The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Italian GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: September 6, 2025

The Temple of Speed lived up to its name with a thrilling, closely contested qualifying session! Ben breaks down all the key moments - from a surprise pole position and the fastest lap in F1 history, to the fate of the Ferrari drivers on home soil... >>> Don't miss out - limited tickets left for our 2025 LIVE SHOW in Austin TX! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICK HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to grab yours or for more info!

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by me, Ben Hocking, reviewing the Italian Grand Prix qualifying session that has just finished. Oh boy, I do love me an Italian Grand Prix qualifying. I think it's right up there with one of the. best Saturdays that we get throughout the season. Maybe Max Verstappen agrees with me because he has taken pole position for tomorrow's race.

Oh, and he set a best lap ever in the history of F1 as well, just to add that in there as well. But the result is the most important thing here. That's what he's achieved. Pole position ahead of the two McLarence, Lando Norris in second, Oscar Piastri in third. A little bit of a Noah's Ark emerging behind Max Verstappen, as we've got. both Ferrari's fourth and fifth, although they won't stay there due to Lewis Hamilton's penalty

and George Russell and Kimi Antonelli and the Mercedes sixth and seventh. But plenty more going on outside of the top 10 as well. But we'll start right at the top because that lap from Max Verstappen deserves adulation,

and that's exactly what it's going to get on this episode. We saw, I think going into this qualifying session, The McLarence haven't been vulnerable many times so far this year. And hey, they've ended up with a second and third place finish. So it's far from a disaster for them. But I think we felt going into this session that it wasn't going to be as routine as it has been recently for that papaya duo.

We've seen with some of the high down force tracks, particularly Zambolt last time out. We've had it earlier on in the season as well. that's really where a car that is already brilliant really shines. And either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri or in a lot of cases, both of them could get that pole lap, could get that one-two start, that front row lockout. But we've seen at a few of these lower downforce circuits where top speed comes into its own and we're looking at drag more than downforce, suddenly Max Verstappen can start to challenge. whether that follows through to race day, it's been a bit mixed.

In some instances, he has been able to, in some instances, not so much. But at least in qualifying sessions, we have seen him there or thereabouts. You know, the Belgian weekend was a good example of that. Again, lower down four circuit. Silverstone, obviously it kind of unfolded not in the way that Vastappen would have liked on race day, partly due to his setup and the conditions of Silverstone that day, but again, another low downforce track where Vastappen has been able to mix it with the McLarence. Same story as we got through to qualifying today.

And this wasn't a case of Vastappen being able to find something completely unexpected at the end of Q3. It felt like from the off, even going through practice sessions, he was going to be there or thereabouts. I believe he was second fastest in the first part of qualifying. I think he might have been the overall fastest driver in Q2, fastest on the first run of Q3. So it was looking like it was on the cards, but it still took an unbelievable lap late in Q3 in order to get that pole position, to wrestle that pole position away from Lando Norris and McLaren's grasp. So credit to him, it's not an easy qualifying session, as entertaining as it is for all of us watching. It's not an easy qualifying session.

We often see, I'll get on to the McLaren's in a moment, but if you are struggling at any point in Q1 or Q2, you know, lap times gone, gone astray or an invalidated lap time, suddenly you're under pressure. You maybe have one fewer set of new tyres to work with. Vastappan, outside of one small error going through the middle sector that didn't cost him all that much anyway, seemed not only on it, but very consistently on it. And I think that paid dividends as he got through to Q3, two very clean runs, the second of which was just about faster. And that one 18792, good enough for poll. I was wondering whether we were going to get into the one minute 18s today.

ultimately three drivers have achieved it, but Vastappen, the quickest of those three. McLaren, far from a disaster, second and third. It will be Norris ahead of Piastri on this occasion. It's going to be an interesting start tomorrow. We know the championship situation that McLaren find themselves in. Constructors-wise, okay, it's not completely mathematically settled, but it's settled. And we're starting to turn our attention to the driver's championship battle. between Piastri, who has that lead over Landau Norris right now? And I think Landon Norris, as Q3 was drawing to a close, would have been feeling all right about his position.

