The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Singapore GP Sprint Qualifying Review

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

It was a tightly contested shootout for pole position in Singapore, with various teams looking in the fight until the end. Join Ben and Sam as they break down the action from the significant performance gap between the Mercedes teammates to the FIA timing error that left confusion hanging in the air. 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! LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02Get 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. Welcome to the late-breaking F-1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing Singapore Grand Prix or Sprint Grand Prix qualify, where Max Verstappen has managed to get the fastest time, which might seem like a weird phrasing, but equally we don't know whether he's going to keep that first place at the moment. owing to an investigation about yellow flags and overtaking Lewis Hamilton under them.

But he has got the fastest time. George Russell, second fastest attempt back. So we're a bit TBC in terms of the result, Sam. Yeah, what sprint qualifying was odd, I think is a fair word to use. We had the issue with Sergio Perez, of course, hitting the wall, having a red flag. And that red flag is seemingly bumped an issue along down the road, which again has caused more software problems, in Formula One.

Now, two Grand Prix weekends in a row where the main talking point, on this show at least, but it looks like a lot of news articles, a lot of social media, is about how software is causing so many problems across our race enjoyment, our understanding, our timings, and whether we're doing things correctly. And you can see it on the time board, on the left-hand side, how long it was taking for laps to update if we could see if people were actually on-lapse, how accurate those timings were going to be. And I don't want to say something really obvious here, but famous.

qualifying is all about the timing of doing something. And if you can't measure that correctly or efficiently, I argue the whole system doesn't really work at that point. So this isn't an ideal scenario to being. No. And whilst there were still some delays in terms of the timing tower, and those are present in practice as well, by the way, we did manage to get the session underway after that delay from Q1 and Q2.

It does create this sort of weird situation. and this is true actually regardless of the software issue, but we also had a red flag as well. With spring qualifying, it's not that radically different to main qualifying. It just means that we actually end up qualifying for way longer than we actually end up racing as part of the sprint, which that is an aside point. But yeah, Max Verstappen's managed to get the fastest time attempt

for clear of George Russell with Charlotte Claire and third, Oscar Piastri in fourth. So at least on the timing screen, Sam, Max Verstappen able to continue that momentum, that we saw in Malaysia. Yeah, I was blown away by how good he was on those soft tires. And we did see a big step up between, you know, the SQ1 and SQ2, which mandatorily a run on medium tires and SQ3, which of course is round the soft tie. Now we expect to step up.

Lauren Meckis, the team principal of Red Bull, explained that there might be a four or five-tenth jump between the two tire compounds. Well, I believe Max Verstappen found over one and a bit seconds between his SQ time and SQ3 time. 1.5, 1.6, I've got it at. Yeah. Well, so if anything to go by, if we're just talking about tire improvement making up maybe four tenths of that, that's a second improvement session on session. Now, yeah, there'll be other variables, right? Maybe some traffic, maybe the temperature is slightly changed.

Also, rubbering in the track as well. This is a street circuit. And so the more you do laps around there, the bigger the surface is going to get. And all of those things will play a part in that lap time getting better. It won't play a part in one full second improvement, though, on top of the tire change. That lap was spectacular. Max Verstappen, of course, never having a pole position here at Singapore. And what a way to lay down the marker.

After coming off of a wing, a spectacular victory in Malaysia, he has carried on that sensational form that we're so used to seeing from Max Verstappen everywhere, but here. And now he has turned up and delivered. So I was really impressed. I thought he was absolutely sensational on that lap. Good to see him at the front of a new racetrack. Yeah, which there are on too many circuits out there where he can still say that.

