Original subtitles

So here we go again then. Time for your second qualifying session of the

weekend. But we've dispensed with a sprint now. And on London Marathon

it's time for Formula One.

to look ahead to the big one to come on Sunday afternoon. Here in Shanghai,

round five of the Formula One season. In 2024, it is the Chinese Grand Prix.

First time we've been here since 2019, and the 17th Chinese Grand Prix in

Raced around this 3 .387 -mile circuit. You take it at full throttle for 62 %

of your lap time. Two DRS zones to help you up to a top speed. Around about

214... miles an hour and 16 corners waiting to catch you out with some

traps on the outside too. Now the three tyre compounds for this weekend are the

same numbers that Pirelli brought here back in 2019. The tyres themselves have

changed a lot since then and it's the middle of the range. C4, C3 and the C2

tyre. And conditions have changed somewhat since the sprint qualifying

on Friday. It's got a lot warmer. We've seen some blue sky.

And it stopped raining as well. So it's a very different proposition for the

drivers as they go into qualifying for the Grand Prix. And a very different

proposition, Nico Rosberg, to what they've been used to in their entire

career. Because they've raced and now they've got to qualify. And normally in

motorsport, it is the other way around.

Yeah, that would be very, very strange for all of them.

especially the time also between this morning's sprint race and this

qualifying, because what are you going to focus on? You know, now you learned a

lot for the race, but actually you need to qualify now, and it's so important to

qualify up front.

So that would have been very unusual.

But I think it's good to have a bit of a disruption, something different, and we

thoroughly enjoyed it so far, didn't we? We certainly did. It was a very

exciting sprint. We're not going to talk about the results of that, because some

of you, getting up early wherever you are in the world, might not have seen

the race a little bit earlier. What I would tell you, in the qualifying

yesterday, the local hero, Joe Guanjun, got into the top ten. Now, he's not

managed to get out of Q1 in proper qualifying so far this season, along

Pierre Gasly and Logan Sargent. But the 60 ,000 fans here, some of whom will

have come yesterday, are waiting to see if history can repeat itself when he can

get into that top ten.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yesterday, when he qualified in the top ten, I mean, the whole grandstand went

completely crazy.

He's a superstar here, which is so nice to see.

And, yeah, he seems to have a good car under him as well this weekend. So good

luck to him, and maybe he can make it into the top ten, I'd say, for

race. Ted Kravitz, I can see the crowd standing up in front of our commentary

box. I can hear them cheering.

I'm assuming that's not just for you.

No, thank you, Crofty. Yes, hello, Nico. Hello, everybody from the pit lane.

It's because everybody, including Zhou Guangyu, has come out of the garage.

Well, I say everybody from about three or four teams has come out from the

garage and has queued up at the end of the pit lane ready to go. So we have the

Alpines, we have the Saubers, we have the Williams.

And two reasons.

First of all, nearly all teams have changed their setup in some way between

sprint race and then what they want to have underneath them for the Grand Prix.

Of course, what you have in the Grand Prix, you have to run in this qualifying

session. So reason one is that they need to get out there and test whether these

changes they've made in between the sprint and now actually work. And reason

two, I hate to say it, Crofty, but there's weather in the area. I checked

radar and there are some blue... splodges of rain on the radar quite a

out. It doesn't look like it's going to hit, certainly not in this session, but

there is weather around the area.

So I think they've got a lesser eye on some incoming weather. But yeah, mostly

they just want to get out and get on with qualifying.

But they're all sat there, engines revving for at least two minutes.

Yeah, we have no weather radar.

Kevin's clearly about to go.

And we came up the pitch before he did.

If we were there first, then we're ahead of the queue.

So it should be your position, but just caution.

Make sure he doesn't force his way out.

See, it's like this, Alex.

British team, British queuing rules. We got there first.

Everyone else could wait.

Yeah, let's see if you can ask Kevin Magnusson to let him buy again.

I doubt Kevin is going to do that.

Let's have a look. He's trying to go and see Kevin instead of letting him buy

the next one. Yeah, but that's Hulkenberg. Kevin Magnusson has waited

But Nico Hulkenberg has rather...

boisterously just charged out onto the track. We've seen that all weekend.

There's been a race in the pit lane. Yeah, there certainly has.

We have no weather radar in our commentary box. I'm told the

are standing up in a field somewhere near here. They're not lying down yet.

rain is not coming.

According to our official radar service or our official information from the

stewards room, risk of rain for this qualifying session.

0%. But I'll tell you what, if Ted says there's blue splodges on the horizon,

there's blue splodges on the horizon. And wouldn't it be great to see a bit of

rain towards the end? Because yesterday's sprint qualifying session

final session, absolutely phenomenal in terms of drama.

Here in the dry, pretty much everyone expecting Red Bull to dominate here, but

could.

Could they sacrifice a bit of qualifying speed, which might give the others a

bit more chance today in exchange for Red Bull having a better race pace

tomorrow? Yeah, I mean, let's still wait and see. I still have a slimmer of hope

because I saw a very fast Lando Norris yesterday in the dry.

So, for example, and the Ferraris, you never really know. So let's wait and

It could be that someone surprises us today. I'm with you, sliver of hope on

that one. Fernando Alonso.

waiting to get out. Former pole sitter here, of course, and one of three

on the grid in 2024 who have taken a pole position here before.

Carlos Sainz isn't one of them. Valtteri Bottas was on pole for the last time we

were here in China. Alonso had one pole.

Lewis Hamilton, six pole positions to his name around the circuit more than

other driver.

Yep. Can I just add something for clarity for everybody also who's

we're doing the sprint.

a race is going to be the highlights after qualifying because it's kind of

difficult for me because i'm looking at all these drivers i'm very excited about

adding something that happened this morning sprint race also in my

i'm not allowed to talk about that well you see some people you know back in the

uk might just be getting out of bed now you know unlike you they're not up with

the locks Every single day.

And I don't want to spoil any highlights for them. They might have set their

SkyQ, of course, you see, to record the sprint race. So let's try not to spoil

it for them.

Nico Hulkenberg, for that pushing and shoving his way into the queue, has been

spotted by race control, who may or may not decide to refer that to the

stewards. But that pit lane incident has been noted. And Joe Guanyu is on his

way now for his first flying lap of this session. So, Nico, take it away.

Yeah, so first flying lap here, which will be very different to this morning's

race, because suddenly the car is light, you have maximum grip.

Here today the wind is different, you have the wind from the front here, so

can brake really deep.

Missed the apex a little bit there. Straight lining the exit there. Steering

wheel open now quickly to the right to get the ideal line for that fast, flat

-out left -hander. Stay left on the exit.

Stay left, left, left so that you have a good line into the next part.

Very difficult here to hug the apex. The car always understeers. And now, again,

understeer through the middle here. You see he's almost running off the track.

And then as soon as you get past the point, you get big oversteer where you

to control the rear and try to get the power down as quickly as possible.

Big braking here into this tiny chicane where the exit is. So fundamental

because it brings you on to one of the longest straights in the year of F1. And

here this exit now, so difficult.

You're like balancing the rear tires on the limit there as you're putting the

power down to the maximum as early as possible.

That looked like a good run he had out there.

Joe is generally driving really well this weekend. And now it's so difficult.

First lap out there and he needs to nail the braking point. So he goes for 110

meters. He went there. And the wind from the back, you know, but he got it

perfect. Super job.

And then when you turn around the corner and you accelerate, you get the wind

from the front suddenly. So you have this awesome traction.

So it's all these things that the drivers now need to get used to very,

quickly. And he aborted into the pit. I wonder why.

Decided he was not going fast enough and probably needs to make a few tweaks to

the car. So better to come in now than waste another lap going around. And that

braking spot here into the hairpin, not only behind, but behind and from the

right. So it's kind of pushing you wide and pushing you forward.

everything that you don't want it to be, I'm sure, as an F1 driver.

Yuki Tsunoda with a 1 .38 .1. The DRS isn't working. Carla Sainz is working

on the medium tyre, according to the graphic there. George Russell very much

the soft tyre, going fastest overall with a 1 .36 .4.

Yuki Tsunoda, who got out -qualified by Daniel Ricciardo with a sprint

qualifying yesterday for what was the first time.

this season in any qualifying format.

We're on board now with Lando Norris.

So I heard this morning because Lando was struggling with his rear, that I'm

allowed to say, I think, in the race. So they've stiffened up the front end

mechanically is what I've heard to give him a bit of a better race pace then.

But that could hurt him with understeer in qualifying. So let's see how that

goes.

Breaking once again into that hairpin.

