The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Las Vegas GP Qualifying Review

Episode Date: November 22, 2025

Las Vegas delivered a showstopping wet qualifying session, with treacherous conditions that saw some drivers thrive while others floundered. Ben and Sam break down all the drama, from the wildly contrasting fortunes between various teammates to a questionable tyre gamble, and assess how the title rivals fared ahead of tomorrow's race... Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get: Ad-free listening Full-length bonus episodes Power Rankings after every race Historical race reviews & more exclusive extras! Give the 'gift' of Late Braking this holiday period with a Patreon gift subscription,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and your favourite F1 fan can enjoy anywhere from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content! ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking: You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats! Think you can beat us? Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and prove it! Get in touch any time at [e-mail] 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. Hello and a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast. podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Las Vegas qualifying is in the books. The first wet weather qualifying in over a year. And oh boy, did it deliver.

Lando Norris on pole position. Joining him on the front row of the grid will be Max Verstappen. A very exciting front row for tomorrow. But a bit more about today. I don't know, Sam. I enjoyed that quite a lot. you have given so much enthusiasm for this time in the morning. I respect your levels of energy right now.

Yeah, that was worth getting up for. What a session we got to see. Finally, a wet weather quality. The first, it's Brazil, 2024. It's been a while and it delivered. We had cars sliding off the track. I think they handled themselves brilliantly well the way that they were dealing with conditions

that looked so, so difficult. On a street circuit with poor drainage, it really was a thrill in every session. So thank you, Vegas. You've delivered again. Thank you, Vegas. Indeed. Plenty to get to on today's qualifying review. We had a Mercedes, a Red Bull and a Ferrari all out in Q1, a dubious decision to go on intermediate tires in Q2, and then all the action from Q3, where everyone was on the intermediate tires, and it was

Lando Norris. So the story of the championship over the last few rounds has been, everything's coming up, Norris. That very much continued, even with a poor final where he made a notable error still managing to get three temps on the rest of the field, including Max Verstappen in P2. So let's start with him. We're waiting for something to go wrong and at the moment it's not. No, everything seems to be running rather smoothly, especially for a session that was so bumpy. When you're the championship leader, this is what you don't want to rock up to. You don't want to turn up to Las Vegas in the pouring rain when you're the guy that just needs a nice smooth time. But that lap that he delivered in Q3, I am actually gutted that there was a mistake

in the final corner. I think that gap could have been near on a second over the rest of the grid off. I really think it was that good. Sublime performance. It's starting off a little slow. It took Norris a little moment to get the consistency in there. And Russell looked incredibly good throughout the first two sessions proving again, and the saying is might be quite good round here, but Norris gathering it all together, ending up just nailing the first sector, nailing the second I think he was eight and a half, nine tenths up after the first two sectors. To see the gap come down to three tents only, I know that sounds ridiculous, but it feels small with how good he was in those first two sectors.

But still gets the job done. He was sensational in that Q3 and once again delivers another crushing blow to his title rival Piazcrii and for Stappen. Yeah, I'm sure he's absolutely delighted because coming into this weekend, in our preview, we mentioned the struggles that McLaren have had here in the first two years that we've gone to Vegas. They were probably highlighting this race, I mean, not only in this stretch of the season, but probably throughout the whole season as one of those races where we're probably going to lose a bit of competitiveness versus our rivals. But here, yeah, he's put it on

pole by three attempts and it should have been probably double that at least. That's how good McLaren and Lando Norris were out here. And it seemed fairly even across all the sector as well. It seems like they've got a setup that will work across the track. I know he had that error in the final sector, but as you say, purple, purple, first two sectors looked like it was going to be maybe an historic pole position. We haven't quite got to that level, but I'm pretty sure he'll take it.

And he heard his team radio afterwards. He was like, ah, no one else doing a lot then, as if he was surprised that that was good enough for pole position. because when you make an error like that on your fastest lap, it is pretty rare that that would be good enough to see off the rest of your competition. Long way to go in the race tomorrow. We don't know what conditions are going to be like then,

whether it's more of the same, whether we go back to fully dry conditions. But he is in a great spot going into that race. He handled it really well. We've seen Norris build through his career at this point where initially wet weather was at his fine point. you'll remember Russia a few years ago where it looked like he was on for the wing, stayed out on the wrong tire,

ended up costing himself that first ever victory. And since then, his development in the way has been really quite something. Of course, winging Australia gets the wing in Silverstone this year. And now he's doing well, of course, in the qualifying in Vegas. And it looks like he's really starting to honing on his weaknesses, which is something like wet with the driving, which might actually end up becoming a big strength because his teammate,

