Reaction to Bahrain GP (in Malaysia) qualifying

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1:23With A-List narrators, music and sound design that really brings the stories to life, it feels much more immersive. The best bit is you can listen wherever you are, whether you're driving, commuting out for a run or just getting through the washing up. It's an easy way to fit another great story into your day. So if you're looking for your next sports story, you'll find it unordable. Ordable stories that speak to you. New members can start listening with a 30-day free trial at audible.com slash p1. Hello everybody and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Oh look at that smug little face waving away. A bit of happiness for Tom Belling him in the 2026 Formula One season. It makes me feel sick. He has predictions wrapped up. He's getting max poles. This is not the season.

2:26Better as teammate, let's back to normal, isn't it? Okay. All right. I'll release the few sharp stands out there, the throwing shade at you right now. But welcome back everybody. Great to have Malaysia back as we said in practice, as we said in qualifying. I'm sorry if we're butchering the way we say, Sapan, it's just the way in which Sapan, I'm really sorry. Okay, but you have to deal with it. We're going to go with Malaysia so that it doesn't affect too many people in the way that we pronounce. But yet qualifying done and dusted an interesting, surprising result in some ways. Maybe not surprising after what we saw in practice, but surprising and the lead up to this weekend is maybe some form teams that we expected to do well and also teams that were bringing massive upgrades and apparently went backwards. Tommy, looking forward to this one. What do you think? Yes, very much so. What a session I think we should race at this track every week and not just because Masha's happened is absolutely dominating and just loving life.

3:30Dominating. Oh, I hope that we'll see tomorrow. Right, let's get into qualifying, shall we? And begin with Q1. With the bottom six, we're Holkemberg, Behrmann, Ocon, Albon, Bottas and Perez. Well, oh dear, Holkemberg apologizing. Albon doing exactly the same mistake as Holkemberg turned 14. Such a tricky track. I love it. I love to see mistakes. I love to see drivers having to thread the needle and make sure that it's not a standard racing line. Is it? It's make your own way round. How does the car set up for you? Does it work? And that's what practices for is to dial it in to make sure that when we get to qualifying, they don't make mistakes like this because it ruins the lap entirely. And that's what we saw for both Albon and Holkemberg on their final flying laps. We did. Yeah, turn 14. It's such a tricky corner. We've seen many people go off there, obviously famously. It's the corner where Perez, when he was chasing down the lawns,

4:34they made that mistake. But it's not surprising because it is a really challenging corner. I feel like it's getting more context there. That's just some random. In 2012, a lot of people might not have seen back in 2012. Surely we will see in the classic race. 14 years ago, my god. That makes me feel so old, doesn't it? But yeah, Perez was catching a lawnsay in a salbran in wet conditions. Perez looking for an amazing first win in a salber. Catching a lawnsay in his Ferrari, which was also a tractor that year and had this amazing battle for victory. And Perez ran wide at turn 14. Exactly the same way that, you know, obviously this was a dry session. But it catches a lot of people out that that turned 14 because of the way, you know, a lot of tracks when you get into a breaking tone, you're just breaking in a straight line. And that's exactly what you want to do when you're breaking. But you're kind of flying into that chicane and then turn 14 comes around quite quickly. And a lot of people miss, you know, can easily lock up,

5:36run wide. And that's exactly what happened to Albert and Holcombberg because, you know, we saw science get into Q2 and particularly with Audi. We saw a brilliant job from Bautilletto that got all the way into Q3 and Holcombberg's getting knocked out in Q1. So a big mistake particularly for Holcombberg because Audi had some pace. Indeed. And the formbook changing, as I sort of mentioned at the top of the episode, one of the teams being has to some degree, has to be said, has to be said, sorry, didn't mean to do that pun. But they were scoring points in back a lot of chaos. Don't get me wrong. But they were there to sort of mop up the pieces and the points that were on the table. And now double Q1 elimination once more. Olli Berman putting two and a half tenths on his teammate, Esther Banachon. But both of them out in Q1 and just looking like a handful once more. And then of course, two Cadillacs, but Valtteri Bottas low grip circuits turns into an absolute demon. It's put to three tenths on pair. Wow. It is genuinely like,

