think four tenths off the back of Alex Albin and six temps away from getting through to Q2

so that never seemed to be a possibility. What did you make it there, day? I mean, the car clearly not running well here. Again, as we said with the cars up front with both Mercedes and Ferrari, when you're both there and thereabouts, you tend to be extracting the maximum. So the Williams is not feeling strong here. And Albon never really looked like he was going through. He was always inning around the danger zone.

But to see him fall back as far as 19th place is, tough. That's really, really difficult. But Logan Sarging, my guy, when Daniel Ricardo in 18th place, he's only eight tenths away from pole, but you are four tenths away from your teammate at the back of the grid. That is atrocious. You're half the time away from the car in front of you as the rest of the grig is away from the guy in first. That is appalling. The fact that you can fit first to 10th in the gap that it takes you to fill from 19th to 20th, unbelievably bad.

Clearly the car's not going well. I think worst of all, I've actually maybe not. He blocked Lance Stroller one of the rung, so he's going to be getting a penalty for blocking going into turn 10 into the heavy braking zone at the end of sector 2. Maybe the right time to do it, I suppose,

because you can't go back any further than you were. But I really am quite shocked at how far back this Williams has fallen. I really have, I still do have a lot of faith in James Fowles. They're making some good signings. Apparently they finally filled the Hagerbera Dynamics position that they've had open for over a year. Clearly, it's needed. Get him to work because clearly you've got to make some adjustments.

Because your car is crap. You're not doing anything right. 19th and 20th, after you were scoring regular points, Alba was regularly in Q3. He was regularly the guy to break the mold outside the midfield section. And this is where you are, that far away? So disappointed. I'm really gutted for Will.

Williams and Williams fans, because this is such a big step back that I didn't expect from them. Yeah, I'm confused by the lack of pace that Alex Albin had specifically. Logan Sargent, I can't say I'm surprised at this point, but, you know, Alex Albin has made Q3 at the last two Grand Prix. So I thought that I, I thought going into this session that Q3 might be a stretch, but I thought he'd make Q2 and the fact that he didn't was a disappointment. Now, I'm not sure whether he didn't, he just didn't hook up the lap. I'm not sure whether the changing conditions didn't suit Williams.

I know going into the weekend they weren't entirely optimistic about this race anyway. They didn't think that this track was going to suit their car, which seems to have come true. I think that there's still some positivity from the last couple of races that Williams can take, and they'll be hoping this one is a bit more of an outlier. But, yeah, I mean, 19 for 20, if they're going to need a miracle to get anything out of this Grand Prix. Final question that I want to ask you, Ben, because it's something that's come up a lot in the live stream we did. I saw you on social media tweets about it, which I think is fair. But obviously in practice sessions, penalties don't tend to be giving out.

But we saw some very interesting behavior from a couple of drivers, specifically, Charles LeCleur. What do you think of the actions that happened there? Yes. So to catch everyone up, Charles LeCler and Lando Norris had a coming together in practice. So Lando Norris was joined. by Lecler himself to have impeded him on his flying lap. Lecler goes over to the side of the track and they make contact. Very similar incidents slightly earlier in the session where Land Stroll believed he was impeded

by Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll directed his car at Lewis Hamilton. They had contacts which actually caused damage to Stroll's car. And in both instances, they were given a reprimand. It is utterly ridiculous how that is only a reprimand. how on earth they were both judged to have driven erratically but not dangerously. Now, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but if someone is driving erratically on the road, that is dangerous. I've never heard anyone say that person is driving erratically. Is it dangerous? No. That does not make any sense. By definition, being erratic is dangerous.

And somehow they've both avoided a penalty. Leclair and Stroll, in my opinion, both should have received a penalty for what they did, they have intentionally driven their car into a competitor in a session. How is that allowed? What you are now saying, because apparently it's in line with precedence, right? Now what you're saying is that every driver on any given weekend has a buy, right? They can just at least once in a practice session, direct their car at another car, maybe cause some damage, maybe not, who cares, you'll get away with a reprimand. How would earth do you make that conclusion? I appreciate they are trying to give everyone a chance in qualifying, because that's what we want to see. It would have worsened the product ever so slightly if

Charle-clerclair, we knew, had no chance of securing pole position. But you can't just let this lawless society develop where you can get away with such a thing. I thought it was ridiculous. I completely agree with you. Formula One, by definition, is a non-contact sport. Right. You're driving around in instruments that cost millions and millions of dollars to build. And you cannot anywhere use your vehicle a heavy, fast moving object as an object to hit someone else. You do it on the road, you go to prison. That's what happens. You drive your car into someone else intentionally. You will go to jail. You will be banned from driving your car. So you do it on a racetrack where millions children, people who follow you and adore you, pay attention to you, you think Charlotte

Clairce has driven into Landon Morris. That was hilarious. And they've said, it's okay. It's not dangerous. I'm going to do it next time I'm out on the road. I know that sounds silly. It takes one person to go. It was okay when Charlotte Claire does it.

