Quali Recap - Blog Posts

Canadian GP Quali - Results

Q1

P20-16: Zhou, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Bottas, Perez (Ocon 5 place grid penalty, will start last)

Fastest 3: Verstappen, Tsunoda, Hamilton

Oscar Piastri "got impeded massively by both cars [Hamilton + Tsunoda]" turn 4 (no further investigation)

"Yeah, downshifts are --- as well" - Verstappen, going into pits

Albon goes 4th fastest, knocks checo perez out of Q1

Logan Sergeant also 8th fastest (both Williams into Q2!)

Q2

P15-11: Gasly, Magnussen, Sargeant, Sainz, Leclerc

Fastest 3: Russell, Hamilton, Norris

First time in Q2 in Montreal for logan sargeant and yuki tsunoda

Verstappen in the pitlane rejoins the line behind the RBs but gets noted for not following race director (investigation after session)

"----, man, just move out of the way! I bet he did that on purpose" - Verstappen on Russell

Albon's car hit the ground during a pit stop and they turned it off to check everything, but he came out to set another time

Holy Moly! I had a big moment in turn 4" - Russell, almost hitting the wall

Both ferraris (on used tyres) BOTH out in Q2; First time both cars fail to reach Q1 since belgium 2021

Q1

P1-10: Russell, Versappen, Norris, Piastri, Ricciardo, Alonso, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Stroll, Albon

Verstappen sets the same time as Russell BUT Russell set it first so he gets pole

Hamilton out of the top 5 for the first time in Montreal

Ricciardo outqualifies Tsunoda for the 2nd time this season

RUSSELL IN POLE FOR THE SECOND TIME EVER!!! HIS SECOND CAREER POLE!!

Q3

Both RBs into Q3, 100% Q3 record at Imola for Daniel!

Verstappen gets another pole at Imola despite a slower last sector

Mclaren take P2-3 behind him, Piastri ahead of Norris (but remember, Piastri's still under investigation)

((update, Piastri handed a three-place grid penalty after the investigation, drops from P2 to P5))

Both Ferraris go slower on the first sectors, locking out P4-5 with Leclerc ahead of Sainz

The Mercedes separated by Tsunoda, Russell ahead of Hamilton to make P6-8

Ricciardo makes one last minute lap on fresh tires, ends up starting 9th on Sunday

Hulkenberg went fastest but was immediately kicked down by Verstappen, Norris and Tsunoda, will start P10

Imola GP Quali

Q1

Out: Sergeant, Alonso, Magnussen, Zhou, Bottas (P20 to P16)

Oscar Piastri investigated for impeding on Magnussen

Logan Sargeant's lap time deleted for track limits, drops from P17 to P20 :(

Hulkenberg goes third fastest

Both Williams and Alonso hit the gravel, turn 18 also almost caught out Verstappen and Norris

Both Alpines and RBs into Q2!!

Verstappen went fastest in Q1 in the last few seconds

Miami ✅

Absolutely insane race, I still can’t believe Lando’s got a win now but it makes so much sense that his first would be in Miami lol

Anyways I couldn’t fit in in here but congrats to RB for getting double points this weekend!! So deserved 💙💙

I also forgot the incident with Perez locking up and going wide losing his P3 spot and !!almost!! hitting some drivers at the race start

Miami GP: Quali recap

Out Q1

Zhou Guanyu, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Sargeant, Bottas

(In order from lowest to highest position, so P20-16)

Magnussen unfortunately not in a place to get points, citing too many cars in the last corner as the reason

Ricciardo also to qualify last following his 3 place grid penalty from China. It seems if you do irregularly well in the sprint you end up placing last during quali... 🥲

Out Q2

Alonso, Albon, Ocon, Gasly, Stroll (P15-11)

Albon complains about low grip and high tire degradation, almost hits the barriers while turning

"The tyres are absolutely destroyed, I can't get them to last more than six corners."

