The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Dutch GP Review

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Ben and Sam are on hand to review all the action from the Dutch Grand Prix! Whilst it was the colour orange that reigned supreme, this time it wasn't courtesy of Max Verstappen as instead it was Lando Norris converting his pole into victory. The guys give their thoughts on the shockingly dominant victory, Charles Leclerc finding his way to the podium, and a tough day for the Mercedes duo... >>> Only a few tickets are left for our LIVE SHOW in Austin TX! CLICK HERE to buy now or for more info!

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. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam's Age and me Ben Hocking today reviewing the first race back from the summer break. That is of course the Dutch Grand Prix won convincingly by Lando Norris of McLaren, joined on the podium by the hometown favorite of Max Verstappen and three different teams on the podium with Charles LeCler in third,

the top three in the Drivers' Championship finishing in that order. Sam, you were doing a Twitch stream throughout. You had some good fun. Did, having a lovely time, late-breaking podcast. Come up enjoying us. I got a little beer. There was some screaming at some bizarre choices that were made, mainly the TV direction, which was abhorrently bad.

All of the overtakes were showing on the tiny little. replay camera in the corner of the screen and not as the main camera. Very annoying. I'd like to see them at full size happening in real time if possible. Just a polite notice. If possible, show me them as they happen. That'd be great. Thank you. Yeah, because obviously we've had like the split screen used for when there are two things happening at the same time. I don't think we've had it before where two things are not happening at the same time. In fact, no things are happening, but we're going to show the exciting thing that just happened in the small screen. Okay, yeah, that makes a little sense. Good stuff. Thank you. F1. It's good to be back. But we are back and it's

been a long time in the waiting. It feels like any week without Formula One is too long. But you stuck with us. We made it through and we are now back into good old F1 content. So looking forward to getting into this one. Yeah. And we have a lot to get through on this episode. Our moment of the race is coming up much later on in this episode. Our thoughts on how the midfield battle played out. Mercedes, seventh and eighth place. No doubt one of the things that Sam was alluding to that he was screaming at, might have been the George Russell strategy cool, but we'll discuss them not claiming as many points as they could have done. Charles LeClair, Oscar Piaastri, that battle will be talking about very shortly too.

But of course, we are going to start out front. And we're going to start with Lando Norris taking victory by 23 seconds, pretty much, from Max Verstappen, a very convincing victory. Of course, it wasn't all that convincing in the very first stint when Max Verstappen managed to get by Lando Norris. I was going to say into the first corner, really it was before the first corner. We'll get on to that shortly. Do you think, Sam, this was something of a statement win by Lando Norris?

How impressed were you by him? I don't think you could call a wing over 20 plus seconds, not a statement wing, especially when you're not leading either championship at this point. This is definitely a statement of intent. This is McLaren have come out swinging. But what is interesting is how it didn't feel universal. whilst Lando Norris was sublime the way once he was back in front, he really kicked out that lead. The moment he got back in front of the Stappen, it really was a second.

A lap, it almost felt like he was putting away at one point. Piastri, on the other hand, seemed to struggle to cut through, right? Starting third, ending up behind Charlotte Clare, was outdown strategy, we'll get onto it more detail than later. But it felt like the benefits McLaren had brought to this racetrack were not seeing in every capacity. And actually, much like Mercedes of old when they were dominant, the moment they got into anything of dirty air, they were unable to really release that potential. They were unable to realize just how good their car was. So you saw it when Norris finally got past for Stappen,

course, huge a strategy call, a very good one, in fact. It meant that the moment Lando was out there running free, like a gazelle in the wild. He was able to let loose. He was able to kick on. He was really, really fantastically quick. But if Stappen was able to hold off in front the entire race, I think there's a chance that he may have held on for the entire race.

So it was well played by Norris, well played by McCarran, bloody yell about things fast when it's allowed to run. Good Lord, 23 seconds of a Maxa Staple at its own Grand Prix where isn't ever lost. That is a sensational turnaround. Yeah, that wasn't close. That was very impressive. The opposite of close.

Whatever the opposite of close is, far away. Far. Big far. That was impressive by both Flando Norris and the team because whenever you're looking at victory margins, you're looking at all of the factors that went into it. And obviously, I say 23, it was 22.9 or something like that. We'll allow a roundup then. We'll allow the round.

We'll allow a round. 23 seconds to have as a race victory, despite the fact that for the first quarter of this race, Norris was not leading the way. And despite the fact that something that's always very telling is when a driver who's won by 20 seconds sets the fastest lap on the last lap of the race. Because what will they hold it back?

That always implies that they weren't showing 100% of what they had. And that's despite the fact, you know, that would be impressive enough if everyone was on the same strategy. We obviously had Russell and Hamilton both switch on to soft tires later on in this Grand Prix, fresher tires. Lando Norris had been on those tires for quite a while when he set that fastest lap. I think that indicates that if those two things went the other way, let's say Norris gets a

good start to this race and he leads out of lap one and also he needed to unlock more pace, he could have tipped that over 30 seconds. And as referred to on commentary, it's not usual that we see a non-red-Bull team dominate by this margin. Maybe you could say that if things went Lando Norris's way in Miami, maybe we're looking at a similar win margin. Of course, he won that race by, I think,

just over, maybe just under 10 seconds, but that was... Yeah, I think it was in the nine second mark. But that was, of course, with a safety car here, you know, they referred to it as being the first, time since Australia 2022, that we had a 10 second

win by a team that wasn't Red Bull. Of course, he's gone a long way beyond 10 seconds here. So it was highly impressive. We do need to talk about what happened on the first lap because this is an ongoing stat where Lando Norris claims pole position and he's unable to hold

that first place on the first lap. Vastappen, like I said earlier, he didn't really need to make the move into the first corner. He'd already made the move by the first corner, despite it not being a long run down to turn one. Is that still a concern? Yeah, it's still a concern. Once again, it looked like he absolutely bottled it off the start. It looked like he was about to fall into the clutches of those behind him. Russell got away really, really well. Piazri got away decently. And Lecler looked like he was flying around the outside

at one point. I think if he was any slower, he may have struggled to hold onto second place. He was about 0.3 seconds in terms of reaction time slower than Max Verstappen. And that should have been enough to keep the wheel to wheel going into term one. Sorry, just to sound that. The reaction time was the same. It was the... Yes, the getaway time. Yeah, yes.

