The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2024 Imola GP Review

Episode Date: May 19, 2024

The LB trio review the Emilia Romagna GP where Norris brought the fight in the closing laps but Verstappen managed to hold him off to secure the win. The boys break down all of the Imola action from how Ferrari's upgrades played out to Perez's performance and the difficulties faced by Sauber, Alpine and Williams. As always they review their predictions and hear YOUR moments of the race... 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. Welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Ead, Sam Sage and me Ben Hocking is today we review the Amelia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola of race one by Max Verstappen by a narrow margin just ahead of Lando Norris with three different teams. on the podium. Charles Leclair,

rounded that out in third. Slow burner, Sam, I think is the name of the day. Slow burner, indeed. Yeah, it's like, you know, you woke up in the morning to watch I have for dinner. Should I have some pulled pork? Put the pool pork in the old slow cooker.

You know, pour some nice sauce over it, get marinated. And you go put that on low. Low heat, thank you. I come back in eight or nine hours. And you might get a very tasty payoff. You might overcook it. But we got there eventually.

And it finally turned into something. reasonably enjoyable to watch, just like my pulled pork is probably reasonably okay to eat. Nothing special, I'm sure. But the point here is, I know you're all wondering desperately what I'm getting at. It was a very long burn for a very mediocre payoff, wasn't it? We never really got the moment.

The broadcast team were trying their absolute hardest to big up, shout it up, make it sound like it was going to be some monumental moment, but it never quite got over the line. We were nearly there. Harry, you're back. Hello. Thank you. We're all, we're all here for once, which is good.

Yeah, you're right. It's like, to go along with the same analogy, it's like Christmas day where you don't put the turkey in on time, and everyone's a little bit hungry by the time it comes out, and it's, you know, a bit, bit touchy with it. And yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not quite, even though it's still delicious, it's not quite when you wanted it.

It's not quite when you wanted it. So, there's go. There's two food analogies to kick us off. Ben, I bet you'd be here. delighted to be here in a sea of food analysis. It's great. We've already got through Paul Perth, Pork, and Christmas in the space of not even two minutes. But I'll let you know what's coming up on today's menu for dessert. We've got a moment of the race coming up later on. But we might as well start with our starter, which is Max Verstappen, narrow win over Lando

Norris. It didn't look like that was going to be the case for the majority of this Grand Prix. The Stappen opening up a gap of over seven seconds at one stage. But closing lap, Lando Norris was able to reel him back in to the point where he very nearly got in touch with him on the last lap, didn't quite get DRS on the start, finish straight the last time around. But even so, very close win for Vastappen. Sam, how did you see the battle out from? Were you surprised that Lando Norris was able to keep it as close as he did? I was actually more surprised at the start of the Grand Prix than I was at the end of the Grand Prix. I was more shocked at how far Vastappen was able to run

before the rest of the griggs started to put their foot down and close that gap again. With the way that that car's been running and the feedback that Vastap has been giving over the weekend so far, free practice 1-2 and 3, not happy. The guy doesn't enjoy the car. It's not performing how he wants. The turn isn't where he likes it.

We know he likes a very aggressive car as much of Stappen, one that you can really pivot it. And he wasn't getting that. And it's a track that you really need to be going to get that change of direction locked in. It's such a fast-flowing circuit. that if you can't get the car whipped across the circuit in the many chicanes that Imala has,

you're going to struggle and that's where he was struggling previously. So to watch him, not only secure poll position, of course, on Saturday, but then to eke out a several second lead over the likes of Landon Norris. That was the bit to me that was surprising. Landon Norris himself came out over the interview

at the end of the Grand Prix, when before the podium ceremony, and they asked, a couple more laps, could you think you could have gone in? and Lando quite honestly, openly, and said, yeah, I could have done, but actually it's because I let him get too far away in the first thing.

He had too much of a gap on me in that first thing. And that's where I was most surprised. I do think the McLaren on raw race pace, these front-ended tracks, the McLaren does have, maybe not an advantage, but it's at least completely on par now with that Red Bull in these scenarios. So I did think that Lando would have been closer early wrong in that Grand Prix.

Equally, I was surprised that he caught up at the end after this revelation that he wasn't as close. when Charles LeCler was breathing down his neck and the gap there looked like actually it might end going the way of the Ferrari rather than the McLaren of Landon Norris. But to see him that close, less than a second away coming into the Grand Prix, it's refreshing. It kind of opens the door to potentially

more battles further down the season. We might see a closer fight, maybe more tracks are more open to overtaking, less different tire wear strategies could be going on. It just means that this season isn't entirely sewn up as maybe a couple of weeks ago. We thought it might be. yeah, I was a bit surprised at how the race playing out, but it's promising for the rest of the season, I think. What did you make of it, Harry, between the top two?

A bit of a race of two halves, I guess you could call it. Yeah, this might seem slightly hyperbolic, but I think that might be Rala Maxfuss-appen's best-ever weekend. I truly think that car didn't deserve to be anywhere near pole position or a race win. That's not to take away anything away from Lander Norris, but I think the poll yesterday was incredible.

And I think the way he managed the race today was equally a special. You mentioned the first stintz. And he just took off. And yeah, Norris probably left him get too far. But I don't know whether Norris, if Norris had an answer, then he would have obviously stayed with him.

So I don't think he did at that point. And even towards the end, when Norris was, you know, catching him at a rate of knots, Vestappen clearly saved a bit in hand. Let him get a bit closer, but then had enough to hold on. He obviously saved a bit of tie life for that.

So I think it's up there as one of his best weekends for this happen. But yeah, for the rest of the season, this is encouraging. It's exactly what we said in the preview. I don't care if Maxisatapen still wins every race this season. As long as day we get, well, not that race, but the last 10 laps of that race for the rest of the season, because that's all we want is a close fight for the win. So it's very encouraging of this,

if that's going to be like going forward. I'd like it for the full 100% of the race rather than, you know, 10% going forward. But I'll take 10% of a no percent. So, yeah, it was, I enjoyed the last stages of that race. And I just hope that's how it continues because that's all we asked for. It's a bit of a fight at the front. Yeah, I came away with the same conclusion as you, Sam, in that the first part of this Grand Prix surprised me more than the second half,

in that no way in practice or qualifying did I anticipate Vastappen to pull away a gap of about three times per second throughout that entire first stint to the point where it was about six or seven seconds that he had as an advantage over Lando Norris. And it was looking like at one stage, if he was to carry that through for the rest of the race, his winning margin would have been about 15-ish seconds, which for Vastappan and Red Bull is about right. It's been bigger than that at some circuits, but 15 seconds is fairly standard of a race win for Vestappen. But really that second half, that was, it was really impressive first from Lando Norris, because it was not a strategy that came without risk in that at one stage he was within the DRS of Shao LaCler behind him.

