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Formula 1 Season 2026 Episode 18
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FunTranscript
00:00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:00:58CastingWords
00:01:06Well, we've had the sprint. It's time for the main event now.
00:01:10Welcome along to round two of this Formula One season in 2026.
00:01:13It's the Chinese Grand Prix, the earliest time in the year that we've been to China.
00:01:18It's a bit cold. The wind is getting up, but it is still very sunny.
00:01:22Here in Shanghai, the sun beaming down on this 3.39 mile circuit.
00:01:2816 corners, 7 to the left and 9 to the right.
00:01:32Straight line mode for your active aero in four spots around this track.
00:01:36And if you've got overtake mode in the race, you'll get it in qualifying anyway.
00:01:40The detection point is right on turn 16, the final corner.
00:01:45The three tyre compounds. The C2 is the hard. C3 is the medium. C4 is the soft.
00:01:50After a pit stop in this sprint race, who might need to go to the medium tyres in Q1?
00:01:55Who might stick with the soft?
00:01:57And who's on the back foot? Because they've not got as many new sets as they might like going into
00:02:01a very important qualifying session.
00:02:04Last eight winners of the Chinese Grand Prix have gone on to become the world champion that year, unless they
00:02:09were Australian.
00:02:10Apologies to Aussies. Danny Rick in 2018 and Oscar Piastri last year didn't make it to the championship.
00:02:16But other than that, if you win here in Shanghai, the championship could be yours.
00:02:20And Anthony Davidson, after two qualifying sessions so far this year, who can catch Mercedes?
00:02:26That's a very good question, Crofty.
00:02:28And I'm sure that everyone's been doing their research, their homework in between that sprint race that we've just had.
00:02:34A very exciting sprint race, actually.
00:02:37So, yeah, it seems it's going to boil down to the two Mercedes once again.
00:02:41As George Russell in his interview was saying, they don't even really understand why they have such an advantage over
00:02:47the competition in qualifying.
00:02:49When it comes to the race, the Ferrari's cashed them back up again, and you're only talking a couple of
00:02:53tenths per lap.
00:02:54But I've got a feeling it's going to boil back down to the two Mercedes drivers, as I suggested on
00:03:00the skypad.
00:03:01But you never know.
00:03:02It gives the teams a chance to pour through the data, make adjustments on their cars.
00:03:07As Ted was looking at the changes going on, or big changes going on down at Red Bull, for example.
00:03:12So, yeah, you would have had drivers back in the simulator at base, coming up with fresh ideas of what
00:03:17you can do to your cars.
00:03:18The fact remains, though, someone's got to catch George Russell.
00:03:21That man right there.
00:03:23Since FP3 in Australia, he has headed every single session.
00:03:27There's 21 drivers all trying to topple him, Ted Kravitz.
00:03:30But so far, Mr. Saturday has shown on Sundays and Fridays as well.
00:03:35Yes, so confusing.
00:03:36Yes, hello, Crofty.
00:03:37Hello, Anthony.
00:03:38Morning, everybody.
00:03:38So confusing.
00:03:39I have come up with a new name.
00:03:41Did you not hear my notebook earlier?
00:03:42Mr. Patience.
00:03:43Mr. Patience.
00:03:44Or Mr. Patience.
00:03:45Like a Mr. Man, isn't it?
00:03:46Because George has shown, hasn't he, that Ferrari might have their fun at the beginning of these races.
00:03:50The sprint race we've just had earlier today.
00:03:53If you didn't catch it, Ferrari got away.
00:03:54George had to be patient.
00:03:55But he got them eventually.
00:03:57He got them because he's got an all-round better package in that Mercedes.
00:04:02But Ferrari are making it hard for him early on.
00:04:05But what will happen in qualifying?
00:04:07Well, will he be on pole?
00:04:08Much hotter down here in the pit lane.
00:04:10And yes, the shorts have come out.
00:04:12But see if George will better.
00:04:13We'll dip into the 132s.
00:04:15That'll be a storyline for me later on, Crofty.
00:04:18He was a 133-0 was his sprint qualifying pole time.
00:04:22But as for getting out of this Q1 session, anyone on a mid-134 should just about do it.
00:04:29Those on their back foot?
00:04:30Well, we know the obvious.
00:04:31Cadillac, Aston Martin.
00:04:33But also there were two Williams.
00:04:34And they're ready to go at the end of the pit lane.
00:04:35As is Arvid Lindblad looking to turn around his weekend, which has been troubled so far in the racing bulls.
00:04:43Not to mention Max Verstappen, who said earlier on, if it could go wrong, it did go wrong.
00:04:47So they've changed the whole car.
00:04:49We'll see how that works out there.
00:04:50Thank you very much, Mr. Pits, Mr. Simulation, alongside me here in the commentary box.
00:04:56I'll take Mr. Grumpy.
00:04:57Not a problem.
00:04:59Now, there's a Cadillac at the end of the pit lane here that I hope has got enough steering lock
00:05:04to get out without having to be pushed back a bit.
00:05:07There is Valtteri Bottas.
00:05:09What do you reckon your chances are, Ant?
00:05:11This could cause a bit of a traffic jam.
00:05:13Is he going to make it?
00:05:14He's got to watch out for that.
00:05:15He's going to make it.
00:05:15Oh, look at that.
00:05:16Oh, well played.
00:05:17That was perfection.
00:05:17So much roof.
00:05:18Perfection.
00:05:19They might be a new team, but that was absolutely spot on.
00:05:23They had that well judged.
00:05:24Mr. Inch Perfect.
00:05:25Well done, Valtteri Bottas.
00:05:27Miss Strategist over in the race control.
00:05:30Oh, Bernie Collins, I mentioned tyres.
00:05:32Who's on the back foot after sprint racing?
00:05:35Yeah, there's a lot to look into, Crofty, really, when you think about the tyre set.
00:05:38In this Q1 session, we tend to see two runs of generally soft tyres when we get to qualifying.
00:05:45Now, those at the very front of the grade, as you've seen there in the pit lane, there was some
00:05:48cars on medium.
00:05:49Those at the very front of the grade, let's talk about McLarens and Mercedes, even the Red Bulls,
00:05:54they only have four new sets of soft tyre for this entire qualifying session.
00:06:00So when do they use them?
00:06:02They're hoping to get to Q3, so let's see if two for them.
00:06:05That only leaves one for Q1 and one for Q2.
00:06:08So it'll be interesting to see what they do.
00:06:11Do they hang it out in the garage?
00:06:12We can see the two McLarens from our commentary box still in the garage.
00:06:16Do they hang it out there and just do one run at the end of Q1?
00:06:19That's maybe a little bit too risky.
00:06:21Do they run a new medium or do they think they need that for the race?
00:06:25Or do they run a used medium or a used soft?
00:06:28My money would be a used medium is probably better than a used soft.
00:06:33So maybe we'll see a few medium runners in this Q1 session,
00:06:36those that feel confident that they can make it through and beat six cars in this Q1 session.
00:06:43Bernie, we were talking about this before we came on air and going through the strategic options.
00:06:49Ferrari, just with a naked eye, I think Charles Leclerc is on used soft.
00:06:53Lewis Hamilton is on used medium.
00:06:55So maybe the teams aren't even sure exactly which way is the best way to go.
00:06:59Yeah, there's, you know, and sometimes a driver will have a slight preference.
00:07:03Sometimes drivers don't like changing compound between medium to soft in this session.
00:07:07Sometimes it's good learning if you need to run a used soft later on.
00:07:11Or there could be slight differences on the lap they've done.
00:07:13We're not always on top of how used that medium or soft tyre is.
00:07:19So Ferrari have all that deal and they know the energy that's going into the tyre.
00:07:23So they'll choose the best for their individual driver.
00:07:25So there could be a little bit of that going on.
00:07:28I think if I was a driver in this session property in either a Ferrari or a Mercedes at least,
00:07:33I think I'd have the confidence to at least beat, with all due respect,
00:07:38the two Cadillacs and the two Aston Martins on used either soft or mediums.
00:07:44Yeah.
00:07:45Do you have enough in the tank and enough lap time in the bag to beat two maybe Williams
00:07:51or racing balls at one Williams?
00:07:54So who are going to be the next ones that you have to be?
00:07:57But I think for four of them at least, it's a given that there's quite an easy challenge.
00:08:02Aston and Cadillac, yeah.