When he set that pole position lap, or the provisional pole position lap, I should say, he had a car between himself and Oscar Piastri. Now, we'll never know, unless they switch positions at the start of the race tomorrow. We won't know how that situation would have unfolded. but I think Lando Norris would have been in those 10 seconds looking forward to a car being between himself and his teammate. Because of that DNF at Zamvort, Norris is now not just looking out for being the fastest, being the best in all of these sessions. One-twos are going to help, but Piastri can afford a few of those at this point based on the points gap between them. He's starting to look for opportunities of can this be a one-three?

Can this be, I'm winning and Piastri is not on the podium? Because those sorts of results would make far more of a difference in this championship fight. At least temporarily, it looked like there might be a car between them. But Lando Norris Pip to the post, I still think that's a good lap from him. There have been times this season where I've maybe been a little bit critical of the McLaren duo for not completely maximizing qualifying, particularly on Lando Norris's side. of the garage. I think they've both done a pretty good job here.

I'll be honest. Both getting in the 118s. This isn't one where I feel like this should have been locked in like 100% pole position for one of these two. It was still there for the taking, no doubt about it. But I think they've done all right to get second and third. Norris was struggling a little bit earlier in the day. You know, as he went through Q2, had a lockup on his first.

on on new tires that impacted the rest of the session to the point where there was some jeopardy as the session drew to a close as to whether he would even make it to Q3. He was P11 until he set that final lap that was good enough. And given it was on used tires at that point or tires that had done one fast lap already, pretty good stuff, I think, from Lando Norris. you know, when the situation was at its toughest, he responded, even if it was self-inflicted. Piastri also didn't have the absolute smoothest day he's ever had. I think Norris has had a slight pace advantage on Piastri throughout this weekend, maybe somewhat influenced by the fact that Piastri didn't get to compete in FP1.

This was one of those sessions where he had to give up his car as his mandatory within the rules. I think we've seen from Piastri so far this season that he has been able to make up that gap to Lando Norris as we've got closer to the end of Q3. I think we saw that a little bit today, but maybe not quite as exaggerated as it has been at other circuits so far this year, to the point where I still think Norris did, again, have that slight pace advantage, in which case, I don't think Piastri is going to be overly disappointed that he's third here.

he'll have an opportunity. He can get in that slipstream of Max Verstapp. And if Norris doesn't get a great start, then other opportunities start to unfold. But it is always a dramatic rundown to turn one, but then also where Piastri made his move on Norris last year. He'll be remembering that. I'm sure Norris will remember that. So opportunities from P3 for Piastri. Last thing I did want to say very briefly on the McLaren duo is there was a little bit

bit of time left on the table in Q3, not a lot of it. But where we saw Max Verstappen and Red Bull strength was very clearly the first and the final sectors. McLaren went, as they usually do, a little bit more downforce heavy to the point where they were quicker in the middle part of the lap where you've got the two Lesmo corners, really the only part of the lap that isn't almost 100% flat out in a straight line. But what we what we saw is. is that Piastri struggled in the first sector, even versus his teammate. He was a tenth down. But then what we saw in the middle sector is Piastri really pulled it out the bag, whereas Lando Norris didn't. I think if you combined Piastri's middle sector and Norris's first

sector, you get a time that is either good enough for poll or very close to pole. So I think both of them will have learnings from today. Moving slightly further down, but not too much further down, P4 and P5 for the home favourites of Chaulechler and Lewis Hamilton. Of course, Lewis Hamilton knew that five-place penalty was incoming anyway. So he qualifies fifth in his first qualifying session for Ferrari at Monza, but he will start down in 10th. Shaulcler, though, will keep his fourth place position on the grid. Very close to getting Oscar Piastri at the end as well, about a quarter of a 10th,

separating those two at the flag. I don't think there'll be too much disappointment from Leclair that he couldn't get by Piastri. It was a bit disappointing that both LeCler and Hamilton couldn't improve on their second runs in Q3, whereas everyone else ahead of them did. I think that might have just been a case of the Ferrari was pretty much maxed out with what LeCler did on his first run, 119 flat, let's call it. I think we saw steady progress from the Ferraris as we went throughout this qualifying session. It's not been a strength of theirs all year.

