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Five Live Formula One
¶ Russell's Pole and Championship Dynamics
Hello and welcome to the Check and Flag podcast here in Barcelona, where we saw a much needed pole position for George Russell, who had a tricky run around the streets of Monaco last time out. Lewis Hamilton makes an all-British front row with Hamilton getting his first Grand Prix front row start.
since Silverstone twenty twenty four. Before we get stuck in, we'll quickly run through the top ten and as mentioned already, George Russell on pole position from Lewis Hamilton, championship leader Kimmy Antonelli. Starts in third, Lando Norris in fourth, Max Verstappen rounding out the top five from Isaac Hajar, Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson the top eight, Nico Holkenberg in ninth, and Charles Leclerc who took a heavy impact.
into the wall in the middle of that final part of qualifying will start in tenth. Alongside me I've got BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson and the twenty twenty four F1 Academy champion Abby pulling and Abby That was quite an exciting qualifying session.
Yeah, and it's gonna make for an exciting Grand Prix uh tomorrow. It's it's looking really great and I mean it was kind of disaster on one end for Ferrari but success on the other with with um having Lewis Hamilton have such a a great session. I mean
Yeah, and you you said a disaster on one side of the garage for Ferrari, of course. Charles Leclerc, heavy impact into the wall at turn three with around about nine minutes of Q3 remaining. He got out okay, a lot of damage to the front end of his Ferrari.
Sorry.
but just had a snap of oversteer and that shot him left into the wall. But
Andrew
That's an important I feel that's quite an important pole position for for George Russell. He was mentioned already that he had a tricky run out last time, but he's been drifting further and further away from Antonelli, who's at the top of the championship standing. So He almost really desperately needed this pole position.
Well, it's especially important, isn't it? Because he came into the weekend talking about having a kind of reset, you know, wanting to, you know, get back to basics and not look at the data so much. Um it felt at the time like he maybe was overthinking the fact that he was trying not to overthink. Um but he's he's actually looked really, really quick all weekend. He's been the guy to beat, it's been pretty clear in every session pretty much so far.
and he delivered in qualifying and he's then gone and sort of reconfirmed what he was saying afterwards um about uh th admitting that they've made some mistakes on his side of the garage in terms of engineering and set up. um in the last couple of races. So you're right, he needed it from a whole bunch of different reasons. But uh particularly that one I think to sort of uh if he if he'd done that reset and then not got pole again
that would have been particularly bad. So I think it this will give him a big psychological boost uh going into the race but also for the rest of the season.
It's certainly win. That's his tenth pole position of his career for for George Russell. And also Mercedes 150th in their Formula One history. And we we touched on Antonelli before we we start talking about Lewis Hamilton. Third place, I mean for any nineteen year old racing in Formula One Abbey you'd be thinking that's a great result.
Uh but he looked disappointed, of course, because his his championship rivals are in front of him, but it's his lowest starting position of the season. He hasn't f he hasn't qualified outside of the top two.
Yeah, uh that that in itself is a an incredible achievement. I mean, being third for him, he he did look really frustrated and I think he knows that he's on a run of good form and he doesn't want it to to kind of end uh you know, all good things must come to an end at some point unfortunately. But, you know, i if he does manage to make a good start in in the Grand Prix, he can um i kind of be there, pick up the points and
I I think at the end of the day he needs to remember what makes a world champion is the consistency. Of course he he wants to win everything under the sun as he's done the past five races. Um but he needs to remember i he just needs the points and he's got the margin to George. George is gonna have his moments and and this weekend is looking positive um for him and that's where you need to kind of bite the bullet and and and really home in and and just minimize the the damage.
And I think George Russell, he's been stamping his authority, hasn't he? All over Antonelli all weekend. Okay, in all fairness Antonelli's had some some traffic that's hampered uh his progression it through the practice sessions. But for example, George last podium was in China. Last win was the first round this year i in Australia, Andrew, and I I think the margin that he's outqualified his teammate a one fourteen point six
for for him and a one fourteen point nine for Antonelli. That's three tenths clear and w and when we've been looking at the gaps between Certainly around a track that everyone knows like the back of their hand, that that's quite a big margin.
