Reaction to Azerbaijan GP qualifying

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 Podcast with Matt and Tommy.

Shall we all just take a deep breath?

Because it wasn't fast and frantic.

It was slow and painful for a lot of it, wasn't it, really, just with how many red

flags there was?

I just wanted to see a few clean laps qualifying.

It got to that stage at the end where both of us were genuinely praying to not see

a qualifying lap.

That's how rare of a situation we found ourselves in when Carlos Sainz was top.

And we were also earlier than that praying to see a qualifying lap because we felt like

there were so many delays that we're just like, please, can I just see cars on track?

And then when we actually were going to have that, because it was going to essentially

deny one of the most crazy underdog, not only just polls, top three, we would have

had Carlos Sainz and the two racing bulls in the picture where they kind of have

the top three, you know, imagine missing qualifying and tuning in and seeing that.

But still, still a crazy result and a great grid for tomorrow.

And a lot to talk about now before we dive into all of that, just a reminder,

our Australian live show tour tickets are still available flying off the shelves.

Tix.2 forward slash P1 live.

If you want to come see us in Australia in May 2026, there are a few tickets

available for Manchester at the end of the year, as well as the US tour as well.

So go and get your tickets.

And of course, Canada can't forget those guys.

So yeah, go get your tickets there and let's not dive into Q1

because there is one thing we need to talk about Dumbbellingham before we do that.

Now, we had six red flags in qualifying, which is the record

for the most red flags in a qualifying session.

And there is a question which tees it up so beautifully

from P1 patron member, Mikey B, is Tommy's prediction of no red flags

due to crashes a generationally washed prediction?

I think you actually forfeit the prediction championship from that one thing.

Yeah, there were people discussing in the in the live chat

when we were doing this that I actually deserve minus points.

But no, it was but it is bad.

I admit it's terrible.

I'll say you're welcome because we got an insane grid.

I'm going to turn this round like it was his powers that made it.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, I was after practice when we were doing our preamble

before we started into Q1, you had your smug face on.

You were like, well, I told you a few times, but we've not had a red flag.

I said, look, wait, Tommy,

we've got qualifiers is where they'll actually push.

And my God, they pushed into the wall many, many times.

Now let's dive into Q1 where the bottom five were Colin Pinto,

Holkenberg, Ocon, Gasly and Albon.

Question from P1 Patriot member captain of 3420.

How much will Alex be kicking himself for crashing

immediately with how good the car clearly is?

I'll be honest with you, forgot that even happened.

So long ago, three weeks ago,

that Alex Albon was literally over like nearly three hours ago.

It's just mad.

Yes, he will be kicking himself

because his teammate is on the front row of the grid,

which is bizarre and wild and crazy.

But that's just how the action unfolded.

And this was where, you know, this was, of course, the first incident.

This was the first red flag where Tommy's trying to find some loopholes.

You've got some chat actually as well, saying, look,

why is it a crash really when there's no debris?

Yeah, it's not really meant as yet.

And then Holkenberg was like, watch this.

Yeah, then Holkenberg.

Yeah, let me follow up on that one.

But back to Alex, yeah, 100% going to be kicking himself.

I don't think he was expecting a front row potential with the car,

but that they were looking really good in practice,

definitely a point scoring team.

And it almost ended up with his teammate on pole and him starting 20th.

Yeah, one insane thing that is to think about a William sandwich

of the entire grid almost.

Alex, yeah, had he's had such a good year, a very uncharacteristic era.

You don't normally see people turning too early at that

We saw plenty of drivers kind of go off into the kind of interterm one

where they kind of bail out because they're going to hit that outside wall

and they bail onto the runoff area loop all the way back round and get back in.

But yeah, the fact that Alex turned in too early

and then to witness what happened, of course,

it was a crazy session that you never would have predicted anyway.

But even in a normal dry qualifying session

where we hadn't had a hundred crashes,

and all this chaos and rain and goodness knows what else.

You kind of on performance, you feel like both Williams

probably would have made it into into Q3, you'd think,

and be at the kind of looking at maybe like a ninth and 10th.