But it was an excellent performance from him. and the team to, yeah, make such strides between Q2 and Q3 or SQ2 and SQ3. Not that they were looking slow before that, but it hadn't quite come together for the team just yet. We saw in practice, Vestappen had considerably fewer laps than most other drivers inside the top teams. And even throughout the early parts of qualifying owing to that red flag for Sergio Perez, we saw Vestappen need to get it done at the end of SQ1.

and if any error, and it wasn't just him, but any error happens on that lap, he might be out in the first six, let alone fighting for pole position half an hour later or so. So the way in which Red Bull were able to overcome those potentially sticky moments and get through to the best part of qualifying and ultimately get this first place,

very impressive indeed. Especially like throughout the first and the final section, Vastappen didn't have the quickest middle sector, but he was able to be quick enough through there to take advantage of what was clearly a very good red bull through that first sector. Of course, a lot of that is straight. I know it's technically

a corner in the middle of that straight, but it's flat out. You're not lifting off, you're not breaking. No. And we saw in the final sector as well, which is relatively similar. He was able to stretch his legs there as well. So very impressive from Vestappen once again. Yeah, I was really, really impressed. And again, whilst I think Hadjar's had a really good job further down the order again, of course, ran wide on the last corner. So track limits has removed his timing, SQ3.

You can see again that there was a severe gap between the two teammates. I think every session, there was at least a couple attempts. The smallest gap, I think it was three between those two drivers. It just shows what Max for Staffing is able to do in a car that suits him, suits his capabilities. They actually can fight at the very top. You give him that leeway, he's able to do it. Then he just gets in front of George Russell. Whether he holds on to that, of course, we're going to see, because there is an investigation ongoing,

as we record this and that is because he has overtaken Lewis Hamilton under double wave yellow flags after the Perez incident. What did you make of it? What are your thoughts on it? Seems pretty slam dunk. The FIA are fairly strict with these sorts of incidents as they have to be because as soon as you start to be lenient for some circumstances and say, well, there were mitigating circumstances here and here and that opens up this whole yeah, kind of worms. And I don't think the FIA will want that. So I expect them to implement a grid drop and good for him that he's got first place because even with that, it will still give him a relatively decent starting spot, but I don't expect him to keep it. What would you think as a penalty, five, three? It's going to be one or the

other, I imagine. Maybe three, but neither would massively shock be here. No, I suppose a good thing about this is, one, is Max Stapling. He's definitely the kind of driver that will shrug it off and go, yeah, whatever, I'm going to still be great regardless. And two, means we get to see more Max, particularly trying to make some overtakes in anger around a trap like Singapore. So whilst it's not ideal for you Max fans, it might provide some more entertainment for the rest of us watching. Now, George Russell, important that he nails this portion of the weekend because this is his unpenalised section of the weekend. We know he'll start from the back of the grid for the main Grand Prix, but that doesn't affect what happens here in sprint qualifying and tomorrow's

sprint. He's taking advantage of that. He'll be at minimum second place and who knows that might turn into a pole position. A few times clear of Kimmy Antonelli here and quite a number of positions. Mosegis is just not looking at strong round here. In practice, the only practice we had, they looked all right. And most of the running happened on the hard tire until about the last 15 minutes of the session where a longer team stepped onto the medium. Mercedes was one of those and a few cars even venture onto the soft tire. But I was surprised that we didn't see either of those who drive was regularly playing at the very front. You know, it was an issue. It was the Ferraris that were right there. Antingley and Russell gave a front. But I was,

frequently sitting on the very top spot of qualifying, which we've seen. So often throughout the season, they would tend to lead at least one or two of the sessions. It wasn't really happening here. So whilst they've removed that front wing that they brought to Malaysia and they've kind of made some adaptations and tried to play around with it, seemingly the car is not able to be against very best here at Singapore. And again, showing that it is backing the trend throughout the season that we're going to get maybe a slightly different Sega results,

different profiles of cars working different ways here. And Mercedes, again, not able to really maximise and optimize the track like Singapore. With Singapore being so long as well, it has so many different types of corner that actually little pockets because they really suit different cars. And you mentioned that with Verstapp and being so much better in sector one and sector three. It really looks like the Ferraris were doing very well as sector two. Charlotte Clare in particular, really, really strong as sector two. And again, it looks like Mercedes is almost just kind of almost there everywhere, not able to maximize one single area to step onto the top step. So fascinating to see what they were doing the race pace,

but over one lap at least, not able to get the most out of the way. of it. Well, I thought going into Q3 that they did have a strength, which was the first sector, but as soon as Vastappen got onto those soft tires, he went just as quick, if not slightly faster than the Mercedes, and that advantage for them kind of went away. And that's where they maybe did have to rely on being quick nearly everywhere in order to get a solid result through George Russell. This is going to sound weird. This is a great result for George Russell and a terrible result for Mercedes. It's a great result for George Russell because I have to admit going into Q3, I thought maybe, I thought Ferrari had a better chance of pole and I thought maybe Vestappen