00:08:03Exactly.
00:08:04And then afterwards it starts getting a bit more tricky.
00:08:07So that's what they're going to be weighing up right now.
00:08:10Arvin Lindblad's got a lot of tyres because he didn't do much in the race itself
00:08:16and he only had six laps in practice before sprint qualifying as well.
00:08:19And that's why mistakes like that are creeping in because it's all still very new to him.
00:08:23Correct.
00:08:24And it's his first ever trip to Shanghai as well.
00:08:27He's out on the track.
00:08:28Valtteri Bottas was the first driver out on the track for Cadillac.
00:08:31Sergio Perez hasn't come out yet.
00:08:34The engine cover came off Sergio Perez's Cadillac at the end of the sprint race.
00:08:38I'm hoping they've got enough spares down at Cadillac to replace that.
00:08:43They should have.
00:08:44Didn't his radio message say something like,
00:08:46Yes, it's the bodywork, it's the bargeboards and it's the wing.
00:08:50Basically it's all falling apart.
00:08:53But it's very early days and with such little track time in winter testing now,
00:09:00you can't go through everything.
00:09:04I'm just surprised he's not out there yet and not surprised in a good way.
00:09:09It's not looking great for Sergio Perez.
00:09:10He didn't actually get out of the track for the sprint qualifying either.
00:09:14So Max Verstappen is on the track as is Charles Leclerc.
00:09:18I think Verstappen on the back foot a little bit in terms of pace.
00:09:21Should get through into Q2.
00:09:23But then how tricky is it going to be for the full-time world champion?
00:09:27We'll see what changes have been made in terms of setup at Red Bull
00:09:31and how they can help the pace over one lap and then in the race tomorrow.
00:09:36At the moment, Charles Leclerc is about 10th and a half ahead of Max Verstappen
00:09:40through the first two sectors.
00:09:41And we've got three times on the board.
00:09:43Headed by Franco Colopinto with 1.35.9 for LB.
00:09:47Yeah, so Verstappen is one of those drivers' property
00:09:50that's got four new sets of soft tyres at his disposal,
00:09:54hence being on the medium tyres right now.
00:09:58Because he needs to try and leave two new sets of soft if he gets to Q3.
00:10:03Exactly, that's what they're fighting for at Red Bull.
00:10:06Will they have enough lap time to see them through
00:10:10to optimise those four sets of tyres
00:10:13or will they have to use two sets in Q2?
00:10:16Charles Leclerc goes slightly ahead, behind Max Verstappen.
00:10:20That bodes well for Red Bull and for Verstappen on their first runs
00:10:24and Lewis Hamilton, only fifth fastest on the medium tyre.
00:10:27Now, he's got plenty of time to get back in, put a set of softs on,
00:10:31but is that an indication that the medium might not be the one to be on?
00:10:35Because, well, Isaac Hadjar is ahead of Lewis Hamilton,
00:10:38but then there's a lot of soft tyre runners, including Pierre Gasly,
00:10:40who's gone second fastest that are ahead too.
00:10:43On the back straight now with Oscar Piastri,
00:10:45as Oli Behrman goes into sixth place.
00:10:50He gets to top speed, then the super clipping kicks in
00:10:53and then on the brakes, round about 100 metre board.
00:10:56And the super clipping's always worse in qualifying, by the way,
00:10:59because you have that extra half megajoule to use.
00:11:03So it goes from 8.5 to 9 megajoules per lap, so hence you have to find that extra power
00:11:08from somewhere,
00:11:09the extra recovery from somewhere.
00:11:10So he goes top of the timesheets for now.
00:11:12He did have the fastest middle sector as well until that was stolen away by Hülkenberg.
00:11:18He still hangs on to it on what is the anniversary of his Formula One debut.
00:11:23He goes second fastest, tenth of the bit behind Oscar Piastri.
00:11:26Sixteen years ago today,
00:11:28Nico Hülkenberg made his debut in Formula One at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
00:11:33Gabriel Bortoleto made his debut in Australia last year and crosses the line to complete the flying lap now.
00:11:39Goes third fastest.
00:11:40So two Audis ahead of one McLaren, and Oscar Piastri topped by a tenth and a bit.
00:11:47Now, what happened to Lewis Hamilton on his lap on the medium tyres?
00:11:51He turn eight, he goes into nine.
00:11:54Whoa, that was almost a full spin there.
00:11:56But, yeah, the line that he took through eight was fine and then just lost the rear end midway to
00:12:02the exit of that corner.
00:12:03I think the wind has steadily increased through the day, but track temp has as well.
00:12:08Now, thirty one point eight degrees, it's around fifteen to twenty degrees more.
00:12:14Sergio Perez is on the track.
00:12:16Excellent.
00:12:17We have a full complement of twenty two taking part in this qualifying session.
00:12:21I'm no expert.
00:12:21I dare say Lewis Hamilton might have lost a bit of time in that moment there.
00:12:25And that might explain his lap time of a 1.35.8.
00:12:29Yeah, usually you lose a bit of time when you almost spin the car around.
00:12:32But, yeah, you know what?
00:12:33I love watching these cars, though, in particularly slow speed corners,
00:12:36because they do move around a bit more.
00:12:39And they're not the stiffly sprung, super low to the ground cars that we saw from last year.
00:12:45It feels good.
00:12:46The car just had some snaps, 60 on the braking.
00:12:51So it's funny because if you had a moment like that last year,
00:12:54he would have been spitting teeth about how the car fell to drive.
00:12:57But he still enjoys driving the car, which I think, you know, we're seeing his improvement in performance as well
00:13:04throughout qualifying and the races.
00:13:07His local hero Joe Granue watches on.
00:13:09I'm sure he'd be relishing the opportunity to get back out there in an F1 car.
00:13:14But he maybe have to be take the title of George Russell for Mr. Patience.
00:13:19Yeah, Mr. Super Patience, I think.
00:13:22Talking of George Russell and Mercedes, here's his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, starting his first flying lap.
00:13:29Yeah, so down into Turn 1 we go.
00:13:31Looks like he might be on a set of used soft tyres.
00:13:35And tries to find that apex somewhere around Turn 2.
00:13:38It comes so late around there and decent line through Turn 3.
00:13:42Not quite kissing the apex, but it's a corner where you don't really need to do that as long as
00:13:46you can get the throttle early enough mid to exit.
00:13:49Now the run down hill in towards Turn 6 and runs a bit wide there as well.
00:13:54Now that one is going to cost you lap time.
00:13:56So it's just on the brink of locking up for Antonelli there.
00:14:00And despite not a perfect lap anywhere near it, he steals that faster sector.
00:14:05But look at that. Russell takes it away in a big way in sector one.
00:14:11Yeah, there's only a few hundreds between the two Mercedes.
00:14:14Russell's gap to anything previously done was quite large.
00:14:19That's why we see the 1.7 seconds then advantage for Kimi Antonelli.
00:14:2328-0 for the middle sector.
00:14:26So a couple of tenths up on the best that we've seen so far.
00:14:29We carry on on our way.
00:14:30Couldn't quite commit to going full throttle early enough through Turn 12.
00:14:34We just heard him hovering on the throttle there.
00:14:37And we see the mini sectors in the middle of his halo.
00:14:40So you're looking for the purple.
00:14:41Obviously, that's the fastest.
00:14:42And then the total sector itself as Toto watches on with the team around.
00:14:47And on the exit for Kimi, Turn 14 looks pretty good.
00:14:51Good traction in that car.
00:14:53The final corner.
00:14:54That's where he lost time yesterday to Russell in Q3.
00:14:57And a nice tidy lap there, I believe, on older tyres.
00:15:00And six and a half tenths up on Piastri.
00:15:03Yeah, so putting nearly seven tenths ahead of the McLaren.
00:15:07Now, he was about a tenth up on George Russell through the first two sectors yesterday in spring qualifying.
00:15:12George Russell was a lot stronger in the final sector.
00:15:15And history's repeated itself right there as he goes 400s clear of Kimi Antonelli.
00:15:20We can ride on board with Fernando Alonso.
00:15:23That looks like it's vibrating a little bit still.
00:15:25And Aston Martin.
00:15:26Yeah, he looks up nicely at the apex, but no rear end.
00:15:30It was such a difference between the car we were just riding on board with, with a Mercedes, for example.
00:15:35And he's doing all he can to keep the car on the track through that final corner.
