The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Qatar GP Sprint & Qualifying Review

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

Ben and Sam break down a busy Saturday in Qatar, from the sprint race to qualifying, and what it all means for tomorrow’s title-defining Grand Prix. Have the key contenders shown they’re ready for the fight, and who’s been left scrambling? 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

At Fandual Casino, you get even more ways to play. Dive into new and exciting games. And all of your favorite casino classics, like slots, table games, and arcade games. Get more on Fandual Casino. Download the app today. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerned about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2-6-600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

Hey Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show, only at BetMGM. Access to the Price is right fortune pick is only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2600. To speak to an advisor free of charge. That MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. 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 one welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam.

Sage and me, Ben Hocking, we have got two sessions to review from today's action in Qatar, the penultimate round of the 2025 F1 World Championship, a sprint race from earlier on in the day, a qualifying session for the main Grand Prix tomorrow that we've just witnessed, Sam, and it's all going to be positive, and there's going to be no negative comments about this track or anything like that. There we go. That is the first lie of the show, folks. you, let's know how many you can pick up along the way, because that sprint race was the worst

thing I've watched a long time. To the point where I don't really want to review it at all, I ever said to you, can we skip it? I can't really, can't be bothered. A waste of my time. Well, my suggestion was we made up the sprint race and reviewed it. I like it. There was a dragon there. Yes. And then Ainsley Harriet walked in and won. Against the dragon. Correct. They were both racing. And the dragon was being piloted by. Barry Mangelo. Ah, yeah. And Lance Stroll was still 14th, yeah.

Really tough, tough one for him. Yeah. No, we'll actually give an attempt to review in the sprint. We'll go in chronological order. We'll go with the sprint race and then we'll take a quick break and then have a look at the qualifying session that we've just had. The sprint race, by the numbers are fair, I think you could say, because the pole position sitter of Oscar Piastri held on to pole position.

George Russell, who was second on the grid, held on to second. and then that was the same for Lando Norris in third. Max Verstappen applying a bit of pressure on Lando Norris early on, but overtakes weren't a plenty, were they? There were what, three? And I think they all came from someone going off the track in the first place. So no, it wasn't like it was an overtake festival that we had on our hands. It was more kind of a look under the sofa and hope you can find a penitying aim.

It really was pretty barren for overtakes. Which is a shame. And I said this, I think, in our Discord about halfway through. and it's half a joke, but half serious. It's like, oh, when the strategy kicks in, when the, you know, all the pit stops start, that's where all the excitement's going to come from. But of course, in a sprint race, it never does come.

And you are just hoping, we saw Alonzo and Antonelli, there was an overtake there, for example, but like that was related to Alonzo going off track. It's a few bits on the first lap. But so much of this was reliant on where you qualified on the Friday. I don't say this about a lot of race. tracks. I would rather sit and watch a whole weekend than Monaco.

At least, you know, there's the same amount of overtakes to take place, but at least Monaco's got some barriers. At least it's a cool setting. At least it's thrilling. The qualifying is truly thrilling. Like, we'll get on to the qualifying and it was a good session, but it was only good because of the championship fight we're seeing right now, where

qualifying in Monaco is always a spectacle. And you know the race is going to be dull. Here, it's just dull. It should be good, but it's just not. Formula One does not work around this race. track. I did say in yesterday's review, I think I kicked off by saying that I like this track as a qualifying track. I think it's pretty good. Like when you saw, obviously we'll get to all of that action after the break, but when you saw like Oscar Piastri on that last running Q3, he is,

that car is on rails and it is a beautiful thing to watch that car going through, particularly the middle part of that lap. Qualifying wise, it can work. But when it comes to, when it comes to racing, it's just not quite designed for Formula One cars, I feel. Maybe Oscar Piastri won't have too many complaints about how the day has gone. After what was a tough spell for him, not only failing to win races, but failing to finish on the podium in quite a few races in a row, he manages to claw out that sprint race win, ultimately winning by about five seconds, back to George Russell in second. I spoke on yesterday's review about how timely that sprint poll was and how much he needed that, regardless of the point situation, just to remind himself

what he's done so far this year. I feel like the win is in that same category. 100%. I think a lot of people, maybe newer to the sport, will be surprised at how much Formula 1 isn't just about the car, it's not just about the setup, but mentally you can have so much damage dealt to you. If you get off on the wrong foot, your form takes a dip, look at Lewis Hamilton right now. The car is terrible. We'll get onto the Ferrari later on. But I do think it's being worsened by his very low morale inside that team. And it does have a massive impact when there are mere tenths of a second between the front of the grid and the back of the grid.

So when Piastri hits his poor run of form after doing so well, takes the morale knock, you're really going to something to lift you back up. And coming to a track where you've been successful before, when you feel comfortable, where you've got the ability to get ahead. He's taken that. He's actually grabbed that by both hands. And we've seen him pick up the sprint poles, pick up the sprint wing, And as we go now, moving forward, gets pole position.