Piastri, although affected by the yellow flag, or looked like he was having some kind of scuffle with Hajar, It looked like the lap wasn't ever wrong anyway, even when he wasn't running in green flag running. So it looks like he's got the measure of him so far. Well, let's keep the focus with those championship contenders, because whilst Lando Norris leads the way, mathematically Max Verstappen is still in the mix. And indeed, Oscar Piastri is as well. Piastri will start this race, we believe, from P5 that is pending what happens with the potential

Carlos signs penalty for rejoining the track. But P5, at least at the moment, Sam, it seemed like he was struggling a little bit more earlier on in this session, got it together by the point we got to Q3, even if that time deficit was still quite substantial between him and Lando Norris. But going into the last few runs, it looked like it could be a McLaren 1-2, whereas Norris has held on to first place. He's dropped back behind the likes of Russell Sines and Vastappen. So what did you make of Piastri's session? It looked like he was really hot and cold. He had to really build into these sessions. You even heard the commentary from Jigsabussing over on the sky broadcast.

Apparently he likes to back off a little bit, take his time to build into these sessions and make sure he delivers a lap right at the end. The issue, of course, with that is if a yellow flag comes out, as it so often was, around this Las Vegas race track in the rain, at the moment you're on a hot lap towards in the end up going to get the lap in. You look what happened to Lewis Hamilton. I mean, we'll get on to that later, but that was just. a whole different fast

going on back there. And this kind of happened to him as well. He almost hit his peak far too early in Q3. He went to the top of the timing board about five minutes left of Q3. It looked like he finally found his mojo only for the core run to take place right at the end of

Q3. He wasn't on the pace of Norris anyway through sector 1 and sector 2 and then is disrupted by what looks like. I haven't seen the full replay. I've only seen what was been broadcast on the tele. But it looks like the R.B is either trying to overtake him or he's trying to go around the outside. Either way, that spacing between those cars or a pivotal Q3 run in a championship fight, that's a mess.

You don't want to be in that place. Yeah, in Q3 as well. I mean, we obviously saw a lot of traffic playing interference in Q1 and yellow flags and going off into runoff areas. But by the time you get through to Q3, particularly like the last runs of Q3, you are expecting that you will have that necessary eight-second gap, as Verstappen called it in his post-qualie interview, to do what you need to do. Very much not the case, regardless of the reason, between the R.B. and Piastri. It still seems a bit scratchy, is kind of the word I've gone for with Piastri. He's clawing away trying to get back into his mojo that he's had for so much of this season,

where he was consistently on it versus Lando Norris in qualifying. You know, we had a point where it was, I'd say, 50-50 between them. And on some weekends, it would be Piastri who had the advantage, some weekends Norris. But even when Piastri would give up a pole position to Lando Norris, he was generally there alongside him on the front row, maybe third or fourth at worst. But we're, I don't know, seeing it more frequently now that he is having to try really hard to get on that same level as Lando Norris in these dying stages of qualifying. And even if there weren't a few cars in between them, and even if it got together that last

lap, I don't think it was looking likely that he was going to touch Lando Norris's time. It's not just the positions in between them. It's the deficit, the time deficit that should worry him. And he's running out of time to do something about it. He will be very much hoping that Norris versus Vestappen on the front row of the grid ends horribly for both of them. That might be his best opportunity. But yeah, he's going to have to make a quick work of the cars in front of him

if he wants to be in that fight. He's currently 6-1 down, since we came back from that summer break. And, of course, pole positioning in Zandvov meant he went on to win that Grand Prix as well, although he was pressured by Norris until that DNF struck. It just shows you that while we're about to, I think, set the record if Norris were to win from pole here for the most wings from pole positioning a single season, it shows you how important qualifying is and you saw last year what happened here

between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell Hamilton started P-10 Russell started on pole and despite Hamilton arguably being faster in the race the gap, the damage is already done the gap was built the ability to pull that back only lasts so long

and whilst Hamilton had a gap of 20 seconds at one point that I think came down to about four or five Russell was able to just bring that race home he hadn't got any stress because he did all the hard work on the Saturday Norris has the exact same opportunity here. If Piastri even struggled to get past one or two of the cars

in front of him for a few laps, and Norris can build that gap out in front, it's just an uphill battle. It will become so much harder. So as you said, he will be praying for a little bit of Max Verstappen chaos on that first lap. Well, speaking of Max Verstappen, he is someone we

commonly cite as being a master in these wet conditions. I'm sure he wouldn't have been overly disappointed the way the weather panned out for today, given the chance championship deficit he has to Lando Norris and indeed Piastri as well, manages to get on the front row of the grid, albeit not ahead of one of his rivals in Norris, but ahead of Piastri and indeed everyone else. How does he review that session? How do you think he fed? I think this is almost