And you're decelerating there from the top speed of about 214 miles an hour to

what is pretty much a 45 mile an hour corner.

Scrubbing off a lot of speed there in the space of about 100 metres. Norris

second fastest.

Behind his good mate George Russell, and a tenth of a second separating the two

of them. And while that's going on on track, Kevin Magnussen now with the

fastest time, and his team -mate Nico Hulkenberg, currently Hulkenberg's sixth

fastest, is going to be investigated after the session for a bit of pit lane

barging. Now, Logan Sargent showing those understeer issues that you were

talking about. Yes, he was everywhere apart from on the ideal line.

in two subsequent quarters.

Very true.

Max Verstappen.

And what is his ideal line as he starts off on his first flying lap of this

session? Verstappen pole in every race this season. Pole, of course, in Abu

Dhabi to end last season. So five in a row and aiming to become the first

since Mika Hakkinen back in 1999 to take five poles in the first five races of

the season.

Been waiting a while for that to happen. Will this be his day? I wonder. Charles

Leclerc has just gone to the top by nearly half a second from George

And Verstappen just over four tenths quicker than anyone else in the first

sector. That's across 25 seconds of first sector. Yeah. Four tenths. So

pretty rapid start there.

I can hear your eyebrows raising there at that one in the tone of your voice.

And I think that was probably echoed by a lot of people around the world, too.

On board with Verstappen while we ride with the Red Bull driver, Karim

Chandhok's at race control for us.

I think that somewhat surprised George Russell as well, Crofty. He just came on

the radio to ask what the benchmark was, was totally about four tenths behind

Leclerc, and seemed a little bit surprised to hear that he was on the

not far behind.

You have to say, George, even yesterday didn't look particularly comfortable,

the car did. It was P11 in sprint quali 2, 7 tenths of the stopping space, even

yesterday.

Yeah, and one of the issues was that George... Came out of the garage for

laps in SQ2 and came out just at the wrong time.

We'll just watch Verstappen over the line here to complete his lap and go

fastest behind Fernando Alonso at all the pace.

In the first sector, and Fernando Alonso across the whole lap managed to go just

a few hundredth quicker. Lewis Hamilton goes eighth fastest. Yeah, the two

Mercedes came out for the second part of qualifying yesterday.

And as George left the garage, someone went, no, stop, just hang on a minute.

And George had already gone, and Lewis was still sat there. And the reason they

wanted to hold the drivers was because there was a queue at the end of the pit

lane. George sat in that queue. That's Sergio Perez going wide.

What was that?

What was he doing there?

Goodness knows.

Okay, not ideal, but he was some way off the track, to be honest.

But yes, it's not great, because if you go just a little bit deep, you just

understeer straight towards that driver.

He was literally off the track, but still in a bad place. So I understand a

little bit of frustration there from Perez, because it's dangerous, because

Perez gets it wrong, he will go straight flying into Albon. Did Albon need to

be? Yes, Lance Stroll struggling under braking with that tailwind.

Did Alex Albon need to be on the far right -hand side, on the inside? there.

Would that have been better for Sergio?

That could have been a better place to do it, yeah.

To really stay hugging on the very, very inside, possibly.

But it was difficult.

He was in a bad timing there.

So I'll finish that George Russell story. He sat in the pit lane, queuing

tyres going cold, and then never got the heat in his tyres for the rest of that

session. Lewis Hamilton stayed in the garage, tyre blankets on, and came out

with nice warm tyres. And that explains some of the difference between the two

Mercedes drivers. That information coming from the team.

Yesterday, it's Alonso from Verstappen with Bottas, currently third fastest.

keeps popping up with some very impressive laps at the start of

sessions? Yeah, but it's that car. It's the Sauber this weekend. Look at Joe. He

just went sixth fastest.

The Sauber this weekend is...

A better car than we've seen in the last couple of races. So it's really a car

to be in the top ten with, which is good to see and great for our local hero.

It certainly is.

Alex Albon speeding his way down that back straight. Oscar Piastri just

his adventures down the back straight. You can see the Papaya McLaren in the

distance there. Piastri going at a rate of knots currently.

and sending Purple Sectors first and second. Albon to the final corner gravel

trap on the right -hand side. That's been introduced for this year. The

brought closer to the side of the track, and Alex Albon goes fourth fastest, six

-tenths of a second behind Fernando Alonso.

There's Lily, his partner, watches on from the garage, and Oscar Piastri with

1 .35 .0 goes to the top of the standings. Another good lap from Oscar

but are we seeing Nico Rosberg?

Some pretty hefty track evolution going on here.

Yeah, of course, we're seeing track evolution, yeah. And it's very close at

front so far.

So for now, it's looking exciting.

And even better for Yuki Tsunoda, the DRS is now working. His first

time here at the Shanghai Circuit.

Oscar Piastri's first time here as well.

And Oscar Piastri with the fastest time so far.

Carlos Sainz was on the medium compound tyre.

They've abandoned that experiment at Ferrari.

I guess they feel there wasn't the pace in the mediums compared to the softs.

Yes, I would tend to agree with that.

So now we have some exciting laps coming up here. Carlos Sainz, as you said, is

on course for a very quick one.

And Lando is coming up as well then for his first really big one. So that's

going to be really interesting to watch now.

Sergio Perez still to get a time on the board too as Carlos Sainz makes his way

round. Turn 16. Once again, that final corner track dips down underneath the

bridge and it's a 1 .34. Neymar into the 1 .34s with Carlos Sainz. Fastest time

in Q1 in 2019 was a 1 .32 .6 from Valtteri Bottas. Ted, down to you.

Yeah, down at RB, we haven't spoken too much about them. It's been a pretty

horrific weekend for them pace -wise. But Yuki Tsunoda has just got into the

10 just to be pipped by Esteban Ocon. So Yuki at the moment 11th. Daniel

Ricciardo has reported that he's seen some smoke coming from the front right

his brake, of his wheel, the brake on his front right.

He's been wheeled back into the garage.

They're going to put some new tyres on, check over that brake.

Hopefully, for Danny Rick's sake, it's all OK. They can send it back out again.

Got a bit of a pause there.

I thought when you said reported a bit of smoke, you were going to say Ted by

the side of turn seven at the side of the track, because obviously we've had a

couple of...

Sparking fire issues in the dry here this weekend. But the FIA have taken

to prevent that happening again. And I think they've even got a fire crew

standing by down at that corner to stop the sparks igniting the turf, which

you'd think would still be pretty damp here.

But things have dried out somewhat since yesterday.

And we're on board with Lando Norris. Come on then, Nico Rosbo. Yeah, so he'll

touch the inside curb, then run it out very wide. And it's so difficult that,

oh, a big oversteer moment.

Completely missed the apex there.

Definitely lost probably two tenths at least.

That was quite costly.

Wow, still big oversteer. They still didn't stiffen the front up enough

mechanically, it looks like.

Very, very nervous still in the rear end. So here now breaking into the wind.

Let's see if he hits the apex there. Again, a meter off, but that's fine in

corner. Oh, I thought it was quick, but actually that's only compared to

Sargent's time.

So here the fast corner.

Sparks flying, the ones that...

Put the grasp on fire. That's exactly the place.

Now let's see how he gets through here. So quite nice there. Let's see if the

rear holds this time. The rear held on quite well there.

And now you go into this slower chicane here, so very deep braking, and then try

and carry the speed in. But here, the exit is the one that's so important to

really, really good exits. Use the maximum width of the track. And here,

still, like, different drivers use different lines. So he had the very,

inside there, which is quite unusual.

But it looked very, very good there. So I think he's got a great run on to the

longest straight here.

He's about half a tenth down on Oscar Piastri through the first two sectors.

obviously trying to get out of the bottom five and going out, I think, with

everyone else at Lando Norris. But I see this is McLaren saying, right, you've

got a clear track, just go out and do it. This time should be good enough for

easy progression through into Q2. Let's see, as he crosses the line, will that

be good enough? He's gone quickest overall, 1 .34 .8 for Lando Norris. And

actually nicely taken through, you would imagine, into the second part of

qualifying. Sergio Perez, last time he...

clocked in on, or checked in on Sergio. He was rather complaining about Alex

Albon being in the way at turn one. The stewards have decided no further

investigation needed on that one.

You know, I was struggling early on. It's Mercedes, unfortunately, again. I

mean, George, look where he is. He's nine -tenths off the McLaren. And Lewis

Hamilton down in 18th as well. Yeah, that is looking quite difficult to get

going here. Yeah, pressure is on Mercedes.

To get both of their drivers safely through here. Perez crosses the line.

six -faster, Sergio Perez.