00:15:40Pops it into P17 35-4 on the board for Fernando Alonso.
00:15:45Two-time winner here in Shanghai, two-time pole-sitter as well.
00:15:49And that's a far cry from the days when he was right at the sharp end competing for Renault or
00:15:55maybe even for Ferrari.
00:15:57Here's Lewis Hamilton with a couple of cool-down laps and then a trip into the pits to change onto
00:16:02the soft tyres has decided,
00:16:04right, forget the medium experiment, we need some soft.
00:16:07But it could be an old soft as well at this 150, so he has that luxury at least.
00:16:13Again, you know, this early on in a new set of regulations and with a brand new team on the
00:16:18grid,
00:16:18you are in that advantageous position to at least try things like this and still make it through Q1.
00:16:25New soft for Lewis Hamilton.
00:16:27So says Bernie Collins who's watching these things from race control.
00:16:31So he needs to make the most of it as Alex Albon moves out of bottom five but only to
00:16:36P16.
00:16:37And I dare say in a couple of seconds time he's going to be back down into that bottom six
00:16:41again.
00:16:41Hamilton crosses the line, goes third fastest.
00:16:44So two and a half tenths behind George Russell and a time of a 1.33.5.
00:16:50We're on board now with the defending champion, Lando Norris.
00:16:54We've got a battery, we've got the deployment, we've got the recharge.
00:16:57We can see the full chocolate box here, Anne.
00:17:00Anne's got the overtake mode as well as I was referring to earlier on.
00:17:03So not that you're overtaking any cars.
00:17:05It's the same way that we've used DRS last year, for example.
00:17:08So just to have ultimate speed in these cars.
00:17:11But with it comes a bit more clipping, a bit more super clipping.
00:17:14Oh no, Lidenblad has an issue and once again, not going to make it through, well, a session cleanly.
00:17:23That's really disappointing.
00:17:25We're going to hear it again here.
00:17:26Just explain the concept of super clipping for me.
00:17:29It's just basically a way to harvest energy back into the battery.
00:17:33And you can see the battery graphic on your screen there.
00:17:35So anytime you're off throttle, it recharges at the full 350 kilowatts.
00:17:40And a super clip kicks in at the end of the straight.
00:17:42Once you've built up the speed, you can see the speed at the top there.
00:17:45So once you build up the speed to it, the maximum you're going to go.
00:17:48On this case, it's 327, comes that.
00:17:50Then it starts to degrade and we would call it de-rating in the past.
00:17:56It's just basically like engaging a dynamo on the wheel.
00:17:59You're just hopping up that battery.
00:18:01Exactly.
00:18:01And it's the best place to do it.
00:18:02It's the end of the straight and you just refill the battery.
00:18:06For the next time, you want to put your foot down like here towards the line.
00:18:09And you finish a qualifying lap with absolutely nothing left in the battery.
00:18:13But Philando Norris nearly three tenths off the pace of George Russell so far.
00:18:18Charles Leclerc next across the line goes Quingist with a 1.33-1 on his second flying lap in this
00:18:24session.
00:18:25I dare say that will be enough to get him through into Q2.
00:18:29Oscar Piastri hasn't put a personal best in in the middle part of this lap.
00:18:34He did for the first part of this lap.
00:18:36Piastri a little bit off the pace in qualifying for the sprint race.
00:18:43An old pole sitter for the Grand Prix last year and down in P6.
00:18:46Now that's okay at the moment, but he's going to have to find a few extra tenths as we get
00:18:50towards the sharp end of this qualifying session.
00:18:53Sergio Perez with the slowest time. Lance Strong 21st and Valtteri Bottas for Cadillac ahead of him.
00:19:00And Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin ahead of him.
00:19:02And then the two Williams who were both knocked out in sprint qualifying.
00:19:06Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
00:19:07Sainz has not gone beyond the first part of qualifying in any of the two sessions that we've had so
00:19:12far.
00:19:13Esteban Ocon next for Haas.
00:19:15So 1.34.7 is the projected time to get yourself through.
00:19:20And that's a 1.34.0.
00:19:21So that should be absolutely fine for Esteban Ocon.
00:19:25And Oli Behrman, his teammate, now goes seventh fastest with Pierre Gasly for Haas sandwiched in between.
00:19:32Pierre Gasly for Alpine sandwiched in between.
00:19:36So we really should be looking at the elimination zone at this time.
00:19:40Of course, the drivers at the top, they're going to sail through.
00:19:44But the two Williams now, they must sniff an opportunity for one of them to beat Arvid Lindblad.
00:19:50If he doesn't make it back out again.
00:19:51But Lindblad has, he's on an out lap.
00:19:54So they've fixed that problem, whatever it was, and sent the car back out there.
00:19:58So Williams, that's their challenge right now.
00:20:01To see if they can at least get one of those cars and get them out of that elimination zone.
00:20:07So, who's on the cusp here?
00:20:09Max Verstappen, Arvid Lindblad, who's had to box with an issue.
00:20:13Isaac Hadjar on the cusp too.
00:20:16Franco Colopinto, Gabriel Bortoletto.
00:20:18It's very, very tight.
00:20:19Good to see Arvid Lindblad back out there again.
00:20:23A young British driver, five Brits on the grid amongst the 15 nationalities in Formula One in 2026.
00:20:32And we've got a finished driver as well, which is good.
00:20:36Last year was the first time since, I think, JJ Leto that we haven't had a full-time finished driver
00:20:41on the Formula One grid.
00:20:42Yeah, it's not really starts where you finish and we want a finished driver on there.
00:20:46So, Arvid Lindblad, mega impressed with the job he did in Australia.
00:20:52First time out as a rookie, scoring points.
00:20:55He looked solid all weekend, usually had the upper hand on his slightly more experienced teammate of Lawson.
00:21:02He put together a stunning weekend there in Australia.
00:21:06So, you know, it's a shame things haven't gone his way so far this weekend in Shanghai.
00:21:11But, you know, I think he's pretty resilient.
00:21:14And now he's just got to get his head down and get the lap time on the board that he
00:21:17knows he and the car can do in this session.
00:21:20Previous pole-sitter in 2024, Max Verstappen, starts his latest flying lap.
00:21:24We'll go to Bernie Collins whilst we watch him.
00:21:27Yes, Croft, we're just going to say he's been forced to go on a new set of soft tyres, not
00:21:31safe in that P15 position.
00:21:34Because those from sort of P16 rearwards have done actually three runs, thrown three sets of soft tyres at it.
00:21:42And that's what's forcing Hajar and Verstappen into a final run on the new soft that they were hoping to
00:21:48get away without.
00:21:49It's a red ball driver with just the one real lap here to try and make sure he's safe in
00:21:54Q2.
00:21:55It reminds me of 2009 when Sebastian Vettel had exactly the same challenge in all three parts of qualifying.
00:22:01And did take their first pole and then went on to take their first win.
00:22:05But that was a very different car to the one that Max Verstappen seems to be struggling with now.
00:22:09Doesn't look good to drive, Croft here, we really don't hear.
00:22:12A bit of rear locking into turn six.
00:22:14He wasn't comfortable with the over-rotation, as we call it.
00:22:17But the car pivots too much in the corner.
00:22:19Let's see what it's like in turn 11.
00:22:21Okay there, but he's really having to be careful, take his time.
00:22:26And look here, getting on power, the rear all over the place.
00:22:29And in the high speed as well of turn seven and turn eight.
00:22:33I don't know if the changes they've made to that car have made things worse or how the car has
00:22:37always been.
00:22:38But it's a huge difference to the luxury that the Mercedes and the Ferraris have out there in terms of
00:22:45their car balance and grip.
00:22:47What will help Max Verstappen in the short term is that those behind him, whilst putting in personal best sectors,
00:22:53are not coming up with the times that Max Verstappen is.
00:22:56Hadjar goes seventh fastest, Verstappen goes fourth fastest and set the fastest final sector.
00:23:01How does that driver wring the car's neck like that and get performance out of it?
00:23:07It didn't look like that car should be worthy of being up in P4, with all due respect to the
00:23:12team.
00:23:13Carlos Sainz makes it out of the bottom six.
00:23:15Checkered flag now flying, so no one's going to start a new lap and continue onwards.
00:23:21Arvid Limblad is down in that bottom six, had a great dream start, didn't he, with eighth place in Melbourne.
