Qualifying is the session that decides the starting order for the race. A qualifying review is just a breakdown of what happened and who looked strongest.
Pole position means you qualify fastest, so you start first on the grid. That usually gives you an easier start and cleaner air at the beginning of the race.
Tyre wear is how fast the tires get worse as you drive. If tyre wear is back, it usually means the tires won’t last as long, so teams may need more careful pit-stop plans.
A pit stop is when the car comes in to change tires. If they’re talking about two or three stops, it means the tires likely won’t last the whole race, so teams will plan multiple tire changes.
A “rookie” is a driver who’s new to Formula 1 under the league’s rules. The episode mentions that non-rookies may have to sit out practice sessions so rookies can get track time.
Ferrari is one of the teams in Formula 1. Here, they’re talking about Ferrari bringing new parts to make their car faster.
Term
Cyborg structure
The “Cyborg structure” is the car’s main safety-and-structure framework around the driver. Teams change it to make the car stronger and more stable, which can help lap times.
“Gs” is a way to measure how hard the car is being pushed compared to normal gravity. If it’s high during a crash, it means the impact was extremely forceful.
In racing, “dirty stuff” means the less-grippy surface away from the rubbered-in racing line. Off-line areas often have dust, debris, or less rubber buildup, which reduces traction and can change the car’s trajectory.
They mention Monaco because it’s another F1 race where similar issues happened. The point is to compare what went wrong there versus what’s happening now.
Oversteer is when the back of the car starts sliding more than the front. That can make the car rotate suddenly, which is especially dangerous near a barrier.
In F1, “regulations” are the rule set that governs car design, technical limits, and sporting procedures. The host notes that even with the new rules, not all issues are fixed yet—meaning teams are still adapting their cars and driving strategies.
Charles Leclerc is a leading F1 driver. In this segment they’re saying his qualifying went badly (including a crash), so he’ll likely start further back and have to fight his way up.
Term
P10
P10 means the driver starts 10th on the grid. Starting that far back usually makes the race harder because you have to overtake more cars.
Lewis Hamilton is a famous F1 driver who has won the World Championship multiple times. Here they’re praising him for being very fast in qualifying compared to the other top drivers.
Term
Q1
Q1 is the first stage of qualifying. Some drivers get knocked out there, and the rest move on to the next stage.
Person
Anthony
They’re talking about another driver named Anthony and how close he was to the front. It’s part of the discussion about who was chasing whom in qualifying.
FP3 is the final practice session before qualifying. The host is saying Hamilton wasn’t fully on pace yet, but then improved enough to do well in qualifying.
McLaren is another team the host is grouping with Red Bull and Antonelli as the cars behind the very front. It’s basically describing the order of who’s close to Hamilton.
The host mentions Red Bull cars as part of the pack behind the very front. It’s a way of saying Red Bull is competitive, but not the closest rival in that moment.
Race pace is how fast the car can be over the whole race, not just one lap. The host is saying qualifying looked good, but we still need to see if it stays fast for longer.
One-lap pace is how quickly the car can go on its best single lap. Qualifying is mostly about this, so the host is saying the car looked strong when it mattered most.
The second row is the starting area just behind the very front. The host is saying Hamilton could realistically start in those positions based on how strong the Ferraris look.
The Dodge Challenger is a car built for performance, with strong engine options and a focus on fast acceleration. People bring it up when they’re talking about cars that can compete for the front of the pack in certain races or sessions. What matters most is how it’s set up for the specific event.
In F1, the power unit is the whole engine-and-electric system that makes the car move. It’s not just the engine—there’s also energy stored and reused to help performance.
A red flag means the race/qualifying is stopped because something unsafe happened on track. If it happens during your lap, you might lose your chance to set a fast time.
A tire compound is basically the type of rubber on the tires. Different compounds grip better or last longer, so teams choose them based on whether they want speed now or durability later.
Lando Norris is an F1 driver who races for McLaren. Here they’re talking about how a red flag interrupted his qualifying lap, hurting his chances to improve.
Here, “tyres” means the tires on the car and how fast they get worn out during the race. If they wear quickly, you have to pit more often; if you can make them last, you can pit less.
A “two-stop race” means you’re planning to change tires twice during the race. That’s a strategy choice—if the tires last long enough, you can do fewer stops and still stay fast.
Battery management is how the car decides when to use stored electrical energy and when to save it. In F1, that affects pace and strategy, because you can’t just use full power all the time.
The pit lane is the area next to the track where teams pull in to do things like tire changes. Here, it’s about whether you should pit sooner or wait and risk losing speed.
F1 qualifying is decided by tiny time gaps. “Half a tenth” means the cars were separated by a very small amount, but it can still be enough to change who qualifies ahead.
Term
Q2
Qualifying has multiple rounds. Q2 is the second round, and you have to be fast enough to make it into the final round (Q3).
Tracks are split into sections called sectors. The final sector is the last part of the lap, and doing well there usually means you can finish your lap strongly and set a faster time.
This is a specific type of corner: it turns right and lasts a long time. If the car looks slow or awkward through it, it often means the tires aren’t gripping as well as they should.
