The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 British GP Sprint Race & Qualifying Review

Episode Date: July 4, 2026

A busy day at Silverstone gives us two exciting sessions to unpack! Ben, Sam and Harry are on hand to review the Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying, discussing Kimi Antonelli's dominant day, Ferrari's encouraging showing, and Red Bull and McLaren keeping the pressure on. Note: The sprint portion of the review was recorded live at an event, so the audio quality may be slightly lower than usual. Get involved in F1 Fantasy this season! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Late Braking league⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us... LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02 Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get:Ad-free listeningFull-length bonus episodesPower Rankings after every raceHistorical race reviews& more exclusive extras!Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything 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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats!Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us!Get in touch any time at [e-mail]  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. A quick message before we get going on today's review. You might hear for the first two-thirds-ish of this episode that we're actually at a different venue, believe it or not. We were invited to Portionomics, a private event. Very glad to be there. So you might hear some background noise, some random cars.

You might do. You might hear some random cars. You might hear some random cars. You'll definitely hear a spitfire taking off at one point. But other than that, it's going to be all groovy. All groovy? Yeah, yeah. Ben, tank one side of it.

Ben guarantee. Expanding my vocabulary, you see. Yes, you might hear that for the first 30 minutes or so, and then the next 15 minutes you'll hear as we kind of are right now. Yeah. But which also is a different environment because we're in an Airbnb in Oxford. It's a strange episode, folks. We're all over the shop.

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking. Of course, Saturday for Sprint weekend means we've got a lot to get to. First of all, of course, the sprint race that just happened as we're talking now. Antonelli beating Lewis Hamilton by a slender margin. Very interesting one, 17 laps. What did you make of that, Sam? It was quite a bizarre session, actually, I think as sprints go. And we commented on this in our sprint qualifying review. That battery looked like it might be impactful here around Silverstone. And immediately, it comes to fruition that battery does play a major part.

We see that Lewis Hamilton is mega through sector three, able to maintain the gap to Kimi Antingelli, the fast charging, Kimi Antingelli. And yet we come around on that final run and Anteally finally gets closer enough to deploy, and it looks like in defence Hamilton has run out of that battery. Kimi Anteley flies by and realistically there's no challenge after that point. So battery playing a major part,

hopefully with the fact that this is a sprint and got the main Grand Prix, we're going to be able to see a little bit more management, deployment, bigger strategy going on, and it's not just going to be a push the battery down past the straight over an hour. It feels, and I guess this is the case with F1 a lot now, that in previous years it was very cyclical, let's call it, like where every lap sort of looked very similar to one another. We're now getting, you know, one lap where Antonelli looks much quicker than Hamilton, and then it reverses back. We think as soon as Antonelli gets by Hamilton, he's gone into the distance. And then suddenly there's half a second between them. It's very, it's very, it's very,

very tough to predict it feels. It is tough to predict. And a lot of it is just down to these drivers working out their battery management and where to deploy it. Because we saw Hamilton was so good in that final set. It has been all weekend long, which took Antonelli quite a while to work out, I think. And once he had sussed that, I think when we saw, was it Anthony like half a second behind in that final sector going into the lap, you knew it was on them because he was so much

quicker and the rest of it. So yeah, it's an interesting, it's an interesting way of going about the Formula One at the moment, but it's exciting to watch. So we can't really complain. Yeah, it did very much feel like all of the drivers were learning as they went out there, felt very much the same with spring qualifying yesterday and through practice, because with these spring weekends, of course, you do only get that one practice session rather than three to properly get yourself embedded, work out, what is the quickest way around this lap with those new battery rules. I still think going into certainly this afternoon's qualifying session and then tomorrow's race, we are still going to get drivers trying to figure out exactly where they want to deploy that battery.

Antonelli and Hamilton yesterday very much felt like a class of two. They were quite comfortably clearer at the rest of the field, I think about three attempts back to Max Verstappen and Company. Very much a repeated story here. Just take us through the start of the sprint and how that first lap went, Lewis Hamilton, a solid enough start, but still had to get the elbows out. Yeah, immediately under pressure. And it's very clear that, you know, Lewis Hamilton is a wily old contender. He's been around for a while or two now because the way that Antingale gets up alongside him, and you know that that sweeping first corner of Silverstone, it can be so easy to come together or you can come out and be pushed wide. Hamilton squeezes Anthony all the way up to kind of...

He's not having it. He's not having it, he's not avic, is it? He's not an apex son. You have a bite of that. I'll come back out all the way round. He holds on. He holds on really well. And actually, it looks like very quickly, they have pulled away from the two. About halfway around the lap, it was about two seconds, I think, between the battle of Antingley and Hamilton, and then a battle behind, which is all over the shop. You've got for Staffen succeeding. Norris is through. Piastri turns up for a bit.

Russell's hanging out of the battle. Charlotte Clare is, I guess, existing somewhere in all of this is going on. He got there in the end. Eventually, didn't he turned up. But it just felt like those two were able to run away and almost work together. by not battling right at the front, Hamilton was able to deploy the pace of the Ferrari successfully. Anting Ellie was tucked in behind. It was happy there about a second back, just within that overtake zone.

But because the battle behind was so, you take the lead, you take the lead, I'm going to come back. I'll have a go at you next time. We're going to go side by side through a corner. Not only are the pace of the car is slightly slower than Hamilton and Antingelli, the wheel to actually is also causing them to drop time. And after four or five laps, the gap is already at four or five seconds. they are comfortably slower. And in a sprint race,

you're just not going to bring that gap back down again. Is it a concern for, I know they got there in the end and we'll obviously talk about the overtake and how Antonelli goes on to win this in a little bit. But in terms of those lap one situations, Ferrari do seem to have a bit of an advantage there because whilst Antonelli lost out, of course,

to Lewis Hamilton, he also had a bit more work to do than he was anticipating with some of the other cars behind. Yeah, it's something the Mercedes haven't quite sussed yet. They've got better at first laps this year. Although Russell was pretty punchy on lap one.