He had to fully risk saving his tyres to the extent that he did to the point where that Ferrari could have feasible. overtaken Lando Norris, but he just, I think he managed it very well to the point where LeCler was able to get close for a couple of laps, but then all of that hard work in terms of that tire saving, it paid dividends in that he was able to catch for Stappen at a very quick rate of knots. I do agree with what you said, though, Harry, and I think the Stappan's management out front was very impressive, particularly given he had a couple of off-track excursions early in the Grand Prix, So he could not afford, as GP very rightly said over Team Radio, he could not afford to make an error with Lando Norris second behind him because he would have picked up a penalty, which would have cost him that race.

And even though Lando Norris has said, give me a couple more laps, I think I could have had it. I disagree. I think Vastappen would have had enough to see him off. We had so many instances of it today, right, where a car was faster than the car in front. but unless that tire offset was massive, you weren't making that overtake done. So I think Lando Norris could have feasibly sat behind Max Verstappen for 10 laps and been half a second behind, but actually overtaking him, catching is one thing passing as another, as the great Murray Walker once said, and I think we would have seen that if that race had

been 10 laps longer. In terms of the season as a whole, I guess, we were looking at this race as a bit of a barometer of whether we can get this sort of a fight between McLaren and Red Bull, Vastappen versus Norris, for longer than just Miami and now Imola. Sam, are you encouraged in that regard? 100%. Landon Norris feels, seems buoyed by that victory in Miami. And he said it again after the race.

You know, it hurts in a different way, not been able to get the victory now that you've already picked one up and you know how sweet it tastes. And I think it's going to spur him on. The car is surprisingly very good. I thought out of all the competitors that were lined up behind Red Bull. I must admit, I didn't think it was going to be McLaren were the ones that were going to be the first to come on a par with Red Bull. And I don't think it's going to be there every single Grand Prix. I wouldn't be shocked if we some certain races where the McLaren doesn't race as well as Red Bull.

I think, for example, when we get to Monaco, I don't think the upgrades are going to be as effective as they were at the likes of both Imala and Miami. I think that the tracked personality is so different that I think the likes of the Red Bull build combined with Max Verstappen's prowess the ability that he has behind that Will, which I agree with Harry was so sensational this Grand Prix. I think it will make the difference. I don't think Landon-Norris is on that Cusp that Max Verstappen is on when it comes down to the crunch point just yet. But we've got a lot of races. We've got another 17 Grand Prix to get through. That's a lot of points and a long of wings that can be shared out. And it looks like if Red Bull don't have too much in the upgrade pipeline,

And McLaren maybe make a couple of tweaks. They get to know their car a little bit better. Maybe Ferrari makes some adjustments as well. We'll get onto them later on on the show. We could see a few wins exchange in our hands here. I'm not saying that Max won't go on and win this one comfortably. But you saw the difference between how Max performed and how Perez performed. The car is needing to be driven.

It's needing to be kind of pushed to its limits. And Max will stop going over the regular at the end of the Grand Prix with a big old expletive that we can't repeat on the show. He had to work for it. He had to try. He had to push into it. You can hear how thrusting he was, seeing the car behind him, seeing Lando Norris' day glow yellow helmet flashing into his rearview mirror.

He knew there was a threat that he knew there was pressure. If that can happen every single Grand Prix, we've got a fun season on our hands. What do you think, Carrie, I know you mentioned how impressive you fought Vastappen's weekend was as a whole. Based on that, do you think that even if Vastappan is off a little bit in future Grand Prix, nine out of ten or an eight out of ten rather than a ten out of ten, that will give the likes of Lando Norris opportunities.

yeah i i do i mean certainly this weekend if he hadn't been on his on his game in qualifying onwards because it's in practice he wasn't it didn't look like uh he was going to threaten the front row let alone pole position um yeah i think if this is if it continues like this and that you know it's difficult to say that it will because i think miami and in it in this race had been very different in the way that they they they sort of went the way they happened but if it does continue like this and Vestappen's going to have to step up and as you say Sam we saw it with Perez

who couldn't step up and was mired down at the back end of the top 10 for most of the race so it's yeah it's exciting I'm not suggesting there's a title fight on it on our hands but it certainly looks like we might have some challenge different challenges for race wins each weekend and if Ferrari can

deliver on the promise they showed on Friday chuck another team in there because McLaren certainly are there at the moment. And even if we don't have that fight in the in the Drivers' Championship with Stepan running away with it, we do now have a situation where there are 12 points separating Shaula Clare, who's now in second place in the Drivers' Championship, Perez in third on 107,

and Lando Norris in fourth on 101. So those three drivers and Carlos Seinfant isn't that far behind, to be fair, that is potentially an exciting fight for the rest of this season. Should we have a look at Driver of the Day? There's some weird nominations coming through So play that jingle Sorry, Sam

I've never been that eager The verdict is in You're the driver of the page You're the driver of the day You're good at driving You know, I could see that jingle in Greece It gives the kind of sitting in the Right, you know, like the sitting in the dying

A beauty school dropout You're good at driving I could vision it now. Danny Zucco on the podcast. Perfect. We were on different wavelengths. I was like, yeah, I could picture driving down the middle of Athens with that playing. Oh, good.

Oh, great. Yeah, sure. Good stuff. Driver of the day. Obviously, we'll give our driver of the day and worst driver of the day very shortly. But if you want to hear exactly what we think on all 20 drivers, you can do so via our power rankings. That is a Patreon-only episode that we do. That will be out tomorrow.

So we give each driver a rating out of 10. driver of the day though Sam, who have you got? Yeah, this is going to be an interesting one. So I'll give some shoutouts. For Stappan, I thought, managed fantastically well. I'm not going to give it to Max Verstappen, but I thought he was brilliant. Harry, I thought your points earlier was spot on.

Landon Norris as well. Did a great job at holding off Lecler. Got that move done on Peres after the stop that he made where he had to get it done to make sure the scratch you worked and he did. And of course, he gave us a lot of entertainment at the end. Yuki Sanoda, hello, around the outside, absolutely loved it with Holkenberg following him as well. sensational driving from Yuki.

I can't believe I'm going to say this. I'm going to give it to Lance Stroll. I don't know what year it is. I don't know what universal timeline we're on. But Lance stroll progressed from 13th up to 8th, 9th, sorry. No one in front of him broke down. The strategy was fantastic.

He made good overtakes. The strategy was all in one place and he worked with it brilliantly. He was just good this race. Right? He was just good. I don't know why or who or what's happened, but he deserves a bit of a compliment for it.

So, Mark Stroll is driver of the day. Harry? I am going Max Verstappen, which I know is an obvious one, but yeah, there's some good drives out there. Sonoda B, yeah, it was a good one. I thought Stroll was quite impressive today.

But, yeah, like I already said, I think that's one of Vestappans, one of his best races. I think Lansstrol is worthy of a shout out the reason I won't give it to him is I think he recovered to the place where he maybe could have been if he'd qualified better, which I appreciate his driver the day very specifically. But I think on the Grand Prix itself, he did a very good job, but perhaps qualified a couple of positions lower than where he could have got to.

