The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2026 Italian GP Race Review

Episode Date: September 6, 2026

From the back of the grid to the top step, Antonelli delivers his home crowd a historic victory! The LB boys break down his spectacular win plus all the action from an incident-packed race, from Mercedes’ contrasting strategies and Verstappen’s podium drive, to Ferrari’s home race of nightmares. CLICK HERE for full details of the Race Against Dementia prize draw and how to enter, for the chance to win a one-of-a-kind replica of Sir Jackie Stewart’s iconic signed Bell Racing helmet and a VIP trip to the 2026 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2026. Want more Late Braking? Support the show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and get: Ad-free listening Full-length bonus episodes Power Rankings after every race Historical race reviews & more exclusive extras! Don't forget! You can also gift a Late Braking Patreon subscription—perfect for loved ones or your own wish list. Choose anything from 1 month up to a full year of top-notch F1 content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingf1/gift⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Late Braking: You can find us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Come hang out with us and thousands of fellow F1 fans in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ server and get involved in lively everyday & race weekend chats! Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠F1 Fantasy League⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and see if you can beat us! LEAGUE CODE: C6Y6R4ZUY02 Get in touch any time at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. A very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast presented by Harry Eid, Sam Sage, and me, Ben Hocking, reviewing today the Italian Grand Prix from Munza won by Kimmy Antonelli. Oh, it's on me. Yeah. Yeah, they seem quite happy, don't they?

If it was like, let's a foe, you can say. celebrate being silver for once and not red. It's for the first time in 60 years, quite good. Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure I'd ever thought I'd see the day when the entirety of Monza would celebrate a Mercedes win, but it's happened. Who has thought that Germany could flip Italy? Wow.

Go straight in with an Axis Powers reference. I've also got bad news for you, mate. It's happened before. No. Really? No. No. I can't see that coming. I feel like maybe the Italians decided that, oh, actually, we can just win if we don't support Ferrari.

Let's just support a driver instead who races for a competent team. Way less painful, actually. They've tried that with Yarno Trilly. They work out too well. There's a difference between Antonelli and Trulli. Just put it out of that. Trilly's great. My man's got amazing hair.

That's very valid. As much as I'd like to continue discussing Yano Trilly on today's Italian GP review, we might as well touch on some other things that happened in the race. Moment of the race coming up later on. We've got discussion about Alpine and how they fared after what was such a brilliant qualifying session. Ferrari, their strategy, their DNF, and everything else involved in their not so perfect Italian GP. Max Verstappan on the podium, McLaren's not on the podium, but let's start with the news that Kimmy Antonelli from 19th place on the grid. We knew ahead of the weekend. He was going to be taking a grid penalty.

We discussed this in midweek. How far could he get? Could he get back in the points? Could he get back to the podium? Well, he's gone back to win and win by a few seconds over George Russell with that. Are we going to call it a two-stop strategy? I guess everyone stopped under the red flag. But he took an extra pit stop under the virtual safety car where his teammate didn't.

and ultimately overtook his teammate to win this Grand Prix. Sam, the kid's quite good, and apparently that stands even when he's qualifying or when he's put to the back of the grid. Yeah, the biggest compliment I can give Ancingelli is, I'm genuinely not surprised that he's made this happen. It felt like a challenge was always on with how good he's been so far this year. The car is obviously fantastic, but he is able to extract something special from it. And the moment that VSC stopped,

and you can't, you can resume the race, and you start to see the number come down between rustling first and Ancinelli, he started to hump down, obviously the McLarens, Hamilton, and then, and then, of course, his own teammate,

it just felt like it was always inevitable. And that little timer comes up that says, Anthony Alley will strike in 13 laps time. And I'm trying to do the maths of the times lap after lap. I'm like, I think it's going to be like six laps time. He's taking about eight, tenths a lap off of him. And it's changed.

just awe-inspiring. It's so impressive the way that he is able to control the car, extract the speed out of the car. He is the next hero of Formula One. It now feels like it feels like he has established himself truly as kind of the next generation of greatness that we're going to see. Of course, he's got some work to do this season, but that's got to be curtains.

It feels like any challenge you throw at this kid, he's able to overcome it and deliver something so special again. And there will be those that argue the VSC say, him. The red flag allowed him to bring the Fieldsberg back together and get another race start. Sure, that's got his fault. He's just got to roll with the punches and take that where he can and use it as a positive. And that's exactly what he did. His initial start was clean. It was sensible. He got through the slower cars well, restarts again. Does exactly the same up to eighth place almost immediately onto the back of the cars in front where he dispatches

and McLaren's. The pace was electric. The way he managed his tie was brilliant. The VSC restarts, as I mentioned as well, also brilliant. I am blown away every single time by him at how good he can be. And like I said, genuinely not surprised that he was able to challenge for the wing, even after starting the 19th place. Just incredible. Harry, this was supposed to be the weekend where Mercedes poor reliability earlier in the year was going to catch up to Antonelli with this grid penalty.

The DNF that Antonelli had all the way back in Barcelona contributed to this grid penalty that he had this weekend. this was the opportunity for George Russell and others to catch up and maybe start asking questions of the championship leader. Well, there's your answer. They haven't, there's the answer. Yeah. Yeah, it's like Sam said, and we've said this before,

it feels inevitable at the moment with Antonelli that he was going to catch out. I just wasn't surprised how quickly he did. He handled, obviously, we got a fair bit of time to analyze the, opening laps and we saw a fair bit of what Anthony was able to do and the way he handled that first lap was not something you'd, you wouldn't look

if you, if an alien came down to earth and you were showing them first laps by the great drivers, you wouldn't assume that that was a driver in only your second year of Formula One. But he was so patient and calm and clinical when he needs to be. It was super impressive.

So yeah, it's, it's, It's game over, right? I don't think there's any coming back from here. I will say, though, I think George Russell was robbed for this one. I think he's been mugged off by his own team. And I know they were boxing to a corner, maybe we'll get into it, but it did feel unfair the way it's played out.

But like I said, that's not to take anything away from Antenetti, because the fact they were boxing to a corner was because he was so good in the first place to get himself into P2 from the back of the grid. So, yeah, props to him, he handled it. He handled, well, whatever pressure there was, he handled it immensely well. Yeah, running out of superlatives for the guy. And Mercedes absolutely vindicated in their decision to take the grid penalty here.

Because even if they had finished the other way round and Russell had won and Antonelli had finished second, we'd still be walking away from this race saying, great result for Antonelli, great result for Mercedes. They've really minimised the damage here. the fact that he's gone above and beyond and actually won this thing, obviously, just even better for him. It was how quickly he dispatched the midfield cars that kind of made this race for him. And I think we kind of felt that was going to happen relatively quickly, just based on the pace that Mercedes has versus those midfield cars. But we often see from a top team when they have to take a grid penalty that sees them to the back of the grid, we often see the first couple of laps are really tentative

in that you just want to avoid some weird freak DNF and just make sure you've still got four wheels on your car when lap three rolls around and then you start to pick off one or two cars at a time and then maybe halfway through the race, you're in a position where you haven't lost too much from field spread and you can claim a good points finish. Antonelli was like eighth after how many laps?

Like after we had obviously a couple and then the red flag and then we got going again, he almost got two brilliant starts to the point where he'd cleared all that before we'd even started to think about it. We'd been so focused on what was happening out front that you look back to the timing tower and oh, Antonelli's inside the top 10 and he's only a few seconds off the lead. This suddenly feels like it can happen. And to what you said, Sam, it's, I'm not coming away from this result going, my goodness, what a shock that was.