Lecler first, 8 in Q1, 197, Q2, 193, Q3, 19 flat. A few temps improvement from Q1 to Q2, and then the same again from Q2 to Q3. That's what you're looking for as a driver, regardless really of what car you're in. So I think in that sense, P4 might have been the max he could have achieved. I know he had that a bit of a rogue pole position at Hungary just a couple of races ago, but I emphasised that I think it was a bit rogue and didn't necessarily follow a form book based on some of the qualifying struggles that we've had from both Ferrari drivers so far this year. I think P4, P5 isn't too shabby.

Lewis Hamilton again we knew a five place penalty wasn't coming so I think a fifth place to still start in the top ten pretty good Hamilton has struggled in qualifying as of late particularly the likes of the likes of spa Hungary was another tough one as well the fact that he's been able to at least on track

get a P5 and be there with his team mate only one tenth behind not too bad at all interesting from Ferrari and I'm interested here, your thoughts on it as well, about the way in which they tactically went about their second run in Q3, with Lewis Hamilton being the driver of the two to get a tow. Of course, theoretically, Hamilton doesn't have a shot at the front row of the grid

or even the top two rows on the grid, doesn't have a shot of pole. And Leclair, if he pulls together the lap, he could have got that done. But on the other hand, Lewis Hamilton maybe has more to lose. So maybe they're thinking, if as they have actually done, if they can keep Hamilton ahead of the two Mercedes, at least on track,

then suddenly they're not starting Lewis Hamilton 12th or 13th. They're starting in 10th. It doesn't sound like the biggest difference in the world, but it can make a difference when it comes to Monza. And lastly, in this first part of our review, of Italian GP qualifying. Mercedes, as mentioned, it does end up being a little bit of a Noah's arc line up here with McLaren 2-3, Ferrari 4-5, and you've got Mercedes who will start 5th and 6th and 5th, but qualified 6th and 7th. George Russell, just about ahead of Kimmy Antonelli,

but only by half a 10th of a second. That gap seemed to be a little bit all over the place between Russell and Antonelli, particularly early on, Russell seemed to have a quite a large advantage over Kimmy Antonelli, who has had a bit of a disrupted weekend, was beached, which isn't the first time we've said that so far this year. He was beached in the gravel in FP2. That caused him to miss out on nearly all of the session. Effected is the way in which they run FP3 as well. they had to focus a little bit more on long runs at the beginning of the session where others were already into their one lap outright qualifying pace. So to see them only separated by half a tenth of a second, I think Antonelli will be quietly pleased

with that. This was maybe an opportunity for Antonelli to beat George Russell, because I'm not sure either driver has absolutely maximised Q3 here. Russell's a very interesting one. So we heard on Team Radio that he wanted the medium tire for this final run. And it's not the first time that that would have been, that tactic would have been deployed this year. He used it to good effect at Canada where he got pole position. I'm not saying Paul was on the cards here and maybe even George Russell would admit that.

But it would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if he was on that medium compound. In this instance, we don't have any other driver that we can really compare it to. If he was on that strategy, he would have been the only one. So it's very difficult to say in hindsight, whether it was the right or wrong decision. But what we can say is, Russell's rate of improvement as we went throughout qualifying was distinctly less than what we saw from the drivers ahead,

particularly Max Verstappen is a great benchmark here. Bear in mind that Russell on the medium tire set the absolute fastest lap in Q1, albeit only half a tenth ahead of Max Verstapp, But then what we see is Max Verstappen, Q1 to Q2, improves by three tenths of a second. From Q2 to Q3, it's actually even more. It's not far off four temps, three and a half tenths that he's improved by. Whereas Russell improves Q1 to Q2 by just over a tenth.

