The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Hungarian GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

What just happened?! Ben reviews an exciting qualifying session at the Hungaroring, where a shock pole sitter stole the spotlight. He breaks down the action up and down the grid — from one Ferrari��s triumph to another’s heartbreak, McLaren’s surprise setback, and an impressive showing from Aston Martin. Could Harry’s bold prediction actually come true? >>> Don't miss out - limited tickets left for our 2025 LIVE SHOW in Austin TX! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICK HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to grab yours or for more info!

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by me, Ben Hocking. Reviewing today qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix with Charles LeCler in the Ferrari on pole position ahead of the two McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri will start alongside Charles Leclair on the front row of the grid. Lando Norris starting from third.

And then the second row occupied by George Russell as well. Very close qualifying in the end, particularly in Q3, just over one tenth of a second separating the top six drivers, half a tenth of a second, separating the top four. Plenty to get into on today's episode, because early on this was looking. like it was going to be something of a formulaic qualifying session. It looked like going into qualifying at least. This was going to be a comfortable one, two for McLaren. Maybe Ferrari best position to challenge as the second best team.

That didn't go according to plan. But both in a positive and a negative fashion with Lecleran first and Lewis Hamilton in 12th. Yeah, let's start out front. that feels like the most natural way to kick off this episode. Charles LeClair, throughout Q1 and Q2, looked okay. And I'm not sure whether to lean on the side of positivity, and there was relative comfort in the way that at least he occupied himself throughout the first couple of qualifying sessions.

But it didn't look as if a pole position was on the cards. Going into this qualifying session, it looked throughout practice three that maybe LaCleur was going to be best position to finish third, but probably a few temps behind the two McLaren drivers. Nothing really changed my mind on that as we went throughout Q1 and Q2. He did a 156 in Q1, a 155 in Q2. Q1, he was about four tenths or so away from the leading McLaren that was. was Piastri on that occasion. Q2, the gap was around 5, 6 tenths of a second. So even if he closes that gap up by a little bit, it didn't seem likely that it was going to be anything less

than maybe 2 or 3 tenths of a second. We get through to Q3. And we heard all three drivers in the post-qualifying interview talk about this. For whatever reason and wind seems to have been a factor here, conditions quite dramatically changed as we got through to Q3, to the point where if you were matching what you did in Q2, that was quite likely to see you jump up the leaderboard because most drivers out there could not match what they did in Q2

and even some couldn't match what they did in Q1, which is completely the opposite versus what we would normally anticipate from one of these qualifying sessions. Regularly you will see throughout Q1, there's quite a lot of track improvement. Q2, that improvement continues a little bit more, but maybe slows down a bit. And then we get through to Q3.

At that point, the track is fairly rubbered in. You may be still finding a tenth, half, a tenth of a second in Q3, but the jump has slowed down a bit. But you are still improving at that stage of qualifying. Not so here. Again, whether it was the wind, whether it was the rain that we saw at the beginning of Q2, whether it was a combination of those factors and maybe something else.

Who knows? But, yeah, Q3, a real struggle for a lot of these teams. So Charler-Claer, who's able to come along and realistically kind of match what he'd done for the rest of qualifying, that's enough. That is suddenly enough. And I do want to praise Charles Clare. I think it was on maybe last week's either sprint qualifying episode or main qualifying episode where I lambasted Ferrari, where I was,

frustrated at Ferrari for not giving him a good enough car to compete in qualifying sessions, because Charles LeCler being at the pointy end of qualifying is thrilling. He is a wonderful qualifying driver. That was his 27th pole position in the sport so far, which is a crime that they haven't led to more victories and championship efforts, but that's a discussion for another day. He is a fantastic driver when he's got even a sniff of pole position, but those chances have been way to too infrequent so far this season. We went into Monaco with the potential that he might have a chance, but we've had over a dozen races so far this year. And Ferrari, not just Charleclair, I mean, Ferrari seemed to have really struggled in terms of this one-lap pace. And

Charles Leclair was given half an opportunity here in Q3, where others were struggling and adaptability became really important. I felt like Q3 was maybe one of the truest tests of driver skill that we've seen so far this year, you had to completely adjust your breaking points from Q2 and particularly Q1. You did have to think on the fly and start to really feel your way around the corners more than you would rather than just remembering your breaking points. And in that sense, I did think it was a true test of skill. That's where Charles LeClaire has really thrived. Sure, the gap out front is pretty marginal. That's all it took.

