The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Bahrain GP Race Review

Episode Date: April 13, 2025

The LB trio dissect all the drama from the Bahrain GP - a race defined by tyre gambles, technical troubles, and a dominant display from Piastri! From why Norris couldn't match his teammate, to Ferrari's strategy calls, Red Bull's rough weekend, and Alpine's long-awaited points, there's plenty to unpack... FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League 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, today reviewing the Bahrain Grand Prix. One from Paul by Oscar Piastri of McLaren, joined on the podium by George Russell and Piastri's teammate Lando Norris. at the time of recording, we're not sure if George Russell will definitely keep that second place.

He's under investigation for using DRS when he shouldn't have done owing to some sort of sensor issue. But Sam, we were manifesting positivity as part of the preview episode. And I like to think that that worked. I think it was a pretty solid Grand Prix. Lots of action, lots of weird technical problems, lots of drivers mowing about tires. We saw every compact of tire. It was all right. Did you enjoy it?

Sir, we haven't spoken to you since before qualifying. I did enjoy it. And I said this to Ben before we recorded and before you joined the session, Sam. Who would have thought that alternate tie strategies generate an interesting race? Oh, you ever saw that? Us.

Weird of 14. Yeah. Guess who's back in the house? They break him right again. They said before the race, they've gone a step softer with the tire for borrowing this year. Oh my God. I think it worked.

Do that everywhere, please. I liked this race. Liked it a lot and there's plenty for us to get into. It was much easier writing a schedule today than last week. So thank you, F1. We'll be talking about Red Bull and their struggles, Ferrari finishing fourth and fifth. Great points for both Haas and Pierre Gasly today. But let's start out front with that win.

That 15 and a half second victory from Oscar Piastri over George Russell and then Lando Norris. Sam, start with you. I mean, Oscar Piastri, this isn't the first time we've seen him win so far this year. he took victory, of course, at the Chinese Grand Prix as well. A little bit of jeopardy came into this when the safety car made an appearance. He had a very comfortable lead up until that point. But on those medium tires, he went off into the distance. How impressed were you by Piastri?

Yeah, two poles, two wings from Piastri so far this season. And I think this one was by far the most impressive. The gap before the safety car sitting around eight or nine seconds, I believe it was. So the fact that with less than half distance, he was able to suddenly, pull out a 15 second plus gap over the likes of George Russell and Landon Norris. So, okay, sure, George Russell was driving through every problem. A Formula One driver can have imaginable. And Landon Norris was just, he's having a tough time, wasn't it, this race weekend.

He was struggling through it a little bit, was on Landau and Norris. But Piastri was just ruthless. He was so calm, so consistent, the way he was just churning out lap time. He's got some in this Oscar Piastri kid. He's all right at this Formula One business, I think. And I'm starting to wonder if he might be the real deal and he might just be surpassing Landon Norris, the overall ability.

I'm going to call it now. He's the bigger threat for championship victory than Landon Norris. I think that mistaken in Australia, which was a tricky one for anyone. And I said it at the time, that could have gone the way of Piastro rather than Norris. It was just a bit of bad luck, really. I think that gap's going to come down pretty quickly.

And actually, I'm not a betting man. If I were to put my money on it, Coming out of Saudi in a week's time, Piastri will be in front of Norris in the championship lead. It's just a mindset thing. Piaastri's got it. Norris, I don't know. It just hasn't got the mindset of a champion. I think that's starting to come back to Biden. Well, within reason when we get to Saudi Arabia, it's whoever finishes ahead of the McLaren's is likely to be ahead in the championship. We've now got 14 points separating Lando Norris in the lead on 77, down to George Russell and fourth on 63. and Piastri is just three points off the lead in second place after that win today.

Harry, we saw last year one of Piastri's victories, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, really relied on effective tire wear. Today, as we've already discussed, another race where tyreware was probably the leading conversation. How impressed were you by what Piastri was able to do? Yeah, he could look after his tyres better than anyone else could, but at the same time it's really quick. She's actually quite a deadly combo for F1. And dehydrated.

And dehydrated, yeah. Make sure you drink water. I would if I could. You're sassy boy. Yeah, I would know. I would have it. If it wasn't broken, I might give it a go. If he supplied me some actual water.

But, yeah, I've very impressive from Piastri today. He's just very, well, we know this. He's very cool, calm and collected. I know there wasn't a great deal of like pressure from behind him. Obviously there was the safety car, but the fact that he then had an even bigger gap after the safety car than he did before the safety car showed how much he could look after those tires and just disappear into the distance.

So yeah, he is giving Lando Norris quite a headache at the moment. And it's showing a little bit. And I think of the way Norris is driving, which we'll get on to. But yeah, Piastia was sublime today. I don't think there's anything you could say he did wrong.

And maybe that'll show in our power rankings, which will record tomorrow for Patreon. But honestly, yeah, I think he was, he was perfect. I'm not sure you could say he did anything wrong. He did nothing wrong at all. And I don't think there was a moment in this Grand Prix where I thought he was going to lose this.

Not at the first corner, not when the safety car happened, not at any point in any of the stints that I reasonably think, Piastri's in trouble. He always seemed like he was in control. And to open up a 15.5 second advantage, given there was a safety car about halfway through this Grand Prix, is mightily impressive on those medium tires. He was quicker than Norris throughout practice. He was quicker in qualifying. He was quicker in the race. This was a dominant weekend from start to finish.

And when we made our preseason predictions, I think of the three of us, I was the one that was most hesitant about Piastri and whether he could take that step. forward and match Lando Norris. This for me was the defining race that tells me that yes, he can. Like he's been close to Lando Norris and in some instances ahead of Norris to this point in the year. But this is the one that's really sold me on if McCarran keep this up. He is capable of winning a title.

He is capable. As is Norris. And at this point in the season, I could feasibly believe either of them could win. But Piastri could well be in that fight because what we saw today was, just very impressive. Not too much to add on top of that because we didn't see him a great deal. I always think that's the mark of an excellent race is we don't see them much because they're just not under threat from another driver or another team.

That battle for P2, George Russell versus Lando Norris. Ultimately, George Russell just about finishing ahead of Norris despite pressure on that final lap. Again, Harry, we're not 100% sure if Russell will be penalized to. for the DRS infringement, but in terms of the performance of Russell, how impressed for you that he was able to get his second place back that he ultimately lost due to a one-place penalty after qualifying?

I think there's only one word to describe his performance. Audacious. Oh, there it is. Audacious. No, look, once again, George Russell, the burglar of a F-1 driver, stealing a P-2 when, quite frankly, he shouldn't have done.

I thought he was mightily impressive again today. Obviously, the caveat of the, that he's currently under investigation, but Russell, Russell did everything he could to stay in P2. Obviously, he nailed at the start. He got past LeCler, and then later on when he was given the soft tire

for that final stint, which was bold, not the most ridiculous idea from Mercedes, but it was a bold one to hold on, to have to hold on to those for that amount of time. he made it, he made it work and made it work whilst also suffering with a lot of car issues at the same time. And having to defend from, you know, Lecler and then also also Norris later on in the race. I think as he said in the interview after the race, it had it been a lap or two more, he probably would have lost P2. But that's the distance of the race.