Lando Norris gets a lap time deleted but it has no effect

Alonso, not making it through to Q3 for the first time this season

Q1 results

Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Russell, Piastri, Norris, Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Verstappen (P10-1)

Verstappen takes pole position again

Hamilton went 2nd fastest in Q2 but isn't able to replicate it for Q1

Sainz and Hulkenberg have an incident (impeding) but no further action is taken

QUALI RECAP: Chinese GP 2024

Ft. Nico Rosberg quotes because he's commentating again (scroll to the bottom bit)

Out in Q1

P20: Logan Sargeant, who spun out and caused a yellow flag

P19: Yuki Tsunoda, whose DRS wasn't working until the last 6 minutes of Q1

"I mean, there's definitely something going on, I can't be fucking 19. Honestly, the lap was pretty good." - Yuki Tsunoda, Team radio

P18: Lewis Hamilton goes too aggressively in his final lap and exits Q1 for the first time since Jeddah 2022

"When I was making the set-up changes I was like, it can't get any worse surely- and it did." - Lewis Hamilton

P17: Kevin Magnussen

P16: Zhou Guanyu, who placed an impressive P9 for the sprint, gets knocked down and out by Charles Leclerc, to the frustration of his home city

Out in Q2

P15: Pierre Gasly, who makes it into Q2 for the first time this year

P14: Alex Albon, who has exited Q2 in every race this season

P13: Esteban Ocon

P12: Daniel Ricciardo made it into Q2, out-qualifying Tsunoda for the first time this year. He had a minor setback when he reported smoke coming from his breaks in Q1, and wasn't able to advance to Q3

P11: Lance Stroll

Q3 results

P10: Valterri Bottas, who is on an absolute roll with his pace in China, qualifying P9 during the sprint

P9: Nico Hulkenberg, also managing to pull the HAAS to decent results

P8: George Russell

P7: Carlos Sainz, who crashed in Q2 (red flag) but came back on track in time to place third fastest, apparently struggling in Q3

P6: Charles Leclerc, who struggled a bit as well during Q3

P5: Oscar Piastri

P4: Lando Norris, who got pole for the sprint only to finish an unfortunate P6

P3: Fernando Alonso, oversteering a little in his final lap and just getting knocked down by Perez

P2: Checo Perez, making yet another front row lock-out for Red Bull

P1: Max Verstappen, taking Red Bull's 100th pole position, his first pole in China, and becoming the first driver to qualify P1 in all 5 starting races of the calender since Mika Hakkinen.

Bonus Nico Rosberg Commentary

"It's a super difficult one isn't it, for Mercedes. Lewis has put them into quite the difficult position there." (About what Mercedes will do after Lewis leaves)

"Lewis, you know, the 7 time world champion. That's a mistake probably that should be avoidable."

"Lewis tends to say we have so different set-ups and such a big car difference and that's kind of his excuse this year…and he's gone again for that"

"I'm happy to appear on a statistic. I don't appear much very often anymore 'cause it's so long ago." (The statistic being previous poles in Shanghai)

"I know that because he [Fernando Alonso]'s my rival in those statistics. That's why I know his numbers."

Short recap of the Japanese GP Quali!

- Daniel Ricciardo missed out on Q3 by less than a second, but Yuki Tsunoda will start 10th for his home race!! He sadly didn't improve his time in Q3 but an impressive performance nonetheless.

- A few penalties handed out... firstly to George Russell for an unsafe release into Oscar Piastri (£5000 to Mercedes) and also Nico Hulkenberg for exceeding track limits (time deleted)

- Both Williams missing Q3 again, coming in P19 (LS2) and P14 (AA23). Albon continues to with drive Sargeant's chassis as "the workload to switch the cars back over would be far too much for the mechanics." Although not ideal, the chassis shouldn't be too different weight-wise, and he's expected to have the spare by Miami. The only problem is that the front wing and rear were damaged in FP1, but that has reportedly been fixed.

