The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2025 Mexico City GP Race Review

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

We’ve got a new Championship leader! The LB Three break down all the action from Mexico (and there was a lot), from Norris’ dominant drive and the lap 1 chaos to Bearman’s standout performance, the Mercedes swap saga, and plenty more... 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 Mexican Grand Prix and, oh boy, what a race we have to review. Lando Norris taking a dominant win from pole position and taking the championship lead in the process by the grand total of one point with four races and two sprints left to go in the season. Charles LeClerc, finishing second for Ferrari, Max Verstappen recovering to get a podium in P3,

previous championship leader, Oscar Piastri, getting back a couple of positions on his qualifying spot, but just P5 for him here. Sam, this was two stops, one stops, overtaking everywhere. You asked before, will this be the longest review we've ever done? We'll soon find out. fight on our hands, folks. It's happened. It's happened. It's juicy. It's spicy. Mexico delivered. There's a lot of controversy coming out of this Grand Prix. There's a

lot of talking points. Some things I think we won't agree on. Some things I think we will. We've had, you know that feeling where you wake up on Boxing Day or rather on Christmas Eve? You're like, it's Christmas. Oh, the Christmas has come. And actually you realize, oh, no, it hasn't happened. You have the biggest amount of disappointment. That was the VSC at the end of that Grand Prix. We'll get into that later as well. Absolute. Hell, hathes of fun of the stewards. But yeah, there's a lot to talk about.

That might be three hours' time with how many things you've got to talk about. I personally love waking up on boxing day. It's my favourite day to wake up on. I don't think I'm going to sleep through the whole thing. It's a pleasure to be here. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I've made it, guys.

Did the race sway you? Were you like on the fence and then this race happened? I'm going to be here for this. got to be there. I was at a roast dinner all afternoon. I wasn't sure what that was going to make. All afternoon? You could eat a big roast.

But I've made it, guys, so don't worry. I think it was for Gando Alonso's Natcho Libre Helmits that brought you on to be honest. Nando Libre. Yeah, that mask is sensational. More sensational than the race he had. Sorry, Astemite. We're probably not going to get to you until at least four hours into this review. We have plenty to discuss.

driver of the day, worst driver of the day, big brain strategy all coming up. We'll review our ever successful bold predictions. Everything to do with Bayerman's fourth place finish. We haven't even mentioned that yet, a record day for him and a record equaling day for the Hasse team with that P4 finish. But let's start out front with Lando Norris, taking victory by, I don't know what it was in the end, like half a minute separating him and Charles LeCler. This was a walk in the park. At least he made it look that way, Sam. How impressed were you with what he was able to do? We have seen before when he's taken pole position.

He hasn't necessarily been able to convert that. But on a day where he could theoretically claim the championship lead, that's exactly what's happened. He nailed it. Wow. Wow. You barely saw him on screen because it was just wow from Landon Norris. We've given Landon Norris stick throughout this season.

You know, throughout the last couple of years where he's maybe bottled some of obvious chances. He's throwing away some key moments. He didn't take the championship fight to Max last season like maybe we expected. But core blimey, strike and lighting, no mistake. That was some absolute sensational drive from Landon Norris. You know those days where we're like, he really just needs one of those races where everything just kind of falls into place. There's no drama. It all kind of goes his way. All of the drama happened. And Landon Norris was about eight years in the future. So he already knew where it was and what was going on. And they You have to worry about anything at all.

Turn 1 was as scary as it could have got, four wide, and he breathed through it. Digot off the track. Didn't really make proper contact with each other. Everyone to the left of that guy was in flames. Who knows what was going on back there. Just hope everyone got through okay. And then, though, is kind of, dum-da-dum-da-dam, off we go. 34 second victory over Charles LeCler, who was arguably saved by that BSC.

This was the drive of a possible champion. This is the best I think I've ever seen Landon Norris. And it's a crying shame you couldn't get that grand slam because I think George Russell picked up the fastest lap, which is amazing that he was 34 seconds clear, led every single lap. I didn't pick up the fastest lap. But nonetheless, this is the way to take it to your teammate

who's struggling in form. This is the way to shut down the form of Max Verstappling. And this is the way to assert yourself as the new championship league. The first time, I think, in 15 rounds that we've had a new championship leader. So one way to take the fight right at the end of this season. One point between them, just sublime.

from Lando Norris. Harry, the same question for you, what did you make of Lando Norris's performance, but just to throw something else in there as well, so much of the discussion recently has been about Max Vestappen and the momentum he's had trying to chase down championship leader Oscar Piastri. Do you think Lando Norris has maybe benefited

the last few rounds from just not being forgotten, but maybe being the driver of the top three that's been spoken about the least? Honestly, yes. And you can tell by his, his demeanour throughout the weekend. He's been so calm in a way that, I mean, not in a way we've seen for a while

in terms of Landon Norris, but definitely not in a way we've seen him in the past couple years when he's been, you know, trying to fight for a world championship. I think it has somewhat taken the pressure off of him with all the chat about Vastappen because, yeah, his attitude this weekend

has been so cool, calm and collected, which is a phrase we've used a lot about his teammate this year and not Norris. But it has been. I've been super impressed by Norris. After qualifying yesterday, he was so relaxed and, you know, sort of joking about, I'll just see how much I can win it by tomorrow. A lot is the answer. But, yeah, I really do think that because all the pressure has been on Piastri,

whether it's been coming from Vestappano himself, it's all piling onto him. and Norris has almost not snuck under the radar, we haven't forgotten about him, but he has the momentum, he seized that momentum away from his teammate and from Verstappen somewhat, and if Verstappen took him third,

but seized it away from both of them this race with a dominant victory. So I was super impressed by Norris. I'm not sure where it lands in my top landing Norris wins yet, but it's definitely up there. You know, he wasn't under any pressure, but that in itself was a markable, of a great drive.

You're right, Sam. He held off what was the most dramatic moment at term one. There haven't been many drivers who have won from whole position here for quite some time. So that in itself is pretty good stuff from Norris. And yeah, what a moment to do it, but also what a way to do it as well. Because I think that that in itself should be forgotten.

Yes, he's, you know, taking the championship lead away, just. But to do it in that fashion is psychologically quite a big, a big step for him. So very impressive. And what a championship we are, we are having. There was one point this year. I was like, oh, you know, it's going to be a bit of boring. But no, no, no.

Just buckle up, folks. The next few races could be a wild ride. Yeah, exactly. Sam picking on a seatbelt there. And rightly so. This could be an interesting one with plenty more points up for grabs in these four rounds to go. And as mentioned, two of those four are sprint weekends.

So more points available, those two at Brazil and Qatar that are upcoming. Harry, you were very careful, and I think rightfully so, to say that this was one of Lando Norris's best victories in F1, but you don't want to get caught up in the moment, you don't want to be a prisoner at the moment, and just come out and say that was his best win. But I am going to do that. That was his greatest win so far, and you know what, I will go a step further than that. This isn't careful. This isn't prudent from me at all, but I think that was the best performance we have seen all season from anyone. That was phenomenal. and I'm talking to full weekend here. He had this in hand on Friday afternoon.

He was so far clear of everyone else in the long runs on practice in FP2 and he fully converted that in the race today. It is a scary turn one, even after such a brilliant pole position by a quarter of a second yesterday. It was four wide. He navigated that brilliantly well. And you never felt like he was going to be in danger from the cars behind. Lecler stuck within two or three seconds early on. Never got any closer than that.