Overtaking here means getting past another car. If you can’t get close to the car ahead—especially near the end of the lap—it becomes much harder to make a move.
Term
run as close as you can
It means driving very near the car in front. But being too close can hurt grip and make the car harder to steer, so passing gets tougher.
Teams use computer predictions to estimate how the race will go. If simulations look better, it usually means the car may be stronger over longer stints than it appeared in qualifying.
Holkenberg is the driver being credited with making it into the final qualifying session (Q3). That’s a sign he and the car were fast enough when it mattered.
Peter Sauber is connected to the Sauber Formula 1 team. The host is saying he was seen in the garage, which is a notable behind-the-scenes moment.
Car
Williams
Williams is a Formula 1 team. They share their engine/power unit with Alpine, and in this segment the hosts say Williams had a rough qualifying, with their car eliminated early. That suggests they’re not competitive enough yet for the race.
McLaren is a Formula 1 team. The hosts are saying McLaren also had trouble in qualifying, meaning they didn’t get the results they wanted. It’s used to set up a discussion of why some teams are off their usual pace.
Compression ratio is how tightly an engine squeezes the air-fuel mixture before it’s ignited. If teams change it, the engine can make power more efficiently. The hosts are saying that at this track, that change might not have helped as much as usual.
Car
Haas
Haas is a Formula 1 team. The hosts say their car was eliminated in the first qualifying session (Q1), which is a sign they weren’t competitive enough to move forward. It’s part of the “not a great weekend” storyline.
Pit stops are when the car pulls in to change tires during the race. When you do it can make a big difference to where you end up on track.
LIVE
Thank you for listening to the
the Barcelona, Catalonia, formerly Spanish Grand Prix qualifying review. Interesting session,
Sam, about four tenths separating seven drivers at the top and ultimately a Mercedes on pole,
but not the one we've been used to seeing recently, George Russell on pole.
Yeah, a lot of things didn't carry through the sessions in ways that we were expecting them to.
You know, there was a lot of people had McLaren as favourites to take the top spot here. It's
unusual that we've seen Russell so comfortably in front of Antigale. That's a real kind of
previous results in the season so far. McLaren making a mistake again. We'll get into that as
we go. There are some real ups and downs in this session. It should be fun to dig into.
Sets us up for a very interesting race tomorrow. I'm excited for it, not only because the fort
of seeing all 22 cars going down to turn one at the same time. That's just a beautiful fort.
Heavenly for you. Also, just tyre wear is back. The return of tyre wear. We're getting talks of
two, maybe even three stop races tomorrow, and I think this grid sets us up quite nicely.
Let's start out front with George Russell getting that pole position and maybe the comparison
between himself and Antonelli because Antonelli, for the first time this season, not going to
be joining Russell on that front row. Three temps back, only good enough for P3. We know
Antonelli sat out FP1 as did many other drivers owing to the rules of if you're not a rookie,
you need to give up your FP1 spot twice this season. But even with that, George Russell
kind of felt the more comfortable throughout the practice sessions, which carried on into
qualifying here. Yeah, usually missing that FP1 as for the rookie replacement, which every driver
has to do it. It's very normal now. It doesn't really impact. If you are a driver going to give
up your seat, you would argue that Catalonia is probably the one race track that you think,
yeah, I've done this track. I've done thousands of laps around this race track. If you're new,
it's the regular test track for Formula One as well. The drivers pretty much all very comfortable
here. Even the likes of Antonelli, who is obviously still only in his second season in Formula One,
will have felt more comfortable coming into this race rather than another being replaced. But
it does look as though, or it did look as though, a lot of the drivers that gave up their FP1 seat
to the rookie were on the back foot. Of course, we're still learning these cars. Upgrades have
been brought in. Ferrari have brought in a massive upgrade package, especially to their
Cyborg structure. It was fascinating to see how that was going to transcend into the Grand Prix
and qualifying. Yet it is George Russell, who from the get-go is the more comfortable and sits at
the top of the tower. The thing that shocked me between the two of them, three tenths between
George Russell and Antonelli. Big margin. Big margin. The gap between Russell and Antonelli is bigger
than the gap between Antonelli in third and Piastri in seventh. There is a real step up between the
top two, Hamilton and Russell, and then the rest of that natural top seven or eight that we're
used to seeing. I'm really surprised that Russell has been able to take such a big step forward.
I thought, yes, pole is possible. I think I even said it in my predictions from the start of the
weekend that I think Russell will grab pole here. I was very much expecting it to be by
the margin that Hamilton is behind rather than the three tenths with a car in between them.
So a shock in that regard. I've been really impressed with George Russell, which I appreciate
outlandish statement, person on pole impresses podcaster. But I have been really impressed
by what Russell has done throughout today because the margins are pretty tight around here. Whilst
you might argue Mercedes still have that advantage, which very impressive given that engine is just
not capable of anything at all. But I have been really impressed with the consistency more than
anything of what Russell has been able to do. And you look at the margin to Antonelli, as you
mentioned, three tenths. That's pretty evenly split throughout all three sectors. It's not like
Russell is nailing sector one and then holding on through the second two. He has seemingly got
that advantage everywhere. And we've got Verstappen, I think, did the fastest sector one time in Q3.