Yeah. So maybe it's more of an Antenetti thing than overall Mercedes. But yeah, it's something they still need to work on because it was fine today for Antenelli. Obviously, he did have to fight off a few early contenders with Establer and Norris, etc. But you look at Austria, for example, in the main race, that compromised the rest of his race for him

because he was battling away in those first, first early lap. So it's definitely one for them to still address, I think. And whether that's actually the car or just driver, you know, how the driver's deploying on lap one. It does seem maybe it's a bit more driver specific. I don't know. But yeah, it's something for them to, something for them definitely to work on. I was just going to say on that. Something that is very different from Austria to hear is that compound of tyre. And Ferrari are very good at warming up

the harder compound of tyre. They run at a higher temperature. Just to remind people exactly what the compounds are looking like. So the, if I get this the right way around, the hard tire in Austria is the equivalent of the soft tire here at Silverstone. So we have gone from one end of the range to the other. We are a whole spectrum harder right now in Silverstone. Yeah, laugh if you wish, child. But my point here is that Ferrari are immense at warming their tyres,

I'm getting a temperature and quickly. So if we do a lot of racing on the hard compact of tire for the main Grand Prix, I think Ferrari might have an overall pace advantage. You can backfire for them in Austria. because we're on that much softer compound, it meant they just overheat the tire. They can't maximise the performance. We saw that with the chassis and the aerodynamics,

they had to let temperature out of the car, which slowed the car down also. Here at Silverstone, it doesn't seem to be the case, and there are a much closer match for a Mercedes car throughout multiple laps, not just the one lap in qualifying, but the race pace seems to be much, much closer. I thought it was fascinating to see that battle unfold.

Again, as soon as Antonelli got back into the second place where he started this sprint, then he could go about, you know, how can I catch Lewis Hamilton? And it felt like, I'm not going to say it was inevitable because I think there was maybe a version of events where he doesn't get that. But it kind of felt like lap after lap he was getting there and getting there. Hamilton, Martin, able to necessarily pull off into the distance. That Mercedes over a longer, longer stint, it's not the first time we've said this about Ferrari, who over one lap looked pretty good.

And to be clear, it's not that they look poor over multiple laps as well. but maybe that's just where Mercedes at the moment have that little bit more. Yeah, I think it is. And like I said, it doesn't really affect them too much. It's only in situations like they had in Austria where it compromises them. So if they are near enough to the front,

and for example, George Russell in Austria, it was fine. So I think it's just the danger of slipping into that scrappy, you know, middle of the top 10 battle that always seems to happen in the early laps that they need to be wary of. Can I say something about the Antonelli overtake and overtake a bit more generally? Let's do it. Because there's a real common, like there's a real, let's call it a juxtaposition at the moment

between overtakes that we're seeing and battling on track. We get, I think now with these new regulations, some wonderful side-by-side racing that we have been lacking for a number of years in F1. We are also seeing, and we saw plenty of this today, just flying by someone before you even get anywhere near the corner, And whilst we obviously want to see overtaking, we want to see good overtake. Like, it doesn't do much for me when there's a driver like Antonelli gets by as Lewis Hamilton. And it doesn't even go to the breaking zone.

It's a fight for the lead. There's a fight for that. That's between Championship League in third place. It's between the Ferrari and a Mercedes, two of the oldest competitors that we've got in model Formula One. And I want to see them put it all on the line. I want to see the likes of Antonelli going down the inside of Hamilton through Cops, through Stowe. And then all of a sudden, he's not. Hamilton is moving at the pace of what feels like a lap car.

And Antigelli is just breathing by. It's so anticlimactic. It's so underwhelming. It's just not good enough for a Formula One race. We've had this discussion before as well about not necessarily the number of overtakes that happen, but it's the quality of the overtaking. It feels like there's still maybe a bit to iron out there. Yeah, it's interesting because you get the first.

half of that battle with Hamilton and Antonelli was brilliant. He was lining him up into the, you know, the first part of the village corner, all the way down the Wellington straight, Hamilton defends brilliantly. Because Hamilton's had to use all of his battery to do that, it cooks the rest of the lap. Like it's done. Into Brooklyn's, that was brilliant. Yeah. And that's what I mean.

Like it's generating that first part of the battle, which is brilliant. But by the time you get to it in the lap, at least here at Silverston, it's done. Whereas we've seen at other tracks like Canada, for example. where that doesn't happen, but it's definitely track-specific that this is not working. You say that the new regs are blue-balling us? Oh, you said that, not me.

I think I heard you say that. I heard you say that very clear. Sounds a lot like a how are you saying? Sure. We're getting right there. Oh, no. It's a let down. Yes, I've been blue-balled by the new regs.

Knew it. Didn't think we're quite good to be back. Yeah. A quick one, looking ahead to qualifying later on. Based on what we saw in the sprint, does Hamilton essentially need to repeat the pole position or at least hold the lead into Lap 1 tomorrow to have a chance with this? I think so.

The raw pace of that Mercedes is so strong. It's a beast everywhere it goes. It's been proven to be such a consistent machine that I think for Hamilton to have a chance of winging. Firstly, he needs his teammate there. I think the Claire has to do better, has to make sure that we've got almost a two-on-one situation where if both Ferraris can get in front of the Mercedes right in the beginning, Hamilton, or LeCleur, whoever's in front, can kind of scamper off and break the gap.

As we saw with the fighting between third, fourth, fifth, sixth, all the way through, it can really slow you down around here. And if that means that one of the Ferraris is holding up Antingelli or Russell, then that means there's a gap to be made and strategy can be on. If Antingelli gets ahead on that first call or first flap, we could be, I mean, you brought it up in the preview. There could be an absolutely dominant display. Let's work slightly further back.

Rounding out the podium, we had Lando Norris of McLaren. Before we get on to his race, can we first just talk about the, what is now known as the Lando stand, just off. Of course. Stando. Stand. Stand.