Is it just a little bit too late then? Well, maybe. And we won't know the answer to that until either tomorrow or next week. But he'll know that he's done everything he can to put himself back into the picture. Because if he had another poor qualifying session, one more poor sprint, remember, of course, he didn't finish either of the last two spring races that we had in both Austin and South Paulo, there was a real chance that he would even go into this race tomorrow with not really an opportunity to get back at Lando Norris.

It might have been a case of you need a Norris DNF or you cannot get back in the fight by the time we get to Abu Dhabi. So I think he's done what he's needed to do. And like I say, the first win in any format since we were in Zamvort, which feels like, I'm sure for him more than anyone else, feels like forever ago. So to prove to himself that when we get to a track that suits him a bit more, where grip is a bit more present than it has been at some of these other tracks,

he can still get the job done. And I thought his win earlier was very Alam Prost-like. It was get out of the – I mean, Al-Apros didn't have DRS, but stay with me. He needed to get out of that one second to George Russell. But then it was almost how can I stay away? from the threat of George Russell, but do it in the slowest time possible, because he didn't want, the last thing he wanted was to go off into the distance like 10 seconds after 10 laps and completely cook his tires and realize he's in for a real scrap in this second half of the

race. We didn't know how the tires were going to fare. We haven't had a lot of practice here. They weren't on the hardest compound. They were on the mediums. I think he played that very sensibly more than anything. It has echoes of Spain a little bit, actually, where he led that Spanish Grand Prix and it was always kind of a how do I keep you just at arm's length in case anything happens? How have I just got you far enough away that danger is fine? If I need to step up and I've got the resource

for tyres to step up and do the job and it did feel like he was able to just kick on any time that it got a little close behind him, all right, I'll take another two or three tents off. Okay, I'll do another two or three tents off and this proved it by his last tour of the track being his fastest of the whole Grand Prix. It

shows you that he had kept so much life in those tires. The car was still in with such a good space. He's like, all right, now I turn the wick up. Now I'm going to go out and can't show you what I actually can do. And his pace was so much faster than everyone else on that last way around. It shows you that he was purely managing. He was just bringing it home because he knew he could. So really well managed, well delivered. It's what he needs to get himself back in this title fight properly. He needs the race to go even better for himself tomorrow. And we know in hindsight as well that the best opportunity for anyone to overtake,

Oscar Piastri was going to be at the start into that first corner. He hadn't excellent getaway. Really great launch. What did you make of the battle for P2? I don't even know if you can call it a battle. Norris was third, George Russell in second holding position from where they qualified. Norris ended up about 1.3 seconds away from George Russell, which seemed to be the gap that was there for pretty much that entire sprint.

Do you think Norris will walk away from this one feeling okay that he's only given up two points to his rival? Of course, he's beaten for Stappan, who will get to? or will there be disappointment that there wasn't enough in that McLaren to at least challenge George Russell for P2?

I think in any Formula One drive when you're in a title fight coming third when you see your teammate winning is always frustrating. There's always a really little party that is frustrating but he can feel very safe

in the knowledge that a third place gives him this world title. Does this again in the race tomorrow? Fine. Does it again in Abu Dhabi? No problem. There's still a world title

going home with him. So he's digging enough and that's all he needs to do at each session is do enough. currently he's doing enough but i think he'll be a little bit frustrated actually at the mercedes were actually in race pace was able to relatively keep tabs on the mcclaren um it was able to kind of keep a level distance between piastri out front and norris in behind it wasn't as simple as maybe it would have been at many other race locations um what will allow him

to feel a little bit more comfortable though i think is that no one was making moves up and down the entire track it wasn't like it was just him stuck behind russell because Russell was supremely quick, the track does not lend itself to follow it, doesn't not lend itself to overtaking and qualifying is so important. He's done well to be on that front row with Piastri tomorrow that if they both get away well and Piastri does romp off into the distance, it's the second place. It's pretty much good enough for the site. It'll come at last race of the Grand Prix, barring a DNF.

So I think he'll kind of take it on the king. I think he'll be right with it. Yeah, he should be fine with this one. It was always going to be a case as soon as Max Verstappen got into P4, and he was in P3 that he was going to face some early pressure from Max Verstappen

and it was going to be his job to negotiate that for however many laps he was going to need to sustain that pressure for because I think going into that we didn't feel like

Vastappen was going to have to pace the challenge Lando Norris every single lap for the entire sprint. It was probably going to be a five lap, six lap burst

before those tires kind of fell off just by the amount that Vostappen was attacking. And he did a really good job to negotiate that period of the Grom Grand Prix, for the most part, stayed within the DRS of George Russell to help defend down

that start-finish straight. We know Verstappen has gone with a setup that is pretty quick in a straight line. So that could have gotten a bit lairy for Lando Norris, and it didn't. And the fact that he couldn't get quite close enough to George Russell, if he does get too close to George Russell, can't make that overtake, cooks the tires, Max Verstappen is back in with another shot again. So I feel like with the sprint race, with the way that the points standings are at the moment, that the points are distributed in these sprints, there's not a huge amount of difference between the positions. I think I mentioned this in the preview where there's, you know,

the same amount of points difference between first and second in the main Grand Prix as there is first to eighth in the sprint race, seven points. So it was never going to be a case where Lando Norris was going to make too many risks in that situation. It's fundamentally the problem with these sprint races. The risk simply is not worth the reward. No, in a lot of instances, it definitely isn't. What about Red Bull?