No, it felt fairly normal after again those first few laps. There are questions about the strategy that we'll get into in a moment's time. But in terms of Antonelli's performance, claiming his first home Grand Prix win, epic moment. And if I kind of felt this was probably over anyway, I think this definitely does seal it. What about that strategy, Sam? because Mercedes had a decision to make when the virtual safety car came out. George Russell on hard tires, Antonelli on medium tires, Russell at that point leading the way, albeit only just.

Russell stays out. Antonelli comes into the pits for another set of medium tires. What did you make of that call? Russell seemed to think both would be staying out. It becomes apparent that won't be the case. And Antonelli, of course, chases Russell down for the win. Yeah, fascinating. and I can totally see why Russell Fangs and Russell's side of the garage might be a bit frustrated at how it was played out.

Very understandable that he was the lead driver on the track at the time. We know pretty much across all teams in Formula One that it is the lead driver on the track that gets preferential treatment when it comes to Pitsop Access. There was a time many years ago where you have a lead driver and they would outright get the pick or if they wanted to stop on lot. It doesn't really tend to exist anymore in Formula One. And so you think that if anyone was coming in first, it would have been Russell. but as you mentioned, led to believe that they will both stay out. What I think Mercedes were looking to do is I think they had convinced themselves that the Stappan was going to stop and they were right in that call.

The Stappel of course does stop under BSC. And they have gone, we need to split, we need to cover one of our drivers off. Russell is on the hard tire, the more durable tire, the tire that will definitely make it all the way to the end of the Grand Prix under competitive laps. And, againly, of course, at that point under the medium tire. Now, can he get to the end? And not only can he get to the end, is he able to be competitive? and hold off are probably a fast charging for staff.

Because we saw he was pretty competitive at the end of that Grand Prix, right? Managed to get past the McLarence again, and maybe Antingelli is closer to that pack if he's on very old, medium tyres. We saw what happened to Hamilton, right? Unable to stick with that pack and falls off at the end of the Grand Prix. That's where I think they're going to claim their thinking has gone. Now, what I also want to argue for the Antingelli camp, is you remember that segment when they were going back and forth,

overtaking each other, on and off, over and over. We even joked about this before. we started recording of like, what was life now? These two are just going past each other every other straight. For stuff and kept right in the loop because of this. And the radio message comes over of, can we hold position? Can we just get on with it? And then you can fight later on.

And then we hear Anthony Alley complaint that Russell has passed him again, even though the messages come over to hold position. I wonder if that side of the camp were a little bit annoyed that Russell hadn't actually played ball, had ignored the team message, retaken the leader, they go, right, I'm actually going to lead, even though arguably the medium tire at that point is probably the bigger tire to pull the two cars away from Verstappen,

I wonder if that's caused some friction internally and they've decided to put him into the pits. But regardless, it is a split, it is unusual, and I totally understand why it's massively helped Antingelli and it's massively disadvantaged George Russell, who I still think they're a really good job on those old hard tires, but it was never going to be a match for an incredibly talented Kimmy Antingelli on fresh medium size at the end of the Grand Prix.

Yeah, I do wonder from Mercedes side of things, whether separating the two of them so they could run at their own pace was part of... I wouldn't be surprised that that was part of the thinking because, as you say, regardless of whether it was them switching positions, that was definitely slowing them down

because you're not taking the optimal line through corners. Or, as was the case after that, you've got Antonelli, like, he's breaking so early to make sure that he doesn't overtake the team. You hear him shifting down so early into the corner. And that's not the fastest way to go racing either. So I wonder whether they actually felt just, getting them out of each other's way was the right thing to do.

I think George Russell does have a right to be pretty annoyed with this based on the position he was in. I commend him for after the race, at least seeing the point of view of, I can understand why we split strategies. But I also think there's a case to say that where Mercedes are in the Constructors' Championship, and in terms of strategy,

sometimes it's just a case of, if you split strategies, you guarantee that one driver is not going to be on the right strategy. And I think here, George Russell had earned the rights to take whatever Mercedes were giving him as the optimal strategy. And I think ultimately, whilst he did a very respectable job of trying to cling on, the right call was to go into the pits. And you kind of said this after Zamvort, Sam, and I wasn't quite as adamant as you on this

when it came to Russell very willingly helping the team despite being down in a championship fight. I am flabbergasted that today there wasn't more outrage from Russell about how this situation unfolded. He sounded defeated to me. I think he knows he's lost. Yeah, the fight's gone, isn't it? The fight's gone out of him. We've heard and seen fire from George Russell before when it comes to strategy and trying to call his own shots. And we heard a number of radio messages that didn't get a response, at least didn't get a response that was fiery enough to be broadcasted. I expected him to feel wronged, regardless of whether he actually was or not. I thought there was a lack of fire. What did you make, Harry, you've already obviously

indicated that you feel Russell was robbed in this one. Yeah, and I get the point of the point of the point of view, if they're looking at this from both their championships, Antenelli is the one that should be the one extending his point lead, right? Because Amble Gantz-Friary, but Hamilton is, well, going into this race, they were level pegging, right? Hamilton and Russell and making sure that they build a bigger gap over the rest of the field with Anthony is their priority. And whether that's a conscious decision or a subconscious one,

I think it's still there in the back of their minds regardless. So I understand it for that point of view, but it's almost the opposite. You don't remember McLaren and Qatar last year where they refused to put either car because it was unfair and obviously that backfired. This almost feels the opposite of that in terms of they should have, I get the, I get about maybe they're stoned each other down, but they should have picked both. If they're going to pick one, pick the other, because in a under green fly conditions, Antinelli was always going to have to make this stop again, right? Because we look at Hamilton at the end of this race, he dropped like a stone on those mediums. tires, I think Antenelli would have had the same problem. So he, regardless, was probably making that pit stop.

And would he then call Russell? No, no, probably not, because he gets, it's a bigger gap after that. So I think if they're giving Antonetti the option to stop, they've got to give Russell. And the fact that Russell wasn't, you know, was under the impression that neither was stopping. Does slightly scream that Mercedes know the writing is on the wall here. and I think that's like I get it but it's still unfair for George Russell

in this scenario because he is still the nearest challenger Before we go to a first break Sam It's going away from Mercedes chat and more focusing on the race itself We kicked off our preview midweek asking the question of what challenges would Monza present What are our expectations about what this race could look like Just based on what the track is like versus a lot of

of the other circuits that we've been to. How did it stack up versus your expectations? Did it meet them? Was it completely different? I think if you were to write a headline on a newspaper, you could make it sound really exciting. So someone who has got a very limiting interest so you could go.

Loads of overtakes happening at Monter GP, as Antigelli comes from last to first to wing. Great headline, right? That's really thrilling. But you watch the race unfold, and it lost the DNA of what I love about. the temper of speed. What I want to see in Monza, there are some really historic and wonderful moments where, you know, the phrase very personally, late braking comes from Monza, and that's

because you put it all on the line to execute these moves in the last moment in the breaking zone of such high-speed areas. You've got corners like a scari where you have to throw the car through there to get the best exit to go on the back of someone. And you have these brilliant images of, you know, Hamilton going past Rikingham from about five cars away, you know, like towards the 2008. And you've got Ricardo making late-breaking moves into turn one as well in his Red Bull days, and they're all inspiring. They leave your mouth on the floor with how gutsy you've got to be. And yet here, I could barely count on one hand moves that actually made me go.

Oh, wow. Okay, here we. That was impressive. That was a quality move. It was just push a button. I can't count any on my hands, mate, because there were none. And there was one from Antingelli when you went around the outside of Russia. But they are all irrelevant because you just get overtaken again.