And he held on for long enough. So yeah, what Russell keeping himself in this title hunt, despite the fact he's not actually won any races yet. So yeah, very impressed again by George. He's driving with, again, like Piastri, quite a calm head this year and delivering. So yeah, good stuff from audacious George. That's all good enough.

I like that. I was mightily impressed by Russell as well. This is an instance where I think Piastri was impressive in his own way out front, but Russell equally did everything he needed to do in this Grand Prix. and I think going into the weekend, he absolutely would have taken a second place finish. I don't think it was incredibly likely. Mercedes as a whole, I think, will be encouraged by the fact that they've gone to a much warmer race than what we had at Suzuki, and they have performed well.

Okay, they didn't have the pace of McLaren, but equally, it's not like Ferrari or Red Bull have been able to outpace them this weekend. And what Russell was able to do defensively towards the end of that race was mightily impressive. I liked that they went for the soft tire on the last stint. I think that was the right decision. I wasn't impressed by the hard tire for pretty much this entire Grand Prix. So I know it seemed bold at the time and George Russell made that known over Team Radio. But I do think it was the correct decision. And the way in which he was able to defend late on, even with those tires wearing down, good stuff.

Sam, your thoughts on Russell. Oh, he's so impressive. He's elevating himself again. from last season. Last season, we complimenting him about how he went up against Lewis Hamilton, how he was driving a car that was tricky to manage, and he's coming to this new season. And that Mercedes is a better car than when it was last season. It looks much more direct. It looks much more fluid through the corners, much more stable, which is a really good thing to have in any kind of car. But George Russell is maximizing that. Right from the moment the lights went green, he was aggressive

in a very measured way. He was able to take the fight straight to the McLaren, and that McLaren is far faster and the way that he was holding off Landon Norris and he shouldn't have been holding off landing or not. That McLaren should have kind of turned up, got the job down and driven off again because of the gap that Piastri put on Russell tells you the difference in that car performance because I think Russell was going all guns blazing for those last 20 laps or so after the safety car came in. He is phenomenal right now. George Russell is really having the season of his career so far. Let's hope he keeps it up. Let's hope he's giving him a package that means he can continue to fight at the front, I'm so impressed.

A brilliant P2. I really, whilst I think the fair sporting code probably says that a penalty is up for debate, it would be quite gussing for George Russell and George Russell fangs if he did get a penalty because this was such a hard fought, P2. Now, Lando Norris's Grand Prix is a tricky one to summarize, but I'll give it an attempt. He started in P6, which I think we can agree was lower than he would have wanted on the grid, had an excellent start to the race, which is something that was a, a real struggle for him last year,

manages to get up to third place very early on. Then the news comes across that he was out of his grid spot as picked up by Max Verstappen almost immediately. Just it's every week. It's something, isn't it? Staffen is finding. He takes the five second penalty. Doesn't hurt him all that much

with the way that the start has unfolded, needs to make up ground late on, is in fourth place behind Charles Lecler, has a few attempts before getting that overtake done, but then ultimately not able to get the overtake done on George Russell for second. It was a bit of an up and down one, Harry. How do you rate it overall? Not ideal for Lando Norris.

And sloppy is what I'll go for the word to describe it. It's, look, his struggle started with the way he qualified yesterday. And obviously, he did get the great start. So he'd done a lot of hard work already. but obviously the great start was aided by the fact that he wasn't even in his grid box so that's going to get you a good start lando and then when it came to overtakes during the race obviously the one on hamilton he he did it illegally so to give it back and then later on with lecler he wasn't particularly decisive in that one and with russell again i said this to you

there beforehand. That last that move. That was a that was a was done. That would have been done into turn four.

I'm convinced it had been done into turn four and he decided to try to go on the outside of turn one. Why?

What are you doing? I just didn't understand that because he had it all for once Russell had gone defensive into T1 so Landau had him out of position and

he decided oh that's my chance I'll just go on the outside of him so obviously George is like well no you're not done and closed the door. So yeah, his racecraft, which we have commented on before, um, you know, last year with Vastappen has let him down a bit today because he, he certainly could have been P2. And honestly, I think his pace was really good. He just never really got a chance to show it because of all of those sort of errors along the way. So it would

have been really interesting had he been able to even get up to Peter at some point, uh, to see where he would have been versus Pistri because I do think his pace was on a par with, uh, I think Beastri, I think Biasch would have been probably still would have won. But for the most part, I think we'd have had quite an interesting battle for the lead versus the two McLaren. So, yeah, Norris can only blame himself for how today went. It's still not a disaster. He was P3. He's only just lost the lead of the championship.

But, yeah, sloppy. Sam, you, I think it's fair to say voiced your disappointment at Lando Norris's performance yesterday in qualifying. How did the race measure up? It's just a calamity of errors. It's just two steps forward, one steps back. Every time that a door opens for Landon Norris, it seems like he walks up and slams it shut himself. I don't really understand how he can't seem to really take advantage

of some of the opportunities coming his way. He sets himself up on the grid, misses his grid box. Okay, well, that's already your own fault. You've already made an issue there. Then, okay, he's rectifying this. He's got great pace. Actually, you know what? The door is opening continuously because where he comes out after his pit stop,

every single bit of traffic that could get in his way seems to conveniently pit the moment he gets the IRS rocks up to the back of them they pit thanks I'm got to worry about overtaking you every single time that pretty much happened then the overtake comes with Lewis Hamilton first go at having a go at that one

proper lockup straight into the corner goes too deep mucks that around as well has another go runs off the track has to give the position back another failure gets the safety car to go his way brilliant has a muck up where Lecler gets back in front of him, has to re-overtake. Then gets on the back of Russell, can't get the move done. The racecraft is poor.

The ability to be consistent is poor. His mindset when he gets out the car, you hear him in the call-down rule, being weirdly jovial and almost, you know, pandering to piastri. Oh, you had a nice calm racing. Oh, 15 seconds up the road. Yeah, mate. I was quick. I was better than you.

So, you can have had that if you were faster. Didn't make enough mistakes. Just be better, Lando. You'll win a championship. This is not good enough. This is a calamity of errors. You have the car. You have the package underneath you to deliver second place at least.

Second place was the minimum he should have got today. Third is a failing. He might get second three penalty. We don't know yet. Third is a failure. Piastro was 15 seconds up the road. That's how you win a race. Not good enough again from Landon Norris.

I'm disappointed. The good news for Lano Norris is that he's leading the championship by three points and we are classifying him as scoring a podium as a failure. Like, you've reached a good level in the sport if we can have a look at this result and say that it wasn't optimal because it wasn't, but it was far from a disaster either. He's still finished on the podium. The racecraft was poor for most of this Grand Prix.

I will agree with that. The instance with Hamilton was not fitting of his years of experience in the sport. I think you could see how that one was going to unfold. The lockup when he was trying to overtake Leclair into one was very disappointing. He took longer to get by Leclair than he should have done. The move that eventually sealed it was absolutely excellent, but it just took too long to get there. I will say on this, because I don't want to be overly negative on Lando Norris.