So Max Verstappen ends up finishing P4. Yuki Sonoda finishes fifth, then sixth, then back to fifth again, thanks to some penalties, including his own, and that for Kimmy Antonelli as well. But nine points for Red Bull overall, Vastappan gaining five, Sunoda gaining four. Should we just start with the Vastappan side of things and how they manage that first lap

because there was clearly a very orchestrated Sonoda let through so that he wasn't going to hold him up. But didn't they played that well? I think they've played that fantastically well and it was the first glimpse through the window of what the world might look like if there were two red balls that were competent and actually able to be competitive

because you know Fernando Alonso I'm sure at home you've heard of him it's a little menace is old Fernando Alonso and when you've got him out of all people in front of you who is there purely for vibes the man hates the sprint race man hates doing anything and so when you're stuck with Russell

Alonso Norris Sonoda of the Stappano and there's two of you only one of everyone else that allows you to have the upper hand. And the way that Yuki Singh O's started and kind of got in the way of the cars around him and then let Max Stauffin get through, it was just brilliantly played from the second driver.

That's what someone should be doing to support their World Championship teammate. And I thought the staff had a great first lap. He did a great get away, go off the line, really smoothly, really well, ran the outside. They followed his teammate through alongso, who I think he kind of blocked a little bit

going around the outside of one corner, lets his teammate through really cleanly down the side. Just really well managed, really well managed. I was a little bit disappointed that we never saw a wheel to wheel moment with Norris and Verstappen, because at one moment, it looked like it was definitely possible. But then I think the paces disappeared from him once the DRS got got dropped. So well managed lap one, really tough to see that carry over for the rest of the Grand Prix. Yeah, I thought Red Bull nailed lap one. And I said on yesterday's review that I was worried about how they were going to negotiate that because you just didn't know how the starts

were going to go and what position Sonoda and Vastappen would be in going into the first corner and indeed at the end of the first lap. The fact that they'd got it sorted well before the end of that first lap made life a lot easier for Vestappen. And a lot of that credit needs to go to Yuki Sonoda because his brilliant start, he had a great start Yuki Sonoda and the fact that he was able to challenge Alonzo and it could have gone even better for him at one point. It seemed to get a little a little bit sandwiched. But him being there and not dropping back behind Vastappan essentially created, like you kind of said, Alonzo kind of blocked off, therefore allowing Vastappan through.

And then there was just no fuss whatsoever about Vastappan going up the inside of Yuki Sonoda and going about his business there. For the rest of the Grand Prix, I think Vastappen did a pretty good job. We knew that he was going to try and challenge Lando Norris early on. We had that one instance where he threatened to move or I don't even know. know, it threatens the right word, but he showed Lando Norris that he was willing to go up the inside of turn one. Lando Norris, to his credit, wasn't really phased by it, but that was the closest he got. And I just want to give some more respect to Yuki Sonoda, because even though that move

was orchestrated on lap one and Vastappen could have then gone off into the distance, he kind of didn't. Like Sonoda, I know the five second time penalty skews things a little bit, which is on him, of course, but I think he only ends about five seconds back on track to Max Verstappen, which works out at about two and a half tenths or so per lap. If he gave Red Bull that every weekend, they'd take that. That's not bad at all. I'm looking forward to taking that respect away in the second half of this podcast. Yeah.

Yeah, the first half of this review is probably a bit better from a Yuki Sonoda fan perspective. Anything you want to say just on the midfield very quickly, Alonzo and Sines, both getting points. Yeah, the Spangyig's doing well, and it was great to see Alonkso being so competitive. We did think that the Astor-Martin would suit going around here. It's a downforce heavy racetrack. The Masega's engine goes well around here as well.

Al-O is doing what Alonso does, and he's put in the car high, and it probably realistically should. And it feels like Carlos Sykes has really become one with that Williams at the moment. He feels really comfy in the car. He's regularly putting out the results. He's clear above Alex Alba again. Big turnaround.

Like last five, six races. Like he's really shown up. Yeah, we got out that summer break and it's just being every single time he's taking a little step, a little step. And now he's so clearing above the rest of that midfield. It tends to be, you know, you're McLaren's, you're Suggis, Max Verstappen, and then there's a couple of cars. And more often than not, Carlos Sites is one of those couple of cars that sit there in that 8th down to 10th section. That's what he's done again all weekend so far. So really impressed.