And as soon as Norris needed to extend the advantage, he played it perfectly. He was in a position as well, and credit to McLaren the way they did this strategically, and we'll get onto this a lot more with some other drivers. The soft compound of tire was so much better than the medium and the hard tire. You wanted to be on that soft tire as long as you possibly could be. And the way in which Norris dictated that first stint meant that he could do a full 50% of this race on that soft tire. to get him way out of danger from anyone else. He was over a pit stop clear by the time he needed to come into the pits for the medium tire.

And he just, he dictated it from there. This was utterly dominant. And I do, as the question was posed to Harry, I do think that the, I don't know, the pressure on Norris that seems to have lessened recently as a result of more attention going on Piastri and Vastappen, I think that has helped him a great deal. I will warn you, Lando Norris. That deal is over now. These next four races, I think, that the spotlight will be firmly back on you.

But this was an utterly phenomenal performance from Lando Norris. And I can only say, I'm disappointed that at the end of the race, he didn't get the adulation and the cheers he deserved for such a brilliant race and instead was received by booze. I know that people's opinions differ on whether booing should be accepted or not in motorsport, in sport more widely. I don't like it in F1, particularly at the end of the Grand Prix where it's all said and done. If you don't appreciate a driver, I would say just don't say anything rather than outright boo him out of the stadium.

I'm not sure about this, but it felt like they might have lessened the crowd volume during the podium celebration versus when he was spoken to by James Hinchcliffe straight after. I was disappointed in that because I think this was a performance that deserved a lot of cheers. they were all saying boo words oh that f1 driver yeah did you did you see the f1 tv had a sudden issue with their

post-rest broadcast and they couldn't carry on which has not happened all season interesting very interesting yeah yeah look you can kind of see it's face blessing when he came up on the car for the podium we kind of put his hands over his ears

for a moment sad isn't it where you pull out a performance like that to not feel like you're being supported I think what Lando's doing really brilliantly, which I think this would have affected him way more, maybe last season, early this season even. You've seen a change from him off track. He's bringing his mum and dad regularly to every single Grand Prix, which I think you saw with Lewis Hamilton in his early career. You know, his dad was always there.

Every single race, his dad was there with him. He was with Nicole. He brought Nicole. Of course, Zilando has his girlfriend there with him all the time at the moment. It's just creating a space where he can feel safe. He can let go. He can be positive and set his mindset correctly because having the. the mindset of a champion is no easy thing.

So to have a space which he feels like he could just relax, I think he could then take his best to the racetrack. We've seen that since the summer break. It has stepped up a lot more for Mando since before. So I do wonder if he has re-evaluated how he is being supporting off track as well as on it. Let's take a look at the Lecler versus Vestappen battle that emerged for second place. Different strategies at play here with Vestappen starting on the medium tire and going to the soft tire. Lecler going against, he started on the soft.

tie, but went against some of the others that started on the soft tire where they all two stopped. Lecler tried to hold out for that one stop. Ultimately, it pays off. A big question mark as to whether it would have paid off, if not for that VSC late on. Harry, should we go all the way back to the start here when it comes to Lecler's race? Because there was a little bit of controversy in that first corner where he was defending against Lewis Hamilton, one of many drivers to take to the grass. No, I don't think there was any investigation into it, let alone a penalty. Fine with it? I mean, sure. There was so much, it was, as you said, Sam, it was just fire. Everything was on fire behind Norris at that first corner. I, we never saw a replay, I don't think, from

LeCleur's point of view, or unless I've got that wrong. But definitely got it from Hamilton's, didn't we? Yeah, definitely from Haldons, yes. But we never saw, I don't think we ever sort of from McClure. So it's a little hard to tell whether he was actually forced or just not going to make turn to, but we have it so often here at Mexico where that is just that that happens where I mean, we were full wide going into the start one. Quite frankly, how none of them made contact. We're probably thankful that that didn't happen at all. So I understand that one being slightly scared off the road. Obviously, Verstappen was having his own like accident separately, how that didn't end up in the war. I don't know either. But it was, it was, it was, it felt like a get out of jail

freak out. I don't think LeClaire necessarily really needed to take to the grass there, but it's difficult to say, because, yeah, like I said, I don't think we ever saw a proper replay of it at the time going as term one. So, I'll let it slide. Apart from Lander Norris,

all of that top four at that point, all decided to have a bit of a moment across the grass at some point in this Grand Prix, so maybe they're like, it's all fair in the end. But yeah, it was messy. It was really messy. and I think it's a sign of how important track position was going to be in this race. Although I think we saw a bit more overtaken than we were perhaps expecting,

but they were desperate to get any position they could go into that first corner because I think they realized how important it was. So I'll let the look at the one slide. I think it was probably a bit touch and go. I don't think he necessarily needed to. I think he could have made turn two if you needed to. But the fact that all hell was breaking loose around him probably helped him. get out of jail, jail free on that one.

Yeah, tinfoil hat, I don't think that goes the same way if it's Ferrari against another team. I think it might have been a penalty otherwise. But he gets away with it. And with everything that happened behind Lecler, he was able to scamper away into the distance, which ultimately helped him, you would think, with the Vestappen battle late on. Sam, how did you see the Lecler and Vestappen battle form? Yeah, the fire was taking place against Scolando Norris. The steward should be the ones with the fire extinguisher

and doing the actual investigation. The fact that they didn't even get noted, he wasn't even looked at. If they come to the conclusion that the clerk couldn't do anything at all and he was pushed off the racetrack, so they said no penalty, fine by me. I completely disagree with that, if I'm totally honest. I think McClure had control of his car. He didn't lock up going into the braking zone. Hamilton left a full car's width on the outside.

There would have been space to make that corner. This is a classic case of, oh, it's turn-wise. On lap one, there's a lot going on. We can't really be bothered to go and look at it. He gave up a bit of time going down into term four. Absolutely rubbish. For me, this is at least a five second time. Peklety.

She should give him the position back to Lewis Hamilton, who was in front when they got to the apex. And I think this is poor. Once again, I think there seems to be a classic case of if it's teammate versus teammate, unless the team actually pressed the issue, they don't seem to do anything about it. It would be liking in football, soccer to you Americans,

if, I don't know, one player ran into another and they got injured, they would go, oh, no, don't do any substitutes or anything because both the players are pretty going to get up and they'll be all right. But if you do it to the opposing team, they stop the game and give a card. I just think it's picking and choosing

when rules apply, and I don't really enjoy it. This is why I think it was so frustrating that penalties were handing out with such bizarre ways. Hamilton get into 10 for gaining advantage. And whilst I think that was the worst communication of a penalty

ever from Adami over Hamilton's radio, I am shocked that Sikes gets a five for speeding, which is a safety infringement, Hamilton gets a 10 for trying to go down the wall, skinny is off-road, and Lecler gets no investigation for getting a position out of track

and getting a bigger advantage of Lewis Hamilton. I just think it's an absolute state, absolute shambles of a decision from the stewards. Yeah, I think Leclair probably should have been penalised. Again, I'd like to see it from Lecler's on board, but from Hamilton's on board and from the overhead, I think Lecler was lucky to get away with that one. As it happens, I think Leclair and Vestappen race this,

brilliantly, both of them. You know, Leclair managed his tires brilliantly well. Those mediums were not as strong as the soft tires. And Vastappen equally, what he did in that first stint, where he was on the mediums and everyone else around him was on the softs. I kind of felt like he's going through the pain now and he is going to be rewarded for it late on with the podium. And that's just how it played out, maybe not quite as good a result as it could have been with that second place. But he stuck in there well when it looked like it could unravel for. him and he might be at the back of that queue and let all of those other cars sort of go off and do what they need to do on what was the stronger tire compound at that point.