And you get the exact same thing from Q2 to Q3 to the point where he hasn't even found three tenths from Q1 to Q3. which is a pretty low rate of improvement. Is that down to the tyres? Would they have been able to find something where no one else could on the mediums? Again, no way of knowing. But there will be disappointment, I think,

given he was, what, only half a tenth behind Lewis Hamilton. It's not one that's actually going to cost him a position whatsoever, but in terms of overall lap time, maybe there was something. Maybe there was something in there. Russell seemed to struggle in the final part of the lap. compared to the drivers ahead. Similar to Ferrari, actually.

Ferrari seemed to be pretty good in the first part of the lap and kind of got slower as they went on. But I think overall, given Antonelli where he was at the beginning of this weekend, given the fact that Russell will start fifth place on track and they'll have LeCler to attack directly in front of him, not a bad qualifying position for the Mercedes duo. I'm going to take a very short break.

And on the other side, we're going to get into the lower parts of Q3, but then also delve into Q2 and Q1. Welcome back, everyone, as we continue to review Italian GP qualifying at Monza. And we'll stay in the top 10 because we've only looked at first through seventh to this point, but we've got a few standout drivers towards the bottom of the top 10, particularly in the instances of Gabrielle Bortoletto and Fernando Alonzo, manager and manager-gey, as I'm going to call them. Not the first time we've seen these two drivers in Q3.

Particularly impressive here. I know 8th and 9th doesn't jump off the page, but given the fact that the seven drivers in front do essentially occupy the top seven in the driver's championship, this might have been the max for both of these drivers. Bortoletto continues to shine, particularly in a qualifying session. We've seen it translate a little bit more recently

to race pace as well. But in qualifying, he is really doing a job on Nico Holcomberg. With Monza, and I'll make the same point about Fernando Alonzo, with Monza qualifying, because of the way the track is set up and how long you're on full throttle and not having that many corners, we often see that teams or the two drivers within a team are very close to each other.

Indeed, the whole grid was very close, but particularly these intra-team battles, they do get very close. There's just not a lot of opportunity to make that much time over your teammate, giving the same machinery available to you. So it's very common that we will see, as we've got with Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren,

you'll have Anne Williams and Alpine, actually, five of the 10 teams will not necessarily start because, again, at the Hamilton grid penalty, but five of the 10 teams have qualified next to each other. And eight of the 10 teams, Salba and Aston Martin are the exceptions to this. Both drivers have either made it through to Q3 or they've been knocked out in the same session. The only exceptions again, a Salba where Holcomberg's knocked out in Q2 and Bortoletto's made it through to Q3 and Aster Martin where Alonzo again has made it through to Q3 and Stroll was knocked out in Q1.

So great effort from both of these drivers to really do a job on their teammates. It's not the biggest gap in the world when you look at Bortletto to Holcomberg. A tenth and a half was separating them in Q2 and ultimately with the grid being so close, that was enough to make the difference. Honestly, I mean, you look at the way in which this grid is made up. A couple attempts at any other circuit wouldn't seem like a massive amount, but it's significant enough here. I think Bortoletto has benefited a lot from the fact that Vostappen seemed to be giving him a toe 90% of the time in qualifying.

He still did a very good job to take advantage of that. But the only thing that Bortoletto might be disappointed by, and again, I'll say the same thing about Alonzo, didn't go faster in Q3 versus Q2. Not by a huge amount. Bortel has it does a 119-3-3-3 in Q2. a 390 in Q3. So you're looking at two laps that are separated by less than a tenth of a second. Would it have made any difference to Bortoletto?

Not really, because if he had set the same time in Q2, he still would have been in eighth, which will become seventh. But he still, you know, he was a full two temps away from Antonelli. So he would have needed quite a lot of improvement from Q2 to Q3 for a driver and a salber in order to, affect any of the top teams.