Hamilton did the fastest sector two time Ferrari looking very good in that sector.
But where Russell has really been able to e-cat an advantage so far this weekend is just he has
been first, second or third really in all three sectors. And ultimately, I think that goes a long
way to explain the gap between him and Antonelli. And given the position that he's in in the
championship quite a long way behind, very impressed with the way he's responded so far. We'll have
to see if that translates to race pace. His commitment in that last corner is immense. He's
absolutely paying for that final corner. And this gap is carried through as well throughout
qualifying in Q1 as well. The gap between Russell and Antonelli is three tenths again.
Antonelli does close up in Q2, but across the three sessions, Russell finds over 1.1 seconds in pace.
He's doing a 15-7, I think, in the first part of qualifying. And then, obviously, we finish the session
on a 14-6. So Russell doing a really good job at finding the progress. Antonelli not able to
match that intensity session after session. I think with Antonelli as well, in terms of
projected race pace, if we're looking at sort of FP2, a very good session to look at when it
comes to race pace simulations, because firstly, that's where the teams are really targeting
those runs. But also, in theory, you're getting very similar conditions, time of day,
then you'll get in the race as well. Antonelli's race pace looked pretty close compared to
George Russell. And even if Russell goes on to win this race tomorrow, the hard work that Antonelli's
put in over the last two months or so picking up these consecutive wins, it has allowed him,
plus some bad luck for Russell as well, has allowed him such a buffer that, whilst I'm sure he would
absolutely love to get back into the lead and win yet another Grand Prix. If he finishes second
behind George Russell, it's a long way from a disaster. He's really in an okay spot to have
these sorts of a weekends because of what he's done up until this point in the year.
Yeah, if I finish 12 with Russell in front, I still think the gap is over 60 points
between them, which is a mighty impressive. So Antonelli can become, there's no problems with
having the old Grand Prix where you're a couple of tenths behind your teammate, as long as he
doesn't make a habit of it. Yes. What about Ferrari? Because contrasting fortunes for them in Q3,
Lewis Hamilton getting on the front row of the grid, about half a tenth behind George Russell
and crucially, about two and a half tenths clear of that chasing pack behind, which includes five
drivers. Charles Leclerc on the other hand, maybe a contender for pole, given what Lewis Hamilton's
end lap time was, going off on his first run in Q3. Should we just start with the, since it happened
first, the Leclerc incident? Yeah. I think, at least in terms of the commentary we hear from Sky
Sports, they did a very good job of explaining this, exactly what happened. Not a lot of grip,
suddenly too much grip, and then all of a sudden you're off into the barriers. I think based on
where that car ends up, that in itself is a clue of the force, the Gs that he hit going into the
wall. Yeah. I think the way that the car goes through that corner, it's amazing to see the analysis
between the line difference between one lap to another, the way that you can almost hug further
to the right on the inside of that corner, and you do pick up that little extra grip. But if you're
just out on the dirty stuff, you're a little bit of the marble, some of the dust on the outside
of the track, the trajectory that it can change for a Formula One car. We don't often see side by
side analysis like that so clearly. And I found it fascinating the way that the car suddenly
snapped, and the Clers got to juggle the way the car snapped. And a lot of people immediately jumped
to criticism on the brakes, of course, after the complaints that came out of Monaco. Nothing to do
with it. Purely an oversteer moment that snapped the wrong way, straight into the barrier. He would
be so frustrated that this has happened. And he's now had, we're discussing this three sessions in
a row where he's had some kind of incident with the wall, of course, qualifying in Monaco,
the race in Monaco, qualifying here in Barcelona. That is three serious knockbacks. And seemingly,
it is Hamilton who looks slower earlier in the weekend, who is able to make more of the session
again here. So the Clers just needs to find that little bit of confidence again and become more
comfortable, I think, with the car. Gutting for him because he would have backed himself to be in
the fight for pole position. Maybe not at the time of the crash, but certainly at the point where
Lewis Hamilton gets on the front row and within a tenth of that pole time,
Charles Leclerc will probably be in the garage at that point going,
I could maybe have got this one, which it would have been a long time coming because
that Ferrari has struggled in qualifying really over the course of last season going into this
season as well. And as you sort of detailed there, what went wrong, just going slightly
offline into the sort of dirty stuff into the marbles can have such a catastrophic impact on
your lap. And I'm not saying this in terms of I love the incident. struggle. It's great.
I really enjoyed this session and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's race because
whilst I don't think all of the issues are fixed in terms of these regulations,
these guys are hustling to get these cars around the lap. Even, I know we're talking here about
Leclerc's crash, but you look particularly through the final sector, all of these drivers are
two or three attempts to get through a corner. I think it's brilliant to see and it can go wrong
in the case of Charles Leclerc. You want that little bit of jeopardy, I think in qualifying. So
it sucks for Leclerc. He's going to have a lot more work to do if he starts P10,
but I enjoy seeing the struggle. Yeah, I agree. I love to see them absolutely driving the car.