Shall we review some bold predictions because this might be quite a quick one. Firstly, Harry, your bold prediction was that you could get on the same flight as both me and Sam from Austin and you were wrong. It's the biggest Harry users of all time. It's a nil for me there. But don't worry, I'm not gaining any ground on you, mate. I said that both Williams would be in the top six. There was one retirement and one, no point.

So I'm going to chalk that down as an L. Sam? I said there'd be chaos in turn one, but then I did say that there'll also be three safety cars. So a little bit of a list, a little bit of that, maybe? Yeah, three safety cars and one V.S. It does not balance out. Oh, darn.

Yeah, take the hell. Ultimately, the abacus does not move. None of us got our bold prediction right. It's frozen over. It's not moved for years. True. We're also particularly cold at bold predictions when it comes to like Austin time. Like, we are terrible.

Yeah. We're like the Oscar Piastria of bold predictions. We just can't do this stretch of the season. We just go too bold to impress the fans in a live show situation. You know what? We need to get a simmer down. We are going to lock the in for the next race. You are going to see a new LB.

Three for three. Right, let's take our first break on this episode. On the other side, we're going to get into more about Oscar Piastri's Grand Prix. Welcome back, everyone, to the second part of today's episode. And we now turn our attention to the third of the championship contenders, Oscar Piastri, who until this weekend had the championship lead and at one point had a relatively comfortable championship lead. He now finds himself one point behind Lando Norris heading into those last four.

the races of the season. Qualified P8, elevated to P7 as a result of Carlos Sines, his grid penalty, doesn't have a very good start in this race, drops a position, eventually finds his way ahead of the two Mercedes and back into fifth, but that's as far as he could get. Harry, we didn't witness the best of races from him in Austin. This one can firmly go in that pile, you think? Yeah, it was, look, I think if you look at it from where he was at the end of lap one, you go, all right, that was an okay recovery, Oscar. But you look at it in the context of the entire weekend

and indeed the championship. It's not as stinky as Austin was, but a little bit pongy, maybe. What's the scale? I don't know. It was still, I mean, look, it's not great. He's lost the championship lead by, is it at one point we've gone for now?

Yeah, at one point. And like I said earlier on, the psychological, I think, repercussions, not to use that word, which is McLarence for the word, but the psychological repercussions of such a dominant win from Norris versus what was quite a scrappy damage limitation race from Piastri. I think shouldn't go unmentioned because the most convincing thing, Oscar Piastri did this race was his move against George Russell. I was like, oh, hello, he's still there. He's still with us. Because for the rest of it, it was just to be like, come on, man, what are you doing? These two races have not been good for us if you're Astridori, full stop.

And I know we, I think we spoke about this in the review of the USGP. And we say it was kind of beneficial that he could just get back on the horse straight away from Mexico. I think now maybe a break is good. Let's just Mark Weber, take him away somewhere, have a little reset. And let's, yeah, let's go back. let's go to Brazil with a clear head because I just, the last two races, he's got in his own head somewhat, I think. Well, just the pace difference between him and Norris has,

there's something there that's not right, whether that's with the car or with him or both. I don't know, but certainly things have not been, not been going his way. And he's taken such a dent in his championship lead so much. So he doesn't even lead it anymore. So what at one point was looking like, not so comfortable win, but what could be, could be a first championship for Oscar Piastri is now very much in doubt,

especially with the form that Norris has shown here. So it's going to be a challenging remainder of the season. He's still in it. He's not out. There's only one point, but not an ideal day for Oscar Piastri. Sam, what did you make of Piastri's race? Flushes in the pan, I think, is the best way that I can really describe this. So long of the time, it was.

It was a big of a grind. It was a bit grueling from him. The star, Paul, wasn't able to capitalize anything around him. And then he'd stuck behind the likes of Yuki Sengoda on the medium tire, the alternate strategy for a while. He's stuck behind the Mercedes. He gets a slow pit stop, which doesn't help him at all. It sets him even further back.

You have to argue that had he not had a slow pit stop coming in the Grand Prix, maybe the fight with Ben and wouldn't have being so tired and so long for him because it was a real struggle. But then we did have much. moments where he gets past them, they're saying he's brilliantly. The overtaking in Stuart Russell is a particular highlight. And I thought that was mighty impressive. The way he keeps away Lewis Hamilton and Max for staffing in the early stages and then, again,

falls foul. It's kind of, he has these moments. He has his peaks. And then it slumps back down into what is seemingly the worst form he could come upon when he's fighting for this championship wing. It's a real, real tough one, the last two Grand Prix. I mean, he's had some issues, but the last two Grand Prix and then the back, the crashes in Baku, it's a dire run for a guy that's trying to win his first

championship and it's now so, so close. Harry's right. He needs to go away. He needs to reset. He needs to refresh. I don't know if Daniel Ricardo needs to call up McLaur. He explained there might be a crack in the chassis, but they maybe need to look at changing or something like that, because the switch is almost bipolar and it's change. It is absolutely flipped on its head, the way that he's gone from dominating, being brilliant in pole position regularly. You know, he's been matched on polls by Lando, and that felt like it was almost like a table at one point, and now it's there. Something has changed, and I don't think it's just his confidence.

I think there is something going on with how he's driving this car or a package that's been delivered to his car that isn't working the way he expected, but something needs to be addressed in the next two weeks. Because if we do want to have a title fight between these two, we actually need Piastri to find that form again. We can't have Lando run off in the last four Grand Prix, because that will quickly turn what is a very exciting battle right now into a big of adult fest come the last race of the season.

So come on, Piasstri. We want you going to be right there. Orlando every single race because we need to be a fight right to the end. We want the staff them right there with them as well. So fingers crossed, we get more early season Piastri than we do last three races, Piazari. I often say like the worst thing as a racing driver is not being slow. It's being slow and not knowing why. And that feels like where Piastri is at the moment. You listen to what he said post-qualifying. I expect he might say something similar post-race, which is he doesn't have the pace right now,

but he can't point to anything in particular and say that's the reason why. Maybe there is something more underlying that you just reference to Sam regarding the chassis or an upgrade that just hasn't quite worked for his car versus Lando Norris, or maybe it is just he is having a bit more of a difficult spell than he's had for the rest of this year.

It does happen, but something is not quite right at this point in time. Doesn't get a brilliant start in this race increasing the amount of work that he has to do. Doesn't get the best of luck in the first pit stop, But hey, he got good luck in the second one to get ahead of Antonelli. And he was really struggling to get that overtake on Antonelli and George Russell when it was two Merks directly ahead of him. What that essentially enabled him to do was to cut out that 2V1 scenario. He's now ahead of one of the Mercedes and he can just attack George Russell one on one.

If that doesn't happen in the pit stops, who knows? Maybe that second stint just goes the same way that the first stint does. and he never even gets in a position to attack Olly Behrman as he did quite late on. He just didn't have the pace of his teammate. Simply put, he did not have the pace of his teammate. Even some of his more, some of the clinical moments that we've seen from him earlier on in the season seem to be lacking. I know that overtake on George Russell was brilliant, but there were a few opportunities where you felt like the Piastri of earlier in the season

might have been more incisive at getting through the field. as soon as he dispatched Yuki Sanoda, for example, which took like 10 laps, you felt like he would be on the back of the crew in front straight away. It took a little while to get there. It just wasn't his weekend again. I think what you said, Harry, just a bit of an opportunity to reset before a full-on assault for the last four races is what he needs right now. I don't know where Mark Weber plans to take him, but make it a good trip,

because we need both of these McLaren drivers as well as Vastappan to make this an all-time finish to an F-1 season. I think Slough is a good spot. You walk around Slough and he'll go, I've got to win this title, I'll end up here. Yeah. This is what you'll have. Strike fear into his eyes, Mark.