It's i it really is. It's a statement margin. It's the sort of margin that Antonelli had over Russell in Miami, um which was rare'cause the the generally this year it's been very close. between the two of them. So it's exactly what Russell needed. And I think it underlines as well that a as big as that championship gap is, sixty eight points, there's not even a third of the season has gone so far.
And if they finished in this order, that would be ten points that Russell got back. And, you know, all he's got to do is just keep doing that. And that's the way he's got to look at it. I I just have to take it one race at a time, keep delivering what I can do. And it seems like uh whatever's gone wrong in the last two or three races, uh on on his side of the garage in terms of him and his engineers
Maybe they were out thinking themselves. It seems from uh reading between the lines of his comments that he was kind of following Antonelli's uh setup direction and has now changed that approach. Um if he can if this is genuinely a reset and he can carry this forward into the next few races. then he could start closing that gap and the season would look start to look very different if he did.
I mean, I mean exactly Andrew, everyone's been hyping up Kimmy Antonelli saying the season's done, you know, he's got such a big points gap now, how can people bring it back? But it it's fully possible if George can can find his feet and and get some momentum in this championship. He can take it to to Kimmy. I mean we we saw last year the the
Max was able to come back from from a big deficit. So it's definitely not out the question. I mean, we're only a third of the way really through this season. So it it it just takes kind of a a bit of sacrifice and and a lot of mental strength from George I think to be able to really, really screw his head on and knuckle down for for this next two thirds of the the championship.
¶ Hamilton's Impressive Qualifying Comeback
And of course we can't forget Lewis Hamilton, who splits the the two Mercedes and he he's had a bit of a tough weekend so far. He's not really had the pace. during the free practice sessions was almost a bit lost over over the radio in in free practice thing three saying, I just don't know where the pace has gone but
He just missed out on taking pole position by six hundredths of a second. You can't even blink that quickly. So what a job by him, Abby, because as a driver when you've been struggling on a on a race weekend, okay, his form has been really strong. in the last few races, but particularly when you you've been struggling in free practice sessions, to then come out and and deliver like that, that's that's impressive. I know we're t it's Lewis Hamilton we're talking about, but still.
Yeah, I mean I I think as well it in practice for him it was so frustrated. And the most annoying thing about Barcelona is you can see your deficits because you have that massive gantry going down the the pitch straight, so you can see that you're you're you've got a time deficit and he's been saying all weekend he's been half a second off and has no clue where it is and obviously went away and and went to his motorhome, he said between f free practice, three
and qualifying, kind of screwed his head on and and got things got his ducks in a line basically and and in in Q one was was the fastest. So he knew that balance was somewhere where he was happy, he told the team going into Q three after the red flag of his team at Charles I want to do another banker lap on this set of tires no matter you know, th the team wanted to send him straight out and give him one lap, but he he wanted that kind of confidence and additional laps to just
Get it get the job done and and yeah, he he did a brilliant job and it's exciting to see Hamilton in this new era and he looks like he's got a new kind of spring of life into him.
We'll continue to chat about the top three shortly, but let's hear from them who were talking to Naomi Schiff after qualifying.
¶ Top Drivers Reflect on Qualifying
George, a big congratulations. It's pole position for you out here in Barcelona. Momentum hasn't been on your side lately, but you've come back.
Alright.
It's a European season and you're coming swinging, so how does it feel?
It's been a great weekend so far. I kinda feel like my old self again where sort of every lap I'm I'm doing my job, always fighting at those top positions. Obviously the last few races for numerous reasons haven't quite been on our side, but I came in this weekend With just a clean slate, felt good and yeah, just great to be on pole.
It's obviously a very different track here. It's a traditional circuit. We've also got a step softer on the tires this year. Tell us how was your experience during qualifying there in the car?