They're not sitting on a car that's on rails. They've got to manhandle the car through the
corners here and make sure they're wrestling it through the corners. I want to give Lewis Hamilton
some props here. I'll give him a couple of compliments because the guy steps out of FP1,
always sold Anthony and Hamilton very similarly here that you drop off the overall pace when you
lose that much time. So your closest rivals, Hamilton goes into practice two. He's a second
back from his teammate. Practice three, he's half a second back from his teammate. And yeah,
he steps into Q1. He's fastest. He's three tenths faster than Charles Leclerc. Q2 rolls around and
whilst Leclerc has picked up the pace, Hamilton only a tenth down. So whilst I do agree with you,
Ben, that Leclerc probably could mount a challenge to attempt pole position, I don't think it's a
sure thing. Oh no, no, I'm not saying. Hamilton is now out qualifying Charles Leclerc 4-2 across the
season. Now they're better qualified for 20-26 in the new regulations. I think the Mercedes has
done what the Mercedes should do and has triumphed here. But I think Lewis Hamilton has done a
fantastic job to be so clear of Anthony and the chasing field. Oh yeah. And when I say Leclerc's
disappointment, isn't that he would have been nailed on for pole? It's just given his record
versus Hamilton. Like if he saw Hamilton in the mix, he would have felt he could have got in the
mix as well with Hamilton's weekend so far. And this might sound drastic and maybe I'm,
maybe I should have actually taken a moment to think about this opinion, but I'm going to run
with it. There we go. Obviously, he was second place in Monaco last time out. He was second place
in Canada. I think this is better. I think this is better than both of those results. And I know
it's difficult to compare qualifying to a race. But because of the reasons that you detailed
where he is missing FP1, he is really struggling for pace throughout FP2 and even into the early
parts of FP3. And to be able to recover that as much as he did all the way throughout qualifying,
it's a really impressive turnaround and not something that we've actually seen a lot of
from Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari era up until this point. And this isn't to put down the
couple of podiums that he's had to this point in the year. Like Monaco was very impressive,
Canada was very impressive too. He is right in the mix here. And this is where the positions
don't tell the full story because whilst he is second and you say, okay, he's in a sandwich
between the two Mercedes, he's far closer to one Mercedes than the other. And it's the right one
for him. Like he is half a tenth away from George Russell. He is very comfortably clear
of the group that includes Antonelli, that includes both Red Bulls and includes both
McLarens. This is very impressive, I think from Lewis Hamilton. And again, it's a question of
whether the race pace will hold or not. In terms of one lap pace, very good, I thought.
Yeah, the rundown to turn will be fascinating. We'll see if the Mercedes is able to mitigate
the fast starting Ferrari, but it looks better for them. But hey, if Hamilton gets a great start,
he could be leading. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he's leading into, and I think it wouldn't
surprise me a great deal if he was on the second row either based on how good those
Ferraris are at starting. But as we've seen this so far this year, plenty of times where
the Ferrari have been able to get into the lead early in a race and not be able to hold it. So
will those upgrades work or not remain to be seen? You mentioned at the very top of this episode
that maybe there was some out there thinking McLaren might be in the mix for pole position.
Maybe they were Mercedes' best challengers going into this session. In which case,
maybe a slight disappointment that just forth and seventh in this session.
Yeah, and I think the gap between the two drivers in terms of positions looks far worse
than it is in time, right? There's, what, 900ths of a second between the two McLaren drivers,
and yet they've got two red balls sat between them. This has happened a couple of times,
and the same thing has been said for Monaco as well. We're expecting McLaren to be far
closer challengers. We're expecting them to be right up there with the Stappen fighting Mercedes
for pole position. The chassis in theory really a positive part of the McLaren,
and they're relying on the Mercedes to be competent and actually deliver on all levels.
And so often for them, it's bigger reliability struggle, and they've been let down by the power
unit. And yet here they seem to be having either. They're not able to maximize the straight line
speed of the McLaren, which is unusual because you've seen the Mercedes. Yeah, exactly. And in
the middle sector, they're seemingly not able to maximize the chassis element of the car,
which will allow them to stand above the lights of the red ball and the Ferrari.
And in practice, it would appear that they looked very comfortable. I think they were
fast to see at least one of the three practice sessions throughout the early part of the weekend.
And now they've been beaten by, well, Piazza has been beaten by Verstappen and Hajar.
Norris is barely a couple of hundreds in front of Verstappen. I'm surprised to see them fully on
this second run and not actually one of them at least where Hamilton is today. Firstly, with
Lando Norris, I think I'm very unlucky in that FP3 session. And he's got four fear, but I think
he'll be a bit annoyed that he couldn't get third. Large part of that reason is that he didn't get
that first run in where Piastri and Verstappen both did because of the red flag caused by
Charles Leclerc's crash. And whilst the Mercedes were early enough in their laps that they were
at least able to try again with the same compound, Lando Norris had done 90% of his lap when that
red flag came out, meaning the tires that are wearing very, they're wearing so quickly here
that there was no point in even trying that. So he had one run to get this right and he put
together a pretty good effort. I think he'd have wanted to get third though, based on
some of the pace shown by McLaren earlier in the weekend. And as you mentioned, Piastri,
it looks far worse than it actually was because he is only four temps away from pole.