as good as it could have been. I think Norris is pretty untouchable this session, especially with the lap that he delivers right at the death fare. Max was stabbing in that Red Bull. We know that all season, even with the improvements that the Red Bull has been taking, it's been shaky, especially in whether they've had to try risky setups, they've had to try doing something a little bit different. And I think Max was to happen, did a great job at taming the conditions. We saw him have a couple of offs in the early part of the session, especially Q1, but there's enough time to recover and it felt like there was no real stress. He got the job done when he needed to come Q3. He delivers a lap time good enough to be on the front row of the grid. I think he starts with pretty much

the best position he can attain without there being a major mistake by someone like Norris that would give him pole position. So the fact he's beaten Russell, the fact he's beating Piastri, The fact, there's a heck of a many Ferrari around him. He's got one car in front of him. It's the guy he needs to be. I think this is good as it's probably going to get. Yeah, it was a weird session for Vastappen and Red Bull, because we have seen in these conditions at times,

Vestappen play the same role that Norris played, I think, in this session being comfortably clear of everyone, at least in Q2 and Q3. It felt difficult in the first part of qualifying Q1, and it was difficult for everyone, granted. It felt like he was struggling more than I thought he was going to in Q1, obviously safely through in the end. Q2 was then, I think, very good from Vestappen,

and he looked a force to be reckoned with. And then we got to Q3, and at least the start of the session, it seemed to go back to the struggle again. It's almost like the tire warm-up, the crossover point, where it got to the inters, but also the start of the session on the wet, It's like he and Red Bull just needed a bit more time than maybe some of the other teams to get up to the pace necessary. And we didn't see a great lap from Verstappen throughout the first few minutes of Q3. But then when he got there, he was able to deliver.

He's not far ahead of the likes of Carlos signs, but he's done enough. And he is a bit worried tomorrow as to whether the inside of term one is going to provide a lot of grip. I suspect it will not. But I've walked any grip away. You know what, though, Max Verstappen? I don't think he's going to turn around and say, I don't think there's much grip here. That's going to deter me.

I am, you know, I am deterred. Famously, he often says, I am deterred. I think he's got a T-shirt with it on. Max deterred for Staffan is. That's what they call him. That's what they call him. Deterred. I think datur is a very different person.

For a different person. I feel like, if you're going to call me the turd, call me the turd, da-turd is worse. I'm going to start calling you that's 5.45 a.m. chat, yeah. A good effort from Max Wastappen. We'll see what he could do versus Norris tomorrow. It's very rare that we talk about Williams this early in the session in this qualifying review at least. Carlos signs all the way up in P3. Note the asterisk next to Carlos Sines his name. We don't know at this point in time whether he'll be knocked back three places, five places. Seems plausible.

based on what happened between him and Lance Stroll in Q1. But if we're just talking pace, Sam, damn, he got some. Damn, is true. The smooth operator is operating in such a smooth way. Yeah, he mastered those conditions. And Carlos Sykes, not famously a spectacular qualifier. You know, he's always been good, always really solid. But you look at how he did against the Clare.

He got beaten a couple of seasons in a row there. Look at how he's done previously as well. He said that outshone teammates by massive margins when it comes to qualifying. But he's doing quite well recently, and Matt Williams looks like it's really adapted quite nicely to the way this Vegas track is set up. And I was surprised in the weather conditions as well,

adjust how strong he was. He kept his head down. And unlike Alex Albin, who I think found himself in a bit of trouble, you know, was struggling with the correction of the car. We saw one of those corrections lead to his contact with the wall, moaned at these engineers for too much talking,

which honestly, I think there's a few drivers that would quite enjoy a bit more talking over their radio, communication in that situation seems quite good. He does well. He does really well. It's actually a real shame that we've got this asterisk over his P3, that he might be bumped down to as far as P8, because he looks like a big of a dark horse,

a big of a dangerous threat. He really kept himself on the right part of the racetrack in the right moment, the tires in the right conditions, you end up in P3. If you can keep yourself out of trouble on a day like this, you can climb a lot higher than I think a lot of people can realize. Yeah, respect to what Carlos Seins did out there, because it wasn't just that one lucky or one great lap at the end of Q3.

Like, he looked like he could do this for most of Q1, Q2, Q3. Like, it looked like this sort of result was on the cards. And maybe you're expecting, okay, when we get through to Q3, LeCler will do his thing, the Mercedes will do their thing, and he'll find himself like P6 or something. But it carried on. And I think he absolutely deserved, at least, for now, that second row start.