6:41if Valtteri Bottas comes alive, find an F1 like alternate universe where all they do is race low grip tracks. He would be the max for staff. Rally, why didn't you do Rally? Really? Maybe one day. Rally, really? Rally, really. As for Hass, they had a great backhoe. But this is maybe a bit more the norm of what we've seen with Hassan in more kind of recent races before that. The saving grace for the Q1 section is we've now got official confirmation that S Banachon will be leaving Hass. So we don't have to have the conversation of will Okun keep his seat after getting knocked out in Q1. Because as he's already officially confirmed now with the team, he kind of hinted at it and he last week, which kind of felt like a bit of a play of I'm not going to wait around for this team to tell me I'm gone. Please, I need to let

7:44everyone know I'm a free agent before the final seat go, which are only racing balls anyway. So it's not going to happen for Okun. Certainly not. I know that we say that we're not going to get the questions of canister Banachon, save his seat, but it will be canister Banachon. If he made it to Q3, will he? Will it? Will it? Will it? Will it have changed their mind? Will V-Cub? Sinus, do you bestie it out of nowhere? Imagine. No, I do not think that's going to happen sadly for Okun. Right, Q2. The bottom six, Lawson, Alonzo, Sines, Stroll, Colopinto and Lindblad. Now of course, we have some penalties which we mentioned in practice, which meant that some drivers could only do so much. One of them being Arvid Lindblad. I can't believe the commentary didn't realise what Lindblad was doing until it basically happened, but Arvid was trying to get his good old team mate and friend from Baku, Liam Lawson, who going around liking Slander Reals about the incident. But yeah,

8:48I went right mate, could I ever tell you now? I'll forgive you if you give me a tape. If you get me to the Q3 and he didn't, so maybe the beef is still there. But Lindblad, you know, we're joke, of course. But Lindblad, of course, trying to help Lawson on the back straight, but that was not enough for Liam Lawson, who missed out by a couple of tents in the end. But yes, Lindblad, Colopinto as well, of course, in this Q2 session after what happened in Baku and I think he's taken some new parts as well. So those two were 15th and 16th, but the big talking point. Aston Martin. Wow. The big talking point is we're talking about Aston Martin, seven minutes into this podcast and not one minute into this podcast. So true. Yeah, rather than saying 21st and 20th or going to love zone stroll. People on Patreon remember Tri-Sera tops. I love that by the way, because they've got Sera, which is clearly their name, but it's a dinosaur. Wow. Sorry, based on Aston Martin's pace today, getting into Q2, will we potentially see them fighting for points

9:50at the end of the season? Well, you're not laughing at me now. Are you for that Alonzo surprise podium by the end of the, no, I'm kidding, it's not going out. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is like Alonzo going to attract that he knows, of course, incredibly well. And I do genuinely think experience does play a factor here. You've got some drivers that have never seen the track before, but you've got others, the Alonzo's, the Verstappens, the Hamilton's that have unsurprisingly done incredibly well. It's a Verstappen Hamilton front row. You have a Longzo making Q2. You know, large 12, of course, making it to Q2 as well. I genuinely think this is a flash in the pan. Where is this? It's not like they've brought an enormous package like they did at Hungary, for example. This is for whatever reason, whether it is down to experience or just suiting the car a little bit more, perhaps not as power sensitive. It's suiting them. But I do expect this to be a rare occurrence. I'm not going to lie. A rare occurrence, but we know

10:53as a Martin Ascikian unusual car that this is, it's going to be like a circuit specific thing, because if we get to a track again that has a massive long old straight like we had in back in like we had in Monza, is P21 and 22 locked in again. I don't think they're going to be improving on that sense. But we've seen Ascikian Martin improve to a certain level, you know, in the kind of corners and things like that as the years gone on. So when it's not so reliant on, I know there is two quite long straights, but it's not as extreme as something like a Baku or a Monza. So that's why they're kind of improving. And also we're going to be having this question a lot in the podcast of like, what happened to this team? This is unusual for this team. This track is so unusual because of the tyres and the abrasive surface that I think it's just for a lot of it has really just like thrown the pecking order like completely like all over the place. As we've seen at the top as