00:23:29He's up to 11th there, that's another fine lap there from Arvid Limblad.
00:23:33Next across the line, Lance Stroll stays down in the bottom six.
00:23:37Second from bottom from him in the Aston Martin, whilst Fernando Alonso is a couple of places ahead.
00:23:43So Aston Martin once again both out in Q1.
00:23:46And Franco Colopinto, who got into Q2 in Melbourne, I think has done it very much here as well.
00:23:51Bortoleto goes seventh fastest, good lap from him.
00:23:55And next we watch for Carlos Sainz, who is down on his lap.
00:23:59And looking now for Valtteri Bottas, who is on a personal best lap, but his centre times are not great.
00:24:06I mean, look, Max Verstappen wrung the neck out of that car,
00:24:09but he's had to sacrifice a set of new soft tyres to get himself out of Q1.
00:24:14And that's a far cry from recent years as Valtteri Bottas crosses the line.
00:24:18Cadillac here have out-qualified one of the Aston Martins.
00:24:22And that for them will be a very significant qualifying session.
00:24:26Alex Albon crosses the line, he too is out, leaving Carlos Sainz out on a lap at the moment.
00:24:32And he's not in any great shakes in terms of his sector times.
00:24:37So once again, we're going to get two Williams out in the first part of qualifying.
00:24:41And that is Alex Albon parking his Williams.
00:24:48Now, he's not had much to say positive about the car so far.
00:24:52We know it's overweight, it has handling issues as well.
00:24:56And it's a real disappointing start to the season.
00:24:58For the team at Grove, Gabriel Bortoleto, seventh fastest time for him.
00:25:03It was Charles Leclerc who was the quickest in that session.
00:25:07But the bottom six were Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll.
00:25:11Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso.
00:25:14And Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz out in Q1.
00:25:19Carlos Sainz at both Grand Prix so far this season.
00:25:26The third film, you're so beautiful, here she is.
00:25:40I saw you, there bowling family,
00:25:53where he left actually in the cone,
00:25:54Oh, my God.
00:26:46Oh, my God.
00:26:49It was a good lap, Karl. I saw the car, isn't it? Let's come back and have a look at
00:26:53what we can do for tomorrow.
00:27:53isn't it let's come back and have a look what we can do for tomorrow thank you
00:28:00that's the debrief down at Williams Carlos Sainz was about four tenths faster than Alex Albon so
00:28:06Williams not through Alpine with both cars safely through into Q2 Steve Nielsen's their managing
00:28:11director and can talk us through those first 18 minutes can we start by talking about Franco
00:28:16Colopinto Steve like a London bus he waits a while to get out of Q1 and then he does it
00:28:21twice in two
00:28:23weekends yeah good job from Franco he's obviously used three sets to get there which uh some others
00:28:29haven't but but yeah as you say Crofty nice to be in Q2 and now the real work starts it
00:28:34certainly does
00:28:34puts him on the back foot what of Pierre Gasly was only two sets that he used yeah two sets
00:28:39for Pierre
00:28:39first set was scrubbed so I think we've got a bit of pace in hand with Pierre but it's very
00:28:44clear that
00:28:45our main competitors Haas Red Bull are getting their act together with deployment so it's going to be
00:28:50very tight for us and what about conditions out there Steve it looks a tad windy the gusts catching
00:28:56the drivers out a bit I haven't heard any of them complain about that um yet still two sessions but
00:29:02so far not a problem for us no there's about 30 years worth of experience in that answer Steve with
00:29:06the word yet you know how this goes this is going to be really tight to get into Q3 I
00:29:11think isn't it
00:29:12yeah it will be tight to be honest uh there's some pretty competitive uh people around us and uh
00:29:17Pierre's on the cusp hopefully we'll get in but it uh yes very close but it's nice isn't it after
00:29:22last year at least you're in it to win it yeah it's nice to be racing again which uh most
00:29:26of last year
00:29:27we weren't but we're definitely doing that now so uh that's great brilliant Steve thanks ever so much
00:29:31hopefully we'll talk to you after uh after Q2 as well thank you take care mate what were you
00:29:38pointing out there mr david i was just looking at the uh the track dominance from one car to the
00:29:43other and uh it was charlotte claire versus george russell and hopefully that fight will continue on
00:29:49through the next two sessions yes charlotte claire heading george russell in that session first time
00:29:55george russell has been headed in any session bernie collins since fp2 in australia yeah i don't
00:30:02think he's going to worry too much about that crafty because we're a long way from done yet and george
00:30:07russell only used the one single set of soft tires so just a quick update on tires that are remaining
00:30:13crafty the majority in this final 16 have three sets of soft at this stage three drivers have four
00:30:20sets of soft or four drivers so i have four sets of jobs that's limblad the two houses and hulkenberg
00:30:25and then only one driver and you've just spoken to the team colopinto only has two sets of soft for
00:30:31this session so we'll see significant running but a bit of a mix of tires available first time since
00:30:37canada and austria last summer that franco colopinto has got back-to-back q2 appearances and for
00:30:42estaban or con can it be a first can he reach q3 or sq3 even if you want to put
00:30:47that in the mix
00:30:48here in shanghai has never done that before and ollie behrman his teammate only been out qualified
00:30:53by ocon twice in the last 10 grand prix qualifying sessions lots to play for here ted kravitz down in
00:31:01the pit lane interesting you uh you point out the battle between the two hass drivers because
00:31:05ollie behrman's really pulling away from his more experienced teammate esteban ocon consistently two to
00:31:11three tenths of a second per lap quicker than him was in the sprint as well a couple of places
00:31:15ahead of
00:31:16him is so far today so now's the time for ocon to really find some pace to see if he
00:31:21can challenge
00:31:22behrman who seems to be just having the legs on him early season good recovery or should i say
00:31:27well scraped out of q1 and into q2 by liam lawson having such a positive day so far but there
00:31:34was
00:31:35only a couple of tenths in it didn't go for a third run and burnt up some new soft tires
00:31:39but was
00:31:40uh was quite fortunate actually looks like the racing bulls has lost a bit of pace in between
00:31:44the sprint and the qualifying yeah that is his teammate arvid limblad with the 133.9 lawson with
00:31:50the 134.1 but uh i think they do their predictions they do their simulations of the team they realized
00:31:57that williams were not going to be a threat saving tires sometimes a very important thing to do right
00:32:03kimmy antonelli in the pacey mercedes out there on a flying lap pretty early in this session just seeing the
00:32:09note at the top of the screen there bortolaccio hajar turn 15 impeding we'll uh hopefully have a
00:32:14replay uh oh no further investigation on that one but i did didn't quite catch that at the time
00:32:19so we pick up antonelli on the exit of turn four up the hill and over the crest down towards
00:32:24turn six
00:32:25straight line braking try and meet that apex this time around it looks like he does from the heli shot
00:32:30harder to see just tries to sneak a tiny bit of a toe the car in front of him just
00:32:35before heading
00:32:36through turn seven that was ollie bearman in the house george russell meanwhile behind him picks up
00:32:41the fastest first sector the two mclarens by the way crofty on used tires at this stage so don't
00:32:46expect anything great from them on this lap coming up now down towards turn 11 now car awkwardly in
00:32:53the way there before flicking back to the braking zone that was ocon in the other house and uh that
00:32:58sequence where you turn left and right it's important not to overstep the left and get a bit of
00:33:03late oversteer because you have to get the car back into the right hand side as uh
00:33:07kimmy antonelli's well one of his teammates fred vesti on the right hand side of your screen watches
00:33:12on he's uh one of the reserve drivers for mercedes of course for this year now down towards that
00:33:17large well not the last heavy braking zone on the lap into 14 pick up the throttle without losing the
00:33:23rear end too much on the exit that's when you see the car just squirming around ever so slightly
00:33:28and feed the car in try and carry as much minimum speed as you can through that final corner of
00:33:3416.