Thank you. Yes, just for those who weren't aware. But what was worrying is, I think that was wheel spin, right? And that worries me that Lagan-Gorris panicked at that point. I think it was on his mind. I think he realized that him and Max go away pretty all right in the initial phase. I think he panics, and then he almost throws away the very good starting progress that he got away with. And that is what I mean by.

bottling it, right? Everything is in his control. He's leading out the way, going in front of him, he gets off his marks, okay, and then throws it away. Now, fortunately for him, he picked up that bottle,

and he took it to his local recycling plant, he put it in there, and he pulled it out of the end of the cycle, and he turned it into a number one first place trophy. That's not too bad. You've done all right there, Sunshine, but this cannot be a reoccurring theme. If the trammer ships gets tight,

if it gets to a point where he needs to pick up places at the last gas, before at a place where he overtakes a hog. Singapore, for example. Zandvort is tough as it is, but Singapore's another level. You cannot be dropping the lead going into turn one like this

against someone like Max Verstappen. It is a concern. He's broken the streak of pole to wing. What wasn't happening was it? I think for eight races in a row we had the person on pole didn't win the race. He's altered that now. He recovered from his mistake.

Well done. At the same time, though, this cannot be happening every time. If he's going to be frequently on that front row, he needs to be guessing away smoothly, getting away well. this is worrying if it continues to happen for the rest of the season. Yeah, it's still a concern.

And you pose the question or said the statement that it can't become a recurring theme. The problem is it is. It is a recurring theme. They need to snap that because here it didn't matter. It did not matter. And Norris did a very good job of not panicking when he lost the lead into turn one. He was biding his time. he made the move very clinically when he had the opportunity a little bit later on in that first

in, he could have panicked and he didn't and he deserves credit for that and everything that came after that. But in terms of the start, there are potentially races coming up where they don't have the same advantage and it will cost him. And in a championship where, look, Landonorese has done an excellent job today and he's made up what will be eight points in the championship battle, right, with win and the fastest lap. But that still leaves about. 70 points between him and Vostappen. So if he is going to make any impression on the title fight, he cannot afford even one position dropped as a result of these starts. So I was thinking, we saw actually on the formation lap, Max Vastappen was having a look up the inside of Lando Norris,

almost like portraying exactly what was going to happen the next lap. And I was thinking, you know, Vestappen the way that he is, he's unlikely to be anything but shoulders out, shoulders out into turn one. You said it yesterday in the qualifying review that the inside could be valuable to Vastappen there even though it's not pole position. And the fact of the matter is he didn't need to be because he already had the spot by the time he got there. And fortunately for Norris, no one behind him, apart from Charles LeClerler who was starting maybe a position or two behind where he could have made an impression on Norris, you know, Piastri directly behind him didn't, you know, didn't have a great start either.

So Norris had the advantage at least for second place going into term one. But yeah, it's still a concern. It's still something that they need to work on. And I have confidence that they're not going to have the attitude of it didn't matter. You know, we might as well just move on. They will still focus on it, I think. Yeah. And they need to because if next season, the, okay, he doesn't win the championship this year.

Oh, well, let's say realistically, for Stafford, should still win this title, Okay, it's a near miss. Unlucky. But next season, if we get exactly the same scenario, but McLaren are up there as favourites from the moment we say go, and he's still bottling the start of races, he will come to rue the day at the end of that season where he goes, damn, I was getting pole positions constantly,

and I was not picking up wings because I can't get away at the start well enough. And he will kick himself for it. Currently, the gap is 70 points. There's still plenty time to bring that gap down for the rest of the season. Nine races to go. You know, a couple of failures from Maxis of Staffing, and I have more wings from Norris, we've got a title fight on our hands.

Speaking of Vestappen, what did you make of his race? Of course, taking the lead on the first lap, eventually gave that up to Lando Norris, was fairly comfortable, and it didn't look like he was ever going to get back

in that fight for the win. He seemed to struggle a little bit towards the end of stints in terms of tire wear, and in fact, wasn't that far away from Charles LeCler at the end of this Grand Prix.

How will he see that result? From an external point of view, I want to say that the Stapp had drove a brilliant Grand Prix. Once again, I think this will go under the radar as a really significantly great race from Maxwell Stam because he didn't win the race. But I don't think that Red Bull is capable of fighting without McLaring and with any other driver piloting it for as long as he did.

The gap shows you just how good that McLaren is. And when it works on a track that suits it so well, which Stanvort clearly is, I think we saw it with certain parts of Silverstone, with certain parts of Spain and certain parts of Miami, which holds some similar characteristics to a lot of what, uh, Samvoire. Sanford brings, it's no surprise that once the McLaren got into cleaning out, it was dominating. But that Red Bull, I don't think, is close now, not on tracks like this. So I think the way that the Stappen managed to hold on the second place so convincingly, right up until the end where LeCler got close, is a real testament to how good Max for Stappen is.

But I think Red Bull, more than Max for Stappen, but Red Bull, especially, will be starting to look over their shoulders a little bit and not necessarily panicking, but they've got to be careful. They've got to be aware that Max and Red Ball have got competition getting closer. Ferrari aren't in a good place. They were that close to them. Piatry didn't have a brilliant Grand Prix and his strategy was off. They were still pretty damn close.

Sikes starting outside the top ten really wasn't that far away in the grand scheme of things. And we saw what was happened to Mosegis. Hamilton starts in 14th. Russell absolutely messes up his strategy. They were still not that far away, really, if everything goes to playing. So, Red Bull

have got some work to do. Red Bull have got some progression that needs to be made. They are no longer on a level footing with the likes of McLaren. they are not the dominant force. I'm sure Vastappen will have that stiggly exterior, but internally, he noses up against it. I was a bit concerned by how tireware did seem to impact Vastappen versus some of the other cars around him.

And in the first stint, I thought it was probably down to he's trying to keep Norris behind, and then as soon as Norris goes by, he's desperately trying to stay in the DRS. And maybe he's just overworking the tires to, let's face it, achieve something that the car isn't capable of. But in the second stint, that dream had gone. Like, there was no way he was going to be Norris. It could have six, seven second gap at minimum, right? He disappeared.

And yet there was still, at least versus Leclerclerc was catching him quite a bit towards the end of that race. So I think that might be cause for concern for Red Bull. And actually, they were outclassed. But very simply put, they were outclassed by McLaren today. And even though McLaren have been, let's face it, they've been quick since Miami. They've been quick for a while now. but at least, I think up until this point,

nearly every Grand Prix, Red Bull can point at something and say, that didn't go great. Like, for example, Hungary, the strategy wasn't great. Vastappen had a messy race. Miami, there was a safety car and trying to think of other ones. Belgium had the penalty.

Silverstone was weather. Yeah. So they can look at all of those Grand Prix and say something was off. There was nothing off today. That was a straight dog fight. So one-v-one fight, right? There were no yellow flags.