So yeah, disappointing for Alex.

Massively, yeah, he said it himself after quality

that it was a rookie era to essentially have turned in too early.

The car gripped up a little bit more

due to blustery wind conditions, catching out a lot of the drivers

and it caught him out into turn one.

Next question, P1 Patriot member, a good Karen.

So when can we expect to see Jack Deewen back in the Alpine?

He was fired for less.

Well, I'm surprised as well. Another crash for Q1.

Yeah, another crash.

So we had a whole convert crashing, then we had Gasly going off.

And in the watch along, we said, didn't we went, that's a weird.

There's a red flag.

Why is that a red flag?

He's just gone down the runoff area

and then Colopinto's steams in and crashes into the wall.

It's disappointing for Colopinto because, of course,

had he not crashed it into the wall?

Well, he's still outqualified Gasly,

which is insane, actually,

because it's three times out of the last four races

that Colopinto's outqualified Gasly,

which is no mean feat, actually quite impressive.

But unfortunately, he's still outqualified him.

So even though he completely obliterated his car.

Well, exactly. Yeah, he has outqualified him again.

But unfortunately for him, it's another crash.

But I hate to say it.

I know there's many Jack Doe and fans out there

that would love to see him back,

but it's not going to happen.

Flavia Breatori has already mentioned that that next year

it is a choice between Colopinto and Paul Aaron

if he gets that second seat.

Unfortunately for Jack Doe and he has been dropped.

It wasn't a case of like, you know,

if Colopinto is bad, we'll swap you back in.

It's not, it doesn't seem to be.

Like that. So, you know, if Colopinto keeps having these errors

and things and performing badly,

then it would be Paul Aaron in, not Jack Doe.

Exactly that.

It's a shame for Jack Doe.

And of course he was against it from literally

before he'd even turned a wheel.

Every everything was against him.

But it didn't show any kind of levels of potential

that would give Alpine and Flavio a reason

to swap him back with Franco.

Franco, yes, has had moments already.

We've spoken about it this season.

He has made mistakes.

But, you know, he has, as you mentioned,

with the qualifying record shown some promise,

which Doe and wasn't able to do in that amount of time,

but still didn't.

And Alpine aren't looking for like a...

Someone that's all right.

They need a high quality young talent

that they can not lose from their roster for once

and actually nurture them and make them good.

So whether that's Franco, whether that's Paul Aaron.

Yeah, I think he hit the nail on the head there

of like no offense to Jack Doe in

because it was unfair that he was always,

is always going to be a losing battle for him.

And Colopinto, with his driving,

hasn't justified the reason for them to get rid of Doe

and be equally Jack Doe and is driving at the start

of the season hasn't justified him to be so good

that he deserves to go straight back in.

I think that's how I look at it personally.

Yeah, and him just going straight back in,

they can expect the same kind of results probably

because he's rookie and inexperienced and so on and so forth.

So yeah, lots of crashes.

The Colopinto, Hülkenberg was kind of a front wing,

wasn't it?

It wasn't a complete decimation of his car.

Worth mentioning as well, Ocon, 18th in the house.

His qualifying struggles continue this season

and being outqualified by Bearman

who had his own troubles in Q2,

but we've not crossed that bridge yet.

But it is mystifying to see just how much Ocon

has struggled to get the most out of that house car this year.

Inqualifying, which is mad because he's still,

he's got 28 points on the board, 13th in the championship,

which kind of feels very strange to think.

But yeah, Ocon, it is again,

it has some, the struggles do seem to be inqualifying

and particularly for Ocon.

Let's head to Q2, where the five drivers out were Alonso,

Hamilton, Bortoletto, Stroll and Bearman.

So the big stories from this one,

of course has to be Lewis Hamilton

and then another crash.

And this time it was Oliver Bearman

who decided to do his best Lando Norris impression

from practice and do his own crabbing,

which unfortunately he wasn't able

to get it back to the pits.

But let's focus on Ferrari first.

People on pitch remember Anastasia W.

