The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying Review

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

The LB boys delve into the thrilling Sprint Qualifying session in Shanghai where a stunning surprise pole position shook things up, and the expected frontrunners fell down the order. They break down all of the track action, including Ferrari's seeming resurgence, McLaren's costly mistakes, some standout rookie performances and some not-so-great ones... 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! 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. And welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Not reviewing one session today. That's for losers. Sam, we're reviewing two sessions. Yeah, big old two session F1 day, isn't it?

Yeah, if you dig a rise and if you're in the UK or in the US and you manage to stay up for it. I think Australia's had a good time for this one. So enjoy yourselves down under. But we had the sprint race, of course, which took place, I think was it 3am UK time, about 11 a.m. Eastern time. So tricky, but worth getting up for, because we're going to get a good race, we're going to dig into that one. And then a few hours later, three hours later, we have just finished qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, which will take place tomorrow. Again, a rather interesting session with varying results, which we're going to dig into. Yeah, as you would expect, a lot to discuss.

with both of those sessions. We are going to go in chronological order on this one. So we'll start with that sprint race that happened where Lewis Hamilton managed to convert his pole position into a race victory, joined on the sprint podium by Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Let's start with those three drivers out front then. Lewis Hamilton, see getting that pole position yesterday, held the lead off the start, even with a little bit of pressure from Max Verstappen.

had some pressure throughout the early stages of the Grand Prix, Vastapp and occasionally getting within DRS, but ultimately, Hamilton able to claim the win, your thoughts? I'm really impressed, genuinely, really impressed. This would have been a really, you know, pressurized moment for any driver in their new team, especially with, you know, the kind of criticism that Hamilton's come under after the last couple of seasons

to almost shush the doubters a little bit, not that he really needed to, but I'm sure he would have liked to. And he did with this, going up against Charlotte Claire in that sprint qualifying, who of course he outqualified quite comfortably, surprisingly so. Ben, you raved about it in our review show at the difference in time. To then see him execute a race that flawless,

where the tyre wear was by far the biggest enemy of most of the drivers. You saw the granging on the front left, because obviously it's a clockwise circuit, lots of fast and difficult right hands, which means that that outside tire is dragging across the surface of the race track. And because we've got a new track, surface here at Shanghai, it's really causing the tires to wear faster than expected. Hamilton hit that Granging first, actually, out of the front three. And at that point, it looked like

the Stappen was getting his first proper stab, maybe challenging for that lead. He going into the DRS really effectively, I think about six and a half, seven tenths coming off of the scale corner onto that back straight. And by the end of the back straight, the gap had come right down to two or three tenths. And I thought, uh-oh, the tires have run out, Ferrari have got tire problems and this is it. This is where the Stappin is going to make that move stick. But Hamilton dig what Hamilton can actually do. He held off that pressure.

He whispered to those four round balls of rubber or touch to his car. And he made it last. He really was able to eke it out. Once he kind of worked through the graining, we saw that those behind him, the Stappan and Piastri were affected massively by the way the tires went off. And in the end, winning that sprint race by a very sizable margin.

I think it ended up being six and a half to seven seconds back to Piastro, he got the move done on Max Verstappen. I think he was about 14 seconds clear of his teammate, Charlotte Clare and 5th, who got overtaken by Russell. So turns out after a pressurized start where he did have to soak up and balanced pace with that tyreware, the answer running away with it. It's a very interesting difference to what we're seeing in qualifying,

which we're going to get onto shortly. Customary first point that I need to make on this. people are probably expecting I'll make this point, but I need to make it. I hate that Hamilton's first win was a sprint for Ferrari, because it's going to be one of those things where if he does and when he does win a proper race for the first time for Ferrari, it's going to diminish away from that moment a little bit. And it'll be, it'll just annoy people in pub quizzes in 20 years time. You remember that first time that Hamilton won for Ferrari?

Well, actually, there was the sprint in China. Like, oh, God's sake. But, and there's no escaping any British bias accusations on this one, I'm afraid. I'm going to fully embrace it today. Hamilton was phenomenal. He was so good. Early on, as you say, he is under pressure from Max Verstappen. I think he has the opportunity to extend that gap a little more than he could have done

early on in this race. The way in which he managed those tires for the second half of the Grand Prix was sensational. And I know he had, I was going to call it a luxury, but it's not really a luxury because he earned being there. But he had the benefit of being out front. So you are able to manage your tires more effectively. But what he was able to, like the first half was the groundwork of this race to essentially give him that breathing space in the second half of the Grand Prix. And he just, he capitalised absolutely perfectly on it. This isn't the type of race that is going to come up in a highlights package when Hamilton's career

is done and dusted. It's not going to be one of his shiny moments that comes up in top 10 lists in years to come. But this was far more impressive than it looked. As soon as Piastri got by Vastappan later on in this Grand Prix, there was a point where Piastri looked, maybe not the favourite, but he looked the strongest of the top three. As soon as he got by Vastappen, Hamilton, I'm off. It wasn't close. It was two and a half seconds, I think, when Piazzi Astry overtook Hamilton. What did it end up at? Seven?

Seven. Six point eight, I think it was. Four seconds in about six laps. I think he did it in. And it got down to three laps and the gap was three and a half seconds. So he was doing about a second a lap faster than Piastrian those last couple of laps. Excellent race management. And I'm convinced that there are a majority of drivers on that grid that would not have managed that race as well as Hamilton did.

Because as soon as Piastri did get that move done on Vestappen, question. were raised by the commentary team. Like, can Piastri four laps to go? Can he catch up to Hamilton and make something of this? It was the complete opposite. Complete opposite. Hamilton just raced off into the distance, proved that he was, you know, not racing a lap at a time.

