Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00And as Jack Doohan goes ahead of Yuki.
00:02Yeah, I was just going to say, Doohan then has popped it ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.
00:06And you have to say the Tsunoda experiment's not working.
00:10That's a good problem, the car.
00:13This is the man who has been on pole and has won for the last two years here in Bahrain.
00:18And it was the outside left that locked up. It locked immediately.
00:23Zach Brown said to Simon and Naomi before this qualifying,
00:27and we're not as strong in the first sector.
00:29That is definitely the case on this latest lap for both Piastri and Norris.
00:34As Leclerc goes quickest with a 1.31.
00:37Here comes Piastri, blasting his way.
00:39DRS open down the main straight by 6.100.
00:42Goes quicker than Charles Leclerc.
00:45Now for Lando Norris.
00:46Is he going to put a little bit of daylight in the evening time here in Bahrain
00:50between himself and his teammate?
00:52Right, just under 3 tenths ahead of Oscar Piastri.
00:55And we're on board then with Antonelli.
01:00Goes over the line and snatches a current fourth place.
01:03But best part of three quarters of a second away from the McLarens.
01:08George Russell behind his teammate, Kimi Anson.
01:10That's why we tend to see them rubbing quite a lot in qualifying,
01:13despite not having full tanks of fuel, of course.
01:15Oh, and he still has to wrestle the car through the exit of the corner.
01:19Yeah, we focused on it, but that is not Oli Behrman's finest lap ever,
01:22and he only goes P13, and that won't be enough.
01:25Kimi Antonelli goes third fastest.
01:28Here's Gambriel Bortoletto, last season's F2 champion,
01:31has taken pole here in the junior series and goes 12 fastest.
01:34Ahead of Pierre Gasly is on the cusp.
01:37That projected time of 1.31, 9 plus or minus 2 tenths.
01:41So he's on the cusp there, as is Lance Stroll.
01:44Stroll suffering a little bit for the second qualifying session in a row.
01:48Hadja goes into the top five from Max Verstappen,
01:51who crosses the line now to go third fastest overall and safely.
01:55Under pressure, through to the second part of qualifying.
01:58It's going to be nip and tuck for Alex Albon.
02:00What about Yuki Tsunoda, the next to the Red Bulls, to cross the line?
02:05Powering down the main straight.
02:06He goes 11th fastest.
02:08That should be OK.
02:09It's pushed Bortoletto down into that bottom five,
02:11and it's pushed Liam Lawson into the bottom five,
02:14as Russell goes ninth fastest.
02:15Alex Albon, next to cross the line, he's the slowest so far.
02:19He goes from 20th to 14th,
02:20and he makes his way out of that bottom five,
02:24and Esteban Ocon will be safe, too.
02:26And that is Esteban Ocon in the Haas.
02:29And, well, I'm surprised we've got a red flag,
02:32which doesn't surprise me.
02:34So let's have a little look now.
02:35Down into turn one we go.
02:39That looks perfect.
02:40So it's under acceleration here.
02:42Yeah.
02:45Yeah, kind of pretty much, as I said, isn't it?
02:47It gets out of shape, gets a tank slapper on.
02:51You then start trying to steer into the slide,
02:55and luckily...
02:57That's a big old impact, isn't it?
03:00Yeah.
03:01Are you OK?
03:02Yeah, I'm OK.
03:03Sorry.
03:04I'm really sorry, guys.
03:05It's OK.
03:06You're OK, so that's good.
03:07Russell Antonelli rounds the final corner,
03:11and his time is a 1.31.1.
03:14So that's what they've all got to try and aim at.
03:17George Russell will be next to cross the line,
03:19and when he does so,
03:20I'll tell you what race control is saying
03:22about the two Mercedes.
03:23In the end, Russell, a couple of tenths down on Antonelli.
03:26A grid penalty for the drivers, you would imagine,
03:29but who knows these days.
03:30I'd hope not, but we'll see.
03:331.30.5 for Lando Norris.
03:35It does tend to be a fine these days
03:36as Max Verstappen comes in and aborts that lap.
03:40So maybe they're still working on front wing angle
03:43at Red Bull to try and get it absolutely right,
03:46and Verstappen wasn't overly happy with it.
03:48This Piastri goes fastest by a tenth of a second
03:50from Oscar Piastri.
03:53I just get the feeling that it was used tyres,
03:56and we're just not quite happy
03:58when we need to make an adjustment and get in now.
04:00Leclerc goes third fastest,
04:02six tenths behind Oscar Piastri.
04:04Jack Doohan crosses the line in six,
04:07ahead of Russell, Gasly, and Holcomb.
04:09They haven't really had a punishing lap.
04:11They're sort of halfway house, aren't they,
04:13between new and used, some of those tyres.
04:16There's a catcher, punishing his tyres
04:18with a lock-up there, down into turn ten.
04:21What a feeling Yuki Tsunoda was pushing hard.
04:25He didn't know whether he was unused or new at the time.
04:28He should be safely through with that 130.7.
04:32Russell goes just ahead of him by about five hundredths of a second,
04:35and he, too, gets a flying final sector.