11:56well as someone like Ascikian Martin who maybe, you know, are actually a bit better on their tyres. And when it's not a track that they're so reliant on there, they're kind of Honda power, they can do a pretty good job and also to add to that, yeah, Alonso of course, has experience around here, looked very quick in a lot of the sessions this weekend. I've got his first pole position here as well, of course. So yeah, Alonso looking very good, you know, P12 just feels like a victory for us in these days with how they've been. But I don't think it's going to be a fight for points on the regular. And is it even a fight for points anyway that this weekend, they're going to need some retirement, I think probably. A few retirements, but they've also put themselves in with a shout, but then let's not forget Colourpinto and Limblad, Limblad, they're going to get some triumph. You would have to say in qualifying because there's nothing to really race for for them in quality. So yeah, they'll have their work cut out, I think,

12:58Ascikian Martin, but take nothing away from them. It's the, as much as it's a really unique experience and it's really hot conditions, the tyres are melting, the track is really different. It's the highest power circuit that Ascikian Martin have done well at. So there are some positives to be taken here. It's not like, yeah, if the back straight didn't exist, then maybe you could argue, I should just another complete outline. But there is about a sector is big old power. So if they're playing to Ascikian Martin, they found something and let's see if they can stay there, but I do firmly believe that there will be a few drivers behind them quite a bit quicker. Let's go to P1 pitch, remember Captain Ops 3420. How depressing is it for the midfield teams and drivers that the top eight could literally sit in the pits for the final runs in Q2 and still be through comfortably? Welcome to new regulations and Formula One in general. Yes, but it has been like that for ages and James Vowels said something interesting in the two principles press conference

14:02about how he believes the budget cap is creating like a divide between certain teams where you've got the top four teams and everyone else. But I don't think I agree with him because, you know, pre-budget cap, you still had that. You know, you look at something like 2017 and the running joke was how you had Mercedes Red Bull Ferrari, kind of almost like lapping the whole field. And there was an absolute, probably even bigger gap than there is now to everyone else. So this is just Formula One how it is. Yes, it's depressing for the other teams, but maybe a hot take and you know, controversial, but Formula One should have a pecking order in some sense. You know, like Gasly's pole position would not be anywhere near as exciting if he was finishing third and fourth every week or occasionally. There needs to be that lure of the top teams. We all want Formula One to be closer. And I think it is close and this track in particular is bigger than normal.

15:08But this is just the nature of Formula One. They're going to be some some big teams. And this is just how Formula One has been for years now. There's a big four. What's the nature of sport? It's not just Formula One. There are always going to be bigger, more successful teams. And when an underdog does well, then it's a big storyline. So, yeah, I do get where James Alters is coming about the cost cap being something that should be good. If everybody gets off on the front foot and they've done well, then it should keep everyone together closely. But if a midfield team does really badly, i.e. Williams, and that's why he's probably complaining, then it is hard to catch up because they have to spend the same money. So, yeah, it comes across the deck, Carlos, science with us. I think we should do reverse grids. I think we should swap cars. Everyone should swap cars so I get to go in a good car. So, yeah, I do get it in that sense, but then you're bringing in somewhat of a balance of performance kind of vibe. If you're going to let the slower teams catch up in a bigger way,

16:10then perhaps the adduo stuff that has done marginal stuff, but not really changed. The pecking order all too much. Anything else to mention here, Carlos, science did a pretty good job. Up in 13th, compared to his teammate Alex Albon, and that is pretty much all of Q2 covered. Let's go to Q3. Adji knows. So, before we do, Q2 and Tneli. The big mistake. Tneli, big old mistake, which you know, you know, I'm Ron Burgundy, and if you don't put it in the sheet, I won't remember. But, Kami Antonelli, we did. I'm proud of both of us. Kami Antonelli, of course, making that mistake, which we thought might be crucial, especially when he went out after the first runs in Q3 and was on his own for one flying lap and wouldn't have had the best of the track conditions and so on and so forth. But yeah, the mistake itself was track limits, of course, in that double right-hander, a great corner, which I think has been reduced slightly to 2026 regulations standard, which is a shame. But he still runs wide there and was