I think Williams will now be very happy that they made the commitment to bring him in because he really is starting to come good. I do have another team that I did write down to talk about for this sprint review but I'm going to call an audible and we're not going to be talking about them yet we'll talk about them after the break because their qualifying performance

very much mirrors what happens in the race I bet you can't guess who I'm talking about Ferrari so we'll tackle Ferrari's day maybe collectively on the other side of a break but before we get there do you have a driver of the session for the sprint I'm going to give it to Oscar Pastery I think with the pressure he's been under, the run that he's been on,

it would very easily happen where he could bottle this. I think he could get a poor start, let his teammate get through. It could have easily very easily happened. It didn't. He absolutely ran away with it. It was a really well-measureed performance. It was good to see him at his best. I was tempted to go with that scintillating lap from Pierre Gazley

when Alpine decided, let's get some qualifying practice in, which, hey, looks like it might have paid off as we get to the second half of the review. but realistically yeah i've got to go with oscar piastri as well um there there wasn't that much opportunity in the midfield i think to have a driver of the session caliber drive but fair play to piastri five second victory in a sprint that's not to be sniffed that whatsoever okay let's take a quick break on this review on the other side we'll get into all of the action from qualifying Have you ever had a moment where you think, man, someone should really do something about this?

Then you realize, maybe that someone is you. Well, with the help of GoFundMe, you can change someone's life. You could start a go-fund me to help a friend pay for school, fund that new community space, or help a local kid finally get to that national competition. I've seen this myself. Last year, a friend of mine launched a go-fund me to help with medical bills after an unexpected surgery. It was incredible how fast the support rolled in. People want to help.

They just need a way to do it. And GoFundMe makes it easy. So do you have a dream, a person, or a cause in your life that could use some support? Don't wait for someone else to bring change. You can be the one who makes a difference. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform, trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com. That's gofundme.com.

Gofundme.com Welcome back, everyone to the second part of this review for the sprint and now qualifying from the Qatar Grand Prix. A good day from Oscar Piastri already, made even better by the fact that he has pole position for the main Grand Prix tomorrow. Just over a tenth clear of his teammate, Lando Norris. even though Norris not able to claim that poll is at least on the front row where he wasn't for the sprint. The second row, old buddies Max Verstappen and George Russell, third and fourth, respectively. Should we start with McLaren?

Because I don't know when the moment was for you, Sam. It was for me, when Oscar Piastri set that 196 in Q2, that was the moment I went, everyone else is battling for third here. I was awoken at that moment. I thought he's back. Piastri is actually back. It was good to see it once in sprint qualifying, but in the main qualifying,

when Landon Norris looked at one point, so locked in, that middle sector he delivered when he had the 700th clear, or 300th clear of Piastri, I thought, uh-oh, Piastri's turned up and down a good lap, but Landon Norris is not in a play,

he's taking at home. I knew I was in for a fight on our hands, and it was so excited to watch two young, hungry drivers who want their first title, go wheel to wheel at their very best. And you're right, it was a battle for third because the gaps going back down the grid were enormous.

It was so small between all the other drivers, but the one, two, down a three, was tense. The gap was tenth difference between them. So, for stopping at its best with this setup, no chance. Russell would have to pull a lap of the gods out to fight with those two. But the fight between those two McLaren boys was phenomenal.

Thank God they put on a show. That was exciting. And I like that both McLaren drivers have been on it this weekend, but maybe for slightly different reasons. I feel like Piastri, and it's very reminiscent of other weekends that we had in the middle part of this year, Piastri seems to be the more settled of the two drivers, the slightly more consistent at the two, and that's one or at least part of the reason why he's got the pole position today. Landon Norris, in terms of raw pace, seems to be on it with Oscar Piastri.

You could even claim he might even be marginally quicker. It's very close. But Landau Norris is finding himself in more difficult situations, many of which are self-inflicted that we'll get onto with that Q3 performance. But it's great that they've both been in this fight. And Oscar Piastri, that 196 in Q2 was seriously impressive to the point where I was unsure whether they had anywhere else to go in terms of finding lap time. And then they have outdone themselves again as we've got through to Q3. Norris improves on Piastri's Q2 time, meaning Piastri also has to improve by a good three-tenths in order to claim that poll. And he does exactly that.

And I referenced it in the first part of this review. When we were on board with Piastri for that final run, good Lord, that is F1 at his best. Like, that is scintillating. It was locked in. You know, that is a Formula One car in perfect harmony with a racetrack, in perfect harming with a driver that has got one goal in mind, and that is to be on pole position. It's, I'm not going to claim it was one of those laps that you go back and what. for the end of time. There are a few of those, but the car just looks incredible. It's at its best

around a track like this. So we've seen all season, the Qatar is a track that McClain will thrive at, but Lordy are they thriving? Piaastri, I think was aided slightly by the reg flag that came out halfway through Q3. I think it allowed him to settle. And I think it allowed him to reevaluate the data of where Norris had suddenly delivered another two and a half, three tents, which he wasn't able to do in Q2. And because of that, he goes out there, and we'll get on to Norris' issue in a moment. But the way that Piastri, under the pressure of having to deliver right at the end of the session, the last man across the line, well, ignoring George Russell, who decided just to be

on his own forever, apparently, he absolutely pulled out the laugh. I wasn't expecting him to be able to improve it again. I didn't think it was really possible. And then the purple set to start tumbling in, and you think, uh-oh, we've actually got something here. This is going to be juicy. What a lap. He delivered an absolute superb lap, something his teammate, surprising me.