And yet that's only good enough for P7 here. A bit disappointing, I think, based on again
what pace they showed in FP2. They were right there, both of them, with George Russell in that
regard. And it just seems that Mercedes and maybe Ferrari and Red Bull as well have just
been able to find a little bit more going from Friday to Saturday versus what McLaren have been
able to do. The only theory that I kind of have on this, McLaren's race pace looked a lot worse
than their qualifying pace yesterday. And I do wonder whether they've changed anything on the
car to maybe help with that that has maybe taken away from the one-lap speed. I don't know. That
wouldn't surprise me. But yeah, based on the race runs yesterday, I don't know whether they'll be
able to improve on this. Yeah, I wonder if it's temperature-dependent as well. I wonder if tomorrow
might be able to corner. It might sweep the car. On that, it's going to be very interesting to see
if we do get a two-stop race or a three-stop race. We're almost going to see something that we
haven't seen so far this year, which of the teams have maybe got an advantage in that regard. Because
to this point, it has been so focused on battery management, maybe in terms of the ICE. And that
will still be, of course, be very important tomorrow. But tyre wear, this could open up
something for one of these teams. Yeah, in theory, if you're one of those drivers that are able to
maintain your tyres properly and push them a few laps longer, which means that maybe you can
transition from a three-stop down to a two-stop whilst ensuring that the pace is solid,
you could gain a real advantage here. And we've seen, well, it feels like a long time ago now,
but Pirelli tyres used to be able to essentially hit a cliff. They wouldn't explode, for example,
they wouldn't puncture. They would occasionally, but most of the time, yes. But on what that means
is typically the pace that you've got from those tyres would suddenly go from being, you know,
you're a tenth slower, slower. And then suddenly, you're a second slower, you know,
you're a second and a half slower. And you've either got to commit to getting in that pit lane
as soon as possible or try and ride it out. And that is tough. But the likes of, you could say,
Hamilton, the staffing here, people who have got a lot of experience on these longer runs,
who have done tyre wear for a long time in their career, in theory, should have a serious advantage
over maybe a Hadjah, for example, who's still really adapting to being a Formula One after
only a season and a half. Yeah. And keep an eye as well on the tyre compounds and which seem to
be working and which aren't, because it's not going to be the same in terms of what everyone's
left available for this race. Verstappen has already used up a set of hard compounds in
practice, meaning he's only going to have one available to him in the race, whereas most
other teams will have two hard compounds to use up. So interesting to see if that plays into this
at all. Let's take a quick break. On the other side, we're going to be chatting a bit more
about Red Bull and their qualifying pace, as well as then going into Q2 and Q1.
Welcome back, everyone. Very close between the two Red Bulls at the end.
Max Verstappen out-qualifying his teammate, but only by about half a tenth of a second.
Three and a half tenths away is Verstappen. Four tenths away is Hadjah from the pole time.
In the mix. Yeah, in the mix. If you're making a cake, they're the flour. They're in the mix.
Flour? Yeah. You know how it is. Max has done what Max does. I think he looks strong throughout
certain parts of this qualifying, and the car clearly isn't 100% around this race track.
I'm just really impressed with Hadjah, to stay as close as you can to Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen, we're talking about here, one of the greatest drivers in four-long-of-all time,
to be only half a tenth away from him. I think it shows that Hadjah is probably the best number
two driver that Red Bull have had this decade. I think he feels the most confident in that car.
He's producing results when the car is working that are respectable and good for Red Bull.
If something does happen to Verstappen tomorrow, then Hadjah isn't immediately there to pick up
the pieces, which is what Red Bull have been asking for a long time. I think this will be
really confidence-boosting for Hadjah. Frustrating for Red Bull, that they're not closer to the
top with both drivers, but at least you can see that both drivers are maximising what you can
get out of the car here. Yeah. I wouldn't quite go as far to say, because I think maybe earlier,
Sergio Perez, I would still take over what Hadjah is at the moment, but certainly since
the last year or two of Perez, I think this is the most encouraging situation that Red Bull have had
in regards to the second seat. He was fairly close to Verstappen throughout the first couple
of parts of qualifying. It was maybe about a tenth in Q1. It was a couple attempts in Q2,
and then obviously less than a tenth in Q3. It was fairly close throughout. Pretty impressive
stuff. I think maybe Verstappen will be a bit annoyed that he couldn't make more of his final
run and maybe get out to P3. I don't think he nailed the final sector, and to be fair,
the Red Bull is struggling in the final sector compared to its rivals. It looks lazy through
the long right-hander at the end of the lap. Yes, it does. They seem to be pretty good in the first
sector and good enough in the middle sector that it doesn't matter too much. I guess it would make
sense if their ICE is that powerful that it can be as good as it is in the first sector.
The problem with that failure, essentially, to maximize the third sector, is if you want to
be able to overtake, you've got to run as close as you can to the cars in front of you in those
last two or three corners. If they're struggling already to get the car turning without traffic,
being on the back of a car in front can be really difficult.
I think maybe a bit of annoyance from Verstappen side that he couldn't get a little bit more than
P5, but I think based on where they've been this weekend, they'll be pretty content with P5, P6.
