Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign thanks so much for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy the episode.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: By being a racing driver, you are at the risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people and if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you're no longer a racing driver.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Wow guys, what a crazy qualifying session we had for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix.
It was just all over the place. I mean Oscar was able to come through with an amazing final lap. I mean he was top of the charts in all all three phases of qualifying. But still both the Mercedes ended up coming in with crazy laps on their last try and Charles was right in the mix there between the two Mercedes. But Oscar was able to on his final lap in Q3, nip pole by less than half a second. I. I think so. Really, really amazing.
I guess in, in qualifying that's still a pretty big gap, but I mean considering where Lando ended up in P6, he was just struggling the whole, the whole time. Where Oscar was able to get right up to comfortability with the car on the weekend, I mean FP1 was like Oscar said at the end, FP1 was crazy for everyone and more like a rally. A rally car. How they were. They were drifting everywhere. But yeah, an amazing poll from Oscar. The second of his career, the second on the season.
Both the Mercedes ended up qualifying in P2 and P4, but because they were released into the pit lane after the red flag, they came out before they were given the okay to go out by the fia. So they both ended up getting a one spot grid penalty, which I mean it's not a huge penalty, but still that's more on the team than it is on them. And like the commentary said, I was more expecting them to have a fine like the team get fined as opposed to them losing spots on the grid. But still ultimately in P3 and P5 for George and Kimmy still really, really great.
Charles getting P2 for George getting the penalty. He'll be thrilled with that. And honestly, probably the craziest out of all of qualifying is Pierre Gasly was able to not only get into Q3 but he ended up putting it in P5. And then with Kimmy getting bumped down a spot, he is going to start in P4 from where Alpine was just two races ago.
They were the worst car on the grid and now he's pushing for a podium spot potentially. I mean it is just absolutely nuts.
And obviously with all those cars up there, the struggles of the Red Bull were in full effect.
Max only in P7. I mean, Yuki in P10 is great considering how he has been in that seat so far since he was brought there last race. But yeah, Max is not happy with starting P7, but at least Lando is one spot ahead of him. So the two top contenders for the championship are right next to each other on the grid or one spot away from each other on the grid.
But Oscar, I mean, he's going to be thrown into the mix now because if he can, he can keep that. And Lando and Max aren't able to move up so much. This is going to be a crazy scenario.
Anything. Carlos was able to finally figure something out in the car and got into Q3, finishing with a P8 time. So that's amazing. Lewis a huge disappointment right behind him. And then Yuki ultimately in P10. So that is all the top 10, but that we still had some, some other stuff going on, obviously. Esteban Allcon in Q2, just a couple minutes in, crashed pretty, pretty badly.
Luckily, with the way the cars are now and how they're able to take a lot of that, a lot of the forces out of the crash.
So yeah, that was disappointing from all con who seemed to be kind of putting it together a little bit. But yeah, he's not going to be happy with that. And then the big controversy, so to speak, other than the penalties from the Mercedes was that oddly we are all the way into Q3 and we hear that Nico Hulkenberg's last time, his best time from Q1 got deleted and he just made it into Q2 pushing Alex Albon out. So for. I don't, I don't know how it took them so long. It was just a track limits deletion. So how did they, how did they not catch that?
They have to be able to because it's just not right. Albon would have gotten into the next session. He struggled in Q1, but obviously the car's fast. Carlos was able to make it all the way to Q3 and Albon has been way quicker than Carlos the whole season so far. So that sucks for Albon for him not to be able to just squeak through. So he ultimately gets P15 with no time set in Q2 because he wasn't a part of it and all con ahead of him, even though he wasn't able to get a lap in it either. But at least he was out on the track and you know, I guess it goes to what, Albon's time, I don't know because he didn't run it. He was one spot behind all con there. So yeah, that is incredibly disappointing for Albon. And Liam Lawson again, not able to get out of Q1. Man, he is just. His confidence is shot.
I feel bad for him at this point. As much as I wanted Yuki and I promised I wouldn't talk about this anymore, so I won't say much, but as much as I wanted Yuki to be in that seat, man, it's. It's brutal. He was a good driver. He was great last year in the, in the rb. So hopefully he'll be able to clear his mind a bit, maybe have a good race here and, you know, keep that good momentum going.
And lastly, I guess Ali Bearman, who was great in the last weekend, you know, getting into Q3 and finishing in P10, ultimately is back of the grid for this race, barring we get any more penalties or anything, who knows after that Nico thing.
So yeah, that is really it for qualifying. Sorry it's gonna end up being late. I had work today. So.
Yeah. We will be back with our episode on Monday for the review of the race. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and we will see you there.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: If you cannot move, switch off the car.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Thanks again for tuning in to the undercuts review of the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying. Please rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen and join us for a review of the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix race. We will see you on Monday.