He was racing with those 18 laps or however many it was in mind at all times. Like he knew that he needed enough tire life in those last few laps if Piastri did present a challenge. and that challenge never came to anything because of how well he managed this Grand Prix. Very impressed. I think what stands to me slightly and it sounds so silly to talk about Lewis Hamilton

in this manner when he's got 105 race wings, he's got all those pole positions, all those titles, was the way you saw him adapt his line through certain corners that were heavy on tireware almost when the graying struck, suddenly through turn one. He was quite tight into turn one, the first kind of four or five laps of the race.

And then he mentioned about the graining. And we saw it a lot. The commentary team even brought it out the blistering effect on the side of the tire wall. How he suddenly entered the corner wider and swept through the corner rather than pinching the corner. He did the same again with the snail corner that goes onto that back straight. And those are maybe the two that are going to grain the tire the most. So the way he was thinking about the process of that race to ensure that his resources around him, the tires, are going to stay in the absolute best nick possible to deliver. that incredible speed at the end of that race

on really tricky tire wear was sensational. It's good to see Lewis Hamilton being able to showcase how good he really is again. Russell and LeCleur were fourth and fifth. Never quite able to get in the fight for third and second, although by the end they weren't a million miles off,

LeCler himself nearly getting the overtake done on Russell for that fourth position. What did you make of both of their races? Like they were there but never quite there, if that makes any sense. Yeah, a classic case where the sprint race isn't long enough, and we probably would have seen a good battle for Pogne in places, giving a few more laps, because Russell really was starting to bear down on the

Stap, and the gap came down from a few seconds down to, I think, 1.1, 1.2, when they crossed the line. So it really came down, and as you mentioned, LeCler, right on the back of Russell for the last couple of races, who seemingly has been really struggling this weekend, out qualified by Hamilton and the sprint qualifying. We'll get onto it, but outqualified by Hamilton and the main course, qualifying and beating handedly in the main sprint race.

And he was jumped by Russell pretty quickly in the start of the sprint race as well. And that really set him up to be a non-threats throughout the rest of that sprint race. He was never able to get into clean air. He was never able to look at potentially closing the gap to the likes of Piastrian Verstappen, who were being not held up by Hamilton, but managed effectively by Hamilton. And then you heard his ties start to go off as well. It just never properly went their way. And as you mentioned, Ben, it allowed them to sit in.

this almost two-car no-man's land where they had Sonoda, Stroll and others kind of starting to back up behind them. But they also never have the pace of the ability to get forward and start to pressure Piastrian Vestappen, very much a little two-man war that, well done to Russell. He comes out on top and takes a couple of extra points, all because of getting the start right. Russell is having a good weekend and he's doing what the burglar does, just stealing those extra points of others. Yeah, they'll definitely be disappointment from Lecler's side based on what his his teammate was able to achieve. As you say, it hasn't quite gone his way so far this weekend. From Russell's perspective, it seems like Russell and Vostappen have a very similar mentality to the start of this year,

which is we don't actually think our cars are quite capable of winning races, competing at the absolute top level. So we're just going to take as many points as are available to us. Vestappen, it sounds odd because he's so determined to win all the time. He seemed pretty content with third and he was pretty content with finishing runner up to Hamilton in qualifying the day before. Russell, I think similarly took third in Australia because that's all he could take. Maybe a similar story here where fourth was what he could take again. But the main points are going to come in the race. So the fact that they've got a decent points all from this sprint, I think they'll be relatively content with. Yuki Sonoda picks up three points for

his sprint effort in sixth place, holding off Kimmy Antonelli for seemingly the entire race. I mean, we'll come on to qualifying in a bit because the racing ball's pace does seem to be fairly genuine this weekend. But Sonoda in the sprint specifically, what were your thoughts there? He's having a weekend of his career, almost, it feels like. I mean, yes, maybe we're not giving the racing ball car enough credit for the pace it's delivering around here at China, because Hajjar is also seemingly coming into his own, the further into the weekend that we get, which is great to see. But Sonoda is really doing a job. I saw a statistic and then you're going to have to tell me if this is an absolute logo rubbish or not. But Yuki Sanoda hasn't been out qualified by

Liam Lawson since Singapore, 23. I mean, yeah, that sounds right. He wasn't out qualified by him last year. So, yeah, whilst the Red Bull is last, and last again, in both qualifying sessions, you've got Yuki Sanoda, who not only qualifies so comfortably inside the top 10, he's battling with the Mercedes in Kimi Ann Sangeli, who, you know, he's a rookie. It's only his second Grand Prix. It's going to take a little bit of time to really extract the full consistency and pace. But Mercedes is definitely faster. So the way he's held back off and managed that rating, he was so close to the back of Lecler and Russell at the end of the Grand Prix really tells you that Yuki's outperforming, he's outdriving, he's a much more mature and consistent driving than what we're used to over the last few

years. He's really starting to deliver on a regular basis. I was so impressed by Yuki. He is going under the radar, I think, in terms of the credit that he deserves because of what, you know, the likes of Hamilton, Russell are able to achieve. But Yuki is flying and he is showing up a lot of people and a lot of their opinions on maybe he should be the person to have stepped forward in that Red Bull family, not just because there was a Honda relationship that's now gone, but maybe he's got some genuine talent that when he feels good, he's able to deliver. I thought he's, he's, he's, he's able to deliver. I thought did a fantastic job in holding off Kimi, Antingaleigh. That racing ball pace is pretty good, particularly over shorter stints, whether that's qualifying

or over five, ten laps, because not only was Suuqi Sonoda holding his own in terms of position, like he was keeping Antonelli behind, obviously Norris has finished behind as well. But for a good chunk of that sprint, he was in touching distance of the two drivers ahead of him. Like, he was a second or two behind the likes of Leclair and Russell. It wasn't really until the last five or six laps where tireware seemed to become a much bigger issue for Sonoda versus the drivers around him, that that gap really started to extend now and that's where Sonoda had to become a lot more dogged in his defense against Santonelli, which, you know, he passed with flying colors again.

