The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Azerbaijan GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

6 red flags and a whole lot of chaos! Ben covers as much as possible from Baku and the longest EVER qualifying session - from the surprise Top 3, disappointment for 2 front-running teams, and the walls that just couldn't stay out of the action... >>> Don't miss out - limited tickets left for our 2025 LIVE SHOW in Austin TX! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICK HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to grab yours or for more info!

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by me, Ben Hocking. Reviewing today, or at least an attempt at a review of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying session. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.

I apologize in advance, folks, because this review might be scattered. There might be things that I accidentally look over because so much happened, but I will do my absolute best. It was beautifully excruciating. And that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But I can't think of another way to describe whatever it was we just witnessed. Six red flags overall. I mean, that's one guarantee I can make.

you about this review is that there aren't going to be any red flags. I've got enough of those in my life. We are just going to go all the way straight through and get through as much as we possibly can and preview what will be a very jumbled up grid tomorrow. Max Verstappen taking pole position. That in itself, not too abnormal. You'll be joined on the front road by the Williams of Carlos Sines. Yeah, that's a bit more abnormal. And Liam Lawson in the lead racing balls will be third. It's just absolute carnage. What a qualifying session. I know that the delays are frustrating.

The fact that we have gone, I think, just over two hours in this qualifying session to the point where if this was a race, if this happened tomorrow, I think we might have just got through all of the laps, but only just. It was a bit nip and tuck towards the end there. Again, six red flags, so a lot of disruption. But even with that disruption, even with all of that frustration that we were made to wait for actual laps happening on track, when we did get that, absolutely thrilling. Such a challenge for the drivers.

You know, we see some qualifying sessions where it's a bit formulaic, and I don't mean that horribly. Like, we get some tracks where drivers are so used to the tracks, so comfortable, they can attack the track with quite a lot of consistency. consistency, and we kind of know how things are going to go throughout the one hour qualifying session. Not here in this two-hour qualifying session. This looked like and presented itself as maybe the biggest challenge we've had in qualifying so far this year. It's not like street circuits are unique anymore. We have quite a lot of them on the calendar. But for whatever reason, Baku brings this out in the drivers. It brings out this challenge. We don't get this many red flags.

even at the likes of Monaco, even at the likes of Singapore. But whenever we come to Baku, it's not like this is a one-off, even if this was maybe the most extreme example we've had to date. Whenever we get to Baku, the challenge that is presented leads to errors. And not only from, let's face it, drivers you might expect errors from, we get errors from drivers who barely make any mistakes all year long. We have Oscar Piastri in the wall in Q3. We have Shao LaClaire in the wall.

in the wall in Q3. And it has led to a very interesting grid for tomorrow. Again, folks, I'm going to apologize if this is slightly scattered because most qualifying sessions, I can be quite neat about my notes and have six or so mini topics that I'll get to. That's probably about 52 today. So I'll do my absolute best. I am going to start with what Max Verstappen was able to do in Q3, taking pole position, away from Carlos signs towards the end of that session. And if you were hoping that this qualifying review might be something different than a Vastappan glazing session, I apologize, because the next few minutes are going to be very gushing towards him.

That was phenomenal. That was absolutely phenomenal what we saw from him. And in my view, confirms what I've already known all year long and all across the last couple of years. Max Vastappen is the best drive. in this sport, because despite all of the challenges that he was up against, despite all of the shortcomings of his rivals, he was the one that held it together when it mattered most. We saw that it was really tricky to be consistent throughout all three qualifying sessions

today. And we also saw that the track evolution that we often get at circuits in qualifying wasn't really present today, whether that's because it's a street circuit, whether it's because of the disrupted running, for whatever reason we didn't really get that natural evolution that we get at some of the more traditional circuits where in Q1, you might set one lap, you might go two and a half times faster in Q2 and then another two and a half times faster in Q3, as an example. Today was all over the place, but Vastappen was able to be consistent across all three sessions. and slowly but surely just chip away on what he was able to do in Q1.