I want to give praise to Charles Lecler. Some of the defensive work that he put up against Lando Norris was brilliant. Like, this is where we get proper nerdy about. this sport, the way in which he just held off the throttle as he was coming out of turn one into two and three to make sure that Norris didn't have a great run on him to then overtake him at term four was beautiful. It's very Hamilton Vettel-esque at Spa when they had that safety car restart, right? Same thing, yeah, exactly.

You know that if you are full pelt as you would ordinarily be out of that corner, you aren't preventing Lando Norris from taking his run and he's just going to get. get in the DRS, the slip stream and make that move. And it still ended up happening in the end. But the way in which Charlotte, I was like, no, I'm just going to wait, just going to wait, and now I'm going to bolt as I get out of turn two. That was expertly done.

But from Lando Norris's perspective, just as you kicked off the segment with Harry, not ideal. And we've seen far better from Lando Norris over the last couple of years. I think after Saudi Arabia, he'll be glad to, to have at least a week off to reset. And I think he used the word reset after qualifying yesterday because he's still very quick.

Like that pace is still there. But in terms of his judgment, it's not always 100%. I actually hope he uses this race as motivation going into Saudi. I hope he goes right. I've got another racing a week. I can turn it around immediately. That wasn't good enough from me. I'm going out and qualify.

I'm going to beat Piastri. I'm going to go out in the race. I'm going to beat PSCry again. I really hope he geez himself up and uses that as a motivation to be better. Okay, we're getting this segment out the way quickly because it hurts too much. We will review our bold predictions from midweek. I'm not sure we need to be quick about this. Got a 40 minutes to the end of the episode.

I reckon we talk about it the whole way through. Harry, how many overtakes for the lead did you say they were going to be? No, oh, there were going to be four. If you said none, you'd have been spot on. Yeah, it was a good old nun on that one. Piaastri heard you. and went. I took that personally.

Yeah. How about no? Quote, Oscar Pastery, 2025. Myself and Sam ended up with very similar bold predictions. One of us has ended up on the right side and one of us on the wrong side. If you can't tell by my demeaner, I'm the one on the wrong side.

I said that both Alpine drivers were going to score points, and for a while, it was looking good. I was getting a bit shaky. A bit shaky. Because Dewan was scrote. was scrapping away inside that top 10, but ultimately his tie wear on the hard compound

wasn't as good as Pierre Gaslis, who did finish in the points, which means, Sam, you get the first bowl prediction right of the year. You said that Alpine would score points, and they scored six of them. I did. This one goes out to Dewin. Thanks to being my main homie. Appreciate you not being good enough at F1.

Much love. Damn. That's Savage. I thought doing actually did pretty good this weekend. Hey, look, if you look at the driver's table of points, I sit one above doing. That's how it works. Sure. Okay, that is exactly how that works.

We'll take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to be chatting Ferrari. Oh, good. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear-off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin Business, we speak the same language you do, business.

So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. Welcome back, everyone. Not including the sprint that we had at China, we can extend Ferrari's podium-less streak by one more, not featuring on the podium today, despite Charles LeClau's front row start. he ended up finishing fourth,

Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth. So on the one hand, no podium, Sam. On the other hand, their best result of the season so far. We spoke a lot in the preview about the floor upgrade coming into this weekend. How do you evaluate how they performed? Yeah, a really tricky one for Ferrari. I think Charles LeClaire drove brilliantly.

I really think, again, he's kind of driving out of his skiing. I don't think that Ferrari is a match for the McLaren, nor the Mercedes of what Russell is able to drive. So the fact that he was within that battle, and only finished a couple of seconds away from that fight for kind of the second, third battle that was going on, is a real success story. I actually think Ferrari, before the safety car,

also nailed the strategy. The medium was by far a better tire. They looked like they were being bold by doing a double medium sting. And I assume they were planning on running the soft tire as a final stink a little bit later on. But for some reason, believe that when everyone else was going to the soft tire, they didn't think the soft tire could work. do believe that the safety car

massively hampered their strategy because they went longer on that first thing. Both McClure and Hamilton were reeling in the cars in front. We saw the clerk join that fight with Norris and Russell. We saw Hamilton get past a lot of the traffic that was in front of him that he couldn't touch beforehand, past Gassley, sitting well in fifth place. And then that's where it's stalled.

The safety car threw them off. They go into the hard tire, which, what are you doing, Ferrari? Why are you touching that white wool tire? Every single driver on that tire moaned about how bad that. that tire was. And you think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do that. George Russell's going, God, bloody audacious, mate, and pulls it out the bag. And you decide to stick them on two sets harder, and you're running around like nobody's

business, no place at all. So it's a real shame that they seem to gain some momentum in the mid part of this Grand Prix, only to have it snatched away by another poor call from Ferrari. I think a podium was likely on the cars if they got that strategy right, or if the safety card didn't come out. It was definitely there. But again, there's another poor choice. and I think that's unfortunate from there.

But a better weekend overall. I think Hamilton was a little bit lucky that the tyres worked out as it did because he was floundering in the middle of no man's lang for a little while at the start of this Grand Prix. Harry, what did you make of Ferrari's performance? It's not often that I feel this. I feel quite sorry for Ferrari

because I think, without the safety car, LeCler's P2 today. I think they were, because when they, they they obviously we had the old gal to this but the bravo delta discussions why they've got names now um but when he was obviously calling for delta which i assume was a one stop and to go to the hard i think friar made the right call and we're like nah because that white hard tire is absolute ass we're not using that um words of leis hamilton this tire sucks yeah um so i think they made the right cool and

when lecler came out only just behind gazley who he had been in he'd been in front of um he only lost one position and he got him basically straight away. I was like, oh, I know, LaClaire, especially, he's on a good little strategy here. And obviously, Hamilton was also making up ground behind through the traffic. They were brutally unlucky with that safety car because I think they both were going to go on to soft for that last thing. And I think he might well have,

LeCleur might have got Russell, Norris and Russell. So, yeah, I feel sorry for them. I, too, initially when they put them on the hard tires, like, no, why are you doing that? But looking back on it, I'm kind of, they were boxed in because you'd go medium, obviously, but I couldn't because all they've done is put mediums on so far. So they were kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place on what to do.

Hindsight softs, yeah, probably could have made it to the end. We saw Russell could do it. But I don't think it was where they were, the amount of laps they had left. It wasn't a sure thing that they would make it to the end. So I understand that. I think they will rue the fact that they did go. for softs and maybe they should have split them

and put one on softs and one on hards, which is there, is there a mistake on that? But yeah, I do feel I do feel for a bit hard done by on that one because they were doing quite well. I was getting ready to compliment them on such a good strategy on the podcast and obviously then the safety car came out and ruined it for them. So yeah,

I thought LeClair, like you said, Sam was also really impressive today. Hamilton was better in the race that he wasn't qualifying. He was just having to recover from that. But Leclair especially, and you've obviously mentioned his race craft as well, was very, very good today. So, yeah, it's another missed opportunity, Ferrari. It's in there.

I'm telling you that in that car, it's brewing. Like a little metal detector on the beach. Yeah. Just keep, just going to dig it up for it. They just can't quite find it. Come on. Find the big beep.

Yeah, I hope the, whatever the upgrade comes, is it in Miami potentially. Yeah. That is, that unlocks it, because if they could just a little bit more, they're there, they're there, basically, just a little bit more.