I think this was quite an odd one in that I think the best three drivers on the track were the three that stood on the podium. I thought Leclair, Norris and Vestappen were the best three. I will give it to Vestappen as well only just ahead of the other two but yeah a very good effort given that it wasn't an out and out Red Bull domination

this weekend Worst driver of the day Get in the bin bin bin bin worst driver of the day Worse driver of the day You suck at driving Who sucks at driving some I feel like the sucks at driving line

is actually quite harsh here because there was no one that stood out as absolutely, you know, abhorrent this Grand Prix. This is going to be harsh, but I'm going to give it to Carlos Sites. Never got the hang of the car. Miles off his team, mate. Him and the team were gnapping when it came to Strachia against Oscar Piaastry. Just did not deliver what I think that car was capable of of, whereas I think the club pretty much got the most out of it, but I'm not being able to get past Norris,

which was touch and go anyway. So he was miles off it. And I don't think it was great. for me science i think Perez maybe should have done better as well harry yeah i'm going to go Perez but i think science isn't a bad shout but um yeah Perez was we said this in the preview that we Perez can't afford to have a another Miami and i think maybe that was even worse um i know it didn't help where he qualified but also qualify better scrub don't be out qualified by the rbs that's you're in a red

ball i don't care if the red ball's not as dominant this weekend you're still in the red and your teammate was still on pole. So, yeah, Peres. Yeah, four points versus 25 points on your teammate is not a good look. So Perez is definitely a contender. I was disappointed by Carlos Sines as well, but I'm not going to put him in the top couple here. I thought Logan Sargent again was bad.

But I'm going to give it to Fernando Alonzo. Lance Roll proved that car was capable of getting points. And Fernando Alonzo made an error in practice that he just about managed to make qualifying for, made an error in qualifying when he was going through that first chican. And then in the race itself, offered very little. I know he went in very early into the pits to try and everyone else had the same idea.

So that didn't work out at all. But he was, I know he was treating it as a test session, but hey, any other back market could use that same excuse. And that wouldn't excuse them from getting this award. So I was really disappointed by his whole weekend, to be honest. Yeah, I think as a whole weekend goes, this might be one of Fernando's worse since actually return. turn into Formula One a few years ago now.

This was really poor. And we'll also cover off big brain strat. What have you got, Harry? Um, Ferrari. Hello. Hello again, my old friend. Good to have you back. Oh, no, no, no, no.

And we've already mentioned signs wasn't, it didn't have the pace, but just going to let Oscar Pastri undercut you like that, like savagely. And then, and then do, don't do. do nothing about it. They left him out a lot longer, but I don't know. Just felt like they forgot about them. They put Lecler.

They're like, oh, we've covered that one off. Oh, oh, no. Oh, Carlos, mate. Sorry about that. Yeah, Ferrari.

Terrible. Sam. Oh, hello, George Russell, mate. Good to have you back. Oh, George, your ties aren't working. We can stop you now if you want. Oh, but I'm going to go behind Lewis. Will he give me the position back?

No. Why would he do that? So yeah, lose a position, gain faster slap, have a net minus one of points, despite the gap being totally fine between you. It's a solid strategy Mercedes. Whilst you didn't technically lose anything as a team, your driver, what is going on there, George? Absolutely bizarre radio period that you had there.

So, yeah, George Russell with the big brain. Yeah, that one was because by doing that strategy, the team gained a point. And I just don't know why they didn't go down that line of thinking to say, yeah, I know George you'll miss out on one point, but we will gain a point as a team. Be the team player here. Lewis Hamilton is departing. You don't have to worry about him.

We're keeping you. It's a difference between a championship, bang, it was so important. I don't know. I can't go away from Ferrari on this. I know it's already been said, but what on earth you're doing? Did they forget he pit?

What are they doing? Okay, not covering off the McLaren in the first instance or, you know what, I'm going to go further back than that, not doing the manoeuvre before McLaren did it, if they pulled off the undercut, you know, that would have been an idea,

didn't go with that. Then Piastri Pitts, they could have covered that off, chose not to, fine. You've made potentially two errors, but you can still save it by just doing the same strategy that the likes of Lance Stroll did.

Go really, really long on the mediums, but they just didn't, I know, like you say, Harry, they left him out there a bit, but it wasn't enough to build up any kind of... No man's land. Yeah, there was no advantage for him over the other cars around him when he did come into the pits.

And he was... He very nearly got overtaken by Russell as well. I'd have just left him out there for another 10 laps. Why not? And do the same strategy. If a safety car comes out, which we know is quite possible here, I know it didn't today.

100% chance, mate. And then... But there was a reasonable chance that it might happen. Leave him out there and see if he takes advantage of that. and if not, you've still got the opportunity to do what Landstrol did. I was baffled. Baffled. Yeah.

Karoon Chandok and the Sky Commentary was called it so early on because McLaren were just waiting to clear the gap back to Lance Stroll. Yep. He called it. He could see, Ferrari, you must see this. As soon as they get that gap, they're going to pit him. Also pit signs, as you say, Ben, if you're going to get undercut, stay out there and do something different.

Don't just do nothing. Oh, look, Yuki Sonoda has pulled off an undercut on Nika Holcomberg. Hmm, interesting. Should you grab a cup of tea? Yeah, let's do that. Like, get on with it. You're like, you've just seen that happen. Good stuff.

Anyway, let's take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we're chatting Ferrari a little bit more and Mercedes. Okay, Ferrari did manage to get one car on the podium, which is somewhat significant because it's the first time since Michael Schumacher that a Ferrari has been on the podium, 2006, the last time. 18 years ago. 18 years. 18 years.

We're so old. Yes. Oh, no. Oh, no. I'm not sure if Kimi Antonelli was a life of that. Oh, no, no, no, no. Years ago, I'm still in double digits of my age at that point now. That's what we've reached.

Glad this is the takeaway from this intro. We are old. So, yeah, Ferrari managed to finish third and fifth, but obviously they brought highly touted upgrades to this race, which Sam haven't really done. much, at least in terms of finishing position. Yeah, I felt like whilst they were

kind of close to McLaren and they obviously beat Sergio Perez, I do think that was more a let down on Sergei Perez's side and I think that the racetrack ended up sparing their blushes a little bit. I think if we were at a racetrack that was, if we were at a Bahrain

for example, I think Oscar Piastri had the pace to fly past both the Ferraris at a vet. Sorry guys, the ice cream band has gone back past. if anyone would like one, let me know. 99's no longer cost 99P. So anyway, my point is here, if we're at a bigger track like Bahrain,

I think that Piastri had the race pace. I think it was so unlucky that he got that quality penalty penalty in setting back, because I actually didn't think that McLaren's killed I've been a real menace for Max for Staffing today. So I don't think they've delivered on the upgrades that they've come out and said. Carlos Seitz says it would wipe any advantage away.

Charlerler was very adamant that these would be a real step forward. And Freddie Vass, in all of his brilliant wisdom, came out. I did say, actually, it's going to be a small step forward. We're quite reserved about it. You know, it's another nice step in the right direction, but you're not expect to see a revolutionary change. And that's exactly what we got.