Oh. Just off of Sto Corner. He's generated a lot of support. Obviously, I'm not saying that the other British drivers haven't got the same because they definitely do. But for someone who went into the sport not that long ago, it's not like he's been here for decades. He really has, like, managed to get a lot of attention. Look, he's a very talented, very talented young man. Obviously, it's his homebred Prix.

And, good Lord. Good Lord. That's just a spitfire, guys. Don't worry about it. There's just a spitfire taking off behind us. Don't you worry about it. Chris Mordio, that's what we're all about. The only thing louder than me is a spitfire.

So fair play. Get off the stage, Sam. Shut up. Landon Norris is an incredibly talented young man. He's a world champion now as well, which helps. He's driving for a really recognizable brand in, of course, in McLaren. He's, of course, going to be popular. And I actually saw someone say on Twitter, well, hang on a minute.

Lewis Hamilton has seven, and Lando has one. he have his own stand and then rightfully someone said man's got his own straight well watch hamilton walk around the track every stand is a lewis hamilton stand because no matter who you support you seem to you get off up your seat if he turns out but yes sir louis hamilton straight is there as the start finger straight but it's great to see such big support and we've seen a lot of fans like a lot of praise in the sense of yoregium for max vespalple is the main one you can call out but the spanish fans they come out for a long son have done for 20 or years now it shows that when your nation gets behind you it can create real impact and not just in a stand by such a sudden you by such a stand by such a

on two circuits. We don't have a German track right now because we haven't got a highly successful German driver. Hulkenberg flying that flag, but not obviously winning Grand Prix despite having Mercedes and Audi in the sport. So it can really go a long way

for those people in those nationalities turning up and celebrating their drivers. Bring back Hockenheim, bring back the Nuremberg. Bring them back. Yep. You can have the Hulkenberg stand at Hulkenheim. The Hulkenheim. Yes, yeah.

Make the whole circuit, just rename it, the Hulkenheim. Or alternatively, we don't do this. that. Boo. Ben hates fun. Yeah, I do. What about his race, though?

He seemed to get clear of that battle that included Gestap and Russell, and was very thankful that they were battling behind because he could go about his business. About one second clear of Russell at the end, so it might well have helped him to that podium in the end. Yeah, the thing is he did it. I'm not to say that he wasn't as quick as Russell,

but I think probably Russell was quicker, but he just got out of that scrappy battle at the start, which like what you're just saying, if you can get out of it and get ahead, then it will benefit you greatly going into the remainder of the race. So Russell might have got him if had it been an actual full-length proper race. But for the sprint, it worked for Norris,

and I think he was pretty impressive. I think because at one point yesterday, McLaren didn't look good at all. No, no, no. And obviously he had a problem in qualifying which they fixed, allowed him to start better. But yeah, overall, it was a solid race. I'm quite surprised they ending up beating the rest.

I know the battling helped, but I am surprised that he held on from Russell. Well, it's plus three positions on where he qualified. Is this more of a positive rather than a negative look for McLaren given? They are trying to get into that lead battle. And based on today, there's still not there. You know, Antonelli and Hamilton are still very comfortably clear ahead of Lando Norris, but equally, like you say, they are clearer of some of the rivals. They weren't in qualifying.

I see what you're coming from. I do. I actually think this is driver-led. I think we saw Piasker struggling. He had stinky, stinky pace. It was a bit wiffy. he was unable to really hold it with those in front of him. It was honking.

Honking is correct, sir. We're using the technical terms today. Honking, stinky, all the good observations here. But Landon Norris was able to kind of get through that traffic early on, get ahead of the battling and managing the car well to ensure that at the end of the 17 laps, he still had that one second gap to Russell. And I'm going to assume there or thereabouts is going to be the opening

of the first pit window, actually in the main ground. So if Norris could do that again and have a one second gap to the likes of Russell behind, he might then be able to get an undercut and extend that again further. So just being savvy behind the wheel has allowed him to get ahead, Piastri not able to replicate that in the same way. Yeah, a reminder that the sprint itself was 17 laps today. The full Grand Prix tomorrow will be 52, so it's essentially one third race distance.

And based on today, I think with the medium tire, of course, that nearly everyone used, if they are to then go on to the hard tire for that second, then we might be looking at a one-stop. The return of a one-stop race, you love that. You love to see it. I'm actually off again for two months now, so... Are you off? Yeah, that's it.

I've had to... I only come back for two-stop races, so... It looks like it will be a one-stop, though. I mean, based on Antonelli's set his fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Lance strolled at a one-stop in the sprint, so there's still hope for a two. Hope and Astermine should not be associated together.

The wrong way around, and he still manages to pass it before that pit stop happens. But it's still irrelevant. It's still irrelevant. It's still irrelevant. Slightly further back again from Lando Norris, we have Max Verstapp and George Russell, sort of in that little battle. Charlecler had to work a little bit to join it as well.

Hello, it's me, Charlotte Claire. Yeah, it's a great impression that, yeah. It sounds just like that. What did you make of that battle? It's fascinating to watch. And I thought there were some really great moments, wheel to wheel between them. And just so you had scope of this, folks, we were watching this on a phone in the back of Harry's car.

So it was really an atmosphere. High energy. High energy. We live the high life. But if you were going to put money off. either two drivers, potentially running the other person off the road. Russell and Verstappen are generating high

intense ski entertainment. I thought they helped themselves pretty well. I thought it was very polite, very friendly, but still enough to keep it entertaining. Just not enough for Charlotte Clare to actually get it. Oh, my goodness me. The stage is falling over in front of our very eyes. What is going on? Anyway, yes. So,

yeah, I thought that Charlotte Clare would have been able to get more involved in how well Lewis Hamilton was able to drive. But we've heard from comments from Leclair, it's all about feel this car, Hamilton's Gogget, LeCler doesn't. You're okay there, producer, Kirsty? Have you fixed this stage? There's nothing she can't do.

Nothing she can't do. There was a moment where Russell and Vastappen were side by side into turns one, two and three, and I think Harry, you said with Russell's defence it was a bit cheeky. A bit rude, actually.