Race simulations look a little bit better, I think, for Red Bull here. Again, Verstappen utilizes
in the hard tyre, but also doing a race run on the soft tyre as well. It's a pretty good data
that they'd have got there. I think they look pretty good in that regard. Locking out the
third row of the grid, not a bad result. The only other thing I wanted to mention about Red Bull
during this qualifying session, I think they got a little bit fortunate with the decision not to
get Hajar out there for a second run in Q2.
Yeah, he ended up P9. I think both Limblad and, well, Limblad, Bortoletto and Holkenberg all
would have had enough with great laps to have gone past Hajar, which would have knocked him out.
So whilst it is a gamble that paid off, I don't actually think it was the right decision.
No, I agree. Limblad finished his 900th behind Hajar, who was 11th place, was Limblad. Hajar
was 9th place at that point. It already would have taken the likes of Bortoletto to do it.
His teammate was able to do it and he's out of the session.
It's pretty marginal. So I was surprised that I know that they were really desperate to save
tyres as much as they possibly could throughout this session. I felt that was maybe a risk too
far, but they got away with it. The rest of the top 10, so Lawson and Holkenberg were the lucky
raffle winners of who outside of the top teams could make it through to Q3. Holkenberg finally
getting out of that dreaded P11 spot, but Lawson, another Q3 appearance for him.
You impressed by both of them? Yeah, just consistently good from Lawson at the moment.
He's found a real big mojo when it comes to this season. The car seems to suit his style
and the racing ball is better here than I thought it was going to be going into the weekend. We
discussed this in our preview about whether Alpine would almost take the resurgence back
off of racing balls and reclaim the top midfield spot. I think we both disagreed. I think we both
agreed that Alpine actually would be the prominent force and they would slump back down. But not to
be the case, of course, Limblard beating both Alpenes in Q2 and Lawson, the fastest essentially to
get through to Q3 outside of the top runners. He does well here to finish about a 10th in front
of Nico Holkenberg. Both of them doing a really good job. What I am quite demoralised by when it
comes to Formula One right now is Lawson, who I thought sound really well, is 1.4 away from
Piastri. That's not the pole time. That's the guy in front of him. He's going to be two seconds
back from the pole nap of Russell. It's really difficult to see them being competitive anytime
soon. That's going to be driven a lot by the fact that both Lawson and Holkenberg were on used
tyres at the end of Q3. Again, the push to get through to Q3 today, so much of the focus was on
saving tyres and trying to get two runs in Q3. Everyone outside of Lawson and Holkenberg were
able to do that, but I think it was clear whoever made it through out of those midfield teams, it
was just going to be a case of almost making it was the objective, and then you were just going
to have to try and put something together on old tyres, and ultimately Lawson wins that battle.
To illustrate the point, Lawson in Q2 did a 1.155, and then in Q3 he did a 1.165. He was a second
slower in Q3, where nearly all of the top teams were several tenths of a second faster because
they still had new tyres to use up. I'm not disappointed by Ivar, though those lap times
at all. They were very hampered by the tyre situation they were in. Really good effort from
Lawson to put it all together in Q2. I felt he was a little bit on the backfoot versus Lindblad for
much of today. I agree. I do think actually he's really excelled in that Q2 performance. He was
quick three off of the provisional pole time of Q2 set by Russell, but he's two tenths faster than
Hajja in that session. I just thought that was a really great performance from him.
Yeah. Given he didn't have a lot of time in FP2, he had an issued start FP2, so whilst he did do
a bit of running there, he didn't get the full session like everyone else did. I felt Lindblad
might have had the upper hand because of that until Q2 comes around and Lawson really pulls it
out the bag. Ironic given last season versus Hajja, it was basically the same story, but Lawson was
playing the other role where it felt like they were very close to Lawson and Hajja until you got
to Q2, and that's where Hajja are at the advantage. It feels like he's turning around a bit.
Big of a late bloomer is Lawson. It feels like he's really starting to feel a bit more comfortable
in the sport. Let's see what he can do for the rest of the season.
Yes. Not sure what to expect from the racing bulls in terms of race pace. Lindblad did a
really long run in FP2, and he clearly went, maybe intentionally, very quickly for the first
five laps or so, and the tyres just died. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bit of a tyre
stress test from racing bulls to see how fast they can reason what their target lap time should be
for the race. I don't know what to expect from them. Audi, P9, P12 with Holkenberg getting through
to Q3. I think this is the kind of result that's been on the precipice for a while,
and they finally delivered something when there are no points available.
Yeah, I got a sneaky suspicion that Audi were going to be quite good here, actually.
So good that I put them into my fantasy team, and the team itself.
Cheap asset right now?
They're a bargain, if I'm totally honest with you. No drivers, just team.
I've got both drivers, but not the driver.
Oh, okay. Feeling good. I've kept the RB drivers in, so I'm playing both sides.
But Hulk is great to see him take that step forward and get into Q3 properly.
