The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Belgian GP Review

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

Please Note: the news of George Russell's disqualification emerged mid-recording, so the first sections refer to his win which is no longer the case. The LB boys review the Belgian GP where George Russell stunned the field with an incredible one-stop strategy and held off Hamilton to take the top step of the podium, before shock disqualification leaves his teammate inheriting the win. They discuss the performances of both Mercedes drivers, whether Piastri could have done more, and Perez's 'collapse' along with the rest of the day's action... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes, historic race reviews & more! JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League: SIGN UP & create your team, and JOIN our league (join code: C3PHEQHPU04) BUY our Merch SEND us something! We have a brand new PO box - address: Late Braking Podcast, PO Box 821, TRURO TR1 9PE EMAIL us at [e-mail] & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. Hello everyone. Kicking off today's episode with a quick disclaimer. You might well have heard the news by now that George Russell has been disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix due to his car being under the minimum weight limit. We did not know that when we started this episode.

the news came out some way through the episode, so you'll hear us reference it quite a lot, but at least in the early stages when we're referring to George Russell having won the race, of course that is no longer true. Hope you enjoy the show. Hello and a very warm welcome

to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the Belgian Grand Prix, a Grand Prix won by George Russell, a Grand Prix one-toed by Mercedes. Sam, what's up with that? But I love how you phrased that, Ben.

Oh, that was fantastic. We're all a little bit delicate this morning, folks. All right. We're all right with delicate. Harry for different reasons. This morning, it's 10 past four, my guy. Oh, my God, yes, it is. That's your first sign that maybe got all this well.

What's an interesting Grand Prix we just came across? I quite enjoyed it, quite tactical, quite a slow burner. But a lot to delve into, which we're going to do. do right now. I sense it might be a long afternoon. You mean a long morning? Yeah. Whatever the time of day it is.

Whatever day it is. I'm just going to put it. I'll say it. Stone Cold banger of a race. I think it was excellent, but we can get into that. Yeah, we'll get into that, mate. All right, Steve Austin, Carl then. Sorry.

Stone cold, Steve banger. Steve banger. We've got your usual classics for a review episode. We've got a moment of the race. We've got reviewing. our bold predictions, driver of the day, worst driver of the day, all coming up later on in the show. We will, of course, though, start with the winners of the Grand Prix. Didn't look like a probability on Friday, hence why many people all around the globe decided to put Ferrari in their fantasy

teams rather than Mercedes. Russell and Hamilton, Russell winning, Hamilton in second place, Russell executing a one-stop strategy going a long way on those hard tires. Sam, the commentary team didn't seem to think that this was going to be a fight towards the end of the Grand Prix. It most certainly was, and it was won by George Russell. Are we all collectively a bit fed up with the commentary team today? For goodness sake. Why would it not be a battle for the win?

I thought it was going to be spicy. Man wants to win race. Yeah. He'll definitely let him pass, though. Definitely let his team that pass for the win. Yeah. I think they thought it was going to be a lot more straightforward than it actually was, which is why he would let him by, because it was going to be caught with seven laps to go,

eight laps to go or whatever, and it just wouldn't be worth the fight. But I didn't think it ever really shaped up that way. No, when the gap was about seven seconds with about 12 laps to go, 12, 13 laps to go, and I think I said in our Discord chat, I don't think that this is going to be a walk in the park. I don't think that this is going to be a guarantee that Lewis is going to win this Grand Prix. Russell has held onto these ties brilliantly. We've seen with so many of the pit strategies that we've taken the tires off of the car, they've looked at it and gone, there's so much tread left.

The tires just kept on going. Tires were ridiculously resilient. They were able to... Robust was the words that I think the McLaren engineer used, which I thought was fantastic. Martin Brunnell was a big fan. He loved it. He loved it.

That's how you serve up a warm cup of tea for Martin Brundle robustly. Gets him going in the morning. My point here is... Russell understood this. In the morning, right? Russell understood this far earlier than anyone else, I think.

He clocked onto this very, very soon that those tires just kept on going. And famously not the tire whisper, famously has actually overcut his tires and he regularly, can't get the most out of the one like his teammate, Louis Hamilton. But he pulled off an absolute worldy today. That call from him, and I think it was entirely from him to lead that strategy call. We've seen this with George a few times. This, I'm taking control. I'm not going to car. I'm going to do this now. Sometimes it has got paid off. Today, absolutely paid off. It was a brilliant call. His defense at the end of the Grand Prix

was fantastic to maintain that gap to Lewis Hamilton between about five to eight tenths of a second when your tyres are nearly 25 laps older, give or take. Sensational driving. Genuinely, I was so impressed by George Russell at the end of this Grand Prix. I think you could tell with the reaction he had over Team Radio because obviously this is the second time that he's won this year,

which seems crazy based on where we were, you know, six, eight races ago. But obviously when he won in Austria, it was very much a response of, it was jubilation about the result, right? I feel like here it was a pure reaction to the performance that he put in as well as the result. Like he had to work for it

and it was 100% on merit as to why he did. He had input into the strategy. He executed the strategy. And I think that's why his emotion really came across at the end there. Harry, your response to George Rosser. I mean, two strategies that coincide

at the end of the goal. Grand Prix. I like that. We should have more. I want more. I'm going to reiterate something that we've said already this year. F1, do be good at the moment.

It's actually very good at the moment. Okay. Aside from the battle right of the end, the top eight for most of that race were just all in the same straight. I can't remember the last time that happened. It was excellent. More of that.

Covering the top eight, right? That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it was, It was a great call from George. And as he said, he's done this quite a few times. And more often than not, it hasn't worked out. I think he only asked for those calls when he's in a position where he knows,

look, I'm not going to do any better. I think Toto said this after the race. He was going to finish fifth, basically. And he's like, well, I don't want to finish fifth. And the Mercedes Pace was good, as we saw. I want to do something different. And fair play for him for making that cool. It's something that I'd say Hamilton doesn't often do himself or has.

hasn't done himself very often. George is definitely the one who makes that tries to make those calls, whereas I'd say Hamilton's a bit more led by the team, which more of the not has worked for him. But fair play to George for making that call. But I think more impressive then is how he then executed it, because the pace he had was very good with, I know Hamlet was still catching him,

but they were saying, you know, he's catching seven-tenths a lap. But at that point, there weren't many of that laps left. And it was like a six-second gap. So it was going to be tight. but also how he how he drove when hamilton did get onto the back of him because he was he was clearly going slow in the bits where he could go slow like in the middle sector but making sure he was getting those exits onto the like two big straights down to the bus stop and also up the up the straight to to let come so it was a highly impressive drive because i like the comment i'm

not saying i agreed that it was going to be let through but i thought he was just hampton was going to cruise up to him and be gone given the pace of you. did have. But George drove excellently, so fair play to him. Whilst the commentary team were mildly irritating with their constant, oh, you know, it's down, Dusty, it's going to move out the way,

it's going to move out the way, I expect to see him, it's going to move out the way. I actually did think that the idea that they had about, you know, get Lewis Pass and sit George in the DRS behind him to pull him along with him, I actually thought, you know, in theory makes a lot of sense and for the, would be for the best of the team, Piastri was coming, right? He was gaining and gang. I'm like, you screwed this, guys. I'm like, you have, you have screwed the pooch on this one.

Piatry's going to get you both. And I think they got a little lucky with the fact that the laps ran out. I think another lap, they might have been in trouble. Even if that had been agreed, there's no way Lewis Hamilton gets in front and then just holds. Of course. He's gone. See you.

