The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Canadian GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

Ben and Sam review the qualifying session in Montreal that certainly delivered the unexpected! From McLaren's worst Saturday of the season to Russell's standout lap, they break down all of the key moments - including Norris' costly mistakes, a surprise Williams failure, and a looming penalty that could shake up tomorrow's starting order... 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 EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! TIDE: Save more, earn more—up to 4.22% AER (variable). Interest rates are tiered, with the top rate for balances over £1M. Each tiered rate applies to the portion within that range. New Tide members get these rates free for 6 months; after that, your Tide plan’s rates apply. For full offer T&Cs visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tide.co/savings⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 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. Welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Today, reviewing qualifying for the Canadian GP. Sam, we've gone through three sessions of qualifying. We've, you know, had a red flag in there, spent 75 minutes of our life on that. And we've just ended up with the same front row as last year.

Yeah. Some things change. Some things don't. But blimey, Canada always delivers an absolute bangor when it comes to qualifying. I love this place where it comes to Saturday. It brings the house down. It's so fun, so exciting. And for the first time this season, we do not have a McLaurin inside the top two when it comes to qualifying.

So, you know, we've had a lot of changes going on. There's a lot of upgrades brought by different teams. We saw medium and soft tires use. Alex Albon's whole engine covered to sign it. He just didn't want to do it. Just wanting to leave the building. It's made a break for freedom and many different things up and down the grid going on. So we're going to break it all down

for you. We're going to get into the stories. Join us for a bit of a juicy qualifying review. Absolutely, yes. George Russell taking his poll position from Max Verstappen, a 10th and a half in that. As you mentioned, no McLaren on the front row of the grid with Oscar Piestri in third. His teammate, his closest rival in the championship,

Lando Norris, down in 7. Let's start out front with George Russell and Max Verstappen because it looked like it was going to be a hotly contested battle for pole. George Russell never looked out of it, but equally never looked massively in it either. And then right at the end of Q3 pops up with a lap that's not only good enough for pole. He's over two tenths clear of Piastri in third. He's over a tenth and a half clear of Vastepen in second, using those medium tires. to good effect. It's not too shabby.

No, not too shabby. I think he's exactly how George Russell might describe this kind of qualifying session, actually. Yeah, I was quite confident going into Saturday qualifying after we did our preview, that Mercedes were going to be very competitive here. Canada is one of those racetracks

where the pecking order is not standard. We see it often jumbled up where a car that isn't usually the fastest can sometimes peak. And you kind of go, wow, wasn't expecting that result. And I made, I think, a point. on the preview that Mercedes could do very well here.

And in previous years, they have done very well here. But halfway through qualifying, I was starting to see that slip away. I started to think that maybe they reached the peak of their powers. Russell was right at the very start of qualifying, looking really, really competitive. Antingelli was right there with him. And then it started to slip. In Q2, they were kind of that four, fifth, sixth fairy.

You think, okay, maybe they're starting to balance out now. And the big boys in McClaren's, you just happen, finding their feet really comfortably. They're starting to ease themselves into it. And I feel like a little bit out of left field, anywhere, Leroy Jenkins style. George Russell absolutely dunks one on the rest of the grid. Because I absolutely got on my feet

when Max Verstappen crossed the line and put it on pole. Because I thought, wow, Verstappings sang it again, a real moment of magic from Max Verstappen. After he had some complaints in practice, FP2 wasn't really going his way. It looked like he might stretch. struggle when it came to the final run,

saying, wow, he's put that on pole. And then Russell absolutely steals the ball off him in the final yard to claim this one, the same Frank Rob as last time, but unlike last year when they got the same time, Russell with a big time difference, because of the lap Mercedes, doesn't look like it's being a poll really all season long, a sensational qualifying lap from George Russell.

If it weren't for the pole lap of the Stappan in Suzuki earlier this year, I think this would, for me, be the best poll position of the season so far. This was a really impressive lap from George Russell. And like I say, I felt going into qualifying that he would be a fringe contender, maybe for poll, but equally not the favourite. Mercedes have looked a little bit better here than they have done at other more recent circuits. But even so, I felt it might come down to Norris versus Piastri versus. is Vastappen and Russell doing what he's quite frequently done this year, claiming fourth place

and pulling out a pretty epic lap to get within two tenths or a tenth and a half of pole position, but not quite having the car advantage to get inside the top three. But that's not how it played out. He had the car and he made it work. And look, he's half a second clear of Antonelli here. Like, that sort of margin is super impressive for a guy in first, back to fourth. We often see with the Canadian GP, particularly in qualifying, it is close. There is not a lot to separate many of these drivers and many of these teams. And when we get down to, you know, the real business end of Q3, there is such an opportunity for these drivers to lose it, to overcook it.