It's where he qualified for the sprint qualifying.

And he's sixth in this Q1 session.

But look at that. He's six -tenths off Norris in the McLaren. So there is

still hope. And it's what we saw yesterday.

The Red Bulls were not so exceptional on one lap.

There's a trade -off here, isn't there? You've got single lap pace to get

yourself grid position.

But that might not then help you in the race when it could all be about

preserving your tyres.

You want to energise your tyres for qualifying and keep a bit of that energy

your hands for what is going to be a very long race of attrition tomorrow.

You've got Kevin Magnusson and Lewis Hamilton, Danny Ricciardo, Logan Sargent

and this man, Joe Granu.

In the bottom five currently, and we think that Sauber has got the pace to

through the Q2, which will be the first time this season for Joe Guanyu.

And he's already two and a half tenths up on a time he needs to jump himself.

Out of that bottom five. But while we focus on him, they're all coming out

apart from Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso to start their final

flying lap. Big pressure moment here for Joe, you know, in front of the whole

nation now, expecting him to again get out of that drop zone, first of all, and

get into the top ten. So he needs to nail this lap because this is his last

at it.

And at the moment, he's out at 16.

But he's going well so far. Look, he's massively up on Hülkenberg. So looking

like a really good lap so far. And his teammate, Valtteri Potat, has just gone

fifth fastest. Now, he is one of the calmest, nicest people you could ever

to spend time with, Joe Guan Yu.

If anyone's not going to feel the pressure of an expectant China, it is

be the man from Shanghai.

But these are high, intense pressure moments. And the track, I do believe, is

evolving and getting faster and faster. And the more we go on... He's locked up.

He's locked up, isn't he?

Alex Albon has just gone quickest through the first sector.

We had a yellow flag. That was all behind Joe Guanyu. Might have been Yuki

Tsunoda, which might have caused a few just to stop. He goes eighth fastest.

So six tenths off the pace, which is good. And it gets the standing ovation

here. Now is that time of a 1 .35 .5 going to be good enough to get him

Gets him a round of applause, but it's all about whether it's good enough to

him through.

Albon goes seventh fastest. So ahead of Joe Granu, it was Logan Sargent, not

Yuki Tsunoda, who had a spin at turn nine.

And that is going to cost Logan Sargent big time.

He is going to stay in that bottom five because he's lost a heap of time, as you

would understand, in that middle sector. So Sargent's going to be out once again

in Q1 in 2024.

Magnussen goes 10th fastest.

And here's the pressure moment now for Lewis trying to get out the drop zone.

Let's hope he doesn't break too late with the wind from the back.

And he did. He did exactly like Joe. He went off the road even there. That's

going to cost...

Definitely sometime, but I think he was up far enough to still make it through

comfortably. Hulkenberg just went fourth fastest in the Haas.

Hamilton crosses the line, only 12th fastest.

For Lewis Hamilton, there's a lot of green sectors being set below him at the

moment, including Daniel Ricciardo, pushes Hamilton down to 13th. Ricciardo,

ninth fastest. Really good lap from him at the end. Charles Leclerc is on a

decent lap, but he's one of the drivers at risk currently.

Pierre Gasly, who out -qualified Esteban Ocon for the sprint qualifying.

He's running neck and neck with his teammate at the moment as Lance Stroll

eighth fastest.

Hamilton's now down in 15th as his teammate George Russell goes fifth. And

that lock -up from Lewis Hamilton going to cost him dear and see him out in Q1

here? Max Verstappen goes quickest once again.

Hamilton stays 15th, but look at Leclerc's time. Purple in the middle

That's going to be a big threat.

Gasly and Ocon might be a big threat too.

Around the final turn we go with Pierre Gasly.

line Hamilton is out of qualifying because Gasly has got himself in a Q2

first time this season here's his teammate Esteban Ocon he goes 11th both

Alpines out of Q1 Charles Leclerc is the next one to try and get himself out of

the bottom five and does so at the expense of Joe Guan Yu the local hero

also locked up like Lewis Hamilton into that hairpin is out of qualifying Yuki

Tsunoda Two pays the price for a poor middle sector, and he's out as well.

Magnussen is on the track, but he will find himself in that bottom five.

Are we through? No.

No, we've been bumped loose.

Wow, that is painful.

That is seriously painful.

I mean, in 18th position, Lewis.

But honestly, that was, I mean, you know that the wind is coming from the back

there. He's had a great lap until then. It was really unnecessary to push the

limit there so much for Lewis. You know, as a seven -time world champion, that's

a mistake probably that should be avoidable.

And that's Logan Sargent with his spin, which he would have wanted to have

avoided as well.

Did Hamilton just need to pick a slightly safer braking zone 10, 20

before he applied the brakes that time?

It's going to be 20th and last for Logan Sargent for the Grand Prix and he picks

up a brake marker board for his pain too.

So it's Sargent and Tanoga and this man Hamilton. It's not 10 metres, it's 3

metres always.

And he also had the brake balance too far forward and just lost so much time

there. I mean, lost at least four tenths.

in that moment, which easily would have put him through, you know, easily.

He lost. That is a disaster.

He lost six -tenths of a second to his teammate, George Russell, in that final

sector. George Russell went through comfortably in seventh place.

Lewis Hamilton, for the first time since Jeddah in 2022, is out in Q1. And

that is the big shock after the first 18 minutes here in Shanghai.

That was close, yeah.

And he only just made it, Sergio Perez.

The 1 .35 .5 cut -off point was absolutely spot on. He was the 1 .35

Joe Magnusson, Hamilton, Sonoda Sargent, all out of qualifying, the Saffron

fastest.

Yeah, I mean, there's definitely something going on. It can't be changed,

honestly. That must be good.

Yeah, it was really difficult.

I don't know why. I just lost all the grip in T14.

Pretty good.

Yeah, it was really difficult.

I don't know why. I just lost all the... And

just a few hundredths of a second costing Joe Guanyu

a place in Q2.

Aston Martin have both of their drivers safely through to the next stages. Lance

Stroll, 11th, and Fernando Alonso, 8th. Their team boss... Mike Crack is with us

on the pit wall. So first things first, Mike, both safely through. How are the

conditions out there for you?

Yeah, it's not easy.

Both drivers, nobody's really happy.

The wind, the temperatures have picked up now and there was also a little bit

probably dust in the beginning of the session. So nobody's really happy. I

also from, I think it's something that the comments all across the field is

you hear.

Mike, Fernando said his time pretty early on, if I'm not mistaken. Do you

there's some real potential there maybe to be right at the front today?

First of all, we have to go into Q3 before we think of anything more. I

see that you can get called out very quickly here.

We see it now.

So let's take it step by step. And then we see with Fernando, you never know.

There's always...

something extra coming in the last session. But first of all, we need to

both cars into that.

Do you want to send your cars out then, Mike? Why is everyone still sat in the

garages? I can see a green light at the end of the pit lane.

Yeah, we have a bit of time.

They will go soon, Crofty.

You know me, I'm never patient. Thanks ever so much, Mike. Great to talk to

And I'm sure we'll be talking to Mike in between Q2 and Q3.

Great cheers, great applause, no consolation, I'm sure, for Joe Guanyu

afternoon. No, that's a real pity. After the brilliant qualifying yesterday,

that's a real pity for him to be so far back. Because the car, I mean, is

working exceptionally well this weekend for them.

Yuki Tsunoda had been on a run of three consecutive Q3 appearances.

That has ended here. Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargent also out in that first

part of qualifying, as was Lewis Hamilton.

The big shock of the first part of qualifying.

Hamilton out, not making it through.

Sorry, guys.

I was just watching Lewis walking through the pit lane.

That is a painful moment.

The weekend is gone. With that car, you're not going to be able to come far

the grid anymore in the race.

So, painful.

He has done it once before, from 22nd on the grid in 2016.

He came home to finish 7th that particular afternoon at a time when the

was a way more dominant car and a championship -winning car, as I'm sure

remember, Nico, from that season than it probably is now. Ted Kravitz, down to

you.

I know it's been a long weekend, Crofty, but remember with the Mercedes in the

dry of sprint qualifying and Lewis was pretty much nowhere then as well, and he

only... declared it was such an opportunity when the rain came down.

saved his sprint qualifying, having the wet conditions that we had yesterday.

So maybe he wasn't too surprised that he wasn't able to get some pace out of the

Mercedes.

Curious case of the two Haas drivers.

Kevin Magnussen had a good sprint race. Sorry to be a slight plot spoiler, and

he was tensed in the sprint race earlier today, but out in Q1...

