Join James Baldwin for a quick-fire run through all of the big F1 headlines from Qualifying in Barcelona.
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G'day there and welcome along to the race F1 briefing for Saturday 22nd of June 2024 brought to you by the Singapore Grand Prix, the home of Formula One Night Racing. I'm James Baldwin and this is the podcast that brings you all of the big F1 headlines you need to know in 15 minutes or less. It was qualifying in Spain, so let's get into it. Lando Norris defeated Max Verstappen in a thrilling Formula One pole fight at the Spanish Grand Prix, snatching first place on Sunday's grid away at the last second by 0.020 seconds. Verstappen looked to have a decisive edge over his rivals after comfortably topping Q2 and then leading in the initial stages of Q3 despite not even matching his Q2 time. But while Verstappen found an extra 2/10 on his second run, Norris found four, denying the championship leading Dutchman for his and McLaren's first Grand Prix pole since 2021. Norris described his lap as his "best ever" in F1 and with such a small gap between him and Verstappen, that surely made the difference today. Three-tense behind them, Louis Hamilton overturned his recent trend of qualifying defeats versus Mercedes teammate George Russell, albeit by just 0.002 seconds, with Russell having run in his toe all through Q3 and having objected to Hamilton's prep lap strategy on their first run. It was ultimately a disappointing showing for the Ferraris, though, with Charles Leclerc escaping a penalty for contact with Norris in third practice, 0.005 seconds ahead of Carlos Sines, but just short of the Mercedes duo. It meant the Ferraris will lock out Row 3, followed by the qualifying surprise of Pierre Gasly's Alpene. Taking seventh place, Gasly was only a tenth and a half off of third as he outqualified teammate Esteban Ocon for third successive weekend, albeit with Ocon also making Q3. The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was well adrift of Verstappen all through qualifying, ending up with a best lap 6/10 slower. He did beat Ocon to eighth, but will be relegated to 11th on the grid thanks to a grid penalty for driving a damaged car back to the pits during the Canadian Grand Prix. Norris's teammate Oscar Piaestri was last in Q3 and will start ninth. Piaestri had his first lap deleted for track limits, but that lap will have been tenth fastest in Q3. Anyway, before spinning on his final attempt while catching the gravel exiting turn 12. Sines' fellow home hero Fernando Alonso was 0.019 seconds off making the final segment. He will start tenth thanks to Perez's grid penalty. Perez will instead be joined on Row 6 by Valtteri Bottas, whose Saba team not only got out of Q1 for the first time since China, but did so with both cars. The teammate Joe Guanyu was last in Q2, half a second down on Bottas, and with the likes of Nico Holkenberg and Lance Stroll slotting in between them. Kevin Magnussen was the quickest of those to exit in Q1, eight tenths off the pace in the segment, and half a tenth off advancing, while also having given teammate Holkenberg a small toe on the back straight on the latter's Q2 securing effort. RB, which made Q3 with both of its cars in qualifying last time out in Canada, was eliminated in the full opening segment. Yuki Sonoda headed teammate Daniel Riccardo by two tenths, but that was only good enough for 17th. Sonoda meeting the news on team radio that he missed the cut with disbelief. Still, RB was at least more potent than Williams, another team declining sharply compared to Canada, with lead driver Alex Albon nowhere near threatening for Q2 birth, despite beating Logan Sargent by three tenths in the fight to avoid last on the grid. "It's been a painful weekend guys, I'm trying my best," Sargent told the team, after concluding his run. He also picked up a three-paste grid penalty for impeding stroll at turn 10, but because he qualified last, he won't actually lose any places at least. "The race F1 briefing." F1, and he's absolutely finest on the 60 seconds, and last lap. George Russell into the wall and out of the race. Nothing else comes close at the home of Formula One night racing. Carlos Sainz, tactical brilliance. Carlos Sainz, the winner of the Singer Poor Girl Prix. Watch it live, Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix, 20th to 22nd September. Book now at Singapore GP dot SG. Finally today, as Josh Suttler writes, Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll were deeply fortunate to have taken part in the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying sessions. I'm penalised after their antics