And we'll see what he can do, even if he is not back a couple of play. If it's a three-place penalty, he's still quite well positioned going into that race. So, yeah, I just thought he did very well. I'm not sure if that Williams will be as good in dry conditions as it will in wet conditions. That remains to be seen. But I think overall, it looks fairly good so far this weekend, even when it hasn't been pouring with rain. So I'm fascinated to see. And sometimes, look, if the Ferraris and the Mercedes get up to the race pace we're expecting

and he drops back a couple of positions, that's not the end of the world. Because by the time with the field spread, the time it takes to overtake him, he might be clear of all of his midfield rivals that he's actually fighting. Or you get something like Liam Lawson at Baku a couple of races ago where actually you can hold on to the position you've qualified in for the most part. but we'll see. We do need to focus a bit more on the other side of the Williams Garage as well, though,

because where there was a lot of success for Carlos Syne starting P3, not so much for Alex Albon, who we think will start P16, was under a lot of pressure towards the end of that Q1 session to get a lap in. Ultimately, that, it's not much,

but that one small correction going through that turn 14 chicane enough to put him into the wall. It's been a tough run for him recently, and this feels like another one on top of that. Yeah, I have a lot of sympathy for Alex Alvin here because nine times out of ten, on a day like today where the track is that wet,

the track has so little grip, where a place like Vegas where apparently it's like walking out of the Monaco Tunnel 24-7, it's that reflective on the condition. It's literally blinding constantly. The fact that he's the only guy to actually DNF from the session, It feels like he's being a little bit done dirty there. But hey, fair play to the other 19.

Yeah, you said it's start, right? Respect to the driving standards today. I was really impressed. I was waiting for a few of these rookies to put it in what we saw, the likes of Bortoletto and Silverstone, the way he struggled. Okay, he wasn't massively quick, but he kept it on the black stuff. He did a really good job. Alex Albin here is very unlucky, but it does come on a really poor run and form.

He's struggling to match what his teammate is able to do in the most recent, grand prix and those seasons that they're having are very much flipped you know science started okay Alex Allen picked it back up again did a good run and then science struggled for a bit and it's kind of gone the other way again which is very interesting I don't know if Williams are playing with set up I don't know if they're trying to experiment come the back end of the season or maybe it suits one driver over another but he is struggling to find that form and I think you can hear that his team radios the way he's speaking to his team engineer at this point it does come across is a little bit bratti, a little bit frustrated, and they're trying to help you.

I'm not saying they're doing the perfect job because clearly there are some frustrations there, but on a day like today where it is traffic nonstop, you can't see anything. Cars are coming in and out, slow lap, hot lap, you're avoiding penalties wherever you can. Overcommunication feels like the least of your problems right now. And sure, it must get a bit annoying having someone yapping away in your ear all the time. I exist. Ben must know from 15 years of friendship. jabbing in your ear can be a little bit frustrating.

But would you rather have that than nothing at all? I think we all know the answer, Ben. We do, nothing at all. Thank you very much. Right, that's going to do it for the first part of today's qualifying review. We'll take a quick break and then on the other side, plenty more chat from what happened today in Vegas. At Vandal Casino, you get even more ways to play.

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To speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Welcome back, everyone. Let's turn our attention to Mercedes. George Russell will start this race P4, Kimmy Antonelli down in 17. So another team with contrasting fortune, Sam. You're shaking your head, and I know why,

because your bold prediction is hanging on by a Fred, an Antonelli win, of course. But George Russell, a better day for him. Very quick in the first and final section. It seemed like in a straight line that Mercedes was sat to be pretty quick. Yeah, I think George has actually really frustrated that he is behind the likes of Carlos So I'm probably thinking his lucky stars a little bit that a penalty is likely inbound for Carlos Because George seems good here.

He seems to have really got the master of this racetrack. You know, he's done really well in the last couple of years. And he's delivered today again, and I said that the Mercedes will be favorite. And I said that they will be the quickest. But in these conditions, you kind of back Russell to pull something out of the bag. And whilst it wasn't electric, P3, most likely, after the changes, is a really good starting place. He's a heck of piastri again.

He's in front of both Ferraris. Not that that's a real award right now with how they're performing. But he's also in front of the chaos that is that fifth down to kind of 12th section. There's a lot of cars and a lot of strange places. And on a tricky first lap, there could be a lot of incidents. So whilst I think he'll want to be on the front row, and I think at a certain point, he has the pace to be on the front row. A P3 start at Vegas on the grippiest side of the track could be a lot worse for him.