And as a result, he's going to start from pole position. So congratulations to him. I really do think he pulled it out the bag when he needed to most. The two drivers behind Piastrian Norris, I think going into this session, even though they would never say this out loud, I think they were probably debating between them as to which was going to be on pole position and which was going to be in second place. Such was the expected advantage that they were going to have.

we saw overnight after free practice one and free practice two, some of the simulations come out from Formula One themselves as to the kind of gap that McLaren seemingly had in terms of one lap pace and indeed race pace as well, a bit more on that in a moment. But we had, you know, going into this session, that did seem to carry through. But Piastri's done a 15-2 in the first sector, sorry, in the first part of qualifying Q1,

Lando Norris maybe not quite as on the ball, but we saw them use tires at the end of Q1 just based on the advantage they felt that they had over the rest of the field. And they were kind of right, like they were in no danger whatsoever of being in the lower echelons of qualifying throughout Q1. We get to Q2, Oscar Piaastri, effectively and Lando Norris, both in the 1 minute 14.

So Piastri is improved by about three tenths, Q1 to Q2. Lando Norris, about six tenths, Q1 to Q2. And at that point, you know, they hold a couple of attempts or so advantage on on Lanchstrol, who's had a very good lap and about the same to George Russell. But it still felt like they had something in their locker. Like if they could go out in Q3, Q3, improve again by a little bit, maybe 147 or 146, it felt incredibly unlikely that anyone was going to come close to that. And of course, conditions sort of changed.

We saw both of their runs. Their first runs were good, but also the gap wasn't as large to their competitors as we were expecting. And then their second runs, essentially no improvement. I know Norris sort of pulled it out the bag in the final sector of his second run, but not by enough to topple Oscar Piastri. and Piastri, we weren't on board with his lap quite early on, but you'd have seen him in the sort of side-by-side screen. He had about five attempts to get through the first corner.

And again, if that wind is really affecting things, that he's understandable. But he is wrestling that car to get it through in one piece, whether McClaron, maybe we finally found McLaren's, you know, weakness. Maybe this is finally it, wind, because he never really recovered. covered from there. I think he was about just over two temps off his fastest time that he did earlier on in that same session. The good news for them is that if conditions return to what we've had for the rest of the weekend, and I know there's an outside chance at some rain

tomorrow, but I think more likely than not, we won't get any, if we get a return to that, they are well positioned. Their race pace, much like their supposed qualifying pace, their advantage seems to be quite large. And it's not an easy track to overtake on. I will say that. And it's not like Ferrari are a massive disadvantage in a straight line. So maybe there is some hope from Ferrari that they can hold on to this pole position. But I think both Piastri and Norris will be looking at this as an opportunity,

whether it's on track, whether it's in the pits, to at least get one of, their cars ahead of Charle-le-le-le-in-race conditions. And I think they'll be really hoping that it will be both using that two-on-one advantage that they have. That could be very effective. The only potential issue that comes in is who is the one that's maybe somewhat sacrificed? Because the Constructors' Championship situation as it is, the driver's championship situation as it is, we are getting to a stage where I don't necessarily think Piastri is going to bend over backwards to help Norris and vice versa. They are narrowing in on this being very much a two-horse fight out in the lead with no real threat in the Constructors' Championship behind them.

So maybe they can use the two-on-one scenario tomorrow to help them out. Equally, maybe we find some resistance from one driver if they feel their disadvantage by that. George Russell's in fourth. George Russell, if you'd have told him before the session, you are going to be half a tenth away from pole. He would have gone great. I can't wait to start the front row of the grid. Oh, what? Sorry, I'm third.