And I say that with compliments, what's unable to do. And that's been Piastri's weekend. He does the same thing in SQ3, where he absolutely pulls out a lap when he needs to. And this was even more so, because this is obviously for all of the gold in the main race. We've got far more points on the line for this Sunday Grand Prix. And he knows that if Lando Norris gets the better of him, even by a few hundreds of a second, with how difficult it was to overtake earlier on in the day, if we get a repeat of that and he's behind Lando Norris

at the start of this race, there is a very, very good chance that is championship over. He needs to out-qualify Lando Norris by any means necessary, and he does exactly that by just over a tenth. With the Lando-Norris final run, we saw him make an error in the first sector. There were a few questions about his warm-up and whether the out-lap was as effective as it could be.

I kind of just put this one on Norris. Like he had quite comfortably gone past the point of George Russell by the time he makes that error ensues, turn two, turn three. Yeah. It's just, I think it's quite a simple one, just makes an error.

Yeah, you were right to say that Piastri is probably the most consistent sitting at about 95% of pace, but Norris made several mistakes across qualifying this weekend. He had lapsed deleted and had to get a lapping right at the last moment when they counted. Q2 was a bit dodgy. exactly right he got the lap him fair play to him but you don't want to be under that kind of pressure

when you're at this point of a season and so when he's going up against his teammate who suddenly refound his form and you lose it that early on in a lap you don't give yourself any time to also reclaim something and you don't give yourself the chance to go on another run afterwards because of where you've left the garage it was a Landon Norris mistake and I think he could be fortunate in two senses one that he's at a track where overtaking his so difficult. So it's going to be tough for people to come through him and he can sit in behind. And two, when the McLaren is so strong anyway that even with a mistake, the lap he did previously is good enough for a clear second place, which is all he needs for the championship. So, yeah,

he makes the mistake. He's lucky he'd already done the hard graft, got the job done early, lines up on the front row, which is better than the spring. I still think he'll take it. I think you're right, but I am so intrigued by that start tomorrow because the situation he's in it's not easy. You've got, Piastri, his job is quite, I'm not going to say his job's easy, but knowing what his job is,

is, yeah, his goal is clear. He's got two drivers behind and he needs to keep both of them behind. Max Verstappen, equally, his goal is quite clear. He's got two cars directly in front of him and he needs to get past both of them. Norris has kind of got a,

he's got one eye on Piastri ahead of him, he's got another eye on the great Max Verstappen behind him, and he's the only one of the three that will start on the dirty side of the grid. That's not an easy situation to navigate. I'm a little bit intrigued as to how Max Verstappen deals with turn one on lap one tomorrow. Speaking of Verstappen, I think this qualifying session went a bit smoother than his first qualifying session did. He was nearly half a second away from the poll time of Piastrian sprint qualifying.

Here it's been reduced to about a quarter of a second, just about ahead of George Rust. It didn't look like from a set-up perspective, they've changed much from the sprint sessions through to this qualifying session. Where he's strong still looks to be where he's strong, which is the first and final sector. And it seems like he's giving up a bit of time to the McLaren's in the middle sector. I wasn't sure how they were going to play that. So we'll see with the race. Yeah, always tricky as well when it's Max Verstappen.

He drives a car in such a unique way. He sets the car up in such a unique way. I think the track conditions were a little kind of in qualifying than they were in sprint qualifying, less wind, the temperatures were more settled. So I think that helps overall. But with Max, once he's comfortable with being uncomfortable, which is what that Red Bulls felt like all season, he could kind of get the most out of it. And I do think only being a quarter of a second away from those McLarenboise in a Red Bull

that is not fully operational, it's a really big success. We know he's the outside of this championship right now anyway. I think he's done a really good job to be peaceful. And he'll certainly be asking questions into term one and throughout all of the Grand Prix. Still, you know, two pit stops to navigate, that first corner to navigate. There's still plenty of opportunity for both for Stappan and Piastri as they look towards that championship and keeping that championship alive going into Abu Dhabi. Mercedes 4th, I mean, that's fairly standard for them, isn't it?

That is the season. Literally that season. The three big guns and the one's fighting for the championship, George Russell is in no man's land in the points tally between Charlotte Clare behind him and Max Verstappen in front of him. He's just a great job of getting up being so close to the Red Bull in front of him and then that close to the McLarence.

And Kimi Antelli is doing what we want Kimi Antigley to do. He's right there with his team mate. He's the rear gunner for Mercedes. He's having a great end to his season. So, yep, I hope they can match him much more. Yeah, I think Antonelli might have ever so slight. I think maybe even Russell as well. Maybe they could have got a bit more out of this

in that I think Russell, a perfect lap gets in P3. and I think Antonelli, even though P5 might have been the limit, he is still nearly two temps away from George Russell in front. It's a bigger gap than it looks like based on the fact that they are going to be starting next to each other on the grid. But I think they'll be fine with this. I don't think this was ever going to be a track where going into it, they were expecting to be overly competitive.