Yeah, I'll see you. See you. Never. Bye. Yeah. Lap 45. I'll see you, mate. Yeah.

That exists. So I don't think that would actually happen. But I take your point. They were playing with fire a little bit with Pistri catching them. I think that's one of the benefits as well of having like, Mercedes somewhat in the fight. Like they haven't been in the fight for a large part of the season to this point, but the last couple of Grand Prix, they have been.

And because they aren't necessarily expecting a championship is potentially on the way later this season, they have a bit more flexibility to make calls like this. Like if they were closer to Red Bull, maybe they do play the team game and just make sure no matter what they come home with a one-two. Here, they've kind of got a bit more freedom, right, to just say, look, I mean, we might as well, like you said, Harry, go for wins rather than fifth place finishes. Let's go out for victories rather than just solid point scoring positions. I was highly impressed by George Russell.

I thought he executed that strategy perfectly. And what you said, Harry, about how with SPAR and it's often the case, we've seen it before where drivers can be very intelligent about how they use their battery and where they use their battery to effectively defend. but we shouldn't understate what a difficult job it is because as the attacker, you've only got to get it right once. And as the defender, you've only got to get it wrong once. Because as soon as you get it wrong once, they're gone.

There's going to be no other opportunity to get it back based on the disparity between the tires at that point. So George Russell has to figure out essentially straight away exactly where to use his battery. Because if you gets it wrong, that's it, race is done. So you have to not only get it right, but you've got to get it right, like, straight away, which I think is a very impressive trait of what George Russell showed today.

And, hey, I mean, first two-time winner this season outside of Max Verstappen, which... The first two-time winner... It's so weird. It's wrong. That's Perez last year. Yeah. That's mad. Yeah. Okay, sure. That's a thing.

And I looked before this race. I looked at, you know, all the races won and podium so far this season. And you've got, like, you know, Red Bull with, like, seven weeks. wings, 11 podiums or something like that, something crazy like that. And then Ferrari and McLaren, of course, two wings, two wings, you know, 10 podiums, nine podiums. Mercedes were wrong, two wings, three podiums or something like that. And now they've searched essentially to second place.

It's only by pure, poor performances at the start of the season, that they're not closer to this title fight. I'm not saying that they're in it. I go, Guntz, Guntz, try to sneak that one into the post race. Come on Ginter. Come on, Gunter. A championship fight. I love Gunter, but it's terrible on that.

not let and do that again. It's so bad. Lewis, who was already clearly in a bad mood, was like, mm, nah, is that? Oh, man. Just one last point on Mercedes that I wanted to raise, because they've come away with 43 points today, obviously everything but the fastest lap. But we do know that they had some difficulty with their upgrades. Harry, should they go away 100% happy because they've got the result this weekend or is there still a little bit of a question of well we intended to go one way the upgrades haven't really worked

but the old spec has been brilliant anyway like how do you react to that? Yeah that's a bit of a weird one isn't it where your car is faster when it has the new upgrades off it that will be a little bit of a concern even if they were this good in the race anyway that's not a good sign for when they

because they will need upgrades at some point you can't just run the same car forever. Sorry, Mercedes. So I guess that'll be a bit of... Get rid of them? Could I do, mate? That's novel. They should think of that.

Yeah, so in that respect, yes. But at least there then, it's not like where they were, where they had a slow car and they put an upgrades on. They still didn't work. At least the base of where they are now is good. So it's not like they're... And it's very good because it won the race. So that's going to...

soften the blow somewhat. But yes, I guess a little bit of a worry for them that they, they strapped those upgrades on on Friday and they were terrible. They looked terrible on Friday. Yeah. In terms of the rest of the podium, so Oscar Piastri couldn't follow up his win in Hungary with another one here, but he could follow up with a podium at least and outperformed his teammate Lando Norris on the day.

And of course, the finishing margin between the top three was ever so close. he was right on the back of both Mercedes. Sam, was it a day that Oscar Piastri can see as a positive one based on that podium? Or is he going to look at instances like the pit stop where he goes too deep, probably costs in two seconds. That might be the race win. I think Piasker is still at the point of his career where we can look at mistakes like this and not be too critical. Right. He's still only 18 months into being a Formula One driver and he is displayed.

He's really starting to come good, I think, on the expectations that we placed upon him. after race, he's kind of four, five or six when he was relatively lackluster in performance against Landon Norris. You remember something like Australia. He made that mistake. End up finishing about 15, 20 seconds, I think behind his teammate at least.

He looked well off of it. And now we fast forward to here towards the end of the first portion of the seasons as we go into the summer break, race win, podium, handedly beat his teammate again. I think that overall this third place is a very big, and get positive. But I don't, I think Piastri is someone

who is his own. harshest critic. I think he will definitely look at this. One of the things I want to talk about later is when they're in the call-down room and they showed the replay of him as sexually running over his front jack man and he just went, hmm.

You can say, what a reaction? You've rung someone over. Shout out to that guy, by the way, what a trooper. What? Oh, God. I love that. He's like, in fairness,

that could have gone a lot worse. Yeah. Yeah, that was a good effort. I also love it. In his interview afterwards, he was like, yeah, that's my first time running out of the jet man. is it first going to be another time

tick off the bucket list you know once you've done it once you've done a million times we're Australia now folks for the accent I think he knows that his own mistakes have cost him a potential race wing here

if the pit stop is better execute even a standard pit stop not even a lightning fast one that's what a second and a half game that could be enough to maybe pick up Lewis Hamilton before he gets right behind Russell equally he goes off a couple of times throughout the race right

he puts his back tire into the gravel a couple of times when he was attacking the likes of Perez going down the camel straight. He ended up running wide, going off onto the astro on the outside of the track. I'm not saying that this is massive margins, but that will be half a second, a second here or there.

You don't make those mistakes. You're a little bit more clinical with these extra little finite details across your race. You may cut four or five seconds. That's enough to win a Grand Prix. I'm not going to slam him for it. I think he's got lots of learning. I think he's doing a great job.

but he's still got stuff to develop and that's okay. How do you view as race, Harry? Yeah, I think, I mean, it was a great race from Piastri. I think, as you said, the mistake in the pit stop wasn't good. And I think he'll also be annoyed in the rest of his race, his overtakes, clinical. Like, just would rock up to the back of a car and overtake them immediately. There was no messing about. Apart from, the last one he really, really needed to be clinical, again,

against Lecler and he sort of was stuck behind him for a couple of laps, which had he got past him a couple of laps earlier, then maybe this is a different race result entirely. So he could probably be a little bit frustrating than that. But again, and I feel like we always made this point. You made the same point, Sam. It's very impressive for the stage of his career. He's out here. We're talking about a couple of, they're not really mistakes, but a couple of bit negative points to his race. That mean he didn't win his second race in only year two of his career. So it's the standard he is operating at is still pretty sensational. And yeah, he was the better of the two McLaren drivers this afternoon, I think.

I will say in fairness, with the Leclair failed overtake in the first instance, you know, Max Verstapp and Orlando Norris couldn't get by Charles Leclair in the dying stage of the Grand Prix too. So the fact that he got it done at all, I think is a good thing for him. But obviously the pit stop error might well have cost him second or first place. We don't know. I just think the mistake is the mistake. I will just put that to one side.

It's just good in F1 that those really fine margins that are deciding races. That's just a cool thing. Obviously, we had Lando Norris a very similar incident in Silverstone. Today we had, if George Russell doesn't bring up the possibility of a one-stop, Hamilton probably wins. If Fassappan doesn't take a 10-place penalty, he probably wins. It's just so brilliantly open that these, it's really fine margins separating wins from post- and podiums from non-podiums.