Okay, third behind the McLarence. Nope. All the way down and fourth, yet only 0.053 away from the pole time. I think Mercedes have done, at least on George Russell's side of the garage, I think they've done all right here. They probably, of all teams,

were quite happy with the track temperature dropping as we were going throughout the session. They looked pretty competitive from the off. We saw that their Q1 strategy, I thought, was pretty effective. So they decided to go out just a little bit later than some of the other drivers and got a little bit better track conditions as a result of that. And they set some really, particularly on George Russell's side of the garage, but even Antonelli, they set two pretty good lap times to the point where they didn't need

to go out again later in the session. Of course, that really helps your strategic options as you go throughout Q2 and Q3. You've only burned one new set of tyres. You've therefore got another one to carry through to either Q2 or Q3. So I thought strategically the way that Mercedes managed the early part of qualifying was quite effective. Juxtapositioned here, look at Ferrari, they didn't manage it particularly well. They had to use two sets of fresh tires in Q1. And as a result of that, they put more pressure on themselves in Q2, you know, looking to use a use set on the first run before using a new set later in the session.

So I did just want to compliment Mercedes for what they did there. It looked like overall, that car was pretty good throughout the first two sectors. of the lap. That final sector, Merck struggled, I think, a little bit more than the average, which might not be awful news heading into tomorrow, because again, if, and I don't really expect him to be attempting an overtake on the couple of cars ahead. But if Vestappan finds some race pace, if Hamilton can come through the field, if Aston Martin continues to look really good. I think he'll have the straight line speed that even if his race pace is worse than his qualifying pace, I don't think he's going to be challenged. Speaking of Aston Martin, the second

best constructor here in P5 and P6, I've got to give credit the both of them. You know, Fernando Alonzo has again out qualified Landstrol, which extends that street going back to Silverstone of last year. And, you know, in that time, I've been very critical. of Lance Stroll, you know, where he hasn't been able to perform in qualifying where his teammate has. There have been quite a few Landstrol Q1 eliminations, where Alonso has maybe either made it through to Q2 or made it through to Q3. Even though Alonzo has outqualified stroll here, I'm not going to be doing that today because both of them have done a fantastic job here to the point where 0.017 separates the two of them. So it's an Alonzo win, but it is incredibly

marginal. I think from Alonzo's side, he seemed pretty happy with his lap when it came to an end, maybe a little bit of time in the middle sector that he could be rowing. But overall, great attempt. Another thing that Aston Martin may be rowing. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference here, but they were quite conservative with how early they went for really both runs, but particular focus on the second run. did they miss out on any best track conditions? My instinct is probably no, just based on the lack of improvements from the likes of Oscar Piastri late on, but maybe they will question that decision, I'm not sure.

Even so, fifth and sixth is not only a great result, it's a genuine great result. They aren't there by luck. It's not like everyone else really struggled with the conditions in Q3 and because of that, their performance was elevated to fifth and sixth. That is not what happened. They were on pace to finish fifth and six throughout Q1 and Q2, if not better. You know, they struggled with these changing conditions just as much as everyone else, to the point where Lance Stroll, Lance Stroll delivered an excellent lap in Q2. If he had matched his time in Q3, no improvement, just matched his time Q2 to Q3, he would have been.

on pole by two tenths of a second. So again, this isn't a fluke. Astor Martin struggled in Q3 like everyone else, but their pace was genuine. Their pace were alongside the Ferraris, alongside maybe not quite the McLaren's. It was genuine. Is there any disappointment from their side that they haven't got inside the top four? I don't know. But based on where they've been in recent Grand Prix, I think this is a fine effort. Really, I've got to, got two questions for Aston Martin heading into tomorrow's Grand Prix. Question one is, is their race pace going to match their one lap pace? Instinct is maybe not quite.

They have struggled quite a lot with tire wear, particularly recently. And I think tire wear is likely to be quite high here. If, again, we don't get this, maybe we get this rain. But if we don't get this rain, that will be put to the test once more. So that's kind of the first question, do they have the race pace to match their qualifying pace? The second question is, will it even matter? Because, again, it's so difficult to make overtakes at the Hungara ring. Maybe they get away with it.