They're still in the fight. They're still kind of there with McLaren, but they are still behind Maxwell stepping in that Red Bull. I think they're going to come away from here and hope that these upgrades before better. I don't know, maybe more power-based tracks that we've got a lot more coming out with in Europe or tracks that have different features to what we saw at Emila, because if they were hoping for a perfect, weekend here, they're going to go away very disappointed. The fact that they were the third

fastest constructor overall in a basically a three-way fight is not a good look when you bring that many upgrades to a circuit. Harry, what do you think Ferrari will take away from this weekend? I think they will be encouraged by how well it was going in practice, but that doesn't really count for much. I've heard you don't get any points for practice. Correct, I'm under. You are correct. but yeah, it's, I don't know, a mixed one. I think, yeah, as you say, San Freddy Vass was right to play down the expectations as his drivers couldn't control themselves,

apparently, before this weekend. Because otherwise, they looked, you know, pretty stupid. But yeah, in qualifying, yes, I think they can probably look at that and be fairly happy, probably slightly, given where they, as I say, given where they started the weekend, probably slightly disappointed after quality. But yeah, the race pace,

didn't really do much to their race pace, which I guess is a bit of a worry. But yeah, as they say, maybe this is, as Freddie Vass says, is part of a bigger, a bigger plan, bigger package.

But yeah, it's not really brought them much closer. And we'll, I guess we'll see how it pans our other circuits like Monaco. And then we go off to Barcelona, which is another entirely different track again. So, one,

two, Hamilton Russell for a second, Garantz. Oh, yeah. My God. Could you imagine? Absolutely. Spain merchants. Imagine the downloads we get on our episode if that happens.

Back to 10th and 11th X-Royce. They should not bring up. Mercedes do not bring upgrades to Spain because you don't need them. And it fools you every year. You bring upgrades and they're like, oh, we're much better now. We're back. Boy, we're back. We're so back.

Anyway. But yeah, Ferrari, disappointed, I guess. But I don't know. It's like a mixed feeling. that maybe they're not quite as close as they looked on Friday, but also they were hoping for, but also shouldn't be too disappointed because I think this is part of a bigger plan. Trust in Feddy. Freddy. Freddy Vass.

I made a similar point on our qualifying review yesterday, and I feel like if you allowed this weekend to happen, you had you had qualifying, you had the race, and you had no idea about the Ferrari upgrades. And after this race, you would say, someone was to go up to you and ask, so yeah, those upgrades work quite well for Ferrari. Don't you agree? Your response would be they had upgrades? Because they were just roughly where they've been this season so far.

Like, arguably they were a little bit closer than they have been at some races. But at the same time, third and fifth for a team that is second in the championship is fairly standard. I think, like you say, in practice, it looked far better. than in the race itself. I thought, you know, Charler LeCleur's pace was definitely better than Carlos Sines. This was an example of a weekend where Lecler was

every 50 laps, Lecler seemed to be better on 49 of them. LeCleur was quite comfortably better than Carlos Sines this weekend. And I think the fact that he kept Piastri at Bay in the second half of this Grand Prix is at least a little bit encouraging, but the fact that

Carlos Sines, I know the strategy was abysmal, but But the fact that signs was nowhere near catching back up to Piastri as a result of that happening, that was a little bit worrying. They were just, they were the third best team, or maybe the second best team, depending on what you thought, actually Vestappen got from that car. But yeah, I just don't think it had too much of an impact. And I think Ferrari will be going away a little bit underwhelmed. A bit sad. Yeah, it's not an outright failure.

I mean, we've seen plenty worse. they still did pick up a podium. They have got 25 points from this race weekend, but given what McLaren were able to do last time out in Miami, given Perez was on the pace. Yeah, underwhelmed is, I think the right word. Do you think it'll be a failure if McLaren overtaken them in the constructed standings by the summer break?

Do you think that's a real show of force from McLaren and a real lack of turnaround from Ferrari? You would have to ask seriously. questions at that point because we've had eras benotto and Arriva Bene and now we've got Freddie Vass and Freddie Vass has been brought in obviously to turn around their fortunes

he keeps finishing third and in a battle for second he's not really going anywhere that's that's roughly where they've been for the last hybrid era right so he needs to be competing for a championship at some point we gave him some

leeway last year we could give him a little bit of leeway this year, but at some point it's got to start happening for him. And at least here, not much progress. Yeah. I hope that Sykes turns out form around because he was so good at the start of the season, but this just was not a good weekend for him. Let's move on to Mercedes. They were the example of being in No Man's Land this weekend.

They were not really close to the top three teams, but at the same time, they were quite comfortably clear in the end from the likes of Astor Martin and R.B. Harry, do you think that they are happy, unhappy somewhere in the middle? I don't know anymore with Mercedes. Do they know? They're just there. They just seem to exist currently.

Yeah, they were just, like I say, no man's land. They were no any of the rest of the top three teams. And they were pretty much clear of the rest of the field. But that just kind of feels like where they are. at the moment. I guess I don't know, if we're basing it off a normal weekend, normalish weekend,

excluding the last two, Aston Martin probably would have been that fight. That's kind of been where they have been for this season. But obviously they weren't. Alonso, as I already mentioned, didn't have a good weekend. And Stroll didn't qualify well enough.

So made his way up, but wasn't in that Mercedes fight. So they might have had someone to play with if Aston might have been there. But yeah, I just think that's where they are. And I think maybe they just kind of resigned to it at this point. I don't think they've got any ambitions of challenging,

which is ridiculous to say. But I just don't think they do. I don't think they have the pace to challenge the top, top three teams and those being McLaren, Rebell, and Ferrari. What do you think, Sam? Well, I've heard that after, you know, a long 30-year hiatus at the famous 1995 film, Clueless, is getting a sequel featuring Toto, Wolf, Lewis, Hamilton, and George Russell.

Great film. Um, great film, but you know what? He's a new cast and they've got one I hear because... You can't recast Paul Rudd. He still looks as good as he did. Exactly. Get him involved.

I'll take it. They just don't know, do they? They don't know. Yeah, okay, they took a step away from Aston Martin, who I think, you know, actually come results time. There was one spot between Stroll and George Russell. And that was Sergio Perez.

And you'd argue most of the Grand Prix's Perez is still going to be further up the grid than those Mercedes truck cars. Fernando Alonso would arguably be closer to the Mercedes than what Lansk stroll is able to achieve. I just think that on the surface it looks okay because they got sixth and seventh and seventh. The Toto Wolf said, oh, we're going to get sixth and seventh to go.