Great job from Nika Hulkenberg. P6 in the first qualifying session.

And he manages to get his house once again into Q2. Good job by Hulkenberg.

Thanks, Ted.

12 minutes to go, and we've got the drivers coming out onto the track. So if

want to ride on board with any of them, now's a good time to do it. You need

your Sky Sports app and your Sky Sports login.

Log in and choose any one of your favourite 15 drivers that are still

you can ride on board and listen to the team radio too. And if you want to press

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watching via SkyQ, Skystream, SkyEar Glass, or even Now TV.

And if there's a shoeie on the podium at the end of this weekend, well, I'm sure

everybody would like to partake in that. Daniel Ricciardo is through to Q2.

He's not out -qualified Yuki Tsunoda in Grand Prix qualifying this season. He's

done the double over his teammate this weekend.

He's enjoying himself, I think, back at a track that he's won at previously.

Yeah, let's praise him at this point.

He's doing exactly what he needs to do now, which is...

Clearly beat Tsunoda, you know, and he's been doing that the whole weekend so

far. So that's been a very positive progress.

And they cannot stop twice like this.

I assume he means in the pit lane.

They're trying to build a gap to the car in front so that they don't have to go

slowly on the track and hold anybody up who might be on a fast lap. I want to

say slowly, going so, so slow that they're all stacking up into turn 14.

And what the Clare wanted to do was just to keep rolling, keep rolling and not

stopping in the pit lane. But that seems to be the way forward now for 2024,

that all the gaps get sorted out before the cars leave the pit lane.

It's better, isn't it?

I don't think it looks good, but I think it's better to sort it out, yeah.

This is Formula One, Nico. This is about cars going fast, not stopping in the

pit lane and forming an orderly queue.

But the engineers have worked out the best way to do it. And the reason why

do it is because you...

Well, you need to tiptoe sometimes. You need to tread very carefully, not go too

fast on these tyres and build up the temperature to the working window where

they operate at their absolute peak right from the start of your lap.

And if you've done that, then you can barrel into turn one with absolutely no

fear whatsoever, knowing the car's going to stick for you. They'll be doing that

because they have the temperatures of the front and rear tyres on their

wheel, yeah, and they're on the outlap. They're trying to manage so that they

nail the exact right... point for those temperatures to be as they hit the

beginning of the lap, which is what Fernando will have done just now.

Usually it's around 130 degrees, both front and rear.

Let's see how he gets on in the first corner. Super, wow, super grip he has.

Super grip. Wow, nailed the apex. Brought it back in nicely there. A

snappy on the back two times.

Yeah, a little bit nervous, but quite beautifully driven there.

That looked good first part.

of that sequence not necessarily from the second part it's okay it didn't lose

much it was okay and then here again nailed the apex now straight line

wheel keep hugging the curb on the outside and now pull it back to the

you get a beautiful run into this flat out corner here and then you have to

left on the exit here that's so important but he's under steering you

see the understeer on the car and here's so bumpy on the front end super

uncomfortable through there big understeer again here now and now the

around and But he had super traction.

I mean, Aston looks to have really great grip on the rear here at the moment.

It's another purple sector for Fernando Alonso. It's a purple sector in the

first part of the lap. Then Oscar Piastri and then Lando Norris both went

little bit faster.

And once again, Oscar Piastri has gone faster in the middle sector.

He's about three tenths up on Alonso.

Two -time world champion gets himself onto the back straight. Nico

put in a 1 .34 .9.

Improved by about a tenth of a second from his best time in Q1.

Lance Stroll has improved by three -tenths of a second from his best time

Ricciardo improved by two -tenths. Ocon by a tenth. And Gasly has gone a little

bit slower than he did with his best time in the first part of qualifying.

Alonso crosses the line, goes quickest.

1 .34 .8, but the two McLarens are queuing up behind him, and then Max

Verstappen is going a little bit quicker himself through the first two sectors.

Here comes Piastri over the line, quickest so far by a tenth and a half,

look at that. Alex Albon ragging it, ragging that Williams out of the final

corner. Looks spectacular, not exactly fast.

No, that's not the best thing to do.

Lando Norris, a little bit more sedate around the final corner, and showing

actually... was a little bit better, 1 .34 .4 for him.

Valtteri Bottas goes fifth fastest, half a second down. And here's Max

Verstappen, who seems to have found a nice set of rails by which to run on

around that final turn and goes quickest and becomes the first driver into the 1

.33s. He's half a second clear of Lando Norris.

Charles Leclerc next, only eighth fastest for Charles Leclerc. What a lap

Max Verstappen and what a lap for Hector also.

Unbelievable. He's found incredible pace. Let's see what Perez can do

to Max Verstappen.

Fifth fastest. Oh, and in the background there is Carlos Sainz sliding towards

the barrier, which he hits, but not at huge speed. Is there damage on that

Ferrari?

And has he kept the engine going or not?

Out of that final turn, Carlos Sainz has dropped it, and there's a red flag as

well. Because he obviously hasn't kept the engine going.

And they're going to need to recover that Ferrari. And that is Carlos Sainz

of qualifying.

He's okay, which is the first news we want to hear.

But he just got onto the gravel.

And at that stage, he's then a passenger.

Dear, dear Carlos.

I mean, it's a pretty big impact. But at the same time, it looks like the car is

still one piece.

So I think he is trying to get going again. You can just see him run too

outside tires on the gravel, but he kept it lit and spun him around into the

tire barrier.

And I think even though the car looks okay, it seems to be broken.

The crowd all craning forward to try and get the best view.

You see how he kept the power on? Yeah.

He put the outside tires into the gravel, but he kept the throttle in

fully committed.

And that was a little bit too much. Which he has been all weekend.

Had incidents with his teammates in the sprint race.

Had quite the debrief at Ferrari afterwards.

Whatever was said there would have been forgotten going into this session. But

I'm sure plenty will be said after that mistake from Carlos Sainz Jr. and his

dad. A two -time world rally champion looking on from the rear of the garage.

Corinne Chandler at race control.

Yeah, I've been listening in to Carlos Sainz's radio.

They're going through the instructions. Hey, he's got it going. Because these

cars, of course, you can restart the engine using the hybrid system.

So it took a little while for him because when he had the impact, he was

fifth gear.

It took a little while to go through the systems to get the car back into

neutral and then get the engine fired up using the MG UK.

Basically, by my understanding, he can still...

If they can fix the car, restart the session.

Yeah.

So it looks like the front wing took a lot of the load there on the impact.

But then, so for the front end, but the rear end still went hard into the tyres.

Also, it would seriously be a miracle if that car was still in one piece. But it

looks like it could be.

The one thing that's going to help Carlos Sainz to Ferrari here is the fact

we've got a red flag. Clock has stopped, which gives him and the team a bit of

extra time.

to try and get that car ready. But they are going to have to give it the fastest

of all once -overs to make sure that there is no further damage, other than

obvious, which at the moment is there's a front wing missing.

This is where the chief mechanic comes into play.

Karun, you've been listening to the team radio.

Yeah, still listening. He says he's not able to offer any feedback because the

tyres are completely flat -spotted.

and he's missing the front wing, but the steering wheel seems square. So,

effectively, the tracking hasn't gone off from that impact.

But, yeah, he's not able to offer any other feedback just because the tyres

completely flat -bottomed.

I think this is where the chief mechanic is going to come into play because he

will have to make the call. You know, he has all the experience. He'll look at

all the sensitive parts there on the rear especially to see if there's

bent or cracked or whatever.

And then he's going to make the call and say good to go or not. And at the

moment, my feeling is he's going to get going again. Well, I mean, you're the

driver. You'd want to get going even if the steering wasn't straight as well.

No, I'll live with that. That'll be fine.

He's still got quite a long way to get that car back to the pit.

This is like, of course, as a spectator, you don't know what it feels like, but

when the tires are there, they are completely square.

Yeah, because he was standing on those brakes, sliding forever.

The vibration in the cockpit, like you literally cannot see properly where

you're going. Everything, the whole road is just a blur.

It's so extreme. That's why he's going so slowly also.

Let's have a look once more on board at the incident that has caused the damage.

Definitely low lack of commitment, huh? Yeah.

So the front end goes much harder, but it's the front wing that takes the load

there. And then the rear was a little bit softer, so it's possible that he

lucky. Is that just too much speed carried around that final corner?

Yeah, of course, yeah. But maybe he also just got a little bit of an unexpected

understeer or something.

And then even when he was out there, I think he would still be okay if he would

have lifted a little bit the throttle, just accepted that, okay, I need to be a

little bit careful now because I'm on the gravel.