Even if we see the likes of Alonzo and Stroll really back away from the drivers in front of them as the stink carries on. And maybe they start to form a bit of a train behind. That's okay. It doesn't matter how many seconds behind you are. it doesn't matter if you're a 10th behind fourth place or you're 10 seconds behind. The number of points you get for fifth and sixth is exactly the same. And that could be a really valuable as many as 18 points if they were to just stay where they've qualified.

But at least in terms of today and how they've performed in qualifying, respect to both of them, I think they've done a really good job. Okay, I'm going to take a short break here, but there's plenty more to get through in Q3 and then also some key talking points on some Q2 eliminations. Welcome back, everyone, to the second part of today's qualifying review, looking at how the Hungarian Grand Prix grid stacks up, and we move next to sort of the lower part of Q3. A couple of necessary conversations, a couple of necessary shoutouts,

because Gabriel Bortoletto, whose qualifying results have improved massively in the last few races. That has continued here. He will start seventh on the grid. Bortoletto was three and a half temps away from pole. Like, these gaps are not very large as we've got through to Q3. Weirdly, he was another one where I think his best lap was set at the end of Q1. You know, he said a very good lap at the end of Q1, kind of matched it in Q2 as he sort of squeezed

through. I think he was in P10. But he's really taken advantage of being in Q3, which hasn't always been the case over the last a few Grand Prix. Like, if you look at Belgium specifically, he made it through to both SQ3 and Q3, and I think in both instances, he qualified in P10. Not only has he got through to Q3 once more,

but he's actually beaten three drivers while he's there. He's beaten both racing balls, and he's beaten Max Verstappen, albeit by 3,000th of a second. Sure, the gap from Bortoletto to the top six is, you know, maybe the biggest gap that we've seen in Q3. that's just over two tenths. But even though it's an improved salber, it's still a salber,

and I would ask you, where's his teammate? Bortoletto has out qualified Holkenberg again. It's not like we've seen a massive deficit between the two of them all season long, but over the last few races at least, it feels like Bortoletto has made a real jump in qualifying, whereas Hulkenberg is maybe struggling to extract the maximum from the car

in some of these qualifying sessions. Do bear in mind, despite Holkenberg having had a couple of really excellent results recently, the P3 of course Silverstone is the standout there, they've come from bad qualifying positions. Austria was a Q1 knockout. Silverstone was a Q1 knockout. Now, he's played it wonderfully in terms of race pace and strategy to get himself back into the conversation for really good points.

And if you're going to do it a way round, that is the right way round. But there is going to be 12 spots separating Bortoletto and Hulkemberg on tomorrow's grid. Holkenberg on the back row of the grid in 19th, Bortoletto in 7th. And you look at Q1 and the gap between them, half a second, Borteletto has managed to pull on his teammates. So well done to Bortoletto in his rookie season. really starting to adjust to this sport. And as I would have mentioned last week, there's a reason he was the Formula 2 champion last year.

And increasingly we're seeing why in F1. Max Verstappen is 8th. And it tells you a lot about where Red Bull are this weekend, that that feels like a pretty all right result. Will there be disappointment that he's not seventh? Sure. But I don't think he's touching the top six. you know, throughout practice,

I think there were some serious doubts about if the Stappan can't deliver one of his classic laps, there is a chance that he's not in Q3 because that was the genuine pace of the Red Bull as we went throughout those practice sessions. I think his overall ideal lap time from FP3 would have put in 10th. So there was some doubt about how far into qualifying

he was actually going to get. He's managed to navigate Q1. He's managed to navigate Q2. He's got through to Q3 and done enough to beat the sister team. He's done enough to beat Lawson and Hadjar. But that's it. But honestly, with Red Bull and where they're at, that might be it this weekend.