Yeah, like you say, there's a weird way this could work out very well for George Russell. If Vastappen is quite aggressive going into turn one on the dirtier side of the grid, there could be an opportunity to get P2 or, dare I say, at P1 at some point on that first lap tomorrow. Not impossible to see. But for now at least, he's P4. Yeah, like I said earlier, he seemed very quick through the first. and final sector. It seemed like any time that we went on board with George Russell or at least had George Russell's name and his time in the bottom of the screen, it was Purple First Sector,

purple first sector. And then it was a bit of a guessing game as to what that would be followed up with. Sometimes it was followed up with a pretty good lap and then other times it kind of didn't unfold the way he wanted it to. I think you're right that in terms of time and also positioned to be behind for Stappan and signs. He'd have wanted to be more in the mix. He'll have memories, of course, of what he did last year, which was at least at this part in the weekend, better than what he's got so far this weekend.

But he won't be overly disappointed either. This could have gone horribly wrong. His teammate is evidence of that. Another Red Bull is evidence of that. Hamilton is evidence of that. This was an easy trap for these top teams to be knocked out before we even got Q3. He quite comfortably avoided both.

of those, and then made something of Q3 as well. So not a bad session from Russell. Again, similar to the Williams debate, the other side of this break. One side of the garage, we're looking pretty good. The other side, not so much. Antonelli out in Q1 after what has been, I think it's fair to say, a better run as of late in qualifying. His best run. Yes, I would agree with that. But tougher here, a track that had never been to before in pretty difficult conditions. Is this an excusable one? Yeah, I'm not going to look at this one too harshly for communicating Ellie. I think if any rookie in a top car was going to make a mistake at a certain point, it was going to be here realistically. He doesn't put it in the wall. He doesn't end up

having to have a full repair job done overnight. Sure, he'll be disappointed that he's knocked out in Q1. And the car had pace. At certain moments, he showed the car had pace because he was regularly inside the top five. And I just think the timing of the session, the way the track ramped up, These are things you learn and these are things that you adapt to and your team. I think with Bono, I would have expected maybe better communication. But I haven't seen he's on board from that final lap. So there's every chance that there was a mistake or a yellow flag that comes out because there were many and he gets caught out at the wrong time.

But tricky conditions, he's a rookie. It's his first year. He's done really well recently. Let's just hope he bounces back for the race. Yeah. I mean, the good news for him is this sort of race, this sort of track. It's not the end of the world that he's qualified 17th. sure his ambitions of a podium now are pretty slim and replicating what he got in Brazil

seems unlikely, but there is still an opportunity to get something this weekend. This isn't like Suzuki or Monaco where you qualify P-17 and you might not get back into the points. There's every chance that he could get back to at least P-10, if not slightly better than that. So, yeah, not the end of the weekend for him. only two teams with all the drama that we had today only two teams managed to get both cars through to Q3 one of course the constructors champion McLaren the other one racing balls Lawson will start P6 Hajar P8 good stuff from both of them great stuff from both of them you know what I'm starting to believe that dropping Lawson might be harsh I'm starting to think that if they get to the end of the year and they do their seat reshuffle, if it isn't

Hajar in the Red Bull and Lorsa keeps his seat in that racing bull, and sorry, you can you either get relegated or you're out, I think it might be harsh. Lawson, we've said this time and time again. He is a little bit dodgy when it comes to wheel to wheel to wheel combat on the on the racetrack, but his raw pace where he's able to deliver it really is fantastic and far too often he gets slightly caught up on the wrong side of the timing line. ends up maybe in like a P-11, where Hagear will be P-6 or P-7 because he snuck it into Q3. But it shows here on a day of chaos, so the day of having to get the lap in at the right time, Lawson was match for and match with Isaac Hager every single time.

He was right there with him. It never felt like Lawson was going to be the guy that was going to throw it all away. So often, Lawson would fly to the top of the timing sheet to show you the raw pace in these conditions that he had. Hager, again, excellent. And I start to have no doubts with Hager in these sessions now that he is able to pull out a really strong performance. And it is a little bit more of a surprise for me that Lawson is able to be in front of Hadjar like this. But more and more that I'm seeing it, the more I think,

okay, he's got some real pace. There's a reason he's here. Maybe he needs a bit more time. Yeah, great effort from Liam Lawson, as you say. I think he was the faster of the two cars. That's obviously reflected in the final positions. But I think he showed throughout a good chunk of the session that he was more likely to finish ahead of Hadjar than the other way around. neither would have surprised me and we have seen Isaac I'll definitely turn it on when we get to Q3

and he's done a good effort as well don't get me wrong but Lawson yeah that is an impressive P6 and we spoke in the preview episode as to what racing boards could do with the rest of their season whether they could hold off

the likes of Hasse and Salber and Aston Martin this result has definitely helped them and they've got Alonzo in between them so we'll get to Aston Martin in a moment but that could be very interesting in that mini sort of battle that's going on in the midfield. From Isaac Adja's perspective as well, I think that's a perfectly fine result. As mentioned before with Antonelli, you could excuse what he's done a little bit based on the fact that conditions are tough for a rookie that's never been here before.