Yeah, I think it's gonna be an interesting race tomorrow. You know, Lewis did an amazing job to to get up there. I think that was a real surprise. Um we thought a fight was with ourselves and McLaren. And then, you know, Lewis uh has been really quick all this session. So I'm sure there's gonna be a fight on our hands. Obviously Kimmy's been doing an amazing job, so tomorrow's not gonna be easy from every standpoint, but I feel feeling ready.
Good. Kimmy, just coming over to you. Congratulations is P three here. This is actually the first time this season you've qualified not on the front row, so that just goes to show how well your season's gone so far. But tell us how it was in the car for you out there.
It's been a little bit of a difficult weekend so far for me. Didn't really have the feeling with the car. Yeah, long run was strong yesterday. So definitely we can, you know, that's a positive. But today I've been lacking a little bit, but looking forward to tomorrow.
It's a long hard race tomorrow, as I was just saying to George, but also one of the longest runs to turn one. So do you think being in third might be of an advantage to tuck up behind the others and get a bit of a slipstream?
Yeah, I mean we'll try to get a good start and then for sure we'll try to make the best use of the toe uh also without using we we won't use any O S M, so definitely the the slipstream is gonna be even stronger. So
Fantastic. Lewis coming over to you. Congratulations. It's P2 for you, so front row start. Which just goes to continue another great run of form. So tell us about how this weekend has gone so far for you and how it was out there for you in the car.
Are you speaking South African to me?
I mean, yeah.
English with a South African accent. I'd love to come over.
We've got a great crowd here by the way. Always the weather's incredible out here in in Barcelona, so gracias. Um it feels great to be up here with them. Honestly, this weekend's been so difficult. Uh missing P1 was Normally it's okay to to miss P1, but it had a huge offset. So every time so we went into P two, I was a second, just over a second off.
And then um we just didn't feel quite comfortable and up to it. And these tires only last one lap, right? So you only have two shots at it in each session. And even if you do a cooldown lap and go again, the car balance is completely off, so it's not a good reference. So then I went to P three
And again I was easily four tenths, five tenths off and I was thinking, geez, where am I gonna get that pace? And I le I went and left the track between qualifying and uh between P three and qualifying. Where did you go? I went back to my motorhome.
Okay.
Came back and then Q one I was first and so I knew they had good uh good balance and good I was really comfortable in that first um that first session. Q two is a little bit harder with traffic and everything. And then right, you know, these guys did a great lap. Uh naturally. Um congrats to to George. But we're in a good position to be able to fight for tomorrow, so we have a race.
Well, even though it hasn't been a very straightforward weekend, as you've just pointed out for you, you're in the front row, you're P two. Um this is a track that we often say is sort of shows us exactly what the pecking order is, a traditional circuit and we get a great balance of what the teams have. Would you say, even though we've seen you up here quite a few times lately, that this is the true position of where Ferrari is at, ready to take on Mercedes every time?
Again, I think all weekend we've been kind of like four tenths off these guys. And so we really even with the upgrade we thought that maybe that's where we were. So but to for us to be that close, less than a tenth between us. shows just it's a a real showing of the hard work that everyone at the factories um to bring these upgrades to this track and uh so big, big big thank you to everyone back in Marinello. And uh yeah, we just gotta keep pushing, keep keep pushing, keep developing.
And um I I'm hoping tomorrow we can squeeze some more out of this and hopefully keep up with these guys for once.
Okay, well that's all we have time for. Thank you so much, gentlemen. Well done and uh great race ahead of us tomorrow. Thank you.
¶ Ferrari Dynamics and Leclerc's Crash Analysis
So that was our top three talking to Naomi Schiff. And Hamilton has been talking in the press conference, Andrew, but I just want your opinion on whether di that dynamic at Ferrari is starting to take a shift. towards Lewis Hamilton's side of the garage.
Well there are ebbs and flows through every season, aren't there? But it certainly looks like that's the case at the moment. This is you know, he s Leclerc was struggling in uh Canada and Monaco. He's gone to um Hamilton's break setup for this race weekend.