Yeah, but actually Perez performs, well, you get seventh and eighth. Alongsto has a better weekend. Maybe you get seventh than ninth. It's just, it's not really any better. they had a little spell towards the start of the race where actually the gap between Russell and the Piastri Science LeCler fight was only a couple of seconds

and it kind of stayed between that kind of two and four second period for quite a few laps and that was promising. That's the one thing I've taken away from this weekend that I thought this is promising. Their race pace is okay. But come the end of the Grand Prix, even with battling, even with the fact that the Mercedes had total clean air and those cars in front were fighting with each other,

the gap ended up being 11, 12,000. 13 seconds. It's still a very large gap that you've got to fill out. If that was the gap between first and second, we'd argue that it was a dominant victory. So the gap between all those teams and the say is still a chasm that they're going to have to cross with upgrades. And I still don't think they understand what those upgrades are, where they're needed, or how they're going to work. So it's good to see that they've taken a step away from the likes of RB. They should have done that already. It's good to see that they've taken a step away from Hars. That should never have been a question, but there they are. And asked him, might have a bad weekend and

pair results, great. So yeah, the position was okay. I do think there's a lot of things that kind of went their way this weekend. I think this could be

the worst indictment of where Mercedes are at the moment, but I feel like both Hamilton and Russell could have had 10 out of 10 race weekends, both of them. They also could have

had five out of 10 race weekends, both of them. And their result would have been exactly the same. They would have still been sixth and seventh. Because I don't think

the absolute best case scenario could have got any better than what they did today. And equally, unless one of them actively like crashes the car or doesn't qualify well, I don't think they would have got any worse than what they scored as well. I had the same takeaway as you, Sam, in that George Russell, I thought, at least early on, was doing a pretty good job of staying roughly with the cars in front, which points to the fact that, you know, I don't think they would need a gigantic step forward to get on the back of

them. But at the same time, it's still a big enough gap that it's. this is where that car is. I think at this point we can just turn around and say, this is where Mercedes are. And, you know, whether Aster Martin get back to battling with them, whether some of the other midfield teams

can make a step forward or not, I don't know. But this fourth place, no man's land might be in their future for the majority of this season. What do they do? What do they do? Do they just bin this season off and focus on 2026? I mean, to me, that makes all that.

before I had the discussion, right? And totally Wolf has said no. Well, it just doesn't make any logical sense to me. I imagine that they've got enough power in the bank that they could probably finish forth again next season without too much thought behind it. Put all your resources into 2026 and try and come back stronger. Yeah, we'll soon see on that one.

Bold predictions. Ah, hmm. Oh, you've said ah, Sam. Does that mean you've got it right? If I got it right, I'll be a bit more of a... Ah! Ah. I just, this was more of a, like a pained.

This is just reminding me, I forgot to change my fantasy team again. Oh, my Christ's sake. I even put Landon Norris as my Times 2 driver this weekend, so I'm very happy. Anyway, sorry. What was your bold prediction, Sam? I said there wouldn't be a Red Bull on the podium. And up until Q2, I thought there might have been a chance. Looking pretty good for a while.

It was all right. Then Max Verstappen, Max Verstappen. Max Verstappened. Yeah, he is pretty. good at the F-1. So that's a nil po for me, 25 poise for him. Oh, Anderson win race on the same weekend. Sure. Why not? Harry, your bowl prediction was? Well, I was going to say the same as Sam, but obviously he said, he said it before me. So then I changed mine, luckily, because that was wrong. But then I said, Kevin Manxon would get more penalties than he did in Miami. Cleanest weekend of

his life. Absolutely clean as a whistle. He's like a great race. There was a one point when he was trying out of a move. Exactly. Kevin! Good sake, man. Anyway, so that wasn't right either. Yeah. And I said that there would be a new winner this season in that we've had signs, we've had Vestapp and we've had Norris.

There would be a fourth different winner. So obviously I was on the edge of my seat as race winner landing Norris and race winner makes Vastappen battled away at the end of the grown front. Yeah, neither either way you'd have been wrong. Bring out the abacite. Honestly, I was like throughout practice, Charles,

shall. Come on, Charles. A bit of Oscar sprinkled in. Godshaw. Not happening. Right,

let's take our second break on this episode. We're going to be discussing Sergio Perez a little bit more on the other side.

So Sergio Perez, as we discussed in our qualifying review, unable to make it out of Q2. Qualified 11th for this Grand Prix. Went with a different

strategy. Started on the hard tires, where everyone in front of him started on the mediums. went long into this Grand Prix, used the medium tires to make up some positions at the end of the race, which was good enough for eighth in the end and four points. Sam, what do you make of his Grand Prix?

I like that he tried something different. If you're going to make the mistake as he did in qualifying and not get through to Q3 where you could be competitive, I appreciate that they didn't just go stick him on the media to see how they rang. We know how hard it is to make an overtake here at Imala. And I am going to use that in Perez's defence. it is difficult to get past other people despite having a clear car advantage. It's one of those tracks that you need to be

like a second a lap faster to get the move done. And we saw that, right? Once he moved on to the medium titers, we saw the difference in tyre come to play and he was able to cut through the midfield markers to get himself back to behind the Mercedes.

The problem my I had with that is once he got to behind the Mercedes, he went nowhere. He just didn't move in comparison to those cars. He was on fresher tires. He had cleaning air in front of him. The gap was 30 seconds once he got into the position behind the Mercedes. And at the end of the race, before George Russell make his pit stop, the gap was 26 seconds.

So he gained four seconds over the course of about 20 laps. That's really, really poor. He's just lacking pace. It's one of those Grand Prix where Sergio Perez just got stuck in himself. It's like he had nothing to drive for. And that's worrying because if he hasn't got the motivation to keep going, keep pumping in fast laps, keep hunting down those in front of him and that's superior car.

Then what's he going to be doing for the rest of the season? Because that does make me worry a little bit. So it started off bad. He tried to do something different with it. It didn't really pay off at all, got himself into the points, which was the bare minimum in that car.

And then when he did get some cleaning air on better tyres, nothing else really, really happened. So really suboptimal weekend for him. What did you make of the recovery of three places, Harry? Yeah, it wasn't great. Sorry, side note, if you can hear banging and drilling, apologies everyone.

No, okay. My neighbors are doing building work because obviously they know I'm doing a podcast now. Yeah, Perez was just slow most of the weekend. And I like so,

I know the Red Bull, I don't think the Red Bull was in its most dominant form. And I think Vestappan had to make the difference here, but Vestappan made the difference. He won the race. And Perez didn't even,

I know we qualified badly, which obviously is not a great start. But even, as you said, Sam, during the race, his pace, even on an alternate strategy, wasn't electric. So, yeah, it didn't, he didn't just didn't seem comfortable with that car. I know both of them didn't really for most of the weekend, but definitely Perez Moore. He obviously crashed in in final practice, went out in Q2, and then he fell off the road during the race as well. So that didn't help us cause.

So yeah, just a disappointing weekend for Sergio. I really hope that isn't a sign of things to come. I don't think it is, but I sincerely hope not for his sake. It is often really difficult to judge pure pace at Imala because most of the time it does end up being this massive long DRS train and you end up getting these one to two second gap separating the drivers. So I think for the first half of the race when Perez was on the hard tyres, which I think it was the right idea, by the way,

it was really difficult to assess, okay, how much if he had clean air could he actually get out of this Red Bull? And like you, Sam, I was very interested to see as soon as he got clear of the RB drivers and the like, you know, what has he got? 30 seconds, as you say,

between himself and the Mercedes, okay, you've got clean air now. What have you got? And the answer was, not much. There wasn't much there. And I can, I'm exactly the same situation. I was like, right, 30 seconds, mental mode to myself, okay, let's see where we are in a few laps time. Look back up.