17:14questioning actually whether or not it was track limits. I was like, bro, you're all over the curb. How do you not know that you're off track there? And I know that he's getting a little bit of a sort of reputation as an Kami Antonelli for having track limits all the time. Oh, big time. So yeah, it was a, what looked like a small mistake. Oh, yeah, track limits. But the problem is with here and the track being so abrasive, as we've mentioned, and the tyres melting and only being good for one lap is that he didn't have the luxury to just go for another lap on the same set of tyres. He had to pit and put a fresh set on. He did. And then also, obviously, that affects him going into into Q3 as well. Yeah, Antonelli is kind of getting a bit of a reputation with track limits. It seems like quite a lot of races. It seems rare. You don't see a kind of black and white flag or here, bono maybe give him the awarning of like one more track limits and you're in trouble. And then again, you know, it's just kind of put him under under pressure here. Maybe needlessly as well, because when you watch his second lap when he was doing that in Q2, he could be so cautious

18:21around that corner. They've got the comfort blanket of even though Mercedes have struggled in this session still like years ahead of the midfield, as we've kind of spoken about in the previous question. We're similar to the conversation we had in Baku, isn't it? It's exactly the same. We're like, why are you risking? Yeah, exactly. Why are you risking, why are you trying to gain so much? I know there's the battle with your teammate and he's going for the championship, and that's just how he's driving. But yeah, it was kind of unnecessary. But thankfully for him, he still kind of made it through fine. It was never in doubt, really, as long as he kept it on the track. But of course, it continues going into Q3 because it means that he only gets one opportunity and then he really did need to stay on the track. Certainly did. This episode is sponsored by ChatGPT. They now have a new way of working for bigger multi-step projects.

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22:34with a stappin Hamilton had jar and an early Leclerc, Norris, Piaštry, Russell, Gazli and Borta Leto. I saw the nod. I saw the nod. It's been a while since a Mercedes non-engine poll. Isn't it? So all the congratulations, Max for stappin for taking the first 2026 non-Massade's engine poll and what better engine than the best one to do it? The best one to do it. Yeah, I mean, it was sensational from Max. It really was. Red Bull are looking very good. You can see that from the fact that had jars put it P3. Red Bull looking very strong. But Max has put still nearly half a second on his teammate. He's looked very dominant, really, really strong. Yeah, it's amazing what Max has been able to do in this session. It really didn't look ever

23:35in doubt, which is crazy to think. We thought it was going to be a closed session. Could Max challenge the Merks? But pretty much from all the sessions he was looking very, very quick. And then, you know, after the first runs, we were kind of like, this is probably done. And that's why it didn't feel like a kind of crazy end to qualifying in terms of the battle for poll because Max kind of had it in the bag. You certainly did. Yeah. I completely agree with the non-surprise, which is mad to think. Coming into Malaysia, you think, okay, McLaren should be quite quick if we're, you know, if that's why I thought anyway. That's what you thought. And if Rory probably not that great. Oh, go Hamilton P2. Yeah. Perfect. All right. What's the point in predicting anymore? But yeah, Max was sensational. His poll lap is brilliant. I was looking at the comparison between his lap and maybe George Russell's, for example. And you could just see like the Merk and George in particular just constantly wrestling the car and trying to keep those

24:35tyres in a good window. And yeah, I think that these kind of laps are mainly, you know, obviously, Max has done a phenomenal job. But in terms of like the limitations, it's the tyres, especially with with how hot and how much they degrade over one flying lap, you can see that the minute you spike those tyre temperatures, you are in so much trouble. And I think that was for George one of his main problems today. I wonder how much that is a fact to hear as well because it's interesting that you know, we've seen a lot of very close gaps between teammates this year. You know, the talk of how these regs it's hard to make such a big difference. And that's why we've seen it very, very close. And then, you know, we've had seen a massive gap here between the staff and and had jar that's maybe is that experience showing of how to manage these tyres perhaps. Perhaps, but then the Claire's not done well. So I'm not saying it's down to driver skill. I'm saying it's, you know, anything, anything. But people on Patreon remember obsessed Roa has asked the question,