Like, none of them have any meaning. I know I said about the reverse psychology in the preview and hoping this wouldn't suck, but it sucks. Yeah, and that's the point. It's just push a button and your back pass again. And it's really frustrating. And it has stolen the soul a little bit of what should be one of the most incredible races we ever get.

And it just wasn't. I think contrary to some people's beliefs, this season has had some really good racing. I think at the likes of Barcelona, I thought Zamvort last time out was really good. Miami was good. Hungary, I thought was a really good race. There have been good races. That for me, and I don't want to tell people how to enjoy the sport because everyone has their own interpretation.

That is what I love about F1, not what we had today. But if that is what you like and you like this sort of yo-yo style of racing, you know, not yourself out. I don't blame you. That's your call. But for me... I don't blame you for being wrong. I don't blame for being wrong. No, no.

It's not your fault, you're stupid, all right? Whoa. I'm joking. Yeah, to your point, Harry, like, it just... It all feels irrelevant because you're just... I know we had a virtual safety car that's sort of changed the second half of this race, but if it had carried on Antonelli versus Russell, you're just waiting for the last five laps.

Like, you are just waiting for the time where you know a move might actually matter. it reminded me of a bit of a deep cut and maybe a bit niche, but go back to like cart from like 25 years ago at one of the ovals. Very famous battle between one Pablo Montoya and Michael Andretti at Michigan. And you are just waiting for the, it's an epic finish. But you know, they're just waiting until the last five laps to actually make a decisive move. And they're just positioning themselves, like laps back to be like, well, if I live, lead four laps to go, that's good because then when I'm overtaken with three laps to go and

one lap to go, it'll eventually pan out that I win the race. I know it's their jobs too, but the commentators, so at least the Sky with Crofti and Rondolle, the Crofty doing his best to hype stuff up, but every time as they headed down to Parabolica, they're not going to move there, are they? They're not going to make the move because they're waiting to get this overtake zone detection. and he's like, oh, thinking about a move, no, he hasn't gone for it, because they're not going to.

53 times of going, it's not going to happen, mate. Charlotte Claire said, watch me. You watch me? Yeah, Piazzi. Piazzi, I don't know. He actually did watch him. The other thing about this,

which maybe has slightly dampened Antigelli's incredible run from last to first. As we say at the start, the segment, it is incredible what he was able to do. I do feel like 10 years ago, 20 years ago, if I will watch the driver stick on a fresh set of boots with 20 laps ago and hunt down their team mate in first and see that gap come down lap after lap after lap.

Murray Walker said it first, catching as one thing, passing as another. And that is a challenge. Right now, that isn't the challenge anymore. It's not the challenge. And that took away the excitement, knowing that when he got there, it was done. The only exciting bit about it was when the track opened up and answering anything at any gripping way onto the gravel. I thought for a minute, oh, God, is he going to be out of the Grand Prix at this point?

A quick point on that. That's really poor of Mercedes. Like, they, multiple drivers were reporting that the track was breaking up at turn two. They should have been on the radio to Antenelli to say, don't try the overtake there around the outside because we don't know what's going to happen. I thought that was slight. And then they have the audacity to go, can you race clean, please? Yeah.

My man's hit a track issue and you're telling him off. Man's driving over a construction site and he's being told to race cleanly. Like, come on. It's also twice this season that that's happened with track surface now. And under 12 races, that's not very good. Yeah, indeed. Well, let's take a quick break. On the other side, Max Verstaffin rounded out the podium.

Our thoughts on that. Welcome back, everyone. The best internal combustion engine on the grid right now belongs to Red Bull. And naturally, engine power is quite important around Monza. Not enough to claim the win, Sam, apparently, but P3 for Max for Staphanf. A duo serving its purpose. He's telling us everything that we already knew. Well done.

Well done. Yeah. Max Verstappen. He just does it again. He's just able to pull a result out of a car that definitely shouldn't have been there. You only have to look at the progress of Liam Lansing after he had to stop early on. The car doesn't have the grunt you'd expect it to. The same with the racing bulls.

Whilst it's good enough to get the mehega, some of the slower of the midfield, they can't go any further than that. They couldn't close down Pierre Gasley, who has a Mercedes engine, Colopinto, gets past. he's singing over at the end who has, I'm going to say, you know, that's the issue, right? That's the problem there. And Max Verstappen, something that we always go about him, was his ability in the braking zones. And I think that was more evident than I've seen it in a long time here. And that's how you see him start to slow the car and someone will be coming past him. And he just lift his foot back off the brake again.

And then there'd break again and another 50 metres later. And the control that he has is so impressive. So he did brilliantly to maximize getting away from the McLaren who are battling together. It's great to get through the field early in the start of the race where it's very messy, a lot of things to go wrong. He keeps himself out of trouble. And he brings home, I think, a best possible piquet through. I'm really not sure he could get any more out of this one.

Harry, we've already discussed the Mercedes battling each other. We will go on to discuss Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finishing up within a temp of each other. We know the Ferraris had a battle early on as well. The point being, I guess, with this circuit, it kind of felt like it was worth. one where the pace of your car determined who you were fighting and more often than not it was your teammate. It felt like Mattes Verstappen was the exception to that rule. He said no.

The staffen said no. I thought Verstappen was superb today and it will probably go underrated, unnoticed. But I again don't think that car had any right to be P3. and he was so good in that opening stint with with hanging on to Russell I think that's the sorry bash the mo I think that's that's got him the podium here because

he basically just dragged himself along when Antonia arrived as well but just dragged himself along with the two of them and bought himself that gap the men that the you know the McLaren's and Hamilton behind him weren't able to sort of get involved in that fight I know they did towards the end as he was coming through but they never really could get through the fight. I mean, we're going to get on to drive of the day.

He's a contender for me, but only for how quickly he went through the bollards at turn one. How has he done that? It's outrageous. It's Max for Staffan. He's got to do that fast as like everyone else. I think he was, and the rest of faster. He came out side by side with the car.

He was battling. How's he done that? Yeah, I thought he was excellent today. and the problem is for Red Bull, it's not, as you said, Ben, it would almost be beneficial for them to have a bad race here so they can prove that it's not,

it's not as good as an engine as the FIA say it is. It's not helping their case on that one, because it's come third. Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think he was very, very good. There's a case to say this was his best race of the year, even if in terms of finishing position, it wasn't, because he's,

had a second place elsewhere. The fact that he could hang on to that Mercedes duo, that in itself deserves a lot of respect. And that's kind of the tale of the race, not only from the Stappen's side, but the top eight, at least early on, I think it was maybe 10 or 15 laps in. The top eight were separated by about three,

three and a half seconds. And then all of a sudden, the battling kind of commenced amongst a few drivers. And you kind of had clumps of drivers kind of sectioned out a bit. So you had Antonelli, Russell, and Vastappen kind of leading the way, and then you kind of had this second group that eventually became two different groups that contained the McLaren's, the Ferrari of Hamilton, and also Pierre Gassley.

And it felt like, in a way, Vestappen was trying to do the same thing that Gassley was, which is maybe stay with a group of drivers that have a slightly faster car than he did. So I think the way in which Vestappen held on to Antonelli and Russell was maybe similar. to how Gassley was holding on to the McLarence and the Ferrari, because I think by all means, on true pace, he would have been somewhere back around that group. But as soon as you can get within that one second and start to use the battery advantage

that you get as a result of that, to your benefit, that's where the race can open up for you. And sure, he didn't cut through that traffic in the same way. I don't want to call them traffic because they were like fourth and fifth than sixth, but like, after the pit stop, when Antonelli just briefed straight by all of them, Vastappen had to work a bit harder. And I don't really put that on Max Vastappen. I think his car meant that he did have a harder job of that. But to come away with a podium here, best possible result, best possible result. What about the McLaren's duo, Harry, P4, P5, eventually the way round of

Lando Norris 4th and Piastri 5th. I think that was only the case for pretty much the last lap of the Grand Prix, but Norris seemed to time it well. Yeah, Norris did nothing for 52 laps and then was like, I'll take P4 now. That's mine. Yeah, a very lonely race for Lando Norris in particular, who got, as you said, when those battles started to commence, he got a bit held up with Pierre Gasly.