A really tough one for him so far, a track that he has had some notable performances at in the past. Now, Vastappan and Red Bull is similar to Salber and Bortoletto, where there are two qualifying sessions separating the two drivers. So whereas Bortoletto was 7th and Holgerberg 19th, Vestappan, 8th, and Sonoda down in 16th. On paper, it doesn't look great, but honestly, Red Bull are struggling so much

that I don't think Sonoda has done a huge amount wrong here. To be only a 10th and a half away from Max Vastappen in a qualifying session, over the last few years, that's pretty good. In fact, that's very good. But that just shows how much they're struggling. That still wasn't enough. You know, Sonoda, I think in the first run in Q1 was two tens away. So I think he improved versus, like, his rate of improvement from first run to second run was better than Vostappans.

Now, he's still slower than him, but a lot of, you know, being slower than Vestappan, I don't think is a massive crime. I'm not putting this Q1 exit firmly on Yuki Sanoda. could he have made it through to Q2? Well, he was only one position away. Yes, he could have done. But it's not that bad of an effort when Verstappan's only a 10th and a half ahead of you on track. To round out Q3, only the third team

with two cars in Q3. Yeah, weirdly today, we had three teams that had two cars in the final part qualifying, McLaren, Aston Martin, and Racing Bulls. If you called that ahead of the weekend, please give me your lottery numbers for next week. Unfortunately for racing balls, they couldn't advance any further than P9 and P10. I think they'll be a bit frustrated about that because particularly Hadjar was showing early

and qualifying that this was a car with genuine pace to the point where I think 7th and 8th was in play here. You know, Lawson has, I think Lawson all throughout the weekend has looked a little bit worse than Hadjar, but when it matters most, he's the one that's just about made the most of the car and he'll start one position ahead of his teammate. I will be honest, I'm not sure why Hadjar only did one run in Q3 and maybe with that added pressure on his second run, that's aided him being a 10th or so behind his teammate, but certainly some frustration from Hadjar because he did look like he was going to out-qualify his teammate and probably get a bit higher up the grid

than 10th. Even so, that's a solid position to work with tomorrow. In terms of QRQA, in terms of QR, Q2. I guess two notable names above the others, those being Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli. Let's start with Kimmy Antonelli because, again, this is a pretty big gap to George Russell that would explain why he's been knocked out. Again, just to reference back, like Yuki Sonoda, a tenth and a half away from his teammate, Antonelli here is five tenths away from his teammate in terms of their, well, I say their. best lap in Q2. It didn't even stand because Antonelli's lap was invalidated, but it still wouldn't have been enough anyway. If that time had stood, he would have been half a tenth away from George Russell in 11th and eight tenths away from the fastest time in the session. That lab didn't stand because of track limits, so he was knocked down to 15th and he's got even more work to do on race day.

he was hoping going into this weekend that maybe going back to an older version of the suspension might help him along. It hasn't worked out that way as of yet. Like I said, that's a pretty big gap. And it is not easy to make overtakes around the Hungara ring. Now, of course, he had pretty good exposure to finding overtaking difficult last weekend at Belgium when he had a setup that just wasn't set up for straight line speed whatsoever in the main Grand Prix, and he was constantly stuck behind cars that he was quicker than,

but didn't have the opportunity to show it. 15th place at Hungara Ring, he will need something. He'll definitely need something on the first lap. He'll need to find a few positions on the first lap because after that, it might get increasingly difficult. There are a couple of cars ahead of him, like signs and Colopinto specific, that he'll fancy get him by quite quickly. But after that, the job becomes quite a bit more tricky.

Martin Brundel on Sky Sports commentary referred to his lap as maybe him trying to overdrive the car. I have to say, I agree. It is clear there's pace there. It is clear there's pace. But in terms of extracting it, it does seem to be a bit hit and miss at the moment. and in all honesty, there are more misses than hits. It is the first season of his career.

He is really young. So I would expect things to turn around at some point, but they're not being turned around just yet. Lewis Hamilton, to go to the other end of the experience spectrum, I guess, knocked out in Q2. Now, he didn't look like he had the pace of Shao LaClaire throughout this qualifying session, throughout Q1 and Q2.