But he's learning from the person he's overtaking. Because Vastappen wouldn't defend that way, you see. No, he's actually really polite. He's welcoming through. The thing is, I think, obviously, we had no complaint for Verstappen on that one. So I think it was rude, but fair.

It didn't force him off the track or anything. He still could be alongside, but it was elbows out from Russell, which, you know, you need to do against Maxf Step, and otherwise he will, they'll have your elbows off. Yes. It's what we often see with the way in which the sort of racing rules work nowadays is that if you are on the outside of a corner,

you're going to get shoved out wide if you don't do anything about to get out of the way. We saw the same sort of thing with Hamilton versus Vestappen, Austria last time out. Vestappen versus literally anyone, 2015 to now. So it's not a surprise to see that from Russell. Any concern on Russell side that whilst he does get clear of a couple of those guys, it's still a long way off where his teammates. It shows that qualifying is still incredibly important in this sport, regardless of the new regulations coming in.

You need to be further up the Greek. It's not like the first couple of races where we saw Ferrari starting third through to fifth and getting to the front on the first corner. You now have to be further up. To be fighting further up, that's no surprise realistically. Otherwise, what's the point in qualifying? But Russell does get caught up, and he's not caught up against some scrubs. He's caught up against real world-class drivers.

And I say world-class, because they're world champions. That is how that works. They're not bad. They're not bad at all. And it is worrying me that Russell seemingly more often than not is unable to find that extra two or three-tenths that Antingelli can find and it's letting him down in the race. You need to make sure that when it comes to qualifying later on,

he really is able to deliver a lap that matches his teammate. Otherwise, he might end up being caught up in the same situation. And there's far more points on the table for the main race than there is for the Sprint Grand Prix. That is, honestly, the best thing Alice is you're here to go. Insight, folks, insight. It's like Martin Brundle saying that Antigli did well as the championship leader. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you didn't know that already. Favorite. Co-coms role coming for you, mate. I hope so. Silverstone, the FIA, Formula One, whatever wants to call me up. You never know who's listening. I'm here. I feel like Russell as well going into this weekend needs to capitalize on the last couple of races in that he had plus 18 to Antonelli.

Barcelona, thanks to Antonelli's retirement from that one. Of course, winning in Austria with Antonelli on the podium as well. But again, eating into that championship lead that he has, it would be a bit of a waste to then, if form follows through from the sprint to the main race, that could almost completely disappear again. Irrelevant. Yeah. he needs to keep it up right well um yeah it's it's a worrying weekend pace wise for for russell so far um i i don't i'm not convinced he's going to be able to do anything about it we are there's no practice in between now and uh qualifying obviously they're straight into it you can do a set up

change now of course can do a set up change which you know maybe he will he well may well do it's kind of a it's not like he's nowhere so you don't want to do a set up change and you know risk it and end up worse because he's still picking up decent points, but at the moment he needs to be gaining on Antonelli, and I just don't think he's got the pace to do it around Sylvston, which is odd because he's gone well ill before. He's a pole position holder here.

Yeah, and that 24 race could well have won it. So it's an odd one. And again, maybe it's battery deployment more than actual pace around here, which I think a few drivers are struggling with more than others. In terms of sprints, maybe a bit more generally, because obviously we've covered the top teams here, and they sort of get seven of the eight point scoring positions down to Piastrian 7th.

It's actually Lawson that picks up P8 just ahead of Hadjar in the Red Bull in 9th. But it's a bit of a repeated thing, especially with an added two cars on the grid this year, that we are often seeing the Williams of Alex Albin starting in the pit lane today. There's no chance of points. Astor Mayn and Cadillac are poodling around at the back, as George Russell might say. No chance of points. Does this need a rethink or is this just the way of, in which we should go race at the sprint.

I think so. We had an almighty scrap for that last point. And actually it was one of the best parts of the entire sprint race that we barely got to see. But Hadja has an appalling star. He's caught up with Conno Pinto in about 13th place. At one point, Gaslight is charged forward and he's sitting in eighth place, only for it to all be turned over because Limblog and Lawson take a step forward. Hadjar is recovering well, and he gets within about a second of Lawson

coming on his Sprint Grand Prix. And yet, there's no reward for any of these drivers. Lawson rightfully does deserve that one point. But what if he got three? And it was two for nine, the one for ten thing, a sprint race. And we went ten straight down to one, which I think would compensate a little bit for the fact that we've got more cars trying to compete. It's a minuscule amount of points for a sprint race anyway, and I understand why. But you've got to make it a little bit more enticing,

because if you are a fan of one of these teams that are further down the grid, let's say you're an Audi fan. Well, you're going to great. We finish what? 12th and 14th place today. That's really dull. It's a waste of my time. I'm not going to bother turning out.

And so unless you're in the top four or five teams, it honestly is a waste of an hour. speaks to the gap that's between the top teams and the midfield teams right now, because those top four teams, I know Hatchah, again, didn't get clear of Lawson, are just so far clear that racing balls are fighting for a point. Audi aren't, Hass aren't, Williams, aren't, and you've got a lot of teams there that are essentially practicing for tomorrow's Grand Prix, which I don't think is a great look. Speaking of that, Hajar and Lawson battle, we saw a very close moment between the two of them

going into Stowe. Code Brown, I think, is the official term, if you're one of those two drivers. Do you think it was fair? No. It was, at those speeds, even the slightly reduced speeds we have now at Silverston, that's an airplane crash,

if Lawson moves anywhere near, any further over. And I appreciate it's not a massive breaking zone into Stowe these days, but still, you can't be moving in the, in the breaking zone anyway. He closed him down so, rapidly. And we've seen already this year in Suzuki with Bearman and another Colabinto. Colabento, that's the one. Yeah. We saw the closing speed what happened there. And that was almost an airplane crash. So it's not on. I

don't know whether they'll penalize him for that. And by the time this goes out, we will all know that. But it, yeah, it's a tough one. It was pretty harsh. But I think maybe a penalty is worthy just as a slack on the wrist of Lawson to not be doing that again. because it's dangerous. It is deceptively heavy, the braking zone in that corner. It looks like it's a real flowing term, because obviously you're at full chat coming down the hangar straight. It's the fastest point at the racetrack. And suddenly, you're having to drop down into a really heavy right-handed.