They've already got a P2 in the sprint from George Russell. And they're there for, look, easily there could be something happening between Piastri, Norris and Vestappen, the three championship rivals, they will be there. They will be leading the way to pick up the pieces if that's necessary. The last time that, you know, Landon Norris and Max Verstappen came together properly and took each other out, George Russell was the man who was there to pick up the pieces. So it could easily happen again.

I would say I'm getting sick of this, but I'm not getting sick for it. I can never get sick of giving praise to someone, and I'm going to keep doing that with Isaac Hadjar here. I was having a look at the times in Q3, because obviously Hadjar's done a number. enough to finish P6, to qualify P6. Carlos Sines, Fernando Alonzo, Pierre Gazli, Charles, LeClau, that's seventh down to 10. There's one thing that all four of those drivers have in common, they went faster in Q2 than they did in Q3.

The only one who bucks the trend in the midfield, Isaac Hatcher, and he's rewarded for it yet again. I love that tiny little man. He is fantastic. He's so consistently brilliant at qualifying. And when we were in a season of Formula One, where we don't say this that often anymore, but qualifying truly is king.

There have been previous years in Formula, where you can make up five, six, seven places very, very easily. Not this year, you know, unless you get your strategy bang on, unless you know how to make a decisive and concise move very quickly, it's tough to move up and down the grid. And Hajjar is using his strength of one lap pace so effectively. He's delivering a brilliant lap. At one point, I think it was in Q1.

it looked like he was one of the fastest people on track and I was blown away by the gap between himself and Lawson this session because usually it's much closer and I felt like he was so far above Liam Lawson. Yeah, I mean, Lawson I think was quicker in Q1 but this is the continual story of as soon as we get to it's usually Q2,

that's where Hadja's the guy who can go above and beyond and make an appearance in Q3 or even with Hadja when he didn't make an appearance in Q3, three yesterday. He's the one who's 11th and putting himself, you know, somewhere in the mix to score points if there's some errors in front of him. Yeah, just more credit for what had Joe was able to do. He was hanging on by the end of the sprint race from pressure from Alex Albin behind. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the race. I have a feeling that with this 25-lap mandatory stint or the maximum number of laps you can do in a stint,

they might be, like, checking their watches, like, can we come off the tyres now, please? That car eats tyres alive. Just, both drivers go through it. It's not like this is one over the other. They really do struggle to maintain tireware. So, yeah, they're going to be hoping they get to that kind of 22, 23 lap counter. Go get me in chief, please pull me in.

Question, Ben. Yes. We obviously have three different compounds, right? C1, C2, C3. Yes. Why do they need to be 25 for all of the compounds? Is that at the point of having a hard? harder compound? I don't know if it's related to where. I'm not quite sure because it's more

thermal degradation, in which case it might impact all the tyres equally. It might not and it might just be easier to manage that they just say. It is easier to explain to an audience. Yes, and that could be part of it. Oh, I guess I haven't had that, I haven't heard that on any broadcast as to why it's the same across all three compounds. So I think I've heard something. No, and I think it probably needs more explanation than what it's been given. I have to say my overriding opinion on it is if you have to, if you go to a track and you have to mandate this rule, maybe it shouldn't be race in there.

Yeah, either that, or we should just make ties that slowly fall off the cliff and actually, this happens at every race. But it's just the like the other 23 tracks we can go ahead fight. I know we had a two-stop mandatory at Monaco, but that was entertainment-driven, or at least. We were experimenting. Yes, that wasn't safety-related. We've given some respect already to Carlos Sines and Fernando Alonzo for what they've done

to this point in the weekend. But Pierre Gasly has popped up in the top 10 in P9 after being 10 spots lower than that in spring qualifying. He seems to have found someone again. My man's back. My man's done it again. How is he dragging that Alping into another Q3 appearance? I don't know.

It is a pile of poo painted pink and blue. And yet he has made it beautiful. There's something in that car. although the crazy stat that Crofti wouldn't let go was the fact that for the first time all season they were on the back row entirely out of pure speaking alone 19th and 20th for Pierre Gassi and Conopinto which is kind of crazy that they've...

Did he mean just sprint race, sprint qualifying? He did not make it clear because he had said all season numerous times because, but I can't recall a time when they were 19th and 20th in pure pace. It feels like it should have happened if it hasn't. Surely. But fair play to Pierre Gassely, he set that car up to being a big of place. Even with the lack of overtakes available, I'm not sure if he scores points in that car. I think he's done what a long so regularly does, and he's once again elevated

the Alpine beyond where it really should be. I think you might be right. That car looked all right in the middle sector, but if it's slow in a straight line and it doesn't have the overall race pace, that could be a tough afternoon. But hey, if he goes back to 17th, that's probably where he'll find his teammate anyway. So at least he's had a bit of a bit of a very venture out into the top 10. I just thought the saddest thing about it was how excited he was to make it to Q3. I'm glad you're excited,

but you shouldn't be. You're good enough that you shouldn't have a car that is just like you are begging to have enough pace to get through to the top 10. That's a sad state of affairs for where they are. They're sucks all hope away from Pierre Gasly. Yeah. Speaking of sucks all hope away, Ferrari.