So I'm impressed by the team's pace. I'm impressed by Yuki Sonoda's pace. what he was able to achieve in that spring was very impressive. In a normal day, you would expect eight scoring positions to be locked out by the four big teams. And the fact that not only has he broken that by getting a point, he's gone even further by getting sixth and getting three points, that makes up for what was a pretty good Australian Grand Prix weekend that didn't deliver any points that should have done. So, yeah, very impressed with him. A bit further back, there wasn't too much in the way of action inside the top 10 in reality. There was a lot more action though outside of the top 10.

I don't even know where to start with this. We had the likes of Ghazli and Hadjar making up significant positions in the race over the likes of the Salba drivers, William drivers struggling a little bit as well. Your thoughts on Ghazley, let's start with him. Yeah, that Alpine looks tricky around here. Jack Dillon's had a number of offs over the last couple of sessions and we'll talk about, I'm sure,

the incident that came later on in the sprint race as well. But Gassi's doing, I think, what he can in a car that actually had a really good preseason testing. And I think he did a really good job at qualifying in Albert Park.

But I think now we're starting to see that the Alpine maybe has some weaknesses around its closer competitors. It looks like the Aston Martin maybe he's ever so slightly faster than it. It looks like the Williams on its day is probably better and it looks like definitely that the racing balls are comfortably faster than the Alpi.

So that looks like the Alpin could be sitting around that eighth place mark just in front of the Haas and the Salba. So he did well. He did really, really well. Gassi's doing what he can. He's dragging that car up the pecking order a little bit. Qualifying in spring didn't go too well for them. So he had to make the Ingram. He did. But it's never going up being off and points only go down to eighth place. He only got 19 laps to actually rectifying these problems. but what Gassi always does well is he cuts through the traffic cleanly. He makes sure that he's not picking up any damage for the team. You know, there was that stat whether you believe it or not,

that Gassi was the only driver last year to have caused zero dollars damage for his team across the whole season, which has never been done before or something crazy like that. So he's displayed that again, getting the moves done, moving forward when he can. No problems. Six or anything is to be. Hager, though, because soon this is only his second, well, first,

Robert race because, of course, he crashed in the formation mapping Albert Park. I was impressed. I'm impressed with him all weekend. His qualifying sprint wasn't perfect, but he's already starting to make up for those initial teething issues. And the fact that he was following through the likes of Gasley, fighting with Carlos Sainz, who seemingly was really struggling, trying to get onto the back of Berman who did qualify really, really well.

This is what I want to see from Isaac Hager. It's care to take a little bit of time for him to really cement himself and start to work himself up the grip. But him had bought a letter to have a really good battle, really. close, no concept there, great wheel to wheel action for all of them. I think at one point there were five cars literally all around each other going through the same corner and pretty much all of them managed it brilliantly well. The only two people that caused any kind of contact throughout the whole race was Lawson when he made the move on doing, I think it was, and they're doing

when he collected himself and spang around. So really, really solid from both of those guys. I think they've got a lot to come over the year if the car can go the right way. Okay, let's take a short break on this episode. On the other side, we'll conclude our thoughts on the sprint and move on to qualifying. Welcome back, everyone. Let's take a look at Lando Norris's sprint race, shall we? So he did score a point in the end. It looked for a little while that he wasn't going to score anything,

being in ninth place behind Landstrol, got that overtake done towards the end of the Grand Prix, but still only one point where his teammate is obviously up in second place, claiming seven coming off his win, of course, last time out in Australia, lost some positions off the start as well, Sam. Not the start to the weekend here to wanted. No, and he's, this is frustrating for Landon Norris. We actually said this before we got on to record. It must be quite frustrating being a bit of a Landon Norris fan at a moment where you think, oh, okay, he's going to put it back together. There's a couple of purple sectors here. You see him fly into the pit lane

in the background of the qualifying sessions. The sprint race was kind of rough. reflection of those qualifying sessions in the same sense that he started poorly, got overtaken, then made a mistake and fell backwards to cut the places. And then seemingly couldn't get the tyres to activate due to maybe the traffic. And we've seen this in the past with other teams, Mercedes probably being the most famous of those, that when they were leading and they were in clean air, the car was electric. It was so quick. It was almost uncatchable.

But the moment it gets caught up behind another car, seemingly a lot of the aerode, the way the tyres function, Unable to work in the intended way, meaning that they couldn't even pass an Aston Martin. Now, that's no slight on Aston Martin, but they're quite firmly that fifth, six, seventh fastest car. They're firmly in midfield car. Everyone has been stating that McLaren are currently the team to beat. Now, at one point, Norris was two or three seconds back on Lance Strull and had to rebuild that gap to make sure that he could have a go at scoring just one point. At the end of the day, that mistake was brought on by himself.

He'll know that as an issue. and he'll be probably thanking his lucky stars a little bit that this stake has come in the sprint racing. It's only cost him six or seven points to the main championship rivals around him rather than if it happened in the main race on Sunday where if, let's say, the same order was finished. Hamilton 1st, Piazzarie, 2nd, Vastappen 3rd.