I think it's great to see. Driver of the day. I didn't play the jingles last time, so I'm glad Harry's vote. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. We're all in a rather delicate state today,

and producer Kirsty off-camera has just sent us on a wild ride with her camera. She's lying on her bed. Yeah. A bit dizzy. Driver of the day, Sam, have you got? Sorry, I was just taking a photo of producer Kerski lying on the bed like that.

I can share that at some point as well because these little eyes poking out front of the screen. For me, it's between the two Mercedes guys. I think Lewis Hamilton did such a great job of controlling that Grand Prix. He executes his start phenomenally well, gets past Perez in a really ruthless but clinical way. The way he moved over,

going down to Kemmel Strait, was so close. wiping them both out. But you know it was the finest margins that make the difference. Gets past the Claire as well. Excellent. And then he sits at about a two and a half,

three second gap to the Ferrari drive behind him the entire Grand Prix. Of course, it's only George Russell with his wildly bold, but brilliant strategy call that beats him.

I think Hamilton handedly had this race. I think he was going to win it comfortably. And it was only his teammate with that call that it wasn't going to happen. So I'm quite tall between the two.

I think I'm going to go with Hamilton because of the overall Grand Prix, but I want to give absolute props to Russell for that strategy call on maintaining his eyes. Contenders from my side, Lewis Hamilton, for sure. Fernando Alonso, he essentially did the midfield version of what George Russell did. So I think he deserves a lot of credit for claiming that P9. And Esteban Ockon was a straight-up beast all weekend, wasn't he?

Claiming that, that was only one point. But he was great. I think he was a contender, and I hear that he and Bruno Fumen have got celebratory drinks tomorrow. Never mind. Both leaving. Yeah, but it's okay because they've got, Alpin, have got a brand new

French inspired motor home. Have you seen it? No. Have you got a photo? I'll send a photo. It's lovely. It's the highlight of their season. It looks lovely, but also no one to operate it.

God, so Alping, isn't it at this point? But my driver of the day was George Russell. Harry. Fair. Yeah, all of the above. Alonzo was going to be one of my shouts. I think even before the race finished,

and I was like, well, Russell's going to be second tier, but he's still my driver of the day. Because to even pull off that strategy in the first place and to be fighting for the win, it was enough in my books, but to win it, yeah, straight up. Drive of the Day. And I think we've just about got time

to squeeze in the worst driver of the day before the break. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, worse driver of the day. best driver of the day you stuck at driving Harry, who was the worst driver of the day? Go on say it. Okay. I'm really sorry.

Sergio. Okay. Okay. I didn't want to. I did everything in my power. I said you were going to win the race. We'll get on to that. But the red ball,

it's clear the red ball was, was not as strong as we as it was here or the previous year. Because, you know, Vastappen, even Max Wistappen were struggling, not struggling, but he just clearly didn't have this. They were on the pace, but not the same pace as the Mercedes or McLaren. But he was slow. Like there was nothing drastically wrong with his day.

He was just slow. And it's a P2 to a P8. I, that on a weekend where he needs this to be very, good. And he was the crazy thing that dawned on me is that like you say, P2 to P8. He started on the front row, he finished his P8. Last week, he started what?

Bottom couple of positions. And finished one position higher than he said. He's 17 to P8 he did. Yeah. So I've felt because I feel like I keep giving it to Sajit Peres, but that is just, I can't see past that as a as a worst drive of the day contender.

It's just, it's not good enough. And I'm not saying, he should have won the race, but given where he started, they were all, they're all in the mix of the same pace here. He should have at least, I think at least been on the podium. And he wasn't. So, worst driver. Don't worry, Sergeo.

You've been, you've been saved at least from me because of, good old Logie beer. Oh, gosh. Slogy bear. So, I mean, we'll get into reviewing bold predictions in the next part of this podcast, but I predicted he'd get in the points. And I actually think, that Williams might have had the potential to,

but not with Logan Sargent driving the car. He was just miles off of Alex Albin all weekend long, so I'm going with Logan in, who knows, what might be his last race, maybe. I don't know. Sam, losing six places, six. That's too many. You can't lose six places in the Grand Prix

when you start the front freaking row. You lost. your teammate by three spots. Awful. But he started outside the top 10. Your second. He's 11th. How have you done that flip side?

Baby, you reverse it. You've gone the wrong way, Sunshine. You can be at the front. Where's the podium? Where's the fight? Where's the fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh? No, no. Carlos Sykes is taking an excursion route off onto the gravel.

And he's still frustrated. You are crap. That was terrible, Sergio. Absolutely awful. Slow as balls. I think when you are your strategy, your second pit stop strategy, is just to get you out of the way. That's the sign of a bad day.

Oh, that is so demoralising. Well, that's a nice note to go to our break on. On the other side, we've got more reaction from the Belden GP. So we had developed almost two battles of three individuals. So we've obviously already talked about the one for the win, where the two Mercedes were able to hold off Oscar Piastri. We then had three drivers all battling out over fourth. Polsitter Charles LeClerc, Max Verstappen recovering from 11th place,

and Lando Norris, who on the day was the worst of the two McLarence. Let's start with Charles LeCler, Sam. I think it was a rather unexpected and somewhat gifted, pole position yesterday for him. He hasn't finished on the podium. Do you think it's an okay result nonetheless? Yes, I don't think the clerk could be too disappointing with what happened here. I think we were all aligned that him picking up pole position, of course, after it was elevated from Vastappen's penalty, was an outlier.

That was the anomaly. That was not the norm, not expected. I don't even Ferrari were expected to be that far up. And actually, Carlos Sites was very much where the car probably was on pace and the clerk just putting a mega lap. Do what the clerk does sometimes on a qualifying session. He just blitzes it. He smashes it. So actually, I think the fact that he's managed to put the car in fourth overall,

he's finishing front of the Stappan, finished in front of Norris, finished in front of his teammate comfortably, Perez, who he started alongside him, his way back. You know, I think he did a very strong job.

I think the Mercedes were just better. I think it's a shame that he couldn't maybe make the call that Russell did because you never know, something might have played out, but that was, again, a one-off call. It's not something you see every day. But I don't think he's keeping it with Hamilton.

And the piastry, once he got the pace out of that McCarran, wasn't going to catch them either. So the fact he's kept the stabbing and Norris behind him, I think he could come away forth, 12 points, pretty happy. I think it's a pretty solid weekend for Charlotte, Clair. Harry, a lot is made of Charlotte Claire's pole position to not win ratio. And obviously this result hasn't helped that,

but was this all he could get? Yeah, to be that. I actually meant to give him a shout out and driver of the day because I actually thought Leclair, one of the drivers of the weekend. His lap yesterday was sensational, quite frankly. That didn't deserve, that car didn't deserve to be on. pole. I know it's P2, but Paul anyway. And then today, I think he maximized because, yes, he did fall back to P4, but I think quite frankly, he could have been P7. I don't think that

car was very good, but he held off, he held off Vestappen and Norris towards the end, magnificently. And obviously, as already mentioned, he gave Piaastria headache too in his charge through the field. So LeClaar, I think was pretty stunning. And once again, just a very consistent result. I know it's P4, but a very consistent result, which is why he's doing so well, despite the fact that he's only one race and other races have gone terribly. He's still, when he's in the contention, he's picking up big points. So yeah, great race from him. That car had no right being on pole position. That car had no right being in second place after Lewis Hamilton passed him. That car had no right to beat both Red Bulls. P4 is a great result

for him. I thought he did a very good job. And like you say, Harry, he probably was worth a shout in Driver of the Day. And like you also say, Driver of the weekend based on the qualifying lap he put together yesterday. I don't think there was anything more in this. I was surprised he was able to hold off both Vastappen and Norris towards the end. Because I think this, look, to finish fourth place and what I think was probably the fourth fastest car this weekend, that's good going. So I think he's had a very good day. Have you guys seen that this is now the sixth, uh, six, from Piero, where the pole sitter has not gone on to win. Wow.