We could have a tasty little fight. Yeah, I largely agree. Pace-wise, it was a little bit difficult to assess where they were versus the other teams because they were on this alternate strategy starting on the mediums and then also continuing on the mediums. They did have good pace over their rivals in that middle sin, but there was that tire offset.

So it was a bit difficult to work out if they started this race on the same compound as everyone else, would they be able to keep up with Norris, with, with Russell? But overall, I'm more optimistic than I was going into the weekend. I don't think they've caught up to McLaren, but equally, I didn't see much separating them and Mercedes. And I, in terms of unlucky versus they messed it up, I'm closer to unlucky, because they were on for that great strategy. I do believe as well that they were going to do medium, medium, and I actually think that would have works out as the optimal strategy today. Those hard tires for whatever reason just didn't click.

They didn't click when Vastappan had them fairly early on. I know it's not a representative car, but Bortoleto really struggled on them towards the back of the field. I think we had a had jar as well, didn't make much progress a little bit later on on the hard tires. So I could equally, though, if you are between the choice between softs and hards and you can't use the medium tire, they went with the strategy that should make sense.

Like they went with the one that in theory was right. And in reality, it wasn't. And fair play to the likes of Mercedes for seeing that the, I don't know, the strategy that didn't look like the obvious one was the one to go with. But yeah, I still think starting on the medium tire was a great call because whereas other drivers,

particularly Vastappen and Antoni, they had they didn't have the tire advantage on the midfield rivals around them to make inroads Hamilton and Leclerc did like look what they did with Lecler was fantastic because like you said Harry you didn't really have to overtake anyone even though Hamilton did again he had that tire life compared to the his rivals that he was able to with relative ease sweep pass dispatched them so quickly yeah in a way that Vostappan and Antonelli couldn't and again I don't think in terms of pure pace, that Ferrari was that much quicker than those cars. It was just the strategy that paid off for them. So no podiums, but overall, because of Red Bull not having a good race and Antonelli

not scoring, it's worked out okay for them. Speaking of Antonelli, he walks away with zero points from this one, Harry. We were actually briefly speaking about Antonelli before we started recording. he's a lot of fun, did he? As I said to you, Ben, I think I'm a little bit in love with him. Little menaces.

My guy just sends it from anywhere. Doesn't matter what part of the circuit you're on. He's going to send it. Move on signs. Oh, my love. Jeez.

104 is called Ansengeli Playground, I believe. Look, it's the move of those moves were moves of a rookie driver. but he made them stick. I want to say the moves was a rookie driver

in terms of just the bravery and I guess the lack of experience and that he's lucky there that's like didn't turn in on him. But yeah, my guy is probably he'll be walking with a limp after today because he was just like in the wars at every available opportunity

just like in the trenches, fighting everything and everyone. But it's really excited to watch. And some of his racecraft was better than Lano Norris is today,

quite frankly. And yeah, he was pulling moves left, right and center. It got him absolutely nothing. But I thought

it was very good and it entertained to watch. And look, I know I didn't get any points. He was unlucky with the safety car because he just pitted.

So he had to pit again. We didn't have to be. He did pit again for some new softs. Only drive a three stop today. Yeah. So that didn't work

out in his favor. But I thought, yeah, it was some, it was some, I'm sure Toto, even though there was no points of that, we'll be very encouraged by how today went for Antonelli because he was, he was super impressive to watch. And the move on Vestappen and was very measured and actually was quite impressive. I thought the move on Vastappen was wonderful. And with Antonelli, like he had two moves, the one on Vestappen and the one on signs, and they were both brilliant and for completely different reasons.

Like the send on signs was just, out of nowhere, Randy Orton style up the inside. No one was expecting it. And then the Vastappan one is such a beautiful move because he makes it into turn four and into turn five. He has set that up from turn one. Like he has worked it all the way to that point, which is what you need to do with that first sector. It's very rarely the right move unless you are diving up the inside of turn one. It's normally the right play is to just strategy. it and get it so you're in a position to make that move into four.

I thought his overtakes were brilliant. Now, he's obviously not scored any points. I'm putting that more down to the team than I am him. I think the team let him down with strategy today in a way where I thought they nailed it with George Russell, but with Antonelli, I don't think they did. They managed to get beat into the first pit stop by the Stappen after that overtake. So he had to essentially do that again if he wanted to get that position back. the second one was unluckier because he would have needed to come in at some point for that second stop.

The one under the safety car, I understand why they did it. I would have expected, they would have expected, with his soft tires, he would have been able to make up a little bit of ground on those hard tire runners that were keeping going like Hester Ban Ocon. Didn't end up that way, was stuck in this DRS train where Sonoda wasn't able to get the move done on O'Con. on and therefore Bayerman wasn't able to do anything and therefore Antonelli wasn't able to do anything. So he was kind of stuck. But I still think overall for the weekend, I'm more positive than negative about what he achieved. Sam, your thoughts on Antonelli. Yeah, this isn't a sense that you

should take out of context, but this kid excites me. Wow. He has got something. You mentioned this playground two minutes ago. I am worried. Well, every time I watched him into that playground, I hang a big smile on my face, quite frankly. He was spectacular in the most ridiculous of ways. You know, the way he was, the move on the Stappen, the guy's a four-time world champ, one of the best at racecraft we've ever seen in Formula One, and the way he absolutely set him up,

pull his pants down and set him out for a bag of chips, all in three corners, was sublime. It was so good. Yeah, no points. No points at all. But you know what, this isn't the season where he needs to be consistently up there with second, third, fourth place all the time.

He's learning, he's developing. And if he's got this racecraft in his locker already, if he's got this ability to pull out these moves when the opportunity is there, good on you, Kimi. Keep sending it from absolutely anywhere within the nation that you're racing. Because I want to see more of it.

I was so impressed with how gutsy he is, fearless. He is. He's got that absolute, the ability to just be so cutthroat with it. Piaastri has the same thing. That kind of ability to just rock up, get the move down. see you later, Sunshine, I'm off.

He did get caught up with the wrong strategy. He had some bad timing. There was a bit of a DRS train. You know, maybe a more experienced head finds a way out of it. But equally, there was a lot of very good drivers in that train that could have get any further down the road either. And that sometimes is just the way the cookie grumbled. So big up Kimmy Antigley.

You're a very fun person to watch race a car very quickly. And I think it will just get better and better throughout the season. Okay, let's take our second break on this review episode. On the other side, we're going to get into Red Bull struggles, as well as some valuable points for Hass and Pierre Gasly. Back, everyone. Not a great day for Red Bull. Max Verstappen, eventually getting to sixth place

with a last lap overtake on Pierre Gasly to secure eight points. Yuki Sonoda secures his first points for Red Bull in ninth. Let's start with Verstappen, Sam. He wasn't loving life out there whenever we heard him over Team Radio. it was ordinarily to complain about something that was wrong with the car. Obviously, he wasn't very happy during qualifying either. Has made his way to get some valuable points. He's still very much in that championship fight.

He's only eight points behind Lando Norris in the lead. But this wasn't one of his better days. What did you make of it? No, it was a tough day out for everyone in the Red Bull office, wasn't it? The last time I feel like he struggled like this with the car and the performance was hungry, where he ends up running into Hamilton, do you remember in turn one? I think it was last year, Hungary. And this was a tough Dave of Estappen.