We've got walls, left, right and center. There is quite often a real chance of squandering a good opportunity at pole. and we saw that with a couple of drivers that we'll get to in a little bit. Not with George Russell. He absolutely pulled it out of the bag at the end of Q3 and that pole margin would be impressive anywhere, but I think particularly at this circuit, that is good going. It's such a short lap around here in Canada as well.

So to pull out over a 10th. And we have praised Formula 1 this season for qualifying being so, so close. And when Piastri put a couple attempts between himself and the rest of the grid in Spain last time out, and we said, wow, that's the biggest gap that we've seen, in qualifying this season. For Russell, in a car, but is nowhere near the most dominant car

on this calendar at the moment this year, to put over a tent between himself and Max Verstappen, and then even further, the gap back to Piastri, who has been flying the season, of course, our championship leader, that really is so impressive. I think I agree with you that if Max Verstappen

hadn't put it on pole in Suzuki, this might be that lap that stood out to me so far this season. That's a brilliant one-off lap right at the death to secure pole position. Let's just see if it can be converted in the race tomorrow because that McLaren long run pace looks deadly. And I don't know if, I don't know how long the Sagan's going to be going to hold on to it.

I think, you know, Piazzi being so close, there's every chance that you can go overcut, he can undercut, that McClaring is so quick when it comes to these proper long race runs. I mean, Russell and Vestapp and first and second, first of all, fireworks. Thank you for providing us that front. I love that. Juicing us. If it weren't for the existence of Charlotte, Clarems, who will get to in a bit, hasn't had a great day.

I would quite confidently say that the two best qualifiers in F1 are on the front row here. I think those are the best three. What, Lecler, Russell and Vestappen. Yeah, I think those are the three best qualifies in F1. All right, I'm not going to say anything on this, but I'd be quite curious to see what the people think on your... Have you got a ranking?

No, I'm on the fly here. This is proper hot take territory, but I... Talk about hot ones. That's a spicy one. Yeah. I'm pretty confident there. the three best qualifies in the sport. Okay, all right.

Look forward to the response on that. Anything else on Vastappen, it looked like, again, going into qualifying it, it'd probably be there or thereabouts and ultimately had pole position for a very short amount of time before it was taken away by George Russell. But still, front row start ahead of Piastri, quite a bit ahead of Lando Norris. It's not a bad result. What Vastaping is able to pull out of the bag when it comes to this red ball is, I'm phenomenal. It really is phenomenal. And I thought much like Russell, he was going to nestle in behind

the McLaren boys. I thought it was going to be, you know, the McLaren's taking the top spot. Maybe a Lecler would challenge them. The Stappen will probably be comfortably in that third, fourth spot, well above anyone else behind him, but close to the McLaren. So the fact that he's gone out there, in a car that he's had some problems with over the weekend, as I mentioned already, his FP2 was woeful. It was really not a comfortable session for him. He's complained a few times about very heavy steering, which is another good thing to be going through when you need such quick, scappy steering through these chicanes of Montreal. The fact that he was able to deliver that time, I know it's only front rowing.

I know he wanted pole position, but you can see in his post-qualifying interview, just how pleased he was to be on that front row. He really was like, this is great. This is generally, really, really good. Feel really comfortable with this, really confident in the car. I think he will feel really good for the race tomorrow, that he's got a great chance of maybe going on to win this. As much as Russell's doing a great job on Saturday,

I don't know if that Mercedes has got the car to wing it on Sunday, and Max will be happy that it's in front of both the McLarence. Who, let's face it, are his real rivals. Just a quick one whilst we've discussed George Russell, one of the Mercedes, let's just cover off the other Mercedes of Antonelli. It was looking a little bit shakier through the first couple of stages of qualifying. That's not unfamiliar with what we've seen at a few qualifying sessions this year, but as we've more often seen than not,

he still makes it through to Q3 and then kind of goes on to deliver his best way. I know he's a long way back from George Russell, but he has cleared both of the Ferrari's. He's cleared Alonzo. He's cleared Lando Norris as well.