And I intentionally decided not to talk about them in terms of the sprint race because it's very much the same story, even if we're talking about two sessions. Not a great sprint race. Charle LeCler gets a tough start. Have you seen the start on board? I've seen a lot of his on board. And I'm going to quote the great Nicky Louder, an interpretation of him, but it drives like a pig. I've seen that, yes. It's a shi-bucks. That car is absolutely atrocious. I mean, Lewis Hamilton can't get any time out of it. And Charlotte Clare is quite literally seesawing at a searing wheel for 20 laps.

It is horrible. Sorry, John Elking, you're a liar. It is not a good car. That turn one is vomit-inducing. It is disgusting. And then you think, oh, it can't get worse than that. And then it kind of just does for the rest of the lap. And then turn two comes along.

Yeah. And then turn three comes along. And my man is off almost every corner of the racetrack. The quote from Pierre Gasly to be like, yeah, I was behind that thing and it looks horrible. That says all you need to go. He's driving an Alpin. Yeah, and then Hamilton's like, yeah, no beep, Sherlock.

Like, yeah, right, that's, it's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. But speaking of that, not Pierre Gassley's perspective, but I saw the onboard from Charles LeCle's first lap where he loses like three spots because he just can't hold onto the car. And it doesn't look great on board, Charles LeClau.

It might look worse from Olly Bairman's office. board who is behind him so you can see like every single wiggle of the car and there's a lot of them. It's just, it's like he's on ice. It's quite literally that the car has no grip at all. It cannot hold a straight line. It can't hold one consistent line around the corner. You think this is a Ferrari. This isn't, you know, some experimental thing. It's a Ferrari. You've got Leclair and Hamilton driving it for crying out loud. There isn't really much more you could do in terms of driver line up. And yet, John Elking has the audacity to turn around and say that our driver's talk too much and the engineers have done a great job developing it, delusion.

It is actually awful. I just, I was thinking back throughout this whole season and it's not been a great season for Ferrari by any stretch. We've had the double DNF at Zambor, the double disqualification earlier this year at China, plenty of weekends where they just haven't brought it. But in terms of outright competitiveness, I think this could be the worst one unless I'm missing an obvious one. They might be on for a no score weekend. I don't think it's unrealistic to say that they might go away with zero points for the whole weekend. Yeah, who knows. Hamilton in the sprint fares even worse than Charle-Cle.

So, Charlecler, loses a couple of spots on that first lap, never gets them back and ends up finishing in 13th. Hamilton fairs even worse, finishing in 17th place. And the other three drivers who are behind him all decided to take the opportunity to pit. He's finished six and a half seconds behind Holcomburg in front of him. I don't know if it's a combination of the car being so bad and him just not caring anymore. Like, he didn't move there for this.

Ingram he wasn't going to a wing in 2025, but this bad, some of it is on Lewis, right? He clearly isn't able to pull out the same performance that Charles LeClaire is able to. The Clare's getting something out of it. He is. A fair play to LeCler. He is pulling, you know, a rabbit out of,

I'm not even going to go there. But Lewis Hamilton, it clearly doesn't suit him. The style isn't right for his driving. He's never liked this style of car anyway, but this is a whole other low. And it is honestly quite difficult to watch someone of his ability be this far down consistently now. It's what, three sessions in a row or is out in Q1 of some variation, Vegas, SQ1 and now Q1, out that early.

I mean, that's not happened before. This is the car, partially. It's got to be the car. Well, let's move on to the qualifying session for Ferrari because Hamilton is down in 18th. LeClair will qualify in P10, although that doesn't tell the whole story as a massive spin at the penultimate corner. It didn't look like it improved. Even with some of the testing work that Hamilton was doing in the sprint, it doesn't look like it's improved. No, I think they don't know where to go with it. They put on a specific wing that had more downforce. It couldn't get

any more out of it. They both had clean runs. It's not like there was traffic to blame or anything like that, but Hamilton just can't get any more tenths. The thing is the gap's, what, three and a half, four tenths between himself and a clerk. Three and a half, yeah. Three and a half isn't astronomically big either. You know, there's a few teammates that are regularly further apart than that and they manage to get through. But when qualifying is this close and it's this crucial that you get every tenth out

of it, seeing him go seven and a half tenths down from the pole time at that point when he set his lap and the clerby only, what, four tenths away and there's still that many places, oh, he's got to be gussing. It's got to be so heartbreaking for him to sit there and go, cool. Even in this crap hole of a car, my teammate is actually able to do something with it. It's just awful. Just go home, Ferrari. I know there's a race tomorrow.

Just go home. Just don't bother. Is there a chance he shock retires? No. No? No. I don't think so. I don't know.

Start going to feel like mentally, he's not in a good place. If 2026 was the same regulations as 2025, I might say yes to that question. I think the only thing that will keep them around is the potential that it could all be different next year and he might just suit these cars a lot better. He's got to do seven more days, Lewis. Sorry, seven more days. Come on, man, you can do it.