It showed his quality again, the ability to pull that car up to P6 and only finish one spot behind Hamilton, two spots behind Lecler, when that Ferrari clearly had more pace on them than the Red Bull. It was, again, spectacular, just shows you the quality that he's able to deliver. But there's something not right with that car. We heard so many different complaints. You can't get the heat to the tyres. The car is overheating.

The brakes aren't working. can't stop the cut, I can't get the car turned in. You know, it is just a calamity of issues going on there at Red Bull. You imagine how it is for Yuki, Sankoda, bless him, turning out for only race two and going, ah, what I do? Everything's going wrong. And I'm just trying to score some points and not be terrible. So I actually think Yuki did a pretty solid job as well.

They're making the best of a bad situation, I think, at that scene. The car wasn't clicking right. It wasn't able to function, as we've seen it previously throughout the season. They've got a week to try and get this sorting, and hopefully they can come back stronger at Saudi, I'm sure Max Vestappen will be very much on their case throughout the next three or four days to go, what was wrong, how can we fix it, and how I get back into those poli positions as soon as possible. Let's hope this was a big of an outlier of a race day for Rebel. Harry, on Vastappen's side of the garage, he still come away with some points.

Do you think he made the most of what seemed to be a poor car, or did Red Bull just get something horribly wrong this weekend. Yeah, once again, Vastappen, even on his worst days, you referenced Hungary last year, which was a terrible day for him, and he still picked up quite a few points there, as he has done today.

That car is awful. It was awful around this circuit. Some of the on board footage of him, it's either understeering, oversteering, or just both at the same time. I didn't know you could do both, but it's both. Welcome back, the 2014 Ferrari. I knew that reference was coming.

There's, I, I tweeted, oh, I'm not tweeting anymore, but posted this on Twitter, X, um, from you asked it, yeah, I X'd it, yeah, cheers, cheers Elon. Idiots. Him, of a clip of Vastappen, he couldn't hit the apex, his car's oversteering into, like, the hairpin, and he's so annoyed, he just does a massive burnout, interesting frustration, which I love, love that from him. But yeah, yeah, look, he obviously, he got fortunate. with a safe car they left him out um so he gained positions there and it was a struggle to get past

pierre galsley but he did it in the end to pick up some more points and it has kept him in the in the fight but goodness me the car's crap and then there's no green lights in there in their pit box which doesn't help either sorry you hold like what the second fastest pitst up of all time and now you can't do lights Jonathan weakly's been gone for a few weeks it's all gone terrible i think they took your light bulb and allegory it too seriously yeah Jonathan wheelie's down the other end of the pit like he just pulled the Yeah. His nickname around the pad.

It was the electrician and how he's moved on. I also, he's very true. I appreciate Vestappan in that when he's having that issue with the red light. I know Snowda had it too,

but it's red. So he's almost gone. He stops. He's still red and just looks in his mirror. He's like, I've got wheels on. Okay. My favorite thing is the redundant man

next to the light holding another light that's doing the same thing. Also red. He looks at it afterwards like, still ready. So you're sure it's color, yeah, it's red. The art in Red Bull, this red.

Oh, dear. Yeah, he was a struggle today for Max Verstappen. He doesn't, I know he picked out Landau Norris. He might have been too observant because he picked out Lando Norris at the start and then had a horrible getaway. Not a great start for him. He's overtaken by Antonelli.

He can't overtake anyone. He has two bad pit stops for different reasons from the team that is normally perfect at them. He is one of the first on the hard tire to discover the hard tire is not a good tire. He was the only driver, I believe, to save two sets of the hard tire specifically for this Grand Prix

to then realize, I ain't using the second pair because that first pair weren't very good. And then late in the Grand Prix, he finds you something that works his way, which is the safety car. He's saying, right, Alpine ahead of B. Pierre Gasley, famously terrible in a straight line. Doesn't have an engine in the back. Can he overtake him?

Not until the last lap. I appreciate he wouldn't have got any further up anyway, but I would have expected him to just overtake him with relative ease. Again, Gasselie was on the hard tire. He would have been struggling. But that Red Bull was not right this weekend. They are going to be very hopeful that it is a track-specific thing, and we can get somewhere close to what we had at Suzuki,

because they were clearly much better there. But when Vastappan is struggling, you know that something's not quite right. So the fact that he's walked away with eight points, he's done all right. What about the other side of the garage, Harry? We've got Yuki Sonoda picking up his first points for the senior Red Bull. team in ninth place. I mean, we saw him qualify inside the top 10,

ultimately not able to make his way past Esteban Ocon later in that Grand Prix to claim more points. But given the struggles that Lawson had and the struggles that Perez had at the end of last year, is this at least something a bit more encouraging? Yeah, it is more encouraging.

It's still not ideal for the second seat of Red Bull, but certainly easily their best result for the second seat all season. And I think pace-wise, Sonoda, was pretty good. I think he probably should have got past the Haas, but he obviously ultimately didn't. But again, I'm not going to judge too harshly

because he's literally on race two in this car. So I think overall, it was pretty good from Yuki Sonoda. He can be relatively pleased with how he did today. I think there's still work to be done. But as we've just discussed, and as Vestappen showed, that car was awful today. just didn't want to do anything. So I don't think Sunoda can be too displeased with his performance out there.

Sam, given the struggles of his teammate Vestappan, do you think Sonoda should be okay with what happened out there today? I genuinely think this is a step forward for Yuki Sanoda. And I think it's a better performance for that second seat. I mean, it's the first point. So that seat is scored all season. So that's something at least that he's actually managed to get some points on the board. clearly that car is an absolute nightmare

as we've all both mentioned if Max Verstappan is trying to handle that car then how is anyone else expected to handle that car and Yuki did he did a relatively okay job he's only a couple of places back from Verstappan he did a good job to sit with Lewis Hamilton for the first part of that

the first part of the race first stink he held off a lot of cars behind him which looked quite competitive he was there with Bearman he was there with Dewan he was there with the Williams as well, who are much faster in a straight line, I believe. So the fact that he was able to be around it was good, positive. And he got the move down to doing.

He sat there and P-9. He gets a couple of points. Again, he had an all right race in Japan at a place where it was almost impossible to do anything. Fine. He's had a good race in Bahrain when the car is absolutely horrendous to drive. Good. Now let's hope we go to Saudi, where the car is good and he is good. And I think finally we might see some significant progress with someone like Yuki

Sonoda, who is on the right track at least. So I think he can walk away with his head held high. This is being an all right performance from him. I feel like going into the weekend, I had question marks about Sonoda and Red Bull, and I've left the weekend with more question marks. I don't really know what to read into this. Because Vastappen struggled so much, it's very tricky to analyse whether Sunoda's done a comparatively pretty good job

or whether he has struggled and so has Vastappen. I wasn't particularly impressed earlier on in the Grand Prix when he came out after his first pit stop and he was I think four seconds, four to four and a half seconds behind Jack Dewan. And immediately at that point, I'm thinking, okay,

he's going to close this gap pretty quickly. Check back five laps later. Hasn't really changed. It eventually went down, but it took a long time for him to get there. And then obviously not being able to overtake Esteban-Ockon on that lasting, I thought was pretty disappointing.

he still picked up points and that's more than can be said for the second Red Bull seat for quite a long time now and this was clearly a weekend where the Red Bull wasn't at its strongest so as you say Sam hopefully we get to Saudi Arabia and he can start to show what he can do in a car that's more competitive than this

but yeah I mean Red Bull as a whole will what 10 points from this weekend that's Ferrari numbers mate that is Ferrari numbers or maybe 10 more than Ferrari would get a China possibly. What about Hasse? Because Sam, you mentioned that it's something of a test session, this one, after Ocon crashed heavily

and we were suspecting he might have a pit lane start. Behrman qualified last. They finished eighth and tenth double points. How is Kamatsu cooking all the time? Literally. I don't understand how Kamatsu is going, oh, crap, we've hung out of ingredients in the kitchen on Saturday. So he's popped down to Astor that they've clearly got involved.