25:38is Red Bull just getting things right at the moment? Or is it just Max being Max? No, we're not going to start glazing Max for stepping on. Yeah, because apparently we do every single episode. But it is Max being Max. Of course it is. It's almost like he's a good driver. Good. Come on. He's a better superlative. You're literal lover boy. But yeah, he's phenomenal. He's done a brilliant job this weekend. His lap as we as I kind of said was almost perfect. And then that's for Red Bull. Yeah, look, they've been knocking on the door for a while. We've been saying on this podcast, Max has been getting podiums left, right and centre. He was less than two tenths off the winning back who it's coming together for Red Bull, which is so impressive. They've taken the engine in house and they're like, cool, we're just going to fight for wins now. And this is looking very good if you're a Red Bull and Max for Stapp and Fan for the future now, because they are able to be somewhat competitive over a variety of different tracks over the last seven or so races. So yeah, you have to give Lauren Mecky's credit. You have to give Red Bull credit.

26:45And you have to also say that Max is doing everything and getting the car in the right window. So it's a perfect package at the moment. And yeah, Tommy, are you excited? That's the question. Are we getting ahead of ourselves? Of course I am. I need the win. A poor position's great. Tommy, what about that prediction that you made at the start of the year where you said Max wouldn't win? That some people think I would actually be sad if he won because I lose a prediction. I'll know anyway. I'm sorry, but one, it's one point anyway. That doesn't even matter. It's not even the magic. It's not even the magic. But I wouldn't mind it anyway. That's the big title this year. The fight for family. But with Max, it is a bit of both, I think, Red Bull have definitely turned a page recently. It seems a long time ago now that we were talking about Max to step in,

27:49kind of looking like Red Bull potentially in the midfield even at the start of the year and really struggling. And even when they were that top four team, they were very much like they were fourth fastest. That's kind of where the chat about how Jarr has come in and saying, well, he's finishing these great positions, but it's kind of like six and sevenths and stuff like that where he's kind of, there's this massive gap as we mentioned earlier between the midfield. What Max is doing now is he's obviously got the car in a comfortable window. And he's also elevating that car as well. You can see that with the gap that he's put on. How Jarr even they had just done a fantastic job. But that gap a few years ago is separating between about maybe like 15 cars. This is it. Just feel the need to remind ourselves because it's so easy. I'm not going to take anything away from Hadja. He's doing what Red Bull wanted him. But when you look at the gap, that is a gap that we used to say, the Rebel number two is just not close enough

28:55to Max. He's been knocked out in Q1. That's the genuinely the conversation we were having only a matter of years ago. We're now here. Had Jarr's put it third, four turns back from Max and people are like, yeah, but it's all circumstantial, isn't it? It's the fact that that is a P3. And okay, fine, he's not closer to Max, but it doesn't matter because the result is still there. It's such a weird thing to talk about when you look at how things have changed over the years. Oh yeah, I'm just looking back at Australia last year as an example. And half a second of Max of Stappen's lap in Q1 is actually the people at the bottom that have been knocked out. Like Nika Holk and Berg knocked out in a kick-salber. So that is crazy, isn't it? How the perception has changed? It's not to take anything away from Hadja. He looked a little bit gutted, I think, with his lap anyway. I think he knew he could have got more out of it. But I think it's going to be a

29:57good one to watch with Hadja coming through the field because last time out, Hadja was very, very impressive at Bacu. And there was the worry that it might just be a bit of a flash in the pan because we've seen Bacu weirdly be that track where the second red bull driver actually has a bit of confidence in recent years. But Hadja's proved again that he can deliver a really strong result just to shame for him that it's going to have that penalty. But there's the opportunity to come through the field. It's all going to be about tires tomorrow, I think. Absolutely. Hadja will start eighth. And yeah, if his race pace is what, 10 seconds off Max at the end of the race, that's perfect. That's fine. It's when it becomes half a minute, 40 seconds. That's where the discussion opens up. There's going to be one picture. Remember Katie, will we have a monster or Silverstone 2021 repeat? All of us in Max behave. I really hope not. One because I want obviously the staff and to win. But also the fact that shout out to Lewis Hamilton,