in final practice. Leclerc was irked by Norris, getting in his way at the end of FP3 at turn 5, and then moved towards the McLaren driver, making minor contact in what appeared to be an active retaliation just before turn 7. Leclerc offered a single expletive to his engineer whilst Norris reported damage, and he said he just drove into me. It followed a bizarrely similar occurrence between Stroll and Lewis Hamilton that happened just a couple of corners before at turn 5, with Stroll making contact with the Mercedes driver. Both incidents were investigated under Article 33.4 of the sporting regulations, which states, "At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically, or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person." That's the same rule that Fernando Alonso was penalised under for his contribution to George Russell's Australian GP crash. Both Leclerc and Stroll's manoeuvres were deemed to be erratic, but not dangerous. Her driving reprimand was thus applied to both Leclerc and Stroll based on unspecified precedents. It was the first reprimand of 2024 for both drivers, and they were allowed for reprimands in a season before they get a grid penalty. So both were able to take part in qualifying as normal, a very lucky escape for them. The key difference between the Stewart's reports on both incidents was that whilst Stroll admitted he wanted to express his displeasure to the other driver by pulling over on him at the exit, Leclerc blamed ill-judged car positioning, claiming that while trying to get off the racing line before Turn 7, he misjudged the position of his car and made slight contact with Norris, the steward's road. Leclerc gave a similar explanation to the meteor after qualifying, saying, "The version is very simple. Lando exited the pit lane. I was behind on a push lap. Then when he aborted, I also aborted. I braced to be alongside him, and I misjudged. I was on the right. I didn't want to impede either the cars behind, so I was a bit in the middle by being frustrated and looking in the mirrors and trying not to impede, and we collided." But it was more misunderstanding, more than anything. Takes a bit of generous belief to agree with Leclerc's interpretation, it was simply moving off the racing line rather than making a deliberate move, especially given how I right he appeared in the cockpit in the aftermath of the incident. Leclerc insisted it was never my goal, given the risk of damaging his car right before qualifying. While that's a perfectly logical take when you're out of the car, we've seen plenty of examples of drivers not thinking about their integrity of their cars whilst they're behind the steering wheel and the adrenaline is pumping. You have to credit Stroll at least for admitting his intent. As Leclerc, it was quite clear what the purpose of the erratic move was. Bizarrely, the steward's prefix saying Leclerc's move was erratic but not dangerous with irrespective of any possible intent, which seems to indicate evidence of intent won't have changed the punishment. The kind of deliberate move should warrant a proper penalty, whether that be a grid penalty or the threat of disqualification of qualifying. Neither Leclerc or Stroll are dangerous drivers. Leclerc has zero penalty points and is often a shining example of a clean racer, but that previous clean record shouldn't prevent this moment of recklessness from having proper consequences. A reprimand can also be given for all manner of minor infringements, using a car to act out against another driver is not really comparable to a minor impeding infringement in practice and doing so should be deemed dangerous, Josh writes. If it isn't deemed dangerous as per the rules, then the rules are not fit for purpose. After all, it's down to the stewards to deliver justice, never the driver, and it's been thoroughly the wrong way around at the Spanish Grand Prix. Well, that's it for this episode. If you'd like to get stuck into more as we make our way closer to race day in Spain, then why not head to our website? For now, though, I'm James Baldwin, and this has been the Race F1 Briefing, brought to you by the Singapore Grand Prix, the home of Formula One Night Racing. The Athletic As you've probably heard by now, we've teamed up with BedMGM this season. We'll be using BedMGM lines to make all of our picks, and we'll have special offers for our listeners each week. If you haven't signed up for BedMGM yet, use Bonus Code the Athletic, and you'll get a one-year subscription to the Athletic Plus up to a $1,500 first-bed offer on your first wager with BedMGM. Here's how it works. 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