He had lost the league of the championship and he'd probably be down about 15 to 16 points on those around him, which he cannot deal with when Vostappel is only going to get stronger throughout this season. So probably a bit lucky, but it is on him. Australia felt like a bit of a new Lando Norris and this feels like a deviation back to somewhat last year Lando Norris

which is he clearly has the pace he clearly has pace to win plenty of Grand Prix and he already has won plenty of Grand Prix but these issues do come about far too often he doesn't qualify where he should do due to an error on his second run he tries again with, you know, he goes again in the sprint and he loses three positions on the first lap. There was one point, you talk about the gap from Norris to Stroll, there was one

point where that was the biggest gap in the field. There was not a bigger gap in the entire 20 positions than Stroll back to Norris. The lack of pace that he had in the first half of this Grand Prix was baffling. He just wasn't there. And you could tell from his team, radio that he's like, he doesn't understand what's going on. Now, he got better as the race went on. And to be fair, Piastri did to an extent as well. And I do think that's relating to McLaren's strength, which does seem to be the end of stints and keeping those tires alive longer than other teams can. Certainly by the end of that, he caught up to stroll quite quickly after not being anywhere for the first half of this Grand Prix, gets that overtake done very comfortably. It wasn't a,

wasn't a challenging one for him. And then, of course, gets up close to the likes of Antonelli and Sonoda quite late on as well. If it was a slightly longer race, he probably makes it past both of those drivers, I would, I'd suggest. But that's a sprint race.

You've got to be on it from the off, and he just wasn't. And it's this sort of result where McLaren, I still do think, have a car advantage right now, but he has lost out by five points to Vastappen and seven points to Hamilton. That could matter.

That could matter as we go into the middle of the season, the end of the season. So, yeah, a real disappointing sprint, but you're absolutely right. Better to do it in the sprint than in the main race. Well, we spoke about that mentality aspect, didn't we? Where in Albert Park, Piaastri had the spin, had to get himself back on the track,

and actually scored those two points at the end of the Australian Grand Prix. And that might be the difference maker, whereas Landon Norris may have just cost himself five or six points due to a silly mistake that he's probably caused himself without any real pressure of doing so. And he came over the radio a lot of the times he was confused, he was frustrated, he didn't seem like he was kind of asked about it, really. He was a bit like, well, I don't really get it.

Well, they got working, man, they're not working. And only at the last kind of at the death didn't start to switch on. So I thought we'd see a bit more fight from Lando rather than this frustration coming through. I thought he'd be a bit more frustrating at himself and maybe get himself jeed up a bit. But it just didn't really come through. in the race, we don't see the same mistakes made and we get a proper fight on our hands with both McLarence. Right.

Let's move on. Liam Lawson and Jack Dewan. I was trying to be so positive. This is proper wow me up. Liam Lawson was coming back from 19th place, ended up finishing 14th. We'll get into what you thought of his comeback in a moment's time. One of the overtakes he has to make is on Jack Dewin, dives up the inside, slives up the inside, slight bash of the tires, but gets the move done.

And it was investigated by the stewards. No further action. Okay. Fine. Don't mind that. In the stewards notes, they say that, I should have got the exact quote,

but they say that Dewan should have left more room for Lawson to overtake. It's good, that, hang it. What are we doing? And Ben, just for reference, where was doing on the race track at the time? He was off the track for a little bit of it.

There you go. He was actually on the race track to leave space. Why do we want this? Where a car can just dive up the inside, get to the apex slightly before the other car, and suddenly they have this right to the corner where the other car just has to move out the way. Why? He did dive bomb him from Alumbatah. You know, he was flying from Central Mongolia to make that move past. Which I'm fine with. Like, and he got the car slowed down. There was a slight bash of the wheels. If you think that should be penalized or not, that's up to you.

I'm fine with all that. It's just the steward saying that Deward should have left room when the man is just going through the corner. You should be allowed to hold your ground, right? He's going to get round the corner at some point. He's got to have four wheels on, technically on the racetrack,

which he didn't. He had at least two off for the majority of the move. I actually don't mind the contacts at all. A little big old, a little bit of wheel rubbing between friends. Who's bothered? But I do think that when it comes to forcing cars off the racetrack,

you've got to yield, you've got to get the place back, whether you're on the inside or the outside, running a car fully off the racetrack. That's not how we do racing around here. And you know what one of the best moves of all of Albert Park was? Oh, it was Piastri going around the outside of Lewis Hamilton. And Kimi Antigando did the same thing on Williams. And guess what? Neither of the inside cars forced them off because they race wheel to wheel both on the track

and it was respectable and it was good racing. And we were wowed at how good those moves were. The same thing can't be said here. Because again, the car's been forced off tracking. Apparently it's totally fine to do so. the FIA have got to sort this rolling out. It is, it's just silly. I read the note or the Steward's note

and I thought I was being pranked. I thought it was like one of those fake accounts on Twitter that will post stuff for cloud. Dick and Don will go jump out behind the tweet. You know what? That'd have been quite funny. Bodies. Straight in your face.

Bogey straight in your face, quote Sam Sage. Yeah, what are we doing? There's a car trying to overtake me and going to dive bomb me. All right, let me just park up and let it happen. happen. Come on. Anyway, it's not the only incident that Doom was involved in. Last lap, Duhn goes for an overtake on Gabriel Bortoletto. Doesn't end up brilliantly well, unless you're Carla Sines. Carlos Sikes kind of scambled away with that thing. All right then. See you. I'll go right on the outside. Thank you. Clumsy is how I'm going to phrase it, all over nothing as well.