00:33:34so it's a 1 32 9 he's about three and a half tenths up on his best time from q1
00:33:40george russell's been
00:33:41faster throughout this lap and goes quicker by about half a second so once again anything kimmy antonelli
00:33:47can do in the other mercedes george russell seems to have quite the margin on his teammates well that
00:33:53continue on into q3 i wonder hamilton with the fastest middle sector leclerc goes second fastest
00:33:59ahead of kimmy antonelli by about five one hundredths of a second but can lewis hamilton now challenge
00:34:05george russell get the fastest time no by three tenths of a second he slots into p2 and we're on
00:34:11board
00:34:12with isaac hajar you just feel is wrestling away at this car it's not quite the smooth ride uh that
00:34:17he
00:34:18would enjoy on this shanghai afternoon half past three in the afternoon and isaac hajar puts in the
00:34:24slowest of the five times that we've had so far used tires for the mclarens here comes lando norris
00:34:30crosses the line goes ahead even on the used tires of isaac hajar lando norris and oscar piastri both
00:34:38running uh used tires and piastri are way way down on that set that have been used before yeah another
00:34:44further tenth away from his teammate verstappen in front of norris as well to go p5 at this stage
00:34:51and it's been consistent around those two tenths that margin he's held on to hajar the whole way
00:34:56through this weekend so far and he's done it once again hulkenberg with the slowest time that we've
00:35:00had so far we'll cross down to uh ollie bearman uh down the back straights and they're all breaking
00:35:07just lifting off breaking around about the hundred meter board at the end so that's a long back straight
00:35:13yeah he had that nicely balanced on the exit of 14 good throttle control there by bearman and really
00:35:20wrestling the car on the exit of that final corner to go ahead of lando norris as well just behind
00:35:25max verstappen it does seem to be a very precise driver ollie bearman you know there's not there's not
00:35:31massive inputs onto the steering wheel everything's nice and calculated and you know just ease of movement
00:35:38through there it's really interesting watching him on board i think gabriel portoletto soaring away
00:35:43like some sort of uh rustic lumberjack at the wheel of that uh audi car yes 12 fastest for him
00:35:51he's in
00:35:51the bottom six all right what can arvid linblad do in the racing balls this midfield battle that they're
00:35:57all in here so competitive property so it really comes down to the driver and how you can execute
00:36:04that lap and that was leaving nothing on the table there for linblad not quite enough to get out of
00:36:09the
00:36:09elimination zone for now but he's not too far away remember such limited time around this track
00:36:15particularly on new tires and low fuel for him i think he might have lost a bit of time in
00:36:20that final
00:36:20corner but it was two tenths down uh on gabriel portoletto through the first sector here comes
00:36:26pierre gasly now there's a man to try and get a car into q3 and sometimes a little bit unexpectedly
00:36:32it's pierre gasly finished ninth here uh last year who's disqualified though from the race but
00:36:3810 q3 appearances in 2025 including three of the last four races this lap for gasly gets him up to
00:36:46eight so in between uh norris and haggar and the problem for the front runners here is we just
00:36:51watched colopinto cross the line p13 for him the problem that the the front runners face right here
00:36:56crofty is knowing when to use or if they have to use another set of new tires in this session
00:37:02because the midfield is so tight they will inevitably use two sets yeah and with that might knock out some
00:37:10of the uh the more confident front runners trying to do it on one set if you're isaac haggar that
00:37:15this
00:37:15could be a very very tense session max verstappen's put a little bit of distance uh between himself
00:37:21and the rest liam lawson ahead of arvid limblad by a couple of hundredths of a second goes p14 and
00:37:28there's your sectors lewis hamilton with the fastest middle sector george russell dominating the start
00:37:32and the end bernie collins to you yeah just quickly to come in crofty and the tires that they've used
00:37:37so
00:37:37far so mercedes ferrari and mclaren that first run has all been unused soft for them so that's why you're
00:37:45seeing the stopping and behrman on a new soft beating norris on a used soft so there's a few
00:37:52differences in strategy going on there looks like red bull committed to running two sets of new soft
00:37:58in this session mclaren going a slightly different way running used first and now i expect when these
00:38:04blankets come off there'll be a new one under there to hopefully promote them away from that elimination
00:38:09so this time last year he was on pole position oscar piastri he was in the dominant car
00:38:15at the moment he's 10th fastest and he's only safe by four milliseconds and yes he's got a nice
00:38:20shiny set of the c4 compound tires to put on that mclaren but this this is pressure for oscar piastri
00:38:27now
00:38:28it is i mean he'll get the job done crofty on the brand new set of tires because now it's
00:38:33a
00:38:33a level playing field against the likes of hulkenberg ocon colopinto who are all
00:38:38behind him you know that the reason their lap times are so close to that of piastri is because
00:38:42piastri did it just now on an old tire so he should comfortably sail through q2 but they've had
00:38:47to resort to using a brand new tire to do it yeah because the the drivers behind him will inevitably
00:38:52go out on another new set and actually find more lap time in themselves at least two maybe even
00:38:59three tenths of an advantage in your own ability from the learning you've just gone through but
00:39:04the pressure comes from having to deliver the perfect lap because if he makes an error loses a
00:39:09few tenths then you're in trouble and i think mclaren by sending him out with just under seven minutes
00:39:14to go have allowed a margin there for oscar piastri to say look if you don't do it on the
00:39:19first lap
00:39:20you do a cool lap and then you can try again yeah it'll be i mean it should be plain
00:39:26sailing for him
00:39:27and look this is why he's paid the big bucks to do to deliver under pressure so i expect oscar
00:39:32piastri to do exactly that the big bucks see when you were driving for super aguri yeah the big bucks
00:39:39pennies yes i could still deliver under pressure yeah that is very true a very different car to this
00:39:46one it has to be said he honestly he'll be he'll be absolutely fine here probably giving him the
00:39:50the ultimate commentator's courtesy but yeah all things going well for oscar he just has to put
00:39:56together a 90% lap driving wise and he will sail through q2 because the car's got that advantage
00:40:03over the likes of the aldis and the hasses and the and the alpines is that the secret just drive
00:40:08within a hundred percent so you eliminate the the mistakes that could could arise that's that's how
00:40:14you play it and you know you build it up first of all in in q1 you put a banker
00:40:19lap time in there's
00:40:20no point having a huge lock up or a spin uh in in a session like that when you know
00:40:25you've got a car
00:40:26advantage over your rivals and as you progress through the knockout rounds you start to dig
00:40:31more and more for the lap time that was a little snap going through turn two it's normal in in
00:40:37turn
00:40:37one and turn two you go through it's elevated you go through it's such a long corner you go through
00:40:42a
00:40:42a huge variation of wind direction as well and it plays habit with the balance now down towards turn
00:40:48six again just the rear not completely stable in the mid corner point for piastri obviously has set
00:40:55a personal best in that first sector which is it ends just before uh turn six and then through turn
00:41:01eight he goes down two gears hug the inside of that one to help open up turn nine and go
00:41:06to the off-board
00:41:07shot as he's now flat out through the exit of turn 10 straighten the car up it's a straight mode
00:41:12section there with a witt active aero open and uh yeah one and a half tenths away at this stage
00:41:19by the time he gets to 11 and 12 get back over to the right hand side full throttle you've
00:41:24got your
00:41:24throttle trace on the halo graphics the green bar all the way to the top and you can see that
00:41:30battery
00:41:30draining down at the bottom of those graphics he's got nothing left before the braking zone
00:41:36comes at you into 14 hard on the brake pedal now wait for it down through the gears and then
00:41:42pick
00:41:42up the throttle nice and gently but progressively you want to minimize that wheel spin and uh any
00:41:49twitchiness from the car at the rear now through that final corner he goes what's it going to be
00:41:54the cross line good enough for p5 ahead of verstappen's lap like for like on new tires of course that
00:41:59i think
00:42:00the important thing there mclaren ahead of the red bull charles clare goes quickest though 132
00:42:05four for a man a bit more advanced on the progression scale uh in this session lewis hamilton stays third
00:42:11fastest there's less than a tenth of a second between the top three currently and lando norris on
00:42:17the personal best will be next to cross the line norris who was uh third on the grid this time
00:42:22last year