had a better chance of pole than what Russell did, because it has been a slightly shaky weekend so far for Mercedes. The reason why it said it was a great lap for Russell, but maybe a terrible result for Mercedes is they, and I'm not suggesting favoritism here, they would have rather it have been the other way around and it was Antonelli who was quick because it was Antearn. who started this weekend running all of the new upgrades. George Russell went back to the spec that he won at with Baku, obviously still a very good car, but Mercedes would have wanted proof that their upgrades are working, and that proof would have been Antonelli being faster than Russell.

Instead, what we got was Russell looking a little bit better in practice, as you mentioned, the front wing of Antonelli being taken off and going back to the old one, and still George Russell is the faster of the two quite comfortably, here in in Q3 and some of that could be driver-related, of course. Russell's got a lot more experience here. He won here last year as well. But I think some of that is proof that these upgrades aren't working at all in the way that Mercedes were expecting.

Yeah, not ideal from a team that's starting so far clear of everyone else to finally put on a proper upgrade package and not deliver the step forward that other teams you're seeing. Now, a couple of questions have come out of the Russell penalty being about the fact that he's taking a 40-place grid drop this weekend. Yes. but that is only applying to the main race. So a couple of questions. One, for those listening who might be new,

why do you think it is only applying to the main Grand Prix and not maybe the sprint portion of the Grand Prix? I'll answer a question you didn't ask, first of all, say, because he's got a 40-place penalty. Doesn't mean he's starting off in a different country, by the way. Well, that will be the second question. I'll get on to it. Yeah.

Yeah, essentially, because we only have some sprint races in a year, and I know that will be increasing for the 2027, it would be pretty unfair for teams to take grid penalties in sprint races because we know there are far fewer points available in sprints. So the penalty for not getting back into the points, as might happen for George Russell, if he were to start from the back of a sprint, the penalty is far less.

And we don't want these penalties to be judged differently. So regardless of whether we've got a sprint weekend coming up or if it's a regular weekend, you'll always take that penalty in the main portion of the weekend. main race, which I think is fair. It does mean for George Russell that he can attack this sprint portion of the weekend, and he's made a very good start on that. But yeah, we wouldn't want, you know, George Russell to start 20th in a sprint

and someone else start 20th in a main Grand Prix, because it just is not the same number of points available. Yeah, it opens it up to game the system a bit, doesn't it? Just the second part of that is that, of course, he's taken four new parts of his engine, he's got a new engine, new turbochurch. Jarger and the exhaust set in the new MG UK, each part takes a 10-place grid grid penalty. So 40 and so, as we just mentioned.

Now, you just joked that he's not starting another 20 places back from the rest of the grid. A lot of debate about does it work? Is it fair? It's silly to have a 40-place grid penalty. What are your thoughts on that? And does it change? Do we need to adapt it?

What do you think? I think it's maybe more prevalent now in the first year of a new set of regulations where reliability is a little bit worse than what we'd have seen, maybe last year or in 2024, for example. But we're still a long way from the beginning of the hybrid era where I'm old enough to remember when McLaren were ridiculously unreliable and I'm not going to remember correctly the number of positions that one of them faced at the Italian Grand Prix.

It might have been Jensen Button. Might have amounted to about 100 places or 105 places. I think it was over 100. It was something ridiculous and it just meant you went to the back of the grid. And at that point, I remember a lot of discussion about is this really the best way to do this? it's not something we hear about anywhere near as much now. So whilst it does sound a bit ridiculous

that Russell's taking a 40-place grid penalty, I imagine that these sort of instances will be few and far between. Yeah, hopefully for you guys listening or if you're new to the sport, you haven't come across this yet, hopefully that clears up a few questions for you. Yeah.