Or Milton Keynes. Oh, go, because we've watched on Red Bull, then, that's a worry. Piastri's introduced to Buttlins at Minehead. Well, that's not too bad. Yeah. Bogdor Regist. Oh, that's the one. Come on.

That's where the real champs go. All right, Harry, tier list of the Butlins locations in the UK. And that's why we have Patreon, folks. To be clear, anyone who wants to consider signing up to Patreon, there is F1 stuff on there. It's not us just ranking butlin's venues, we promise. Ranking holiday destinations in the UK, but we hate. We've seen a 500% increase in Patreon.

What? Stop, move on. Yeah. Because there is another driver that deserves our attention, and that is Olly Berman. A lot was made going into this race, and as the race was happening, that he hadn't spent a lap inside the top six at all so far in his relatively young F1 career. He'd only finished in the points a few times. But after a very good qualifying session where he managed to get to Q3, qualified P10, made P9

as a result of the signs penalty, he had an excellent start to this race. He was probably thinking, I'm in for some good. points here. And then his afternoon gets even better as a result of the kerfuffle that went on in front of him. He picked the pocket of multiple drivers in better cars than him, and all of a sudden, he is fighting for a podium. Now, Sammy doesn't quite end up with that podium, but he isn't a million miles off it in fourth place matching Hass's best ever finish in F1. I think a lot of people could come out of this race and say, lucky. He was lucky. And sure, there's always a little bit of luck in these great performances. But Behrman got real pace. That hearse wasn't slow this weekend. You only

had to look at where Ockon came from to actually show that the team were moving forward with both cars. But Behrman, wow, what a talent. He finally got the chance to show off what he was really able to do. Ben, you've been raving all season about how actually there's a real driver under there, he just needs the chance and show it. He got the chance. He took it. He showed us all. He really was something special today. The way he went through the turns, you know, one, two, three complex where you've got the stabbing and hitting the wall. Lecler taking. off to the grass, Hamilton and Norris almost hissing each other. And secondly, there's a rogue Olly Bearman floating around in fourth place.

And when Lewis Hamilton decides to have a scamper over the grass is a 10 second time penalty, I think we all erupted at the thought of, wait, could Kachas actually get a podium? No, no, no. He's unfortunately, whilst the biggest winger, I think, of the day, other than maybe Landon Norris, he might also be the biggest loser in terms of what happened with strategy, because I think he was played a little bit by this one-stop-two-stop. right choice, what's the right call. The cars all behind him went for the two-stop and that meant that he was maybe conned into it a little bit, whereas the cars that kind of stuck it out went onto that

one stop meant that Lecler and Bostappen actually ending up just slowly pulling away time and time again. And that meant that the dreams of the podium did slip away a little bit. But that P4 in that hearse and holding off the likes of Oscar Piastri, even without the VSC. I think he's got that one in the bag, if I'm totally honest. I think he's bringing it home. What a performance. He could be so proud of him, Bear Dad in his rather fection pink polo shirt, was filled with glee, it appears, in the, in the pit lane. Fair play to him.

I'm really glad he's got his mind. It wasn't quite the podium that Hajar got, of course, earlier in the season. But this is still an immense performance from him, and it shows you the level of talent that the rookies have got this season. I think that pace was very much legitimate. Like, we had a lot of, and we'll get onto the Mercedes battle in a bit, but we had this whole Russell versus Antonelli could Russell get ahead of Behrman instead of Antonelli?

As soon as that switch happened, nothing happened. Beerman stayed two seconds clear of them for pretty much that entire stint. Harry, how impressed were you with what he was able to do? Yeah, super impressed. And like you said, but I was at the same point. I think the pace was, whereas sometimes you might say,

it was a bit lucky circumstantial. And yes, there was some circumstantial, you know, kerfuffle, as you said, happening ahead of him. But he made the most of it. And as you say, picked the pockets of those who were falling off the road. I've got to say, the Hamilton-Vastappen thing that was happening, Behrman wasn't fully ahead of all of them at that point. He still went down the inside of Vestappen.

I was like, all right, son, you do you. So I was impressed by that. But then, as you say, the pace was super good from Berman. And to have pressure from Antonelli, then it was Russell, then it's Piastri. didn't crack at all. Did we see any wide moment, any lockup from Behrman? I don't remember it.

So, yeah, like you said, Sam, I think the class of rookie that we have in Formula One now, I know we can be harsh on them when, you know, they've made, you know, clear errors. But, I mean, you look at Bearman, you look at Hadjai, look at Antonelli. They're all operating at a level that even 10 years ago

we didn't used to get for a rookie entering F1. I think that's how high the standard is now. So, yeah, it was super impressive by Berman. At one point, I really thought we were going to get a house on the podium, and I think the world would have imploded, but not quite in the end. That's equating their best result, right, a P4. Yeah. So, a shame, but even so, I think that's a superb result.

And like I said, it's not like it was a race where there was a lot of attrition and loads of chaos happening. I mean, it was some things are going on, but not that chaotic, not a lot of retirement. Behrman was there on pure merit. So fair play to him, it was a great result. I think one of the biggest identifiers of that was the way he was hunting down Lewis Hamilton

at the end of that first thing. I know that Hamilton botched his tyres and they're all with the flat spot, but it's a works Ferrari. Hamilton was third in qualifying. The pace was still there to be seeing. And even with a slightly worn tie, you'd like to think that Lewis Hamilton

would be able to keep the gap up. And I even singing our discord at the point where he was given that 10 second penalty, oh, it's okay. He's got a five second gap to Behrman already. Surely with the lack of drama now in front of him, he'll be like to eke for out a bit more. While by the time he pits, it might be eight or nine seconds and it'll basically be mitigated. No, no, Ollie Behrman comes to time of the pit, so much 1.2 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton.

It's just reeled him in. It was real pace. Beerman was really fantastic. I haven't seen anything about this, but I feel like Hamilton had some sort of issue on that last in-lap because he dropped the time to Beerman like that. I thought like he was going to go out of the race, like how quickly he was dropping that time. Maybe, I don't know if it was a puncture or something, I feel like we'd heard about it if it was. But yeah, Berman, that pace was genuine. And we asked the question in the qualifying

review yesterday, I kind of highlighted that his FP2 pace looked really weirdly good for a house thinking maybe it's low fuel. It wasn't. I think that pace was just, was just really genuine. I'll echo what you both have said about how opportunistic he was after the, what we're now calling the Mexican kerfuffle ahead of him. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're calling that. I just think the way that you have to be that way. When these cars are so close to each other now,

you have to take every opportunity you get. And he did. And the way in which he held off Piastri, Mercedes, it didn't matter. Hey, credit to Hass as well, because we were, laughing at them earlier in the season when we had the F-175 reveal and we saw a video of them battling a Red Bull and we were like, what are you talking about? You've never battled a Red Bull. They were just, they were predicting. They were manifesting this race where Behrmann goes up the inside of Vestappen and does so very successfully. Strategically, I think they played it right.