Starts on the second row of the grid. You know, Mercedes as a constructor are in the best spot. Yeah, I think Antingelli here, he's done what I would want a rookie to do. He was really built into this qualifying session. It was a little shaky in Q1. There were some moments where you think,

oh, you know, is he going to be out of a Q2 here? And it was starting to look like that. You know, he was falling backwards on the court, on the elimination between Q2 and Q3. But then he builds and he builds. And whilst he's nearly half a second away from George Russell, which is a big margin in Formula 1,

that is a large margin between teammates. It's good to know that he's there, right? He's beating the Ferraris. He's beating Landon Norris, for example. He's right there behind Piastrian Bastapen. This is a good qualifying for a rookie. And when your teammate, I think George Russell has outdriven that Mercedes car.

I really think he's outperformed it. When he's doing that, to have your other teammate sitting in fourth place, that's really solid, especially for that we need to remember. This is his first season in Formula One. It's what, race 10 of the season, he's got a lot of time to develop and grow still. So the fact that he's fourth place, and he's beating so many really qualifies of drivers behind him, you look at what some teammates are doing.

It's not, you know, I know it's different cars, but the difference between Hagdow and Lawson in this qualifying. The difference between Colopinto and Gasly, usually flipped, but, you know, that's a large market. between them. Sengoda's still with the stab and I know it's got the second seat cursing Red Bull and that car is so hard to drive but the gap between them is still huge. So the fact that Russell is on pole but Antonelli's only fourth, I still think that's a net positive Mercedes. First time out at Circuit Chilvuna for Antonelli? I can't think of why. He's not being

F2. So yeah, I think it might be. Yeah. Obviously with a rookie season we have some of those circuits where they'll actually be quite experienced at the track even though they've never raced it in F1 because of the amount of junior time they've had in there. But yeah, I'm pretty sure it would be a first time for Circuit Schillfield Nerve at least. The McCarran duo. So we've got Oscar Piastri, continuing his quite consistent run of being inside the top two rows every single qualifying session. He's there in third.

He's in a good spot. Lando Norris further back in seventh. Now, we saw on the last run of Q3, Norris about a 10th or so up on Piastri through the first sector, but something goes wrong in the middle sector that he's not able to recover in the third sector, so his best lap time is not his last lap time. Seven, just over seven,

10 is clear of away from George Russell, who got pole. What do you make of both McLaren drivers today? It's a tricky one. You don't want to come down too hard on Landau Norris because so far throughout this season, he has been incredibly consistent. He's not always been the guy on top, as is evident, when it comes to that championship battle, right, Piascri leads him.

But he has been pretty brilliant all season so far. And I do think that it must be disappointing for him after grabbing pole position only two races ago in Monaco, that by the hardest place to go qualifying. And he demolished his harsh of work, but he was hanging shoulders above Piascri, pretty much that entire weekend. So to come to Canada, where it's very close to the walls,

you really have to put the car on the line to get all the time out of it. And for Piastri to, okay, he hasn't grabbed pole, but to be so far clear, and to see Norris make these mistakes, it's really frustrating for Landon-Nor-Norris. It's frustrating for McLaren because this is, like I said,

at the start of the show, the first time that McLaren haven't had a car inside the top two all season long. And that's odd. They brought upgrades here. There's front wing changes that they've made here,

and they'll be disappointed that that hasn't translated into one of their cars being inside the top two. But I don't think they would have predicted one of their cars being outside the top five or six. That is a really disappointed qualifying. Norris, I think, let the pressure get to him a little bit.

He looked really, really strong in the first two parts of qualifying, looked like he was really comfortable in the car. He was really, I think Martin Brundel said the phrase, on top of the track. It looked like it had been in control of what the car was doing. He was able to place the car where he liked. His first sector, specifically, this qualifying, so quick. He really had full control of the car through that first sector.

And then it starts to fall away from him. And I do think we saw the pressure of getting him right up there with his teammate, with others around him, get to him a little bit. And both laps, we saw mistakes being made. So that's a shame. And hopefully he's able to have a good race tomorrow, get some strong overtakes, and recover because this is the kind of race, the crime of qualifying weekend, that can make or break a championship.

If we come down to that last race and the gaps seven or eight points, it's weekends like this that are why you aren't going to win a title and why your teammate or other step and will go on to win a title. title. So let's hope Norris can recover. Let's hope we get a good Grand Prix. I'm sure he'll be, he'll be frustrating always to bounce back. Yeah, from Piastri's perspective, I think he's done fine, somewhere between fine and good. I think it's like a six and a half, seven out of it. Sure. Yeah. He's close to Vastappen in front of him. He's a long way clear of fourth and down. So, you know, he's in a good spot. And like we've already mentioned, the race pace of the McLaren means

that him being on the front two rows is going to stand him in really good stead for tomorrow's race. And it gives him a good chance at victory. Should he have been closer to pole, in my opinion? Yes. He really nailed the final sector on his quick clap at the end of Q3, but it wasn't a great first sector. It's not a very long first sector either. It's under 20 seconds. And he was a full tenth behind Lando Norris, who was then a full tenth behind, I think Max Verstappen maybe who had the fastest first sector at that point in time. So I think Piastri's done okay. For Lando Norris, it's a worrying continuation of a trend of him crumbling when we get to Q3. This isn't the first time we've seen it this season. And if it was, I would be far kinder on him. But it's a repeat.