And indeed the practice sessions, I think LeCleur had the advantage as well. This is not unusual compared to what we've had throughout the season so far. We've seen most weekends, Charles Lecler has had at least a 10 or two advantage on its teammate. I think the biggest frustration for Hamilton will be, it's twofold because part of it's focused on himself, part of it's focused on Lecler. Firstly, Charles Lecler, despite the fact he's got pole position, doesn't like this track. and he has said that it might be his worst one on the calendar. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, very much does like this circuit.

He has won here a stupid number of times. I think it would be the record for most number of race wins at one Grand Prix if it weren't for the British GP. So he has been very successful here. It was successful here in his McLaren days. He won here three times for McLaren, five times for Mercedes, not able to progress beyond Q2. really struggling with the rear of that car.

That did not look stable whatsoever on his fastest laps. Not the biggest gap in the world to Charles LeClaire in Q2. It's two and a half tense, so it's sizable, but also we have got bigger gaps out there, but ultimately not enough to progress. Ferrari at that point in the session looked like they were struggling enough that even though it's not a good result, it didn't look outright awful,

it looked like Charles LeClaire, who made it through to Q3, might not be in contention for more than about fifth place. The fact that Charles LeClaire got to Q3 and has managed to put it on pole puts a bigger spotlight on the underperformance of Lewis Hamilton here. I think just based on where Ferrari have been throughout the weekend, seemingly the second fastest car in normal conditions, he should make some recovery.

He should make some ground here. Whether it's going to be enough to get back inside the top six, top five, top four, I don't know. But I would expect there to be some overtakes involved in his Grand Prix. But yeah, he was frustrated. And I can understand why it didn't look like going into qualifying that he was going to be a threat to be knocked out before Q3, as was the case at the Belgian GP. But we got there and, you know,

he didn't have it. A couple more teams to focus on. I think I've, I think I've run through about seven or so of the team. So just to give a little bit of attention on the last view, Hasse will start 11th and 18th. Ollie Berman loves P11. He really does. He'll be frustrated because he made quite a significant error in Q3 on, sorry, in sector 3 on his lap, to the point where I think he would have got through. The gap between Bortoletto and 10th, Beerman, Hamilton, signs, it's pretty marginal. So he didn't need to improve by much to get through to the final part of qualifying. He's still obviously the faster of the two Has guys.

And that's kind of bit of trend recently. It does look like in one lap pace, Beerman has not just even a small advantage. I'd say a considerable advantage over Ocon recently. Still not enough to make it through to Q3 though. A bit disappointed with that, I would imagine, but still through to the second part of qualifying. And something to work with tomorrow if there's any problems ahead of him. From memory, his sector one times were very good,

at least in comparison to the rest of the midfield. So it looks like they've maybe gone for a setup that is going to be tough for others to make overtakes on him and maybe give him an opportunity to make overtakes on some members of the field if they happen to be slower than him. So maybe we see some progress against the racing bulls, perhaps. If it turns out that he's got better race pace, I wouldn't put money on it. But he'll probably finish P11, weren't he?

It'll be in and amongst there if nothing goes wrong. Ocon, a disappointment down in 18th place. He was three temps away from his teammate in Q1. and honestly as we were going throughout practice and the early part of qualifying, I wasn't overly surprised about it. So, yes, seven positions separating those two on the grid. Williams, tough weekend for them so far.

So Science is going to start 13th. Albin will start dead last. He was the only driver who was more than a second behind the best time in Q1 and just over five and a half tenths behind Carlos Sines' team mate. the race pace doesn't look much better either. I'll be honest, when I was having a look at the numbers.

It doesn't look particularly great. I just think this maybe isn't their track. And it has been, their form has been patchier, I think, as the season has gone on, certainly to start the year, there was a really good run of form that album specifically had when we were in Miami. They seem to have a better car than Ferrari in Miami, if you remember back that far. a few races either side of that as well where they looked pretty good. They've still sometimes got it.