So Q1, he sets a 141-3, which at the time was good enough for second, just behind Lando Norris. He improves that by just under a 10th to Q2. And then where everyone is struggling to even match what they were able to do in Q2, Verstappen is able to go another 10th quicker on top of that Q2 time. So we still have that gradual improvement as we go throughout the qualifying sessions where no one else could really manage it. You know, we saw as a few examples, Lando Norris, and we'll get to how the McLaren's fair today. Hint, not very well. The McLaren of Lando Norris, his best lap today, Q1.

If you want to go back to Shaul-A-Claire in Ferrari, now I appreciate he doesn't get a lap together in Q3, but Charles Clair's fastest lap today in Q1. It wasn't one of those where the track naturally evolved and you were always going to get quicker as the day went on. We had issues with some wet weather towards the end of the session as well. Vastappen held his own. High wind, not having the perfect tyres for that final run, and he's able to deliver that.

I just thought in a session where it was really close between the midfield, and some of the front runners. We saw in Q2, for example, that Alonzo was knocked out in P11. He was only a couple of attempts off Leclair, who I think was fifth at that time. Verstappen was a few times clear of everyone in Q2, and he just does exactly the same thing again in Q3.

I think he gets polled by not quite half a second, but a very big margin based on some of the other, very small margins that we saw throughout the grid. Carlos Sines, well, the glazing session continues here. Carlos Seins, who's had a little bit of difficulty when it comes to qualifying and indeed racing against his teammates so far this year. Baku hasn't been a happy hunting ground for him. Now, Charlerler has been very good there over the years. If we're looking at a teammate battle, of course, he was teammates with Charlotte, Claire at Ferrari for a number of years.

To the point where Carlos Seins, despite being very experienced in this sport, I don't believe has ever qualified a teammate at Baku until today. And he did it rather convincingly by 18 spots to be on the front row of the grid. Similar to Vestapp, and I want to give Sainz praise for what he was able to do, particularly in Q2 and Q3. And also the Williams team as well. From a driving perspective, you know, Carlos Sines did what he needed to do in Q2, a 141-6. It was very close towards the bottom end of the top 10 in Q2, but he did enough to make it through where a few others, like Alonzo and Hamilton, couldn't get the job done.

And then to set that lap, just as the rain was starting, towards the beginning of Q3, similar to Vastap, and he goes just under a 10th quicker in Q3. And that's the lap that held up to be second place. He did go out for a final run towards the end of Q3, but he wasn't able to improve on that time. Just a really excellent way to hold it all together where so many others couldn't.

And this is where I want to credit Williams as well, the team and strategically how they got on. Firstly, they nailed Q3, perhaps expecting red flags. They got Carlos signs out there as fast as possible to get a lap on the board. Great call because for most of Q3, it was only him and the two racing balls that had a lap on the board. That's the first tick. Second tick is after the red flag, they decide to not go out where a lot of others do, obviously trying to set a lap time.

Carlos Seins has one on the board. Potential of another red flag, potential of some more yellow flags decides to stay in the pits. Lo and behold, another red flag comes out. He hasn't wasted a set of tires. Now, he couldn't end up using them in the end towards the end of the session, but at least tactically, Williams were spot on. And I also want to just touch on what I think Williams have done. And I'm just basing this on my instincts and sort of reading lap times. But it looks like Williams really changed their setup overnight from Friday to Saturday.

And we saw this with Alex Albin as well. Of course, Alex Albin didn't end up showing it in qualifying. but we saw it from him in practice that on Friday, William seemed pretty committed to straight line speed. They were fast in the first and final sectors. Okay enough in the middle sector, but nothing special there. But overnight, that completely flipped. So we saw in P3, and I'm using Albin as the example,

because frustratingly for him, he was the quicker of the two for much of the weekend up until qualifying. Alex Albin was the fourth fastest driver. in FP3 in the middle sector. And Carlos Seins wasn't that far off either. It seemed as if Williams perhaps playing for rain, perhaps playing for slightly slippery conditions, they banked on needing that grip in the middle sector.