He went off the road, didn't he? So he had to give the place back again. He just, he fell off the back of the train. And at this race, especially, it was so difficult to catch up again if the drivers in front have got, you know, this extra overtake mode and then yo-yoing back past each other every lap. So he had to work a bit harder to catch up. So I think, you know, impressive that he did manage to in the end.

But, yeah, Piastri was feisty. They're both pretty feisty, to be honest. but not the weekend they might have expected or hoped for. Again, I think realistically, I think the McLaren probably was due P3, P4, but there was a Vestappen in the mix, and they got a bit tied up at the start of the race. Hamilton's obviously involved in that as well.

So I think they'll be disappointed overall McLaren. I thought it would be fair, Piastri was having a pretty solid race overall, and the way he did manage to hang on to Vestappen after he got past him, I thought at one point I was like, oh, maybe Gastrida could still nap this podium. Obviously, he didn't work out that way. But I thought he was having a pretty good race.

And then obviously on the last lap he loses what was P4. But yeah, I think overall McLaren won't be delighted with how this one went. I think the way I could summarize this, Sam, is that this is the kind of weekend. I think McLaren were maybe expecting they would have, but not the one they were hoping they would have. I think there were maybe some faint hopes of that pace that we've had at the last two Grand Prix.

maybe it does carry over to a different type of circuit. But deep down, they kind of knew maybe this was going to be the result. Yeah, this Grand Prix has confirmed three things for me this season. One, that Kimi Antingelli is without a shaggle of doubt, the guy who's going to take it and it's cursors for Russell. Two is that Ferrari will just do Ferrari things continuously and we'll get onto that very soon. And three is that McLaren, unfortunately, despite having some brilliance in some races,

very specific races, they don't have the overall. pack who should go up against Mercedes but I think you're writing what you're saying where there will be a little glimmer in that garage of going, well, we've got the same power unit, we've got the same battery, you look at what Gassi was able to do by getting it on pole, there's clearly some oomph there. Technically, we're better than Alpine, we've won races.

And we're right there with Mercedes along a lot of the time. We can maybe spring a bit of a surprise here and then they just couldn't. They just could not get that final extra bit. And you combine that with them again, fighting between themselves. and it seems to always be the case. The same with Ferrari, we seem to see this a lot,

that these two teams cannot separate their drivers for a moment, and it's costing them. Race after race, it's starting to cost them. And we heard that it was squabble with Piastri and Norris about, oh, we closed the gap and pushed me off the track. I was on the grass, and it felt like things were a little personal there, and that's why Norris was making it a bit of a mission to get past him. You know, they are just hurting each other by not allowing themselves to race so freely.

I thought Piastri was fantastic. in fighting Hamilton, thought it was great at getting past him, really good racing. I actually breaks the gap in front of him on the Hagar tire, gets a job done, but can't stick with the staffing and that's partially because he's squabbling behind. So, yeah, it's almost a day of what ifs from McClaren. Change a couple of things. Maybe we've got a three-four. Maybe we've got a two-three, because arguably one of them should be in Anthony Alley,

but they don't. I'm interested to see what that causes in terms of McLaren's decision-making. Does that mean they will, I don't know, I don't want to say pack it in because that's a bit extreme, but will they decide that this kind of result means we cannot fight for a championship, therefore we start to devote more resources than expected to 2027? Do they dig their heels in and say, no, we won the last two Grand Prix, we still think something's possible this year. I don't know.

I kind of think that this result confirms what they probably already knew, which is it's not going to happen this year. and I think they should probably make their decisions accordingly. For the sake of the sport, I kind of hope I'm wrong because that could lead to more entertaining Grand Prix for the rest of this year if they keep developing at a pace that is quicker than Mercedes. But this sort of result, I'm not particularly surprised that. In terms of Piastri's pace, I think he will be,

I think he'll be a touch disappointed that the gap that he had over Lando Norris early on wasn't maintained and that Norris got himself back in a position. to make an overtake happen. I appreciate his battling versus Vastappen might have caused, and Hamilton, of course, might have caused that a bit. But there was a point where Norris was stuck behind Gassley, and that battle was quite far adrift of the Piastrian Hamilton battle. I think at that point, if you're told Piastri,

you're still going to lose to Lando Norris today. He'd go, how? Like, he's back there, I'm here, we've got the same car. So I think there'll be frustration from him in that regard. In terms of the wheel-to-wheel action between the two of them, I'm on Piastri's side with this. I think Norris was very ambitious. And I didn't see any distinct move of the wheel to the left from Piastri.

I don't think he cut him off in any way. I think that's just how the corner works. So, yeah, Landon Norris not particularly happy with that one, but I don't really understand it. Well, just being eyes to see like a side-by-side replay or from both on boards, wouldn't it? Just to see Piastri's wheel movements at the same moment as Landon Norris trying to come around,

the outside of him. But, you know, tell me something else I don't know about TV podcasts and got showing things. Yeah. I think it's far better to look at the Antonelli Liam Russell battle, which there are three seconds difference between the two of them on the final app, rather than Norris and Piastri that ultimately end up one tenth away. We'll put that in the small screen. No, it's the viewers who are wrong.

Does anyone know why Lawson got the... Still, I've been searching all over the internet for a replay on what's been going on. have not seen a thing. They hate New Zealand, the FIA. It was confirmed. And I want to declare that I love the game. Much like us. I am Liam Lawson's number one fan.

Don't lie, Sam. Come on. Come on, man. Don't bait me. I will rage. I will do it for New Zealand. Well, time to put you money where your mouth is. It's time for driver of the day. Oh, better be Liam.

You're the driver of the day. You're the driver. of the day you're good at traveling have you got some it's Kiwi Antingelli I'm pretty certainly he's like half

Kiwi is like he sure Kiwi Antonelli will fit him in somewhere Kiwi and Denali upside down is it done for you yeah it's fine perfect

we welcome him with open arms that's me who is also now from New Zealand apparently we adopting son Kiwi There you go. Done.

Yeah, I get the easy one. It's the way. The mistake that was made, which is the running off into the gravel, I don't blame him for. I think it should have been communicated. Someone was going to make that mistake. He was pushing for the race wing,

so it makes sense that he was a bit scrably on the outside. I turned to. He's what it is. I think he was pretty flawless. And whilst things he'd go his way with some decisions, again, I don't blame him for that. He made the most of it. And he took the wing for it as well.

He was electric, so comfortable for me. Harry? Yeah, I'm going to go, for Antinelli as well. Like I said, I shout out this happened here because I thought he was superb today, but I can't really look past the driver that came from 19th to win the race.