There were no safety cars. This was just one driver against another. And Red Bull were not close. Despite the fact that they managed to get the lead on that first lap, Christian Horner said it at the end over Team Radio to Vastappen. We didn't have the pace. Simply put, yeah, you didn't have the pace. So obviously, whether that translates over to Monza,

which is a very different circuit, we've got Baku coming up. We don't know whether this form, will carry through, but on this race is evidence, yikes, they've got a gap. It's going to be a game of defensive work, isn't it? From Red Bull, try to claw every point they can get to make sure that both championships get over the line. Every point is precious to them.

And that's why Lando scoring that fastest lap point on that last lap is possibly crucial come the end of this season. Before we go to our first break, should we just have a look at our bold predictions that we made on our preview episode? Brilliant, yeah, sure. Not the hit claim a point

anyway because, as we all know, the rule is you've got to be here to claim a point. What did Harry predict again? Literally can't remember. I literally don't know. What did he say? Well, he said I would, by eye, I mean, Harry would turn up to a race review. Well, he was wrong then. That's actually quite funny that.

I've got no idea what he said. I literally can't remember. To be fair, I thought you said the Williams one. You didn't. You said the Moselegis one. Not that way to come true either. That's very true. So your bowl prediction was that there would be five different leaders.

Yeah, we got three. We did get three. We had both McLaren's and we had Max Verstaff. And I thought for a minute, I was hoping that one of them were Pitt and Perez would get a lap on the league. And then maybe Sikes is what I was hoping for. I was almost there. And then he was.

Speaking of almost there, I should have been. I was very close. I was very close and I should have just, you know, back myself a bit more in the preview episode. Because I said that no Mercedes would be inside the top seven. and I was like, can I have top six? And I didn't push it hard enough because we ended up settling on seven.

And of course, Russell finished seventh and Hamilton finished eighth. So I'll take a moral victory in being nearly right. And I think the overall point I was making was right, but gets you nothing in this game.

You'll enjoy this, though. I'll go put my hands up already here for our midweek preview, whatever it is, just chat. My fantasy team's going to be in the mud. I've had a shocker. Oh, I'm saying he's just descended. Oh, yeah.

I transferred in, Russell as well, actually, and I've got Mercedes, so. Oh, okay. We might, I mean, I've got Norris as our times too, so we can enjoy that moment together. Yeah. That's fine. That's still, I'm really racking my brain as to what Harry said. I need to listen to it more. He could have said anything.

There are going to be people who are screaming at us now. Thank you for paying that much attention to the show that you remember more than we do. Anyway, like I say, wouldn't have been able to claim a point anyway, because he's not here. Never mind. We'll take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we're chatting more on Oscar Piastri and Charlerc. So we've already discussed the battle for the top two spots on today's grid. Let's now turn our attention to the final place on the podium, which was occupied by Charles LeCler. Consider me quite surprised on this one. He held off Oscar Piatry, who was hounding him for pretty much the entire race. let's talk about the positives for Ferrari, first of all, because I didn't see that coming.

Car better than expected. Strategy, brilliantly called. Defensive maneuver from drivers, sublime. What a race. They turned a 6-11, turned into a 6-10 because of the album's qualification, into a 3-5. What a turnaround for Ferrari.

I mean, it's not perfect. They didn't really out to do anyone but Mercedes, which I think's got a bad thing. but it's actually a very successful Grand Prix for them. I don't understand it. Where did it come from? I appreciate... Lecler was sublime.

I'll go out there. He was sublime. He was and no doubt he'll be a factor in our driver of the day submissions very shortly. But I know that practice isn't the be all and end all, and it was muddied somewhat by Carlos Seines not taking part in half of it. But Charles LeCler's pace in practice was nothing the right home about. It was on a par with Perez. It was marginally slower in my estimation than Alex Albin,

which is interesting because I don't know if you, this is not related, but you might have seen James Vowles put out an explanation video as to why Albin's car was disqualified. He said the same thing. He said that based on our practice, Sims, we were there with Ferrari. So I wasn't expecting much from Science and Leclair in this Grand Prix.

I thought that they would likely occupy what Mercedes have occupied. I thought 7-8 was a realistic, maybe 6-8 or something like that was going to take place. Instead, you're right, they nailed a strategy from Charles LeClau's perspective. Carlos Sines makes a very good recovery, I think, from 10th place. He obviously gets the overtake done on track versus the driver who finished, who started 5th in Sergio Perez. I thought as soon as Oscar Piastri very comfortably got past George Russell that he was probably going to do the same to Charles LeCler. No, sir.

Yeah, I was expecting the Pac-Man, as he got up behind him. I thought, oh, a lovely tasty meal for piastri. Piastri after. Very tasty pie. We love a pastry in Piastry. Yeah, no, and those two almost kind of flipped and reversed it from, they mirrored, didn't they? Leclair was right behind Piastri. for a longer the first stint.

And then Ferrari went, we've got a undercut. And they executed a flawless undercut. It was a brilliant maneuver from them. Lecler had to put down the tires and he just kept them going for the whole Grand Prix. Piastri got into DRS fell out of it. Into DRS fell out of it.

Into the IRS fell out of it. He just couldn't get near him. I was so shocked that Piaastri could not, and this is what I go back to in our first conversation point that how in the McLaren in traffic can't seem to utilize the dominant pace that it seems to have. while it's allowed to be in cleaning it. It can catch up to cars, easy, peasy. Can't seem to get

past them though, which is a very interesting trait to that car. Yeah, I was shocked that Piastri didn't get by Russell in that first stint. In the same way that Norris pulled up to the back of Vestappen and got that move done, by the time, you know, Russell wasn't obviously on the pace of the top two. So in a way, you know, Russell wasn't obstructed by anyone in front of him. I thought Piastri was going to do a very similar job, and he couldn't. And you're right, in that Charles LeClaire was consistently pressurizing Piaastri

on the back of him. So the fact that they, Piastri and LeClaire, that partnership, like they had the reversal of the situation in both stints, and we effectively saw exactly the same thing both times around,

proves that pace-wise, LeClaire could hang. And I did not think he'd be able to. I think this is more wrong. the brilliance of Charles LeCler than it is about the Ferrari. Then I think Piastri had a mediocre to me race.

I don't think this is a great turnout for him. But I don't think it's a disaster. But I do think equally that Charles LeCler has shown why he is one of the elite right now. He's once again deployed a brilliant performance that will go under the radar because he's not in a race-wing car.