Like, I appreciate there's a bigger pride to try and, you know, get yourself to finish a place up or not. but you're in an Alpine that's already struggling. You didn't qualify that well. It's the last lap of the race. Just pack it in. Just calm down, keep the car in one place and cross the finish line, all right? Go again in the next session. That's a great thing about having a sprint race is if you do make these mistakes,

you have a poor performance, you pick yourself up, you look at the car set up and you go again for the main qualifying in the race. What are you doing, Jack? I've also tried to be really positive about Jack Duh. I've really tried to be like he's got something. improving the cut to bloody Colapinto after that crash with Flavio Brio Tore's next to him was horrible. It's not just saying it's like the cut to Helmut Marco after Lawson there's something wrong.

Can we stop that? Cinema is what it is. Yeah, not good from Jack Dewan, picks up a penalty for his trouble. It's not that it really matters. It just shows a lack of experience and some brash attitude that I don't think is needed. And it's cost Portoletto, it's cost him. Holkerberg got stuck behind it as well.

Just clumsy, just silly. And it's all on doing. Yeah, I don't like to discourage overtaking, but risk versus reward. You know, the only thing you're really, what's the reward? Nothing. What's the risk? You could damage the car enough that it could impact your qualifying in just a couple of hours time. Obviously, it didn't. And that's great.

but there was just not really much point in it, I'm afraid. I'm going to round off the point with, what are you doing? Jack. Jack. Any last thoughts on Lawson's progress? He gets five positions higher than his grid position. No, don't start that far back.

I mean, he hasn't listened to you, but it's a fair point. No, he hasn't because he's done it again, copy and paste, Liam. The car looks an absolute handful for him. I'm not going to go on about it because I've said it in almost every episode, that clearly the car is so built. from Max Verstappen. It doesn't work for other drivers, but also, you're a racing driver. You need to have some ability to master this car, and he is clearly struggling. I think the break between China and Japan, hopefully he's able to clear his head and can have settled himself

and is able to get something out of this because this isn't acceptable. There are conversations that he could be gone by Miami if this is the form that he's following, and that is devastating for someone of Liam Lawson's talent. Moving on to qualifying itself. So Oscar Piastri managed to claim pole position in qualifying for the main race, joined on the front row by George Russell, so a completely different front row to what we had in sprint qualifying, second row then occupied by Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

And let's start with those top few drivers. Piastri, we've seen what he can do in race conditions, but qualifying hasn't necessarily been his strength. today though, has I think both qualifying laps good enough for pole. Yeah, first and second, he was fasting up to beat Russell, to beat Norris, to beat Verstappen all the way down. He would have done it without having to do that second run. The man is supremely calm.

And I think finally we're starting to see that come to place when you need to do the one lapper. He even said in his post-quality interview, you know, that was the hairpin of my life. I was too tense down. Not that he needed to make up the time, but the fact that he was so committed to doing so and in one corner, managed to turn around the two-tenth deficit, is sensational. This shows you how bloody close this season could be. The fact that we've got an entirely new front row at the same racetrack, only 24 hours later, tells you how much conditions can play a part.

And I'm going to praise the FIA here for allowing the change between sprint race and qualifying, park firm a to be lifted, setups to be altered, and the understanding of the car to be adjusting. It means we're not getting a copy and paste between the two sessions, Because look what happened to Ferrari. It's got slightly cooler overall. The tire pressures had to be adjusting slightly as well to ensure that Pirelli mandated that that had to be changed. And all of a sudden, Lewis Hamilton was on pole. It's now about three and a half, four cents back.

Now, again, in race terms, that might completely change again. We don't know. But it's thrilling to know that out of maybe six or seven cars, we haven't got a clue where one of these cars is going to start. When you throw the likes of Sengoda, Hajar and Sengeli, all into the mix, it is constantly getting wound up and I love to see it. For Stafford puts in a great lap goes in front of Hamilton.

I'm moving away from Piastri here, but I was just so excited by how jumbled up qualifying is and that's what I want to see every single Saturday. Piaastri did a great job. No silly mistakes. No floundering around like we saw last season

in Spain or in Austria where it's just clumsy all on his own, got the job done at every turn. It was never it felt like the outright fastest in every single sector, but just strung along a very, very solid lap where he was there or thereabouts at every single point. Pipschior Drosford to the post, gets the job down and start first. We did see a lot of variation in who was fast in each sector. And actually, this is where maybe this session played to Piastri's strengths in that

he held onto the tyres long enough for that final sector. And I'm not sure everyone did. There were quite a few instances of purple first sector, green second sector, and then diving into the pits or yellow final sector and not being able to improve on your time. Piastri did a great job of ensuring strategically that that final sector was still going to be good enough, as you say, the hair pin he nailed on that second run, to ultimately claim the fastest time overall. I was very impressed by what he was able to do, capitalised on what is clearly a very good

car in a way that his teammate couldn't quite. Obviously, Norris's qualifying effort was better than his sprint qualifying effort, but both qualifying sessions ended in the same way, him not crossing the line, him coming back into the pits because he couldn't improve on that second run, despite looking promising. So Norris will be disappointed. It's still in an all right position, but Norris will be disappointed to not only lose out to Piastri, but also lose out on that front row of the grid. And then in between them, George Russell, who seems to be, I don't know, just appearing

out of nowhere in every single session to deliver something. something pretty good. I'll tell you what, one of these days, David Croft on commentary is going to look a bit silly because he always likes to call qualifying early. Like, Piastri's got Paul, it's like, hang on. One day he's going to get caught out by this. Yeah, he proper screened it as well. And you've got three or four cars back there.