He's been so consistent in that and never the place. We've made jokes about it,
how good he's been at making it his own. I think what's really the most impressive part here is
much like racing bulls. They have been able to diminish the attempt of Alpine to get themselves
into Q3 and beat that lead midfield team here. It looks like they've taken a really strong step
forward, especially a track like Catalonia, which is hot. It's difficult. Their power unit is under
some severe stress here. Their side post, of course, very unique. It's nice to see it playing off,
and we even saw Peter Sauber in the garage. Yeah, exactly. What a great day.
I had in terms of the numbers that I think they are the fifth fastest team here this weekend,
and that's in terms of race pace. I think the racing bulls, very good qualifying car.
In terms of race pace, I think double points is in the offing,
and I'm sure they will find a way in which not to do that tomorrow.
So if you want to just timestamp this clip and you can come back to that tomorrow when
they somehow pull out that sort of result, I'm very impressed from Hülkenberg.
The P11 stuff has become a bit of a joke, but the fact that he has got as close as he has
on numerous occasions just shows that this was always going to happen at some point,
that he was going to break through into Q3. I think Bortoletto might be a little bit annoyed
that he couldn't join Hülkenberg in Q3. It was only two attempts between them in Q2,
but Bortoletto arguably had a bit of an advantage here in that Hülkenberg didn't nail his first
run in Q1, which meant Bortoletto only needed one set of tyres to get through to Q2. Hülkenberg
needed both, which meant the reverse was essentially going to happen in Q2, where Bortoletto could have
potentially two attempts on new tyres to get through to Q3, and he just doesn't pull out the lap.
It's still a pretty good effort. 12th is still something that's fine.
It's solid. I don't think it would be too disappointed. And realistically, if Leclerc doesn't
make the mistake, Hülkenberg could be starting 10th as well. So something's have gone his way.
I do think Bortoletto will actually be more annoyed that Limblard is beating him,
rather than Hülkenberg getting into Q3, he's now a car before they even get to the Ferrari
separating them. So he might be looking more at the racing balls than he is at his teammate.
Yeah, but they look pretty good, particularly in the final sector, actually. They already look
like they've got that car hooked up. Alpine 13th and 14th, you're absolutely right in saying that
we had this team as the clear favourite in the midfield going into this race. It doesn't look
like it. No, and I think they've maximised it. You see how close the two drivers are, only half
a tenth between them there in the session that they were going through in that Q2 session. They are
half a second away from getting through into Q3. So it was not close for them, either. Not sure
what's going on at Alpine. Yeah, just maybe not that track. We've seen it before with Alpine.
Well, I find that this might not actually mean anything, but I think it's at least interesting
to point out is that Williams have kind of got the same thing this weekend, where they seem to
have taken a bit of a step back as well. Of course, Alpine and Williams sharing the same power unit.
As are McLaren, who struggled as well in the qualifying.
And we know that Mercedes, whilst they have got the pole position here,
they're not as clear as they've been at some other tracks as well. So I don't know whether
the Mercedes power unit as a whole maybe just doesn't have the same advantage here as it has
other tracks. Don't remember, this is the first competitive power track that we've seen with
the compression ratio change. Now, I do wonder if it is just enough of an impact that the extra
tenth or two has been removed. Yeah, I think you're right in saying 13 for 14. It's probably
all they could have got from this session and credit to Collar Pinto for bouncing back from
a tough Monaco GP to out qualify Pierre Gasly. Tywell looked dreadful, by the way, on both of
them. So we'll see. Yeah, Alpine doesn't feel like one of those cars that can run long comfortably.
So it'd be fascinating to see what strategy they employ for the race tomorrow.
Not a great weekend so far for Haas or Williams, both having a car knocked out in Q1.
I think Bearman will be really disappointed to not be in 13th place here. He's so close to the
LPs in front of him. The car just feels like it's pretty pounced around this Catalanja track.
Yeah, I... Oh, I might be cooked, man. I think Ocon is cooked, mate. I think it's long gone.
I mean, he was, what, two tenths away from safety in Q1?
Yeah, he was half a second away from Bearman, though. That's not even, yeah.
It's not good. You know, you want to defend him, but it's not looking good at the moment.
It's just like, if you imagine the hob, it's on like a two or a three.
Oh, it's a bit warm.
You're not boiling the pasta, but you are sort of simmering away.
If you could just not turn it up anymore, I'd appreciate that.
Bearman is doing the job at the moment. And when the car is at scoring points,
you feel like you're almost a little bit protected because it doesn't really mean anything come Sunday.
But the data is important, and it is showing that Bearman is again
comfortably in front of his team, mate.
A similar story, I guess, for Sines and Albin, in that Sines seems to have got more out of the
car so far this weekend. Yeah, half a second between the knockout time.
I mean, James Vowles comes over the radio in the broadcast that we're watching,
and he explains that the car is at fault, and they got very lucky with getting the
tyres in the right window for Sines. I don't know, man. I appreciate that Vowles is trying to
protect his drivers and stop the attack. But surely, if Sines can do it, Albin can do it.
There's been a lot of commentary from James Vowles throughout the weekend, actually. He gave
quite a lengthy interview, at least on Sky Sports, with Natalie Pinkham and Jack Filner.