He never led the Grand Prix. He never looked like a threat. But third place in that Ferrari, another podium, it is so good for this. point in his career. He's really flying high. And of course, the result is, at least versus Red Bull, they've essentially matched Red Bull's performance in this race, even with Vestappan claiming second. Their third and fifth, despite their tough starting positions, yeah, they've essentially

broke even with Red Bull and the constructors. And of course, McLaren have claimed more points on both of them again. Maybe. They're not, they're just sticking around in this battle. I know they're on the fringe of it, but they're not allowing themselves to become too distant in case something happens. Too much optimism sneaking in there, Benjamin. To be clear, I'm not optimistic about their chances. But I'm just impressed by the fact that they're not,

despite not having a very quick car, they're not being blown away by McLarenham. I'm just bloody loving how uncertain it is at the front of this season. Every season, every race, there's a different car that seems to fall back. Another one seems to leap forward. One driver is an absolute muck-up. Another one seems to excel and impressed. And it's keeping this sport very, very exciting,

despite a very dull start to the season. So I'm all for it. Well done Ferrari. Realistically, should not have got that many points out of this race. You've impressed. I mean, we'll see how the championship goes for the rest of this season. But I have seen some people say that if it weren't for the dominant start for Red Bull at the beginning of this season,

we would have had a classic this year. I look at it as in if we didn't have that, we wouldn't have the classic that we're having. Yeah, Norris and McLaren will be dominating. Quite possibly. So I think we're very well, particularly in terms of the constructors, but both championships could very well be alive as we go into the final stretch of this season. Do we know how close the constructors is now?

I think it's 30. 30. I think it's 30-ish between Red Bull and McLaren. I've got it here. I was trying to do some mental maths, but I think Red Bull are on about 434, and then McLaren on 404, something like that. Oh, yeah, I mean, before the race, it was 408-366.

And McLaren outscored Red Ball by how many points. Was it 12 points they outscored them by? Something like that? Yeah, yeah, 12. Yeah, so that that gap will have gone to, sorry, it was 42. Yes, it would have 30 points. Oh, we got a fight on our hands. That is, we are in the territory of that could change in one race.

Yeah, one D&F with a Vick. sure he goes to one person. You move up. Yeah. Very exciting indeed. I have to sort these jingles out, aren't I? Because we are going to move on to driver of the day. Well done.

The verdict is in. You're the driver of the page. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. Who you got and why? Some races, we have no one that stands out. Some races, we have everyone seems to stand out. This is one of those races.

We're up and down the grid. There are names all over the place that I think did a great job. I'm going to rattle through a load and then I'll kind of make my mind up. Norris is an obvious one. He did bottle at the start, but the assertance of his dominance there was fantastic. I actually think the staff did a very good job. I really do. I don't think it's driving the day material, but I think he did a great job.

Lecler, sublime, genuinely sublime. I think that Ghazley had a really strong Grand Prix. I think that Ricardo actually did really, really well as well coming through. There were quite a few up and down the grid that I think were great. I am actually going to give it to LeCler. I'm really surprised just how well LeCler did from 6th to 3rd, no DNFs, beats a Red Bull, beats both the Mercedes, beats some McLaren. The car should be there.

Not that I think it should be, anyway, maybe I'm missing something, but I just think he was sublime. Norris, I know he's got that dominant, dominant wing. The starters let him down for me. The Clare didn't make a mistake. That's pushed him off the top for me. It's a tiny, nine, new game here between what I'm picking. So for me, LeCler.

Four names on my list. So again, proving the point that there were a number of great performances up and down today's grid. I have got Charles LeClerc on my list. I have got Lando Norris on my list. I have got Nika Holkenberg on my list. I know that he didn't quite pull off that one-stop strategy, but he got far closer to doing it than the other couple of drivers

that were looking to do a similar sort of thing. Yuki Sonoda bailed on it. Alex Albin bailed on it. Nika Holkenberg stuck it out and he was within one position of making that work. We saw how those hard tires did degrade for some drivers out there. Holkenberg made those last a long time and all he needed was one DNF to get into the points despite a tough starting position. So I thought he did very well.

My driver of the day though is Pierre Gasley. I said it yesterday when he made it through to Q3. I didn't think that car was deserving of making it through to Q3 and I thought there was every opportunity for some of the drivers behind him to make up that spot, and they didn't. They didn't. He was king of the mid. There was no driver on that grid that Gasly didn't beat that he should have beat. He essentially won his race. And I've honestly, Espan Okon did not have a great race, but equally, I think where Esteban Okon was far closer to where that Alpine deserved to be than where Gazley put it. So I, full credit, and he was very clinical as well with the

on Albin, I thought. You'll remember that was when Magnuson was essentially holding up the pack. Ghazley had one opportunity to get by Albin. Got it done. His defensive work as well as stupid. Yeah, yeah. Right. He was fantastic against the Aston Martins around him. He was brilliant when the Haas was right behind him as well. He, that was some of the hardest fought two points he'll ever have to work for. And he thoroughly deserves the shout out. Now we move on to Worst Driver of the day. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin. Worst driver of the day

Worst driver of the day you suck at driving Who have you got for worst driver of the day? This one is actually a little bit more tough because I don't think they're really disastrous drives but there were a couple that were not great and I must admit, I think the entire top eight I'm all right with.

I don't think the second one that stood out to me as an absolute worst driver. Like that's like I said, Piascrio had a very negros was a worse driver level. Perez didn't go forward, he went backwards, it's eh, Russell, he was strategy-led, Hamilton had to recover, but did.

So for me, you have to go further back. Strohl speeding in the pit lane was really frustrating because I genuinely think that that Aston Martin could have been far better than all. Yeah, right, come on, come on. Bottled it in Q3, speeds in the pit lane, points were very much on the cars. A lot's really picking up one, it's a shambles,

but points should be there for both of the cars. I'm going to have to go all the way back, though, to Senoda. I've just, that was, to be that demolished by your teammates. when you started so far ahead, you're bottomed on the strategy, you were unable to make the moves around where I think you had a better car. I don't think this was a good performance from them at all. I really think it was disappointing. I think Ricardo's going to get away with a bit of a green ticker his books.

Actually, for the whole team, it wasn't amazing. But I think he had a good race and Senegal really didn't. So, yeah, Stroh was a big candidate. Joe was terrible again. Magnuson running off on turn one, not great. But, yeah, I'm going to give it to Sonoda. Yeah, I'm going to let Sonoda off just based on, I didn't agree with the strategy options for the Menardi team out there today.