Oh, it's 29. I was expecting it's a bit, okay, we've got to 28. I was expecting to be a bit quicker than this. And it just never really happened for him. I think he got, he got back the positions that he should have done. But at the same time, he never really threatened the cars in front. And I don't think this is going to matter at all. but the reason Mercedes were able to get a fastest lap

was because Sergio Perez was not far enough up the road to stop Mercedes from doing that strategy. So, yeah, I thought it was fairly disappointing. Complete side note, obviously Sergio Perez was on the hard tire and he was the, in 11th, the car that was highest up to try that strategy. I'm not saying the old Q2 rule where you had to race on the tire that you qualified in Q2 was ever correct. But it would be nice to see.

a bit more variety and strategy from the leaders. Just would have been interesting to see one of the top six try the hard tire. I also absolutely love the fact that just gazling along, so there on soft tires. Adored that. Just like, nah, screw it, give it a go. Yeah, I didn't even, I didn't mind. The idea is, can you make two or three positions at the start and then just be the first drivers to come into the pits for hard tires?

So I don't mind it, but I don't know, there's not actually been incentive for, even with McLaren and Ferrari having two drivers up against the one driver of the Stappen, it still wasn't enough of an incentive for any of them to go, let's try the hard tire to start things off and go long. There wasn't, I don't know, it would be nice to see it in some way. I completely agree with you, Ben. Switch it up. Come on, make it exciting.

Let's have a look at the last point scorer. So Landstrol managed to come back through the field to finish nine for two points. Yuki Sonoda, the only RB driver to score. with one point and then both hash drivers agonising the outside 11th and 12th. Daniel Ricardo also in that fight ended up 13th. Of those sort of five drivers, Harry, how did you view their races? Do you know what? Fairly similar.

I don't know. I feel like there was obviously a couple of standouts. Sonoda and Straw, I think did really well. But I think overall they all seem to have fairly similar pace and they will kind of finish fairly close to each other. I don't know, for the most part of this race, it was kind of dull, right? And there was a reason why we ended up watching quite a lot of those battles. I mean, at one point, we were watching like Kevin Banks in Toronto overtake Joe for 16th,

which was a sign we weren't having a belter. But it was good fun, though. It was a good little battle. But, yeah, that, you know, that battle for the bottom end of the points was, yeah, but I thought they, I don't think any of those drivers can be massively disappointed. Obviously, Ricardo, I think where you look at where Ricardo started the weekend of, versus Sonoda, compared to the way he finished it. I don't think he, and obviously he was still beaten,

and Sonoda got points and he didn't. But I think he could probably not be too disappointed, given the pace they had during the race. I think it's relatively, relatively similar. Just obviously Sonoda started slightly further ahead. Stroh was already mentioned, recovered to where it should have been. Holkenberg, my man, I just,

he just keeps delivering. It's a shame that has, it can do a race now, but still not quite, he's not quite up there, is it? And he's still relying on. some DNS. Yeah, and he's just scrapping holding on. And you could tell how delighted he was at his start, because he gained two places. But obviously, then from there on, and he's just trying to hold on to that. So, yeah, Holcombberg's driving excellently, as mentioned all season. Yeah,

I think, I don't really think any of them can be massively disappointed. I think a qualifying goes slightly differently. You race, you know, a bit of luck comes into play and those positions swap about, but I don't think any of them were massively better than the other today. what did you make of the battle for the last couple of points, Sam? Well, I've already given my praise to Lance Stroll, and I do generally think this was fantastic for him. I know I'm judging him on lower expectations, and I work certain other drivers.

For example, if Fernando Alonkso did that, maybe I wouldn't give him driver of the day, just so we're all clear and where those sit. But I do think for Lance, he proved what that Asson's able to do, and I do think he really shone around drivers that actually, yes, okay, I think his car is a bit better. I don't think it's so much better, though, to see him in a track that is hard to overtake,

he got the job done. The strategy worked well. He made use of those fresher tires. I thought it was great. I mean, he pulled off some good moves. You could see exactly the same thing. I think he was helped by his qualifying until he lost the places that he managed to game straight away.

But the strategy was great. He got in front of Holkenberg. The only person he then lost places, too, was Sergio Perez, who should have been in front of him from the start. And, um, Lank Stroll again. Again, I think the Ashton Martin is faster than the RB, comfortably beat his teammate.

I actually want to give a shout out to Kevin Magnuson. I generally think that Cayman had a really, really good Grand Prix. He obviously had to start all the way back in Q1 after the block from Piastri, and he was so close. He finished behind Holkenberg, like position right behind Holkenberg. He was able to make overtake stick.

He had to battle through both of the Salbers, which was a nightmare. He was really close to scoring points as well. And while Hulk was fantastic, of course. I just want to shout out the fact, you know, Kama's had a tough season. It's not been perfect. And on the one race where he couldn't cut every corner

and knock everyone else off the train, He had to turn up and perform. And they had a difficult start due to that blocks qualifying lap. He drove a really good Grand Prix. So that gaggle of cars between the RBs, Hasse, Lank Stroll, I would include in that group as well. The Alpings may be looking like they could come into it. They're talking to them later. They're really close.

And it just shows you how valuable the last point really could be every single Grand Prix. But, you know, I disagree. Like, Harry, I disagree with you. I think there were some standout performances there. I don't think the pace was as similar as it could have been. Lansdrault made up four places from the start and lost one to Paris. It would have been even higher if he hadn't been there.

So, yeah, I think there was some tops and turvy moments for that group. I was surprised at a few of the performances. Yeah, I think, and this is partly why I just voiced my frustration at the fact that there isn't a lot of strategic difference between the top 10 in that we've got Lansstrol and Kevin Magnuson that you rightly praise having a very good race. those two drivers went very long on those medium tires and they benefited at the end of this Grand Prix. They were, you know, Sonoda and Holkenberg definitely had the advantage early on.

But of course they, Sunoda's attempt to undercut Holkenberg, which was successful, happened so early on in the Grand Prix that they had to go a long, long way on those hard tires. And actually, I think in terms of pure race pace, the other two in that discussion, Magnuson and Magnuson and Lansstrol, they had the better end of the strategy and actually made that work quite well. I thought Stroll had a very good race. Sonoda had a very good race as well. I think in reality what Sonoda's done here is he's gone into the pits very early to get that move done on Nico Holcomburg, which has worked. And at the same time, he's lost the position to Land Stroll because he's come in at not the right time.

So I think if he hadn't have tried the undercut on Nika Holkenberg, he might well have lost out to Holkenberg, but beaten Landstrol, in which case he still finishes 10th place. So I think roughly, I don't think Sonoda could have done too much. Daniel Ricardo, if you're being kind,

I think you can say time-wise, it wasn't much between Sonoda and Ricardo this weekend. It looks a little bit worse positions-wise than it does time, but equally I think he took a little bit longer to get through some, through some traffic and losing out to both hash drivers isn't a great look. What about the other three teams? So Williams, pretty horrible day for them. Salber equally not really ever in the fight for points and an Alpine going backwards as well.