Oh, Ferrari. You know what, I'm going to hear you get a laughter, okay? It's been a damp and miserly Friday here in the UK. Always has to brighten up my friends. I see the smile about Ferrari. Oh, there's nothing like a bit of Ferrari edging, is there? You think it's going to all come through for you

and then Ferrari's stripping away at the last moment. They looked good like they were going to fight for pole. Not like they both were going to fight for pole as well. They look like the strongest unit about three quarters of the way through the current weekend that we've had so far. In practice, they look solid. Well, it's not at the very top of free practice one.

They were both very close and there and thereabouts. and Lecler especially, look really strong. And then we get into qualifying. Hamilton looks like he's setting it a light in the early stage. He's really good through the first sector and the middle sector. He comes over the radio to show that he's lost the back end a couple of times in the third sector. You think, all right, Lewis, you've been around a long time. You'll learn from that.

And we maybe see the most over-griven Lewis Hamilton lap going for a long time. The man is doing Tokyo Griffith for some of these Singapore corners. So then the buck kind of passes to Lecler because Hamilton's done is one and done lap. We'll get on to that Ferrari choice in a minute. And LeClau does get two laps, and neither could have to break into the top two. And I'm not sure if the Ferrari is just eating its tires, if it's just not the full package.

But once again, the optimism of being a Ferrari fan just slowly drifts away down the river. Yeah. The sector where you need the chassis and cornering speed the most, they were great, the best in the hands of Charles O'Claire, and Lewis Hamilton earlier in qualifying as well. In the sector where you need a little bit more power, that's where Ferrari are let down a bit.

And we're talking very slim margins here. But yeah, through two sectors, it looked like Charles LeClaire might have enough to compete for this. And certainly Lewis Hamilton as well. And I imagine it's tire related as to why Hamilton is losing out so much in the final sector. Because it's not a big sector in terms of number of seconds that it takes you to get from one end to the other. But Lewis Hamilton was losing out on maybe two or three attempts to his teammate in that sector alone.

before that they were very, very even. But even where Charles Leclair doesn't lose as much time in that final part of the lap, he's still not got quite enough to compete with the Mercedes and indeed Max Verstappen. It's a shame because, again, we're not talking about a second away. We're not talking about three quarters of a second.

We're just talking about a tenth here and a tenth there. And that's enough enough one. It is. They say, what, a 10th is a lifetime in Formula One. Indeed. Before we go to a break, McLaren. A bit of a weird one. in that of the top four teams, they're the only ones that have two drivers in the top five,

and they're the only ones that don't have a driver in the top three. Very consistent, but neither of them with that top-end performance to fight for poll. Kind of screams McClaring's form recently, where they're almost there. You know, we saw a mistake in practice, I think it was from Norris. Maybe it was only part of qualifying,

where he locked up and ran wide again, seeing that breaking issue. But it just feels like the McLaren hasn't got that gusto down the straight that we've become accustomed to. They can't seem to utilize the Mercedes power unit in the same way that Mercedes themselves can. And yet their chassis, strong, but not able to overcome maybe some of the strengths

that the other teams are picking up now in that middle sector. So it's great to see them there, but they're just kind of occupying, ironically, the same space as Ferrari, which they are sandwiched by two Ferrari drivers, not enough to really get that top step, take advantage, do anything different, whereas the Stappan has done a great job

of seeing a week session from Antingelli, rustling not being on maybe enough out of it, the car not functioning, he's stepped in, taking that poll. Previously in another year, we may have seen someone like Landon Norris step up and take a pole position here when there isn't maybe a true contender able to take it off someone else. So a bit of a shame. They won't be too disappointed, but it shows that they are still kind of off the pace.

Yeah, they were losing too much in the first sector. And they clawed some of that back in the middle part, but just not enough to quite get to the top couple of positions. Oscar Piastri, I think did a very good job in Q3, where others, you know, were really struggling in the final part of the lap because of maybe overused tires. Certainly Hamilton was guilty of that, but his teammate was as well, Landon Norris. And Piaastri, who hasn't outqualified Landon Norris too many times this year, has been able to get about a 10th and a half on his teammate, which is, even though it's only one position,

the margin is quite encouraging for him. But yeah, a shame for both that, I feel like just a month ago, maybe around Madrid or around Zambort, and we were going to look ahead to something like Singapore. at that point, we'd probably have said, yeah, McClellan could probably take that down.