Whilst you don't drop below maybe fourth gear, you are really coming down on the brakes. Lawson will try to claim that he was following the racing line, I think, here. The way he's gone from the curb on the left over to the right, he's done it much earlier than he normally would, of course. But I do think that will be his defence. Shallow, shallow line. It's a real niche line for Stowe.

He's picked there. I just thought I try it. Just sort of give it a go. You know, see what happens. Oh, he's like, oh, there's another car there. Hello, mate. Equally, he's done it up against his essentially part of his own family, right? The Red Bull family driver.

Tom Sorretta is that. He's got kids, damn it. Come on. The Files in the furious. Family. Yeah. Family. Yeah, I thought it was a bit cheeky, a little bit gnaughty.

Deserves a penalty. Yeah, it's not the move across. It's when. he does it. Like if you want to defend the inside into Stowe, that's completely fair. But make that call far earlier than when Lawson did, because aeroplane crash, like, appropriately, based on where we are. Not because they're airplanes, but it's disgusting. We are getting to an airfield.

To be clear, we're not manifesting here. We are not manifesting. Do you've got listened to this podcast if you're in an airplane right now? Thank you. No. So I think that could have been incredibly dangerous going into that corner. And I know maybe Stowe has slowed down. on a little bit with these regulations. But again, we're just seeing such differences in approach down that hangar straight that there are cars coming into that corner far quicker than others, depending on where your battery's at.

I think we do need to be careful with that sort of thing. Harry, I wanted to get your take on Sergio Perez versus Fernando Alonzo. Oh, this will be good. It's still on. What's still now? Hey, no other F1 podcast is giving those two teams coverage at the moment. We are making sure that they get. the attention they deserve.

I hope they're listening. Perez is probably not very happy that we're giving him that attention right now because a 10-second penalty for him going into the side of Alonzo. Checo's had better moves in his career. Yeah, I'd say. Yeah, that one, I mean,

those two teams are scrapping at the back for literally no reason, just for the joy of being an F-1. Love of the game. Love of the game. Yeah, it was, if of those, didn't see it, because there was no replay. You'll have to watch social media.

Go on Twitter. Sergio went for a bit of a lunch on... Do you know what? I wouldn't even call it a lunch because a lunch would have at least got him alongside. It was just there. He'll use the excuse that his brakes from fire, I'm sure. Yeah, probably.

Yeah, it was a poor. Just a move. A long ago in the cockpit spinging. I hate my life. That's a great effect. Yeah, sound effect on the move. I think he'd have got away with it, Perez. It weren't for those damn kids.

I think he would have got away with it if he doesn't lock up right at the end. They'd have gone through together, I think. Yeah, he was looking okay, even from like a, he can back out at this at this point. He can back out, he can back out, and then suddenly the car snaps. He's like, no, he's not backing out.

That's into the side of Alonzo. And as we know, that really costs both of them, the 10 second time penalty for Perez, absolutely dashed his hopes of victory. And Alonzo's certain podium was also scuppered as a result of that. 22nd down to 22nd. Yeah, but he's still over to Lance. Before the pit stop.

That means to be very clear that it wasn't just because of the bit stuff. He was four seconds clear of him before the pits. Good stuff. Before we head off, a couple of things. Firstly, because this is going to make us look very silly in that when most people are listening to this, the qualifying session will have already happened. What's going to happen in qualifying? Oh, good.

I'm so glad you asked about something that technically has already happened. Yes. I think we're going to get actually a very similar repeat of what goes on for the spring qualifying. That is unfortunately negative of what happening for the spring weekend. Yeah, I've gone to say. here. I think it will be a fight between Antingalee Hamilton. I wouldn't be shocked if Russell and

maybe LeCleur do get their act together. Equally, don't count for stepping out. What happens if you count them out? Well, nothing, but do it at your peril. Doing your own peril. Yeah, I think actually with the adjustment in the setup, the standing, the battery management, that top five or six, the gap is going to come

closer together, I think. What's happening in qualifying, Harry? You always get things right. Perre's pole. Oh, okay. He's going to recover from his brakes not working. Exactly. They have taken them off. I would, I'm with Sam, I expect more of the same. I think we could see Hamilton on poll again here. He's just that good in the last sector,

that even if Anthony can hook up the perfect lap, it doesn't matter. You just teleports through sector three. He just appears on the start, finish line. I really don't know what he's, it must be battery-related, because I don't think there's anything Anthony can do. Use it elsewhere then, man,

because you're so much slower, except food. But Anthony may well have learned this from the sprint, not to use it quite so much, because he was, you know, in spring-compliant. he was setting purple sectors in one and two and then falling off at the end. So it'll be interesting. Can Russell get in there? I don't know.

Maybe even a McLaren because Norris was looking pretty good. I would be doubtful. Well, they did bring some upgrades this weekend. Obviously only one practice to get them embedded. Didn't look great in sprint quality. Looked a bit better in the sprint. Maybe it's one that keeps evolving throughout the weekend. One thing we obviously like to do before we finish up is just a driver of the session.

This might be a fairly obvious one. We'll see. I'm actually going to give it to Lawson. No, I'm not. After that break him, I'm going to give you enough praise recently. I'm going to go frantic, Ellie. I thought the way he storked Hamilton right at the start.

Good attempt at the overtake in the beginning, but got the move done really well. The battery management was clearly very on there. And I hate that that's part of the praise that you have to give now is how good his management was. But it was really good. And he gets away from Hamilton quite comfortably afterwards to finish a couple of seconds in front.