31:01water lap out of seemingly nowhere. Ferrari have been good in that middle sector. But a front row you'd have said, you know, we'd predicted that even before the session, you'd have been like, what on earth are you talking about? Why would Hamilton be on the front row? A sensational lap from Lewis. As for the actual question in will they behave? This is going to be famous last word, so when they do collide. But I do think that they will be more sensible. It's very easy to look at 2021 and go, they've collided loads. But Hamilton knows he's in a great position. Max has matured. He still drives the way he does. He's going to do everything to win, of course. But I think Max will know that even if Hamilton gets him at the start, it's going to be a tire management race. He's got the pace to deliver. And there'll be opportunities later in the race. So I don't think it's a situation where, you know, let's be honest, 2021 was a

32:05very unique situation, whether it was all on nothing between the two of them. And it didn't matter where anyone else finished in that race, it was all about them beating each other. That is not the case tomorrow. They're just about getting the best result possible. So I don't, just because you look at that and go, the staff in Hamilton, wow, shades of 2021, I don't think we're going to see like a collision between them or they're not going to do something. Even if we do, I don't think it's going to be like a desperate, crazy lunch and they're going to do everything to be each other at turn one because it's not 2021 anymore. They're not going for the the world championship. And they know that they're both sensible and experienced enough drivers to know. There's a really strong result from them, even if they are second in to turn one. So watch them collide now. Yeah, I know that's the thing. My gut instinct is that nothing will happen and they'll be fine. But the more and more you spoke about it, I was like, hip hip max does love a little squeeze if, you know, he'll know that the opportunity is there for him. If he loses the lead to, yeah, well,

33:10do they, do they anymore? Maybe 10 races ago. But yeah, I think that it's important for the staff and I think to maintain the lead out of turn one because Antonelli is his biggest threat in my opinion tomorrow. So if the staff and loses the lead, of course, then Kimmy is right behind him. And there is more of a pressure, whereas I see that no disrespect to Hamilton. He did a phenomenal lap, as you say, that middle sector was ridiculously fast. Quarter second quicker than anybody. I wonder if maybe there's some deployment there that there's different, but maybe it was just the fact he completely hooked out. But yeah, it's, I think that Hamilton could well be a little bit of a good buffer for Max. That's how I see it. I think Max is going to have the best race pace. I think Kimmy will have marginally slower and then Hamilton will be maybe marginally slower than Kimmy. That's how I see the race. Yeah, if it's a Hamilton's overdelivered in qualifying rather than Ferrari, really quick this week. Yeah, because we've spoken about Kimmy making mistakes and Kimmy

34:12himself said that P2, P3 was probably possible if he'd had two goes in that final qualifying session. So yeah, Hamilton's overdelivered and yeah, may well play a crucial role as to whether or not it is an antennae of a staff and ding dong throughout the entirety of the Malaysian Grand Prix, which would be great to watch. Although I think Tommy would be completely utterly insufferable how much he would be. Completed. We mentioned about those two. Yeah, we mentioned about those two are what's going to happen between Max and Lewis. It's quite a long run down to term one. It's incredibly wide as well. We could see them three wide going into that corner. Wouldn't surprised me. Certainly, Kurt. Let's go to P1 picture. Remember, Piper NZ Mimic X Merck upgrades worth three tenths, more like three tenths backwards. Is this an outlier? Or are they in trouble for the rest of the year? Now, this one is interesting because we all expected, did we not? Mercedes to be light years ahead. They said as they were bringing this. Yeah, bringing this upgrade, they

35:17were hoping to be more in line with McLaren and where they were strong from previous races and all this sort of stuff. But I think this is an outlier. I'm going to firmly say it's an outlier through and the reasons that we've already mentioned in this podcast. I think it's tire-related. I think it's track-related. Adich, don't think it really suits them. It's very, very hot and we know that hot conditions don't tend to favor Mercedes when you look at previous form and previous history. I do think this is very much a rare occurrence and something we won't see moving forward for the season. It's hard to then measure what the Merck upgrade and the engine side of things is when George Russell was soaring at the wheel in his final flying lap. Of course, he was off sorts compared to his teammate anyway. But yeah, I do think that we shouldn't get too excited that there are, I say too excited. George is realistically the only person that