That's fair. I'll also shout out Pierre Gasley, and whilst we're not we're not obviously giving that for his pole position, even though that is in itself deserving of a driver of the day. Even if we're just looking at what happened here, you might say, well, he's gone from pole to finish 7th. I

still think that's the absolute max. He could have got out of that. And he was comfortably clear of the rest of the midfield once all of that had played out. So I think if you had looked at those times at the end of any other Grand Prix, it was the same time, you go, wow, he sung so well. I think he had a great drive. Yeah. I imagine Gassely's going to get a very similar rating in my power rankings tomorrow,

of course, on Patreon to who I am going to give it to, Kimmy Antonelli. Same as you both. What about worst driver of the day? Get in the bin, bin, bin, bin, bin, best driver of the day. Worst driver of the day You suck at driving Harry, who've you got? I'm going to have to say

Shal LeClair because he crashed on his own. Oh, that's quite a fair point, that one, Mike. Yeah. Didn't. Sebastian Bettle did more laps than he did today. I do. I do, I see that. And if you gave Lecler the choice,

which would it do, rather do a lap in that car or a couple of laps in the F-2002, I think I know what you'd take. Yeah, easy question. I mean, is saving graces at that car at winning that race anyway? Not with no wheels on it, no. No. I mean, that also doesn't help, yeah. I meant before the crash, yeah, good. Yeah. You remember when he went through Ascari on that same lap, I went, because he was, he wobbled a bit through there. I was like, okay, he's going to tone it down.

after that near miss. Never mind. Like a plate of jelly being carried to the picnic, say, where that was. Proper wobbly. Proper. Yeah, proper wobble through Ascari and then straight into parabolica

and wobbles even more. Parawbulka. You know what, exactly. That's made up a juice of walk off. You know what? Excellent. I finally, dang it. How do you feel that she's never coming back?

That joke was worth it. Honestly, you'll see the screen will go in a moment. She's going to log off and pretend she's never heard of us. Get an email from an undisclosed address. Resignation. Parawoblika would be those type of caption. Is it a trio of McClure? It's a trio.

Sorry, Shell, but that is like the fourth time you've crashed out of a race this season. That's like 30% or something, 25% rather. That's not great. There is something about these cars, right, that drive-of-us getting these, weird snaps because he's not I'm not not trying to

take away blame from him here because it was on him but for staff at last time at Zanthor I appreciate

it was a wet track Colapinto he didn't have crashed but had the same sort of these spikes of torque these spikes of torque

in these corgans aren't they had crashed if it was parabolic a colopinto like in terms of runoff like yeah

yeah yeah so and there is something about these cars that are quite snappy yes

sorry Shal that's three votes for being worst drive of the day. Yuki Sonoda right now is sideways, absolutely delighted that everyone's missed him, just like not lining up at all anywhere near. I can't give it, because he gained like five places after the restart.

So it's like 4D chess tactic. Confused everyone. Throw him off, overtake them all. It's like a smoke screen. But smoke is spelt with a tea at the start, so he's good. Pick for H-Straff. Bob, we're going to need you to box for wets. What?

It's not even raining out. What are you talking about? What have you got, Harry? Ferrari, why have you not Pitt Lewis Hamilton under the VSC? Why? Let's just take a moment. Let's just take a moment see if they answer.

Because there is one. Classic. No, so Ferrari. It's not defensible because, it's not even like he was right by the pit entry and they panicked and ran out of time. It had like a lap to think about this. He was behind dancing early

and Max who still managed to pit fine. And it's also not like he, you know, it was like in classic Hamilton style normally. He's like, my tires are fine man. This time he was like, lap 20, I hate these. I hate these stars already. And they left him on him for the rest of the race.

They came out into the pit lane, is what I'm really confused. I know. Because they just saw him. Yeah. And they go straight by. I was like, oh, on the little map counter, I don't know how much is gone. And again, in another track or in another year,

where track position would matter more, you could maybe defensive more. But they've had 20-odd laps to watch how this race is unfolding. Track position don't mean nothing. So, yeah, terrible, one on Ferrari for making it back onto the award that was created for you. Like, worst-case scenario, if they pit, he would have finished sixth.

He's finished sixth. Like, there was absolutely nothing to lose with this call. I've got the same one. Just I don't understand why they haven't stopped him. I think they might have still been celebrating their genius that, well, because we'd swap tyres under the red flag, we don't actually have to pit again. I don't think anyone else is going to know this.

We're winning this thing, apart from everyone else's reacting to a VSC. And you're right, Sam. It's even worse that they did. react to it but didn't do anything. Like, who is telling anyone what, what is happening there? It's hilarious. They didn't get onto them properly, aren't we? But they thought they were psyching,

psyching Mercedes and Red Bull out, and they were like, God them. Got them. Get it? Got him. Like, back in the old days. You're not even at that fight. You're too slow to be in that fight. Well, the mechanics go back into the garage, just like dabbing. I think they were... We've been burned before. Double stacking's not our thing. We're not going to do it.

Forgetting that the colours out of the race. Keep them both out. Keep them both. The other car's got back in the garage yet, so he must still be in the Grand Prix. They could have a green flag stopped, so he's still of ending up back in six points. That's a theme.

They should have just committed to it, and they didn't. And they were crap. Worst case, worst, worst, worst-case scenario. They pay under green flag conditions, and they finish seventh behind Ghazdi. You've lost two down points. Two points for trying something.

Yeah. Man. Anyway. Anyway, we're going to take a break and discuss Ferrari some more on the other side. Welcome back, everyone. I think we've probably discussed

the strategy side of things enough, Sam, but in terms of the outright performance, not that we really saw a lot of Lecler and what he could have given to this race, but from Lewis Hamilton's perspective, even if he was on the correct strategy, not in the same class today as

the Mercedes or even Max Verstappen. Yeah, I haven't throw one of these out for a while, but Ferrari, what are you doing? It's such a farce. It's such a disaster class. A gang from Ferrari at what is essentially their World Cup. You heard of the preparations they were going through to maximize this. They brought out this incredible livery.

It looked amazing that car. All weekend long, it looks great. They do this amazing thing with the F 2002, where they get previous race winner in that car, Rubin's Barakello, and World Champion Sebastian Vessel to do laps. There's a whole ceremony around it. It's so important to. them and then that's what they roll out on the main show.

You imagine if the Super Bowl was like, how now the half-time show is coming up and it's like me walking around doing a jingle. Everyone's going to be like... I'd watch that. Yeah, great. I would watch that. Yeah, you'd have to laugh at me, but not to join in. Yes, we do with Ferrari.

So that's fine. It's just every single part of this race day was a mess. The way those two drivers went against each other again through turns, one of them's in the gravel. There's a crash three laps later on. that's that race ruined. They then don't focus on the scratching are proactive, so that's ruined.

Just ridiculous, the whole way through not listening to their driver, out of the loop, almost closer to gassing than they are to the fight at the front. I thought in terms of the crash from Leclair and I know we've already given him our collective worst driver of the day,

this is such an obvious statement. It was really poor, and I don't just mean like the error itself. I just mean like the type of race this was just didn't call for that style of racing so early on. It was just completely unnecessary. We've already discussed how overtakes felt like they didn't matter because you know you were going to get it back almost straight away and you were almost playing for the last 10 or five laps of this Grand Prix to put yourself in a position where you haven't ruined everything before

that point. Well, the same kind of applies here. Like, you were never going to win that race. You were never going to get a podium in that race based on that one move of trying. trying to go around the outside of parabolica very early on. Like, I just thought it was illogical. And unfortunately, and you know how much I and we love Charles Leclair in terms of Eraser and how good he is, this seems to be the sticking point. Like the last thing that he hasn't quite fully sussed is sometimes it's timing.

And I don't think his sense of timing is brilliant all the time. And the fact he's made that mistake historically before, We've seen that exact crush from him before. It's not really good enough. Yeah. What did you make of the performance or lack thereof, Harry, from Ferrari? It wasn't good. That's my summary of that.