And Carlos Seins was electric in that middle sector on that final run. So whether it works out tomorrow or not, whether they've stripped off too much in terms of that top speed, that remains to be seen. If they fall like a stone tomorrow, it wasn't worth it. If we get more rain tomorrow and they've got a bit of a better wet setup, then they've absolutely nailed it. But at least for qualifying, it seems to have really paid dividends where others were really,

really struggling on some of those heavy breaking zones. The Williams seemed to handle it a little bit better. So props to Williams as well as Carlos Sines for doing what they did. I'm rounding out the top three, Liam Lawson. Now, I put Liam Lawson under pressure in our midweek and our midweek preview show, not because it necessarily been massively underperforming as of late. In fact, his form has turned around quite a lot. But the last couple of races, last two races, I think, he hadn't scored any points.

And he's at a very important point in his career, very important juncture to the point where he's likely looking to stay at racing balls. for another season. It doesn't look like the promotion is on the cards. But equally, it looks like he could stick around for another year. And I put him under pressure because I felt like another one or two good results could seal it. Maybe this is the one that does. Again, very good effort from Liam Lawson.

Weirdly enough, he actually goes slower in the final part of qualifying than the middle part of qualifying, which in itself doesn't sound particularly impressive. but given everyone else was really finding it difficult with getting the tyres up to temperature, maybe some rain as well. The fact that Lawson has nearly matched what he did in Q2 is actually really impressive. Those conditions were tough.

And there's a reason why the Mercedes didn't nail it. There's a reason why Piastri and LeCler definitely didn't nail it. We'll get on to Norris in a bit as well. Lawson's the one that kind of just said, all right, I'll put it together. I'll put three meaningful sectors together and see if that will hold up. And it did. And it did.

And I've done to say it's overly rare, but, you know, Isaac Hadjar has had the measure on him for a lot of qualifying session so far this year. Not today. Hadjar wasn't able to get that lap together in Q3 where Lawson was. And Lawson's rewarded with that second row start. That racing balls looks pretty handy around this circuit. even before today's slightly weird qualifying session, it looked like both of them in a traditional qualifying session

would have got through to Q3, certainly not up to P3 as Lawson ended up, but they look pretty competitive versus the midfield. So I don't know if he's going to be able to hold off the Mercedes, if he's going to be able to hold off the McLaren's or even the Ferraris if they remember how to do F1. But honestly, even if by the time they've gone through. He's got a sizable advantage over the likes of Alonzo and Bortoletto and that

group. It's a job well done and a qualifying well worth it. So good job for Liam Lawson. All of the top three. Absolutely nailed this session. Last team I'll cover off before a quick break is Mercedes. They start fourth and fifth. So they're the only team that has two cars in the top five. and if you had said how the qualifying session would have panned out, I'm not sure how they would have reacted to this result. They'll look at McLaren down in 7th and 9th and say that's good, and they'll look at Ferrari even worse at 10th and 12th and think that's pretty good. And yet you look at 4th and 5th and think there might have been a slight missed opportunity here.

Going into this session, I felt like the first sector was key for Mercedes, because they looked pretty good in the middle and final sectors. Indeed, Antonelli might have set a purple sector in the final part of his lap towards the end of Q3. But they were really struggling in the first sector, which is interesting because if you look at the first sector and the final sector, it's not like there are too many differences there. Perhaps some of those breaking zones, Mercedes were struggling a little bit more versus some of the other teams. They've put together reasonable laps. Russell didn't go. Russell's slowest lap was Q3.

Antonelli was a bit quicker in Q3 than he was in Q1, but still a few tenths down on what he did in Q2. So it feels like for both of them, a bit of a missed opportunity to be second and third. Antonelli, I think, will be happy with where he's ended up. He hasn't outqualified Russell many times at all this year. I know he had sprint pole back in Miami, albeit that was now four months ago. But wins against Russell have been few and far between.