Yeah. I've got it down here, folks. Canada, Russell Pole, Vastappan win. Spain, Norris pole, the Stappan win. Austria, Vestappan Pole, Russell win. Silverstone, Russell Pole, Hamilton, Wing. Hungary, Norris Pole, Piastri win, Belgium, LeCler, Pole, and now Russell win.

Don't get poll, folks. Don't get poll. That's lesson of today from this podcast. What about Max Vostal? Stapen and Lando Norris. So we've typically seen these two drivers fight over first and second place. Today we saw them scrap over fourth place

and neither of them got it. Obviously, Vastappen was making a recovery from 11th on the grid. He makes up six positions to finish P5. Lando Norris has another difficult start to a Grand Prix and ultimately ends up sixth place. What did you make of their two races? Vastappen looked like he was having a tricky time of it.

And actually, it definitely looked harder to pass through that top bunch of cars they expected. You really need to have some kind of tire offset, undercut ability. I mean, you saw it with Hamilton getting on the back of George Russell, right? He got up there and his tires were 20 laps faster, newer rather, and couldn't get the move done. Was I able to get that move done?

We saw it multiple times Triastrian Nicola already been mentioned. When Perez and Bostappen were both behind Russell earlier on in the Grand Prix, neither could get through as well. It seemingly was very difficult to get the moves done here. And I think Vastappen was, definitely a victim of that issue as well. Everything seems to go a little bit wrong for him.

When he tries to do the undercut, he ends up coming out right behind Yuki Sonoda, who just does not get out the way for the entire lap. And he has no reason to either, but he couldn't get that move done. Then he can't get past his teammate for a while while George Russell and him are battling. It was a bit of a struggle for him.

But I think, most importantly, he beats Landau Norris, who is the next driver in the driver's championship. He stays further ahead of him than he started the weekend with. How? How does he keep doing it? sending it again.

The guy's extending his leading again. At the end of the day, you've only got to fight the bloke who's closest to you in the championship, and he's doing that. He's done it again. Norris, on the other hand,

start calling him the butler at this point because the bottle job Norris can't get a bloody start to save his life. God as me. Yeah, come for me. See why I care. Well, he actually gets a good start.

Then I go bloody back down. It's embarrassing at this point. Come on, lad. You give it all the bigger, all the big chat. Try a mouth off to Lewis Hamilton as well around Hungary. Oh, you're a car for seven years. It's our turn.

I'm happy with your winging. Get a good start, putting a good performance. It's got absolutely mulled by your team, mate. Only good thing you did was get the fastest lap. Not good enough for Norris. He was up there for worse round of the day for me. If Perez was an absolute stinker,

Norris was poo. Honestly, hungover Sam is just sassy Sam. What are your thoughts on both of their races, Harry? Yeah, Norris, please, please, please, please, please. Can you learn how to just do starts well? I think his start was okay but then he decided just go in the gravel

of the exit of the source. Track stops there, maybe. Typically not a good idea. No, no, put it in the book. That's the source of your failure. Good stuff. Can you give him Land Stroll's number? Yeah, because he's the goad starts.

He can't get flies. But only that. More qualifying is key, though. That's why, you know. Give him like three lessons with Landstrol and Lando Norris be prime Michael Schumann. Yeah, but it'll start from 17th every race. Yeah, fair.

but yeah then which compromises race and then yeah he just it just didn't really work out from there I don't think he was particularly slow I just think he compromised it again at the start and yeah the strategy didn't really work out for him um the going along worked in the sense that he caught back up but then he couldn't do anything with it so he just sort of ended up stuck there and then later on they didn't really do that same offset so he didn't quite have the same same pace advantage anyway and he was just stuck behind Verstappen but to be honest again

I think that just all came from the came from the start so a bit of a shame for Norris especially considering Vastappen started behind him and finished in front of him that's not good for a championship battle in a car that I think is worse yeah well McLaren was definitely quicker

than the Red Bull this at least in race pace so Norris will be disappointed with that and for Stappan again it probably went under the made us somewhat, but I actually think it was quite a good drive from him because I don't think the Red Bull was amazing and is and the strategy. I know didn't get past Lecler, but I think he was pretty solid in that last stint to keep Norris behind. Again, probably help because he was DRSed by Lecler and that helped things. But I think it kind of, we heard GP say you need 10 of

your best laps here to get get to the end because I think they were worried about Norris. And as good as not great as not great as it was for Norris. I think actually Vistappen was pretty impressive, especially towards the end of that stint. a very different mood compared to last Sunday despite the fact it was actually for a worse position but yeah yeah but way more measured mature like can I have a go

and he's like GP's like yeah go and have a go it was like a different person they put him in time out I don't know yeah but calm down but that's the Max for Sassapen we've kind of got used to rather than the one we saw in Hungary where he was clearly frustrated it was a bit more you know 2018 2019 max this was

are much more, much more measures for Stappen and just playing the game and as you said, extending his championship lead again, even though he finished fairly fair down the,

fairly way down the top 10. Sorry, someone's playing a rock concet outside my window. Couldn't have been, head, calm down. Anyway, sounds going to investigate. Over to you, Ben.

I will gladly take the bat on. Yeah, I, weirdly, we were somewhat right about something. Like, we were weirdly correct. yesterday in our qualifying review when we said that McLaren had potentially underperformed a little bit based on where they could have qualified. And if one of the McLaren's gets a poor start and Vostappan

gets a pretty good start, they could be together within a couple of laps. That happened. And look, I mean, that's the combination of not being on the front row, which potentially they could have been. And Lano Norris getting another poor start. He really does need to sort this out. I think he had reasonable pace, but it was a scrappy Grand Prix from him. The attempted overtake early on on the driver that I can't remember was very scrappy. Sites, I think. Yeah, it just doesn't work out at all. I thought that was poor.

And he had, I think he had reasonable pace, but based on, and this wasn't just relevant for him, but based on the DRS being shortened on that chemo straight, it was more difficult to make overtakes into Lake Om than we've seen in the past. And I think Norris just couldn't make that progress. Like I say, he had the tire offset, but just nothing he could do with it. From Vestappen's perspective, I think it was, I think it was pretty good. Obviously, it's somewhat in comparison to the last couple of years, because this has become a trait of his to take a penalty at Spa.

And the last two times, he's gone ahead and won it quite comfortably. Today, he doesn't get anywhere near winning the Grand Prix, but equally, after he clears the couple of midfield cars that were almost inevitable, and he's on the back of that top eight battle, it was fairly apparent that actually he was going to have to really work hard to make any progress. So the fact that he's seen off three of those drivers, I think it's pretty good. He'll have much better weekends.

But I think if he was reflecting on this race, he can probably say, I did what I could do there. I don't think there was much. apart from maybe Charlotte for fourth, I don't think there was anything else out there for him. Yeah, LeCleurme was the only thing I would have expected of him that he didn't get done, if I'm honest.