And he, you're right. It definitely came down to the wire. George Russell, though, what a mighty fine man he is. I am so impressed with George Russell. continues to impress because that Mercedes definitely isn't there. Overall, it's still not there. I still think that he'll probably go backwards over the course of the whole race. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up finishing off the podium, which would be a shame.

But that boy's qualifying pace really is something to behold. We saw how he showed himself against Hamilton last time out. All right, the car wasn't there and he might have checked out. Still, he dunked on Hamilton last season. And he's out there doing it again this season in a different car. I've got against different opposition. the fact that he's beaten Norris, he's capital,

he's capitaled on another, dare I say, bottle from Lando Norris, again where the final run isn't put into practice. He can't show his true pace. And someone else is there to mop up the pieces.

It's happened in both sessions. George Russell was the man to deliver. The temperature's dropped. The Mercedes clearly likes them slightly more. He puts it on that front row. Phenomenal performance with George Russell. I'm so, so impressed by what he's able to do. And many drivers did struggle on that second run.

We had Leclair improved, but literally only just, not enough to change positions. Hamilton did not improve on his second run. Verstappen didn't improve on his second run. And here's George Russell, who right at the death, really produced an excellent lap to get within one tenth of Piastri. And get quite not quite comfortably clear, but it wasn't even that close to the drivers behind.

Like he was a very obvious second place here. So, yeah, he might drop back tomorrow in the race, but the fact that he's on the front row anyway, pretty impressive. and he has, it was difficult to compare Antonelli and Russell in Australia based on their starting positions, and they both had impressive races in their own right. And, look, heavy, heavy asterisk here in that Antonelli is still only in his second race weekend. But at this point in his career and where Russell is right now, Russell's just showing that at this point in time, I still got it. And whereas his teammate is down in eighth, he's the one challenging to put it on the front row of the grid.

Yeah, I guess a quick line on Antingelli. He's doing everything I want him to do. The break magic got stuck, which is a classic Mercedes issue. We saw that happen to Hamilton in Baku a couple of years ago, where he basically lost the title because of that issue. But Antigeli had that issue. We then see him run wide maybe two or three times across the whole session because he's absolutely ragging that Mercedes around

because that's what Antigley does. Yeah, okay, he qualifies in eighth. But he's taking a giant step forward from Albert Park. We saw how well he recovered during the Grand Prix. at Albert Park, and he's this much closer this time. I reckon he's got enough to get past those, that racing ball that's in front of him, and to start batheing with the likes of the Claire, with Hamilton, maybe with Verstappen, if the pace is there and he can keep those ties alive.

He's got the raw pace. He's making some issues, but he's got the raw pace. I think it could be harness. I think Antingelli's doing what Antigone needs to do in only his second race. He's got the pace, no doubt. He's just at the moment overdriving the car by a couple of percent. He's chaotic personified. That last corner, I don't think he did that right once.

Like, every time you, the camera panned to Antonelli at that last corner, he was either facing the wall or he's like got at least two wheels in the gravel, which looks great, but isn't the quickest way through that corner. Man loves the gravel trip. But yeah, I'm sure, again, it's his second race weekend. He's got a lot of time to harness it. We're going to take another break on this episode, but we're going to conclude our thoughts on qualifying right after this.

Welcome back, everyone. Let's move on to Ferrari, who have locked out the third row of the grid, which, hey, there's one row better than last week. So give it a few races, they're going to be won two. But we had Lewis Hamilton, obviously, on pole and then eventually winning the sprint race. Here, only good for fifth,

still clear of his teammate, who's sixth, didn't seem like Ferrari liked that session as much as the two that preceded it. No, and I think this is where some positives of the sprint race do come out, where we see the difference in sessions and times, and again, the way the tyres are altered slightly. They didn't enjoy the session at all. For whatever reason, it felt as though they operated better in sprint qualifying

when maybe it was a warmer part of the day. The high tire pressures got changed again, meant that maybe the carding operate in the same way. They were never able to extract that extra little bit of pace that they were able to do during sprint qualifying, especially Hamilton, but he's beaten the colour again, so that is a positive for him.

It was a session of the finest of margins. You know, if you look at sprint qualifying, you look at this qualifying, Hamilton of Vastappen right next to each other again, right? It really would have taken a breath to be different in sprint qualifying for Vastappen to be on the sprint pole, and Hamilton to be on the front row. It really was that close.

And they're basically the same distance apart again, the other way round. So Vastappen's just done a bag of bag a job this time round. Well done to Max Vastappen. Norris and Piastri, they actually got all their laps together. In the sprint qualifying, they made some mistakes. They didn't get their final runs and they timed it badly. This time out, Piastri does an absolutely brilliant run.

Norris gets a good enough run on the first time out, manages to be in that front two rows. That's the difference there. Russell is pretty much the main exception here. He just pulled out a sensational lap and sticks himself in front. So at a snap of a finger, this whole top six could easily be reshuffled. And you're looking at it and go, yeah, fair enough. Seems legit.

that's how close it is. So fifth probably looks not great for Ferrari, but genuinely, I think this is the tiniest of market's difference. And the race is where it's all going to really come to play. It could be a whole different story come the end of Sunday. Yeah, you're right. It's not like they were as far back as they were in Australia. In Australia, they were not far off a second off the McLaren's at the front,

whereas here we are just talking a few temps, So it could have gone the other way. It did seem as if they struggled from the off in this session. It's not like they were supreme through Q1 and Q2 and then it all unraveled in Q3. I think where they qualified is roughly where they were looking like they were going to qualify from the off. It still puts them in a solid position.