Alonzo, I appreciate Bortoletto and Alonzo are at different stages of their career, so you can adjust your expectations accordingly. But I think I'm even more impressed by what Alonzo's done here in 9th. This was a track, and we mentioned this quite a few times on the preview, we didn't think that Aster Martin would thrive here. We thought that based on their pace at some of these high-downforce tracks, like Hungary, for example, that when we came to somewhere like Monza,

they might be struggling a little bit in a straight line. And honestly, it looked like that was going to be the case and still might be tomorrow. We don't know. But throughout practice, I had it nailed on, but I felt fairly confident at least one of the Aston Martins were going to be knocked out in Q1, but honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me if both of them were

because them, Hasse and Alpine were looking like the slowest three teams on the grid throughout much of practice. But Alonso has absolutely pulled it out the bag.

You know, great first running in Q1 to do in 196. That was good enough for sixth place overall. So he wasn't close to being knocked out in Q1. And honestly,

not that close to being knocked out in Q2 either, the fact that he improved by three attempts from Q1 to Q2. Same slight disappointment as brought Alonzo will be, he didn't maintain that time in Q3 and hasn't improved. Now, I think based on the tire usage, perhaps with both Alonzo and Bortoleto,

I think they would have only had one fresh tire run between them, one fresh tire run each. I think they would have used tires on the first run. So I think Alonzo and Borteletto, Alonzo might argue that he should be ahead of Bortelso if he matches his time in Q2. but a great job from both of them. Really impressed. Really impressed. The other driver that I haven't mentioned

who made it through to Q3 is Yuki Sonoda, who will start in 10th. Murmers of a potential battery issue at the end of Q3 and I can't really comment on that one way or the other. The fact that he is seven tempts

behind Vastappan maybe indicates that there was something going on. Whereas Vastappen improved a lot, as already mentioned, from Q2 to Q3. Sonoda could not do that at all. He was a fairly similar pace, really, from Q1 onwards. But whereas he was a tenth and a bit, a tenth and a half or so away from Vastappen in Q1,

if he does that in Q3, by the way, he's in third place. But that gap kind of just increased and increased the further we got through Q3, through Q2 and then Q3. It's tough to judge him too much because if there is that battery issue, then So yeah, that's really unfortunate and he probably wouldn't have been able to get anything better than 10th. But yeah, just based on his teammate getting pole position, if his car was functioning, as it should have been done, he should have been there in the top five. Again, Monza isn't a place where you normally see half a second gaps between teammates. So I won't go too harsh on Sonoda here until I learn a little bit more about that battery issue, whether it exists and how much it was actually impacting him.

Outside the top 10, a couple of teams had both cars knocked out in Q2, those being Hasse and Williams. I'll start with Williams in 13th and 14th, Carlos signed just about ahead of Alex Albin. A messy session for both of them, in all honesty, and maybe a frustratingly messy session, because as we've gone throughout this 2025 season, William started the year very strong, at least by their standards in the midfield that they were clearly the elite. But as we've gone throughout this season, sometimes they still have the pace, but sometimes they don't. Based on the Williams car characteristics, I think there was some confidence that they could be a feature in Q3. I certainly thought going into today, they had a chance of getting both cars into Q3.

the fact that they not only haven't got one car, not only haven't got any car, but the fact that they aren't even on the cars, they're not 11th, they're not 12th, they're not on the cusp, but 13th and 14th. It's a disappointing result for them. Now, it's not the end of the world. Their race pace did look pretty good, so I think they have a chance of making progress into the points, but it's unlikely to be big time points, as maybe in, maybe some of the times indicated, throughout practice. It looked like they could be the best of the rest. They could be eighth and ninth or something like that. And they just weren't able to achieve it. They didn't have that pace. Alex Albin in particular, a really scruffy couple of qualifying

sessions. We saw him mess up Ascari, which pretty much ruined a lap. He also locked up going into term one as well, ruined another lap. So a really tough session for him. Carlos Seines looked very good in Q1. He was fifth fastest. So I think he was definitely in contention for getting through to Q3, but for whatever reason, whereas Alonzo Bortoletto, they found time, or significant time, I should say, from Q1 to Q2, not really the case for Carlos Sines. He improved by a 10th, but a 10th wasn't that much compared to some of the other teams.