I'm sure. He's brought a load of fresh produce. He's turned back up at the racetrack. He's going, now I can cook. And look at him go. How have they had a double points finish here? How have Haas done that? Behrman, back of the grid, 10th. O'Con is cars in pieces on Saturday.

The engine is going to turn that bad boy around. Eighth. What a strategy as well from Haas. The ability to run that long with O'Kong and to actually turn it around and ensure that he's right there with Sonoda. He's right there with Verstappen. obviously until for staff and finally got going.

Gas is not too far up the road. This was a brilliant performance with both Hars cars because I really do think they are in the real crux of that midfield battle scrapping away. They haven't really got an obvious advantage over a lot of the cars around them. I mean Williams, Alpine, the racing balls on their day are similarly faster. So the fact that they're the team with two cars in the points, just sublime. That is so, so good from Hars.

So yeah, fair play. Pat on the back. Another great performance. Harry, 8th and 10th for Hass, as I'm sure you predicted after qualify. Obviously. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, well, you moved Berman into your fantasy team because you knew this was coming.

Yeah, man. You are the golden touch. Thank you, Olly Berman for, I mean, you didn't do well yesterday, but at least saving my fantasy team a little bit today because it's been terrible. I know, I know Berman went out and qualified, so he will be marked down against against him on that. But I thought, again, it's very impressive today. I mean last to points is

it's pretty damn good maybe slightly working with the safety car but yeah Ocon they nailed the strategy there was one when Ocon popped up into the top 10 I was like hang on how have they done this

but they stopped him really earlier on didn't they for his first I believe so yeah once again has cooking and made up for what was a terrible Saturday to a great Sunday um

yeah I was very impressed by the pair of them. I thought they drove great races and kept cars behind them that were better than them, I think, better than the Hasse cars. So very impressive and a good little lineup they've got there at Hasse, for sure. It's working pretty well. I think Olly Berman's strategy was aided by the safety car, but equally he nailed it.

He had a great first lap, made up five positions, I think, on the first lap, and then did everything he needed to do to get into that last point scoring position. Esteban Ockon, apparently he can only do two good races for every three that he does because Japan was awful last week and China the week before was brilliant. He was sensational and I love to see the return of the hash strategy of we are going to undercut and then you can't overtake us because we're so quick at a straight line. I am here for it. And Ockon played it brilliantly well.

I wasn't sure if he was going to, because he wasn't advantaged by the safety car at all. He was on those awful hard tires for a long time to end that stint. And I was worried that he was going to get beaten by Sonoda, by his teammate, by Antonelli, by Albin. The fact that he kept all of them at bay, very good. And they've walked up, how a Hass on 20 points? Like, what are they doing? Oh, God. I'm here for it

what about what about Pierre Gazley I mean we've already mentioned this as part of bold predictions Sam we were waiting for Alpine to actually do something this season and here we are they've finally done something yeah my man just loves sitting in DRS trains

but for the right reason he literally attached to the back of that you know he touched a phone on that Alpine to the back of a Ferrari and went sir pull me to points and they pulled because that car sucks in a straight line, but because it's really good in the middle sector,

it was able to keep in touch. And because we get DRS on lap two now, we don't have to wait an extra lab. He was able to stay within a second, and he just followed along. And fair play too, you, Pete Gassley. That's a great strategy. Bit guessing that he got passed by Bostappen right on the last step,

but he put up a value in defence. He got a really, really good job, and you'd expect Bostappen to get past him anyway. So it's not really a huge disappointment. but it is a worry that you know it takes back so long and discuss this already sorry Ben you look at your lightning it's proper throwing me off my train of thought

yes that was the I proper went for that as well I used a word that I couldn't use but yeah absolutely uppercutted it that's a better word than the one I was going to go with that's for Keith but yes it yeah that's a great one yeah big Pete Gassley so sublime performance

he out drove the rest of the midfield on both days both Saturday and Sunday brought home very much guinea points for Alpine. A great strategy. Literally just sit on the back of faster cars, let them pull you along, stay out of trouble, be there at the end of the racing.

He was really, really good stuff. Yeah, I was very, very encouraged to see Alpine actually turn up to a weekend. And it's a bit crazy that we are four weekends into a season,

four races into the year, and the last place team has six points. I mean, six points would probably make sure you're not last place in nearly every season that we've had. It seems as if that midfield to, it's not even really like three stages of the, of the grid now. It's just the front running cars and then you've got like six teams that could feasibly score some points.

I know Salma got a bit lucky with their points in Australia, but equally they're not that far off the back of the likes of Aston Martin. So, yeah, I was impressed by what Gazley was able to do. I know we didn't have the timing tower for the majority of the second half of this race which is another thing entirely. But whenever we got the makeshift typing tower at the bottom right of the screen,

big fan of that, big fan. I actually am not a big fan of that. That's probably why they don't use it. Yeah, go away a lot. But the way in which Gassley was able to not quite stay in touch with Hamilton, but the margin between him and Hamilton in that second part of the race

it was pretty good. I genuinely think Alpine had some solid pace here, and I know Jack Dewan didn't quite take advantage of it, but equally I was encouraged by what he was able to do in the first half of this race, and ultimately that what separated Dewan and Gasly is Gassley managed those hard tires better than Dewan did, and Dewin seemed to just completely fall off a cliff

in the last sort of five or ten laps. What Ghazley was able, I don't mind that he was overtaken by Vastap, and he still had a great day. Harry, a team that didn't come away with any points was Williams. Carlos Sein started inside the top 10, but was ultimately the only DNF from this Grand Prix, as his,

where he only had one side of the car, which doesn't usually help. Alex Albin didn't make it through to Q2 in interesting circumstances yesterday, managed to make his way up to 12th, but ultimately no points for him either. Will they be disappointed they couldn't find their way in the top 10? Yeah, I think so.

I think they will be, look, they've had a good start to the season, Williams, especially with Albon. I think they'll be disappointed for the fact they couldn't with signs, but to be honest, that's not really his fault because New Houston Noda took a real bite out of his side pod. The old chunk. Big old chunk. Which we didn't really realize until a bit later on. He's also had a penalty, then a grid place penalty and now not a grip place penalty in the space of us literally recording this, which is. I wouldn't confirm it. They'll be changing them all times.

we're off. Still going to be to Russell, despite all of that. Nah, they've got other things to do. But, like,

disqualifying Nico Hovonberg. That's a long strategy. But yeah, because I think this is, was signs his best weekend of the season so far, and I think there'll be, there'll be,

I think he was due to some points until that incident, because he was getting past Sonoda when Sonoda took a bite out of him. And then, his pace just dropped off a cliff because he had a bit of car missing. So yeah, he, they'll be disappointed with that.