I don't think he was ever touching the podium. The two distant drivers in terms of that top eight battle were Carlos Sines and Sergio Pera. So Carlos Sines was the only driver that opted to start on the hard tire. So obviously he went longest, but ultimately sort of reverted to the same strategy as most of the others around him.

He was quite a distant seventh. And Sergio Perez, of course, started on the front row. Vastappen was about to overtake him. You were suspecting before he came into the pits and was essentially a non-factor until they put him very late on on soft tires to get the fastest lap, which he successfully did. What did you make...

I mean, we've already said a little bit about Perez, I guess, Harry, but what did you make of, you know, signs? And I guess his strategy, because they were the one driver and one team to do something a little bit different from the start. Yeah, I thought the strategy was worth a go from Sines's side it didn't really pay off in the end

but to be honest I think LeCleur was so good he out drove that car I thought Sines was actually I know he had his little travel trip into the gravel or a travel as that's not known abbreviated to travel but I thought he actually

had a relatively solid race because like you said Ben that Ferrari didn't deserve to be A on pole B in fourth place by the end of the race I think that was more LeCler but that's not to say signs did a bad job. I think they tried something different with his, with his race. It didn't, it ultimately really work out. But actually, I don't think it made it any worse anyway. So,

uh, it was, it was a, it was a fine afternoon. I think it was just sort of driving that Ferrari where it belonged, whereas the club was up, uh, further than it, than it, you know, should have been. So, um, I thought it was fine, fine for Carlos. Sam, what did you think of, of, of signs his race? Uh, I was a bit, I was a bit disappointed. Um, after, um, after, really is sassy sound today. I hate everything. He's back. You're not angry.

That's just disappointed. And I'll tell you one for why. It's because... Oh, that's a big one. That's back. He had the best tire. The hard tire was the option race tire to start on.

You could rag that tire about all day long. You could push it till the cows come home and that tire will give you what it needs. It had purchase. It was robust to quote, again, the engineer. and I just think he should have been belting it off. Well, he got into the lead after everyone had done their first stop.

Extend, extend, extend. The tires feel good. The tires feel good. You know, what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to not drive much quicker. I'm going to fall into the gravel. I'm going to lose three seconds. I'm going to be drastically undercut then because of that. And then I'm going to stop early anyway and go on to the stretch of everyone else is on.

Commit to it. Commit to his pace was fine. Wasn't anything special. He drove a fine race, nothing electric. but I actually think he had the best strategy you can start with. I think if he leant into it, if he really optimized it, I do think there was more there for him

that he could have done. I think if he essentially done the reverse of what George Russell did and hard tyres all the ways about lap 31, 32, mediums, I generally think there might have been a chance that he could have been in that fight with Leclair, Verstappen, Norris,

that group as well. But he was a country mile behind. I agree. I just put more emphasis on it being the team's fault. I don't know what they were doing. They had the strategy right there in front of them. I agreed with the decision, by the way,

four signs to start on the hard tire. Try something different. They're the only ones in that, what would be top eight to do something different. Great. Just extend it. That tire was surviving quite well. You get to the point where your past lap 20

and suddenly a one stop becomes a real possibility. And then I was so surprised when they boxed him. I couldn't understand what they were doing. They then go to the medium tire. So I was like, okay, they're going to go quite long on this medium tire. And they're just going to have a very quick last in. They are playing for a safety car on both the first and second stint. They did like seven laps on those medium tires.

What's the point? Yeah. He was then put out in the middle of nowhere on old hard tires. I just could not understand what they were going for. It's like they started off on the right path and then just veerate. off some random direction because, I don't know, saw an advert for some pizza or something. I'll go that way instead.

What are you doing? Do you think Lewis Hamwis is looking at this and going, oh, crap, we've got a one, two. And my guy who I'm replacing has got a strategy he can save his life. Why do you think he was so furious after the race? He's like, oh, no, I'm not going to the result. I'm going to my future.

He's seen Charles LeClauer pull off a great performance to finish two positions lower than him. Woo, Rarikarlet, he best geared constantly. yeah should we do big brain strat yeah what you got some

uh well we just spoke about it carlos sykes being in the middle and nowhere he may as well put me in the field and watching mow the long at this point

because he was so in the middle and oh well mow the gravel mate travel around as harry were going to say um because obviously it might have been more productive for him

I just I can't I've not going to dissect any further but that was panks I'm going for Ferrari, just a different Ferrari, because they always give us so many options. Charler LeClair, he stayed out slightly longer than a couple of the people around him. Like, this is good.

I think we should extend. Green tick. Good point, Charles. I like that. Good thinking. Maybe you should extend. Cut to Shal LaCle coming into the midst. Literally five seconds later.

Yeah. I just thought, yeah, that's very Ferrari, isn't it? Let's extend. Box. If we're being undercut, please let's extend. No. Boxbox. Yes, we agree.

And boxbox. Granted, you know, Ferrari do have a great history of awful strategic decisions at Belgium. If you remember the classic from a couple of years ago, where they decided to pitch Charles Clair late on to try and get the fastest lap. Oh, yeah. That was a good one. I like that one. Oh, done, Ferrari.

Yeah. So that's two different Ferrari, big brain straps. What have you got, Harry? I mean, that's probably the, ones I would have gone for, the Science One especially. I was also going to shout out R.B. For starting Daniel Ricardo on the soft ties for really no inexplicable reason. Like, what?

What? Why? And then it, like on the, on the slow, I guess because the tires went off quicker for him, but also pitting at the same time. He didn't, it didn't offset at all. He was just at the same time as the other medium runners, which he might as well just start on mediums to be quicker at the start. R.B. literally went, well, that went well, well, and hungry.

Yeah. Let's just do it again. Yeah. How can we really annoy Daniel Ricardo again? Give him another bad strategy. Yeah, anyway. It was quite a good strategy. He should have just executed.

Oh, Benj, come on. Oh, Ben hates Daniel Riccano. I'm only joking. You should see what he wrote in our schedule. Let's find it. No, no, no, no. That was a joke. Yeah, that'll do it for Big Brain Stratt.

Should we review some bold predictions before we get a break? Sure. Oh, fine. Yeah, I don't know why I said that. I've already revealed mine from earlier, which was, of course... Have you been the Abacus out, Ben? I actually haven't unwrapped it.

Come on. Come on. We've got Stang Abacus by a lovely F-150 by Jamie. You can watch us, unboxing, I'll be able to break in a Patreon. It's marvellous. Ben, not using the tools he's given. Well, I just didn't think it was worth opening based on...

Without the truth. I didn't get it right. It just seemed like a waste. What do you mean? Someone's getting important. points, aren't they? Just like pretend to move one across. You should have one at the bottom that is racist.

We haven't scored points on. And that should just tick up. There's not that many there. I said Logan Sargent would score points. He finished 19th. That doesn't score points in the world of F1. Harry, what was your bowl prediction? I said, well, I started it by saying that we'd have another different winner.

So immediately it was wrong. And that different winner would be Sergio Perez, which was even more wrong. It was a good start. As in like, you know, second on the grid. Oh, I see what I mean, yeah. I thought he meant, well, no, because George Ross is 21. Both points were wrong. No, I see what I mean.

Yeah, well, after yesterday, I was like, Sergio, come on. And then he did not. Then he heard about your ball prediction and said no. Sam, what was yours? Mine was that McLaren will repeat their performance in Hungary and get another one to, making it two in a row for the first time. God knows how long. Only one of them got a podium and landing, or this was poo.