We saw it in Saudi Arabia where he crashed in Q3 and had to start 10th. We saw it in Bahrain, where he couldn't get a good lap together in Q3 and he had to start what I think was 6th. And here, He's done the same thing again. He wasn't able to get a good run in despite multiple attempts. And we'll start down in seventh. Now, he might well be able to recover from seventh. It wouldn't be the first time he's done it this year. But he's not in a position where he needs to recover positions.

He's in a position where he needs to beat Piastri. And he's going to really struggle to do that from seventh with his teammate starting third. Sure, there's ways in which he can do it. but he's made his job so much more difficult because when it comes down to Q3, he hasn't got the composure of his teammate. He hasn't got what Piastri has. And it's frustrating because you've mentioned Monaco, where he qualified incredibly well there and he had a brilliant weekend.

We know he can do it. It's just the consistency of him doing it. Everything up until this point of Q3, this weekend, was pointing to another Monaco weekend. I felt throughout practice, throughout the first stages of qualifying. Norris looks better here. Norris looks like he's the strong of McLaren. And the long runs too, right? Norris has got this slight egg on Piastri. It appears to be anyway. Yeah, maybe that pays dividends tomorrow, but there shouldn't be four positions.

There shouldn't be, you know, three drivers between Piastri and Norris. Not when you've got multiple attempts to nail a Q3 lap. He runs wide on one attempt, messes up the middle sector on another, and he pays the price. He's all the way down in seventh, and honestly, it could have been worse than that. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Let's take a quick break on this episode.

On the other side, we'll chat Ferrari. Welcome back, everyone. Not an ideal qualifying for McLaren that we got to just before the break, starting third and seventh. But worse than that is Ferrari because they will start fifth and eighth. Now, Lewis Hamilton has outqualified his teammate, which hasn't happened all that often so far this year. But he's the second time or third time at most.

Yeah, he's fifth, about six tenths away from the pole position of George Russell, and he was about a tenth and a half clear of Charles LeClaire, who will start in eighth. What did you make of their session? Oh, Ferrari. This is coming off the back of a bit of a troublesome week for Ferrari when it comes to news and journalistic talk. There's been some doubts around Frederick Fassar about his leadership of Ferrari. Freddie Vass has come out and said that, you know,

we've replaced team principles, we've replaced drivers. There's something we haven't replaced. It's been quite elusive as to what he means by that. Any thoughts, Ben? No, I'm going to give it some thought before we probably talk about this in a midweek episode or something. because at the moment, I don't know. It's been a long time since Ferrari won something.

So it'd be interesting to know where he means by that. And maybe we'll dig into that deeper. But that essentially has continued. That negativity has continued here onto the track this weekend. But what's frustrating is their practice look good. They were regularly having a car inside the top two or three where it comes to the practice sessions. The Claire, of course, binned it in FP1. They didn't make FP2, but they had a brilliant FP3.

That's what was frustrating. Before that, Hamilton looked pretty good and Epi 1 and FP2. So both cars at moments have had real glimmering highlights across this weekend so far. We actually get to the pinnacle, the moment where it really matters. And neither can really deliver any more than I was expecting.

Hamilton has done exactly what I expected of Ferrari to do around here if I was coming into the weekend. If you had told me there'll be a Ferrari qualifying in fifth place. I go, all right, yeah. Okay, sure, no surprises. But it'll be Charlotte Clare that is most disappointed here. saw his face after the session when he got out of the car. Mistakes made, not brilliant in terms of tire usage.

Both those cars had to scramble for tyres throughout the session. Hamilton went across a couple of times and ruined laps throughout it. It never felt comfortable. It never felt secure for either driver. And I guess that's kind of shown in the results that they've ending up having here in Q3. And they just don't have the composure or the overall pace that someone like a Russell in the Mercedes. things could do, Vastaping the Red Bull could do, or either McLaren on a regular basis,

it's able to extract that car, as much as it's got some raw pacing it, it's just not able to deliver like the other's kind when it actually comes down to that moment. Yeah, it's disappointing because, again, it's down to the pattern of Ferrari and qualifying, just not being their strength whatsoever this season, which is incredibly ironic, given the two drivers behind the wheel of that car. but they have really struggled through qualifying sessions. Now, they have both made it to Q3 this timeout. That hasn't always been the case.