So, yep, Championship League takes it. Harry? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to think there's any more in the top. Maybe Norris, but I'll go

Anatoly, that's probably the easier one. I'm happy to provide the variety here. I'll go Lando Norris. He was very comfortably clear of Oscar Piastri, got clear of that group of cars as well. I do think based on the time gaps at the end, Russell was probably faster than him. LeClo was probably faster than him,

in which case, P3 is a very good result, but Antonelli, obviously, a very good contender as well. So we're going to be back for main qualifying. where we'll see if it all goes to plan. We'll see. Welcome back, everyone. Got a bit of a qualifying chat about now. So we did 30 minutes of the sprint race.

We've now got a bit of time to talk about qualifying. We had a good time watching. It's some random pub in... Witch church. Big up, the King's Arms in Witchurch. It was delightful. Yes. Great little pub garden, actually.

It's a lovely pub garden. A great place to watch British GP qualifying, actually. A very interesting one where of course Kimmy Antonelli managed to get pole position ahead of the Ferrari duo. Of course, I mean, he didn't do in qualifying yesterday, but of course, we know he overturned that in terms of the sprint race. He's got an even better starting spot this time around. I think we mentioned as part of the sprint review that was recorded many, many hours ago at this stage, that if the Ferraris is to stand a chance, they kind of want to take pole position again to at least give Kimmy Antonelli's something to do.

Yeah, they do. Unsuccessful. They were unsuccessful. But a point I made in the sprint review was that, realistically, what Ferrari needs more is to have both cars in contention. And the good thing they've managed to do here is split the Mercedes. Charlotte Clare is really elevating his performance, about a tenth and a half away from Kimmy Antingelli. Lewis Hamilton is really kind of the biggest fool from Grey Sagan's top crew here. He's in third place, three and a half tenths back from Antingelli.

Not able to replicate what he did in the sprint qualification. but Ferrari with the advantage that if they can get a good start, in theory, both of those cars can challenge and Sinelli. And it might be a Ferrari 1-2 by turns 2 and 3. It feels like we've kind of gone to Mercedes versus Ferrari again, which was maybe the case earlier in the season. We've got Mercedes 1 and 4, Ferrari 2 and 3. It feels like that start and the early proceedings are quite important. Ben says this as Mike falls down. Yeah, it will be.

And I think, as we said for you, listeners only a few minutes ago, but a few hours ago for us, not getting involved in that first lap scrap is, or first laps, first laps scrap is really, really crucial for your race. And if Antenelli can get away at the start, then he's, you know, he's got a very good chance of winning, as we saw with Russell in Austria. If he gets involved with a scrap with the two Ferraris and or his teammate, and either the likes of Hadjar, Norris, etc. because even if you start a fifth and six, you somehow get involved in this lead, lead battle. Yeah, if he gets stuck into that,

then obviously things get a bit more difficult. So I don't say it's their only chance, but it's certainly their biggest opportunity, I think, for the two Ferrari drivers to get the win tomorrow is to get past Anthony at the start and make sure he has to lose time at the start. Helps as well that the runs turn one is one of the shortest.

I would say on the calendar as well. We saw that Lewis Hamilton might well have got away slightly worse than Antonelli in the sprint, but ultimately Hamilton able to cover him off on the inside. As soon as you're on that inside of that corner, you're not able to carry momentum in the same way that you are around the outside. So Antonelli, who hasn't had the best starts this year at times,

might actually get away with it a little bit here. He might do, yeah, but I think he's got to learn from what he had done to him in the sprint, which was pinch. Same thing, right? Same thing. pinch your opponent. against Pitwall and then compromise their line through time one because you can still sweep through in the lead,

even if you've not had the best start. So it'll be interesting. What did you make of Antonelli in terms of how he performed out there? He's quite quick, isn't he? He's mega. It's actually annoying, just how talented he is. Because how young he is. He's 19 years old.

Why am I first? Why am I best? Why? Well, carry that into every session pretty much part of this weekend, you know. It rolls Kimmy Antigley's way again. gang, but let's not out like that's down to luck or down to fortune or anything other than his own doing. He comes down to nearly four-tenths faster than George Russell again, his teammate, who, let's face it, had quite a session filled with trials and tribulations.

Yeah, yeah. We saw that run off. Do you want to chat about that Q1? Yeah, but I mean, Woodcut there, I'm never seeing an instant like it. He hasn't. He was confused. Yeah, it looked like the car had a genuine problem, actually, coming to that breaking zone throughout the long right-hander of Woodcut. The way he just straight lines into the gravel and kind of bumps his wing on the wall. Really lucky to not me out of that session, I think. There's every chance that he goes into it suspension first, and it's wheel off. It's a rare double lockup as well, because you had the sort of initial lockup that saw

him very wide of what would be the optimal racing line. And then I felt it was almost like a second puff of the tires almost that saw him go straight off and almost very nearly go into the barriers. Fortunately, for him and the team, he was able to. carry on, obviously, the lap was completely dead at that point, but enough to give him time to do another one later in the session, that could have gone very

easily slightly differently. I must admit, he recovered really well. A longer driver's might have fumbled down at pressure, it might have happened in their full fast flap at the ending. It might not be good enough, but to come back and be fourth place, the only four attempts away from Rantingelli, who is flawless around here, he's doing so well.

I have to really give credit to Wantingle how quick he is. Russell being fourth is not downing out for the count here. He can make something work. If Ferrari don't get away off the line, well, and Russell can get a good start, there's every chance there,

can have P1, P2. Sorry. Good. The P1, P2, come the end of the first lap. So, he fascinated to see what Russell could do. He was not great

at making overtakes in the spring. So I'll be keen to see what he's able to do in the main Grand Prix. Or on lap one, maybe. He might be relying on somehow being alongside his teammate

early on in this one. Yeah, credits went to Antinelli, because he went over three times faster in Q3 than he was in Q2. So we saw that continual improvement. I guess it's maybe what we saw in sprint qualifying was whilst Antonelli wasn't on pole, Lewis Hamilton, who was on pole, didn't necessarily have the fastest sector across all three sectors. It was Antonelli.