00:42:22here in shanghai and this time only fifth fastest ahead of his teammate and mclaren once again
00:42:28the best team i think out there occupying positions five and six yeah their upgrades can't come soon
00:42:35enough can they that's what they'll be hoping for and you don't know when we're going to see them but
00:42:40they clearly don't have the car to do the job at this stage and i think um yeah mercedes and
00:42:46ferrari
00:42:46have got the upper hand on them in in that department obviously sharing the same power unit as
00:42:53the uh as the mercedes teams and i think this you know there's still a lot of learning for them
00:42:59to do
00:42:59in that regard for the deployment strategy throughout the lap but when you get to this point in the weekend
00:43:05you're starting to home in on where that needs to be starting a flying lap with two minutes to go
00:43:10isaac hadjar and max verstappen hadjar currently 10th fastest and might be a little under pressure
00:43:17here from niko hulkenberg uh just watching the uh the sector times at 24-4 he was only a 10th
00:43:23up on
00:43:24hulkenberg uh through that first sector antonelli meanwhile going quickest overall through the middle
00:43:29parts of the lap hulkenberg making his way uh down the straight love to pick up a toe behind pierre
00:43:33gasly because he's weaving around trying to get some temperature into his tires a 27 9 for the
00:43:39middle sector for niko hulkenberg and isaac hadjar was another 10th down on niko hulkenberg through the
00:43:45middle part of that lap now can he get into sq3 he's reached that in five of his last six
00:43:52visits here in
00:43:52oh by two thousandths of a second niko hulkenberg just misses out on that lap kimmy antonelli meanwhile
00:44:01is this going to be the fastest lap we've seen so far in his session guess what it is
00:44:05132 4 and there's now what a tenth and a bit between the top four cars isaac hadjar just
00:44:13cope with a threat so far of hulkenberg in the audi but ocon started his lap well and he's still
00:44:19very much in the danger zone as he crosses the line and stays 10th fastest i don't know what happened
00:44:24in
00:44:25that final sector for hadjar but that could be bad news here crofty verstappen improves on his lap time
00:44:30and they're all improving as well there are green sectors everywhere hadjar and there's a double
00:44:35yellow out on the track bortoletto stopped at the final corner here we are with arvid limbladz
00:44:41and gabriel bortoletto as on our driver tracker there he is in the gravel and trying to get going again
00:44:50but if you are on a lap and a double waved yellow is being shown that's it your lap time
00:44:56gets deleted
00:44:57so oh that's if you're passing that zone so for arvid limblad absolutely no chance for him and he's
00:45:04out bortoletto now manages to get going again but colopinto is going down the back straight
00:45:12and it's all clear now for him gasly i think is through in p9 and it's down to franco colopinto
00:45:19or isaac hadja i think to get into the top 10 at four qualifying gasly crosses the line goes fifth
00:45:28fastest uh isaac hadja still on the fringe of it here oscar piastri is in that top 10 he's safe
00:45:34it's franco colopinto who we're looking at here can he do it by five one thousandths of a second
00:45:41he misses out holkenberg thought he was close colopinto was close and isaac hadja's like yeah
00:45:48not close enough boys wow that was close wasn't it for for hadja i really thought that colin pitto was
00:45:54going to do that there he looked like he was on an absolute mission through this final corner where
00:45:59we ride on board with lando norris not a great middle sector for him but improves in the first
00:46:04and third sector right something's not right major understeer says george russell who was third
00:46:12fastest uh in that session you've got to feel a bit for arvid limblad who was looking pretty handy
00:46:20but he came across the double yellows his lap time got deleted as he went through this sector
00:46:24and the double yellows are out because gambriel bortoletto did that i've seen a few drivers
00:46:30touching that curb before turning into the final corner and it can upset the car i wonder if that's
00:46:36just what happened there for him it's not a hugely heavy braking zone there's a big old big old knock
00:46:42to the left rear of that of that car and the rear wing that will probably need changing but um
00:46:47yeah
00:46:47poor old bortoletto i think just maybe took a bit too much of that kind of entry curb on the
00:46:52right hand
00:46:53side and that's all it takes when when these drivers are right on the limit like that yeah see the
00:46:58cut
00:46:58is i think it just unstabilized the car did well to catch it but it sent the car into a
00:47:03tank slapper
00:47:04and that gravel trap's not quite big enough to slow it down in time and you've also got to feel
00:47:11sorry
00:47:11for esteban ocon and for liam lawson as well who both got caught out by that double waved yellow
00:47:18their tales of woe will be a tale of relief for isaac hajar who scrapes through antonelli kimmy antonelli
00:47:26was fastest we lost bortoletto limblad lawson ocon colopinto and hulkenberg
00:47:30what aboutos
00:48:27Oh, my God.
00:51:48Crofty these were the kind of improvements we were expecting from Alpine I think what happened
00:51:52in Melbourne hopefully was just a one-off for them but these these improvements uh switching
00:51:57from their own power unit to Mercedes power unit I think this is what they were expecting as well
00:52:02from it just uh we can see Russell now exiting that garage after that nose change I mean not his
00:52:09nose
00:52:09the front wing and the nose as well it's a light for light there'll be no problems with that
00:52:15unusual to see it's an odd one and they have changed yeah and uh he also asked to check the
00:52:22right hand side of the floor as well I don't know if he's run over a curb or gone somewhere
00:52:27he shouldn't
00:52:28have all interesting stuff that said for the hot favorite to take pole position he might have run
00:52:35over a curb but uh there is a good reason why they did change why he had the understeer at
00:52:39turn one
00:52:40George Russell was because the active aero front flap wasn't working uh it wasn't adjusting properly
00:52:45the Mercedes to say uh maybe it wasn't coming back up fully which accounted for the other
00:52:51George Russell stopped jumping top right looks okay now it's not um to take boost about massive engine
00:53:00break in here and he's also said on the radio I've got no battery I've got no battery Toto Wolff
00:53:08looks a
00:53:09little bit stunned by that and you can hear the capacity crowd here in Shanghai uh well absolutely
00:53:16stunned as George Russell sits motionless in terms of his car in the middle of the track
00:53:24has he managed to get it going again Andrew Shovlin chief engineer on the radio trying to help out from
00:53:31the pit wall Marcus Dudley as race engineer will be giving him instructions but he has got it going
00:53:36again yeah so my fear there was that he wouldn't be able to start it because he had no battery
00:53:41but
00:53:41obviously there's a tiny bit left to crank the engine over and he's got going let's have a listen to
00:53:45this
00:53:58this is not changing gear no it sounds like he's just stuck in first gear there it's like cruise mode
00:54:03isn't it he's like doing an aero test while he does that his teammate Kimi Antonelli starts a lap
00:54:09I cannot chip the ears stuck in first well that's gonna be a long painful run back to the pits
00:54:17isn't
00:54:17it and uh with the time ticking well luckily this year they've got an extra minute in uh qualifying
00:54:23three and that extra minute might just help George Russell out if they can find a fix to his problems
00:54:29could this be then a swinging momentum towards Kimi Antonelli if he gets polled today he'll be the
00:54:35youngest pole sitter ever for a grand prix in formula one he's already the youngest in any format
00:54:4018 years and 202 days tomorrow Kimi Antonelli could this be his moment for a grand prix he's got to
00:54:47get
00:54:48the job done first though and through the first sector Antonelli Leclerc and Hamilton all 24-0 it is
00:54:54neck and neck between three cars so far a 27-7 for Kimi Antonelli through the middle part of the
00:55:01lap
00:55:02where he has been strong to be fair to him all weekend long Behrman four tenths off the pace
00:55:07through the first sector Leclerc 10th down on Antonelli through the middle part of the lap
00:55:12Hamilton now continues on towards the end of that second sector as Antonelli hits the brakes
00:55:17into turn 16 and Lewis Hamilton's lost half a second to Kimi Antonelli in the middle part of the lap
00:55:24here comes the young Italian then round the final corner this is the time they all have to beat for
00:55:30pole position it's a 1.32.3 he's got a tenth faster than he did in Q2 Charles Leclerc will
00:55:39be next Charles
00:55:40Leclerc who has never been on pole here in Shanghai before started the last two grand prix in sixth
00:55:46position here did it for the sprint race as well and he is on the front row but only the
00:55:50front row by about
00:55:51three tenths and Hamilton has a lot to make up after a disappointing middle sector for him across
00:55:57the line with Lewis Hamilton and it's p3 only for the six-time pole sitter here in Shanghai Antonelli's
00:56:04got it for the moment yeah he would have passed his teammate of course and limping around that long