Both of them fairly close together in this session as well. Charlotte LeClaue, we know he hasn't had a great weekend to this point. This is maybe slightly better from him. I can't remember the exact margin they ended up at the end, but it wasn't much. About a tenth and a half, I think. Yeah, so it's getting closer and they have the ability to fight from there. Given what we saw from Hamilton in the sprint race, if he can do a similar job with the tires tomorrow, if LeClerc can put together his best session of the weekend so far, it wouldn't

surprise me if they're in the fight for podiums. Speaking of double appearances in Q3... V-Car, racing balls. Seventh place for Hadjar, ninth place for Sonoda. Not bad. Blugging you'd love to see it, mate. That is sensational. The car is clearly operating very well around here.

I'll make no bones about it. They've been good in all sessions. Sonoda again, consistent. Not as good as his sprint. But hey, he's right there. If there's a mistake, if he gets a good start, he's easily fighting for that kind of sixth, seventh place again. Hajar, though, talk about immediate development,

immediate progress. He really is putting one foot in front of the other and learning how to run very quickly. The fact that he's right up there in front of Antingale, right behind the Clare, so close in time as well. It's not like it was five, six tenths away. It was a very small market between the racing balls and the Ferrari. And actually, there's a little part of me that thinks they might be disappointed

to be seventh and ninth because at one point they were getting that car, third, fourth, fifth. So to see seventh and ninth really shows, I think, the experience of the big teams coming through. but they've set themselves up to be comfortably the fifth fastest team. They easily could dominate what Williams were able to do in Albert Park and they could really set themselves apart.

So really brilliant. So impressed with Hajar especially, Sengali just doing what Sengali does at the moment and pretty much being the best of the rest. Yeah, brilliant. Sonoda obviously will be a little bit disappointed with Q3 because he just didn't get the second lap off and he's ended up with a 31-6 in Q3,

which is actually four-tenths slower pretty much than what he was able to deliver in Q2. And if he delivered a similar to, ironically, if it had been four-tamps quicker, he still would have been ninth, but it had been far closer to the guys in front. So he'll be a bit disappointed there. Isaac Adja, we've said it a couple of times,

he's clearly got something. Like, he is quick. And the position of him being seventh is impressive. The far more impressive thing, for me is the time gap. It's not that he's managed to get through his Q3. That is impressive. It's not that he's finished seventh. That is impressive as well. It's the fact he's only four and a half tenths off pole. Like he's not that far back from any of the cars in front. Like he's ended up with pretty much a 31 flat. Well, so did the Ferraris. So did Max Verstappen. Like he's right there

with these drivers in that session. So regardless of whether that car is actually much quicker than we think it is or whether it's others underperforming, whether it's had, just having a really good day. It doesn't really matter what the reason is. The fact that he's there after two races and just three qualifying efforts, thoroughly impressive. A little experiment, I'd be quite curious to see, which we can't. It's going to be purely hypothetical would be. Obviously, we know that the racing balls are taking more parts from Red Bull and are much closer aligned this season. I'd be fascinated to see where Liam Lawson will put that racing ball this qualifying session because would it suit his driving style? If he was in Hajar's Racing Ball,

would he be right against Stangeload? Because they were relatively close last season. So obviously, I haven't got an answer and I'd be curious on what you listeners think, but I bet he wouldn't be last. I have more thoughts than I can say on this episode today about the whole V-Car Red Bull situation. but honestly, I'm I'm heading towards there's not much between the cars. And also in terms of Lawson's future, we don't know where that's going to go. But I think if Lawson's in that car, in that V-Car, he puts it roughly where Sonoda and Hadjar put it. And also, if either Hadger or Sonoda got into the Red Bull, they might be where Lawson is. Like, it wouldn't surprise me.

But there's more force on that. Let's go. We're curious. Right, let's head a bit further down qualifying, so outside of the top 10, or right on the cusp of the top 10. So we got Alex Albon, who managed to make it through to Q3. Again, outperforming Carlos Sines, who's only 15th here. Absolutely love that reaction from Alex Albon. Proper hand out the cockpit as if he's just won the race.

You know, that is passion from him, which I love to see. So, yeah, big up Alex Albon. Proper happy with that. And well done to him. He's outclass Carlos Sikes. to I think science is going through a slightly difficult weekend. I don't think he's sitting happy with the car. I don't think it's operating how he wants it to.

And this is the teething issues that I expected from a lot of the drivers who have moved teams. You know, I expected Lewis Hamilton to be coming over the radio on race two and going, cars that feel great, not sure why it's operating like this, the tires aren't right. Liam Lorsing is a prime example. Okay, it's further down the track than I far expecting him to be. But I was expecting a, takes a bit of time to settle, the tires aren't how they're working how I expect to the balance of the car is off. Science is going through very publicly all of those problems.

And the difference between Album and Science is kind of what I expected, thoroughly raised to. I thought Sykes might be a little closer, you know, getting out qualified by the likes of Holkenberg, maybe wasn't on the cards. But I think science has got the talent to make this up. I'm not saying it's alarm bells. I just think Album's also doing a really, really good job. So well done to Albon, really pleased.

The other one that stood out to me massively was the return of Esteban Okon. Man sits in 11th at the place, doing a great job. Out-qualifies Ben, where in the sprint qualifying, he was comfortably out-qualified, looks like he's got his mojo back a little bit. That range of cars between kind of Haas, Aston Martin, Williams, Al-Pee and Salba, who bloody knows, mate? Who bloody knows? Leplan is back.

In terms of the Williams, guys, Albin, weirdly, was quicker in Q1 than he wasn't Q2. and quicker in Q2 than he was in Q3. Like his worst lap was in the third part of qualifying. But they were all fairly close in terms of time. So he sets a 315 in Q1, 316 in Q2, 317 in Q3, which within two tenths of a second tells me, it's probably where the pace of the car is right now.