I know that they were maybe forced into doing it thanks to all the other cars behind pitting. I think Vostappen gobbles him alive if he stays out on those medium tires. And in which case, he goes back to P4 anyway. And suddenly he's having to defend on inferior tires to Pastery, the Mercedes. He might well have fallen to P7 or so if he stays out there. So I think the two-stop was the right call for him. But even if it wasn't a podium, excellent performance. What about the two Mercedes?

So they end up sixth and seventh, not the best result. They fall back a little bit on where they qualified. But perhaps the biggest talking point from the Mercedes was which one was going to finish ahead of who. Antonelli eventually ends up ahead of George Russell, but not after some team orders controversy, Sam. A very vocal George Russell on team radio. What do you make of all that? Absolute comedy gold, mate. That was absolute theatrics from George Russell over the radio.

to exclaim so loudly that you've got a McLaren right up your ass over full radio is just sensational levels of banter. Loved it. So, tricky one. I think Russell also, did Russell take to the grass on that one? Was it Antingale? That went over the grass.

Absolutely. It's Antigella, yes. I actually think the whole field did at this point, and I think they all did it. Russell was the only one that didn't because he was complaining about it. That's so true. He winged all day long.

Did he? Good Lord. Yeah, the pace just wasn't there for Mercedes and they did a good job at holding off the likes of Piastri for a long time. Hamilton didn't get really get near them in the second stink, although I do think his heart was gone by the point that the 10 second penalty had been delivered. You get that close to your first pony, you're in a Ferrari, then that happens. It's tough to keep up the motivation.

But they kind of just settled after that point. They couldn't really catch the hearse of Ben, which is a worrying sign for Mercedes. It's worrying when Russell has been so good. and the fact that he thought he had such supreme pace over Anthony Ellie only to get past him and make no indent in the difference between the gap between them in front. It's slightly worrying. Piaastri pulls away from them and when Piazzi's been having a tough time, again, maybe that's a little worrying.

But it's good to see that both those drivers have still got fight. They both fully up for it, the way that Russell was trying to dictate the player going, you know, we've got a harsing a Ferrari in front of us. We're fighting for a podium. Let me get at it. And then when Kimmy realizes it isn't happening, he's straight on the radio, give it back, give it back, I want it back. I really appreciate that they're both so vocal about it. And what a wing. They want to be the team leader. But this just wasn't the same day.

And whilst they're taking a little dink in their fight for second place, I don't think they care. I don't think they're bothered at all about who finishes second. They have to play that up for marketing. But I don't think it's anything that's in their minds right now. So I don't think there'll be too guitar since I think they'll try and use a lot of this as research just to where to improve moving forward. But it could have been a lot worse. It could have been a lot worse for them. I just think the way this race panned out was not the way in which it needed to pan out for Mercedes and what they were trying to do strategically because Russell was the quicker of the two drivers and he ended up behind as a result of everything that happened.

And also with the tyres, again, going back to you need to be able to survive with the worst tires when you have them and utilise the best tires when you have them. The soft tire was so far clear of both the medium and the hard today. But when Mercedes were on that soft tire, they weren't able to effectively use it because they were stuck behind Max Verstappen, who was surviving on those mediums. So they were kind of left in this strategic no man's land where they can't really pit because they're on the tires that they need to be on at this point. But also they don't have the top speed in order to make the overtakes. And that really costs them in this race. Whereas the McLaren's, the Ferraris, Max Verstappen seemed to have enough grunt down the straight to be able to make moves and to defend.

Mercedes just seemed to be lacking when it came to straight line speed, that really hurt them. And ultimately, this whole Antonelli versus Russell thing, I agreed with commentary in that if you're going to make the call, just make it a little bit earlier and see if Russell can make anything happen. As it happened, he couldn't, and they switched the positions. But I think they were a little indecisive on that. Harry, your thoughts on the Merck battle?

The not knowing what to do with swapping me around really wound me up. because not because I've got a care which way around they are, but just stick to your guns. There was, George was, he was going at it. How many radio messages do we hear from him about, about Piastri being near around his bottom area a lot? And it was, it was clear he had more pace than Antonelli. But Mercedes were like, nope, no, no, thank you was one of the replies to it

from his race engineer. I'm like, I'm not sure I agree with it, but fine. You're like, no, we don't believe that's the right thing to do.

Only like 10 laps later to then swap them around anyway. What's the point of that? Why are you bothering by then? Because Russell's used all the best of his tire life, as we then saw he'd gone from Antonelli, couldn't do anything with it anyway. I was just like,

so late to the game here, Mercedes. What was the point to swapping around? And obviously later on, Anthony, quite rightly, he was like, so when he was swam back then, Is it now?

Is it now? I like to talk. Give me, give me, give me. Give me, please. It was just a bit, it was just a bit slow on the uptake. So that was, that just annoyed me. I'd rather they'd stuck to their guns. I'd been like, no, we said no, so shut up and get on with it.

Which Russell, by that point, had kind of given up the game. He was like, and then by the time they let him pass, we heard the message being like, oh, all right, fine then. Because even I think he realized it was too late by then. So that was annoying. but yeah, pace-wise, they just, they weren't really there. You're right, they did a good job to keep Piastri behind in the first part of the race,

but they couldn't do much with the staff in front of them, and then couldn't do anything about Berman either. So kind of no man's land, as you said, Ben, there wasn't really a huge amount they could do. They were sort of just fighting amongst themselves, which they literally were. Tying your mind and I absolutely love the racing. You're coming on going. You are free, so overtake him. That was good.

Yeah, I really enjoyed that. This is my point. There was like, overtaken then, and no thank you. Why so savage just to let him go anyway? What was the point of winding him up for that? Like, no reason. It's a very fair point. Right, we'll take our second break on this episode.

On the other side, we've still got driver of the day. Worst driver of the day, big brain strategy to review. And also a little bit more on Lewis Hamilton in his 10-second time penalty. Welcome back, everyone. What did Lewis Hamilton get in the end? Was it a 10-second time penalty? Just for 10. Just for 10.

Pretty much. Pretty much. Pretty light. Wow. I mean, that's a good way to start the segment, Sam. Yeah, I mean, fuck. Quite frankly. It's such a joke of a penalty.

I know I'm ever so slightly biased. I know we all know that I like the Lulu. But this, I think, was a deal audacious. but it was played on both parts so terribly. Yeah, he made a hash going down that kind of that run off that safety road. And I stand by the fact that it is the most audaciously narrow safety road I've seen a long time in Formula One between two bits of grassy the side. But the penalty wasn't for this.

It was for leaving the track and getting advantage. So why Ferrari and Karung rightly brought this up on the Sky Commentary? Why they didn't just say that you're all right, you kept the place just back off, give a couple of seconds back, let them get onto your back a little bit so we can make sure that we've got a case to argue when it comes into the steward's room if anything does come down the line. For me, 10 seconds is so harsh.

Five, I'll be completely fair with. He deserved a penalty, I think, for not giving some of the time back. But when you then compare it to the other incidents that took place around the racetrack, I just said this is totally blowing out of proportion. Lecler, as I said, she'll have had a five second time penalty for getting advantage. The staffer did give the advantage back,

although no penalty for the largest dive bomb I've seen for a while, going to turn one on Lewis Hamilton, and then Carlos Sykes picked up a smaller time penalty for the first speeding in the pit lane incident, and then a much larger penalty for the second speeding of pit lane incident. So, there no consistency or you've offended once in a re-offending. I think that's like a second offence, so it's a large of penalty.