00:56:11right-hander before the the back straight as we watch Behrman cross the line p4 at the moment he goes
00:56:17but we've got many to come after him the two McLarens for example and Red Bulls George Russell
00:56:23has made it back to the pits and he is being pushed back into the garage and is this where
00:56:28Lewis Hamilton
00:56:29lost his time in the middle part of the lap well we had an oversteer moment there before and the
00:56:33similar kind of thing happening once again really fighting that Ferrari through the apex of turn nine
00:56:40and then in between nine and ten and it just hemorrhages lap time when you have that kind of
00:56:46most such an important corner of series of corners on the track what happened to Leclerc in 11 and 12
00:56:52looked good on through 11 but they're just struggling to get on power in the midpoint through turn 12
00:57:00then it seems to settle down after that we look at the Alpine heading towards us of Pierre Gasly
00:57:06Norris behind him on track what can he do here can he pick off one of the Red Bulls that's
00:57:13the question
00:57:13that's his target surely for this session George Russell back in the garage his car hooked up to the
00:57:22umbilical cord as they trying to find a way to fix the issue the lack of battery power the fact
00:57:28that he
00:57:28couldn't change gears Gasly uh fifth and slowest in this session so far Lando Norris goes ahead of him
00:57:34and onto the front row and ahead of the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton and that's a special Lando
00:57:40Norris lap right there and then Piastri next and he goes second fastest and a special Piastri lap for
00:57:47the pole sitter here last year McLaren coming really good in Q3 after being off the pace in the first
00:57:53two
00:57:53parts of qualifying Hajar six fastest behind Hamilton ahead of Behrman and Gasly here comes Max
00:57:59Verstappen and he goes ahead of his teammate by a couple of hundreds of a second really tight between
00:58:05the two Red Bulls but McLaren have just popped up into this race for pole which the pole sitter from
00:58:11Melbourne doesn't look like he's going to get off the starting blocks just yet Bernie Collins
00:58:15yes Crofty we've been listening to George now they were trying to power cycle that car
00:58:20he was complaining he couldn't get it into neutral but really intelligent for George on the in lap
00:58:25there he was thinking consider if we can do push cool push in the second run so he's still thinking
00:58:29ahead hoping that it can get back out just an update on the tires used for the other drivers there
00:58:35Verstappen Hajar and Gasly are all used sets of soft everyone else is on the on the lap times there
00:58:42is on a new and everyone with a new for this second run so hopefully they can get George
00:58:47Russell out of that garage thank you very much Bernie Collins Kimi Antonelli has provisional pole
00:58:53Kimi Antonelli who was born on the 25th of August 2006 the day that Sebastian Vettel made his first
00:59:03ever appearance at an F1 weekend Turkey FP1 you might remember that and I'm sure you were there
00:59:08uh two driving that weekend Kimi Antonelli who could
00:59:14supersede Sebastian Vettel and become the youngest ever pole setter for a Grand Prix
00:59:21Seb has that record from Monza that brilliant win for Toro Rosso back in 2008 the current record 21
00:59:28years and 73 days he's got the wheels going but is that a good sign or a bad sign I
00:59:34think if he had come in
00:59:35and he was stuck in first gear they have to fire the car up on the jacks and then as
00:59:41it's still
00:59:42rotating round in first gear I think it's a good sign Crofty they've managed to then get into neutral
00:59:47we saw the rear tires stop rotating and I think they should be good to go from that
00:59:53this is where is it driving you change the steering wheel oh change the steering wheel as well Valtteri
00:59:58Bottas had that of course in uh in Australia so is that just like a a software thing we'll change
01:00:05the
01:00:05steering wheel just in case there's a bug with the software on this I think it's a it's a fail
01:00:09safe
01:00:10kind of situation like a belt and braces job uh you just when you're when you're searching for all of
01:00:16the possibilities that this could be and it might be like a shift's not working on the on the steering
01:00:21wheel or any kind of electronic glitch that's going on you it's I mean it's not always the cure
01:00:28but it can be one of the possibilities so you may as well because it's such a quick fix
01:00:32to do so a change of steering wheel the important thing is that all of the switches are in the
01:00:37right
01:00:37position yeah when that second steering wheel goes onto the car would Kimi have his own steering
01:00:42wheel George have his own steering wheel and would they have a spare for both drivers they do
01:00:46yeah and uh so it's uh yeah these the steering wheels can't be really easily interchanged between
01:00:53the two cars but the individual car for that single driver it can be now Kimi Antonelli is coming out
01:01:00of
01:01:00the garage George Russell still there this is the time Bernie Collins you put your trust and your faith
01:01:04in the team around you and you well you act like Ted Kravitz was saying at the top of this
01:01:09qualifying you
01:01:10act like Mr. Patience yeah you do yeah and I think George has nothing else he can do he's got
01:01:15to get his
01:01:16mindset on his normal qualify and see if they can get it out but just to pick up on the
01:01:20steering
01:01:20wheels Crofty it will be someone's job in that garage on the spare steering wheel to make sure
01:01:26they're matching the switch position changes that George does such that the spare is exactly the
01:01:31same switches that he came in on that used to be a job in the garbage to make sure the
01:01:35spare was exactly
01:01:37set up like the main one that has come off the car yeah sort of sort of job you think
01:01:42now do we need
01:01:42to do this do we need to do this and then this happens and it becomes so so important but
01:01:47if
01:01:47Russell can make it back out there his engineer look Marcus Utley looked pretty composed I take that
01:01:54as a good sign that he will be able to get back out there and if the car behaves itself
01:01:57this time yeah
01:01:58it's then the job is now down to the driver to perform in that one and one and only lap
01:02:04I mean talk
01:02:05about then you're talking about the pressure when everything's on the line so yeah that's another good
01:02:10sign the uh tighten the wheels wheels going on and getting tight so wow this is this is huge and
01:02:17it reminds me of I think it was this circuit for Vettel once before in 2009 Rebels first ever pole
01:02:23he had one lap in q3 in q1 one lap in q2 one lap in q3 and he got the
01:02:29job done and went fastest in
01:02:30every session yeah now he's battling his teammate although a lesser experienced driver in Kimi Antonelli
01:02:36he's fast enough and with those two laps under his belt well that one lap under his belt he's going
01:02:42for his second one here that's what you're fighting against George Russell now George Russell's coming
01:02:46out uh they're just lowering the car down on the jack so as his teammate Kimi Antonelli crosses the
01:02:52line to start his flying lap George Russell makes his way out into the sunshine and he's got just enough
01:02:57time to take rabbits to get round before the checkered flag well just enough time yeah so the
01:03:02Russell Mercedes package is fallible seems okay he's stepping on it going out the pit lane seems all
01:03:07right for now have we discounted a hydraulic problem if it couldn't uh change gears they must have
01:03:12discounted that in the garage anyway he's on his way let's see what happens we've not discounted anything
01:03:17what we do know is that we have 48 pole positions for Italian drivers in F1 Grand Prix history
01:03:23and we might be on the cards for 49 here today with Kimi Antonelli and he'll want to do it
01:03:29with his
01:03:30teammate out there Crofty it wouldn't be enough as Norris hits the first fastest sector of all only just
01:03:36though but yeah Kimi if he is to get pole here today he wants to do it with his teammate
01:03:41out there
01:03:42in the same car he certainly does Norris up Leclerc down Antonelli up and there's just milliseconds in it
01:03:50through the first two sectors of this lap Kimi Antonelli making his way round turn 13 he's got a
01:03:57straight a corner a straight a corner and the line to go to become the youngest pole sitter in F1
01:04:02history but he's gonna have to wait for it because his teammate is going to be last and sometimes you
01:04:07leave it last and no one can respond and you get the job done Leclerc with the fastest middle sector
01:04:13coming to join the party Lewis Hamilton just a fraction off through the first sector on his latest lap
01:04:19Gasly matching Hamilton and Leclerc in the Alpine here comes Kimi Antonelli can he extend his advantage
01:04:25out in front yes he can it's a 1 32 zero to go and get pole position and Lando Norris
01:04:33is the first
01:04:34to cross the line and chase it down can Norris do it for McLaren for a second year in a
01:04:39row
01:04:40Piastri last year not Norris this year only p3 his teammate still on the front row Charles Leclerc then
01:04:46for Ferrari can he come to the party it's the front row only for Charles Leclerc and there's
01:04:53three tenths of a second difference between Kimi Antonelli and the rest Hamilton crosses the line