But he just kept it full in.

Ted, down to you in the pit lane.

where Carlos Sainz has made it back to the Ferrari garage.

And I've got to say, he still had full steering authority, Crofty. Obviously,

he's made it around the track, so we know that. But he's able to come into

pits, sweep left a bit, and then be rolled back by the mechanics. So

looks okay.

Front suspension for where I am, a couple of garages down looks okay.

Obviously, there's no nose on it, but that's a 12 -second job.

And then, yeah, I think whatever, they'll send him out.

Definitely, they'll send him out again with a new front wing. And if there is

further damage, then obviously he'll come back into the pits. But I think

Sainz has got away with that one. And you've got to say, Krofty, after the

stellar start to the season he's had, that's the first mistake he's made in

2024. Not bad going.

Yeah, absolutely.

Second time this weekend, a Ferrari hits the wall in qualifying.

Bit more damage this time around.

And a lot of scampering now.

to see if that car is road -worthy or track -worthy to send back out again. We

saw the flat spots on the front tyres.

You had a good, close look up on the replay of the front suspension as well,

Nico. Yeah, no, but I couldn't see anything.

Everything seemed OK.

It's such a high -pressure moment now for the chief mechanic because it's all

his responsibility.

He needs to look at the entire car and make the call.

Three times last year, Carlos Sainz missed Q3. Hungary, Qatar and Abu Dhabi

the smooth operator in for a rough afternoon here with missing out on Q3.

I love that. The prayer from the fans who desperately want to see their hero

back out in qualifying. And no news yet.

to when we might get a restart.

Debris to be collected by the marshals and the barriers need to be given the

once -over.

Freddie Beathur on the pit wall. His predecessor, Jean Todd, would have

his fingernails down to the bone at this stage.

He was the proper fingernail chewer during a Grand Prix weekend with Jean

Yeah, but you could see Fred before also putting his hands to his face, and you

can just see the incredible intensity of the moment, not only for the fans, but

also for the team boss, and of course, even more so for the driver.

Fabulous team boss.

Freddie Vasseur. He was my team boss in Formula 2.

I know him very well.

Super smart and a proper racer at heart, you know, and that's what everybody

loves about Freddie Vasseur. You know, he's not a businessman or whatever. He's

just a pure racer.

And a much more jovial person than sometimes you would think from the

well. Yeah, he likes his dark humor and joking around, yes. He does that.

Didn't he try to shove Carlos' face into his birthday cake? That's right. By

surprise. He just underestimated the strength of a Formula One driver's neck.

Because Carlos went locked up instantly.

Yeah, you're not shifting a Formula One driver's neck.

It's quite the trained muscle, it really is. So six minutes and 45 seconds on

the clock when it stops. You can see the sweeping operation taking place on the

track.

60 ,000 fans here today as well. A brilliant attendance for a Chinese Grand

Prix. That man's wearing...

There's colours on his head and on his shirt. And there's plenty of Ferrari

here as well. And that was the moment that Carlos Sainz went too wide at the

final corner.

And what looked like ending his session.

Managed to restart that engine.

Has brought it back to the pits. And we have got now three minutes and 20

seconds until we get going again.

And as they're fitting the tyres, one assumes here they go, Rosberg.

that car is going to be good to go.

It does look like it.

And it's just somehow, it's how it goes when you're a race car driver. You just

get these streaks where suddenly everything goes your way, you know, and

all the luck is on your side and results just come your way. And that's how it's

been going for Carlos Sainz this year, except for his operation, of course.

But apart from that, just everything goes his way.

As he told Lando Norris, get rid of the appendix. You're going to be that much

lighter and better for it.

Yes, after the pain of Jeddah, and that really was immense pain for him on the

third day in Jeddah before he had to go and have that appendix operation. He's

returned back to the track, and every race he's competed in this season, he

finished on the podium, and he's won one of them.

Right, Ted, down to you.

Got a little bit more information from Mercedes about the changes they made

might have contributed to Lewis Hamilton's early exit from qualifying.

They say that both drivers wanted to improve the car in low speed and medium

speed corners. So that's towards the changes that they made between the

race. And this qualifying session, George Russell Crofty has just been on

radio saying that they need to improve a little bit the traction in turns two

and three. But Nico, give us some insight. If Mercedes would have made

changes to make the car, give it more grip in low and medium speed corners,

would that have contributed to the Hamilton lockup? Or is there anything

would have been unsurprised, surprised by? Or was it just that mistake which

meant that he was out in Q1? What do you think?

No, so they had too much understeer this morning in the race on Lewis's car in

the slow -speed corner. So what they would have done is soften the front up a

little bit, which actually would have helped with that braking problem that

Lewis got with the front lock -up. So it will not have been because of a set -up

change. It was really just an underestimating on Lewis's behalf with

coming from behind.

Thanks ever so much indeed, Ted.

We approach the resumption of this qualifying session.

Would they have been aiming to do two laps at this stage anyway? Or are we

to get a period of about three minutes where nothing happens and everyone all

goes out together to get the lap in right at the end? I wonder.

We shall see.

With George Russell, Carlos Sainz yet to get a time on the board, but crucially

for Carlos Sainz.

Even if he does get out there, that's one set of tyres he will not be using

again this weekend, let alone in qualifying.

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon also in that bottom five.

Alex Albon has been knocked out in Q2 at every race so far this season.

Currently on the fringes of Q3, but separated by about five one -hundredths

second from Daniel Ricciardo. We're going to get our answer.

George Russell, at least, is coming out straight away with no time on the board

to at least set a time that he hopes will be good enough to take him through

Q3, but he might need two laps here.

George was going well, though, in the first part of qualifying, so I

see him as a candidate to make it through.

He's got the track all to himself.

at this moment in time. Now it's all about tyre management.

You're always watching front temperature, rear temperature.

How do you bring the front temperature up? You put the brake balance far

forwards and you do it from inside. So you brake very, very hard as much as you

can and you build the temperature up from inside. So from the brakes is how

build the temperature into the tyre up.

Less so by driving and swirling and things like that. Of course, that force

also important for the surface especially to get the whole surface

softened up.

Bulk temperature is the one that's critical, and that's from the inside.

So he's going to be managing that with brake balance and everything.

And especially on the rear, then you need to take it easy. On the traction

he's going to be very careful always on the exit of the corners because you

don't want to build up load on the rear tires because the rear is always going

to be very quick to come up on temperature.

And you want to start with them right at the bottom of the window when you start

the lap.

Cooking your dinner. You don't want to burn the outside straight away. You want

to get your core temperature.

It's pasta al dente.

Absolutely. Get your core temperature.

Honestly, it could be Sunday roast, actually.

But your core temperature nicely up to where it needs to be, and then you work

on the surface after that. But it's an art, huh? It's an art. Because you can

also say, hey, I'm going to start the lap with a little bit cold, just

turn one, and that can be from driver to driver. You know, it's really an art to

nail it.

Can you sacrifice turn one too much here, though? That's the thing. It

You can't say it across the board. It really depends on the driver, what

feeling out there.

So, Max Verstappen and George Russell out on the track.

Lewis Hamilton out in Q1. Before we get going with the action here, let's hear

from him right now.

Well, Lewis, not expecting to see you here.

It looked like you did have the pace to get through. What happened in that last

sector?

Yeah, I just struggled.

I made massive changes into qualifying and, yeah, it wasn't too bad in some

places, but I struggled. I couldn't get the race to stop in 2014, so it is what

it is. I'll have fun from that day.

You said you'd found something in the car and it looked decent in the sprint.

know you'd made some changes through.

Maybe with tomorrow partly in mind, is it going to be a hard day, or do you

think you can make it?

Well, this morning, George and I had very similar cars, but then this

we're trying to experiment still with the car, so I went one way, a long way,

and then he went the other way, just to see if we can find anything. That's what

we need to do at the moment.

But, yeah, it didn't work.

I'll give it my best shot. 18 is pretty bad.

But when I was making the setup changes, I was like, you can't get any worse,

surely. And it did.

So, yeah.

Apologies for the language at the end of that interview there, Lewis Hamilton.

I still think in a confident mood that he will at least enjoy himself tomorrow.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting how this year, because George has most of the

time been in front of Lewis, 4 -1 now in qualifying, and Lewis always tends to

say, yeah, but we have so different setups and such a big car difference.

that's kind of his excuse been so far this year. And each time he says that,

George is like, last time I checked, the cars are pretty similar.

And he's gone again for that. So it's quite interesting.

Whatever way George Russell has gone, it worked better for him in that first

part of qualifying. He goes third fastest now.