Essentially, Sonoda started on the soft tire, then went to the medium tire. By the time he had made his second stop to go onto the hards, Daniel Ricardo was making his first stop to go onto the hards. And it just didn't work out. And he, I don't think that car had the straight line speed to make the overtakes that he needed to. We saw very late on that he was essentially just stuck behind Logan Sargent. And he spent a lot of his race just stuck. behind slower cars. So that didn't work out for him. He wasn't a great race, but I'll let him

off for worst driver of the day because of that. I just show Guan Yu I've gone for. He was, I know that Salba is awful. And it was particularly awful. It was terrible today. But Valtry Bottas made something of it. He got some moves done on the first lap. He was able to hold off the likes of Ricardo for a little while. It was. Again, I'm not quite sure they made the right strategy call, but I don't think it would have mattered for Bottas. But Joe was, he was nowhere near Bottas. I mean, they were both two laps down at the end. So it was a disaster for both cars.

But he was, it was a carryover from qualifying where he was, I think, a second away from Bottas, who in turn was not really anywhere near the other 17 drivers as it was yesterday. He was not good. What was the gap? 20 seconds of Bottas at the end of the Grand Prix? It was a one. Honestly, I'd given up about 10 laps from the end. I know Joe made a second pit stop, but so do Bottas.

So I know we've been critical. I'm going off the rails a little bit here. I know we've been critical of Logan Sargent and his ability. But at least he's over this season has taken some steps forward. They are mind you. They're not, they're not career changing. But he has improved. Joe Guangyu came into this sport.

And actually, I was quite impressed with Joe Guangzhou the first season he delivered. I thought solid first season for a rookie. You can kick on from this. And it's never, it's not even got better. It's always stayed the same. It has progressively gotten worse season after season. And the last few Grand Prix are diabolically bad. I argue he has been worse than Logan Sargent quite comfortably for the last four or five

Grand Prix at this point. The worst driver on the grid. And there's no chance of a re-sign, I don't think. Unless he's bringing in big bucks from outside, I really can't see how he is staying in this sport. Yeah. And for the record, I almost picked Kevin Magnuson as well because I think he pretty much made the only unforced error out there with that sort of term one. Turn on incident.

Yeah, and I know he was trying something different with the hard tire and just going very long on that first. Didn't really needed a safety car to pull that off. But even so, he was like Sonoda, just stuck behind Sargent, not really able to make anything happen. So I did end up going for show Guan you, though. Big brain strat. Ah, Bob, we're going to need you to box for wets. What? It's not even raining out.

What are you talking about? God, it's good. what is your big brain strat of this race? I'm going to go serious with it. I'm going to say the Leclair undercut was genuinely unreal for Ferrari. I have a lower standard because it's Ferrari as well. 2.4 second pit stop? Also, the pit stops were over the place today.

So many mig three second pit stops and people were faffing around, bad tire changes. Usually you get that with the higher altitude Grand Prix because the heat tends to cause the wheel nuts to expand or the wheel goes to not work as well. But there was a lot of fluff ups. but not at Ferrari, and I genuinely think that undercut may have gained them and net possible five, six points. I reckon they could have fallen behind Perez. They end up being in front of Piastri. It was blown away by it. Generally a great call from them. Yeah, first out, I was going less serious in that I've already explained it,

the Yuki Sonoda Strat, I thought it was, I don't understand what they were trying to do with that in all honesty. And it definitely did not work out for them. The other thing I wanted to cover off in Big Brain Strat, and really this is just an excuse for me, to have a rant about something. Good. It was a good day for McLaren overall with Lando Norris taking that victory. But my goodness,

I do not agree with the way they conduct themselves on the radio. Do you want to spell it out? You can spell out everything to everyone. Oh my word. Like, they are asking him questions, Landon Norris specifically,

of what he wants to do when it should be directed to him. I don't mind asking drivers for their input. But when they're asking Lando Norris, Norris, who do you think you're driving today? No, it's your responsibility to tell him, based on everything that you've got access to, to say who he's driving against. Is it just Max? You tell him, it is just Max you need to focus on, because we've got all the data from the Ferraris, from Perez, from everyone else. We know that it's a two-horse race. And they're out

here asking, well, what do you think, guy who doesn't have any information and is driving at 200 miles an hour. Come on. I mean, that on top of. Also, are you happy on this tire? If we get a safety car, do I go on the medium because we think we'll be able to overtake Max for Stafford again? Why are you telling everyone the strategy over the radio? Just honestly, man, I, again, it hasn't cost them today, but I don't agree with the way they do it. I can't believe I thought to mention it separately. George Russell being stopped for a second time. Honestly, we're going to get onto that in more detail, so I thought I'd save it. Yeah, folks, don't worry. It's a contender.

Right, we'll take our second break on this episode. On the other side, we are getting into the performance of the Mercedes. Good stuff. Working our way down the grid, we've gone past the McLaren's, we've gone past unbelievably the Ferraris, and we are now in the depths of seventh and eighth, good for 14 points and 14 points only. Sorry, no, I'm giving them too much credit. Good for 10 points and 10 points only as 7th and 8th. Would have been 11, but Norris decided did he want it the fastest lap instead? Lewis Hamilton, of course, had to recover from his grid spot of, it ended up being 14th, didn't it?

It was four-sixth. Jumped around all over the place, didn't it? Thanks to other penalties and others go, yeah. Ended up at 14th. Made some progress early on in this race and eventually seemed fairly settled in 8th place. George Russell was more in the fight. At one point in this Grand Prix, he was as high as third. They decide Mercedes to give him a second pit stop,

thinking that he was going to be overtaken by Carlos Seines and maybe as Sergio Perez anyway, gave him some soft tires to work within that final stint, and he could not catch back up to those two drivers. Let's start with the strategic call of George Russell. Were you surprised they tried this? What were you thinking? What are you doing? Have you looked at anything else going on in the Grand Prix?

Use contextual information to understand. what might happen in the near future. That's how decisions are made in life. So when you look at the Lecler-Piastri battle on both sides, you see those cars are quite evenly matched. And actually, our Mercedes around this racetrack, is quite evenly matched to where this is going. So will we get passed easily?

Actually, using contextual information, no, is probably the answer. If we get passed by one, do we think that Perez can close the four-second gap up to Russell and pass him before the end of the race? Feels unlikely, right? What should we do?

Let's just give them the place. Let's just give it to him. Only 20 laps to go. The gap's 24 seconds now. He'll catch up. No, he won't. Because you've only got used soft tires for George Russell. If you said to Mercedes,

at the start of this weekend, you're going to qualify in fourth and 14th, but your drivers will finish in 7th and 8th, three seconds apart from each other. Do you think you have a good time? No, is the answer they will give you, because that is a disaster recovery. Hamilton should never have been 1.5 seconds behind Russell.