And who knows, maybe they're still well, was a long part of the weekend still to go. But early evidence just isn't quite good enough. Yeah, we did cherry pick.

This is one of the tracks they could be successful at. Just to make it clear, I think Norris has had some issues with fuel running throughout the car so it's not getting the ultimate power when that was cleared up or not in SQ 1,23.

Yeah, not certain. Hard to know. Actually, for Piaastri, I do want to praise him because I do think this is a track that he would show weakness at. It's a very low traction

circuit. difficult to get the car going around some of these corners. And historically, this season, we've seen that these are the weaker type of circuits for him. And yet, he's had a really good job only being half a tenth away from the clerk, who of course, third place in the moment. Yes.

Let's take a quick break. On the other side, we'll wrap up Q3 before getting into Q2 and Q1. Welcome back, everyone. I know we briefly mentioned sort of Hadjar in the Stappan and Red Bull discussion, but his best lap in Q3 ultimately taken off the board for track limits, fairly obvious one at the final corner.

I think we could see that one as it was happening. But even then, I think he's only dropped one position from where he was going to be anyway. So it doesn't feel like this is one where he's been able to, so far, properly compete with his teammate. Yeah, Singapore is a real challenge. And we spoke about how before Malaysia kind of got taking off the calendar and Singapore got put back on, there was always one track that you had to train for and put yourself through gruelling difficulty for and keep your attention right on the lap. It's such a long lap. Obviously, shorter than it used to be, but still such an intense lap here. Tadra, of course, only his second time around here. We saw with a few of the rookies from last

year, Antingelli is struggling a little bit as well. And of course, Limbludes who will get onto also not able to really take a big step forward where previously he has at other tracks he's more familiar with. Tadra, I think is one of those that's also paid a little bit of a price here. He runs wide on the final corner. His lap was only going to be good enough to sit between Antingelli and Norse in anyway, so it's not too costly. But if you are going to make the mistake, if you are going to not be as quick as your teammate, if you are going to struggle, this early part of the weekend is the right place could do it.

I would much rather see him pick up a ninth place in sprint qualifying and then learn and develop and use the race as a bit of a testing bed to then be better for main qualifying and then deliver maybe a P4 or a P5 in the main qualifying to go on for a good race. That's fine by me. If he picks this form up and carries it over exactly the same to the main qualifying, then they're in trouble. Then they've got a problem they need to sit down

and speak to him with. But it was a little bit scrappy, a little bit of side of the max, but these are all things I could deal with at a track that's very tricky for someone that's still very young. Yeah, I got the sense very early on and I'm including practice in this

that Hadjar wasn't quite there yet with the car. And it's not the first time we've seen that this year where Hadjar maybe just takes a little bit more time to get into a weekend. Even some of the ones he's been very successful at recently, he hasn't been there for a. FB1 or FP2 and then he's kind of got there as we've got to the end of FP3 or maybe into qualifying.

But of course you don't have that luxury here at a sprint weekend in Singapore and it's already a track as you've identified. He doesn't have a lot of experience that with his first race being last year. But it does seem to be a pattern up and down the grid. I hadn't quite realized it until you said it. But yes, it is Antonelli. It is Hadjar. It is Limblad and I'll afraid Bort Leto in there as well.

He's been outqualified by his teammate that he's outqualified quite a few times recently. So it does seem to be a trend, but yes, you'd rather this happen on this side of the weekend, no doubt. The beneficiary of Hajar's track limits violation is Liam Lawson. He's managed to get to P8 in a race, of course, where only eight drivers will score points, puts me in quite good stead to extend that racing ball's advantage in the midfield. Yeah, so two usual suspects kind of following up the rear in that SQ3 or what we normally be Q3. I'm going to throw gassing in there as well. They are the two that once again

follow the big four teams into this top 10 shoot out there, the two that are able to seemingly extract a little bit more from their midfield cars when it comes to qualifying. Lorson, this is a complementary thing, was anonymous for qualifying. He was just putting in really comfy, solid laps