And comfortably so. And comfortably so, yes. But I'm in line with you when FP3, and again, Charles LeClau didn't take part in FP2, and he was looking slow through the first half, two thirds of FP3. And then he pulls together a lap towards the end of the session that is good enough for second. and it's a very close second as well.

I was like, okay, he's in with a chance here. We've got potentially four teams going for poll here. And then as has been the case a few times this year, we get like midway through Q2 and you're just like, ah, no, they don't quite have it. It's not like a, oh my God, they are awful, whereas the pace gone. It's just they don't have the evolution of the other teams.

Like we see particularly with this circuit, but the ramp up of the circuit is quite significant and the times really do go down and down throughout Q1 and Q2 and it just doesn't quite happen at the same rate for Ferrari and you're like, all right, yeah. Stapham was eight tenths faster then as Q1 lap time. That's the kind of difference that you get in that step up.

And the Clare obviously in his kind of final run going through the end of sector one, start of sector two through that chican, comes up behind Tadjar. He claims dirty air. We see him get the over-skirts of one, the under-skirts of another, What were your thoughts on that dirty air situation?

A load of rubbish. But it's, and I think honestly, Leclair probably knows that as well. I think he was obviously frustrated in the moment, but he was quite comfortably clear of him. I'm not saying it wouldn't have affected him whatsoever, but I don't know how seriously he'd be taking that accusation after getting out of the car. And I've always said as well, I do not mind in the heat of the moment these drivers throwing things out there that maybe later on they would retract or think about a second time. I've got no problem with that, but no, I don't read anything into that whatsoever.

Is there anything you read into the fact that both drivers were seemingly, you know, we saw Hamilton Miss Corner's couple of times, we saw Lecler with possibly the car handling issues, is there anything going on there that you think that this car's balance is just the upgrades aren't there, the balance isn't right? Should they now just be like, nah, big off, this season. Let's move on. I don't think the balance has been right all season long. Like there have been times where Ferrari have been quicker and they have had better weekends. But even in those better weekends, balance still seems to be the overriding issue of this car. And I don't think at this point, maybe it won't be fixed.

I think there will be some weekends where they can work around it a little bit. And I figured this could be one of those weekends. But I think it's just an underlying issue. And the fact that both drivers are feeling it, should say something. With Lewis Hamilton, and he made this point earlier on in the weekend, he hasn't had the opportunity to feedback or contribute to this car. It's obviously the car itself was built before he got there,

and that might be contributing to him not able to extract the maximum pace out of this car. The fact that he's qualified fifth here, and I couldn't quite believe my ears when I heard, well, that matches his best start of the season for Ferrari. That should be a stat. That is awful. Yeah, both his drivers. If you were to take everyone out of the car,

these guys rank right to the very top of raw talent. And the fact that they're starting as far down the organ as they are, shows you that I think they're both confidence drivers and they want to throw these cars into corners and they're going to go they're taking a stick. We've seen it, for example, where Lecler is then ending up overdriving a car before. you'll remember. I think he's done it is, yeah, this weekend.

It's exactly what this is, right? He was overdriven the car, so it's trapped pace out of it. He did it when Ferrari looked like they were challenging Red Bull in 2022. And you remember in Paul Ricard, he ends up putting it into the wall. You hear that scream that he lets out because he's just, he costs himself positions because he's trying to do too much to make up for the car's failures. I think Hamilton struggles with that too. If Hamilton knows that the car isn't going to stick the way he wants to drive it,

he loses time. And I think both drivers are feeling that. that pain. So Ferrari going into 26 seem to make some core changes, but how many years in a row can we sit there and say that Ferrari need to make some core changes and that this year might be their year. It's a repeating pattern. I would still say on this particular qualifying session, both Ferraris have underachieved on what they could have done. There is a massive gap between Piastri and Antonelli, third and fourth. I think they should have been in that gap. Hamilton on that last run, sugar beating Antingale, I agree. I think the clerk, the mistake he made. If he got a clean

I think he's at least there with Hamilton. And Lecler, like, Leclerer's had a messy weekend. It's been pretty poor to this point. He's clearly got underlying pace, similar to Norris, really. You've got them sharing the fourth row of the grid. That should not be a fourth row of the grid, Norris and LeCler this weekend. That could be a front row. Honestly, yeah, could be.