And he has been looking quite quick, but Hamilton said something really interesting in the press conference. He was talking about Leclerc's crash, which actually affected him and Lando Norris in qualifying'cause they were both on laps at the time. And he and Hamilton said, I've been breaking really late into turn four all weekend. And the data's been pretty clear on that and I think maybe Charles just sort of overcooked it on the entry and he was sort of
saying that was the reason for the accident. I don't know what you thought about that Abby, but I thought that was a really interesting it's slightly it felt a little bit like a game he was playing, as well as an interesting factual observation.
Yeah, I mean he a at the end of the day the annoy annoying thing is is when you have a strength which is Lewis has been breaking so late into turn four, your teammate gets to see that so Charles would have known and Charles has pushed that that entry and and got a bit of a snap, gone a bit wide. and then to me it looked like the the end result of the crash was more down to the torque and and on the exit of course it happened late in the corner so he's gotten the power of this new hybrid engine.
a bit too much whilst he's offline, not as much traction and uh sent him into the ball. So yeah, as you say it's a it's an interesting mental game that, being able to to know where you're stronger and where your your teammates weaker because You know they're pushing there and potentially he's just overstepped the mark.
¶ Race Strategies and Tire Degradation Challenges
And I think that's that's interesting comment there'cause of course Charles Cleur is gonna be starting down in tenth And he's gonna be willing the team on, of course. He's got his own job to do, but he'll I'm sure he'll be looking at uh at Lewis Hamilton's time and thinking, Well, if only if only I didn't throw it in into the wall and it was a heavy impact down at turn four.
Lewis Hamilton, does he have the op he's got a prime opportunity o of course, but can he convert that front row start into a win because they are so fast off the line. I know there wasn't a big difference between them when we saw them at at Monaco. But still a a track that's actually got quite a long run from from the front row down into to turn one. There's a there'll be an opportunity down there and I expect if an opening happens or appears, Andrew, Lewis Hamilton's gonna be taking it.
Well quite often the guy who's third on the grid in Barcelona is in the best position at the start. Remember last year George Russell swept away a around into the lead I think uh from third place on the grid. Um And uh of course it's Antonelli who's in third place, but uh of course th that's still second is better than first in that sense'cause of the slipstream on that long run.
down to the corner and Antonelli himself was talking about the slipstream and because you don't have straight line mode on the way to the first corner so the drag and therefore slipstream effect is much bigger. Um Yes, Antonelli made a good start in Monaco, twice, including in the uh after the red flag period.
But the fact is that Antonelli's lost p places off the ground uh every race this year apart from uh Monaco. And the Ferraris have been consistently the fastest starter all year, even though Mercedes have been getting better. So I think there's a strong chance that H Hamilton could lead into the first corner. And then I think nobody really knows what's gonna happen in this race. The tire degradation's been so high. Hamilton was saying in the press conference that
it's been double what they were expecting. Um some of that's to do with the high pressures that Pirelli are making them run, some of it's to do with the high temperatures at the track, some of it's to do with just the fact that this is a very demanding track. They're saying at least two stops in the race, maybe three.
So I I think it's anybody's you know, y'cause you've also got Blando Norris in fourth place. He was only three thousandths behind Antonelli. Um and the McLaren's really good on its tires. So I I It could be a really open race, uh which would be great to see.
Kimmy Antonelli was mentioning their after qualifying that Mercedes have the strongest race pace. But you were having a look at the the data, Andrew, and you think that actually Ferrari possibly have the stronger race pace. But of course Hamilton mentioned that it's gonna be tough on Tars, that's gonna be the same for everyone. But could we possibly see that once Lewis does get in front, he's gonna be able to to keep the lead?
Well there seems to be a lot of kidology going on today because you're absolutely right, Alice, the on the race runs on Friday afternoon at least. Now of course the thing about the race runs on Friday is the cars have changed since then'cause everyone's uh uh modifying their setup all the way through the weekend until qualifying.