04:39Let's ride on board now with Max Verstappen
04:42as he makes his way,
04:43sorry, Yuki Tsunoda,
04:44as he makes his way down the main straights,
04:47and Tsunoda only sixth fastest.
04:49That might not be enough for him.
04:51Lewis Hamilton next to cross the line.
04:53He's out of that top ten at the moment.
04:55Goes fifth fastest ahead of his teammate,
04:57who's on an out lap, and Tsunoda.
04:59Gasly has now gone through the middle sector
05:03with the fastest time.
05:05He's found pace in the Alpine.
05:06Hadja crosses the line into the top eight.
05:08This could be a bit of a surprise
05:10for a few of the fancy frontrunners.
05:13Gasly drives the line,
05:14it's a reasonable run down there,
05:15and goes third.
05:17He has found some lightning pace
05:19on a track where he's qualified in the top five before.
05:22Back in his days as a Red Bull junior driver.
05:25Gasly third fastest.
05:26Here's Verstappen, only seventh fastest.
05:29Fernando Alonso is one of them.
05:30Where can he put his Aston Martin?
05:32Only P14.
05:34Six tenths off the pace.
05:36That shows you just how tight it is as well.
05:38Carlos Sainz is currently in the bottom five,
05:40trying to make amends and do something about that.
05:43Sainz goes sixth fastest,
05:44pushes Tsunoda down to tenth,
05:46and Hadja out of qualifying.
05:48Yuki Tsunoda breathing a sigh of relief,
05:50but he's not safely through yet.
05:52Because here comes Jack Doohan,
05:54and Jack Doohan goes ahead of Isaac Hadja,
05:57but by about two one-hundredths of a second,
05:59misses out on the top ten.
06:01Charles Leclerc is going to be safe,
06:04and Yuki Tsunoda, for the first time here in Bahrain,
06:07will make it through into Q3.
06:10What it does seem is that Yuki Tsunoda has got way more pace than Max Verstappen on this lap.
06:17Tsunoda crosses the line.
06:18It's a 1.31.6.
06:20Already, George Russell is nearly half a second up to the first sector on Tsunoda.
06:24Verstappen will be next to cross the line,
06:26and goes four tenths behind his teammate.
06:29Looking to see who's improving.
06:31Hamilton on Charles Leclerc.
06:3329.1 for Hamilton,
06:35as Antonelli on the new tyres goes in the provisional pole.
06:39A couple of tenths up on Yuki Tsunoda.
06:41Here comes Carlos Sainz.
06:43And he's put that Mercedes in a super spot.
06:45Yeah, Antonelli's obviously had an adventure somewhere,
06:47because he's 1.1 behind his teammate.
06:50And quite a lot of drivers will be into that gap now,
06:53including Lewis Hamilton.
06:55Hamilton goes second fastest.
06:57Neck and neck, the two McLarens, as you would expect.
07:00Leclerc goes on to the provisional front row,
07:03ahead of Hamilton by about a tenth of a second.
07:05But here come the two McLarens,
07:07led by Oscar Piastri,
07:09who takes that provisional pole from George Russell.
07:12Can Lando Norris snatch it out of his teammate's grasp?
07:15No, he can't.
07:17Just watching Max Verstappen.
07:18You said, Martin, he had his troubles.
07:21That was up at Turn 4, actually, yeah.
07:24So, waving around,
07:27trying to scoop the car up.
07:32Yeah.
07:34And then you just slow all the way down the hill after that
07:37to the braking point for Turn 8.
07:39I wondered if he'd exceeded track limits,
07:41but to be fair, his time is 10th and slowest so far,
07:44so it matters not.
07:45There's Kimi Antonelli locking up into Turn 1.
07:49That's where he lost his time.
07:51Three-tenths of a second.
07:53Russell extends that advantage through the middle sector.
07:56Hamilton loses time in the middle sector.
07:58Antonelli crosses the line briefly
08:01to go on provisional pole.
08:03Not by much.
08:04Two one-hundredths of a second.
08:05Here comes George Russell, though.
08:06It's going to be a Mercedes 1-2 provisionally
08:10as Russell crosses the line two-tenths up.
08:12That is really putting the challenge down to the two McLarens
08:16as Charles Leclerc will be crossing the line soon,
08:18and he's just aced the middle sector.
08:21Hamilton goes only fifth fastest.
08:23We're not talking about Verstappen for pole this week.
08:25He's been struggling all along.
08:26P7's about the best I think he could have done.
08:29Piastri goes fastest in the middle sector.
08:31Lando Norris hasn't got the pace on this lap
08:34as Carlos Sainz is improving in the Williams 2.
08:38Across the line goes Oscar Piastri,
08:40and he takes pole for McLaren.
08:43Russell took the challenge to McLaren,
08:45and Piastri has responded.
08:47Norris only sick.
08:48And that is a poor, poor lap from Lando Norris,
08:51who just didn't have the pace right from the start.
08:54Carlos Sainz can make it even worse.
08:55He doesn't.
08:56That's P1, Oscar.
08:58P1.
08:59Yeah, baby.
09:01Nice work.
09:02Very nice work.
09:03Thanks, everyone.