36:19can challenge Kimmy and he's in the same team. So it's not really championship back on, but might well open up the door, at least for this weekend for a different team to win. I'm going to coin a new phrase now that I'm going to regret saying because people are going to start saying it. But there's a lot of upgrade bait this year and that is very much a thing that seems to be happening a lot where you see an upgrade and you look at it and said this before as a video game where you press the button, you get an upgrade and suddenly you are quicker and it equals to this amount of lap time. Formula 1 is not that simple. We were having this conversation in the last race where Audi bought loads of upgrades and they weren't very strong. We were going, what's happened to the Audi upgrades? And now they've come to a track that's more suited to them and bought the letters, put it in Q3 and they've looked strong. But with this one, it's more like, it's to the engine, right? That's the main upgrade here.

37:21I think that that is less of a questionable thing. I think they have got the upgrade that they were hoping for from a power perspective or whatever they've improved, but they are just shocking in the other areas that had they not brought the upgrades. Can you imagine where they'd be? Well, yeah, exactly. This is what I'm saying. You don't look at this and go, oh, the Mercedes power unit is terrible. The upgrades haven't worked because you could get to the next race where there's not this insane track surface and they are clear of the field. I wouldn't wouldn't be surprised if they if they were. It's quite clear that the Mercedes are struggling on their tyres, particularly George Russell, who has been, you watch his on board. Am I word? He's skating around, fighting the car and it's clear that there's nothing to do with power here. This is the fact that he's struggling on the tyres and it's not where Mercedes have had the kind of luxury and a lot of races where they've been able to have had this amazing deployment,

38:24particularly at the start of the year. That's where they've gained a lot of their time. But this circuit is such an outlier and so unique. That's why we're seeing such a strange order. That's why we've got Hamilton on the front row out of nowhereway, just put in a really good lap and deliver a great performance and you can challenge Russell who was so comfortable in the last race and looked completely dominant. It's now back to being absolutely nowhere. It's not a case of just looking at the upgrades and going, this is this is there's so much more going on this weekend than just who's gotten up grade package. It's such a bizarre circuit. It really is. Craig Tilly 95 has asked the question, is Kimmy beginning to feel the weight of the pressure of being the championship leader? No, I think he just loves to try a limit warning. I really, you know, at the end of the day, he's put in his one opportunity with his one shot. I literally

39:31could not say that without thinking of that. But he has had, you know, he's essentially had one lap qualifying in that key three because of what happened in Q2 and he's delivered not a not a great lap but he's going to start P3, which is fine. But he's well ahead of his team mate. It's not the greatest lap in the world, but I think it's more that, you know, he's has delivered. So I don't think there's a worry because at the end of the day, the only championship contender is George Russell and he's seemingly fallen off a cliff here again. You know, I'm sure the George Russell conspiracy theorists will be saying that totes come back now and suddenly George is nowhere again. But you say that like you aren't one of those people because you literally text me and we're like, oh, Kimmy's now quicker. I'm trying to get the garage. It is so funny, isn't it? But George's choices are struggling massively on the tyres compared to Kimmy and

40:32yeah, even despite Kimmy's slight mistake, it's such a nothing issue really. I think what, you know, one track limit warning like boohoo. Yeah, if he had the track limit warning in that final Q3 lap and starts 10th, this question is valid. But he's delivered. Like he's made a mistake. Drivers can make mistakes. It was a small mistake. It was track limits. Yes, we know Kimmy and Tinelli loves a track limit warning, but he's bounced back and he'll start third after had jazz penalty. That is more than fine. If Russell was on pole again, this is probably a little bit more of a valid question, but George isn't. The Mercedes isn't there and I think it was a decent lap what and Tinelli put down. So it's all working in his favour because the only person that can realistically beat him is Russell and Russell hasn't delivered this weekend when George needs to win every single race. He said it himself after Bacchus. Doesn't look like this going to happen. George did say after quality that he thinks perhaps a podium is on the cards. If things work out, it's all going to be about tyres. But you think Tinelli is going to be challenging for