Had Hamilton not made that mistake and lost 6 tenths to Russell in the final

sector in that first part of qualifying, he'd have been around where Oscar

Piastri was, and that won 35 -0, so he would have been safely through.

Set -ups, wind direction, missing your braking point, whatever it was, the fact

is Hamilton starts the race in 18th place.

Good lap -lap from George Russell to go third faster to 1 .34 .6.

Where's the cut -off going to be? With two and a half minutes to go, though, to

send ten drivers through to the shootout for pole.

Once again, Valtteri Bottas is there in the top ten.

Once again, Oli Behrmann watches on from the back of the Ferrari garage.

after his magnificent performance in Jeddah, where he got driver of the day.

Well, no F2 action for him this weekend, so he can focus on what you need to be

an F1 driver.

I've seen him for the first time in person just before. He is tall.

He is very tall. He is very tall.

He's almost 187, 190, I'm not sure, but I don't know what that is in feet.

He's about six foot one, I thought.

Something like that, or six foot.

Definitely on the very tall end for a Formula One driver. Yeah, and young, and

very young too.

And very fast.

at the two old boys in the commentary box yet. They're tall and they're young.

Do you know what the problem is with tall drivers? It really compromises the

aerodynamics of the car, because the car is always built around the limit of the

driver, which is top of the head, so that you just sit under the air intake,

then bottom, which is where that V -shape cut comes from the aerodynamics

front of the chassis.

And if you have a tall driver, you have to put that cut at the front of the

chassis further out, which immediately costs lap time.

What he needs is to go to a team that already has a tall driver there, so

they're used to running a tall driver. You know, like a Haas, for instance,

who've got Nico Hülkenberg there, who may or may not be going somewhere else

next season. That would work for Oli Behrmann, potentially for next year.

And that's all for next year. One minute to go here. This is about getting out

of the bottom five and putting a bit of distance between yourself and that

bottom five. Carlos is cringing going into turn one for the first time. Flat

out, you know, I hope this car holds.

Looks to be holding all right so far.

And he takes that slightly wider line.

Swings it back in. Seems to be holding fine. For Carlos Sainz, who midway

through this session had a big accident.

Caused a red flag.

Lost his front wing.

Managed to get the car back to the pit lane.

They've given it the once over. Said it's fine. And he's only three

off through that first sector.

Time so far. That belongs to Fernando Alonso. He's just done a 24 -9.

Isn't that incredible? The driver mentality here. A couple of minutes ago,

was in the wall. The whole weekend was game over. He had a big clunk in the

wall. And now he goes out and he's straight back on it mentally and

nailing it out there.

So who's improving at the moment? A 24 -9 in the first sector with Sergio Perez

as well.

25s for Bottas and Hülkenberg. 25 -1s for Leclerc and Ricciardo. And for Ocon,

25 -2 in the first sector for Pierre.

Gasly, as Carlos Sainz carried on on his way. Not the best middle sector we've

seen, probably dropped a couple of tenths, and it's the 1 .34 .6 that's the

projected knockout time. If that's right, anyone from, well, Lando Norris

Max Verstappen should be okay. George Russell's in the pits, might be okay. He

is that 1 .34 .6, and the first of those drivers, there's about four of them,

all on a 1 .34 .6 at the moment. It's Ricciardo, ninth fastest, goes into the

top ten, but... Is that going to be good enough? Carlos Sainz crosses the line.

Goes second fastest.

That should be good enough for him.

Alex Albon has been out in Q2 at every race so far. This season adds the

Grand Prix to that as well. Only 14th for him.

Ricciardo's now at risk as Charles Leclerc puts Ricciardo into the bottom

and goes third fastest.

Sergio Perez on a decent lap here for Red Bull. Needs to be because he's

currently 10th. Goes second fastest behind his teammate.

Valtteri Bottas still out on the track trying to get out. Out of the bottom

and does so.

Goes 10th fastest, pushes Lance Stroll down into the bottom five in this Q2

session. And Lance Stroll is going to be out of qualifying as a result of that.

Pierre Gasly's out too.

And that was a stellar lap there from Valtteri Bottas right at the end to put

himself safely through at the expense of Lance Stroll by what? 69 thousandths of

a second.

Yep. That didn't end too well. Mike Crack was saying we need to first get

cars into Q3. And here we go. Lance Troll dropped out.

Couldn't have been much closer, could it?

Yeah, it must be. I would tend to agree with that.

Beating your teammates straight away out there after being in the barrier.

I was about to say, all okay with the car? Yes, it seems to be all okay with

driver too. Science is through. But we have lost the Alpines of Gasly and Ocon

with Alex Albon sandwiched in between.

We've lost Daniel Ricciardo and we've lost Lance Stroll with the two Red Bulls

the fastest.

We are so on a knife edge with everything.

We can see from the video, it's just difficult to get between the high speed

low speed, but well done today.

Yeah, thank you.

Audrey, we are through in B10. Good job.

Yes! Good job.

About to be got us.

I think we are through. Good job.

Yes. Good job.

I'm very happy about it. Second time this weekend, he's got to the top ten in

qualifying. At the expense, sadly, of Lance Stroll.

His boss, Mike Crack, is with us. So, so close, Mike, between Bottas and Stroll.

And it still seems really tricky out there for the drivers.

Yeah, unfortunately, just knocked out by 600, unfortunate.

It's very tricky out there, as you say.

A lot of wind.

The car has a different balance through the corners.

But, yeah, as I said, very, very tight.

But, yeah, we take it from there and we see how the Q3 goes.

Was it a clean lap from Lance there? I mean, he's only two tenths away from

Fernando, so it looks to have been quite a good lap, actually.

Yeah, it was a good lap. I think he lost a little bit in the first sector.

The other two he could match.

Quite comfortable all session so far. So we need to have a look into that. But

as I said, with these small margins, it's really tough.

And with Red Bull quite a long way away from not just you, but seemingly

everyone else, is the second row possible? Because it seems very tight

third and fourth spot.

Yeah, we need to see now who has how many tyres.

and how many they can use.

So certainly having two is not a disadvantage.

And if you see how close it is, you know, you cannot really predict. It can

anything, I think, from, yeah, between the High Line and the Red Bull to down

P10. Let's see. It will be a good session.

Absolutely. Let's see.

Have you got two tyres left, two new tyres for Fernando?

Yeah, we have plenty left. No problem.

Thanks, Mike.

Appreciate that. We'll see you out for two runs then. Mike Crack with us for

this weekend. First time we've had Mike on the pit wall for us as well. It's

great to have his company this weekend.

Minute to go then for this final part of qualifying.

If you have two new sets of tyres, two new sets of softs, what advantage does

that give you other than you get two runs in? But from a driver's psychology

this. It's a huge advantage.

It's a huge advantage because on the first run, you know, you can already

the limit there. And it just helps you practice again. Because everything is

changing all the time out there. The track is getting faster.

The limit is moving further and further away from you.

So it just helps so much. Like if you get a used tire, you don't learn

The used tire is so much slower.

It's like seven tenths slower.

We just got married. This is our honeymoon.

Watching the Formula One race. That's awesome.

Did you spend your honeymoon at a racetrack? No. No, I didn't.

But I hope his wife is feeling it as excitingly as he is. I'm absolutely sure

that one. What better place to unite than here at a Formula One racetrack?

Anyway, so it's a big disadvantage when you don't have two new sets because you

just don't learn anything with a used set when you're out there.

In fact, you might even unlearn because you have even less grip than, you know,

you have so little grip.

So sometimes it's even better to just go for one run then with a new set and

that's it.

I'll tell you who has got two new sets of soft tyres.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. And I think it's Bottas and Hülkenberg are the

drivers that haven't got new sets for this Q3.

And by the way, we praise Valtteri Bottas for getting through.

And it was a brilliant lap for Sauber's first Q3 appearance of the season. But

Nico Hülkenberg as well, second time he's been in Q3 in five races this year.

Another stellar qualifying performance from him. That's with a Haas. I mean, in

qualifying, he is just phenomenal time and time again.

We always see that.

Just with the car he has, it's difficult for him to convert that then into race

weekend.

generally. Although he's had two 10th place finishes so far this year. It's

better this year than it was last year. So certainly Nico deserves also a spot

potentially at Audi then, you know, which he's on for.

So the paddock rumours suggest he was being rather coy with me when I

that to him on Thursday and just smiled and said, we'll wait and see, we'll wait

and see. But the rumour is that he'll be off to Audi for next season.

As they start their F1 projects with their own engine to come in in 2026 as

well. Right, McLaren on track.