I saw her one-two today Yeah, wasn't McClown though I actually meant to I did say this I just think Kirstie's negative me I think she's sabotage What we should have said though

Was that this was the closest Non-Safety Car finish Between the top three For eight years One point 173 seconds Yes What was the last one I actually

Annoyingly I don't have the race I've just seen the statistic Of eight years ago 2016 Oh is it going to be Hamilton pushing Rosberg back in Abu Dhabel? Yeah, probably that's what it is, right? Yeah, surely.

In Rosberg and Vettel because they were all... I was literally in a car park at the end of that Grand Prix. Anyway, we'll take our second break on this episode. We've got some more teams, some more point scorers to discuss right after this. Fernando Alonzo, he's doing his best, didn't he? Goodness, mate. That Aston Martin, just not quite on the pace of the top four teams, but he does at least come away with the grand total of two points.

place. I mean, I say it's somewhat sarcastically, but genuinely, Harry, that was probably his version of a P1 today, right? Yeah, I mean, that Aston's not capable of being any further up at the moment, but he, yeah, he beat everyone else on that, as you say, the same as Russell, on that one stop, which it wasn't the quicker way to do it. But obviously, if you're being excellent as a driver, which George Russell and Fernando and Anzo were today, then you can pull it off and come away with the result. It's a shame for Fernando. It wasn't 25 points.

It was too. They secretly planned it at one of their George Russell, Fernando, alongside flights or passes that they have. Inevitably, yeah. Let's do a one stop at the next race. With Longso having a massive cigar because he seems to always have that every time they have a photo together.

Have you seen it's like a TikTok, by the way? You must have done, Harry, because surely you must be telling you. They're off, they're unhinged. I love the one where he just walks out and puts the camera down, rungs into position. and then walks through the frame. What is that? 1.4 million likes.

Sure. But no, Alonzo is really good today. I think it completely flew under the radar. You didn't see him all afternoon. Tell me at the time we saw Fernando Alonzo on screen. Well, I think the whole point was because he didn't have to overtake anyone to get the position. He was never to any action point.

Well, he just stopped once, didn't he? So he was like he was there the whole race. but no one got near enough to him to create a battle. So, yeah, I thought it's an impressive drive from Alonzo. Again, I think that's probably one of his better races, best races this year. And it's a real shame that it's for basically nothing. I did want to give on the Astor Martin side of things,

just a small shout out to Lance Strohl. Because I don't think his pace was particularly great today. But he did a very good job of essentially backing up Fernando Alonzo. So for a long part of that second stint of the final stint, Lance Stroll was in 10th place, Fernando Alonzo and 9th place. And Landstrol was essentially just holding up Daniel Ricardo and Esteban O'Con. Now he fades away and only finish his 12th place.

So he didn't have great pace. Alonzo was definitely the faster driver. But equally, Alonzo's result, I think, was helped by what Stroll was able to do earlier in the Grand Prix. Alonzo, I thought, did a very good job. I'm not convinced that Ashton Martin was actually the fifth fastest car this weekend. We had Stroll complain about how, well, I was going to say how fast, how slow the car was in a straight line. And let's face it, if Landstrol is complaining about the slowness of a car on a straight line,

Fernando Alonzo is probably not too happy about it either. So I don't know. I'm not sure that car was actually genuinely the fifth fastest car. So respect to Alonzo for getting the two points. do you think you're on sorry so you're so furious about the strategy in Hungary is like well I'm doing the least amount of stolt's possible now

if I don't have to see you then I will be okay I'll do the legal amount required and that is all talk to me or look at me or speak to me or touch the car more than you legally have to thank you what is box yeah what is I only want round things so they go on the car and then you leave me alone

considering that it's his birthday tomorrow I imagine that he's probably quite looking forward to kicking off the summer break with a big old big summer blowout and to get away from this two point, Ashton Martin, which he's dragging around. I think he did a really, really good job. He won Formula 1.5, which is what it is at the moment, right? No normal car back there is getting into that top eight if everyone finishes at the moment. You've really got to be quite sublime with your ability. You do everything he could. There's literally nothing else he could have done. And I agree, Ben, that you brought up Lance Stroh. I think he was a real team player. If you can't be there on pace to

pick up points or to really do anything major, help your team out to get out to get. get the most that you can. And I think that's exactly what he did. I think he was a really useful part of the Ashton Martin team today. Side point. It's excellent that Formula 1.5 is now 9th downwards

because there was a time used to be like fifth downwards. That's a fair point. We've improved. Yes. It's going the right way. The other drivers score points today, Big Esteban Ockon.

Love that. Inspired by the new livery, of course. Actually made a lot of overtakes. You can keep the Renault engine. You're allowed to do that. No, they have to get rid of everything. Get rid of everything until it's all gone.

There's nothing that makes it look like an Alpine anymore. Drivers, team principal, engine. They're just mantling it bit by bit. Yeah, get rid of it all. Burn it to the ground. I don't know why, and there'll be another car we promise at the end. It's been a few dodgy races for Alpine, but they seem to be a bit better here, Harry.

I mean, we know that Ocom was in the top ten in qualifying as well. so it's not like he got there out of sheer luck. Like he qualified there, he finished there, some good pace. But it makes no sense. Why would it be good at this track? Because it's slow and a straight line. They weren't. Can I just say as well?

I know they are so heavy that like a London bus. But stop pretend. I know they had a special livery this weekend. But the livery they advertised versus the livery that we got is not even comparable. Where was all the reds? It was none. I was like, there's less three red stripes. I saw a picture of it come out on the Thursday, like, actually in spa.

And I was like, there's less paint on it now than there was before this weekend. It's just getting, it's a special livery to be lighter. Ridiculous. Yeah, they're sponsored by carbon fibre. Maybe that's why it went better. I don't know. But yeah, they were, they, Ocon, especially was pretty impressive this week. I just really didn't expect them to do that well this weekend.

So it, this confuses me somewhat. but maybe it was just Ocon being excellent they just they're just winging it race to race aren't they they're just rocking up and going oh we're okay this weekend

or one two in Bonsor can we do a power young at please yeah it's a it's a strange one but I mean again considering where that car's been where that team's been

to come away with the point is actually pretty good so fair play to walk on I think he drove well and executed that strategy pretty, pretty seamlessly. Sam, Ocom, P10. Obviously, none of the top eight, there weren't any retirements there, so it is only good for a point, but equally, it's a good showing. Seems like a bloody yo-yo. Up down, up, down, spig it around, do a cool trick.

Yeah, I don't really know what Ocock could have got out of this. They were not as fast as a long-so. The strategy wasn't as good as a long-so strategy. I think they did really well to hold off the likes of stroll who was coming through. Of course, you're like Album, who I think was actually looking pretty pacey today.

The fact that Ricardo couldn't get near them either and that very different strategy, both horse drivers kept at bay as well. I actually think Gasti was quite disappointing. And I think it was a shame that he ended up so far away from Ocon overall, not even 11th or 12th. The fact I think he was, what, 14th or 15th is where he finished yet.

So to be that far down is, I think, does need to be mentioned. that is a support showing from Gassi. And at the start of qualifying, which we watched together, we were commenting how, you know, we were joking, oh, O'Con's blinding this time, he's blinding this time, right? But really, Gatsley was the stronger driver

after literally the last run of Q2. And from that moment onwards, when O'Con got into Q3, O'Conn was better, consistently better. Don't know what happened, don't have to set up twigs. I don't know in the dry conditions, he felt a bit more comfortable,

but you just seemed to be better, and it was a really good showing for them. So really glad that they've signed him on for next year. I've got some really bantherous news. Oh, wow. George Russell's under investigation for his car being underway. Alpine, couldn't be us.