41:36the win, right? Yeah, potentially. It depends on the Hamilton situation, but yeah, it's going to be fascinating to watch. Yeah, can Russell make it through? Can Russell get driver of the day? That's going to be big for my prediction. He saw it. He saw that he was like, you need to start lower. That's what I need to do. Yeah, that's it. He's trying to help me out. I appreciate you, George. You get driver of the day. I get a point. Lovely. That's a good trade day. Other things to mention is the Oscar Piaštri was very close to Lando Norris. Only five thousands of a second separating assume a clarinet driver. That's a lot better from Oscar and but generally McLaren seemingly struggling, which is crazy to me. I thought this track would really suit them, but alas, it has not. Then a small shout out to Gasly and Bortoletto, both making it through Pierre Gasly, just sort of strolling through qualifying at this point. Both of them, interestingly, not taking a fresh set in that final Q3 session, not bothering,

42:37and it was basically like a scrubbed set between Gasly and Bortoletto. They just know, don't they? The fight for ninth and the payoff of saving a set of tyres versus one extra position on the grid is much more valuable. So, yeah, speaking of saving of set of tyres, it sounded like the Ferraris and someone else have saved a set of softs. That's what George said. They went for the mediums, didn't they? Yeah, after qualifying. So, I'm expecting softs to come out. At some point, perhaps the start of the race, I don't know what Ferraria cooking up here, but they might well be looking for a Hamilton soft start, whereas Max Maywell start on the mediums gives Lewis an opportunity to take the lead. I take it all back, they're colliding. They might collide. But I think there's less of a likelihood than 2021. I am scared for anyone starting on the dirty side of the grid, though. I think that that could be very bad. This track has been dormant. And, of course, Paul and everyone

43:45starting on the odd side of the grid have had, of course, is the racing line. So, there is some grip laid down, but yeah, I'm concerned for those that will be on the dirty side. Yeah, for sure. It is going to be a situation where, I love this conversation of going into the race on Sunday and not knowing what tyres they're going to use, what strategy they're going to have. Because normally, after the session, we know we've got previous data of like, and everything from practice, but this circuit is so unique. The fact that the tyres, I think Lewis Hamilton said that they're literally going to be from lights out, struggling on the tyres and immediately into tyre saving. Which is exciting. It excites me or concerns me. Exactly. It depends. It could get me the wake. It's going to be twodling around at two, three seconds like gap between each other, because they don't even want any remote sort of dirty air. As long as it makes us leave this.

44:46It could go one or the other. Oh, shut up. It could go one way or the other, but I really hope it's the way of like, just summer struggling and we get great battling. But it's going to, it's going to come at a cost, isn't it? The likes of Russell that will want to come through the field, they will have to push their tyres at some point to get close to make moves. But then that could in, you know, basically be not reaping the rewards, the reaping the consequences, later on in the Stint. So, please be good. And imagine an absolute stink of erasement, instead, we're all reminiscing about Porto Leto and Limblad's FB2 battle as the greatest moment of the weekend. All right. Okay. We're done. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. We'll be, of course, watch longing tomorrow, come and join us and the main race podcast will of course come out as well. Thank you so much, everybody. We will see you soon. Looking forward to it. Come on, Malaysia. Tommy, final thoughts. Come on, Max. That's my final thoughts. Perfect. Yeah, I almost forgot to ask you and then I wasn't going to ask you. And then that's what you said. All right. Come on, Max.

45:47And come on, Charles from people. Yeah, woo. Although, yeah. Yeah, it's over. It's never been more over. Actually, no, he'll be starting. Oh, no, I've done the way very early. I looked at FP1 classification and thought for a second that Charles was starting third. No, he's not. I was going to say, I thought it was championship back on for a second. I mean, it would be if it was FP1 results. Yeah. Okay. All right. Shut up. Okay. Let's leave it there. All right. Bye, everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. I don't just look like. Shall we clap? Champagne at the world. FP1 is a stack production and part of the ACAST created network. Some days, getting the work done isn't the problem. Staying locked in is alpha brain is on its daily new tropic formula for cognitive support designed to support memory, focus,

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