Yeah, again, if you're a classic Ferrari, they've turned a three, four into a sixth and DNF, which is another good. Maximize the points. Maximize points. Brought home the maximum points, okay. They let Antonyl have this one. You know what?

Don't want to steal his funder. Yeah. We're not Italian. Let him have it. Beth from San Marino now. I would have been intrigued to see whether if LeClau was still in this race, whether it would have ended up. But Hamilton didn't look like he had the pace today.

And then obviously they decided what should we do with a driver that doesn't have, you know, great raw pace. Let's just leave them out on the same tires for the entirety of the race because that's going to make it better. But overall, the Ferrari, you know, whilst he was doing a lot of dicing with Piastri, I think, as we've already said, I think McLaren will probably caught up a bit

with that early battling and lost the front of the train, as it were. I think McLaren were overall fast than them. So not a great day. We didn't, we weren't expect, I think in our preview we weren't expecting them much from them in terms of we didn't think they would be favourites to win. FP1 on Friday, they're not pretty good. classic Ferrari

and beforehand they were you know at least Hamilton was but I think both were their expectations were high as they always are for Ferrari and Monza but I think they were fancying their chances here but it unraveled it unraveled relatively quickly I know this is going to be obvious thing to say

because I'm Chief Vibes officer vibes are well off this weekend whole weekend I know all the hype around everything with it and I'd love the you know F200 do with Vettel and Barracello, amazing. The livery's really cool on the car, but just overall vibes are off. Don't know what's going on there.

Summins brewing. It's not good. I don't, you know what, for the sake of a short, Civil War. Oh, love that. There's your hook. Yeah, right. Yeah, you're right.

The vibes aren't quite there. Just something's, and Hamilton's been making quite a few comments throughout the weekend. I've seen him click where he's making a dig at LeClaire about the 2019 victory I'm like, really? Why?

Yeah, odd. Very odd. And that all culminated with Lap one term one. But at least the seven stars feels quite fitting for Lewis Hamilton because he's actually got seven himself. I'm not being baited by that, mate.

What? I ain't been baited. What about Charlotte Clare wearing seven stars like his outfit? The seven stars have never been about his championships. He's had them since, he had them when he first started.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got it. He's always that damn snarge. We got him. But crucially, you're not being bared. No. You can't bait me famously. Yeah.

We got it. Absolute disaster class. Well done, Ferrari. I think the good thing about reviewing Ferrari as well is that on the quite rare occasion, actually, where one of the cars goes out,

as has been the case here, Lecler and Hamilton have been so close all year, I think, that even when one of them does go out or is not involved for whatever reason, I don't walk away from that thinking, well, LeCleur could have got a podium. I think LeCleur would have been either one second ahead or one second behind Lewis Hamilton, because that's kind of where they've been all year. And we saw in qualifying, like they were separated by, I don't remember what it was, like a couple

hundreds of a second. I get the sense that LeCleur's race was heading the same direction as Hamilton's. Not their weekend. I think if obviously LeClaude D&F himself I think if he'd stayed in the race one of them was still DNFing I think they'd have been out

Yeah exactly I think they've had an accident anyway So how it was easier this way How did you view turn one? Because we had at least on the Sky Sports broadcast Some conflicting opinion about whether this was more on Hamilton or more on Charlotte Claire Can I say side note on that

Love Nika Rosby for this Yeah It's my moment at the race Rossburg just bodying Brundon with the Royal But loves it. It comes in from Sky Italia, bodies in, walks away again.

But I know, I... It's page 11 actually, Martin, if you don't go. It's page 11 of the regulation. To be fair, it's quite an interesting duo there, right? Because you've got Nico Rosberg, who is very much,

you know, of a different generation of a driver by the book, Martin Brunel, a bit more old school. And both are opinions. Yeah. I've teammates to two of the greatest drivers of all time. No one point or another either.

I like to competing insight rather than aimless shouting. What? I'm trying to think about Mark Blundell. What did you mean? Obviously you got what. Definitely, Mark Lundell. That's who I was definitely talking about.

Yes. Mark Blundell and Mark Weber, the two marks. That's what you're talking about. That's the greatest Mark. Weber and Blundell. Perfect. And I, both of them, what are you doing? I think this is one saying.

It culminated in term one. I think Hamilton for sending you. it in the first place and then Lecler for just bumping them off the road. I mean, if I was Fred for certain, both, I'd be like, are you having to laugh, lads? Like, what, what are you doing here? So as the rule that goes, Lecler should have kept it to the inside of a little bit more rude. But Lewis Hamilton, you've got enough wings under your belt. Why are you sending it down that time?

What's he sending it there for? You know it's not going on. You've got a whole race, man. A whole race. Just tuck him behind and get the job done later. And this isn't defending Lecler at all. I think this was an issue of execution rather than intent because I think Leclair probably was aiming to leave some more space

but got that understeer into the corner where he is not far off full lock and he's still almost going off into the gravel himself. So I think he was probably intending to leave space but I thought this was more on LeClaire. I know again the move from Hamilton may be questionable on lap one. I kind of put this on.

Leclair is actually at fault. Yeah. But Hamilton just shoot a bit. there in the first place. Silly from him with his experience. I've put himself there, I think. You can argue that as a racing driver, he's gone for a gap and he's gone for a move that was in theory.

It was in theory on. But then same for a club. Yeah, exactly. So I liked Martin Brundel saying, obviously by the rule book, it's who is ahead of the apex. And he's like, but where is the apex? Because depends what angle you're hitting the corner.

Maybe that's a stupid rule. I don't know. I was like, yeah. You've picked it apart. I would like one sentence, Martin. You know what? I actually would like the both regularly to talk things out because they both have great insight. And F1 TV, of course, have DC and Palmer who do a great job at breaking things down as it goes through, both very experienced. I think that Rosberg and Bundle

on coms together to give Croftier breath. You have a sip of water, mate. And let them dig into it would be lovely. Hey, ahead at the apex, F3 know how to do that. Woo! They're on a show. You haven't seen that clip. That's, uh, That's something. It's art. The picture, I don't know who the driver's involved, but the screenshot of one in the air with no wheel, knocking the other one off,

and in the background, someone's just having an engine failure. If I ever asked, what is F3? It was going to hold up that. That's the picture. And move on. Yeah.

Let's chat midfield briefly. Alpine, of course, having a very good day yesterday. Still a good day today with Gassley and Seventh and Colopinto in ninth, meaning they do claim more. points than the racing balls duo. Sam Alpine going from from pole to seven,

obviously Colopinto having the off as well. How do you view their day? I watch qualifying, obviously, late. You did the show on your own, great job of it as well. And it was one of those things where I thought, wow, Gassie's flute list has been like a mistake by someone. Gassi's the only person to get a clean running, and that's how he's got pole position.

But you watch back at both Alpins are firmly inside the top 10. Gassi, I think inside the top four for every single session. Right. They're legitimate great qualifying pace. They're doing to the car to be that good suddenly on that Saturday, but it worked. But we always knew, I think, that it wasn't going to translate into fantastic race pace. And I think Gassadig, a great job of being a part of the Piastri Hamilton Norris battle for as long as he did. And to hold up Norris as well as he did for that amount of time, I think show really great driving, really great skill. Finches well a heck of everyone else.