I thought that meant that he would fire himself up the grid and get on with it. And I do think again, I know we've commented on this quite a few times. Historically, Lorsing around a track like this feels like it would be a bit messy. There might be a brush of the wall or there might be a big of a complaint about not getting out the way of blocking, which might result in a penalty or something like that. Here, it was silent. And that is ideal for a driver like him and a car like this that just need a silent,

calm weekend. So just get through the danger, get through the trouble and just deliver a really solid result. And he's done that. And even if Hager did put the lap in and he starts behind Hager, that's no sweat, absolutely no problem at all, because I think he's got everything out of his car that he reasonably could have done on a dusty track, around a track which realistically doesn't suit this car, and they're only ever going to be as high as eighth place unless someone has a serious problem. So impressed with Lawson.

Yeah, I didn't think of Racing Bulls would make it through to Q3 at this one. I figured it would be one of the other teams to step up. And even throughout practice and Q1, I was kind of thinking, it might be the top of Q2 or something that's really the ceiling here for Racing Bull. So the fact that he's delivered a great lap to get through to Q1, three and then take advantage of it. And yeah, you could say that Hadjar's, you know, his penalties helped out a little bit or his track limits deletion has helped out.

But he was still ahead of Gasley before that. And I think Gasley might have suffered the same fate as Hadjar. Yeah. And he's done everything he needs to do. And opportunities are very limited in a sprint weekend. And who knows, he might still finish ninth and score nothing. But at least gives him a chance if weather plays a fairer, factor, it might well do.

And if there's any sort of incident ahead of him, suddenly one point or two points can turn into three or four. And those do add up in the midfield. I'm not sure we could survive a wet session, Ben. With all these technical issues, I'm not sure we could do more rain. I'd be shocked if we don't get one. I've heard there is rain in the air all weekend. Yeah, if we avoid rain in all three sessions,

from here until the end of the weekend, I will be shocked. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Alpine, so P10, P11, Gassley just about getting into Q3. He was about a 10th clear of Colopinto in that Q2 session, so not a lot between them in the end. No, overall, better weekend from Alpine. I didn't have this pegged down as a track that would suit them. I must admit, I thought they might subside to the likes of Aldi that might have a better weekend here. We'll get onto them in a minute, but they haven't stepped up to my expectations. And it's good to see Colopinto and Gassi so close together. I feel like Colopinto curbing one of those drives. drivers that may have had his confidence shaking a little from the issue that happened in Baku. He's very young. There's a lot of social pressure going on there. And he was picked on by a world champion, right?

We all agree that the comments weren't really acceptable. And that's difficult to absorb and deal with. And yet, he's finishing in front of Gasley in Malaysia. And that was only a tank behind Gasly and qualifying here at Singapore, one of the most difficult tracks to qualify at. So this is being a really great weekend, I think, for Colopinto. And Gassi's just doing gassy things. He's just there in Q3.

should have got his lap deleted because he could be a position forward. And actually, for someone's experience as ghastly, I do take that as a negative. But he is in SQ3 and that's very solid from him once again. Yeah, agreed. You mentioned Audi might be in that spot and they've qualified 12th and 14th here, which on the face of it isn't a terrible result, but equally in a sprint weekend, that's going to be tough to do much from there. Holkenberg was P5 in Q1.

and then it just felt like others made a bigger jumping Q2 than maybe they did. Yeah, the thing with Audi, it's really odd. They get bigged up by us, by many people in the media, of having this great chassis, this great car that does well. And a lot of people coming into this weekend, and I'm talking teams and team representatives, have said that Audi are a bit of a threat here. They're expecting Audi to be quite potent, do quite well.

And yet they've ended up in essentially the same place they finish every qualifying and up and down the season. They're so regularly between about 11th and 14th place. And here we find them in a track that should suit them perfectly in 12th and 14th place. I think it's pretty poor from Bortoletto that he's been beaten by Bermann. I think he should be in front of that house. And I would have liked to have seen Holgerberg closer to Colopinto. I think he's about a 10th and a half away from the Alpine driver in SQ2.

So I am surprised that they're a little further back. They will have work to do. And hopefully they can do that between this qualifying session and the next one, because points are on the cards here for Rowdy, but they haven't scored a lot so far this season. I figured after Q1, Holkenberg would be a shout for Q3 because not only was he fifth place overall, the margins were looking pretty good versus those midfield teams.