He was fastest in the first couple. And it felt like Anthony probably had the best perfect lap out there if you could put it together. He couldn't yesterday. I feel like he could today. Yeah, and it's what we were saying earlier on. I think he learned from the sprint where Hamilton was quick, and he's, whilst maybe he wasn't still ultimately fastest in the final sector,

like I said, he was then able to put the full lap together where he had been struggling in sprint quality yesterday. You know, as mentioned, he was getting purples in sectors one and two, and then falling off at the back end of the lap with no battery left. So he learns quick, didn't they?

annoyingly quick for the for the rivals of him yeah yeah and i mean it's a great trait for him to have but it's not taking very long to work out how to how to accelerate this track you you know he saw what the seven time world champion did and was like oh you know what good idea i'll copy that seems good yeah um yeah so i mean can't fault him for that whatsoever and it's and it's paid off charlerler has qualified second here which matches what he was able to do last time out in Austria. A bit of a clean sweep for him versus his teammate Lewis Hamilton in terms of he was faster in Q1, Q2 and the all important Q3. Is this an encouraging sign for him? Is it finally coming together? I don't know. But at least he's had a good session because, you know, before that,

he had five in a row, FP1, all three SQ1, two and three, and the sprint race where he was comfortably slower than Lewis. So the fact that he's able to go away in between sessions, and remember, Park Fermé rules are lifting. You can change set up between the sprint race and our qualifying session. He is clearly learnt there. And what I think has happened is, I don't think Hamilton has gone backwards. I think that actually everyone else has stepped forwards.

And I think Lecler especially is taking a big step up in the way he's handling the car between these two race sessions. Now, we'll be interesting to see what happens when the race gets going because the last couple, Hamilton has managed to get the better of Lecler off the line on lap one. He's managed to really get through him quite quickly. But this is a good spot for Lecler.

It's nice to see. he's recovered. Wasn't looking good the first half of the weekend. Let's see if you can actually challenge Kimi Antinelli and got to be swirled up by the likes of Hamilton and Russell win behind. I think it might be a similar situation

to the spring race where Anonelli was again kind of pinched to the inside of the corner which allowed a couple of other drivers to kind of be interested in his second place spot. Lecler needs to ensure that doesn't happen to him in tomorrow's main Grand Prix because if it does, then Hamilton again

could sweep around the outside of him and then suddenly the other teams might well become interested. But a good session for Charles Leclair, a much needed one as well, being able to out-qualify Hamilton again across all three qualifying sessions. Now, I'm not sure that was necessarily on the cards, but it happened. But something that was maybe even less on the cards, not something we're used to seeing at all, is Max Verstappen, not only being out-qualified in Q3,

but consistently out-qualified in Q1, Q2, and Q3, by, of course, by the Rizler, Isaac Hajar, booming his way around the circuit. I mean, yeah, Hadjah, like he said, the, it's not something you hear very often. No, it doesn't sound right to say or here. Measure of Max Vastappen all weekend. And it was only in Sprint-Qauli session three yesterday that Vastappen decided to wake up, but it didn't work for him today in qualifying. So fair play to Hadja.

He's been excellent here all weekend. And yeah, he was well clear of his life. illustrious, illustrious teammate who didn't look like you're having massive problems, just... Yeah, he said something about the engine,

was it Q1? Yeah, but not really seemed to happen, did it? So I think this is a positive for Red Bull to have Hajar being able to be up there when,

not when the staff and falters because of the next week... He's still there, yeah, yeah. A couple of places apart, but... Yeah, one car between. Yeah,

yeah, Hajar being there is a good thing. Yeah, it's just about whether Hajar can actually do a start tomorrow, given his start today, wasn't a particular good one and he was spending far too much time getting by, was it, Gassley and Limblud,

and ultimately he didn't get by Liam Lawson, which would have at least seen him secure one point in the sprint race. But yeah, if he can hold that P5, I am really interested to see what he can do when he's got a bit of potentially clean air in front of him if he can't handle the top four, which wouldn't surprise me a great deal. But so often, Vestappen versus Hadshel, we've seen it in qualifying. We haven't really seen it in the races because at least one of the top of the top of the them has a bit of an issue early on or I really want to see that.

McLaren, Sam, if I remember correctly, we've gone from sixth and seventh in qualifying yesterday to sixth and eighth. That's not progress. The worst part is the time difference between their position and pole position. It's a lot more than yesterday. It's a lot more. I mean, you've got to consider that Hajar, who is in fifth place is six and a half tenths behind the pole time.

Remember the top five, I think top six yesterday were separated by only three and a half attempt. So it's really increased and there really is now a big of a golf between the top four and now the next four cars. But yeah, you've got Hager on 0.6, Norris, not point seven, the Stafforda, 0.9. We went to Zach Brown a couple of times throughout the session and he was kind of like, oh, you know, 1911. We didn't. It's gone come together. When I say we, I mean, we were watching the telly and they made it back. You know, night of the tent is a representative of our pace, right? But what this is? Is this good at it? Yeah. It's not quite. the same. Sixth and eight is not quite as bad, but it isn't also particularly great either. It feels really rubbish, really rough. Those upgrades clearly not embedding to the car well. The engine does cleaning even upgrade and Mercedes are much closer to the competition with Ferrari's latest upgrade coming in as well. Piaastri is really quite stinky. It's really falling off. That's the second time today. Piastri's performances have been referred to as stinky. Well, it is. I'm sorry it is. He's a couple of tents behind his teammate, but he was really poor in the sprint race.

and with Verstappen between you, I'm not sure he's going to be getting much further and getting a real turn in form. This isn't good for McLaren. They really are far off. Piazsche being nearly a second away from the poll time is not good for McLaren. No, they looked a little bit better in race trim

versus qualifying trim if we're looking at the sprint, but their objective is not to start so far down. Like if they can start at some point, obviously not this weekend, fourth and fifth or at least third and fourth, something like that, then maybe they'll be able to use that slight race pace advantage to do something.