Carlos Sein's just underdelivered in Q2, quite simply put. If he sets a similar lap time to what he does in, he'd need to have improved by half a 10. for so on his Q1 time to make it through to Q3. So I think it's just an underperformance there. And he's been open that he's not quite a, I can remember the exact phrase he used, but he's not quite at one with the car yet.

He's not quite fully embedded. But give it time. I'm sure that will turn itself around. But good effort from Alex Albin. Again, he's just doing what he needs to do in what is a very competitive midfield. A bit further back. So weirdly, like the five eliminated cars in Q1 were not the same as Spring. quality, but they follow a similar pattern of both Alpine's got knocked out again.

Liam Lawson got knocked out again, joined by one Hass and one Salba. Alpine, four out of four in terms of getting knocked down in Q1. Yeah, one lap pace is not where that Alping is seemingly happy. Gassi was able to show better pace on the longer runs on the mediums. And that's kind of what we saw when it came to preseason testing. So that is starting to shine through. I think they're going to be quite disappointed that the pace. from the end of last season where Gassi was regularly featuring fifth, sixth, seventh.

It's not able to translate into this new year. They've really gone backwards, just out of being things really where they can't seem to ever cement actual consistency and have some normal pace around the car. And it's, again, Gassie are doing almost right next to each other. So it's not a driver. There's a massive mistake happening there where one is being separated by the other. The car over one lap is just not very good at all. It's weird because I do think that car is pretty solid.

in long run pace. I mean, we saw in the sprint. Gassley had good pace during that race. And I think he was maybe a bit more optimistic when he was talking to the media after that growth because it didn't result in any points, obviously. But he was like, yeah, I think we got something to fight with. And if we can put together a better qualifying effort

for the main Grand Prix, then actually we might be in contention for points. Maybe not, because Q1 knockouts tend to, hamper your progress quite a bit. But you're right, it's both drivers in both sessions. It does seem as if this Alpine over one lap just doesn't quite have it at the moment, which is baffling because Gasly, we've seen great qualifying efforts from him over the last few years very consistently, which does give Alpine nowhere to hide because it's very difficult to blame a driver who has done that so often. Yeah, they need to figure it out sooner rather than later. Any other closing thoughts on Q1?

was a little bit disappointed with Bortoletto. I think he's got that raw pace, but to see Holkenberg all the way up in 12th, and to see him on the 19th place mark, there's a bit of pace in that sour, but I think it's hard to extract. I mean, you've got to get it right, but Bortoletto is quick enough to do so,

and Holkenberg's experience shone through here, because initially it looked like Borteletto had the pace in Q1. And then come the end of the session, Hulk managed to pull it out the back. He scraped through, I think he was in 14th or 15th, but then turned it around into a P-12, And that's, that is what Salma need.

That's what Aldi need moving forward. I'm hoping that Borselaetto can have a good race. I don't know if you're going forward. I don't know if Hulk will come backwards. But that is the difference between experience and a rookie coming in. Yeah, I think Holkenberg improved on his second run and Borateletto didn't. And I'm not quite sure why, whether it was an error or just, he just wasn't quick enough. But, um, Berman, I'm not sure he got his, did he cross the line in time on his second run?

I was trying to work. No, he didn't. Yeah. I'm pretty certainly didn't make it. Yeah, I was trying to work out what was happening with everything else going on. But yeah, it appears as if only one house and one Salba can make it through to Q2 and they were the sacrifices. Let's close out the episode. Driver of the session for the sprint and then we'll do driver of the session for qualifying.

So start with the sprint. Lewis Hamilton takes it for me for the spring. There are some others that we've mentioned. I'm not going to drag it on. So you get to pick one as well. But that tire management and the pace he deployed at the end, vintage. There's unreal Lewis Hamilton. Great job.

I mean, should be little surprised that based on what I said earlier, I do think Hamilton is the driver of the session. But a great effort from Sunoda as well. I think he would be the runner up in that award. And then driver of the session in qualifying. A few more to pick from for this one for me. I'm going to, I'm talking a little bit between Piastri, Russell and Hajar. I'm going to just go Piastri. It's his first poll. He was able to extract the most thing on that car, do what Norris couldn't keep it egg of Russell, who was brilliant. But again, I wanted to mention those other two

because I thought they were fantastic, but piastry for me. Yeah, I'd throw Ockon and Holkenberg in contention as well, but I'll go Hadja. Again, not only to get seventh, but to be within a tenth of Ferraris, a couple attempts of Vestappen, and only four and a half tenths of pole.

That's a very good effort on just your second race weekend. Okay, well, you might be thinking that's two podcast episodes this weekend. Surely that's enough. No, there's still a race to go, Sam. We do three. When it comes for a sprint race weekend. Sorry.

That's all right. I like doing it live anyway. And if you want four, for Jeremy, four, that's insane. Well, power rankings comes on Monday as well. So that's where we go through every single race performance. We give it a number and a course over the season that accumulates. You find you are driving the season. Worst drive of the season is you can do yours along with us.

You can join in. That's on Patreon. Links in the description to subscribe there. That helps the show massively. Discord is available. If you want to hear yourself on the podcast in the race review, you want to do a submission, join the Discord. That's where you'll find it.

Three and a half thousand people all chatting away in there, and they're all lovely. They all love F1, and they come from all corners of the globe. So maybe you've got any mates to give by that watch F1. I'd like to talk to someone in my area. Well, join the Discord. Follow us on social media late, breaking F1, and we'll see you tomorrow morning for a race review.

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.