Anything else from sort of the lower ends of qualifying that caught your eye? Q2 looked fairly similar to what SQ2 did. This is where the disrespect comes in. Yuki Sanoda, mate, what are you doing? What are you doing? It was going so well. Spring qualifying was fantastic.

You matched your season best in that car. a great star, you help Max for staffing, you were right behind him, the whole Grand Prix, and now you're what, 17th, 16th place? It's atrocious. Where's the pace gone? He was suddenly so much further behind, and they must not have changed things by that much if he did that well. So why is he so much further behind in this qualifying than he was in the sprint qualifying? What has happened? Is it just the conditions? I don't know, but I'm surprised at just how far back he is. The thing that caught my eye about it was Sonoda in sprint qualifying one yesterday was about three tenths away from Vastappan, and that's the biggest gap that we saw throughout

that entire qualifying session. He got closer to Vestappen in Q2, in SQ2, and then of course outqualified him in SQ3. Here, Q1, that gap between Sonoda and Vastappan is essentially identical to the gap that he had in SQ1 yesterday, except he hasn't gotten away with it today. That three Temes. Everyone else has improved. Yeah, and he, but I mean, his gap to Vestappen is kind of identical. That hasn't changed. But whereas he got through yesterday and then made something in the next two sessions, he obviously doesn't even have the opportunity to do that today. I don't think it's awful, like three temps to Vestappen is far from the worst qualifying session he's had all year,

even if positions-wise, it's going to look quite bad. If you look at all four drivers, I'm not saying it's great, but if you look at the four drivers behind it, him Ocon, Hamilton, Stroll, Colopinto. All four of those drivers were further away from their teammate than what Sonoda was to Vestappen. So I don't think it's horrendous. He's only six temps off the fastest time, but it's gutting for him on a weekend

where I think there's been more positive this weekend than maybe the last five combined. And then even scraping into Q2 were doing some kind of a saviour. You think he could kind of kick on from that point, but again, it's on the poor side of it. It washes away. good things that he did in the first half of the weekend.

Yeah, who knows? If he can maintain that three-temp's gap to Vestappen and improve the same way that Vestappen does in Q2, that would then be enough to make it through to Q3. We don't know that was going to happen, but he's caught on the wrong side of that elimination zone, and now he's got a lot of work to do. The last thing I want to pick up,

and it's basically the split between two teammates again here is Bortlanders to Holkenberg. I was surprised at how big the gap was between the two Salber drivers. Hulkenberg has really reawoken to the last few Grand Prix. He was lost and now he is found. And then Stroll to Alonso. Now we know that Stroll is king of Q1 eliminations. But I did think with the car being stronger than Qatar,

I thought he could have gone out of Q1. I thought he could be a little bit closer, especially with a bit more running time. They've already done a qualifying session. It's just a bit disappointing. Yeah, he's a long way off it. In terms of the Salber comparison, Q1, basically identical. Holkenberg was just ahead, but we're talking thousands of a second.

Holkenberg improves by about three tenths. Bortoletto improves by about one-tenth. And that's the difference ultimately between them. 11th and 14th, they'll start, well, that's not true. Bortletto will start 19th as a result of that five-place grid penalty that he got at Vegas. Is it a double driver at the session for Piastri today? There are some closer contenders. You know, shout out to both Hajar and Gassley, who I wanted to kind of pick up.

But for me, to pull up that lap, I didn't think there was anything else to be pulled out. Sensational, Piastri, really, to live it right when he needed it. And it means we get a fight on our hands with this title in the pro-ultimate race of the season. Yeah, I'll shout out Hajar, even if I will give my vote to Pastery, because Hachar's not only got P-6. He's nearly two-tenths clear as signs in P-7, and then he's three-tems-clear of Alonzo in P-8. We saw really close gaps in the midfield in Q3 yesterday. We didn't get that today because Hadjar's quite comfortably beaten his midfield rivals.

So he deserves a lot of respect for that, but I will join you with Oscar Piastria's driver of the session. Well, I wonder who will be giving out a driver of the day vote to tomorrow. Are we going to be handing out a driver's championship tomorrow? That is very much in the offer with all three drivers championship contenders starting first, second and third. could be really interesting indeed. I think we should do a review for it. I think we should. And then afterwards,

I think we should do the real championship conversation, which is our power rankings. Now, if you want to hear our power rankings, go down below, you'll see a little Patreon link there. You can come over and be a resident at a Patreon city where you get so many great benefits

and so much content for just a tiny, tiny fraction of your monthly salaries. It's all graciously accepting and helps the show massively. So thank you to everyone that does. And give it a try, who has cancer after a month, if you don't like it, and we appreciate all the sport that comes from it.

If you also want to hear yourself potentially on the show, then join the Discord, the links in the description, and that's where we will do our moment of the race. We ask you, our listeners, for your moment of the race. So, you know, you might hear your voice on this show, and we always love hearing from you. So get involved for what could be a championship deciding race. Come back to see us tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.