Oscar Piastri, first time here in Shanghai and putting up a decent

so far. But you get the feeling he's going to need to find a couple more

certainly to his teammate, to progress from what's looking like at the moment,

row four in this race.

Yep, Lando definitely has the edge this weekend in general.

It is a super difficult track, this one, also, with these long corners.

It's so hard to get it right, get the lines right.

So it really helps when you've been here before.

Lando Norris in the wet pole for the sprint qualifying.

Would dearly love to add another pole to his tally of one in the proper Grand

Prix qualifying from Sochi, of course, back in 2021.

He's out there with Oscar Piastri, his teammate.

Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hülkenberg out there doing battle as well.

The two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. Sainz, who had the

caused the red flag, came back out onto the track, still went faster than his

teammate in Q2. Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin. George Russell for

And the two rebels of Verstappen and Perez.

Verstappen seeking a sixth consecutive pole, which would be the longest streak

of his Formula One career.

and the longest since Lewis Hamilton did it in the back end of 2016 and the

start of 2017.

So, Nico Rosberg, take us through this lap with a three -time world champion.

Yeah, here we go. First of all, I'm happy to appear on a statistic. I don't

appear much very often anymore because it's so long ago because of my poll

from 2016.

So, Max Verstappen, here we go.

That's not a phenomenal first sector, but I suppose decent enough.

Let's see how he gets through these high -speed corners now.

This one is flat, this first part.

Unbelievable how he's able to... The car has so much grip through those corners.

And look, he manages to get all the way back to the edge of the track there

again for a beautiful run through here, just opening the track up massively.

That was just perfect driving through there. And that was with a tailwind as

well. Yeah, but you can see how Alonso has beaten him straight away in the

sector. So that first sector was not so perfect.

Let's see how the second sector is compared. Bit of an oversteer snap

which is not good because you lose so much straight away because it slows down

your speed for the whole straight that's coming up. So now the whole way down

the straight, Max will be like one or two hundredths, two kph slower than he

could have been if he had a more clean exit there. Well, he's three tenths up

his teammate, Sergio Perez, through the first two sectors.

He's a tenth up on Fernando Alonso.

How much did that little snap cost him down the back straight in terms of speed

and overall lap time? We'll find out in a moment. 135 .4 to beat. Beats that

easily. 133 .9 for Max Verstappen. That's your provisional pole time then.

it's his teammate Sergio Perez who will be next across the line. Does so with a

134 .4. He's half a second down on his teammate.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, going nicely on the road. He's just got the final

corner to try and navigate. gate.

As he's searching for row two, ideally, I think, for Aston Martin.

And that puts him onto the front row alongside Max Verstappen. Four tenths

but a good time from him. And, oh, that was Oscar Piastri nearly losing it where

Carlos Sainz did lose it. And that definitely cost him time as he kicked up

load of dust into the air. Carlos Sainz next across the line. Fifth fastest for

Carlos Sainz. Lando Norris swinging that McLaren through the dust on the track.

Norris goes onto the... second row. Fourth fastest for him.

Charles Leclerc next across the line. And it's only seventh fastest for

Leclerc. It's Verstappen and Alonso. Front row for Aston Martin.

Provisional pole for Verstappen. What a phenomenal lap there from Alonso.

And it's a banker lap. So what a fantastic job.

We see Oscar having a Carlos Sainz moment there. But Oscar lifted more than

Carlos Sainz.

He went a bit more cautious there. That would have cost a tenth and a half or

even two, so that actually was a really good lap from Oscar there.

It certainly was.

Carlos Sainz.

Let's see how the gravel all got kicked up there. Carlos Sainz ahead of Charles

Leclerc. Sixth fastest for him.

So what happened is he turned in a little bit too early, took too much of

inside curb, that pushed him into an understeer, and then he went slightly

and that's why he ended up on the gravel. So there you go. Your top ten.

With George Russell just coming into the pits now, as you can see, nine have

been out. Valtteri Bottas yet to come out for his final run. Karim Shah, knock

down for you.

Yeah, Crofty, just a quick line on Russell. I forgot, he was the only one

ran the soft tyre this morning in the sprint race. So he had to do that first

run on a used set as well, apart from Nico Hülkenberg.

Thank you very much indeed.

What a great position for Fernando to be in now. He had such a phenomenal banker

in there in the fight for P2.

And then now he can just go absolutely full attack for his next run. Because if

he then messes up, it's not the end of the day, but he has the chance to really

then put an incredible lap in afterwards.

Fernando Alonso, some 4 ,290 days since his last pole position in

Formula 1. He's currently on the front row.

His best efforts for Aston Martin since he joined the Silverstone -based team.

Fernando is someone who has statistically less poles than one would

only has 20 -something, 23 poles or something like that, if I'm not

22. 22, which is, I mean, for someone with his history, it's much less than

would expect. He's always been much better in the races, so he has 32 race

Yep. And I know that because he's my rival in those statistics.

That's why I know his numbers. You never forget.

I love it.

Ted Kram, it's down to you.

Red Bull and Sergio Perez is regretting a set -up move he made. He's been on the

radio. His engineer, Hubert, saying, did that extra bit of front wing compromise

you? And Sergio said, yes, it did compromise me.

What is the gap from Verstappen to Perez? Four tenths. That's more than

seen recently in qualifying in 2024, isn't it, Crofty? We've seen Perez

to Verstappen from that. But it looks like Perez went a wrong way on set -up.

And they're going to reverse that little tickler front wing on that Red Bull and

see if Perez can get it. But back ahead of Alonso and make it a Red Bull 1 -2.

Let's see.

It's always so difficult in qualifying because as the track ramps up, you get

more and more understeer. So you want to dial the front wing up and up and up.

But there's a point where for the car, you just put too much and you fall off a

cliff. And then the rears just become really snappy and struggle.

It's very difficult often to know where that is. And that's probably what

happened to Sergio there. The Ferrari is coming out at the same time. Karim,

you've been listening to their team radio.

Both drivers, Crofty, sounding a little bit confused. They both came on saying,

oh, not quite sure what happened there. Went slower than they did in Q2.

Didn't feel like they had a good balance, especially in the first sector.

Verstappen also two tenths slower. But, you know, I think Ferrari, both drivers

seemingly less confident than they were after Q2 for some reason.

Interesting. So here we go then.

We've already got five drivers out on the track to start their final flying

laps. Valtteri Bottas is joining those, tiptoeing around,

trying to protect the life of those shiny red stripes, Pirelli tyres.

The two Red Bulls joining.

On the track in a moment, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri already out on the

track. McLaren without a top six start here since Lewis Hamilton left the team

at the back end of 2012.

And they've got two drivers in the top five currently.

Verstappen's out on track as Red Bull on what is the 15th anniversary this

weekend of their first ever win and pole in Formula One here at the Chinese

Grand Prix.

go in search of their 100th pole in their Formula One history.

If Ferrari can pit them to it, it's 250 poles for Ferrari.

But Rebel have only been around since 2005, and a 100th pole here this

will be some effort for the Milton Keynes -based team. Yeah, Ferrari is not

going to pit them to that one today.

For some reason, they are struggling a little bit more than expected here at

moment. But still, they have a chance for P2. I mean, really here, I think the

biggest race is on for P2 at the moment, which is very, very close and very wide

open still.

It certainly is. Alonso just pipping Sergio Perez to deny Red Bull a front

As it stands currently, Norris, Piatti fourth and fifth.

Sainz and Leclerc, 6th and 7th. Hülkenberg ahead of Russell. Valtteri

to complete a lap in what is his first Q3 appearance of the season.

And so, Carlos Sainz.

The first of two drivers to go into that gravel trap and rather more

spectacularly than Oscar Piastri starts then his final flying lap of a session

that could have ended in absolute disaster in a sporting context for him,

could yet still get him a top four start if he can find just that little bit

more pace.

And how was he through the first four corners?

Yeah, it was not perfect, but it was definitely...

Very decent. Let's see how he does on the first sector.

Should be a bit slower than for Tappan.

That's not a great first sector.

Ferrari still seem to be struggling.

And not just struggling against Verstappen, but two tenths down on Nico

Hülkenberg. And while we see Sainz struggling, his teammate Charles Leclerc

struggling even more. And I wonder if the track temperature has changed just a

little bit as well, which often affects some of the times. And the wind

direction swirling around here a little bit, maybe catching the drivers out. Oh,

yeah. I mean, I'm looking at Sainz on board here, and he's having quite a

difficult time there. Although the second sector, he's hanging in there. So

not lost too much more there.

the wind radar, the windsock, it's turned about 90 degrees.