And that was kind of a pattern across most of the rookies in that Bortoletto is 18 versus his teammate that is seven positions ahead of him. Behrman, who has quite consistently out-qualified Ocon as of late, hasn't done so here, albeit next to each other on the grid, 13 from 14. So other rookies have found it difficult. So how did I even to make it through to Q3 and then also beat LeClair and Gassley? I think that's pretty good going. Yeah, top qualifying rookie. This is great for R.B.

I think they need to evaluate their options. I think there's some good stuff coming through that team. Let's have a look. So we've got a McLaren in the top eight. We've got a Red Bull, we've got a Williams, we've got a Mercedes, we've got a racing balls, and we've got an Aston Martin. That's six teams that have found their way into the top eight. You'll notice one name I didn't say there was Ferrari.

Charles LeClair is starting P9, but good news for him, he's 11 positions ahead of his teammate, who will start last. Do you want to start with LeClerler? Yeah, let's start with LeClaire. What a chaos-filled session for Ferrari. car. I mean, what do we expect at this point? Of course, it is it was never going to be easy for the Tofosi when it came to a session like this where timing and communication is essential to success. Now, LeClerag some moments, isn't he? He locked up about four times. He stalled the car. Every single lap. Turn 40, right? You like 50, 50, whether he makes this or not. Like, you just didn't know. moments where I thought he's out there's no way he's making this through these sessions no way he gets a Q3 not because of his pace

because of the consistency of the lap but fair play to him he wrangled a real stallion around Vegas and I think P9 whilst in the raw pace of the car it's disappointing in the temperament of the car though the way it handled in these sessions so unstable there's a little part of me that thinks he's probably

walked away with a solid result here but we know this isn't good enough for Ferrari we know that LeClau'll be disappointing and We know that Hamilton's going to absolutely living in the back of that grid. Yeah, this is a real disappointing moment from Ferrari. So, tough one for them to swallow. Indeed. We saw from the very first race of this season all the way back in Australia,

this car doesn't like wet conditions. I mean, this car doesn't like conditions to be there. Just leave it alone. This car does not like using the intermediate or the wet weather tire. And here we are three races from the end of the season. it still doesn't like wet weather conditions, which to me sounds like a car that hasn't really improved throughout the year.

John Elcom might think differently. I don't know. I use my eyes. In P9 for Leclair. Sorry, the line I use my eyes is just sensational. I'm convinced that at this point he doesn't, all right? Yeah, like I say, but going into that chicanne, obviously breaking from, even in these conditions,

very high top speeds, you just didn't have a lot of confidence each and every time he was going to make the corner. And invariably, he didn't make the corner quite a lot of times. Their brakes suck. Ferrari brakes suck. They suck balls.

He was breaking in Lake Waukwanga County. I don't know how you say that. Lake Wongakata? No. There's a famous place. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it. it right now. You can cut this out

if you really want to see. No, no, no, this is important. I don't know how you say. I'm trying to say. This is good. Do you mean la Wakano and Nana? I can't even find it on the map. It doesn't exist. I'm making it up. Oh, this is pure 6 a.m. crap. That's my favorite minute of the podcast this year. Well done. Good stuff me. Brilliant. That was still better than Hamilton's qualifying. Oh, boy.

Have they dislodged that cone yet? Why is my man wrung over a cone? It's the weirdest thing. What's he doing? Why is he there? Why is he driving straight over the curb into a bollard on his own? I really want to ask him because there's got to be a, like, does he just not know where he is? I like to think he knows at some point where he is, but it does maybe seem to be some real confusion going on.

It's the timing, the session. He's affected by Albaugh and crashing into the wall right in front of him, but then they don't tell him to push after it's clear of the incident. We've heard the communication between him and his engineer so many times it's a failure. There is just poor, poor communication. But if he comes over the radio after the session, am I safe? Well, how don't you know that you're fighting for a possible elimination spot? Also can't get the tyres switched on.

Well, everyone else can. Every single other car is having a better time of it than Lewis Hamilton, the Rain Master, seven-time world champion 105 Grand Prix wings and you can't get the tyres switched on. You're going to need four seconds back from that current provisional poll time. There's two things going on here.