So again, margins are close. maybe on another day, this could have been a Q3 appearance for one of them, but I think they will be disappointed with 13th and 14th. The other team that were both knocked out in Q2 as Haas, and I'm actually kind of on the opposite side of this one, in that I think they'll be relatively happy with 11th and 15th. Now, long term, you don't want Has to be happy with 11th and 15th, and a couple of years ago, that would have been an underperformance based on where they usually qualify. but it has been their big weakness all year has been qualifying.

They have routinely struggled to get both cars out of Q1. That's a stat I should have looked up before this. It seems like every week that they have at least one car knocked out in Q3. So for Berman to get right to the top of Q2, very nearly made it through. It took that last minute improvement from Norris to deny him a Q3 appearance. An Ocon to make it through to Q2 as well. I think they'll be pretty happy with that. They've shown quite a few times this year that they've got better race pace than qualifying pace.

So if they've now got a slightly better starting position to use that, they might finally be driven a little bit further away from these rather dramatic strategies that they go through that, in fairness to them, sometimes work. We've just seen it at Zamvort where Bearman was able to get good points after starting from the pit lane. but it's not something that works routinely. It's not something that works all the time. So to see them in the mix, that is encouraging. Behrman has outqualified Ocon here by four spots. It looked like Ocon was, I don't want to say sacrificed, but he seemed to be playing the team game to help Behrman from a toe perspective.

They were very quick through Sector 1, where Hasse, which indicates that they've done their usual trick of trying to be as fast in a straight line as possible. Even around a track like Monza, they seem to have exaggerated that more than the other teams. And if Ocon is, he seemed to be the one punching a hole in the air, in which case you are going to struggle for overall lap time. So I don't hold it against Ocon too much that he's been outqualified by

Berman by a few tenths of a second tier. And then we might as well cover off Q1 because we had, again, similar to Q2, two teams that had both cars knocked out. I'll start with Alping because that will be the quicker one, 18th and 19th, Colopinto ahead of Gasly on this occasion. Gassley clearly weighed down by the vast amount of pages that his new contract surely is. Gassley, I will discuss this at a later date. And when I say we, I probably mean me, Harry and Sam, rather than me and Pierre. But when we discuss it, I'll go into more depth. I hope you're getting that bag, son.

I hope you get in that sweet dollar money. Because if you aren't, three-year extension, I don't know. I don't know. Place your bets now, folks. What's going to exist for the longest time? Gassley's contract or the team Alpine. I don't know. I can't call it.

But in terms of this qualifying session, I thought, they might be 19th and 20th. I didn't think. Iver driver had a hope of getting out of Q1 here. This was another team similar. You know, we said in the preview before this race weekend, the Alpine, who have struggled at a lot of tracks so far this year, we're probably going to struggle even more at Monza. This just doesn't suit their car whatsoever.

Qualifying really proved that. They look slow throughout practice. We get to qualifying. They're slow again. the number one giveaway that a team is not confident whatsoever in their ability to get through to, you know, Q3 or maybe even Q2, the biggest telltale sign is when they will do three runs in Q1. And they were committed to that from the off. They weren't the only team that did it, but they were like the first team to say,

we are going to have to use all of the tires at our disposal to even have a shot of getting out. and they weren't that close, let's be honest. Ghazley 1-20.1. Colapinto just about broke into the 119s. Fair play to Colopinto for getting it done on track and out-qualifying his teammate. It will be maybe little consolation that it's 18th and 19th, but in a fight to keep his seat, it will mean something. It will be, you know, one tick on the tally chart in terms of qualifying head-to-head. So I think you take that if you call up into, but both of these drivers were almost locked on to be out in Q1.