I think he'll take the three-tenths win or so that he had today. And that came after he was looking a bit sketchy earlier on in qualifying. I should note, Antonelli and about 97 other drivers are under investigation for yellow flag infringements and just about everything under the sun. qualifying already took three days, so I'm not sticking around to see what those results are. If anything changes here, I apologize. But yeah, I think Antonelli, despite the fact that he wasn't absolutely on it

in the earlier part of qualifying, he turned that around. And in practice, he looked like a match for George Russell. And at the end of qualifying, he certainly was a match again. Russell, you do have the slight caveat of man does not sound very well this weekend. if you've heard any of the team radio, particularly from the earlier part of this weekend, he sounds rough. But if you commit to getting out there on track, if you say you're well enough to race, you'll be judged as fairly as everyone and as evenly as everyone else.

And this was one where Antonelli had the leg up on George Russell. I'm going to take a short break now. I'm going to try and cover everything that I haven't covered in this second part. You want to stay tuned for that because. that could be interesting. Welcome back, everyone. I feel like I've covered oh so much,

and yet there's so much more still to talk about to the point where we haven't even really talked about the McLaren duo yet. Ferrari, goodness me, we haven't gone to Ferrari yet. Alpine, oh boy, that's going to be an excited one as well.

Three teams that have really underperformed versus what they could have done today. Well, Alpine, I don't think you can call it an underperformance, but certainly with these other two you can. Lando Norris will start seventh in tomorrow's race. Piastri will start ninth. Let's start with Oscar Piastri, even though he's the one that's qualified lower down.

This is a weekend where it's felt like Piastri has been not slow, but struggling to hook it all together in the same way that Lando Norris was throughout practice. I was doing some analysis of FP3 just before qualifying. Now, Lando Norris's fastest time was about a quarter of a second faster than Piastries in that final part of practice. But if you were to take the best possible sectors for both drivers, it was way, way closer. It was still Norris ahead, but only by, I think, 0.018 of a second.

So they were incredibly evenly matched if you put all of the best sectors together. But for whatever reason, Norris was finding it far easier to do that than Oscar Piastri, who seemed to be able to get something right and then not quite get the middle part or the final part of his lap together. Piastri did seem quicker than Norris in the first and final part of the lap. It does look from a set up perspective that they haven't gone uniform here. It looks like they have gone slightly differently. But for Piastri, it was a bit of a struggle even before the crash. And I don't know, I here'd have been in the mix for poll, no doubt about it,

but I'm not convinced he would have taken it. It kind of doesn't matter anyway, because he has absolutely battered the wall. Man was about three miles from the apex before he hit that wall. And he spoke a little bit about it as we were waiting after. the red flag number six for the session to get going again. And I think stoicism was the word that was used on commentary to describe his response. And I think that was very fair. Didn't seem too up or too down about it.

He's got a little bit more work to do than he would have liked, for sure. A bad error. And in a season where Piahtri's main strength might be that he hasn't really made many errors. We had the off that he had at the beginning of the year. at the Australian GP in what were treacherous conditions, an excusable error, I think you can call that one. But particularly throughout qualifying this year, he has done a very good job of ensuring that even when he isn't the absolute fastest out there,

he's perfecting damage limitation. Like he's perfecting getting P3 on a weekend where he's maybe not completely with it or, you know, still taking a front row start, even if it is comfortably behind whoever's in first. There have been some great qualifying sessions from Piastri as well. But the potentially most interested or the most impressive ones of the lot are the ones where he's not 100% on the ball and he's still able to make something from it. That's not the case here. So a bit of a rare, unforced error from Oscar Piastri means he'll have work to do tomorrow.

And then we get to the disappointment of Lando Norris, because Oscar Piastri crashing out, albeit after Chau-Laclerc, essentially guarantees at best a fifth row start, presuming they don't have to do anything to the car that will knock it further back than that. That is a golden opportunity with the championship advantage that Piastri has right now. Absolutely golden opportunity to either stick it on pole position, to be on the front row of the grid. Piastri is going to have to overtake quite a few cars before he can start thinking about first, second or third in this race tomorrow.

We don't know how the start's going to go. He's going to be right in the pack, so you do not know if he's going to get caught up in an incident. This was a golden opportunity for Lano Norris to get out ahead of this, to put six, seven, eight positions between him and Piastri on the grid and to go racing from there. And he just didn't get it done. He just didn't get it done.