Alpin looking at him, you know, double cheeseburger, like, not asking you. I will double check to see if he's in my fantasy before telling you what I think about that news. He is in mine. No. He's in mine.

Let's keep that result. Please, S-1, thank you. To be fair, I wouldn't say no to Piastri getting out of Aitas as well. He's in my team as well. Anyway, Esteban Ockon. Race winner. Yeah. Just top nine, throw him all out.

I thought he was brilliant. And actually, I think Alpine somewhat fumbled this, because I think he should have had two points for ninth. I think he had the pace to beat Alonzo. But they were, I don't think they were great strategically. So whereas you had, Alonzo and Aston Martin very much go down the we're only stopping once route

or maybe just Alonzo saying that and the team going well we can't really do anything about it and then you had Daniel Ricardo and I didn't mind the Daniel Ricardo just box as early as you can technique Alpine kind of seems somewhere in the middle they were very slow to react to some of the other teams coming into into the pits

and it caused Ocon to have to make a lot of overtakes just to get back to where he was so I think roughly he finished where he should have done it. It was just the strategy I think made him work a little bit more for it than he needed to. But yeah, this was this was a far better result and a far better performance than what we've seen in recent Grand Prix. One driver who just missed out, Daniel Riccardo, and obviously Yuki Sonoda had the 732 place grid penalty, which meant that he started in Antarctica, but Daniel Ricardo had a far better starting position was in the points for a good chunk of the Grand Prix.

but narrowly, well, I say narrowly just outside. He might have 10th place now. Who knows? What did you make of his performance nonetheless, Sam? I thought Ricardo did well. I thought his qualifying ending up being a bit disappointing, and I think that he should have been in Q's through properly. I think he let himself down on that final run there,

just decided he didn't fancy going out at the right time. You know, they took a leaf out of Alpine's book, apparently, and that's the right way to run things. But then in the race, his pace was pretty good. I think points were on the cars and I do think that if it wasn't for the bizarre choice of tire situation that they went for I think he probably had the ability to beat Ocon overall

I'm not sure here I've got Stroll, I've got Strull, sorry, I long so with Stroll's help but I do think that that final point is on the car so you have to go now with maybe Russell being disqualified which looks pretty likely. He might pick up a 10th place, which I think he deserves. He was comfortably better than Sangoa as well all weekend,

even with the penalty being applied. I don't think it's going to hang a lot of pace this weekend. I really don't think he was doing well. So yeah, it's a good weekend for Ricardo. I'm sure he'll go into the summer break. At least feeling a little bit positive. It's nothing a scream about, but it wasn't a bad session. Harry?

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty solid race from Ricardo. Currently missing out on a point, but as you say, may well be getting one after all. But I thought, yeah, fairly solid. And the strategy you have the start was a bit odd. And I think he did well to not lose that more. But yeah, I guess qualifying is the only. only thing you'd criticize him on,

but as you said, Sam, I think his pace over Sonoda was, was good, was a good chunk better. So, uh, it's a, it's a solid race from,

from him. He might have hoped for maybe one place better, but again, I think maybe that's just sort of the strategy went for him. Um, but who knows, this is such a weird one.

This could be his last race in a, in a V, in a V carb in a Menardi. And it could be his last race ever. could be his last race with V-Carbon and he gets to Red Bull, which is the most bizarre situation I think I've ever heard of. So we'll see what happens over the summer break. Inevitably, it will be announced on a Thursday.

But yeah, I thought it was a pretty good, pretty good race. And kind of he's finished the first half of the year way better than he started it, which for Ricardo, I think, has been important. Yeah, that was a, that was a real interesting strategy called to go with the softs, but given that Pirelli essentially laid out two. strategy options. Medium, medium hard, or medium hard, hard? I don't hear the word soft in that.

Okay, Sam's a great impersonation of RB. Because no one else thought of it. Everyone else went with the mediums or the hard tires. And they just went, oh, let's chuck on the softs because that's something we do now. This is our team. It wasn't really, like you said earlier, Harry just wasn't really worth it, was it? Might as well just start on the mediums for everyone else. I think they did an all right job

they were okay and I think this was about where they deserve to finish I think Ricardo was pretty good he was far better than Sonoda was even with that penalty but yeah I don't think this wasn't one of their absolute best weekends like pure performance wise otherwise you know maybe they can find their way to

more than just one point or more than just zero points depending on what happens for Russell but yeah I think it was a solid performance Should we take our final break on this episode? We've got Moment of the Race right after this. Welcome back to the final part of today's episode where we will go through our moments of the race. We have some Discord submissions coming up very shortly.

Before we get there, though, what did we give as our moment of the race? Sam. I spoke about it already, but actually despite being a really, really good Grand Prix, which the drama apparently isn't ending because this Russell DQ is looking more and more likely I'm reading it online.

I'm going to give it to Oscar Piastri's reaction to himself running over his own front jackman, which I just thought it's so piastry. The guy doesn't say a lot anyway, but just watching himself run someone over and just going, hmm, it's such iconic reaction. It's like,

should do that again? Anyway, I kind of feel like he looked around the room to be like, anyone else noticed that, no, we're good. We've got away with that. go away with that one. You didn't see anything.

Into the bush, like Homer Simpson goes. I just, I thought it was so comical. He's really up there for me as a bit of a character. I love him at the moment. So, yeah, great stuff. That's my moment of the post race. I'm going Piastri as well, but for the near overtake and the overtake on LeClaire, because I thought LeClaire's defense on Piastri was very good in the first instance.

I don't think he was poor in the second instance, by the way, but Piastri's move around the outside of Leclair, I thought was very tasty. So I'll go with that. Harry. I had that one down, the Piastri LeCleur move was filthy. The other one was Lewis Hamilton coming over the radio

and saying there's something between his legs and I'm refusing to elaborate any further. We know what you're doing, Lewis. Come on. We've all been there, mate. Yeah, exactly. Don't hear me calling up everyone and going, guys, there's so much between my legs.

Thanks, put the phone down. Thank goodness you don't. Thank goodness. That does sound like something you do that. I might start doing it. Please don't do that. But just, just there was nothing else.

There was just that message. The team didn't say anything. Hamilton didn't say anymore. We move on. Yeah. Maybe he's just, let them know. So you think it was actually

the part of the car that made it over the weight limit that wasn't in Russell's car and that's why he's disqualified. Yeah, he's got a five kilogram weight between his legs. Just shut that in there. That'll get it over. Please don't say Lewis.

Hamilton has a five kilo weight. Speaking of. Speaking of, filthy moves, Bottas and Holkenberg as well, around the outside through the Lekong Shikang, I thought was absolutely sensational. Mugged him. Good old Valtry, Bottas.

He's trying. He's trying. Can I also ask? This probably should have got a big brain strap. Why did they pit him on like lap 36 or 44? What four? I thought they were just doing the same as Ashton Arson, then decided,

nah. But that's the worst of both worlds. would you do that? Why would you keep him out of that long and then pit him? It's because Seizel's gone. They have a clue what they're doing. No, it's Mathia Bonotto's strategy. Yeah, it's being immediately. Oh, no, no. Also, just to say as well, I thought it was the DRS zone, which was shortened this year, was perfect.

Yes. Yeah, agreed. Bang on. Keep that spar. Don't do anything with it, leave it. We had this exact conversation with our historic race review, didn't we, about the 2014 Bahrain review that we're doing about how the battles always ending up being through the corners because DRS works so well with, you don't overtake with the IRS, you have to get it down in the breaking zone.