What happened to Ferrari between Q1 and Q2

that caused such a huge drop in pace?

Only I knew Anastasia.

Hamilton said after qualifying

that they went with a slightly different direction,

which you just love hearing that don't really look.

Oh, they love that.

I feel like it happens more with Ferrari

than any other team, to be honest with you.

Like, oh, we found a good setup with the car

and then we went with the wrong direction

and then we had seven wheels rather than four.

It was mystifying, because Hamilton was honestly looking

to be front three, maybe even challenged for pole.

And he's knocked out in Q2 on the back foot,

making mistakes and he went down the exit road

if I'm not mistaken, like there was mistakes again

that you don't tend to see from Hamilton.

There's been a lot of talk this weekend as well,

hasn't there, about his brakes

and that his brakes have been different

than what he's been used to for the last 18 years

and things like that.

And I'm sat there, right?

And I'm going, fair enough, like, cool.

That is a problem for Hamilton that he needs to get over.

But why is it now that we're talking about it?

Why is this not been rectified by Ferrari or whatever

in the lead up to them signing

the biggest driver in Formula One at the time?

Like, it's a bit of a weird conversation that is.

But yeah, 12th for Hamilton, absolute disaster.

When Ferrari, they were supposed to challenge for pole

with both drivers.

I can't remember, like, a time where I've seen

such a drop-off in performance

between two kind of quality sessions

where it's not been like it chucked it down with rain

or something and it's completely different conditions.

Ferrari looked like, you know, in Q1, obviously like,

you know, it's bantering a little bit,

but Leclerc looked so quick.

Looked like he's definitely on, you know,

a chance for pole position again.

Hamilton equally looking like he can challenge at the front

and might get his best quality result, you know,

in a long time and challenge at the front as well.

And then we got into Q2 and Leclerc actually, you know,

was quite late to just making it through

in the first base because he had a few issues

where he was going off making mistakes and things.

And then Hamilton, yeah, didn't get the lap in at the end.

It was just a complete disaster for Ferrari

when it was all looking so good.

It was so bizarre.

I will add as well, there was a lot of talk

about Hamilton being left out on old tires

and things like that.

That was exactly the strategy that Ferrari did in Q1.

They were both, I think, they ran their soft tires

to about 10 laps old.

And it worked from really well in Q1, so.

Yeah, it did.

And in Q2, Hamilton, I think,

was up to six laps on his soft tires.

So not even to the extent of which they went in Q1,

but then the pace kind of disappeared.

But with the blustery conditions as well,

I think pace could easily just come and go with your car

with just a slight change of wind.

Other stories to talk about, Lance Stroll,

I'm absolutely devastated.

He made it through Q1, go on the lad.

Of course, my prediction for this weekend

was that Stroll would out qualify Alonso.

You just reminded me, we were so fast to it.

We were five seconds away from it.

One of the 12,000 red flags that we saw,

Alonso was heading towards the line.

It was the end of Q1.

I think it was.

End of Q1.

He was about to go out.

Stroll was beautifully up in that eighth place,

because my guy, and Alonso was out at the time

and just managed to get over the line to set a lap time,

which robbed me of a wonderful point for that prediction.

It did, and yeah, Stroll went off,

didn't he, and basically got on the radio

and said, what on earth happened there?

The wind catching so many drivers out.

Aston Martin, you know, didn't look particularly great.

Ollie Bearman, yeah.

He looked very quick all weekend,

of course, another terrible prediction of mine,

going for good surprise.

So of course, he-

He was looking so good.

He was looking good.

Yeah, he looked very, very good around here.

Still a qualified Ocon, looked quick,

but yeah, he was, he looked very gutted with himself

because it could have been a great result for him.

And you do wonder what's going through the heads

of these kind of drivers,

like your Aston Martins and your Hasses and things

looking at Williams and erasing Bulls in second and third

and probably thinking, you know,

that could have been me in the situation

when, you know, when you're not the midfielder

that's capitalized on crazy situations.

So yeah, gutting for Bearman.