Those three teams, Harry, what did you think? Yeah, Williams, again, not a great weekend. I mean, that's selling it. Yeah, not ideal. Put four tires on your car, please. next time. Yeah, their pace just wasn't good again

and obviously didn't help themselves with Albon's Pist's Top, which kind of relegated him to, that was his race done then. Salba, yeah, I don't think they, it wasn't terrible from them. They didn't, they weren't,

I don't know, some races, they've sort of troubled the top, that top ten battle, but they weren't really in out this time, to be honest. So it was okay from them. Alpine, very confusing, because at some points this weekend, they looked excellent. And then I looked at one point, and suddenly Ocon was in 19th today. And I was like,

how's he ended up there? Why are you so far down, Esteban? I enjoyed him and Alonzo having now weakly farting around at the back end of the back end of the field, enjoying that a lot. Keep that one up, please. Esteban and Fernando. But yeah, I don't know, Alpine, Alpine were kind of strange in that they weekend seem to start off better than it ended it just seemed to get worse as it went on so yeah it's

difficult to read difficult to read for them Salby I don't think they can be massively disappointed I think it's just kind of where they are but yeah again Williams it's a it's whereas at the start of the season maybe we could say they were just trying to find out like I'm worried

that this is just where Williams is for the year and again I know they've got a bigger plan but it's great for them considering where they finished up last year. Yeah, I think Williams' blushes could be saved a little bit because of, weirdly, what happened with the pit stop and Alex Albin doing that very slow lap and then pitting it again in that we never really, from that point on, saw representative times for him versus the field, which is probably a good thing because when he was in that mix with the other drivers, he was not looking very quick at all. He was the one driver that was really struggling to stay in the DRS of the car in front.

I can't immediately off the top of my head, remember who it was. But he was about a second and a half behind the car in front, whereas he was under pressure from whoever was behind. Logan Sargent, you know, him not having the pace is hardly brand new information, is it? But Alex Albin has generally been in that fight. I don't know if he would have been today. So it was not a good weekend for them. Salba, yeah, pretty anonymous. Valtry Bottas. They tried their best to go like 54 laps, I think it might have been, or something like that for Valtry Bottas on the hard tire. Basically dead by the end. Joe Guan Yu, not really able to offer much more. Alpine. Oh, Alpine. They are so slow in a straight line. And if they weren't, this might have actually been

all right for them because Esteban Ocon, I've got two gripes with Alpine. Number one is just they have a slow car on a straight line because Esteban O'Con spent about 90% of this race like five tens behind another car, Fernando Alonzo being the main culprit of that. And then obviously as soon as Kevin Magnuson pulls up, he's able to get by. But the other part is the strategy because with Gassley, not really sure what you were trying there. Two stops at Iberla don't actually go very well. but also with Esteban Ockon,

just do the same strategy of stroll. Now, I'm not saying you would have finished in the same spot of stroll. He was quite a few seconds behind him, but he wasn't that many seconds behind him. But for whatever reason, they pulled him in way too early to the point where, as Harry's already said, they came out in 19th place behind Fernando Alonso. And Alonso is not just going to go,

ah, my old teammate, go on by, and use the seven seconds of clean air I've got in front of me. He was stuck behind him for ages as well. I think Alpine properly messed up the strategy. They were slow in a straight line. And I'm not saying they could have got points, but they probably should have been in and around where the Hask guys were.

Should we take our final break of this episode? But moment of the race. I guess one comment on their form is fine. I don't know. What are you going to say, son? No, we'll move on. Wait, what the race is? You've said enough, son.

What, I went to your first, Sam, and I didn't get off. No, it doesn't matter. I haven't got anything useful to add anything. Okay, here's your challenge. those three teams, three words or less to describe their race. Okay. Alpine knows

Lika ski slope. There's two abbreviations. That's like five. Hang on a second. I love her. Williams. What are you doing? Nice. Excellent.

Salba. Nobody's home. Good. We'll see after the break. Cheers, everyone. Okay, we've got Moment of the Race now. And of course, we have got, as always, our submissions via our Discord server. If you'd like to get involved with Moment of the Race or under pressure submissions that we do on our preview episodes, the link is in the description. But Moment of the Race, before we get to our Discord submissions, we give ours.

So, Sam, what have you got? I'm going to give mine to Yuki Senoda. that outside of, you know, the move on Logan Sargent, I know it's Logan Sargent, but I thought it was brave. He had to get it done. Holgerberg breathing down his neck. It was nice to see a proper move

going into a corner, into a breaking zone and not a DRS pass. And I liked it. So, well done to him. He's really big on it. And I do think that maybe we should be looking at him for that second Red Bull seat. And I think he's dismissed himself.

He's put himself into the running. So love that. Go down, Yuki. Would have been great to see it live? Oh, I mean, can we see anything live? Goodness, me. Perez. I think he's making the move. It'd be nice to see it.

Karun Chandott calling it because he can see it in real life. He's not how I want to see an overtake. The TV direction all over the shop was awful to. At one point, a banger came up saying Lewis Hamilton Pitlain's start. That was actually going to be a contender for my moment. Oh, I threw the race. Ah, good. Madness. Harry.

A couple of contenders, Alonzo's brakes just setting on fire and him being like, my brakes are on fire. Let me just turn the wheel. Yeah. I mean, calm. Very calm. Oh, my, my brakes are on fire. And they're like, okay, Fernando.

Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. All the excuses. It's actually got a match. Just like, it's my excuse. Another one was, I think it was George Russell. Attacking Perez. There was a Mercedes trying to attack Perez.

They went through Tamborello. They were, like, cutting back. In my own Hamilton, actually, I can't remember. It was Hamilton. They were cutting back behind Pearsallelton. Perez and they got like the better run through the final part of that chican and you're like, oh, we might have a little dive here because we saw Oscar Pist, Pistu do it. And then Perez just ran off because the Mercedes is so slow in a straight line.

It's unreal. But that was a contend. But no, I'm going for Esteban Okom. I ran the outside into Piratella, filthy. That was nice one. Felt. And that Alpine is slow in a straight line. So fair enough for getting that done on the run up a hill.

Because he did it twice, right? he did it on Lansstrol defending on the first lap. Oh yeah, very good point. I was referring to the yeah, the salvo moves. But yeah, very good point. But yeah, that's my moment of the race.

My moment of the race is something that's already come up, but it was Kevin Bacterson trying to overtake Joe Guan Yu and going, oh, that looks a bit risky. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I've got 10 penalty points. Race bang, race bang,

flashing front of his eyes. Genually think you just saw it coming in of him like, ah. Man really wants to drive Monaco. Literally on his visor. In this battle over 15th place or whatever the hell it was, I'm a take a back seat.

I just for a laugh. It's now got to do that for another 17 Grand Prix. Yeah. It'll be fine. He'll make it. I mean, not a discussion for today, but there was a report that came out earlier

about the various seat changes for next year. And good news for Kevin Magdison, apparently Gene Hasd does have some reservations about taking a rookie in Olly Bairmond. So, Magnuson, you might be in a seat for next year. Because he doesn't know him. Doesn't go in. As I sat down together at dinner. He did, he did free practice for us earlier, Jean. Don't trust him.

Ollie, my man, you need to get some face time with Gene. Otherwise, you're not going to see. Come on, man. Just pop around, just a little housewarming gift or something. Hello. I live next door now. Yeah. Right.