One, the communication isn't good enough. It is not good enough. But two, Lewis, you've got to step up. You've got to do a better job because at some point you've got to take the initiative into your own hands, realise how good you are, and just kick a bloody lapping

because you've got a rookie. You're here long enough now. I expect a bit better. the last time he's ever been last on pure pace alone in a qualifying session, it's damning stats at the moment. It's weird because he exited obviously in last place, the first time, I believe ever, he set a time in qualifying and has been last. And we are in conditions that he is synonymous with,

at least in his career, if not recently. And it should be a surprise. And it's just not. Like, I can't believe we've got. to this point where Hamilton in these conditions exiting in Q1 isn't as much of a surprise to me as what it actually is. Yeah, there's plenty of blame to go around. You're right, because when it comes to communication, we've said it so many times this year, it is horrendous. Like, how have they not addressed this properly in-house? The whole comm situation between him and

as engineer has been a train wreck from race one and has never been fixed. So why he doesn't know that he might have another lap in him at the end of this lap, depending on when he reaches the line, not knowing where he's at in terms of the, you know, am I out? Like, he should know. So communication-wise, it's poor. But also, even with the struggles that Ferrari have had in qualifying and in the wet weather this year, he shouldn't really be in a position where he needs that lap with 10 seconds to

go. But he did. And also, you say Hamilton needs to step up. With these sessions, strategically, there's not much to it. Like, you go out there with a lot of fuel and you just keep pumping in the laps. Like, that's all you do. We see a lot of the time with these dry sessions where you've got very set runs. You know, you've got two runs in a session and you need to be smart as to when you reach the line, the gaps in front and behind you. Here, just keep going around. That's kind of the strategy. And somehow, he and Ferrari have messed this up quite a lot. Quite a lot. Then guess what? It gets better. Go on. I've realized the place I was trying to say. Oh, here we go. It was Lackawana.

Oh, Lackawana, yes. It's like of Lake Wakananga, which I was definitely trying not to say. Where is this place? It's in New York. Why is it relevant? Because that's how far back he was breaking. Right, okay.

From the East Coast. Did you just want to say New York then? I thought it to sound like I was cool. You know what? You succeeded, man. Come on. Should we touch on Alpine very quickly? Yes, we shall touch on Alpine.

Thank you very much. P. Gazel. Pgasals are God. Praise sausages. I mean, that bold prediction of him may be scoring a P5 coming at the season. If it's going to happen anywhere, maybe here. He looked quick every session. I mean, the Alpine that's tough to drive.

But we saw it last year in Brazil, of course, where they managed to finish second and third. there's a little bit about that car in wet weather conditions maybe it becomes more driver focus than car focus you know what Alpin can take anything

that they can get to make it better and if Pierre Gasli has to become the car then so be it because he's great he's really really great and I think people forget

just how good Pierre Gasli is in a Formula One car because he's been driving a literal Bing Lorry around the racetrack for the last year and this is a really strong performance Colopinto was fine

he had that crazy moment absolute savour the session going through that final chican. But Gasselig is consistently pulling in the lap and he needs to, I'm really impressed once again. Yeah, very good from Pierre Gassley. And I'll say from Alpine as well versus where they have been recently. Obviously, Brazil was a step in the right direction.

But I think when we were looking at Vegas, looking at the track characteristics, we were thinking it might be back to what we saw at Cota and Mexico. And instead, they look all right here as well. And maybe it's the wet weather that's masking it a bit. Maybe it's not. I don't know why Alpine and now suddenly at least okay

just in time, guys, well done. The championship's still on. Come on. Yeah, well done to Gasley. It'd be a bit annoyed not to make more of Q3 because I think he could have been in that mix between 6th and 8th if something, if he was able to hook. I don't even think he got a proper lap hook together in Q3,

but even to get there, well done. Frank Alping, even to get there is a real achievement. It really is. Astor Martin, goodness me, they can go on wet weather tires. You know what we should do? Be the first driver to get off of those wet weather tires. Yes. Hello, this is my greatest strength.

Let me remove my greatest strength. It baffles me. Alonzo makes it through to Q3, manages to get all the way to seventh. Lance Drol out in 12th after looking not only a match for his teammate, I think a little bit better than his teammate for much of the session. he's the only driver to try the intermediate tires in Q2. See, we were getting to that stage because Q3 everyone's used intermediate tires

but didn't work in the middle of Q2. At one point, the lap that he put in before he went to intermediate tires, Lanskstra had just posted the fastest time in the session and was one second clear of Fernando Alonso. That's pretty darn good. So you know what you do? You change the one variable that you have control of

to make sure that you could go apparently faster. what a terrible call. I know that in these weird conditions, Lark Stroll is prime time air to the singer. It just comes out of nowhere. Allow that to last as long as possible. You don't blow out the candle the moment you see it lit because you think, oh, I want to eat the cake.