I mean, Albin himself had a fantastic result of the Belgian GP, but it does seem to be more hit and miss, more inconsistent than what we had earlier. This doesn't look like their track at all. To the point where they were the first cars out in Q1, knowing that they were probably going to need three runs to even have a shot of making it through to Q2. ultimately that's exactly what happened. They went really early with a second run

in order to give themselves time for a third run, still not enough for Albin to progress further than last place. But Carlos Sines, to give him credit, I thought his Q1 lap was brilliant. I didn't think, I sometimes make a mental note going into Q1 and Q2, like which five drivers do I think are most likely to go out here? I actually had this down as a double Williams Q1 knockout going into this session.

So the fact that signs progressed and he wasn't that close to elimination either. Like he was, I think, either knocking on the top 10 or maybe just inside the top 10 in Q1, couldn't progress more in Q2, but he was within a 10th of the likes of Berman and Hamilton. So I don't think that's a disaster either. It'll be tough for him tomorrow, though. I just don't think that Williams has got a lot of pace. Speaking of not a lot of pace, Alpine, oh dear, 14th and 17th. Credit to Colopinto, firstly, because he's made it through to Q2, whereas his teammate hasn't. And if you go throughout

all of practice and all of qualifying so far, that is sticking with the trend of the weekend. Like Colapinto has looked the faster of the two cars this weekend so far. So credit to him for that and then also executing on that as we've got through to Qualifying. We know Ghazly is capable of some fantastic qualifying sessions. Not today. Colopinto about a 10th quicker. That was the difference between Colopinto making Q2 and Gasly not making Q2 in 17th. A shame really for Colopinto that he didn't put together a very good lap in Q2.

I think he was in the 16th in Q2, which was enough to be about three temps slower than even Carlos signs ahead of him. But to be honest, even if he matched his time, that's still. wouldn't have quite been enough to make it through to Q3. So I think in time-wise, he would have liked to have been knocking on the door of the couple ahead of him, but it might not have actually changed his position. So from 14th, that car still looks like garbage. So I don't think he'll make progress. But he at least has a chance of his best position of the season so far.

I think that's 13th. So he's going to be if he can hold position and maybe take advantage of a DNF or two, even if it doesn't get him to the points, he might have a chance of getting his best result of the season so far. Maybe that's not much consolation. I don't know. All that leaves is driver of the session. And honestly, just to run through the contenders here,

I think you'd have to say Bortoletto is in the mix. And probably Leclerc, it's probably a two-horse race between Bortletto and Lecler. for driver of the session. I'm going to give it to Charles LeCler, just because going into Q3, I did not think he was in that fight for pole. I think based on his team radio

after he completed his pole lap, he didn't think he was in the fight for pole position. But what he did, particularly in the middle sector of his flying lap, that was some LeCler magic to just pit Piastri, Norris and Russell to the post. So can he keep it? Will Ferrari throw it away?

of those questions going into tomorrow, but at least for today, he is my driver of the session. And that is going to do it for this qualifying review. We are, I appreciate I promised this last week and then it didn't happen. So I don't know why I'm doing this now. It's going to go horribly wrong, but I'm going to say it, we're going to be back as a trio tomorrow. That is the plan. And if that doesn't happen, you can all call me a liar in Discord. And if you want to join Discord, The link is in the description. We've got thousands of people in our Discord, various different channels.

It's essentially a way for you to chat to fellow F1 fans. We drop in there as well, ask us questions, talk with fellow fans. It's a really good time. And particularly on race day, there's a lot of activity going on. So maybe you are a member and you haven't been to the Discord in a little while.

Why not check it out? But if you don't want to go to Discord City, there's always Patreon City just next door. So if you're not subscribed to Patreon, make sure you are because there's plenty of content coming out. We have obviously just started August. So all of your benefits reset again. Add free episodes all the way throughout every single episode we do.

Add free. That includes the full catalogue of previous episodes too. And of course, we're going to have power rankings after this Grand Prix. It will be the last one for a little while too. So make sure you're there as we review all of the drivers, all 20 drivers get a little bit of a spotlight in power rankings that will be released on the Monday after the Grand Prix. That's going to do it until tomorrow. Keep breaking late. Podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.