As referenced, like, he was fastest in Q1. He went marginally slower in Q2. And then he's gone much, much slower in Q3. Macarra and Norris do the first job correct, which is they just wanted to get him out of the pits as soon as possible, as soon as it turned to green flag conditions, and ensure that he's the first one. He's got no one in front of him.

He's got a clean track ahead. if there's a red flag further behind, there's a better chance that he's going to have finished his lap than some of his rivals. Really, really great opportunity to get something done here. And it's not a great lap. The first sector was fine. It wasn't a personal best,

but equally there were some other drivers that also didn't set personal best first sectors. It was still more than competitive. So first sector was fine. And then the middle sector just kind of falls apart. Now, well, obviously, reference the turn 15, where everyone was coming across at turn 15 today, he hits the wall on the on the rear right. That slows him down more than any other single incident in that middle sector. I'm not convinced it was a great middle sector anyway.

He seemed to be sliding quite a lot before he even got to that point. And then as soon as he, you know, he crosses the sector two time. You see how far down he is on Carlos Sines. And you know, it's not going to happen. It's certainly not whatever Carlos Sines is time. That wasn't going to happen. Could he get anywhere close to it to the point where if other drivers mess up, he'll be there or thereabouts?

No, it was a bad lap. This was a lap that he really needed for the championship. And he couldn't pull it together. If he's only a few temps faster than suddenly, He's by Sonoda at least, or he's competing maybe with the Mercedes of Russell, who also didn't set a great lap. But no, he's going to start ahead of Oscar Piastri, and he's going to have to remember that going into this,

but it's only two positions. It should have been much more than two. But you could be Ferrari. You could be Ferrari. Oh, boy, I just knew this was happening. As soon as they got first and second, in FP2. I'm annoying and in tweet the P10, P12 incoming, because you just, you could sense it. You could sense it. It can never go fully right for them.

Charles LeClair, who has been a bit of a master of qualifying here at Baku, had a tough session, a really tough session, even to, even before the point that he was, he was knocked out as a result of his own error. He didn't have a great session. And you can certainly put some of Lewis Hamilton's elimination in Q2 on Charles LeCler. Now, Charles LeCler had two attempts in Q2 to get a lap on the board. First time around, goes off at turn one. Second time around, he improves massively. He goes off at turn three.

And in both of those instances, lap over done deal. Okay, well, that's not fine, but at least that's only on Charles LeCleur. Apart from, I believe, both of those laps, were both of those laps interrupted what Lewis Hamilton was doing. Definitely the first time around where LeCleur brought out those yellow flags as a result going off at turn one. Lewis Hamilton picking up a toe is the next man coming along,

completely abandons the lap. And whereas LeCler was able to pit for brand new medium tires and ultimately set a lap time that was good enough to get through a 141-5 in that second part of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton, I think, was still on the same set of soft tires. In terms of what his teammate was doing, in terms of the timing, this didn't go well for Lewis Hamilton whatsoever to the point where he's knocked out in 12th place. Quite frankly, he's not very close to making it through to the top 10.

And maybe the cherry on the cake is that he was nine-tenths slower than what he did in F.P. Lewis Hamilton was nine-tenths faster in FP2 than what he was in Q2. And again, some of that is going to be tireware, some of that is going to be bad prep as a result of what was happening with LeClerc. Some of that might be changes that they made overnight because for whatever reason, Lewis Hamilton was on it on Friday and then seemed to really struggle, particularly in the middle sector, come qualifying. And you could hear it in Lewis Hamilton's disappointment in his post-race interview, his post-qualifying interview, excuse me. There have been weekends where he's just not been on it to the point where he gets knocked out in Q2 or even Q1 in some instances.