Savor the moment, just a little bit, Aston Martin. Enjoy the fact that you are good in downfall situations and it is a wet weather session. So you need more downforce, which requires more grip, which moves more water. You're good at this. It is basic physics. Van de Alonso was really solid the whole way through that session.

Lance Strohl still hasn't had a Q3 appearance this season. That could have been and should have been the moment. And it was a massive, massive call. I don't know if it was Lance's cool. I don't know if it was Ashton Martin trying to do something risky. But whoever made that call, it was a terrible show. If it's Lance Stroll's cool, and as you say, we don't know, Aston Martin need to shut that down.

I still put this on the team. Like, it's their responsibility to say, no, we don't think that's a good idea because it wasn't a good idea. As you say, like they were showing a lot of strength on those tires and we only had, what was it, six minutes to go in Q2. We know the importance of getting those tires up to temperature. The tires that you're on, the same tires that everyone's on, are up to temperature and you seem to be doing a better job of it than everyone else. Keep going around. If this happened in Q3, let's say the wet weather tires were still used in Q3 and And stroll was the one five minutes to go in the session. Let's try the intermediate tires.

And it completely backfires and he starts P10. I would be sat here going, fine. You gave it a go. And if it works, you are on pole. Like the risk is worth it in my eyes at that point. Why risk this? You don't need to be first. You just need to be in the top 10. Whether you get through in first or ninth makes no odds whatsoever. You don't need to be a hero in this you just need to get through. And I think he would have done based on his pace versus Fernando Alonzo. So even though when we did get to the intermediate tires in Q3,

I think that Aston Martin Pace dropped off a little bit because if this was a full wet weather session for all three, they'd have been very, very good. But it's just, look, normally it's not the team's fault when it comes to Lance Drol's qualifying. Today it absolutely was. I mean, he doesn't improve when he goes on the intermediate size. So that fast lap that he set on the wets, five minutes from the end of the session, got him P12.

Yeah, he was only two places away from getting into pole, sorry, two, three shoots out. When he sat his lap five minutes before everyone else is fastest slap, he was quick. It was a poor call. If you're one of the Hasses, maybe, who don't look like they've got the pace to get through and you want to try something, okay, Aston Pite weren't in that spot. They were fine to keep going. So before we go, anything else you want to quickly address before we head to driver of the session? Final one, just really tough again for Yuki Sondoda.

He'll be looking at the top 10, seeing all the racing ball, Red Bull cars in there as teammate, both the juniors sat there comfortably inside that top 10. My guy's on the back row of the grid. This is really, really tough for Yuki Sondola. And tough for Red Bull as well, because I don't know, in all likelihood, If Sonoda's in that racing balls, he's probably P6. And if one of their racing ball drivers is in the Red Bull, they might be out in Q1 as well. It does seem to be something with this car that no one else has them for Stappen can seem to get it hooked up.

Yeah. Yeah, tough for him. We'll see what he can do from the back row of the grid alongside Lewis Hamilton tomorrow. I think driver at the session, Sam, is going to be a tough one. But I'm going to go with Carlos Sines. asterisk if he doesn't get dropped. I think for me it's signs on Norris. But with that mistake from Norris at the end of Q3,

even though he has still ended up in a 3-10th margin for pole, I think it's perfectly fair to have him as you drive for the session. I'll go with Carlos Sites. Yeah, if we're going on way up, the mistakes that are made by both of these drivers, one may cost himself a fireplace grid penalty, one only costs him a few tenths difference in his pole margin. I'm going to give him to Landon and Norris.

that was sublime and it looked like we could be on thought like almost a record breaking gap between pole and second place had he finalised that finalised that final sector. We're just a shame. I felt, I felt cucked. I felt cucked. I'm sorry to hear that, mate. Really sorry to hear that. Can we discuss it after the show? No. In depth. No. Because we're going to be discussing it on the show. After this break, no. One hour of my psyche. We are done, don't you worry, folks. We're done for today, at least. We'll be back tomorrow for a race review. We will. Gosh, I'm definitely not complaining about these 4 a.m. Starts. They're great. I love it. Yeah, thanks for listening. Thanks for shooting.

I hope you enjoyed what was a crazy qualifying session. There you guess. Hopefully we get something is equally spicy for the race morning night. Who knows? There's going to be a race. We'll get be there and you should come here afterwards because it's going to be super fun, happy time. As a Simpsons reference. Thanks for listening. Have a lovely time. Make sure for us a social media late breaking F1 and we'll be back for the race review. a Patreon review later on this weekend. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.