At one point, there was talk of swapping them over, which is absolutely diabolical. It's hilarious. There's an apology letter waiting in the wing, surely, because this is a disastrous strategy call. I can't believe they didn't say to George, get your elbows out, sunshine, it's time for you to defend.

It's time you're going to put up an absolute scrap here because if we pit you, you'll never catch him up. They could have at least wrestled for a fifth or a sixth, But no, they're just handing it to them. It was a shockingly bad call. I was surprised because I felt like the signs position, I thought that was going to happen. More likely than not to go.

Yes. But Sergio Perez wasn't displaying great pace in the second half of this Grand Prix. Not the pace that I thought, okay, Russell's in trouble here. He's definitely going to be overtaken by Sergio Perez. I thought that it might become a fight. But equally, I didn't automatically,

think that this was a slam dunk pass for both drivers behind George Russell. And this just, the problem is it was, it was nowhere near working. I'm okay. I appreciate we can be Captain Hindsight on this podcast. Like, we have the ability to be that. And you know what? If George Russell had pit and he had caught up to the back of Perez and he was one second behind at the flag and you think, right, another lap or two he gets him, I would go, probably wrong call, but fine. Yeah, you went for it, didn't quite pay off. It wasn't close. It wasn't close to getting to that. And again, using contextual information in the Grand Prix itself, surely Mercedes could have seen that, okay, Russell's going to need to make up a rather large gap just to get back to Perez,

let alone signs. We see there are three drivers here. Logan, Sergeant Yuki Sanoda, Kevin Magnuson. They are, and have been for the last seven years, been one second apart from one another. it's probably going to be quite tricky to get by these three drivers without losing a lot of time. What happened? They tried to get by those three drivers and it took them an age. That's why, in large part, Lewis Hamilton was able to catch back up to George Russell was because he was trying to weave his way through this traffic. But Mercedes would have been able to see that coming with all the data that they have. They will know that that has to be factored in when working out, is this a good move or not? Sure, you have an opportunity at claiming the fastest lap for a point. They didn't, but they had the opportunity to do so. But it just

wasn't, I don't think it was worth it at all. I was surprised when they came in and I wasn't surprised when it didn't work. Even if they did get the fastest lap and landing Norris didn't take it, I mean, he never got the fastest lap. Hamilton got it anyway. Exactly, yes. Right. So even if Norris didn't and Hamilton didn't and Russell somehow did in that scenario and he still finished seventh. They're still net losing, what, three points out of that. If they happen to hold off on their defense of Perez. So what's, what is the game? And you're right, you made the exact point I wanted to make of if Russell got to the

point where he was darting inging around Paris. Actually, Paris has put up a great defense. You go, you know what? Perez defended brilliantly. We didn't get the move done. Oh, well, that, you, you know, you take a risk. It hasn't paid off. Six and a half seconds back.

You needed another half a Grand Prix to get there. You are no eyes so bad. It was one of the worst strategies cause I've seen them make for a long time. this Russell has had a couple of shockers in a row not obviously the disqualification not his fault he had the DNF in Hungary not his fault and now he's been absolutely thrown this awful strategy which I don't think it's his fault it's been a mare that's a hack trick of mares yeah not a good race for for George Russell and for Lewis Hamilton I think strategy was obviously not a good race strategy wise for from George Russell's side of the garage equally it might be more concerned that they just didn't have the pace anyway. Like they... Where was the car? Yeah, they had the four fastest car out there.

They were slower than Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren. And I didn't think based on Friday's practice, they were going to be in the mix with Vastappan and McLaren. But I did think they would mix it with Ferrari, far better than they did. The fact that Carlos Sines was able to cut his way through the field, I know he didn't have as much progress to make as Lewis Hamilton, but obviously Sines was making an impression

and made the move on Sergio Perez. he might well have made the move on George Russell anyway. He wasn't that far away from getting into the fight in front of him. Charles LeClair, as we know, ended up on the podium. I think that was more concerning was that a team who has won three of the last four Grand Prix, albeit one of those four was Russell in Austria, that's still two of the last four that they've won on pace and pace alone. They were nowhere.

Yeah, absolutely nowhere. It is the weirdest flip-flop of form I've seen in a long time this series. It's bizarre this season that we're having, the way that one team spikes and other team drops off. It really is so confusing. And I love it. The one person who might be happy is Lewis Hamilton seeing Carlos Synes rush off into the distance.

That'd be me soon. Save that seat for me. Keep it warm. I'm sure Ferrari will prove him wrong by the next race anyway. So we have a look at some of the other midfield contenders. We've already given our flowers to the likes of Pierre Gazley, who claimed two points. Alonzo was the last point scorer,

getting one for Aston Martin. Landstrol was in that fight as well. Obviously, the five-place five-second penalty that he had for speeding in the pit lane cost him dearly. And Daniel Ricardo was in that mix, too. How did you see that unfold? I'll tell you what, I'm going to put a spoiler in already. Moment of the race. When we come round the corner of the last corner and there are five of them, almost wheel to wheel.

Oh, there's five. Oh, baby, there's five. I was screaming on the stream. I was like, what is going on? This is insane. And to top it off, Alex Albon, winging about how, oh, it's dangerous. I don't like it. I was trying to work out what his issue was.

Like, if it was just like, because I was trying to point out something that someone had done. But everything was fine, as far as I could see. This is not the first time we've heard Alex Albon whinge about being raced, right? No burgering. Yeah, this is not a good trend for Alex Albon. You should not be winging about being part. because there's a few cars around you. It's what you do, mate.

You earn millions of quid a year for it. But I was really surprised, actually, just how close to the midfield seemed to kind of come together. Half stepped up. I mean, obviously, we'll have to remember Magnuson from this equation. But at times, his pace was still okay. He just made that mistake at the start. Holkerberg did a brilliant job of his strategy.

I think Ricardo's strategy worked really well for him. The Arby looked competitive. And then Lance Strong, as we said, shot himself in the foot. But also, again, okay, went backwards, but did well to cut through and score some points. We've got quite a fun midfield battle on our hands and I was really impressed

with almost certain heroes amongst each team. I thought Ricardo, Holgerberg and Alonso really shone today and it was a great battle over only one point and I love to see it.