Charles Leclerc absolutely aces the middle sector, so reducing some of that

deficit, but he's still got a long way to make up here. Piastri setting

best times, and he's only a fraction outside the times he needs.

Verstappen, 24 -9 for the first sector. George Russell, 25 -1 for the first

sector. George Russell up in third place as he crosses the line. Fantastic lap

from George there. Seriously fantastic. Decent lap from him. Carlos Sainz to

finish his lap then.

Where's he going to put that Ferrari?

Crosses the line, goes on to the front row with a 1 .34 .2.

Now that has just set the bar a little bit for his teammate Charles Leclerc to

follow. And Leclerc does go faster than Carlos Sainz, albeit by only two one

-thousandths of a second.

Here's Oscar Piastri. He goes on to the front row now.

Was going brilliantly for the first and second sectors.

Kept it together too. Bottas, only ten seconds. than the Sauber, one place

than he was for the sprint qualifying, but he will be very happy with that.

comes Lando Norris and he goes on to the front row now, was polled for the

sprint race and now he's on the front row alongside this man, Max Verstappen,

who is going to take Red Bull's 100th pole position in Formula One and he goes

faster than his first lap.

Verstappen on pole for the sixth race in succession and for the first time since

Mikel... Hackett in 1999.

The first five poles of the season all go to the same driver. Here's Fernando

Alonso. He's on the front row alongside Max Verstappen. Brilliant effort from

him. Sergio Perez next to cross the line and he just knocked Fernando Alonso off

that top row and makes it a Red Bull one and two in qualifying.

It's Verstappen from Perez, the 100th pole for the Red Bull team.

As we said, what a fantastic battle for P2 there.

I think Alonso just did an awesome job there in the end, putting the Aston

Martin there in P3. At 42 years old, fantastic to see you.

Absolutely superb. But there it is. Pole position for Max Verstappen.

And as I say, for the first time since Mika Hakkinen in 1999,

we've got a driver taking pole in the first five races of the season.

It is pole. position, mate. So just over three tenths. Nice job.

Yeah,

very lovely, that.

I mean, the car was definitely very quick in quality, so well done.

Well done, Max. Fantastic performance. That's number 100.

So, fantastic performance.

Yeah, that's for the team as well. Let's thank Christian for the good spirit

there, because the other two by now are a little bit very measured.

Very good points.

Very good point. It's a nice symmetry, isn't there, to taking your 100th pole

the track where the team took their first pole as well. You know what it's

to take a first pole position here in China.

Nico Hulkenberg with ninth fastest overall, just to mention that he will

go and see the stewards.

I think it was certainly noted for that pit lane incident right at the start of

qualifying where he seems to be accelerating in the slow lane. Bit of a

but fun boy.

Tidical. Good job, guys. Good result for tomorrow.

Really super, Checo. Really, really good second run there. And that's 100 poles

for us, so 15 years after the first one. Well done, mate.

Well done, mate. Well done to the whole team. So I think those who disappointed

were Ferrari, surprisingly far off.

I mean, six tenths and a bit off.

From Verstappen, that is a huge gap.

And one by one, they all thought they'd done enough to get alongside Max. And

one by one, they all kind of fell down a bit. George Russell with his hands on

his hips there, walking away, thinking, right, we need to find some pace for the

race here.

Might not have got pole Sergio Perez, but it is his best ever qualifying here

Shanghai. Never previously started in the top six at this racetrack.

For Red Bull, that front row lockout, only their fifth in this turbo hybrid

that started in 2014.

And for Max Verstappen, a first ever pole here in Shanghai, which means

the 21st different track that he's taken pole at. He'd never actually qualified

in the top four here before.

And he goes past Ernst Senna and Nigel Mantle, fourth on the all -time list for

the amount of different tracks that he's taken pole position at.

Difficult weekend for Mercedes again, no? I mean, P8 and George, I think,

got the maximum out of it. And he's only a tenth and a half quicker than the

Haas. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's really tough to digest.

That might swing around a bit in the race. You know, if the tyres are being

energised a bit too much, they will drop off quite drastically towards the end

of each stint. But disappointment, I think, is an understatement.

Not just George Russell in 18th, but Lewis Hamilton down in 8th, I should

But Lewis Hamilton down in 18th for his worst start here since he started 22nd

back in 2016.

And one of the worst starts to a season he's ever had.

Sadly for Lewis Hamilton, that is very much true.

In terms of Grand Prix racing as well, no top four finish in the opening four

races for the first time since 2011 for the Mercedes team.

Worst start to an F1 season for Lewis with no top six finish in the first four

races as well. So strange and difficult to understand how the incredible

Mercedes team...

struggle somehow to understand these new regulations aerodynamically, how to get

the most out of it. I mean, it's changed a lot because now the aerodynamics are

so much more important under the car rather than over the car. So there is a

change there. And of course, under is more difficult to measure in the wind

tunnel and to correlate what you find in the wind tunnel to the real world.

But somehow they don't get it right.

Born in Holland, raced under a Chinese license. Ho Pin Tung has the microphone

in his hand and macked in front of him.

This season, the 104th position for Red Bull Racing.

You kept going faster throughout the session. How was your lap? It looked

amazing. Yeah, I think after the sprint race, it gave us a few more ideas for

the car.

And I think the car worked even better in qualifying now. So, yeah, definitely

very happy with how the whole of...

qualifying when the car was really nice to drive and also in q3 i think that

final lap felt pretty decent and also very happy to be able to drive here you

know in the in the dry yeah the conditions were pretty good so it was a

fun Yeah, we saw a lot of track evolution throughout the session. Can

explain and share how difficult is it to adapt to this changing track? I think

also coming out of a race, you know, when you then go back to low fuel, it

probably takes always one lap, you know, to get comfortable again.

Plus then, of course, you know, new tires are getting put on every single

So you know a bit where you can find, you know, a little bit more in every

single corner, you know, little references.

And also because yesterday we had a bit of rain, we had extra sets of tires so

you could practice a bit more.

And that's why I think every time, besides I think only my first run in Q3,

every time we were going a bit faster, I think the track evolution wasn't that

massive around here, but that's fine.

Thank you. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you.

Checo, the Red Bull clearly feels at home here in Shanghai.

Please share with us, how was your qualifying?

Yeah, it was very intense.

I nearly got knocked out in Q1. I had a traffic with one of the Williams.

I had to hold my lap.

Came back, go back on hot used tires and I just made it through P15.

It was just a very messy start to qualifying.

And then Q2 was a little bit more straightforward. I could really get a

into the balance.

And we were making some nice progress through the session.

And yeah, unfortunately there in the end it was just not enough.

to get Max. But overall, it's a tremendous team result because the track

changed a lot. We changed a lot the car as well to adapt to the conditions. So

hopefully that will also pay out tomorrow.

Yeah, you say it was just not enough to catch Max for qualifying.

This morning in the sprint, you had to come from thirdly starter back.

How confident are you from this position, Pete, you can fight him

Yeah, I think it's everything to play for tomorrow. We can be fighting from

there and we can, yeah, we can definitely be.

have a strong a strong rhythm and wish on today that we have a fairly good pace

in the long run so i look forward for tomorrow thank you good luck

Disappointment from the sprint.

This must feel amazing. You didn't get your best personal sector one on that

lap. Would there have been more possible?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know how far Checo is, but yeah, sector one, I had a

moment in turn one and two, and he lost the car.

And then I said, okay, I keep going or I abort the lap, you know, because I lost

like two turns in two corners.

But yeah, we didn't give up. We kept pushing all through the lap. And yeah,

set a good lap time. I think the car did improve since this morning. We made a

few setup changes.

Let's see tomorrow if we can translate that into points.

Yeah, how beneficial has this Park for May opening been for you? And how

confident are you that you can translate it into good results tomorrow for the

race? Well, I think it's the same for everybody. You cannot change the car

completely because, you know, you are into the rhythm of the weekend. But you

can still make...

Some small set of changes, some of them are just for balance problems, but some

of them are just guesses that you do into tomorrow's race and you flip the

So until tomorrow afternoon, we will not know the answer, but extremely happy,

proud of the team.

We are not giving up. You know, we are not in the position we want yet, but we

keep pushing.

Fernando, a lot of crowd cheering for you here. Incredibly popular here in

China. Anything you want to share with the Chinese fans?

This is incredible.

Honestly, one of the best races of the year, thanks to the fans.

They are so enthusiastic about the sport in general, and they are so supportive

of every driver and every team. So thank you, xie xie, and see you tomorrow.