And it feels somewhat like a surprise because it's Lewis Hamilton, but equally based on what's happened leading into the qualifying session, you sit there and think, actually, no, that's kind of in keeping with, what we've seen to this point in the weekend. This wasn't one of those. Lewis Hamilton looked really good. Definitely yesterday, but even in FP3 today, he had an advantage over Shaula Claire. Again, this is a track that Shao LaClaire has performed at very well in the past. Lewis Hamilton was absolutely on it, and he wanted to be in the fight for pole. I thought he was going to be in the fight for pole. I will admit that. And then it all crumbles.

in Q2 for him. So again, some of that may be on him, but a lot of it not on him. Pretty bad luck. We'll see what he can do from 12th, because if they can uncover that pace that they had in FP2 on Friday, where they weren't just fastest and second fastest,

they were tempest clear of the rest of the field. If they can find that again, maybe if the wind dies down, if that was much of an issue for them, maybe he can find his way to some good points. it had been targeting a podium or even a win here going into today. Right, that's most of the top 12. Let's chat quickly on Aston Martin, shall we?

Alonzo and Stroll 11th and 14th, respectively. I think this was maybe slightly better than what it was going to look like at one point. Certainly coming into today, it looked like Aston Martin might be competing with Has, Salber and Alpine as who's the worst team. They really struggled to unlock any pace in the car yesterday. And I think part of that makes sense, given this isn't really their track. They've seemed to have specialized this year high downforce circuits rather than these circuits that rely on top speed.

They kind of made the most of it at Monza, but you still felt like it wasn't quite their circuit. And that seemed to be the case yesterday. But as we went through practice earlier today, it looked like it was going to be a little bit better for them, particularly fast in the final sectors. So Stroll and Alonzo were third and fourth in the final sector in FP3. So it looked like that they were really prioritizing being quick in that final sector and maybe sacrificing a little bit in the middle sector. I don't think this is an awful result. I thought again yesterday, at least one of these cars was going to be knocked out in Q1 and then maybe the other one makes it through to Q2. The fact that they've both made it through to Q2 and Alonzo's had a really good

effort of making it through to Q3 as well, I think is pretty all right. Landstrol will be frustrated, I think, because, well, I don't think you could hear it in his voice when he went off turn one on his supposed to be fastest lap in Q2 because Landstrol, this isn't a weekend where it's looked like he's been outpaced by Fernando Alonzo. This has looked like a weekend where it's been pretty nip and tuck between the two of them. But we get through to the most important part of the weekend so far

of qualifying Q1, barely anything in it. Stroll attempt faster. We get through to Q2. Alonso is the one that can hook together the lap whereas stroll couldn't. Alonzo was actually far closer to the guys in front than he was anyone behind him. So I think Alonzo was actually closer to P6 in P11 than he was to Hamilton in 12th. So there was quite a bit of a gap from Alonzo back to everyone else who was also eliminated,

but he falls just the wrong side of that elimination zone this time. I think there's potential. He can make something from 11th, wherever stroll can from 14th, a bit of a taller order. let's talk Hasb, briefly. Oliver Berman 15th, Estaban Ockon, 18th. Ockon just seemed to be a bit slower than Berman. Not the first time we've said that this year,

which might be a bit worrying for him. They looked a bit better yesterday versus today. But yeah, not a great session for Hasbem. It does make it through its Q2. It makes absolutely nothing of it with that crash into the wall. It's hard to go too. You can't be too harsh on him just based on there were a lot of drivers that found themselves in the wall, so this is hardly a one-off.

But yeah, I feel like based on some of the form he showed earlier in the weekend, a Q3 wasn't off the card. So, yeah, 15th will frustrate him. Salber not their best result of the year so far. A little bit more confusing as to why, because even though it didn't go brinket, well for Holkenberg in Monza. It did for Bortoletto. Bortoletto looks strong at Monza and you think if you're strong at Monza, you've got a reasonable chance of being strong at Baku as well. It felt like the car, there wasn't much more in it than what Bortoletto got out of it in 13th place. He didn't seem overly disappointed when he was told he was knocked out in Q2. I think he felt

like he got pretty much everything he could. And at least for Bortoletto, it's another instance where he's outqualified Nika Holkenberg. Holkenberg running into some issues with his front wing in Q1 and then ultimately knocked out four temps slower than Bortoletto. So that might be seven races in a row now where Bortoletto has outqualified his teammates. So I think one of the guys, I think it was Harry who put Holkenberg under pressure going into this weekend just to knock the rookie down a peg or two. Hasn't happened in qualifying.