Bortoletto again, out qualifying Hülkenberg.

Yeah.

And it has to be said, I'm surprised to see him up in 13th.

I think he did a great job considering

they looked like they were massively on the back foot.

He was having a really tough practice sessions as well.

Like he didn't look like he had much, much pace,

but again, like that must be,

I don't know how many in a row now,

it seems to, it seems to,

Nico Hülkenberg, since he got his podium,

it's just dropped on, he literally has just dipped.

Now he's just like done.

Guys, I've got my Lego trophy, I am out.

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Let's now head to queue three

where the top 10,

Verstappen, Sines, Lawson,

Antonelli, Russell,

Sonoda, Norris, Hajar,

Piastri, Leclerc.

My dreaming.

What an absolutely ridiculous top 10 that is.

And look, we have to go straight into a question

before we dive into all of my thoughts and feelings.

We'll go to you first, Tommy.

P1P, do you remember Caesar?

Max Verstappen Championship back on.

I jaked in the watch along.

You know, the fact that, I know I did.

I was jaking.

You said that with your chest, brother.

No, no, I don't ever believe

that it's gonna happen,

but the fact that he's got pole position again,

the McLarens, of course, seventh and ninth.

Yeah, it was tongue-in-cheek me saying Verstappen.

This is championship back on.

There's no way on earth that it's gonna happen,

but what is happening is Max Verstappen,

and I know everyone will roll their eyes here,

is Max Verstappen showing that

why he's the best in Formula One

and why he's highly rated

and why people like Tota Wolf

are desperate to get him in their team

no matter what and things like that,

because another situation where

you had one opportunity to get a result in at the end

and Max puts half a second on the whole field,

you can say, oh, the Red Bull looking good this weekend,

but he's still put a second on his teammate again.

It's just amazing what he's doing this year

and even without the best car

and his unable to challenge for the title.

We've just seen a lot of moments this year

where Maxis reminds everyone,

like, if I had a car to be challenging,

like this would be over.

Yeah, yeah, he definitely delivered, didn't he?

When it's slippery conditions,

it's an equal playing field, or is it?

Because you're up against Max Verstappen.

And that's what he showed.

I think Liam Lawson did a phenomenal job as well

to get third on the grid,

because that lap time was also set

during those slippery conditions.

Yeah, he improved.

It wasn't like it was like a fortunate one, was it?

Yeah, whereas Carlos was done initially

before the rain came down.

But Max, is the championship back on?

You're a better man than I am, Tommy,

because if that was Charlotte Clair,

I'd be singing from the hills that we're so back.

It does make me wish that if the gap was like 50 points

rather than like 100 or whatever,

it would be so much more exciting.

It's over 100, it's well over 100, I think, is it?

I think you're tripping, bro.

I think it's under 100.

You are, you are...

Is it?

96.

Oh, championship back on then, yeah.

No, 94.

Oh yeah, yeah, it's on.

Yeah, yeah, change your mind.

No, it's not.

It's not, yeah.

So it is nearly 100.

I'm trying to do basic maths.

Yeah, it is nearly 100.

Yeah, yeah, it's not happening.

Yeah, 94, bro.

Yeah, little double DNF.

And that's...

He needs four of them for the McLaren.

But yes, I didn't think so either.

Let's see, I think it's...

Max Verstappen has absolutely got this race

signed seal delivered by Three Laps tomorrow

if everything goes to plan

because he's got signs Lawson as two very lovely buffers.

Then you've got the Mercedes

that have been the fourth fastest team this weekend.

Then you have Yuki Sonoda, a rear gunner, let's say.

A rear gunner ahead of both McLarens.

So I think Max will dominate.

And Lando said after qualifying

that the Rebel has been just as quick

as the McLaren this weekend.

So Max, in theory, should romp away with the victory,

but let's see.

Right, I know we have to do this, don't wanna do it,

but let's reflect on Charles Lecler, shall we?

Who ended up in the wall?

He did, as 10,000 live viewers

decided to join us at that moment.

Thank you.

If you're one of those, thank you for checking in.