So I can't even be that disappointed with either of the drivers. I can be disappointed in the team, but that's more of an ongoing theme. That isn't specific to today, folks, as I'm sure long-term listeners of the podcast know very well. R.B, Hadjar and Lawson, Hadjar first ever Q1 knockout. And I appreciate Hadjar's career hasn't been, it's not long as of yet. He's only been here for just over half a season. But this isn't a front running car. He's managed to avoid Q1 on every occasion this season to this point,

getting through to Q3 very regularly as well. He was the old man out 16th place. But as we learned midway through the session, which is a bit of a rarity, but we learned midway through the session that they are going to fully commit to a new power unit, I think it was, he will start from the pit lane. So Red Bull will, unless there are other penalties still to come, they will qualify, they will line up 19th and last on the grid and a pit lane start.

So they're going to have to come quite a long way to even get close to matching the heroics that we saw from Hadchar as Zanvort. I think maybe it was a little bit more expected that they would not struggle, but maybe not thrive as well as they have done at other circuits here at Monza. I believe our very own Sam Sage indicated that on the preview. And in that sense, he was absolutely spot on here. But I think after FP3, it looked a little more encouraging than what ended up happening. Hadjar set a fantastic lap towards the end of FP3 to the point where you thought he could,

he can get something done again, get through to Q2, get through to Q3. It wouldn't have been that much of a shock. But we get to qualify and that pace seemed to disappear. Lawson did have, I think it's been a scruffy weekend all around really from Liam Lawson, didn't get a clean lap together. He's a 120.279. That's nearly two tenths away from Gasly, let alone making it out of Q1. Hadjar was far closer and I think William's got a little bit lucky in that they sent Alex Albin out on used tires at the end of Q3 and he just about escaped eyes at Kadjar. But yeah, it's a tough one. Hadjar.

I looked very distressed, very annoyed about it. He had some comments for Carlos Sines, who he felt was interfering in his outlap. I haven't seen any footage, so I can't comment on it one way or the other. It's not the end of the world because Hachar's done such a wonderful job in qualifying all year. But certainly at a track like Monza, starting from the pit lane, if he's got a car that is, you know, got reasonable race pace, he could make up something. he'll need probably something surrounding a safety car or a VSC to get back into the points you feel from a pit lane start.

I don't think he's going to have that much of a car advantage on at least a few of the teams that he'll need to pass. But yeah, odd to see, odd to comment on a double-lb knockout in Q1. Well, I think that leaves only one thing, and that is declaring a driver of the session. I think drivers in contention here. Max Verstappen is an obvious one, of course. I think Bortoletto and Alonzo are both in the mix as well. And even though he did miss out on a Q3 start,

Berman, I think 11th place is overperforming where that hash should be at this point. I think I'm going to go with, if either Bortoletto or Alonzo had improved on their Q2-2, I'm in Q3. I think I would have gone for either of those. I'm still tempted to give it to Alonzo anyway, but I'm going to go with Max Verstappen. Oh, wow, driver with the session is the pole guy, Ben. Well, really brave. He really pulled it out the bag. He did also, and I will say this again, he did also set the fastest lap in the history of this sport. So I don't think it's bad reasoning for him being driver of the session. But can he keep that lead? That's a question for tomorrow. On occasion so far this year he has.

On occasion, he hasn't when he's had two McLaren's to deal with behind. It'll also be interesting as well. With that Constructors' Championship pretty much sewn up, a McLaren going to play a team game to try and beat Vastappen, or is it Norris and Piastri just thinking for themselves at this point? It's going to be a fascinating race. I am very sure of that. And of course, you can expect myself, Harry and Sam,

all on the race review tomorrow afternoon. We will get into absolutely everything. We'll be giving out our driver of the day, worst driver of the day, our big brain strat, as well as moments of the race. We will uncover absolutely everything that happens. Hope you've enjoyed today's review.

If you're not in Discord, if you're not on Patreon, if you're not following us on social, all of the links are in the description as they always are. We'd love to chat to you across all of those platforms. But until tomorrow, keep breaking late.