Great day for Pierre Gassley. Colopinto, if you ignore the off, had a sensational race day. He was great at the restart, gets himself up to P4. There was this whole conversation about how he deployed his battery right before the yellow flags came out

to try and jump a few cars because he knew it's going to be a safety car. That's big break straight, if you're asking anyone. And then goes off and works his way all the way back up to P&I, which if I'm honest, is what one place behind

where he would have finished on a perfectly acceptable normal race anyway? It's probably costing two points, yeah. Which isn't the end of the world. I mean, for Al P in, that is important, but it really is at the end of the world. I was pretty impressed again, ignoring the half, which his own mistake, he's at faultful,

but at least he mostly recovered. We caught Colopinto's devastated, because he's in a clip and he's in tears in the media pen. Well, good. Loving mistakes. Okay. Conflicting messages. But it's not your fault, but also be better.

Look. It is a brutal. Also, they're there, there. It's because he knows you've got to go and face Flavio now. That's why he's crying. The problem is... Two points is your contract. He was told to go off and crash.

He just did it at the wrong time. Like it's supposed to be when your teammates leading the way. Not that they'd have ever done that before, obviously. No, of course not. After yesterday, do you think there was anything in Flavio's head that was like, I definitely think he was lying there at night and he went, I could do that. Have people forgotten?

I've been it long enough now. Oh dear. I kind of think we've Collopinto, because I agree, outside of that incident, it was a perfectly all right race when he was in clean air with M. Pierre Gassley was also in clean air towards the end of the Grand Prix. Gassley was quicker, but not hugely so. And I think it was looking solid enough. This is a bit harsh, but I think the off was a bit of a, the lights are a bit bright kind of moment. He's not had a lot of exposure to running that high up the grid. He was obviously very temporarily third place.

And I'm not going to lie to you both. there was a very, very, very, very, very brief moment where I was like, that preseason bold prediction of collarpinter winning a race, like, come on. And then very quickly. Wow, you really were dreaming. Wow. That's why I say it was a very, very brief moment.

I just got the sense that the pressure was maybe at its highest that it's been for him in F1 in that spot. Couldn't quite take advantage of it. But a great day for Alpino. overall. Harry, any closing thoughts on Alpine?

No, I think they, you know, whilst on paper this looks bad for them in terms of poll to P7, I think they can be,

they can be very pleased with how this weekend has gone. And yeah, it's only be a couple of seconds off a Ferrari at the end of the race is, is pretty damn good.

So I think Gadsdi's been superb. And yeah, whilst it was Colopenta's fault that he fell off the road or mark him down for that, I think he recovered. to a lot. There was clearly just good pace in that car because he recovered well. So overall they can be happy with the weekend.

Obviously, it wasn't quite the headlines of yesterday, but that was not a fluke at all. It wasn't an unusual one. So this is probably where they expected to end up anyway. Because we'll let everyone know that everyone at that wedding last night knew that Pierre Gassi was on pole position, by the way. I have no doubt about that. No doubt. Spoke about it for hours. I bet.

There are people you don't know who call you Ghazley, man. Did you know that Pierre Gazis on pole? Who are you? Are you sure game, Pierre? What pole is it? Why is he on it? Exactly.

Think about it. Before we go to our final break, just enough time for us to review our bold predictions that we made midweek. Sam, what was your bowl prediction? The Gassi would get pole position? No, that would be. How good would that be?

Like, why don't we never come up with that crap? but then it happens for crying out loud. That's more bold than anything we've ever said. I said that both racing balls, I think we're fish inside the top six, I think is what I said. Maybe five. It didn't happen in the way. Wrong.

No. Yeah, Yuki Sonoda down in 10th and Arvid Limbludad in 8th. Yuki Sonoda as well, by the way, facing an investigation for that aborted start for being out of position on the grid. So we don't know exactly if that will... I am amazed that they just let that go. They're like, yes, to do it again.

He's broken. and he's going to get wrong. That's the point. Why wait a... Anyway, Harry, your bold prediction was... Every Mercedes powered car will be in the points, and Williams, you suck.

It wasn't a bad shout because, like, the elevation in Alpine's performance versus normal, if Williams did the same thing, they could have snuck at 10th and the 9th, like, yeah. I really thought maybe we were onto a winner, but thank you, Williams, for being rubbish.

Oh, speaking of thinking you're onto a... winner. This is a good one. I had a two-parter, which basically is that Aston Martin were going to suck. And they did in qualifying. I said that they would be 21st and 22nd in qualifying. Thank you. That did happen. Went into race day with my expectations high. All I needed was for both cars to be lapped for this bold prediction to be correct. And they both broke down before they could. stroll literally breaks down as the leaders are approaching him. It's so funny. Got to turn off now. Ben's going to be right.

Kill the engine. I'm not blaming you, Harry. I think you put a call in. Can't lose a point to this guy, guys. I think someone owed you a favor. We got scoring any points anyway, so pull the cast. Honestly, yeah. Maybe.

The fact that I managed to predict that there would be 21st and 22nd in qualifying and both get lapped in the race, and the reason I'm not right is because they were worse than that is insane. Excellent stuff. Good job, I'm fantastic. I'm really proud of you. Well, more bold predictions midweek ahead of a drink. I can't wait for a tasted pint of the dream.

It's coming weekend. We'll take one more break on the other side. Moment of the Race. Welcome back, everyone. Just time for Moment of the Race. Sam, what was yours? Well, yeah, I've already declared my wish, which is good. but it was watching Eka Rosberg turn up after Sky Italia to basically have it out with Martin

Rundle over the rule book, both realising the rules were ridiculous, one trying to learn the letter of the law, one trying to go about what being a racer actually is, it was just quite funny, but also quite informative and felt quite satisfied to also be proved right that we were on the right mindset of where that was going. I want more of that. It's a serious point. Whilst it was funny to watch, I want more of that at Sky or across commentary generally. It's nice to hear a proper discussion about what's going on, and it comes from two experts in their field. really enjoyed it. I'm going to break the rules in two different ways.

Firstly, breaking the rules by having two. And the other way that I'm breaking the rules is neither of them happened in the race themselves. One happened before and one happened after. Firstly, the Italian national anthem is the goat of anthems. Just the way in which that kicked off the entire race, just perfect. Absolutely brilliant. And then second of all. And then the one at the end.

Yeah. It was tempting. The other one, a real late contender. David Coulthar's LL Cool J reference. Well, man, I try to defend you on the regular basis. What are you doing with L.L. Col J references? Kimmy Antonelli, born in 2006, does not know who LL Cool J is. Oh, David, come on, man.

You've got to bring up like Tate McCray or someone. Done with the kids. I'm trying. But he'd say your name wrong. Yeah, yeah, like, Toot McCrue. That's a cousin, actually, Tup McCrue, yeah. Oh, it's smellier. Harry, what was your moment of the race?

Mine also actually wasn't in the race, so we're not doing well here, and it's guy specific, so it's really a double whammy. But it's right at the start of the broadcast, or at least when we switched over to the commentary, with David Croft saying, Remember, remember the 6th of September. Why?

Not relevant to literally anything. It doesn't. Why would... What would that matter? Because that rhyme is for the 5th November, Guy Fawkesnike. Why would you... What's that relevant? We're going to November.

No, if September and it's the 6th, it's not the 5th, you're a pillock. What are you doing? There is not one form of connection. No, it was a month topic. The closest thing is that September and November rhyme. It's a... Yeah, great. Excellent stuff.

Oh, well done. I forgot saying Tossa with Russell again. Because she said that once. I thought I was waiting for him to bring it up. Oh, there was 80 million reference about the Italian job as well, and I wanted to punch myself in the face. I did. Your face did.

Yeah. It wasn't from the most wonderful wedding. It's because I punched myself in the face repeatedly. I understand. That's enough of our moment of the race. What about what you've got in our Discord? Okay, first up, We have Eames.