Yeah. The fact, again, we've already given credit to what Gassley was able to achieve so I won't go too much on what he did, but it was a great race from him to not only convert

on where he, well, exactly converted on where he qualified, right? I know he qualified 10th, but he, yeah, he did a wonderful job to stay in the points. Fernando Alonzo, I think, did well. Again, I don't think there was much separating him and Stroll this weekend,

but it's, again, just an example of where Alonzo's... Experience, right? Yeah, his experience and his ability to not mess it up when it's most important. Put it out the bag. Landstrol had solid pace this weekend. I said it yesterday, I'll say it again today. He had good pace that was comparable with his teammate, but two instances of not getting a good lap together in Q3

and getting that five second penalty have really cost him here. Daniel Ricardo was good. I think his qualifying hurt him. If he qualifies a bit better, I think he has the potential to probably finish 9th or 10th in this race. But if we're looking at the race exclusively,

I think he did a very good job. And yeah, Hulkenberg, I've already given him credit for what he was able to do on that strategy. I think Williams will be kicking himself. Points were there. They really should have points. I mean, removing the disqualification,

I think Albon was skilling it. I think he had a good race for a log of the race. And I can't believe they weren't closer to the mix. I think the car was good enough to have got past the likes of Ricardo of Holkenberg, probably a long-so, to be honest at some point. I think Gassie was maybe the only one that felt like a bit of a stretch,

but points were on the table. And, you know, give him credit because they brought significant upgrades to this Grand Prix, and despite the fact that it hasn't resulted in any points at all, they seem to have worked. We'll see if it converts over until the next Grand Prix, obviously. But at least here, they have worked, and that's not always the case of upgrades.

They don't always work. Ask Mercedes, they will very much tell you. You've seen it a lot this season. So, yeah, I give them credit for that, but this was, they will be kicking themselves. And James Vowse, like I said earlier, came across and did this apology explainer video. I'm quite sure what you'd call it.

He does a great impression of a British politician in it. But he's clearly disappointed at the team and how they have spoiled a great opportunity because they haven't had many of them this year. And based on where Albin qualified, based on how Gassley was able to essentially stay where he qualified, if Albon does the same thing, there's a good chance that he scores

he scores points. And even if he claims ninth, that matches his best result of the season so far. That takes them from four to six. Like those are big points for a team that's not been scoring many of them so far this year. So I was quite disappointed that they threw away their weekend. I guess the only advantage here is they might get great development time for next season at this rate. Well, yes, that's very true. And of course, the other side, we know that Logan Sargent didn't even take place in Qualif, didn't even take place. Didn't even take part. heart in qualifying. This is going to sound absolutely horrible. It might not have mattered because he started 18th anyway, thanks to a couple of others, other penalties, which let's face it, 18th isn't out of their position for...

Really average position for... Yeah, exactly. I know that there have been some rumblings about, not one to discuss today, but there have been rumblings about whether Logan Sargent will be replaced for the rest of this season or not. But, you know, Logan Sargent wasn't really in the...

in the fight for points. But you know what? I don't want to go along about that. But it does feel weird that it's one mistake after the summer break and now is the time that we're getting to replace him.

Like, why is, what did you have a little counter? I'm very baffled by it all. Yeah, I have thoughts. Okay, we'll get into that,

another podcast. Yes, we will indeed. I'm trying to think if we've covered off pretty much all teams and we haven't said much about Salba,

but equally, what is there to say about a green toaster with wheels? They are so slow, man. I feel so sorry for Valkyriuoros. Because he grew up another great race.

He's doing his best. He's keeping Daniel Riccano behind him on these soft tires. And then they kind of do, you know how Albin, Holkenberg and Sonoda all came in at a very similar time? Bottas, who was still somewhat in that mix by the time he pit. They kind of just, they pay him later

than those three drivers. So he loses out comfortably to all three of them. Yep. But then pits too early for everyone else. So by the time everyone else is, you come in, Bottas has old tires versus new tires. It's like they didn't really commit to either. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what the problem is with the car. They don't want the problem is how to maximise it on the strategy. They say, I'm, Audi needs to stepping properly.

And if Audi have stepped in behind the scenes, and we don't know about it, then I am worried. Well, Bottas has said a couple of times that he thinks their performance is being compromised by the transition to Audi, which, you know, makes sense. But you know, yeah, it's tough. in Belgium, right, where Bottas, they got the strategy wrong that day, but he was in the mix. If they nailed the strategy today, Salba, maybe they get 18th. Like, it doesn't change much. And move up a place. Yeah.

They are so far behind the rest of the grid. If you remove the 2020 hearse, this is the worst Formula One car we've seen for a decade. Oof. That's a fun debate. Yeah. You certainly, I think when catering disappeared and the salber years where they really struggled, since then. 15, 16.

Yeah. I know there have been a couple of Stinker Williams as well in those years. That's true. It's up there. It is up there. Right. We'll take our final break on this episode. We've got Moment of the Race submissions right after this.

Welcome back to today's final part of this Dutch Grand Prix review. that bong indicates that we are getting ready for some submissions from our Discord. We'll get to those very shortly because, of course, we'll give our own moments of the race before we get there. What have you got some? I've already mentioned it. It was that moment that they went basically five wide going down the start, finish, straight. I absolutely loved it. Yeah, what was your reaction to that?

Honestly, screamed. I was trying to interact with the chat, trying to talk about what's going on in the race. And I look to my race footage as I'm watching it. And suddenly we come around this corner and they're everywhere. And I was like, what's going on? Obviously, this is the niches reference anything related to late breaking. But then we'll get it. Japan, late breaking racing league, safety car restart, five cars in a row.

That is what it felt like at that point. And I was like, oh my God, they're all going to crash. This is it. This is going to be an absolute disaster. They all make it through. And it was, honestly, a fantastic moment in racing. I loved having that many cars. and that close together under Green Flag Racing.

The late break in online racing league, season one, Japan. Absolute classic. A legend in the game. I've got a couple of potential moment of the races. I'll go with the one that just missed out, which is the timing tower absolutely pooping itself at the end of the Grand Prix. Bossassah and Ghazley on the podium. Yeah, take back everything I've said about Valtry, Bossas and Sal,

but they were good enough to somehow finish second in this race until Gassley finished second and Bottas got down to third. It works like qualifying. So well done to both of those guys. That one nearly made it. The other moment of the race I had. And this is a recurring theme for Lewis Hamilton's career, which is Lewis Hamilton complains about something.

And then at the same time, the team radio is coming over. He does something good. Today's was, I'm too slow on the straight as he is overtaking another car into term one. Literally pulled that out on the stream. when, oh, he's just passed someone in the DRS. I'm sure, sure, Lewis. I fully appreciate there is a delay between the team radio coming over to us, but it always happens at the right time for him to, like,

do what he says he can't do. Yeah, he really gets smacked around by that radio delayed, isn't he? Should we do our submissions from the Discord? Let's hear them. Right. First one up is from Alex. Thank you for your submission. Hey, boys.