But Leclerc definitely had the fastest run on a medium tires. And out of the two Mercedes drivers, although Antonelli was talking up his race pace, it was Russell who was definitely quicker than Antonelli. on Friday. Hamilton did not have a good day on Friday and he's talked about that today, about having to uh he talked about having to reset before qualifying. He'd struggled to catch up after missing first practice to let the Ferrari development driver take part in that session.
Um but if Hamilton can match uh the the race pace that Leclerc was showing on Friday then there's every reason to believe he can take the fight to the Mercedes, even if he wasn't sounding that confident about it after qualifying. That's what I mean by it's it feels like the most perhaps the most open race of the season so far just because there's so much uncertainty about how the ties are going to behave.
There was one stage i in qualifying we were talking about that there was a possibility of a McLaren pole position, but the highest starter for team McLaren is Lando Norris i in fourth place and he was yep, three
¶ McLaren's Unexpected Qualifying Setback
and a half tenths off the pace of of George Russell. So Abby, what happened to McLaren?
It's been a bit disastrous for them, really. I think they had really high hopes going into the weekend, especially this is the first time going on a more conventional circuit for. the this twenty twenty six season and their car they believed it would be performing in a bit of a better window. They can regulate their tire temperatures a bit better um around a circuit like this. So for them to be as far down as they are I think was a shock
to all of us, okay, don't get me wrong, it was super close from P three down to where Oscar Piastre is in P seven, not even a tenth separates them. So it was very small margins and a little mistake puts you uh many places down but it it all just went a bit wrong for them and w we thought they would be challenging for for pole position and it's it's very much quickly uh went the opposite way.
I think what was interesting was uh you can ex you can overlay in a way Norris's qualifying with Hamilton's because they were both affected by Leclerc's crash. They were both on their first qualifying run. when Leclerc went off, the red flag came out, they had to abort. And they then took a different approach. Hamilton forced Ferrari to change their plan and allow him to go out
and have another go on that same set of tires. He said he wanted to have some kind of reference before he did his new tie run at the end of the session. Whereas Norris didn't do that So he didn't have a full lapse reference and he admitted in his session is in his interview after the session that as a consequence of that he couldn't take the risks that he would have done on his first lap and he thought his first lap was actually better than his second lap in that sense.
So I think there was probably some potential in Norris's McLaren that they didn't extrapolate because of that situation. Whether that would have been enough to close a more than three tenth gap to Russell is a different question.
But it could easily have got him ahead of Antonelli onto the into third place and and who knows what would have been the case after that. It should of shows obviously that uh banker lap for Hamilton really worked for him'cause he really nailed that final lap and came so close to beating Russell Tapole.
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And Oscar Piastri as well, he's gonna start down in seventh place. He was a driver that was in the top three in in one or two of the practice sessions. So again, disappointment for him, but it's so close between fourth
and seventh, which is where Oscar Piastri is gonna be starting, is uh less than tenth of a second. So just showing how close that that that section on on the grid is and and Norris, he'll be hoping to finish the race tomorrow'cause he didn't finish in Canada, didn't finish last time out i in Monaco and he's completed the fewest Grand Prix racing laps of anyone this season.
Yeah, there are a lot of reliability issues with that Mercedes power unit and it's bitten all of them in the bum at some point other than Kimi Antonelli. He's the one that's uh managed to to to finish the races in that that um Mercedes Power unit. But yeah, it it's at the point where Lando just needs to finish finished races, do the laps, he's completed the least laps out of anyone this season, which is quite frustrating for him. I mean, on the other side of the garage, Oscar Piastri
you know, he won here last year, he knows he's strong here, so it qualifies so far back. He it's also frustrating for him. But you don't know actually what's gonna happen within them four cars in a sense because reliability is a thing this year, you know, the everyone's learning, everyone's figuring it out and i it could potentially play into the hands of of the Ferraris who have seemed to have been more reliable in that sense.
¶ Red Bull and Audi's Mixed Fortunes
Max Verstappen will be starting in fifth place. Isaac Hajar in sixth, five hundreds separating the two Red Bull drivers. And Max actually was looking very strong. We were all getting excited on on commentary'cause he set the fastest first sector and Abby you mentioned during commentary Never rule out Max Verstappen'cause Max does max things, but it wasn't quite enough to continue him through throughout the lap.