Hey, it's Eames. I can't do this properly in 20 seconds, and I can't do this properly without swearing. But, Charles Leclair is a better-looking Jackie Eicks with better PR, and we all need to stop glazing him and pretending him that he's actually ever going to achieve anything. Now, that's an interesting take by itself. Apart from, that wasn't a take he made today.

Oh. What's the date? What's the date on the submission? That was made on the 23rd of August. Can't believe that Jackie Hicks' PR team, got the head and their hands. We're ruined. What's you mean if Charlotte Kerr's got by a PR than us?

I'm surprised you're not more up in arms about this Jackie Hicks slander, Sam. I've got to go and talk to them. I've got to go and talk to them. I'll be game, guys. Come on. Yeah, I mean, we've been around for 50 years at this point. What are they doing?

Thank you very much. You've only just got a calling aimed after him. Yeah, thank you very much to the Control C, Control V that Eames put in the in the Discord for this week, even though he made that prediction a couple of weeks ago,

or not a prediction, but he had that analysis a couple of weeks ago. Poor Jackie I and poor Charlotte-Clair at the same time. Why do you're doing a man, Jackie like that? You know, bodied both of them for no reason. Yeah.

Hazer is up next. Not going to lie, I've had a beer, but I'm going to try to do a serious submission. Watching Antonelli go from P-19 to P1 is generational, it's legacy, It is something I, we as all are privileged to watch live. That is sport at its greatest with a talented individual.

Cheers, boys. Wow, that must seem like a tasty beer for you to be that complimentary. My guy's getting emotional about this. I think he's had more than one beer. Because it's hazard, I think one beer is a collective turn for many beers. He says it after a night out, I've had a beer. Every 10 beers is actually one normal beer for the rest of us. It has a beer.

I understand. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 10 pints for him. I feel that. Yeah. Up next, we've got Just a Mom, who, if I'm correct, after seeing a message earlier,

is at the track. Start finger straight. Just a mom here, from the Grand Sands in Manza. And my mom, mother, race, was just about everybody else in these stands. Oh, my God,

who've ever thought you'd see a sea of red cheering when a Mercedes wins. That was amazing. Very cool. It's like we said, earlier on, like the scenes of the Tofosi and the Italian crowd cheering for a Mercedes, you couldn't have told me that a few years ago.

No, no. Very cool that you're sat there in the grand stand-up on that. And thank you for taking even a moment of your day to blame him, pay attention to us and send that in. That's mega. So I hope you enjoy yourself. What if one day, this is a hypothetical, Kimianti races for Ferrari? It just implode.

He's quite a place. He absolutely will. Yeah. There's no way to... Toto Wolf will be. broken again as he leaves to go to Ferrari. And Hamilton goes back. Nice to me.

Lewis Hamilton. Yes, thank you very much. Indeed. Up next, we have Lance. Better than Stroll here. Back once again, missed my late breaking family with a moment of the race. Moment of the race is my guy, David Goulthard, DC with a hip-hop reference. Channeling his inner Ben Hawking, although my brother Rahim is better with the hip-hop references, DC pulled one out.

great job did they Kimmy one more to the wrong thing ultimate compliment I love that and also the throwing of the well-down Kimmy at the very end just to get that compliment in yeah

LL CoolJ I'd love to know how he came up with it like did he come up with it on the spot did he have that ready to go like five minutes before I think LL called him please can you make this reference please make it about me

do you know what LL Cool J stands for like his name um it's it Lance Looley Lucas Cool J. Lance Lucas Cool Juice. No, it doesn't. His name is actually James,

and it's ladies love cool James, which is just... Oh. What about actually, Liam Lawson, cool... Juice again? Jammies.

Jenga. Cool jammies, Liam. Cool jammies for Liam. Love your PJs, my guy. I bet you're not. I bet you're not. 100% they've got lightning the queen. They've got lightning the queen bedding,

disle him. The piston cup next to his place. What I wonder what that was going. Kirsten cut. Someone out there needs to do some analysis of like the exact minute where race reviews just go completely off the rails. I reckon it's about like 55 minutes or something like that. Yeah.

It's scattered diagrams. Yes. The border of those, it's all in the same point. Raff 21 is up next. Morgan of the race was definitely Ferrari deciding not to hit Lewis under the virtual safety car and effectively ruining all night and some dreams. So good job, lads. As explained earlier, great job.

Ferrari is absolutely massacring and he hopes the Italian nation have. Well, I mean, for a team at least. They're doing all right for a driver. That's true. Up next, a first-timey. Love a first-timey. is MDLD Sunjat. First time submitter here.

My moment of the race, Charles Leclair, please don't push your teammates White in the first corner and then yeat it into the barrier. Two laps later, thank you very much. I don't get a lot of yeats these days. That's good to hear you.

Shane BW9 is up next. Moment of the race. What's up? It's Shane. I'm just trying to figure out how Kimi and Tenelli is an alien. It's the only way this would make any sense. A long-time listener. Thanks, guys.

He might be right. Yeah, he does drive a rocket ship. He's 20 years old. It's not fair. He's achieved more at 20 than I'll achieve at 60, and I don't like that. Look at us at 20. Right?

Don't look at me at 20. I was tweeting our boobs. But you tweeted that last week? yeah when I was 20 I'll give it to you Sam I think you were about 18 let's not be on fair to yourself I've matured by then

I've really grown and still raced an F1 car drove an MEPA on 18 but you know let's benchmark ourselves appropriately come on thank you very much Shane another first timey

last one today is absolute gem absolute Dr Dufin Schmertz gem here if I had a nickel every time Gassley led at least part of the Monsor Grand Prix and Charlotte Clemere smashed into the tire barrier on the exit of Parabolica.

I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. That's a great point. On the 6th of September. Remember, remember. That's why you should remember it. Apparently. I will. Can we really end this podcast on Remember, remember, remember?

Can we think of something else to end this on? No. There is actually a semi-serious point to make before we go, actually, which is just about next week's schedule, a bit of housekeeping. So obviously we'll be previewing the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid, first time, of course, at Madrid. As normal, that episode will be out on Wednesday

and race review as normal on Sunday. Only difference this week is that there won't be a qualifying review. Harry, I'd like to say that the reason is worth it. Yeah, I'm getting married, folks. So sorry, but... but there won't be a cool review. But back after that, yeah. Maybe we're saying something drunkenly in the score.

After your Pierre Gassley suggested today, absolutely not. That was perfectly legit. And you're out for a couple of weeks now, Harry, is you celebrate married life. Yeah, but I think people won't notice, to be honest. I come and go these days. No one's going to actually, no one's going to miss me, so I'll be fine. I'm willing to miss you.

Thanks, guys. Excited to have you back later in the month. But yeah, we'll remind you all on Wednesday's episode as well, of course. But there will be a race review, but no qualifying review next weekend. Sam, if you wouldn't mind, getting us out of here. Thanks for listening, folks. If you're going to hear a little more about what we thought of the Italian Grand Prix and what the drivers themselves did, then check out Patreon where we've got power rankings.

It'll be live tomorrow evening UK time. That's about midday US time. And we go through every single driver's rankings and discuss what they did. how they did it, and we go through our seasons, and you get involved too. There's a lovely form. You can feel like your notes, and it's lovely to hear from you,

to give it a go. If you want to hear yourself on the show, like those lovely people just did, try out Discord. We have our moment with the race, every single race review, and that's where it happens, and you might hear yourself on your favourite show,

which is, of course, the best thing that you can do. Ford social media, late breaking F on everywhere, and meet us back again for the midweek preview for the first ever, Magrang! Yay! In the meantime,

I'm Sam your Sage. I've been Ben Hocking. And I've been Harry Ead. And remember, keep breaking late.