Moment of the race for our Discord. mission's got quite a few to get through. How are you first? Is Lance, LjL? What's up, Lake Breakers? This is Lance, friend of the podcast in training here, better than Lance Stroll. Moment of the race for me,

I would say will probably be Yuki Sanota's passes during the race. He was making some great overtakes, and he actually did a good job. I just feel like R.B. pit him probably a little too early, and he ended up getting stuck, but still job well done, Yuki. Agreed. Yeah, that point.

Next up is Treetorn. My moment of the race was when I went to go to the bathroom because Max had a six-second lead and then I came back and suddenly it was 1.4. How long was you got to? Same question here. Lando looks like he might be legit here. Oh, we've got over your tea part, apparently.

Well, there you go, folks. Everyone knows that Treetorn went for a number two during the race. You went for a poo on lap 8 and he decided to come out on lap 54. Excellent. You should do that more often. If it's going to reduce the gap out of front, go for it. Weight saving. Wait saving.

Good. Next up is Ruth. High light breaking. It's Lee all the way from South Africa with my moment of the race. First of all, there's a prediction of 100% safety car. That doesn't happen. And another thing is Max's radio message when GPS, like, it's just information. And Max is like, yeah, same for me.

Okay, any guy. Anyway, guys, have a good week. Dittaloo. Bye. To dooloo. That 100% safety car thing is so good. Also, there's a couple of good sassy messages from Vastapen there. Also, Lando Norris, when they're telling him to push.

And he's like, I am pushing. Yes, thank you, mate. All right, Lando. All right, Lando. All right, my guy. A GP message I forgot to include as part of my discussion as moment of the right stuff, but it was great. It's just information, Max.

Yep. Back at you. All right. Next up is, oh, Kirstie, why are you picking names like this? Dak Nishan?

First time submitter here, Dak. She just said, Doc. I love the podcast. In my moment of the day has to be Lando. Needing. and oh my god

that was that nerve wracking that I love the breed right there he almost got it he was a little bit mad at the engineers but all good yeah it's gotta be him I mean it was pretty tense for a moment wasn't it next up is Bristol Liam

all right lads that was a pretty crap race actually up until last had much but probably William's doing nothing because my marriage was after everyone midweek telling them to do something they did nothing

and didn't put the wheel on Alex's car so that was quite funny cheers what do we think of the penalty that Alba got for that wasn't really his fault yeah it's a bit savage isn't it because also it's like I have this probably discussion for another time

but like a time penalty is, it seems, it's not like Albon is driven recklessly and rammed another guy off the road. You're really compounding the issue he's already had to experience there. Man's not done, it's an accident. I don't know, it's a very difficult one to prove. And also, I know that we shouldn't reward good behaviour,

but he was trying so hard to keep it out of everyone's way while a league fight was going on. We shouldn't reward a good behaviour as a great line. I have a five second penalty instead, Alex. Well done. I've done for good behavior. I done. Good point, Alex.

Pat them on head. Next up is beef. Hello. I hope you well. I hope you enjoying the sun. Bloody lovely weather. My moment of the day was Lando's radio. Just be like, yeah.

Hello. Leave me too, mate. Thank you. Very polite, very lovely. It was almost a snooze fest. And I did actually fall asleep. And then woke up and I was like, hang on.

Something's going on. And then it didn't really amount to anything. But it was all right. It was good. Okay, bye. I wonder who B think she's talking to when she says those, because they're very one-on-one-sentencing messages. Who, us?

Yeah, it feels like she's talking to one person. The amalgamation of the three of us is one person. Lake Breaking as a person. Yeah, Barry Sage is back. Very Sage. She's a very niche reference. Joyce at Kill. Hello, you lovely lot. To be honest, the only thing keeping my eyes on the screen

was the beautiful Italian crowds, like when it would pan out of her vatsaw into the front street. It reminded me how much I missed it. Also, watching K. Make not try to get more penalty points. He was trying to eat those sours alive. And he did in the end, but you can see him back off, being reminded, he has 10 penalty points. Fair enough. Soving tones.

Very soothing tones. Yeah, very calm. I mean, I could go for a little map now. Norm from Texas. Oh, hello, it is I. Norm from Texas. And I'm just here to give my moment of the race. And my moment of the race goes to,

Karoon Chandak describing way better battles than what we got on the actual broadcast. Anyway, I'd like to wish my lovely wife at KT from Texas a happy birthday. Anyway, keep freaking late. Happy birthday, Katie. Next up is Faster Than Your Mama. Hey, y'all. My moment of the race is when I awoke from my slumber on lap 62 and watch Landon Norris chase down Max for stepping just only to, I'm going to go back to sleep before the Dutch anthem starts.

Oh, you fall asleep faster than my mama too. Bloody out, that's speedy. Sleepier than your mama. Flightless taco is next. Hello, everyone. Flightless taco here. My moment of the race has to be Harry Benjamin, who has the most LB name.

There is a two-host name. Valipoy. Going to Bruno Famine on the pit wall because it is best to be optimistic about Alpine's chances, but right after they conclude the interview, KMAG passes Akon for 14th. Alpin, do something. Oh, I don't know.

So that actually, I want to, sorry, go you, Ben, go. I was just sort of very quickly say when they were talking about whether Gazley could get back in the fight with this strategy, I audibly just went, no. Like that was the savage. I also can talk about big up Harry Benjamin there for the absolute diss on Karan Chandar. Yes, no need for that. No need, son. No need.

You did your first day on the job, mate. It's going, oh, you know, just like your West End career, this is going to be, you know, quite spicy, going to have highs and lows. He's going, yeah, just like your driving career didn't last very long. Oh, Ritos tackets going around. Someone called the police, but not for me.

One final one, right of the death, is everyone's favourite geyser. His moment at the race for me was sticking a little score, little under quid on Lando Norris to win. And as soon as the bet went through on Skybet, a understeered off at turn six and lost seven tenths of a second.

So cheers for that. Cheers, boys. I swear to God, if you come off Patreon now, has it because you ain't got the cash, that's on you. Good stuff. Thank you, everyone. We'll be back this week. Yeah, you're absolutely right

because from this race, we go directly into Monaco Preview on Wednesday. Of course, if you want to check out power rankings, though, and have something in between, We'll be recording that tomorrow and it will be going out tomorrow as well. Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of who. Folks, we enter what I like to call my week of rage. God.

Because I have to deal with the most boring Grand Prix of the entire season. So that's going to be fun. Let's make sure it's a banger, everyone. Joining now, get involved. Yeah, make sure you do join us big week for the preview. You can be heard on the podcast if you're in the Discord. The links in the description. You can get your submission in there for your under pressure moment.

we do have Patreon as Benzorly mentioned. Check it out, go, give it a go. It helps us out more than you know. This has all been video recorded. You can subscribe to us on YouTube, late breaking F1. Get it close to that 10K now. Not sure which Silverstone Grand Prix

can be, but we will get to that 10K. I think that's going to be it. So thanks for listening. We appreciate you in the meantime. I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hawking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late.

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