Albon, you know, was on the fringes. It would have been interesting to see how his one stop was going to work out because they were persevering with it. And then obviously the safety cut came around, so they stuck some new mediums on him. But he was in traffic and they were all fairly evenly matched pace-wise. So it never really, never really materialized for him. So, yeah, Williams, we'll look at that as a lost opportunity.

But I think, you know, was telling the radio James Valves came over the radio to signs sort of saying well done even though he's out the race because I think that's that is genuine. I think that's generally good positive news for science because I think it was easily his best weekend so far and certainly versus our bond. So they'll be disappointed by then they can take positive out that. Question. Yes. We've found a lot of penalties come through. So maybe this hasn't happened yet. did anything happen between Sonodra and Sikes for penalties?

They did literally... They just said they were like, nah. They looked at it and went now, nothing doing that. Oh, Carlos came over the radio, didn't he? He was like, what's going on with that thing? And they went, yeah, investigate him, nothing happening. Seems a bit unfair because

Sunoda was power sliding his way out of the corner where he took a chunk out of him, but all right, we'll move on. Norse had got a penalty for being ex-a-s someone. It's all right. I mean, they were fairly leaning across the board today, so, you know, that's probably why they didn't... I swear Kimmy and Sangelli got about four more track extensions and then after a black and white.

flag. Yeah, they actually explained that. They just said it was banter, which I agree with. Sorry, Antcali is just too fun

to watch, so we're just going to let him carry on doing it. It's funny, in it? I think Sykes would be gutted. I think Williams

would be gutting for Sites. He looked really quick. The pace looked good. Albon is well looked like he had some really

started pace and we know that he was treated poorly after qualifying. This will be one to miss for Williams fans and they'll be a little bit gutted

that they've walked away completely empty-handed. Well, as Harry mentioned, And earlier, we have got power rankings that will be recording for our top tier on Patreon tomorrow. So you'll be able to hear what we think of both album and signs from Williams, despite the fact that they haven't scored any points.

Not a great result, but that isn't always reflected in our power rankings, where we rate everyone from 1 to 10. Should we do Driver of the Day? The verdict is in. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at Travis. Sam, I think there's a few good contenders here, but who are you going with?

Yeah, I don't want to shut them all out because I know it takes away from others talking about it, but I'm going to go straight in with Gassley. I thought that was genuinely an amazing performance in that album. Whilst it Dick Hass was solid pace, it scored no points throughout the whole season. It's clearly not that rapid. And the way that he was able to keep up with Hamilton, sticking that DRS zone, be genuinely competitive and only lost it out on the last lap. I was really, really impressed.

This is the Pete Gazzle that I fell in love with. He's back. So yeah, that's my crime of the day. My only worry on Alpine is they look pretty good here in testing. You only have one worry about Alpine. Well, sorry, one of my worries. They look pretty good here in testing. What if they can only do Bahrain?

That would be so Alpine. We have made a cutter entirely for 124th of a season. They are going to be great at Bahrain F4. I'm sure they'll take part in very soon. I was considering Gasly and if he wasn't overtaken by Vastappan

I think I would have given it to him but instead I'm going to go with Oscar Piastri he won the race by 15.5 seconds that's pretty good Harry yeah Oscar Piestri Pete Gazzle

as Sam calls him were him on my list to mix it up I go for a third to one that's different I go George Russell for all the the reasons we mentioned beforehand,

I think he was very impressive today and to keep Kinares behind him at the end was kind of what sealed it for me because I don't think that Mercedes deserves to be in second again. So, well-down,

one on George. Also want to shout out, Ben does last your points in that car. Just a valid shout. What about worst driver of the day? Get in the bin, bin, bin, been, been, worst driver of the day. Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben,

worst driver of the day. of the page you suck at driving who've you got, Harry? I'll give you to Liam Lawson but that seems a bit savage but mainly because he just kept

hitting people which you shouldn't do I'm trying to think if there are any other major contenders the likes of the Salbers and the Aston Martins were just terrible so I don't really blame them that much for being that slow.

Yeah, the cars, because it's terrible. Yeah, so I don't really blame them. I know the racing balls wasn't great this weekend, but Lawson made it really, really difficult for himself. So I'll go for him. Sam? Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Lawson. The penalties were not good,

but the pace also, it was kind of there with Hajjar. I mean, he ends up losing to Hajar because of the penalties applied. So that's something at least. But you've got to not hit people and you've got to respect the rules of the game to actually do a good job. but I can't really get past that. Completely agree with you on the Salber and the Aston Martin.

Whilst they were generally all terrible, I believe it was the car's fault and got the drivers. Yeah, I've got Liam Lawson as well. 15 seconds worth of penalties isn't great. It's actually worse than zero. So I kind of have to go with him here. I know he had good pace in that final stint after the safety car, but of those three slowest teams today,

which seemed to be V-Car, Astor Martin and Salber, he was the one lucky driver of the six who essentially got the right strategy call. He was on the soft tire in that stint, and none of the other five were. So the fact that he was able to build a gap on the other five was kind of expected,

like he really should have done, but a few of those really clumsy moves into turn one. I think they were rightfully penalized, I'm afraid. What about big brain, Drat. Box for wets. What? It's not even raining now.

What are you talking about? Yeah. What have you got, Sam? I've got a serious one today. I'm giving it to Haas. I also, especially Yon. I thought that they're staying out super late. They kind of dig what LeCler and Hamilton did,

but it allowed them to cut through a lot of that midfield. It was just a really well-execute strategy. Well done for just doing that. The big undercut with one, staying out super long on the other. I was super impressed. I thought it was a great, great turn of form. Harry, I'm giving it to Ferrari and not trying to take the Mickey out of him here.

I mean, obviously there's the Bravo Delta nonsense that they're starting to do now. But even when they do a good strategy, it still goes wrong. The words, please consider Delta. We'll live on forever. As he's coming into the pit name. Please.

My big range, that was, please consider Delta. Please. Don't do it, please. Delta. A nice sequel to that. Sorry, Ben, is just this tire sucks from which we've referenced already. I, but it's actually a serious one from my side because the fact that they ignored whatever Delta was and we presume it was a one-stop.

Which, by the way, you know Pirelli lists their potential strategies before a Grand Prix. they put out four different strategies and the fourth one was the one stop and all the three above that were two stops and I'm starting to think that they just call it based on the like social media... Surely not. It's Ferrari.

They might do. The ad-meing is like, guys, Twitter said this. You know, Yo, I just checked out X. We should definitely get on this strategy. It's got one K-likes, guys. Let's do that one. But they were right to go with what they went for and they were still punished, which is quite funny.

And I was going to say I feel sorry for them. It's just funny. Right. Let's take our final break on this episode. Moment of the race coming up after this. Welcome back to the final part of today's episode. Moment of the race coming up. And we have some from our Discord as always.