Q3:

Verstappen of course will start on pole, making 99 pole positions for Red Bull! Lando Norris started Q3 in P2, but Perez put in a good lap and knocked him down to P3. Behind him will be Sainz, then the birthday boy (Piastri), Hamilton, Leclerc, Alonso, Russell, and Tsunoda.

Q2:

Ricciardo, who qualified just 0.055 seconds behind his teammate, will start 11th. Behind him will be Hulkenberg, Bottas, Albon, and Ocon.

Q1:

Stroll starts 16th, knocked out of Q2 by Bottas's final lap, then Gasly, Magnussen, Sergeant and Zhou.

Will be back with a summary of the GP (hopefully) tomorrow!!

Welcome back to another episode of What the hell is happening in Quali?

On today's episode:

- Alex Albon's crash in FP1 and Williams's lack of a spare chassis means Logan Sergeant will sit out this weekend, as his chassis will be given to Albon. So far, he's been knocked out of Q2 (P12), with the team choosing to save the softs for the race instead of getting a final lap in.

- Lewis Hamilton claims this week's FP2 was "one of [his] worst sessions" and that he's "used to [getting eliminated in Q2] now," just missing out and placing P11 for Sunday's race.

- Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q1 for the first time after his time was deleted for exceeding track limits, an unfortunate situation considering it was the lap that could've gotten him into Q2. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, got into Q3 and will start an impressive P8 for the race.

- Carlos Sainz manages a P2 start for today, showing a a spectacular recovery from his surgery. His teammate Leclerc, is less lucky, citing a "strange feeling in FP3" that didn't go away in Quali. "[He] struggled quite a lot with the front tires until the last run of Q3." He will start P5.

- Sergio Perez was handed a 3 grid penalty for impeding Hulkenberg, meaning he will start from P6 instead of P3. Everyone from P6-4 (Norris, Leclerc, Piastri) will all move up a spot.

- Of course, Max Verstappen tops the times and will start from pole today.

I spent too long on this so I figured I’d post it here! Just smth I made for fun. I’ll probably make one for the GP itself but no promises lol

The race weekend so far

Missed the qualifying session for Jeddah? Can't watch it? Here's a summary of what happened:

Q1 + Pre-Quali

Zhou Guanyu will start P20 after a crash in FP3. Although the car was fixed with a minute to go in Q3, he didn't manage to pass the checkered flag and set a lap-time.

Carlos Sainz gets appendicitis, manages to get P7 in FP2 but takes a break for FP3 and Quali (and the GP too).

Ollie Bearman, who takes pole in F2 after qualifying P19 in Bahrain, gets called in as his replacement for the weekend and manages to get into Q2!

Verstappen sets fastest sector 1 in Q1, Stroll sets fastest middle sector and Bearman sets fastest sector 3.

Eliminated: Bottas, Ocon, Gasly, Sargent, Zhou (a repeat of Bahrain, basically)

Q2

Alex Albon, the only driver in Q2 without a teammate, on used softs

Hulkenberg loses power and stops by the track, a yellow flag is called

Alonso Fastest sector 1 and 2, Verstappen fastest sector 3 (both on new, soft tires)

Tsunoda outqualifies Ricciardo by half a second

Bearman, Albon, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg are eliminated, setting P11-15 for the GP in that order

Q3

Tsunoda and Leclerc without teammates in Q3

Verstappen fastest sector 1, 2 AND 3

Leclerc says the car "feels weird on new tires...difficult to drive"

Max Verstappen takes pole position again, his first ever pole at Jeddah but not likely to be his last. It's also his 34th pole ever.

Leclerc three-tenths behind him gets to start the race in P2. They share pole-P2 in qualifying for the fifth race in a row.

Perez comes in third fastest, Alonso fourth

5-10th fastest is set by Piastri, Norriss, Russell, Hamilton, Tsunoda and Stroll (in that order)