01:04:58and he goes to the front row six-time pole sitter here in Shanghai and he's on p2 at the
01:05:04moment Pierre
01:05:05Gasly this is going to be his best lap in qualifying and he goes p6 it's a super lap from
01:05:10him but Ollie
01:05:11Bearman's putting in decent sectors what can he do to cross the line in seventh place just behind
01:05:17Gasly ahead of Verstappen and Hadjar who are yet to cross the line Piastri next to cross the line
01:05:22that's his race uh qualifying done he's half a second down and on the second row Isaac Hadjar was p3
01:05:29on
01:05:29the grid in Melbourne last week he's p7 currently ahead of his teammate Max Verstappen who's the next
01:05:35driver to cross the line and Verstappen replaces Hadjar in that p7 and there's a tenth of a second
01:05:41between the two Red Bull drivers Kimi Antonelli is on provisional pole but George Russell is still out
01:05:48there and Kimi Antonelli is waiting with bated breath to become the youngest pole sitter in Grand Prix
01:05:55history can George snatch it off it he's not going down without a fight here is he Crofty he was
01:06:00wrestling that car for all it's worth through turn 12 he may have even lost a bit of lap time
01:06:05there
01:06:05he had Norris in front as well through turn 10 he would have been cursing that one but the braking
01:06:10into 14 looks very sweet and so does the exit Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009 for Force India the last
01:06:18Italian to take pole for a Grand Prix is it Antonelli's day is it Russell's day it's Kimi Antonelli on
01:06:25pole
01:06:26position the youngest pole sitter in Grand Prix history George Russell on the front row it is a
01:06:32Mercedes front row lockouts but it wasn't smooth sailing for the British driver all the problems
01:06:39came his way at the end his teammates taken advantage that in the circumstances was a fine
01:06:45lap by George Russell but let's give a round of applause he was on pole for the Miami sprint last
01:06:50year
01:06:51now he's done it in a Grand Prix Kimi Antonelli take a bow young man nice work Kimi that's a
01:06:58pole
01:06:58position mate yeah let's go man and it's gonna seem all the more worthy to him knowing that George
01:07:08Russell did in fact get a lap on the board as well I know it was just one lap but
01:07:13it's George Russell at
01:07:15the very peak of his abilities right now that you've done it to it was just that one lap for
01:07:20George but
01:07:20what a recovery for from Russell really impressive stuff the car obviously had it in it over the
01:07:27competition but you want your biggest competition there when you drive a lap like that so I know
01:07:33exactly what that means to Kimi he's gone better with his second lap as well and he did it to
01:07:37go better
01:07:37it was a phenomenal lap I mean regardless of what George would have done maybe on his first lap
01:07:42the lap that Kimi put together there was was incredibly strong and to to get two tenths over
01:07:49two tenths in your pocket over your more experienced teammate albeit just doing it in the one lap
01:07:54that's that's a great achievement it's going to go a long way for Kimi's confidence
01:07:59Lewis Hamilton will start from the second row alongside his teammate Charles Leclerc
01:08:04beware the fast starting Ferraris and we've said that once we've said it twice and I'm sure we'll say it
01:08:09again because they are a force to be reckoned with at the start of the race and Kimi Antonelli now
01:08:15he's
01:08:15got that pole is gonna have to get his race start right because two times out of two so far
01:08:20this season
01:08:21and he hasn't got it right exactly it's a hundred percent record so far of Kimi Antonelli not getting
01:08:25off the line cleanly at all we've seen him do it in practice sessions but not in a racing situation
01:08:31so
01:08:31that's going to be weighing on his mind as well George Russell starts second then for the second
01:08:37consecutive Chinese Grand Prix but what a recovery from him and the whole team as well there was no
01:08:44panic they seemed pretty it's like quite systematic in the way they went about it but uh yeah George
01:08:50will be annoyed by that but these things happen in a brand new set of regulations and rules and like
01:08:56i said
01:08:56before nobody's immune to this reliability issue right now no team on the grid there will be a
01:09:02lot of eyebrows raised and twitching a bit that Mercedes had reliability issues in qualifying here
01:09:08and maybe a few teams hoping they get reliability issues tomorrow as well because it might help them
01:09:12in the race no he's happy with that you can see the body language he's happy he's got that car
01:09:16onto the
01:09:16front row and uh you if he hadn't if he hadn't made it through and you if he was only
01:09:2110th on the grid
01:09:22tomorrow that suddenly makes your job a lot harder despite being in the fastest car Oscar Piastri drove
01:09:27really well i thought there's two McLarens really coming on stronger than they were this time yesterday
01:09:33in sprint quality and they're chipping away at it but they don't have the downforce it's quite clear
01:09:39and Oscar out qualifying Lando for the second Grand Prix at running two Max Verstappen lines up p8
01:09:45where he did for the sprint race and Isaac Hadjar just behind him Pierre Gasly ahead of both
01:09:51Red Bulls and Alpine that that's a fine result for them Oli Behrman was the slowest in Q3 and for
01:09:58Mercedes back-to-back front row lockouts for the first time since Bahrain and Sakhir in 2020 when
01:10:05of course George Russell at the Sakhir Grand Prix was driving uh for Mercedes he got the promotion uh
01:10:11didn't he uh that particular weekend Verstappen by the way a tenth of a second between himself and
01:10:15Hadjar let us hear from Julian Palmer and the youngest pole sitter in a Grand Prix ever
01:10:20down here with Formula One's youngest ever Grand Prix pole sitter Kimi Antonelli congratulations
01:10:27you've just beaten Sebastian Vettel's record how was it out there yeah it was uh it was a pretty clean
01:10:34session uh so you know really happy uh of course uh unfortunately George had an issue in Q3 so would
01:10:40have been cool to see uh him with two sets but yeah i think was uh was a really good
01:10:46uh session clean one
01:10:47no mistake and uh looking forward to the race tomorrow how could you keep it calm were you aware
01:10:52of what was happening on George's car or were you just so focused on yourself there well i saw i
01:10:56saw
01:10:56he had the issue but uh i just tried to to keep my focus to to stay calm and uh
01:11:01try to deliver a good
01:11:02lap and which was at the end and a record-breaking lap well done Kimi thank you George speaking of
01:11:07the issues i mean that was a a difficult session it looked like already in Q2 it wasn't straightforward
01:11:13but uh you got out of there in the end you managed to get a front row out of it
01:11:16yeah definitely damage
01:11:18limitation i mean in Q2 the front wing broke uh was wrapping our heads around that then obviously went
01:11:23out in Q3 stopped on track car wasn't restarting couldn't change gear and then just no really happy to
01:11:29be standing standing here because um you know start of the last lap had no battery no tire temp no
01:11:34nothing so um but the team have done a really great job to get us in the into this position
01:11:39it could
01:11:39have been much worse so uh very glad and well done to this guy first poll so well you've been
01:11:43formidable
01:11:44so far this season are you guys going to put on a fight bit of a show out front for
01:11:47us tomorrow
01:11:48yeah i mean it's obviously we need to take care of the guys in red as well they were super
01:11:53fast off the
01:11:54line so i'm sure lewis is going to be pretty dicey at the at the beginning of the race but
01:11:59i think for
01:12:00us to try and keep it clean have a good race try and put on a good race for the
01:12:02fans and and see what
01:12:03we can do all right well done george which brings me nicely to lewis in the top three you love
01:12:09it here
01:12:09in china i know it's been a great circuit for you in the past and that was a big lap
01:12:14at the end i saw the
01:12:14moment you had on the first one in q3 but you put it together when it mattered yeah it was
01:12:20a actually
01:12:20really tough qualifying uh a bit harder this one with the wind it's so gusty today so um putting
01:12:27their laps together was was challenging and uh charles putting great laps these guys were putting in great
01:12:31laps so i'm really really happy with the to be up here and grateful to be up here with these
01:12:37guys
01:12:37they've been rapid so far this season but um we did some good work the engineers did some great work
01:12:44over the break and we managed to get a little bit closer to these guys so um that's a that's
01:12:50a real
01:12:50positive we take that forwards and the gap was really coming down as well as you said uh have
01:12:54you got some powder still dry for the race tomorrow for a fight it's still gonna be a challenge but
01:12:58i'm
01:12:59sure we'll have some fun i'm looking forward to it we'll have a lot of fun learn a lot in
01:13:03in the sprint
01:13:04race so let's hope tomorrow is not as windy as this and and our goal is to try and break
01:13:10the gap between
01:13:11these guys somehow all right well done lewis and thank you everybody uh good luck for the race tomorrow
01:13:23good luck for the race we have a lot of fun out in the sprint we have a lot of
01:13:46fun out in the sprint
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