But Leclair, similar to Norris, has really crumbled when we've got down to Q3. You know, he was purple in that first sector before, you know, losing control at term five, turn six. And if he puts together even an OK lap, I think that's good enough for fourth. But yeah, similar to Loris, just couldn't put it together. What about the very tail end of, actually, no, we haven't spoken about Alonzo. P6. But you love that man.

Yeah. Well, just rocks up on the mediums. Hello. Hola. It's me, Fagando. Your old pal. It's just pure neck power with that man. I mean, Adrian Nui is now arrived, I think.

As much as we've all been told, he has no influence on this car whatsoever. He's definitely writing little notes to leave and them attached to the school canteen, so to speak, and the others are picking them up as little paper trails of changing this, alter this, just in his spare time, because that car is massively improved from race one to where we are now. The fact that stroll has clearly underdelivered, and we'll get on to stroll later, when we talk about kind of Q1-1 eliminations, but he's underdelivered in that car. And also is doing things that we didn't think possible with that. car four or five races ago, just shows you how far it's come. But it's good to see a Kepaski

belongs. I thought he was great on the medium tire. It was really interesting to see how similar the pace was in terms of extracting time from the soft and the medium end. We've seen this before in certain racetracks where I think it was Spain, where the soft tire initially is the faster tire because it has that brilliant mechanical grip. But because you use the tire up, the medium is able to withstand the usage, it doesn't overheat, doesn't wear out so quickly. So come the end of the lap, you actually could get more out of the medium tire. So Alonso was doing a really good job using that tire. P6 is phenomenal.

I really think he could get a great race result here. He's benefiting from the likes of Norris and Lecler, not being able to move further forward. I think he probably would be starting P8 realistically on pace. But nonetheless, he's got the lap in. They didn't. And fair play to him. I do think the top 10 is very much on the cards.

And that I think is the most impressive thing about what Alonzo has done here is. I know Norris and LeCler and Hamilton and the drivers around him, but where I'm looking, timing screen-wise, is Hager and Albon, because he is three-tenths clear of both of them. So that's a good effort to be three-tempts clear of who your true rivals are in that midfield. Very good lap from Alonzo. Speaking of Hadger and Albin, so they'll start ninth and tenth.

So Williams and Racing Bulls both have one car making it through to Q3, one car being knocked out in Q1. start with Hadger. He's qualified ninth. We're recording at a time where we don't know if he'll start ninth. I'm going to guess he will not be starting ninth. He's one of the biggest cases of impeding that I've seen for a while. Often there's a little bit of debate. Often you can kind of go, yeah, yeah, okay, he was kind of in the way there, I get it. What were they doing? My boy is just literally deciding to sit down in the way of Carlos Sykes as he's on a hot lap. Poor communication from racing balls. I don't blame this on how.

Agger, I think it's a team call, but nonetheless, it's the driver that would take the penalty. And he will, he will get, I think, a three place and he'll drop back to probably P12, P11, B12, depending on where he sits there. And I felt very sorry for Carlos Sainz, actually, because Carlos Sainz would have done more than enough to get himself, at least into Q2. And you saw what Alba was able to achieve, I got on to Arborne and a sec, Carla Sighton probably being a factor in Q3. And it maybe would have caused Hagar to be out anyway, right? That might have been the difference maker. It's always ironic at those two, the one of the same person. one that's being impeded actually might have ending up

being each other's story for longer in that weekend. So Hatchai does a brilliant job again, though. If we ignore the impeding, Liam Lawson is out in Q1. Where's he, P19? P19. And, yeah, so his teammate before penalty, 10 places clear of him.

This is Liam Lawson's worst qualifying for a long time. I think since he's actually come back to the racing balls, there or there, but. Yes, since China, so last, yeah. Yeah, so six has rejoined the team. This is his worst qualifying. And Hajar is once again. It's effortless now.

He's just the next guy in Q3. You'll have the usual eight, you know, from your four big teams. And then I imagine it will be Hajar and one other these days. You know, yeah, it tends to be him because he's just the guy that could do it. So, brilliant job. He'll take the penalty. I wouldn't be shocked if he finds his way back into the points again, though, at the end of the Grand Prix, because he's just able to deliver.