I feel like maybe I've just been shot at that time,

but Lecler, he was potentially on for,

I don't know if I was gonna say pole,

but a little P3, P4 was probably on the cards.

I don't, I just, they'd lost that little bit

of je ne sais quoi at the start of Q1

where we believed, or you believed more than anyone.

You were like, yeah.

I was convinced to ask Q1.

It's locked in, like GGs, like, yeah, come on.

But for me, it's obviously annoying.

It's annoying on a lot of levels, actually,

because of course, Charles could have been

up there, second or third, maybe.

However, it's more annoying for Carlos Sainz,

because had it not been for Charles ending in the wall,

I genuinely think the track was in a bad enough state

that Carlos would have started on pole position for the race.

So I've got it on a few levels, a bit for Carlos,

more so for Charles Lecler, of course,

but the thing is the pain goes down

when I don't think it's gonna happen, you know?

And I did not believe going into Q3

that Charles Lecler was gonna get pole.

And even on that lap he was doing,

he was not in the position.

No, it didn't feel like it was on.

Yeah, it did feel like it was on at that point.

If he had been on for pole,

you'd have looked at this situation,

because of course we all know that it's Ferrari,

you know, they wanna get that win this year,

but it's incredibly difficult.

But had they been at the front

when you've got like a Williams and a Racing Bulls

and the Mercedes, that is their golden kind of opportunity.

But instead, yeah, Lecler, straight in the wall,

you got your flop point potentially,

but at what cost?

Do we need the straight in the wall?

Like the straight was a bit emotional,

bit of heat behind that, straight in the wall.

It was actually a very slow-

Yeah, true.

Rather pathetic incident in the sense of

not from Charles Lecler and he's not pathetic,

he's a gorgeous, sexy man.

But in terms of like the actual speed of the crash,

it was almost like I could just pick the car up

and just make that not happen.

And so many, as we mentioned, you know,

in the Q2 bit that it was just kind of constant.

There was a few mistakes here and there

and they're just creeping in and then, yeah,

in the wall when it mattered into Q3,

meaning he'll start only, yeah,

couple of places ahead of his teammate after all that,

which is a mad thing to think about.

Exactly.

I'm glad we had to reflect on that,

but P10, 10th to 1st tomorrow,

not the most crazy thing,

especially if we get 100 safety cars.

My two or more safety car prediction

is looking very juicy for tomorrow.

Sign me up.

Maybe at least one of them.

Yeah, I hope we're not having a generational stinker

of a race after this qualifying.

Yeah, yeah, maybe they got it all out their system today.

Hopefully not.

We want to see some fun stuff going on.

Okay, question from Polsky Polak underscore two.

Did Ferrari fire the wrong driver?

That's very clear.

Yeah, thanks for including that question, Tommy.

That was not a choice for me.

Carlos up in PT.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks.

Carlos doing a great job.

Don't get me wrong.

Finally getting a bit of luck.

Yeah, Carlos has not had luck this season at all.

He's had so much go wrong for him.

But no, Ferrari did not fire the wrong driver.

Shut it.

Next question.

P1 page, remember Bailey.

Will this complicate the rumors

and advise it going to Red Bull over Liam?

No.

No, I don't think so.

No offense to Liam Lawson.

Fantastic job in qualifying.

But unless Liam Lawson is bagging these results,

loads till the end of the season,

which I'd be amazed at.

You know, his form now has started to improve a lot

since when he went back into that racing balls

and we kind of said,

oh, he's not had that immediate kind of boost

of confidence that we expected.

And then he's had some really, you know,

strong performances kind of later into this season.

And this, of course, being the highlight of the season so far.

I don't think it complicates rumors.

I do think that Hadjar is locked in there.

He's had a fantastic season.

You know, it would be huge recency bias

to say that Lawson deserves to go back into that seat.

Hadjar has been fantastic this year,

but not taking anything away from Lawson.

A brilliant job.

As you said, the fact that it wasn't even like

he'd done his lap and it rained,

you know, the two racing balls went out again

and it was Lawson was the one that delivered

and managed to get it into P3.