Harry's favourite after. This was after FB3, and he is just owning up and saying that
this is a tough track for us, and that Sines was doing a slightly better job on paraphrasing,
exactly like this. Sines is doing a slightly better job in terms of the balance of the car
than what Albin has been able to do. That was even before qualifying, and I think that just
carried them through into the first competitive session. Even so, I was 16th and 18th. They're
going to start almost next to each other anyway, but it just doesn't seem like a good one for
Williams. No, they seem to really be bouncing around the order as well. When it suits them,
they do well. A couple of double-points finger shoes, and when it doesn't see them,
they seem to be right back towards the Cadillacs. Speaking of Cadillac, brought some upgrades this
weekend, and I'm going to, at this point, call them a tentative success. I know in terms of
position, I'm sure 19th and 20th is about where they usually are anyway, they're not that far off.
They're two-tenths away from the Williams of Albin, but they are a second to clear
of the leading Aston Martin in Lance Stroll. Sorry, say that again?
Yeah, the leading Aston Martin of Lance Stroll at the first time since Silverstone 2024,
that that's been the case. Silverstone 2024. I saw a good little meme of
the crabby patties from Spongebob, towered up 42 of them for Gandhi Alonso, and then Spongebob sat
there with his one, and that was Stroll at Barcelona 2026. Have you seen Stroll's reaction,
by the way, to, I think he was speaking to, I think it was Nate Saunders at ESPN, but I think
he asked him about how does it feel to have broken the streak, and his words were, I don't care.
I mean, kind of fair enough. The follow-up question was, would it matter more if you were
actually fighting for Q2s and Q3s, would it matter more at that point? And he responded with
two things. I can't say one of them. I don't care. My man does not care about this job, does he?
He does not care about what he's doing.
It's kind of fair that he's being asked, like, how does it feel to be slightly
worse than, slightly better than terrible? It's like, I don't know. What do you want me to say?
Yeah, I get why he doesn't care. You're motivated. I think this might be the first
time that Alonso has been on the last place spot in pure pace for a very, very long, fair
about, but very, very long time. I've got no way. I mean, you maybe have to search through the
Minardi qualifying archives, but outside of that, I have to, I just doomed until...
It's woeful. They've apparently got a massive upgrade package coming into summer break,
so it will be very intriguing to see if they can make up, I don't know, at this point,
two and a bit seconds.
That upgrade has got to work because they have been, again, just holding off on any upgrades
until this one big upgrade comes through, which has caused everyone, it's not like they were
them. They need that to work substantially.
The worst part is, even if they do get over two seconds in time, they're still not even
fighting for Q3 and qualifying. They're barely in Q2 at that point.
I think this was maybe during practice. There was a graphic of Fernando Alonso and it was
his championship position, which is like 18th or something like that, and then next to it,
one point. I was just like, imagine almost like screenshot that graphic and then just
send it to someone in January of this year and be like, Spanish GP graphic for you,
and you'd be like, wow, what happened, man?
What on earth have Aston Martin done?
Especially, actually, if you could send that to us this time last year, we would have been a
pull. I mean, you've got to look at our predictions for the season. We all have at least Aston
Martin higher than this. This is bad.
Is it sad that he's got one point rather than none?
Kind of. It's kind of like a pity point, isn't it?
I don't know if it looks worse. Anyway, yeah, Aston Martin wouldn't bank on them doing much
tomorrow over three seconds off the pace. Driver of the session from you, please.
I'm going George Russell. I think three temps between him and
Sangeli after the previous events of the last few Grand Prix is a really impressive bounce back.
I think Hamilton deserves a great show as well.
Yeah. I think those two are in contention. I also think Berman's in contention. I think he has
absolutely maximized that. If you beat the Alpenes, I'll be with you.
Yeah. I actually think the Alpenes are a bit quicker than Haas based on what I've seen,
and I thought his Q1 lap time in particular was very good. I'm going to go with Lewis Hamilton
for the turnaround that he was able to produce from sort of FP2 and FP3. I think he's done
very well here. Agreed. We'll see what happens in the race tomorrow. Tire wear, pit stops,
things that I thought were alien and F1 might be back tomorrow. We'll be back to Sam with
a review around this time tomorrow. We will. Make sure you watch that Grand Prix and then you come
straight here, listen to the review, or you can watch it if you do want to see our gorgeous
smiling faces on your screens. We'll bring them tomorrow, we promise. I promise you,
they'll be glowing and happy and definitely handsome. But make sure you subscribe. You follow
Late Breaking F1 everywhere. Join us for the rest of the weekend. If you're a little bit more,
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About this episode
Qualifying at Barcelona-Catalunya delivered a tight top end—about four tenths covering seven drivers—yet the story was Mercedes’ surprise pole. George Russell topped the session by three tenths over rookie Antonelli, with Russell consistently finding pace in every sector despite others expecting McLaren to lead. Tyre wear is back, setting up talk of two- and even three-stop races. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed in Q3 after losing grip on dirty/marbled track, while Lewis Hamilton impressed by stepping up from earlier weekend pace to secure a front-row spot.
A close qualifying session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya brings disruption to Antonelli's dominant streak! Ben and Sam dig into the latest twist in the Mercedes teammate battle, the shock trip into the wall for one Ferrari, Audi’s impressive performance, and and plenty more.