I do want to take a moment to give a round of applause to Williams and Alex Albon. The car literally combusted going down the road. Yes, they got the red flag, which allowed them to make some changes. But the fact that they made those changes, repaired the car. And then he gets, I think into P6 after that lap when he's recovered from Q1. And then gets through to Q3. Sensational, just from the whole team. Brilliant job from Albin to get the lapping.

Pleased to see that Williams is clearly competitive. It should score some points tomorrow, should the race go to plan. But to make that recovery after a really tricky situation. just shows you how far Williams have come. I think to be able to go, this is tricky. We've handled it and we've got something out of it. So well done to Album, well done to Williams. Really pleased that they were able to get something out of this.

Yeah. Credit to the Rizzler. Big up, Isaac Hatcher. Yeah. Hadja the Badger. He has had a great afternoon. Even with that three place penalty that almost definitely be incoming. If you're going to get a three place grip penalty,

do it the way that he's done it because that's not too bad at all that much. It wasn't obvious impeding, by the way. I can't see how they won't penalise that one. He just finds a way. He just finds away every single qualifying session. Again, doesn't look like there's that much between him and Lawson. End of Q1.

He puts in a lap. Lawson doesn't. Lawson's out in P19. Hadja finds a way to get through to Q2, puts in a good lap. He's in Q3. Finds a good enough lap to get clear of Alex out. That's good enough for 9th.

And it's just anyone who should be a rival to him just manages to beat them. Effolately, seemingly every time. So very good from him. In terms of what Williams have been able to do, yeah, massively disappointing for Carlos Seines the way that it went for him. He's had a few of these this year where it hasn't quite gone his way, because I think he would have been either knocking on the door of Q3 or even making it. I think Williams are properly...

I think Williams are the fifth fastest seem this weekend. I think they should have been 9th and 10th in this session, all things going well. One of their cars will probably be 9th, so it's not all doom and gloom, and there might be opportunities to overtake, particularly if we get some strategic elements to the Grand Prix tomorrow with softer tires, but they'll be disappointed. It's not two cars in Q3. Where to next? Colopinto.

Yes, got to be Colopinto. That's better, in it? By far, his best weekend so far, big season. Not sure what's going with Pete Gazel there. Really not sure

if there's a problem. Yeah, I know, it's odd. This is uncharacteristic from Pierre Gassie, because he wasn't just slowest. I think he was slowest by a good few tents. I think he does a...

He's a 10th and a half slower than Lawson. Yeah, and he's like over three temps away from getting out of Q1. Yeah, and Colopinto's Q1 time is four-tenths faster, the Pierre Gassley. So I don't want to dunk on Gassley here because he has been brilliant. And we did our 10 best drivers so far this season. He was in my list. I really think he's doing a brilliant job. So this is uncharacteristic, but also credit where credit is due,

Colopinto into P12. There's every chance now that we've Sengoga's penalty, which will drop to say over to the back, and Hajar, who is yet to get one, but likely will. This might elevate, Franco Colopinto to a top 10 start, 10th place. And that would be really something for Franco because, you know, if we're going to be really honest about it, he's not impressed since coming back into Formula One. He is regularly being fast, slower than his team mate,

no race results of Wilders. He hasn't done the fast but silly thing where he's shown glimmers of pure pace and then put it in the wall or make a mistake, which I'd rather see from a rookie. He has more often than not just being off the boil. So really, really impressed that he's held his own here. he's beating a lot of drivers around him, which previously he wouldn't have matched,

you know, your bearmen and Dirocans. Obviously, science gets knocked out. Stroll in theory should be much higher than him. Lawson clearly has the car to get to Q3, a dozen. His teammate is eight places behind him. So part of the back to you, Frank O'Colopinto, this is a good result.

Let's see if you could turn it into something because who knows what that LP is or isn't capable of it. It is a mystery machine. Q1 was great. Q2 was great. Most encouraging thing for Colopinto, his reaction to being knocked out of Q2. Because it would have been really easy based on the difficult start he had with Alpine this year. For him to get through to Q2, to lock up 12th place as well, not just make it through to Q2.

It would have been very easy for his reaction to be knocked out. Well, we've made some progress. Great effort. Guys. Really happy with that. Full stop. No. He was like, sorry, I think we're going to make Q3 there.

And, you know, I thought that was great. I think that shows the aspiration and it shows the high expectation that he has for himself, which you need to have when you make it to Formula One. So this was way better than anything else we'd seen from Colopinto so far. We'll see if it translates to race pace or not. But even one qualifying session is an improvement on the last three. Dealers' choice now, Sam, what caught your eye in the second half of the grid? Yeah, it's a tricky one because,

we've discussed science, but I think we'll go to stroll quickly. I just, do you think he should have been in the car this weekend, then realistically, do you think he should have got in that car after the surgery between Spain and here? I mean, only he can talk to how much pain he's in and how much that pain is contributing to a Q1 elimination or not. I will say, in the nicest way possible, a Q1 elimination seems entirely possible regardless of an injury.