Oh, Alpine, boy. Only one team had both cars knocked out in Q1. That was Alpine. Colopinto in 16th, out qualifying his teammate Pierre Gasly in 19th. I am not certain if he'll start ahead of Gasly, though, because that crash on the yellow flag conditions wasn't great. Comical, given the fact that the reason it was out was because of his teammate. And at one point looked like he was going to do exactly the same thing.

as his teammate and go off into turn four. Instead, he made it through and then promptly found the wall straight afterwards. They're slow, shocker. But maybe they were slightly more competitive than I thought they were going to be. I thought that they, like Monza, I thought this was going to be like almost an automatic like 20th and 18th or something along those lines. they looked at least in the mix with some of the worst teams on the grid to the point where Colopinto didn't set that fastest lap at the end of qualifying

and he's still only one position away from being able to make it through. I actually think that if one of these two can hook together the lap, they might have just about got there. But ultimately, if you go off on your fastest lap, you're probably not going to beat your fastest time. Words of wisdom. Words of wisdom. Lastly, Alex Alburn in 20th place, he is going to be gutted. Because I'll make the same points that I made about Carlos Sines. That car looked pretty quick in the middle sector. Alex Albon looked a touch quicker than Carlos Sines heading into this quality session.

And it's Carlos Sines that has made the most of it in second. And it's Alex Albin that is out as a result of, quote, unquote, having too much grip. going into the first corner and just clipping, just misjudging it, just misjudging it and clipping the inside wall, not the first driver to do that there. But yeah, he, so early on in the session as well, it's not even as if it was the last run of Q1, just felt a touch unnecessary. He seemed, he seemed a little bit miffed about it at the time. But of course, we didn't yet know what Carlos Seines was going to do in the other car. He will, he will feel like that could and should have been him. And I would agree with that. I still think the car is reasonably paced to the point where I would not rule out a dramatic comeback to the points.

Still a tall order though. So, yeah, 20th and disappointment for Alex Elbin. I'll round things off with driver of the session. Based on the comments that I gave in the first few minutes of this episode, it won't surprise you to learn. I'm going to go for Max Verstappen. but honestly, any of the top three, I think are worthy shouts here. Carlos Sines, to get that Williams into second, I imagine there's at least a few of you that are going to be shouting at me right now to say Carlos Sine should really get it today just based on overperforming what that Williams can do. But I don't cave to public.

Yeah, actually, I'm Carlos Sines. I'll give it to Carlos Sines. But Max Vastap in a very close second. Liam Lawson are very much in the mix as well. You can pick any of those three drivers as far as I'm aware, and you would be right. I don't think there are any other contenders outside of those three, in all honesty. Well, if that was a qualifying review, I've got no idea what this race review is going to be like. There are two possible ways this could go.

Number one, this grid is going to completely spice up the race tomorrow. We're going to get a little bit of rain, not enough to maybe get the intermediate tires out, but enough to make it really tricky, particularly through that castle section. we're going to get a ridiculous result. We're going to have 100 things to talk about, and it is going to be the review of the century. The other way this could go, this will be the most boring race of all time

compared to what we had in qualifying, and it's going to be a massive disappointment. In either event, we're going to be here to review it, and we are very much going to hope that it's the first of those two. Looking forward to that, you can follow us wherever you like on social media at late breaking F1. We're on Instagram.

Who isn't? We're on X, even if we hate it. We're on Facebook, because again, who isn't? And we're on TikTok because we're down with the kids. If you're not part of our Discord where you can join our community, I'd absolutely encourage you to do so. We've got not far of 4,000 people in our Discord now. And it's a great opportunity to chat F1 on race days, on qualifying days.

There's plenty of people giving their views about what's happening live. But it's not just F1. If you want to have a chat with fellow F1 fans about the arts, music, other things, recreational activities, go ahead. You can do that. And of course, Patreon is available for you as well. We'll have a power rankings episode after this race weekend on Monday. We will review every single driver from 1 to 10. Now, they are race rankings, so anything that's happened today won't be included.

A few drivers might be very happy about that indeed. Until tomorrow, keep breaking late. Podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.