But before we get there, each of us has a moment of the Grand Prix. And Sam, we'll start with you. I am going to go with Antingale's overtake on Max Verstappen. it was to watch those two go wheel to wheel, this young protege who has no fear and one of the best wheel to wheel races we've seen, that was electric, that's what F1's all about. That is brilliant wheel to wheel racing.

The setup, the move, the fight back from the Stapping, absolutely loved watching it, when I see more of it. So, yeah, sensational. Harry, I had that listed down, Antelleri just sending it from Japan. I wrote down here on this move for signs. I'm actually going to give it to it.

I know this is quite Sky F1 base, so apologies for those who don't see that coverage. But on the grid, Martin Brundle went up to Burn Mylander, the safety car driver, and said the phrase, and I quote, there's a 20% chance you're going to get used tonight,

which I thought was mildly threatening. So I made me laugh. And he was right. Say that to a lot of other things, and that goes down back. Did get used. True. I'm going with something that's,

been mentioned twice on today's episode, but I do really appreciate the radio messages that we get, but also when they're not broadcast and we just get the words, because you can then interpret it however you want to, like you can make up how someone has said something. And all I was thinking was, man, these tires suck. That's how Hamilton said it. Yeah. In that pure like Nelson, US Simpson style. These tires suck! That's how I read it, which as we know, Lewis Hamilton

famously imitates Nelson months from The Simpsons. What dig bug me about that graphic, though, was that they say this tires suck, and that did rhyme my gears a little bit. He might have just said that. Come on, Stevenage, up your grammar game. Pre-wintering a satisfactory

school level there, rather than being outstanding. I was wondering when we'd get to Offstead chat. A minute in sports package. I love that. Come on. Great stuff. We do have some moments of the race

from our Discord. Who's up first, Harry? First up, we have a stranger to Gene Haas. Hey, late breakers. A stranger to Gene Haas here. My moment of the race was George Russell totally crashing and going all the way down the leaderboard.

Oh, wait. It was just an issue with the graphics. Never mind. Yeah, that was quite trippy. His name was like on a trampoline, wasn't it? It was just like, boing. The fact that we lost the leaderboard for a while, which was obviously infuriating for us watching at home,

was even more confusing for Crofty. He had no idea what was going on. He had a shock. Zero idea. He got a lot of games wrong again. At one point, calling out Max Verstaffing, fighting Lewis Hamilton when he's about 10 seconds down the road. Come on, mate.

Yeah. Next up is Lance. Better than stroll here. Ferrari. stop their goddamn Tom Fullery and got a fourth and fifth. That's awesome. But also, once again,

team manager, team principal, Ben Hawking, getting Alpine in the top seven finish with Pierre Gasily. Once again, Ben, I'm not familiar with your game. Keep up the great words, sir. We did a double stack today, all right?

Good Lord. We're open our game. I don't know how you change your four tires that quickly. Hey, I've got a lot of practice thanks to having no one with me at this team, but yeah,

big up Alpine. Bugotty, buggy, boogity, boogity, boogity. Buggy, boogity. Let's go racing late breakers. Shout to all my house boys, but my moment of the race is George being audacious. Nice. I love that George is just joking on the radio about his steering wheel falling off. I mean, that literally happened this weekend, George.

Come on. I like how 19 of the 20 drivers would have used the word ambitious. And George Russell was just that sort of person that would use audacious instead. George Russell is the type of person. guy that. Yes. Norm, what have you got for us?

Oh, hello, my late breaking friends from across the big wet. It is I. Norm from Texas and I'm here to give my moment of the race. In my moment of the race

was Red Bull versus Pit Lane traffic lights. Anyway, keep breaking late. It's not a deal. You need to learn what a green light is, Red Bull. It's like, actually,

you know, if you've been in the situations where you're sat at the traffic lights and they've actually failed, they're just stuck in red, but then people are like, do we go? Should we go? You just go straight through it, mate.

You stop at traffic lights. Yeah, old ladies fear you. They should. Next, you've got glasses now, man. Next up is Alex C-458. Hey guys, Alex here in New York City. My moment of the race, Oscar doing Oscar things. He is the real deal.

He is the future. Oscar champion this year. I don't know. Could be. I'm excited to see what happens next. Cheers, lads. Cheers, lads. Thank you for that, Alex.

Brackett Dom. There we go. What's up, late breakers? Brackett Dom, your favorite mathematical bracket and TV bracket and staller. And I think my moment of the race had to be at the very end. Max for stopping finally getting past Pierre Gasly. Amazing. Or maybe it was.

I don't know. We didn't get to see it. It was a great overtake that we saw 10 minutes after it happened. Yeah. There was a point actually during the, I mean, TV. direction was generally pretty good today. There was one there where we were watching Hamilton chasing, I think, and Chenney down the straight.

And I could see the gap to Norris and Lecler. I was like, go back to that one. And then they cut and they're literally side by side. Come on. They had so many battles happening in the tiny square in the corner while nothing was happening on the main screen. Also, again, Brackett Don, thank you for blessing my eagons with your wonderful sweet tones. Gorgeous.

Next up, we have Lucy 2002, who I believe is a first time submitter. So thank you. Thank you. First time submitter. My moment of the race was probably when George broke the time tower. Pretty iconic of him. But other than that, haze on the points, iconic behavior. He is just about audacious.

So audacious. He's in every position. He's the timing tower. He's that tall. He's like a tall glass of milk. Inferno Jim is next. Jim here. First submission this season.

My moment of the race is. Red Bull finally getting a double points finish and having their worst constructors week of the season. Lovely work. Cheers, lads, late. Yeah, that is a weird thing to say, isn't it? First double points finish for Red Bull, but their worst points haul of the season.

I'd start that one. They should go back to just having one driver again. Ah, yeah. It was better that way. Yeah. Last but very much not least, Bristol, Liam. Rod's, Moon of the Reefs, Landau Norris

at the start to find to part like my mother. Cheers. Good. Famously, Bristol Liam's mum always outside the lines. Good. Mum parking.

Banta there. Thank you for everyone. We'll be back once again on Wednesday with whatever we do before a race under pressures. You do the stupid

queen bit every week. Good stuff. Can we really end the podcast on Bristol Liam's mum's parking and that segue. I reckon we can. I think that's as top quality as we can get. So, yes, let's go.

Some kid a son of it. If like to hear more about Bristol Liam's mum's parking, then you can subscribe to Patreon. No, no. Where you'll hear nothing. That's not a thing that happens on Patreon. Don't subscribe thinking that's a thing. It's the whole beer we're breaking on that.

Whole new segment coming in. Thank you. That's sued. Yeah, folks, if you want to support the show, it massively helps us to do big things like shows, improve our equipment, make a better show for you, and you get loads of extras by subscribing. And it is like nine quid, like $10. So a month, give it a try. If you don't like it, you can turn it off after a month and we appreciate all this a lot anyway. Yeah, you know, Discord.

That's available. If you want to hear your sweet tones upon the podcast, then get involved in Discord. That's where we do our submissions. Follow us on social media, late breaking F1. Watch this upon YouTube, Late Breaking F1. on podcast as well. And we will see you next week for the Saudi

preview. In the meantime, I've been Sanghael and Sage. I've been Ben Hocking and I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.