So I'm going to do it. And it can happen. One person. So I was also blowing away. Erratic, but not dangerous. I've just looked up the definition of erratic. Synonyms of driving erratically are to be unstable and unpredictable. So to me, it seems pretty like you don't want to be around it, especially in a 200-mile-an-hour moving

vehicle. I was shocked. No, officer, it wasn't dangerous driving. It was just unstable. Yeah, you'll get away with that, for sure. Go and what Charles LeCleur do on the telly. I only did that, and they said it was fine. I think Charlotte-Clauze is the slightly more egregious one, but I would have given both penalties. Like I mentioned, Lance Stroll got damage for what he did with Lewis Hamilton, which is shooting yourself in the foot right, but what if it was the other way around? What if it was Lewis Hamilton that picked up damage? And actually that cost him a couple attempts

in today's qualifying session, which drops him from third down to, say, six or seventh. Still no penalty? Like, what if it's, I know it sounds like ridiculous situations, but what if it was the William situation in Australia where it wasn't album that crashed? It was Lance troll that crashed into album,

broke the chassis, and now you've got a car out of qualifying. Yeah. No penalty at all? No, just okay, fine. I'll just come out and call it what it is. It's spineless. It's spineless from the FIA.

It's because they will not give penalties based on the action, but rather the result. They've done it time and time again, and they've done it here. No damage to the victim happened, so therefore it's fine. We'll let it sound. And as usual, so many not calling it out for what it is. It was ridiculous.

Yeah, I was really disappointed. I wanted to bring it out because I think it was quite important, but I was really disappointed. Yeah, definitely. Before we go, who was your driver of the session? I'm going to give it to Landon Norris. I do think that both Max Verstappen and Pierre Gaslis, you said, deserve a shout.

I also think Valtry Bottas deserves a bit of a shout. But the fact that Landon Norris managed to pull that lap out, I was blown away. Because like you, Max Verstappen put that lapping, and I thought people could get close, but that's pulled down and duskid. And he delivered. I was so impressed.

You could see the result on stream. I went absolutely mad when he crossed the line. I was not expecting it. So Lando for me. Yeah, I'm going to have to give it. to Norris as well. I think feasibly you could give it to Pierre Gasly. I think they were right there with one another.

But yeah, just through my own being wrong and not thinking that Norris had a chance of pole when Vostappen put together his second lap, I have to give it to you, Lando Norris. I doff my cap if I was wearing one because I wasn't expecting it. Yeah, fantastic stuff. A good qualifying session.

It delivers once again. Yeah, good qualifying session. There's never really any bad qualifying sessions. I think there might be a future in this format. Rinks and repeat that joke. Yep. Good news, everyone. We're going to be back tomorrow, of course.

We're going to be reviewing the race itself. Sam, if you wouldn't mind until then, getting us out of here. Folks, make sure you join us and get in the Discord before the end of the race tomorrow. If you want to hear yourself on the podcast, because we will be asking for your moment of the race. And we love hearing from you. You guys come out with some of the best bits of the show. You're far funny than we are, and we love hearing that insight. It's always great to get involved.

So do get involved. There's also a great community chatting. So if you don't got any F1, mate. I didn't for a long time. Don't have any mates now anyway. Get into the Discord and there's loads of lovely people to talk to. Patreon. Get yourself signed up to Patreon for the end of the weekend because we'll be doing our power rankings on Monday.

Don't forget you can get tickets for our live show. The links in the description. That's happening on July the 2nd at the Dregnacht building in Greenwich in the evening. Check out all the details are there. It's going to be a lovely little time with a load of fans from the UK. So have a look. There's also people fly from Australia, which is crazy. So if they can fly here, you can be there.

Loads of stuff happening. on social. Check out Twitch as well for the live streams. That's been really, really good fun. And watch us on YouTube. We appreciate you all. We love you all. And 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.