And that was like this, this raise, which is great. Sorry, where can you hear that? That's a plug, mate. We actually have another site that we make content for, which is a paid for site. The links in the description. It's the Patreon, there's three tiers. It's great value for money.

Ben. Much? Well, I was going to say, I've used focus on this gentleman that's appeared on the podcast. How much would you pay for that content, mate? Oh, I don't know. I'd pay something like $12.

$12. It seems fair. And this other man, what would you think? $12, though, because this content is so premium and quality, I think it's at least two and a half grand a month. Well, I don't want to blow your socks off, Sunshine. Please do. But it's $12 for the most expensive tier.

Gosh, they're gone. There go my socks. No socks for you. Sockless. You get out of here. The worst price is right player ever. How much do you think this car is? It's got to be at least four million pounds.

Hang, I just need to go. Ford focus. I need to get retrieve my socks. I paid 100 quid each for those. Very good. It's the worst joke on the show. Oh, man. Let's hear some more moments at the race, shall we?

Yes, lads. First up, and again, many, many submissions. First up, though, is thick bronco. You have. Moment of the race. As a Mercedes fan, I should really just say the one-two, but got to be honest,

Lewis saying early on that there was something moving between his legs, or is it under his legs? I think it was under his legs. I think it was between his legs. What a monster. Moment of the race.

Goodness me. Would you mind, Fick Broncos, just re-recording where you've said 1-2 and then just do a 1-DSQ version? It would be really easy. And then we can just pull. whichever one's relevant.

Thank you for that thick, Broncos. Alex C is next. Hey boys, Alex here in New York City with an early morning race. Good job, George, way to nurse this hires and way to make a one-stop viable. My moment of the race,

I think it's Oscar's pass on Charles. I mean, it was smooth as butter, clean as could be, beautiful path, simple, get the job done. Just a shame we didn't have more pace today. Thanks. Excellent work.

Croninberg is next. All right. My moment of the race has got to be when I'm precious Crofty said it's the Russell Hustle first. Oh God. Yeah. That was something. Shout on George. It's a shame that Lewis couldn't do the same. I swore at the TV. Yeah, literally, literally audibly sighed. I said, shut up, Crofty. I went with a slightly less nice version of that.

Why's it always got to be some kind of rhyme catchphrase? Goodness me. Next up is Soto's Pump and Nickel. Good job. What's up, guys? First time, long time, all that good stuff. My moment of the race was watching Georgie Russ hold off a seven-time world champion for an insane amount of laps on what was extremely used hards.

Good job, Georgie. Bad job. Georgie. Hey, not Georgie's fault. It might be. He needed a bigger thing between his legs. That's true. He's driving a two-pound car out there.

It's all on him. Thirsty Plattopus is next. Thirsty here, fellas. My men at the race. When Tolo popped his Poppernickel. Also, Checo, farewell from Red Bull. Oh.

I love, by the way, that they're up there on the podium and the camera pan. Toto Wolf. He's just sat there on FaceTime and I'm going to garage at the back.

I was just like, don't celebrate Toto. Just chill out. Also, when they cut to Toto and he just looked really miserable after the win.

He was like, I'm a Louis Fagg. I hate George Rasson. I've also seen how what Marker said that's not what we expect from Sergio. He completely collapsed. Savid way to describe it.

I'm not sure you can collapse when you're already on the floor. Oh, God. Anyway, next submission is from Alan, brackets, not Steve. Is it going to be a McLaren one, two on the podium? Is it going to be a Red Bull 1-2 on the podium? That's what we were thinking all the way through this week.

But no, it's Mercedes River 1-2. George Russell is the first non-red Bull drivers since 2022 to win two races in the same season. Not counting straight races, obviously there. and oh my goodness all the talk of him not being able to manage pressure he holds off the greatest driver of all time with an unbelievable strategy call

what a race ugh, it's not quite a while is it I think any of these are age well no just re-record that with the will it be McCarran with the 1DSQ will it be Red Bull with the 1DSQ no it's Mercedes with the 1DSQ

well done George for having a car that's too light. I'm sure it seems like that. Should we just start the podcast again from when I did my intro about George Russell winning? We'll just pick it off from there. The people are doing a real journey with this, haven't they, haven't like?

Yeah. Fry up the sausages, Barry. What's up, LB, fam? Moment of the race. God, what a race. Gotta be piastri punting his front jack man. Iconic moment. Extra two seconds.

on the pit stop. Could he have won it? We'll never know. But yeah, huge moment. Barry sounds as like as mellow as Oscar Pasterodas. Might actually be Oscar. This is that guy.

Yeah, Farad of the sausages, Oscar. Carlos Hines is next. Hey, everyone. My more of the race is when Perra is absolutely bottled a great P2 start and finished P8, only three spots ahead of his eventual replacement, Daniel Ricardo. Anyways, everyone have a great day, and cheers, guys.

People seem very adamant that Ricardo is going in now. I mean, I understand, but we have to break this down on the summer break, but why Ricardo? Again, I think I've said this before. You chuck him in now because you're quite frankly, you lose nothing. Ricardo's only two spots behind him, or three spots, sorry. Anyway Next up Is

Hang on Where's my list Next up is joy Y'all It's another George Russell win And a Mercedes 1-2 I love to see it

I would scream But I'm at my aunt Best house Down in Chicago this weekend And I really don't want to scream In her house I would pick George winning As my moment of the race

But when the podium was happening It like clipped over to Toto Like sitting alone in a chair like on FaceTime laughing with someone. It's like, George is having an emotional moment on the podium and you're just like sitting on FaceTime alone. It made me laugh. It was actually someone at the FIA.

Like, we think it's underway, mate. Ah, okay. I've just read a tweet because I'm very engaged in the GR weight issue. And apparently he's just walked past someone in the paddock on the phone with a face like absolute thunder. So he's not having a good time, Georgie Ross. I mean, harmless. Jack is next.

This is Jacklings boy out of Georgia in the United States. First time submission. The moment of the race is Hustle Russell crossing the line P1 once again. Yabadabadoo, baby. Yavadababu DSQ. Very good. Very good. Oof size large.

Finally, it's bracket dom. A bracket Dom here. Moment of the race. for me has to be Esteban Ockon getting a point. Why? Because I don't think anyone noticed that he did. I didn't even notice that he did. I was too enthralled with what was going on up front in the race and then saw, hey, he's somehow gotten to 10th at the end. How'd he do it? No idea. But no one noticed and he got a hard-earned points. So I'm giving him a shout out here for it. There's a little part of me that wants Brackett Dom to do all of that aggregate. Yeah, that is an excellent voice. Great voice.

goodness me more from bracket don please we will not pay you for the ads but you can be a part of the lb team that is the kind of service we can't offer you can't refuse we do not pay anyone here cool get us out of it oh good all right well folks stick around i guess because this podcast can be an absolute in the being when russell gets disqualified and we've done the whole first segment thinking that he's how brilliant time so that's going to be fun uh join us on day, not Monday on Patreon for our power rankings. They're coming out a day late, but they will be coming out. So make sure to stick around to hear how we give our rankings.

We haven't done a disqualifier yet. So that's going to be interesting. If that does come to fruition, Discord, join the conversation. If you do, we'll talk about everything that happened in the race, so it's in the description, follow us on social media, late breaking F1 everywhere, on YouTube, late breaking up on to watch these kind of things. And you can follow us on Twitch now, late breaking podcast. Lo to keep up with.

We're going to be here all the way through the summer break. Do not go anywhere. Do not stop listening. We love you. Thanks for the sport. And in the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking and I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late.

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