And whereas he was about half a second faster than Bortoletto in Q1, they are very close in Q2. I think there's about a 10th in it. And sure, Bortoletto might well have improved, but it just didn't feel like Hulkenberg was able to make that same jump as, say, I don't know, someone like Ghazly, like he was, he was half a second quicker than Ghazly in Q1

and Ghazi's the one to make it to make it through to Q3, whereas he doesn't. So, yeah, a bit of disappointment, I think, from Aldi. Aston Martin, P-15 for Fernando Alonzo, stroll knocked out in Q1 in 18th place, about 7th 10th separating them, so quite

a gap. Yeah, not quite. Not quite. I'm disappointed not because for your own sake right for my own bowl prediction of course I just want a little more

from Ashton Martin and this is the kind of track where we've moaned them about their problems with their engine their power output and it is less of an issue here we saw that they were kind of surviving

in Malaysia they were sitting alongside just clinging on to cars around them and this is where it feels like they should definitely end up taking advantage of what the strengths they do have. So stroll out an SQ1, alongside out and SQ2, but quite far down. They're close, but they're still just not quite there.

I think this is one where, again, sometimes in qualifying the positions don't tell the full story, with Alonzo, like if he had qualified 15th and he was a tenth away from making it to Q3, I would say that's a pretty good result on another day. That could easily be reversed. if Alonzo was two temps faster in this session, he would still be 15th. And I'm not putting that on Alonzo, by the way. I just think that's the gap that exists between himself and an Audi here. And Stroll, of course, not one of his better tracks anyway, but he was a long way off

it in Q1. So, yeah, I wouldn't feel great about your bold prediction right now. Put it that way. Look, crazy things have happened at Singapore. If there's rain, you never know. True. I mean, crazy things have happened. There was talk on commentary about what happened in 2008,

where I remember what the phrase they used was. It was something circumstances or... Yeah, I'm not sure we should really dig into that right now. The thing I have remembered about commentary is Crofty talking about having hash browns and curry for breakfast. All of FP1. All of FP1, that was. Yeah.

Oh, man. That's his mastermind topic. Flash Browns. I don't want to see that. Should we talk about something else? Let's talk about the problems that play SQ1, shall we? Sure. I mean, can we start with like the red flag that Sergio Perez brought out?

Because I'm sick of saying this at this point, but I'm going to say it again. Why do we not have a system like IndyCar where if you are the sole cause of a red flag, or really a yellow flag, but I'll stick for a. red flag at the moment, you get a penalty as a result of that. I know it's not going to impact Sergio Perez's result really at all. He's qualified 20th anyway. But his crash and the way in which he then dealt with it has caused a red flag that very easily could have caused multiple drivers not to get a lap in and he would have got got away with it. Not in that he would have got through, but if he did have the pace, he would have done. I don't understand how there isn't more of a

push to get something done with this. I completely agree with you. Completely agree. I think Indy car has got a great system for this and I think it works and it's fair and it's easily understood. Parking that for a moment, the other thing I want to bring up as a problem is how he hasn't been penalised for driving that car back to the pit lane

with bits of his car falling off all around the race track, causing the red flag as well because if he could have just driven that car to the next drive off area in the pull-off zone, which would have been within a corner or two. We could have got his car removed. Unfortunately, Perez, you don't get to qualify because you've mucked up.

That's the cost of mucking up. That's the payment that you have to pay when you go into the wall. But it doesn't affect anyone, right? They clear that zone quickly. They probably sweep it up with a double yellow. We move on. Still not ideal, but this kind of thing will happen in a street circuit.

The fact he's driven it all the way around at what a one minute 40 lap normally with a wing stuck under its car, dropping carbon fiber everywhere. It's just selfish, it feels like. It really feels like it hasn't been thought through. It's unsafe and it's selfish. And I'm surprised that they were. weren't penalized for the way that that was acting on. Me too. And even if we just for a moment

forget all about penalties and the potential for one, and we just talk about like pure decision making, I still think it's really poor because Cadillac, let's face it, they had no chance of getting in through to Q2 here. They aren't quick enough. Yep. In which case, surely it just makes more sense to park that car knowing that, you know, you risk a lot more damage to the car going back. Like it could have affected the underside of the car very easily to do what he did for really no gain. So it's not like they're fighting for pole position. No, right. And that's why in that situation, I'm a bit more, okay, I understand why you're doing this.