Is that in the rule book? Is that how we play it? I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Fine. It just feels like a gang, the stewarding is so inconsistent, and I do think of this, unfortunately, kind of knocked the wind out of him a little bit,

and he wasn't interested in it. after that, unfortunately. So maybe he got third anyway. Max was an absolute monster on that soft tie right at the end. I think he probably got past it lose one on the Ferraris, had they been running cleanly. But it was a real shame to see it happen so early. Did you agree or disagree with the penalty, Harry?

I... Oh, God. Yes, I agree with a penalty. Because he's gained a clear advantage. And right, there's a case here for, I don't think that Lewis Hamilton gained that much of advantage that it's worthy of a 10 second penalty. There's also a part of me that thinks Hamilton and Ferrari in this case, just not playing the game very well.

I'm not saying I like the game that we have to play now, but just just play it a bit better. I've seen only one driver go off that escape road this weekend. and irony of my ironies, it was Lewis Hamilton in practice. And the fact that he didn't make that fine, they let him off on that. But then as you said, Sam, why are you not backing off? A, Hamilton, why are you not backing off? Because it's clear you've cut almost two corners here and gain that advantage. Have I think about it.

But B, most importantly, why if I were not saying, just back off son, slow down. You've gained a lot of time here. So I agree with the penalty. I think 10 seconds is harsh, as you said, because given the fact we had Leclerc at turn 1 and there was, you know, Vastappen as well, the fact that there was nothing there, but it was 10 seconds for Hamilton.

Seems quite inconsistent on that front. But yeah, it just, I was just to be like, what play the game better of what are you doing, guys? Because it was so clear how much time you gained from that. And it wasn't like, he was forced off. I know he was sort of in a confuzzle, as the Mexican confuffler

as it shall now be known, but it wasn't like he was Vastappen forced him off the road. Hamilton had already locked up and was going straight on anyway. So I'm not sure they can play that card and so much so that he ended up almost at two corners beyond that. I don't think that's

a viable excuse. So just a bit of a shame because I think Hamilton was P3. Yes, there was Vastappen closing in on the end and maybe he wouldn't have got he he wouldn't be able to hold on but you don't know until we get to that moment in the race um so what looked like it might have been a debut podium for Ferrari proper podium that's a sprint one um what looking like a proper podium for Ferrari this year has not not transpired

again which is a shame because i think Ferrari had some good pace this weekend as he says once he'd had the penalty and dropped back it just seemed like his head dropped and and he uh he he wasn't he wasn't really it anymore so I agree that it was penalty. worthy. I think the penalty is harsh, though, given what happens to other people. Yeah. These sorts of time penalties are so difficult to judge because the benefit of getting the overtake done or in this case keeping the position can be worth way more than five seconds. It could be worth more than 10 seconds, depending on the situation. So I would have probably leaned more towards 5 than 10. I didn't have too much of a problem with it. But again, my bigger problem,

as you've both attested to is the lack of communication and how they handled this. I mean, when you heard Lewis Hamilton's team radio later on when he was told about the time penalty, he was clearly confused as to why, because he's saying, like, there's no grip out there. Like, what, that's not the issue, Lewis, that you didn't have any grip out there. It's that you've managed to maintain the advantage after the move was done. That's why you've got the penalty. So clearly that hadn't been relayed to Hamilton. And maybe that's a little bit on Hamilton for not knowing and not feeling. figuring it out as he's on the racetrack,

and it's definitely on Ferrari for not communicating why he had been given the penalty. And, hey, if their communication was better, they probably wouldn't have got a penalty to begin with. So classic Ferrari there, it's just a shame because I do think, at least early on in that Grand Prix, there wasn't that much between himself and Charlercourt.

As soon as that had sorted itself out, and he had, well, I say sorted itself out, before the penalty was, you know, taken into account. He seemed to be able to maintain a similar gap to Leclair. It wasn't really moving that much. So I don't know whether he would have finished third or fourth, but he was in line for a very good finish here without the penalty. It's a shame how it all unraveled. And I'm pretty sure, we'll hear more about this over the next day or two, I'm pretty sure there was some damage on that car incurred from going off because as soon as you get to that last lap before the pit stop and then

everything after that, the pace kind of just disappeared and he wasn't able to put any pressure on the likes of Piastri or the Mercedes duo, despite the fact that he lined up pretty well against them earlier on in the same race. So yeah, more disappointing than anything, this felt like a bit of an opportunity. In the midfield, so we haven't really discussed yet, Esteban Ockon getting a couple of points for Hass, which I'm sure he would have taken before the day, but you wouldn't have told him about the P4 of his teammate. Gabriel Bortoletto recovering from a Q1 exit all the way to get one point in 10th. Yuki Sonoda, Alex Albin, Isaac Adjar just outside the top 10.

A bit of a dealer's choice. Sam, anything there you want to particularly focus on. Yeah, I'll just want to talk about Senola. I'll let you guys have all the positives. But for me, when your teammate, I get your teammate is Max Verstapplin. You know, there's a chance he could be a five-time world champion come the end of this season. is exactly the same strategy as you and he ends up less than a second behind

second place and arguably would have claimed second place if it hadn't been for a poorly time BSC. By the way, I've just watched Sikes' on board replaying is the worst VSC I've ever seeing in my life. Absolutely atrocious. We'll get onto that. We will get on to it. Goodness me indeed.

I expect you can finish in the points really and you've got the updated car, you've got the new front wing that you've been running the old ones in Silverstone, you've finally all the bits that make sense. it seems like you've got a little bit of a lucky hand when science takes the penguins, you move up to 10th place.

There's a lot of them, you know, the big Mexican kerfuffle, as we saw are going through turn one. You've got to pick your way through that. That's your chance to make a move. Berman moves up to P4. Where's Sondoda? You've got people around him falling back again,

one place out of all of that around him. You just think that when you've got the preferred strategy and you're getting to run the lighter car in the cooler part of the day on the soft tire that is the better tire and you still finish outside of the points, I just don't think it's good enough. And I think whilst I think the coffin was already nailed,

I think it's six feet under right now. I think it's game gone. Not to fully defend Yuki Snowder here, but did you see how long his last stop took? It was it 10 seconds? Yeah, it wasn't a good one. It's 10 or 12 seconds for Yuki. Oh, yeah, I mean, that's fair.

Or cement it. Like the Undertaker, just sifting back up in the coffin after hearing that. You're welcome, UK. Off you, yeah. Well, since Sam has mentioned it, and we are talking about the midfield, Harry, have you seen the VSC, why it was brought out? Yeah, well, for Carlos Sending in the stadium section, hitting the wall,

and then politely putting it behind the barrier. You've seen it from sizes. You're aware of it, then. You've heard of it. Like the juxtaposition of that and two marshals running in front of Liam Lawson. Where do we stand here, guys? What are we doing? Maybe they got scared into it.

They're like, well, must be BSC, because there's a, car not moving so bc yeah red flag actually just cancel the race I wish I had red flagged it because I'd have been way more exciting it was

come on now red flags I would have taken a red flag I got two lap restart I'll wait about it it it looks to me and I'm watching this as we're recording

of course we are recording directly after the Grand Prix it looks like signs like parks it up just short of being safe behind the barriers. It wouldn't take that much effort for like a double wave yellow

to just push him an extra 10 metres and then it's safe. If that, like maybe two or three meters with two lasters. I'll open. Yeah, double yellows we've done the job. We're going to operate.