So absolutely amazing qualifying from him.

It was.

I genuinely think that Lawson could,

unless he wins like half of the rest of the races,

it is Hadjar's every single day of the week.

It could literally end like this,

I think for the rest of the season.

The problem for Lawson is that he's already tasted

the poison chalice of that second Red Bull seat.

Red Bull have seen what he does and how he works

and things like that.

Hadjar, they don't know.

Obviously they know how he is in the racing balls,

but they have to test him out.

Like that is 100% how I believe,

especially with the fact Isaac has had a podium

shown really great potential in his rookie season.

There's nothing, unless Hadjar crashes

in every single session from here on,

I think it's locked in.

It doesn't matter if Lawson does it.

I don't think Lawson should go back to Red Bull next year.

I think it crushed him when he did go there.

It's a very tough thing to go up against Max Verstappen.

Maybe in the future, Lawson will be able to go up

against a world champion or whatever.

But right now, he just needs to bed himself

back into Formula One.

And I think racing balls is a perfect position

for him to be in.

Yeah, and I think Pierre Gasly and Alex Albin

have shown that you can move on

after being demoted now with what they've done.

It's incredibly difficult.

I think what this question asking about,

does it complicate the rumors?

I do wonder if this makes the decision

even easier for actual racing balls now

because it does seem like they're willing

to promote Limblad.

And then it's basically a toss up

between Lawson or Sonoda who they go for.

And poor Yuki Sonoda's finally got a great qualifying in,

although a second of his teammate is,

can you consider that great?

I guess with how bad it's been going for him,

yes, and up in P6 a great result.

And Lawson's there celebrating in P3.

So yeah, I think I'd be amazed if it's not Liam

still in the racing balls next year alongside

as him being like that test bed for Limblad.

It's insane though that we're saying Yuki Sonoda P6

insane result a second off your teammate

when Sonoda has been a few tenths off Max at times

and gone out in Q1 and Max has then gone on

after that to maybe get on pole position

or somewhere near the front.

I don't know if we can call that performance from Yuki

good in relation to his teammate.

No, it's a good result.

It's not a good performance.

It's a good result, exactly.

He's starting in a great position and he has to.

He has to finish in the points tomorrow

if he wants to have any shout

of getting back into that racing ball seat,

which I think he is completely up against it for that.

He's in the wrong position to be able to prove what he can do.

Like the equipment he doesn't like,

but that's the only equipment he's able to use

until the end of the season.

So yeah, I hope for Yuki's sake

he gets a good points hole tomorrow.

Question from Aweber underscore 16.

Who has a better chance of holding off the mercs

and McLaren's for a podium?

Carlos or Liam?

Carlos, I think.

I think Carlos has, he's got the car that I would.

It's hard to say that Williams

looks like the best of the rest car

for most of the weekend.

Racing balls we know is a very stable.

Can get great results with their rookie drivers

as we've seen.

I think they're gonna be comparable

in terms of pace tomorrow, signs and loss.

And there's not much between the midfield,

but I would say signs will literally fight tooth and nail

to keep every single one behind.

And I hope for his sake and I hope for the racer's sake

he just chucks one to the inside of Max and to turn one.

Just sign me up for a bit of drama.

Come on.

It's gonna be interesting, isn't it?

Because you've essentially,

normally in this situations

where you have a crazy midfield performance,

it's one of them and you expect them

to tumble down the order.

But the fact there's both of them in there,

I think is what makes it quite interesting

because say, I think Lawson has a great shout

to also get, you mentioned about color science

getting Max.

I know it's kind of a bit tongue in cheek and joking,

but Lawson on the clean side of the grid

will be kind of hoping that he can get science at the start.

And then if one of them gets ahead of the other

and manages to stretch their legs

and one of them is holding up the other,

that is the potential where they can get a great result there.

I'd be amazed if either of them are on the podium,

but I don't think a P5 or something

is completely out of the question,

particularly because, particularly with the Williams,

we've seen Alex Albin put in some great performances.