Yeah, I mean uh i I think it it says a lot, uh he's always um outperforming his teammates, let's say, by quite some margin. He's only half a tenth up on Isaac Hadjar. Not even that, uh they're sitting in fifth and sixth and Yeah, Max was setting purple sectors in his last sector was the only one he didn't set a personal best in and it it was quite a large margin. He lost I think it was um three or four tenths in that final sector. So it it
almost seemed like it could have been something special and it all kind of went to pot. Um we didn't actually see where the mistake come, whether it was uh in tur I I I would assume turn ten, is that's been the the corner that's been
kind of getting on everyone's nerves this weekend with the the additional torque coming out of that um hairpin. It's quite a lot of lateral load that you've got on the car and acceleration, so potentially a snap in there just hindered his chances of fighting for pole.
It Liam Lawson was in eighth for for the racing balls, but I think a special mention to to Nico Holkenberg, Andrew, who dragged the Audi up into Q three once more, and actually he had his time deleted, didn't he, in in Q two. So was under pressure at some stage of that qualifying to put a lap that that counted on the ball.
Yeah, they're um they're getting consistently in that sort of position, aren't they, Audi? Ninth, tenth, eleventh and uh they're what I think the surprise for me out of the sort of uh the best of the rest fight if you like this weekend is that Alpine seemed to have taken a step back. Whereas um Racing Bulls and Audi have taken a step forward. I know that uh Alpine have been struggling for uh uh downforce in uh medium and high speed corners, so that probably explains that.
But it it's r i i in that sense it saves Holkenberg from his sort of default eleventh place, hasn't it? Um but uh decent job from him and he's uh he's three places ahead of Gabriel Bortoletto, his teammate. Um and of course in for the Racing Bulls team, Liam Lawson's in eighth place. That's a very good result for him. Uh Arvid Limblad didn't quite make it into the top ten after looking quite strong all weekend uh in eleventh place.
I I think Nico is one of them drivers that quietly goes a little bit under the radar in Formula One. He's he's been in Formula One for a number of years now and never quite had that opportunity at a higher up team, you know, one of the top four teams and
he's kind of he always pulls out these moments, doesn't he, where he he shows us why he still deserves to be in in Formula One, you know, dragging that Audi up into the top ten, um, is is I think a huge achievement actually and and I I think i he is helping the team and I'm excited to see where
Audi can keep progressing to and keep moving forward. Of course, it's took a new outfit um this year, the Audi F on team um rebranding and and taking a a little bit of a different structure. So Yeah, I I l I'm excited to see how this European leg continues to develop for them.
¶ Final Race Outcome Predictions
So guys, before we have the race tomorrow, predictions, winning predictions. How do we see this race playing out? Who wants to go first?
I'll let Andre I'll let Andrew go first this time.
I s w ha I'm really interested to see the race, actually. I I think it's gonna be there's gonna be a lot of action, maybe not overtaking action, but in terms of pit stops and place changes as a consequence of that. How's the tire degradation gonna balance out across the uh the three leading teams?
don't know. I still fancy George Russell for the win. He's looked so strong all weekend. Um but with Hamilton there in second place Wouldn't that be a great story if Hamilton could win in a Ferrari for the first time apart from the China sprint?
And I'm gonna back that story up and say that I think Lewis will win. I I I think he's got his first front row in the Ferrari and uh it would be amazing to see him follow it up with his first win in Ferrari. The the momentum he's taking, the change in mindset and and It it would just be a very beautiful story.
So sixty six laps await the drivers in the gruelling Spanish heat. Will we see a second win of the season for George Russell? Or will it finally be a Ferrari victory for Lewis Hamilton? Will championship leader Kimmy Antonelli take his sixth win of the season? We will find out at 2 pm on Grand Prix Sunday. This has been IMG production for BBC Radio 5 Live. Five lights for
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