But with this, it feels like they're going to be battling cars that maybe they are slightly quicker than in terms of race trim, but it will take a while to get by them. Racing balls, again, both getting to Q3, very similar result to sprint qualifying. I was having a look at the times here. So, Harvard Limblud has actually outqualified Liam Lawson on this occasion. Liam Lawson, this is a very weird one. We don't see this very often. his Q1 time was his fastest lap.

No way. Why? Why have you done that, Liam? Genuine, Liam Lawson, Q1, 293, which would have been enough to out-qualify Limbludan in Q3, if he'd repeat at that time. 294 in Q2, and then a 29-7 in Q-3. You actually got slower over every session.

That is odd. That's not the way to do it. Also, the gap between the two of them is quite stark. Four attempts, we gave Liam Lawson real. positive praise. That's the only kind of I should get, oh no.

He's back. Oh, no. We gave him a lot of praise in the sprint qualifying session and here you have to go the other way. Limblud's taking a really good job at developing the car, developing the time,

to be four tenth clear of Lawson. Anything outside the top ten that caught your eye? Gabriel Bortoletto very close to making it to Q3. Almost, but Audi aren't allowed in the top ten. No, it's not allowed. It's so much faster than everyone else, though. It's the wrong.

Yeah, yeah, it was a big. between, yeah, between Bortolos. It's six tenths between Bortoleto and Gassetto, but only half a tenth between Gassily and Holkberg. That's really impressive from Bortoletto and Audi. This is a track that does not suit their car. It's a power track. We know the Audi engine is poor.

I think that's a really good qualifying from Bortoleto. Yeah, half a tenth away from getting into that Q3 spot, but still, I mean, 11th, you can't go beyond that, I'm afraid, Audi, but it's still a pretty good session, I thought, from him. Yeah, a good session for Bortoleto. I guess he can be too disappointed because realistically gets into the top 10.

A tough start as well because he needs to pull out a lap in Q1 at the very end to get through as well. That's true and I think that shouldn't be overlooked. It wasn't the smoothest session for him and Audi so yeah props to him for... Carlos Sites is seven and a half tenths

faster than Alex Albon. Someone's got a point to make. What are you doing Alex Albon? We've obviously watched this as Pub Samson and realizing what the time. I couldn't see anything on that phone. I'm shocked at the size of this gap. It's massive.

I don't understand what happens to Alex Albin when we get to Q2 because in Q1, yesterday, he was faster than Carlos Sines. Today, Sines was faster in Q1, but it's only by like a 10th of a second. And then we get to Q2 and Sines unlock something.

And Albin's like, no, they want to do this session. Pass. Pass. Hard pass. I mean, that clearly caught your eyes, Sam, in terms of outside the top 10, but anything else?

Colopinto, of course, have the real spinger. So unfortunately not able to take part in Q2. I mean, I don't know if you're being fast enough anyway. But the fact that Bottas looked like, you know, he was really on the pace of beats Colopintin. Good for Bottas to qualify Perez as well. It's not happened a lot recently.

No, he took up an attempt to clear of him, which is good to see from Bottas because he's been dangling out. Ocon, again, slower against teammate. But it is much closer than what we saw in the sprint qualifying. But Fernando Alonso in 22nd place is five seconds slower than Kimi Antigali's fastest lap time. Whisker. Man, he's almost there.

You get there, paper between that gap. Yeah, yeah. Except that it's a paper company. It's actually Dundamiff. It's actually the lorry that carries the paper. Oh, dear. Well, I'll last the mind. Do you have a driver at the session, Sam? I'm going to go with Antingaleigh. I know that's really dull.

But the fact that he's been able to step up and clear another almost two tents in the next fastest car, I thought was really impressive. Limbaugh as well, great return to form in terms of beating his team, mate. Harry, I'll shout out old chuckles. Yeah. Chuck Elyclare. Yeah, I mean, just it's still,

this isn't driving the weekend, but I think given what's been happening with him and even the form that Hamilton has showed here all weekend, so then you actually get to qualifying and to,

to that qualifying him, I think, is a good effort. Not too bad at all. I'll offer up a third name. Isaac Hatcher. Out-qualifying Vastappan in Q1, Q2 and Q3.

That is no mean. I'll argue that was a Sonic. Boom! I'm glad we've got a boom in at the end of this qualifying review, which caps a very interesting day of podcasting from us. Do you know what? If nothing else, it's been an interesting day of podcast. We've been all around the houses.

This podcast has been brought to you from Chichester and Oxford in the UK. Via Wichurch. Via Wichurch. It's been a lot of houses and we've gone round of them to go. Yes. To give you a review of today that is actually 15 minutes longer than it normally would. So you're welcome. You're welcome.

Honestly, we don't say we don't do it for you. We've gone with quantitative. rather than quality today. We'll, of course, be back for a race review tomorrow. Just a quick note on that one, we are actually at Silverstone, if you haven't listened to our previous episodes. Literally any other episode of the last month.

So first and foremost, if you're there and you want to see us, we will be outside the Vale Grand stand between half past one and half past two. Don't be shy to say hello if you see us outside of that as well. It does mean, obviously, we'll be travelling back from the track a little bit later in the day.

So it might just be a little bit later in terms of that review than what you're normally used to. I don't know anything else to say. Sam looks ready for an outro. I am ready for a curry, mate. Well, if you do an outro, you can get a curry quicker. The Oxford Comer is calling my name. Sorry for the audio quality part of this show.

It's not up to our usual standards, but producer Kirstie is over there trying our absolute best to make it sound as good as possible. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for tuning in. Power rankings will be on Patreon, of course. And join the Discord if you want to get your submission for a moment of the race in.

That's where we take them from. We appreciate the support. We'll maybe see you at Silverstone, if not listen to the review afterwards. In the meantime, I think Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. I've been Harry Ead.

And remember, keep breaking late. Get me out of it. I'm not going to be.