We've seen plenty of them. in fact he has more of them than anyone else in F1 history. But I don't think he should have been racing this weekend. Just based on it's one race with, it's not a back to back. It's not like we had a race before Canada or we have a race after Canada. It was a good opportunity to essentially spend a full month recovering before needing to go back for the European season. I know it's difficult because it's a home race. And in theory, you should be pretty psyched about that.

I'm not convinced he is based on all of the media. reaction he had on Thursday. But I still think you just, you play it safe and give it a week. He was four and a half thames behind Fernando Alonzo in Q1. It wasn't close. Would someone like Valtry Bottas in a replacement role have done a better job? I think it's entirely possible. Can't have done much worse. I think, I think this is, I think this is disappointing for Lance as you said, he has come across grumpy, shall we say. And the guy might be in a lot of pain. He might be driving around in his home Grand Prix where it should be a really special thing on his 175th Grand Prix appearance now this weekend. He should be feeling good, should be feeling confident.

And this isn't the way he's going to want to come back. He's had a two-week gap. He's like surgery in a two-week gap. That is a tiny amount of time for anything, let alone a Formula One driver's risks to be operating on. I'd be shocked if they have healed to 100%. And a doctor has gone, yep you are a okay this is what you should be operating on it just feels like a really unnecessary call for a driver's health let you know let use yourself recover let your body recover you put it through hell the training you have to go through and for what what's the reward p17 and likely no points in the race it's it's it's not worth the pain that you're going through um so yeah i was disappointed that one he took the drive and two um that you know it ending up being the

result that it is, it wasn't worth the pain. Moving on from that, the guy that's going to sit directly behind him, I suppose, Liam Lawson, no one near his teammate, Ben, any thoughts on where that pace has gone? As I mentioned earlier, it just seems to be a similar story most weekends with Lawson versus his teammate, where I genuinely don't think their pace is that radically different. I do think Hadjar is a little bit quicker, but not massively so. But when it comes down to qualifying, for whatever reason, Hadjar can find something, and Lawson just can't quite. He seemed bemused over the team radio after his lap that got in 19th. He was a polite way to put it. Yeah. He did not understand where the pace had come from,

where the lack of pace had come from. But, and that's the thing as well. Like, he might have a solid race tomorrow, but if he's starting 19th and his teammate even with a penalty is starting 12th, unless he has an unbelievable start, it might well be hidden. Like, it might just be a solid drive from 19th to 13th or something like that. And it's going to be the starting position that kills him. And that has happened a few times this year. Yeah, agree with you. Rescue the grid.

The salvers are pretty close together. The hearths are pretty close together. I think they have made that mistake on this run. But, I mean, he's ending up one against to walk on anyway. So it's kind of where the car seems to actually be. No surprises there. No, I think that mistake might have cost Berman one position, but I don't think there's a lot in that. Yeah, but I think Berman has been the faster of the two so far this weekend.

But I think they'll be happy that there were five teams that were knocked out with one car in Q1, and one of those teams was not HASS. Who was your driver at the session? I hate giving it to the pole guy, because it feels blimming obvious. But that lap from George Rosting, I'm going to say, is that has clearly not been the dominant country. this season was sensational. So, yeah, Georgie Russ, well done you. Driver of the session for me. Yep.

Same for me. Alonzo was runner up, but Russell gets a pole position. And he gets my driver of the session too. That's going to do it for this review of Canadian qualifying. Fancy another one tomorrow. Oh, go on then. Would you mind getting us out of her until then?

Yeah, we will be back straight after the Canadian Grand Prix for a full race review. all of the race stories will discuss the start to the thing, and everything that you want to hear about. And you could hear yourself on the race review as well, because we have a segment from our listeners. So if you want to hear yourself, do the moment of your race, get in the Discord, the links in the description, go into the submissions channel,

and we will ask for it after the race for you to submit your moment with the race. And you might hear yourself play. Do we get a lot of first timeies? We get some people down at the racetrack, which is always really, really cool. And thanks for those that do join in. Love to hear from you. Thanks for listening.

We'll be back tomorrow. and then we'll have power rankings as well over our Patreon channel. So if you're going to subscribe to that, it helps the show out massively. We'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.