Obviously safety is paramount here. We're going to operate with some level of logic. In the, what are we now, 10, 11 years of the Mexican GP being back on the calendar, when have you seen a car spin there? The fact, the likelihood of, that then happening again

whilst I'm trying to clear this car away is like, I don't want to, the chances would be a million, a million to none or something ridiculous, I don't know. But I think they were spooked into it, given the whole Lawson Marshall thing, I don't know,

but stupid. That's getting investigated. That is a, that is a closures. Yeah. See nothing on there. Just apart from the right thing on Twitter. I love that there was just a quick yellow flag in that sector while that was happening.

And they questioned it. there must be some debris on track if I got short. No, there's just two men sprinting across the road strike. Debris, it's a person. It wasn't kidding, it wouldn't it? Yikes. I mean, anything else from the midfield, Harry, that caught your eye? We had Bortoletto gained quite a few positions to scrape a point.

Yeah, Bortoleto, five hours was quite good. I think racing balls will be quite disappointed, given whether they ended up this weekend. So much pace and abs honking. We've gone for stinky ponging and honking. That's not going to. Well, who's who? I'll leave the list.

You decide. My surname is close to honking, so I'm going to have to take that one. That's true. Don't honking. I'm stinking, Harry Pongy. Pongy. That's what they're coming. But, yeah, the racing balls will.

team will be disappointed because they have some there's some real good pace this weekend. Obviously do you ever see what happened to Liam Lawson damage on that one but why? Yeah, I get collision with the Williams I think. Yeah, it doesn't look like much does it? But yeah, I think it's when he rejoins because he was one of the 67,000 cars

that went six. Seven. But yeah, so Lawson disappointing and then yeah, Hadjar's pace just sort of dropped off during the race. Obviously, Bortilato nabbed him for a point towards the end of it. So great.

Yeah, racing was also, by the way. Again. That one was a good battle. More disappointing because I put them in my fantasy team. A bit less said about it, the better. That's not like I'm going to skip. Don't worry, mate. I've got to be going backwards.

There was a point. I'm not, I think, I didn't get minuses this week. So that's a good. He's learned how to play this game. There was a point where Hadjar, Sonoda, and Bortoletto were kind of all closing in on one another. I'd all three of them in a fantasy team. And I was like, if they all come together and crash, I'm just leaving this game.

I'm not playing it ever again. How are you in the top 50 but putting Senoda in your team? I don't know how this game works. I'm deciding I don't understand the points. No idea. Big brain strap. Cheers, Landon Norris, by the way. Appreciate that.

Should we do Driver of the Day, folks? The verdict is then. You're the driver of the day. You're the driver of the day. You're good at driving. The driver of the day went to Oliver Behrman in terms of the fan vote, although he got 40%. It would have become 41 and then 42% as a result of the votes of David Croft and Corin Chandok in commentary,

proving that they either don't understand percentages or think 100 people voting. But... Oh my goodness. That's like forget when they forgot that you get DRS from Lapsed Car. as well. They completely forgot that that rule existed. Yep. That's the thing. Right. Is Behrman getting your vote as well, Sam? He's right

up there, but he's on the top step as much as it was absolutely so, so good from him. Landon Norris, you don't win by over 30 seconds, and I think produce the best drive of the season without taking my drive of the day. So, Lando, a champion's drive. It's the best way

to put yourself in pole position for this championship. Drive with the day. Harry? Concolando as well. Olly Bebemann definitely a fair shout. I'd even shout out LeClair as well. I know he was 30 seconds behind in the end, but I thought it was pretty solid drive.

I didn't do, apart from not doing turn one and two or whatever, apart from that, it was a solid drive. But yes, Norris, as I said, I'm not going to commit to it yet, classic. But I think one of, if not his best race wins ever. Yeah, Lano Norris for me. It's an easy top two. Like, Behrman and Norris are easily in the top two for me.

but I'm going to have to give it to Lando Norris for how comfortable it was in terms of that margin. Worst driver of the day. Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, worst driver of the day. Ben, bin, bin, worse driver of the day. You suck at driving. Harry, who have you gone for? I'm going to give it to Carlos Sines,

which might be two in a row for signs, but it was a bit stinky, a bit stinky at the end. well, not at the end for kind of most of it. I know the penalty, but it got penalty for speeding the pit lane. Did he get two penalties for that? It happened twice. And then spinning off, as I just said earlier on,

spinning off in the stadium section, which I'm not sure I've seen anyone do in 10 years and crashing out of the race. Real lame, real stinky. That is stinky. That's top of the part stinkiness. So Carla Sines. Sam?

Carlos Sykes swinging the pit lane once He's bringing the pit lane twice And then he gave the Formula One world The biggest blue balling we've ever seen So you sir Are the worst driver of the day That sucked Why'd you have to do that to us Carlos?

Yeah I mean he might have had got issue with the car But I don't care That was terrible I hate that you brought out the BSC Yeah that's the only thing That's tempting me not to pick Carlos signs Is that I'm not sure I'm ready to blame him

yet for the pit lane stuff because him doing it once where it looked like there was a clear issue and then doing it again I'm assuming it wasn't on him those two. We'll see how that plays out. Just slow down sooner though. You have enough time.

Just slow down sooner the second time. I feel like he knows that and he must have been after the first one I just feel like a driver of that experience isn't going to commit that without some sort of issue. Twice in the same race just feels weird. but we'll probably hear from Williams before our next episode on that. The other contender for me was Yuki Sonoda just based on how far off he was from his teammate.

And he was, I know he had that slow pit stop, but I was expecting him at least to catch up to Bortoletto and Ockon. And the fact that he got past Hadjar, but apart from that, he didn't make much progress. Speaking of, Hadchar, he really struggled in that second stint. So I'll go with Sonoda for now, but maybe that changes in the next day or so. Big brain strap.

Ah, Bob for wets. What? It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? Yeah, and Bob, if you get a chance, let your teammate pass you. What? He crashed out. He's not even in the race.

What have you got here, Sam? Yeah, that whole Mercedes, whatever was going on there, was just sensational. Don't let him pass. Overtake him. You're not coming through. Don't do it. Oh, go on then. No difference.

Swat back. Like, you just costing yourself time and tripping over each other for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Usually it's Ferraro we laugh at for this. Mesee is well done for being about the joke today. Yep, brilliant communication. I'm going to go with Alex Alburn complaining that he had the worst strategy of all time. Now, in fairness, he was on the hard tire, which turned out to be absolute garbage. But I've got to be honest with you, Alex.

When you're starting down in, what was it, 17th place, you don't give your team too many options for your strategy. And ultimately, it seemed all right. Like he got back up to 12th, then he was on the back of that fight in front of him. I don't know, man, might be on you this one. Harry? It's not really a strategy,

but I'm going to give it to GP and Red Bull, just like leaning on the button and telling everyone what they were going to do. Oh, I can hear everything. intentional. Intentional. Or is it that big of brain strike? Intentional. If they actually done that intentionally, it's a dummy, that is the most, that is sensational.

Could be. Hannah Schmidt's like, all right, now lean on the button and say you're just like, confused about one or two stop. Go on, go on, GP. You just don't question her. No question in Hannah. All right. I'll do it, Hannah.

Sorry. Okay. Let's take our final break on this episode. On the other side, we have a moment of the race. Welcome back, everyone, to the final part of today's episode, and that, of course, means it's moment of the race to close out the show. We do have some Discord submissions coming up very shortly. But before we do that, Sam, what was your moment of the race?

I've already mentioned it, and it was George Russell explaining it there is a McLaren in and around his bottom for a lot of the Grand Prix. It was bleaked out. Maybe he didn't say that word. Maybe it was a different one. Hey, bottom isn't a swear word. so he definitely big at the same bottom. That's probably true.