So if Carlos can get a good race together, who knows?

And it's so difficult to overtake,

but unfortunately it's back here

and if there's a headwind again,

DRS is going to be my word, very powerful.

Yeah, headwind will be powerful,

tailwind will be the races over,

just turn it off and we'll see you on the podcast later.

Yeah, if I was going to put money on it,

it would be Max and the two McLarens on the podium.

I genuinely think that we see

a Norris and Piastri fight back to do something

different with the strategy,

perhaps benefit a little bit with a well-timed safety car

and things like that.

They're going to do everything they can

to try and use their car.

I wouldn't be against a Russell as well,

maybe I don't know the pace, but Antonelli,

I mean, what a bizarre session he's had,

from literally...

He had a potential red flag infringement,

which was no further action

and we're still waiting on the yellow flag one,

which is going to be huge for his race.

The onboard looked like it was a slam dunk.

Yeah, we literally went from thinking

that Kimi Antonelli might well be fired during the session

and but us being put in because of Toto getting quite,

seemingly quite annoyed of like, just get a lap in,

to being ahead of Russell and him forth.

Good surprise locked in, my guy.

Give me that point now.

We'll see, we'll see.

Now, I can't believe we've gone this far

into the podcast and not spoken

about the championship leader crashing and qualifying.

That just shows the ridiculousness

of that qualifying session that we've just seen.

Oscar Piastri crashing, making a very rare mistake.

And it was, I was going to say it was massive.

It could have been massive, but he starts ninth,

as far as we're aware.

Of course, with these crashes,

you have to take into account

that there could be some gearbox issues

or things that change on the internals

that may put them in the pit lane

or at the back of the grid.

But for now, Piastri, only two positions

behind his teammate on the grid.

He starts ninth, as of right now.

Lando qualified seventh.

Firstly, let's speak about the Oscar crash.

Just completely misjudged it, didn't he?

He went into the wall pretty hard.

Perhaps feeling a bit of pressure.

Maybe it's just the craziness

of the qualifying session.

Very difficult to maintain composure,

especially when the track conditions

are changing so much.

The headwind, the tailwind.

That's why we saw so many mistakes today.

I saw some funny comments of like,

these are supposed to be the best in the world.

Why are they crashing so much?

But I think that just shows the madness

of what the conditions were.

You could see the flags in the grandstands.

Massive wind speed.

So for Piastri, it was a big mistake.

It could have, we could have been speaking

about this so much more,

but the reason it's only here

is because he's two positions behind Lando.

Yeah, had Lando got pole position

and Piastri starting the way down in ninth,

this would have been absolutely huge

for the championship.

And it still could be a moment,

but I think Piastri,

the fact that he's managed to get that,

he's had a big moment

and it is proper damage limitation

because of what Lando managed to do.

Piastri this weekend has had so many close calls

with the walls and practice sessions.

He's not really looked kind of his usual self

and then yeah, to crash in whether that's,

whether it's just a case of like,

he's not jubbed with the circuit

but Claren don't look as dominant as they normally are.

Or if it's maybe the pressure of the fact

that it is getting so close now to the end of the season

and that championship is almost within touching distance.

We don't know.

For his sake, it's kind of,

well, you couldn't have almost hoped for anything better

really when he went in the wall

for what Lando's qualified.

Absolutely.

I mean, we still have eight races to go.

So it's not touching distance just yet, bro.

We got a lot of points.

No, I meant more like the McLarens.

It's like the finish line is within like close distance.

Finish line, says a finish line in Formula One as well.

I see what you're doing.

Question from P1 Patriot member, Mercedes on top.

Do you think Lando didn't take full advantage of Oscar's crash?

Surely, with your championship rival crashing,

you'd hope you're at least top five to take advantage.

Yeah, I see two sides to this,

that I think it's unfair for social media

to jump on the fact that Lando's a bottler

when his teammate is the one that's crashed out the session.

You know, but I do also agree

that this is an opportunity

that he absolutely should have taken.

And I do think there's many reasons why that wasn't.