Cadillac weren't going anywhere. Yeah, if it was George Russell, who's desperate to get every point he can get for this weekend and he's got a cling on shanks for getting into the championship fight again, sure, I can buy it. this was not one of the most. Good news for Cadillac though. They're not alone at the back of the grid because Williams have decided to do them a solid and keep them company. Alex Albin qualifying 19th,

Carlos Seins, qualifying dead last. Yeah, it looks like Carlos Sykes was a victim of everything that happened after the red flagging. Again, we'll detail that in a moment, but I've actually got the telecoms between Carlos Seitz's radio and the Pitwall after that happened.

Pit to Carlos said, there is an FIA slowing. It looks like everyone was hit by an engine issue. Your sector one was two cents up on Alex, so we don't know what happened there with the P.U. Carlos thing says, I had like a lot of front locking and rear combined. There should be an extension.

My engine was nowhere. So this looks like his loss of speed is partially in relation to all the mess that's gone on with the actual issue of opening overtake zone mode rather and removing it again. So a bit of a mess going on at the back of the grid. Bit of a mess. I think far more worrying for Williams

is that let's say Carlos signs matched Alex Albin's time. Let's say Carlos Sines beat Alex Albin by four tenths of a second. They're still not touching another car. They're still not up where Lanch Stroll is. Album was half a second slower

than Lanch Stroll. That Williams was going nowhere. And soon as we've got to a track that involves a few more corners again, this Williams is back to where it was before the quote-on-quote upgrade of Baku. This is pretty dire. Slower than Askin Martin and equal, I would say, to Cadillac,

realistically. On an average lap time here, it looks like they are slap-bang with the newest team in Formula One and they can't get any better. Pretty damning stuff for James Vowers at this point. Yeah, I mean, sprint becomes a test session, right? And that is maybe one of the continued arguments against the sprint is that too many of these teams at the back of the grid,

and I don't blame them for it, are going to start treating this like a test session because if you are Williams, if you are Cadillac, if you are Aston Martin, you're probably not got anything to fight for, in which case you are just preparing for the rest of the weekend. But surely that's what Williams will be doing from here.

Yeah, of course it is. They're just getting lapsing for data. Who was driver of the session for you? Driver of the session for me, Max Verstappen, nice and easy. You put a lap in like that around Singapore. You stand out among everyone else. I'm not going to go for Vastappen because of the potential penalty, even if he's not penalised.

I think that's the case. Liam Lawson for me. And I don't, it's not even that he's finished PA. I would have gone for him even if he was ninth and Hadjar hadn't had that lap time deletion because he has excelled in that midfield once again, in a car that there have been certain weekends this year

where I felt racing balls have been very clearly at the top of the midfield. This isn't one of them. So, yeah, I'm going to go with Lawson. Great show. Oh, and we've just heard. Marks for Stappen, keeping that pole position. So he doesn't get a penalty and we'll start from first for tomorrow's sprint grid.

Another interesting choice from the skewerg so it comes to penalties. Yeah, I got that wrong. We might have to break that down at another time because the inconsistency is not looking good. No, not so much. All right. Well, that's going to do it for today's review. The good news is, Sam, we haven't got one session to review tomorrow. We've got two.

Yay, that's a good thing about a sprint weekend. we get to talk even more about Formula One and we love doing that. So come back tomorrow at the end of the sessions after both sessions. We'll have both of them in one review session. So the sprint race and the normal qualifying will be reviewing one episode

and that'll be out with you tomorrow evening UK time after we've recorded that and then join us again Sunday where I want to do a race review. If you're even more content from the Singapore race weekend, check out Patreon. We've got power rankings

that come out on Monday evening UK time. So thanks for your support. Thanks for you join us on this Friday. Lovely to have a bit of a chik chat with you. and we'll see throughout the weekend. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking, and remember, keep breaking late.