You imagine if they bleep that. That would be quite funny. Weirdly hilarious. Harry, what was your moment of the race? We've already mentioned this one too, but Lilitha Salon's race engineer coming over the radio to explaining how to penalty and concluding it with,

we are not happy. I think he's absolutely terrifying of Lewis Hamilton at the moment. I think it's not happy about it because he doesn't tell him anything. Did you hear the radio after qualifying, by the way, where he's like, I don't know what that was good for. Was it like P2? And he was like, yeah, you were really close to Shal. He's like, yeah, what position?

Like, just say. Shal's P-18. The man has had, I guess that's an off-race topic, but he is woeful at communication. Oh, man. I had a lot of contenders for this moment of the race. But to narrow it down, I almost went to. Alpine, the fact that they've finished like two temps apart, but also 40 seconds behind anyone else, is just fantastic. But my moment of the race, you could have sat me down before this

Grand Prix and given me 100,000 guesses as to who was going to wave the check of flag at the end of this race. And Evander Holyfield would not have been on that list. Why? Might have been the most random flag waving back for a while. In Van der Holyfield's cam as well We had a separate camera just on him I mean that guy looks swall Fair play to you my go I just

Sometimes you can understand these flag waivers and you're like Well they're trying to further their career Or they've got some sort of loose relation to F1 Or there's some sort of sponsorship thing What on earth does Avanda Holyfield have to do with F1 Or the Mexican Grand Prix to be specific Or the Mexican GP

I weirdly would have got like Vegas You know if there was some boxing thing going? No, I can with you. Bizarre. I think I, sure, why not F1? That's our moment of the race, but what do we have from our Discord? We have plenty, so thank you're on for your submissions. First up, I don't know how to say this one.

It Eames. Please be right. Eames here. Close the vote. That's it. Moment of the race. George moaning that he's faster than Nantonelli and being told by his engineer to just overtake him. Good pick. Great. Great team radio again.

George Rosson might deserve his own award at the Elbeys. Good work, Marcus. I think we may have to, there might be an author of me team out to consider that one for this year. Yeah. He's had so many. Next is Ash the Silly Salmon. Ash the Silly Salmon here in the beautiful town of Auckland, New Zealand. Just trying to wrap my head around how Hasse have figured out how to do strategy this week.

Not even just that. Strategy, pit stops and teamwork. it's absolutely a miracle if only Ferrari knew how to do this and especially for Beeman wow, what a race. Keep breaking late. Another...

Love that. Another animal to add to our collection. Silly salmon. Yeah, no impression. How do you impersonate a salmon? You tell me, son. Don't do it. Don't set me a challenge.

Uno reverse card, you tell me. Next time. Up is Alex C. Hey guys, Alex here in New York City, and it's my birthday today. I'm turning 24, big 24. And for my present, I was given a very good Mexican GP. My moment of the race, it's got to be George losing it on the radio. No crikes and no blimies.

He's bringing out the swear words. It is adult language time, and it was a riot. Cheers. Ah, well, I'd like you enjoyed your birthday. 24 is one of the best ages there are, so well on. Yeah, I thought it's the best other, actually. It might be. I would like to redo 24.

Why? It's just a bit a while, like it. At this point, it's just being a while. Next up is, thank you for that, by the way. Next up is no, likeo, no, no, no. From under the race, is the FIA deciding to be the biggest co-blocker ever. For what?

he's scared of Carlos Stein's ghost car that wasn't even there. Pathetic. Thank you for recording that from a cupboard. Left his phone on the outside of the room. So distraught. He's just like, I'm going to the cupboard, lads. Clives, give me a car.

Oh, cheers, Clives. Next up is Jim. You, it's your boy, Jim, here. Moment of the race submission. Hadn't have been the first 10 laps. I mean, what the hell he was going on? It was crazy. Got a lot of time.

Yes. Love that. Oh, Halliberry. That's so good. I'm using that at work tomorrow. Yep. What are you doing? I think I'm so cool.

Hang on. You're saying to somebody's younger, though. Who's Halliberry? Halber. What? Is she on TikTok? Oh, don't. Next up is Millwright Tim,

who I believe is reporting live from the Mexican GP. Millwright, Tim, here, live from the Mexico GP. My moment of the race was going to be, Max Rastapin, using his car as a lawnmower, the entirety of lap one,

but it's got to be being here live when Lando clinches, the World Driver Championship, away from Oscar Priestry. Let's go. Cogrompe! Man, it's a spoiler alert. We missed something. He didn't say championship lead.

He just said Jabba Jim. He lives two months in the future. Next year's Mexican GP. Thank you for that, Tim. The next up is Absolute Gem. Evening, late breakers. Absolute gem here. And my moment of the race was Carlos Seines being able to go through the pit lane three times

and still being ahead of the Alpines. That was going to be like my moment of the race was how far ahead he was. And then he had to retire. I had to question if he'd served his drive-thru when I saw that he was still in front of them. I was like, it's 30 seconds. Surely he hasn't damaged drive-thru at this point. That's atrocious.

They just keep being getting worse, don't they? Next up is Grace. Hi, late breakers. My moment of the race is just only Berman in general because Jesus Christ, he had such a good race. It was insane to watch. It was so fun to watch. Yeah. See ya.

I mean, Olly Bamman's nickname is Jesus Christ, so I get it. Sure. Why not? He worked a miracle today. He works in serious ways, sorry. In fairness, like, we didn't know at that point whether he was going to keep that. There was a serious chance that he'd get those positions and then lose them again straight away. But yeah, it was thrilling to watch that he was able to stay out of them. Last but not least is Blazy.

What's up, boys, moment of the race. Russell saying over the radio, guys, there is an effing car in my effing butt. This man was stressed and like crazy. Keep breaking late. Gosh, yeah. Bless him. Who knows where it was?

Behind. And is that going to wrap up the submissions for this week? I don't think there's a better note too, in this episode one, Ben. You know what? We've heard from Gem, from Gene, from Tim and from Eames, and I think with the addition of a silly salmon, that is probably it for this episode.

Thank you very much for all of those submissions. Next opportunity will be under pressure submissions in about a week and a half's time. So, I mean, we didn't take three hours in the end. We managed to wrap this up in a neat 75 minutes, which I think is pretty good going. I dare say, though, there will be some things that we have to get

to in the midweek episode that we haven't covered today. And I dare say there will be some things we need to cover in power rankings tomorrow. You've actually misunderstood, Ben. This was just the highlights package, which the Kigs really love. The full length episode is on Patreon, yeah, which is three and a half hours long. So come along, come to Patreon City. Yeah, we have got power rankings coming out tomorrow. We talk about every driver's performance.

We give them a ranking from 1 to 10. And if you're new to Patreon, you unlock every single bit of material we've ever done if you come and join now. So, you know, don't worry about going on. I missed hello, why should I bother joining? Get in there, checking out. Come say hello. It's a wonderful.

The water's warm. Get on in. Discourse available, links in the description. If you're joining with those submissions that you hear on those race previews and reviews, discourse is where you do it. Get involved.

Late Breaking F1 is our social media showards on all platforms. And thank you for the recent support from our Texas trip, from our vlogs that we've been doing. We really appreciate how many of you have got involved and recently started following us. So thanks once again. We will see you midweek. If you're not part of Patreon,

where we'll be discussing much F1 news and maybe some outcomings from what happens here at the weekend. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hocking and I've been Harry Ede. And remember, keep breaking late. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.