You got a question, I think Lando himself said this of like,

he questioned his track position, made that mistake,

which he believed it lost him very little time.

I think that lost him a lot of time personally

going into that final corner.

It's the smallest margin that would have put him like P5.

He had to be more than a couple of spots.

Even if he wasn't going to beat Max,

P2, front row, taking that opportunity.

And yeah, it's unfair to be completely like,

oh my God, he's absolutely washed, he's terrible,

because his teammate is on the podium in the wall,

but also at the same time,

these are the moments in a world championship

that you have to capitalise on.

You absolutely have to.

So it's a huge missed opportunity for Lando.

Yeah, two things can coexist here.

One is that Lando was not the worst driver out there today.

There were big profile drivers that made bigger errors

and were out of the session.

But on the flip side of that, yeah, I agree,

that Lando, you know, I watched the head-to-head with Max.

It wasn't just the mistake in turn 15

that cost him all of his lap time.

He was maybe around half a second behind Max

going to that corner.

It was just the confidence.

And I was listening to what Lando had to say after qualifying

and yeah, question the decision.

But you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

You either go out first, which worked out really well

for Kevin Magnussen, for example.

And in Brazil, he got pole position,

then the conditions got worse.

But for Lando, and I think in this situation,

it is the hardest going first because he highlighted

that the further you are back in the queue,

the slight better track condition you'll get.

Lando, I think, also was...

Max had new tyres, I believe.

Lando had maybe one cycle through the tyres,

whatever it was.

He's slightly on the back foot for that,

but 1.1 seconds is not nowhere near where he should have been.

No, it should be a lot higher than that.

The cars that he's finished behind in that situation

and the fact that someone like Liam Lawson improved.

Yeah, and he's probably driven quite tentative.

Lando knowing his teammates in the wall,

he's probably thinking in his head,

just a safe lap is going to get me in the top five,

but it didn't, and it's kind of bitten him

maybe with the slightly lacking in the confidence

in those conditions.

But yeah, to be outqualified by Yuki Sonoda

and Liam Lawson and things like that,

it's going to make his race so much harder.

It was crazy to think that if he'd literally been bit,

he'd have been one place lower.

So surely that risk versus reward is absolutely go for it

because you might be on the front row,

but if you crash, you're only one place worse off.

Yeah, it's disappointing for him,

and you never know with this championship

and this is why we said that it's never over

even after what happened in Zandvoort.

Things are changing all the time.

Like it's certainly not over.

There'll be twists and turns again.

Look what happened even last year at things like Brazil

and stuff that we had last year.

Exactly. We genuinely thought that the championship

was about to become a lot closer

when Piastri went in the wall,

and another turn where they're now seventh and ninth is just...

I don't know.

My brain can't really comprehend what I have just witnessed,

and you're saying things aren't over, Tommy.

Max Verstappen Championship back on.

It might well be here.

Can you imagine the charge coming through?

Goodness gracious me.

I'm here for it.

I would love to see that.

Imagine.

It would be the most insane.

I can't believe.

I want to believe,

but if Piastri does a dive bomb on Lander

and they collide at turn one,

then maybe it's looking a bit more promising.

Tommy's getting his Max Cape on

and singing the Dutch national anthem.

Right, that is it.

Thank you, everybody, for tuning into this very long,

very detailed and very red flag qualifying podcast

for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

We'll be live on Twitch and YouTube.

Tomorrow for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix,

and you do not want to miss this one,

I think it might well be rather interesting.

Fingers crossed.

Hopefully.

Hopefully we haven't had all of our chaos

in one qualifying session

because that was too much,

and I don't want that many red flags tomorrow.

I'm not going to lie to you.

Just please know.

Thank you.

All right, Tommy, what are your final thoughts?

Final thoughts are...

I need to go have a lie down.

What a day.

And it's 4.23 in the afternoon.

Yeah, I absolutely love it.

All right, thank you, everybody.

We'll see you very soon.

See you tomorrow.

Let's love. Take it. Bye.

Bye.

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