Alex here in New York. What a day. Great job, McLaren. My moment in the race, Landau with the absolute 21 second lead. That's Red Bull-like dominance. The car's good. The drivers are good. We could be in for a banger of the second half season.

Cheers, boys. Cheers, Alex. I mean, he's not wrong. If they can put this pace on a track that is completely separate to how Zanvort is built, Mongsa, which is coming up next, they've got a pretty great car to compete for the rest of the season. What a day.

Oh, what a day. I'm not going to tell you where that's from. We're going to move on quickly to Bristol Liam. Right, lads, no another race. God knows, that's pretty boring on it. Uki Poo's was poo. Sam's dancing was pretty good. So yeah, that's probably that.

Sam just dancing on stream. Cheers. Yep. If you don't understand what that means, and a lot of you won't. There is a redeem, you can redeem channel points to make me dance.

Oh, okay. I do love a moment of the race that happens thousands of miles away from the race itself. It happened in my study. Yes. Which is great in the United Kingdom.

This is Lansu, who claims to me better than stroll. This is Lance, better than stroll, unofficial official friend of the podcast with my moment of the race. Has to be my main man, Big Pete Gazel,

with the five, car pass on the outside to get back into the points making up for Alpine's mistake. Great job, P. Casal. Also, honorable mentioned the Sam great Twitch stream and also saying sling your sausages out for Gasly on stream that I clipped in put in the chat. Great job. Sling your sausages. Yeah, sling them out because that was unreal. Did he pass all five cars or was he in the pack already? Well, I think Magnuson went from the front of the pack to the back of the pack. Gasly was already clear of the two

Aston Martins. I think the two moves he made were maybe on Magnuson and Albon. Okay, I was going to say, if he got four in one corner... No, no, he was clear of the Astermines. Right. That would be overtake of the season.

But okay, fine. Cool. Thank you, Lance. Coming up next is our friend Rath. My moment of the race, I was actually out of breakfast for the whole race. Hope it was yummy.

So my moment of the race was my omelet. I had... And also Landau's crap start that I saw. But great omelet. Crap start, great omelet. I mean, you've got to have a, you've got to crap a few eggs to make an omelet, right? That's what they say.

I love an omelet, by the way. Underrated breakfast choice. SOS, Sam Omelet Sage. Not even a good joke. Good. All right, it's our friend norm. Oh, hello, my late breaking friends from a. Cross lay big wet. It is I, Norm from Texas, and I'm here to get my moment of the race,

and my moment of the race is Pierre Gassley duct-taping his broken baguette of an alpine and showing up while hauling a grill and putting the sausages on the grill and cooking the rest of the field to get into the points. Anyway, way to go. Sausages out, peace out, and keep breaking late. Maybe we should release sausages out merch. Maybe Norm should just commentate on F1 races. Yeah, very visual. It's very visual.

Maybe we should do radio communication, like radio commentary. You wouldn't know what's going on, but you'd be entertained. You'd have a great time, wouldn't you? Just call me Rico. Is that next? Just call me Rico here from the USA, first-time submitter. You would think the moment of the race would have to be when that maniac went for the fastest lap on 30s,

36-year-old, 36-year-old tires. They're old. And God had it done, but no. The moment for me would have had to have been his radio call after. Just simply lovely. Thanks, guys. Big of a dig, that, wasn't it, Ben? Come on, just, um, come on, mate.

Bit of banter. Just a bit of banter between mates. Yeah, yeah. Good. Now this week, folks, if you're not in the Discord, you can name your submission. Now this is from Hazer We love Hazer He's a great friend of the show

Now this one is named We have had a beer So there's a plot on me That thinks Northern George Also might make an appearance I haven't listened to it So I might be wrong But I'm editing today Hazer

Come on, keep it clean This is going to be interesting Sorry to being in advance Right boys We've been out We've been out on the beers all day So moment of the race What was your moment of the race

Callum? Oh I don't know I didn't watch it Jo, what was your moment of the race? I don't know, wasn't that good, was it? It's pretty awful. I'd have to go with the DRS overtaking to term one,

which was my submission this time last year as well. Cheers, boys. Right, good. So, he's been out on the booze with two new submitters. So no more than George today. We've had Callum and JJ. And they didn't watch it. So he's used a descriptive moment.

But he hasn't did? Good. Were they like different ends of a bar or something? You have the only TV screen in the whole bar. The other two is just the other way round, like purposely not watching it. We refuse to look at the television. Okay, good.

We've got a couple left. Cronenberg up next. All right, this is Cronenberg reporting live from Zandvord. A moment of the race. It's got to be Lando overtaken on the main straight because I was right in front of it. It was incredible. Also, shout out to Lewis.

I mean, catching up to George like that, proven is worth. All right. Keep breaking late, boys. I mean, to be fair, if you said to Lewis Hamilton before the start of the race, oh, no, if you said to George Russell before the start of the race, yeah, you'll be like three seconds clearer, Lewis, by the end of this, he'd have gone, ah, safety car end? I don't think I've done a very good job.

Oh, dear. A little extra skip it from Croningberg. Okay. That's bold. I admire the bravery. Yeah, okay, well, well done to you. I hope you made it out of the Netherlands in one piece. And finally, one of our favourite names.

Submission comes in from Mojo Dojo, Casa House. 22.9 second margin. Sky. It's a statement. That's a statement made. Yeah, that is. I'm still not over that, wouldn't he, Margin? That is very impressive indeed.

Attention now turns to the fact where he can repeat that or not. As we go into the Italian Grand Prix, it is a back-to-back. Last race in Europe, I think, unless I'm mistaken. Well, some of us count back who is Europe. Some of us don't.

Who is some of us? Formula One. Screw you, Formula One. You're wrong. Us, you actually do geography. Do not count it. Yeah, so we've got the Italian Grand Prix, of course, preview and review

coming up in the next seven days, Sam, if you want to get us out of here. Folks, if you go, I don't want to wait till the midweek. Well, Patreon's available and we've got power rankings coming to you. We've also got our classic race review. We're doing the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix. Bill of Breaking got recording at the weekend as well. So that's even more content for you. Obviously, loads to get stuck in there.

If you go, I just want to fill my time with more LB. I just want LB everywhere, then you can go and get it for a very measly price of £9 or $12 at the absolute most expensive tier. There's also so few tickets left then. How many fingers would you need? Not all of mine. And despite the fact that I'm from Cornwall, that is 10. That is a niche reference.

That's right, folks. There are less than 10 tickets to the live show left over. We are almost sold out on a bigger venue than we've ever been into as well. We cannot wait. Get your hands on if you're coming. We'd love to see you. Join the Discord. Follow us on social media.

And we will see you in the midweek preview for Monza. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. And I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.