The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Hamilton wins in Sochi as rain causes late-race chaos! | 2021 Russian GP Review | Episode 149

Episode Date: September 26, 2021

Well, for the first time Sochi delivers a crazy race! Lewis Hamilton took the victory after rain late in the race caused chaos for long-time leader, Lando Norris. The boys break down all the talking points from a great GP.JOIN our Discord: https://discord.gg/dQJdu2SbAmSUPPORT our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/latebrakingTWEET us @LBrakingSUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to look out for new episodes every Thursday and Grand Prix Sundays. Hello and a very warm welcome to the Lake Breaking F1 podcast, reviewing the Russian Grand Prix, presented as ever by me, Ben Hocking, Harry Ead and Sam. I'd like to say at this moment in time that I think ballerinas on top of pianos

should happen at every single Grand Prix in the build-up from now on because they are one for one in terms of creating banners. In fairness, we've always been on the hype train for the Russian Grand Prix. We've always been pretty big fans of it. You'd have heard that in the preview podcast, of course.

We're always big supporters of it, and we're glad that it's come through in what, if you didn't see the race, you'd probably think was a fairly standard result in that Hamilton beat the Stappen first and second, although as we know, that probably only tells about 2% of the story. What did you make of that in 10 seconds?

I went on a roller coaster of emotions and I left the building in a mixture of laughing and crying and shock. I am currently applying for Formula One related therapy. Yeah, to be honest, I'm still reeling from Fernando Alonzo's attempt to turn one on lap one to be honest. Didn't not break.

Definitely not going to try that one. Never mind. Yeah, he must have listened to the podcast and gone late breaking, that's a good idea. What about no breaking? Give that a go. Taking a tip out of you, you just noticed. I love how... Yeah.

Yeah. I love how he explored it on his lap to the grid. And then he was like, actually, that works out all right, doesn't it? I'll actually go ahead and do it. P6 for me, please. I respected that there was no effort there whatsoever. Not even mentioned it afterwards. It was just like, oh, a lot so was back in the fight. No, no one question.

Ah, just let it do it. Cool. Two time of a champ. Two time of a show. That feels like five days ago. That's how the race has aged us all about five years. This seems to happen quite a lot this year. Things happen in races and then you're like,

happen a day ago. Like, what is going on? Yeah. 2021. 2021 is, it keeps on delivering, at least from a Formula 1 context, and there is a lot to unpack. Of course, we're going to be discussing Lando Norris, the win that nearly was having to give that up in the last few laps due to the rain that came on board, just a few laps from the end of the race.

We'll discuss how that went for him. And of course, I went for Lewis Hamilton, who did reclaim the championship lead today, albeit by an incredibly slender margin ahead of the event. Max Vastapen who recovered from 20 of up to P2. We're going to be discussing plenty more as well, whether the rain actually saved Mercedes blushes a bit in terms of strategic calls. Stroll and Vettel had another coming together, and we'll be discussing Sergio Perez,

who looked on course for a podium at one point but didn't quite work out again due to the rain that happened at the end of the Grand Prix. Let's start with Lando Norris, though. He had a decision to make, as did everyone on the track. Do they go in for intermediate tyres? Do they carry on with the slicks? Lando Norris decided the latter obviously didn't pay off. We know in hindsight it wasn't the correct decision,

but Sam, can you at least understand the decision that he took? Do you agree with his reasoning? I totally understand. He wasn't the only person that made that decision. We saw the likes of Charles LeCler, what looked like he was trying to drive through a car wash when you've still got the sunroof down. It was quite literally impossible to see more than three centimetres

past your own visor at one. point. But no, he was not the only person to make that decision. I don't understand. He's got his first victory four laps away at one point, and he's driven up until this point a spectacular Grand Prix. He's done everything possibly that he could. He's made the tyres last. He's reclaimed the lead off of the card that got in front of him at the start, which is great. He's been consistent. No mistakes. He's built the gap up. If it was a normal Grand Prix, the man would have gone on to wing, I reckon by a couple of seconds in front of Lewis Hamilton. I don't think Hamilton had that final extra bit that he needed to get past Norris.

But that's not how race wing is always deciding, and that's definitely how champions are always crowned. So yes, on one hand, I totally understand that Norris saw Hamilton dip into the pit lane and thought, we've got to commit to staying out now, because if we go in now, we will be behind him, so we've got to stick it out, but you need to listen to your engineering ears. You haven't got the experience in these situations. And even Hamilton, who, you know, a lot of people call the great civil time, who is now hit the 100 mark on race wins.

who has the seven-time world champion, disagreed with his engineers, and then was immediately told I was putting on the tires, there's a lot more to come. And good God, I'm sure Toto really was blessing the rains down in Soxie today, because that was the deciding factor. I think Norris was brave to make the call. It didn't pay off for him.

And I do think that separates the champions for the very, very good currently. I think Norris will bounce back from this in the long term. But, yeah, I totally understand his decision to commit to staying out. He wanted that victory. And we've seen it happen, right? In the past, we've seen drivers stick it out on slicks on damp tracks, and they've come across the line with a three or four second gap, which just paid off for them.

But this, the tides really turned, the waters really came down, and it was silly. It became silly for anyone on dry tyres going to be on the track. It was almost bordering very dangerous for a lot of people. So, I commend him, but it was by far the wrong decision, and it cost him big time. And, of course, I think he's going to be sent to the stewards for unfortunately missing the pit entry and cutting back through the white line,

which is a big no-no in the... FIA in Skewigs term. So it could get worse for Norris before it gets better. Yeah, yeah, of course. We have to bear that in mind. We're recording where there hasn't been a penalty applied yet. So it's P7 as it stands right now, although by the time you're listening to this,

it might well be worse than that. Harry, again, obviously not the right decision to stay out, but can you, from a driver's perspective, can you understand why he did it? Absolutely. And, you know, it just takes a tiny bit less water to fall. and he looks like an absolute genius because at the time it was only really kind of reining of one part of the track

when they were making that cool. And even Hamilton refused to come in at first and it looked like the people were coming in for inters whilst they were quick in that one part of the track, they got to the drive bit and then were really slow again. So, yeah, it's hero zero stuff, isn't it? And yeah, if it gone slightly the other way, Norris wins that race by, I don't know, like a minute or something ridiculous

and we're all calling him an absolute genius. It's such a hard call. Maybe the team should have pushed further, pushed harder on bringing them in. But how can you predict that? They just don't know how much water is going to fall out of the sky. As good as their weather prediction systems are, you can't really predict that. So, yeah, I don't think we can be too harsh on him, to be honest. He'd driven a great race up until that point.

And had it not been that bit much, much. more, I think. Because even by the end, like the last lap, the main straight again looked dry. So just like there's a couple of laps where it rained a bit more and it all fell apart for him. So yeah, I don't think we can, I don't think we can be too harsh on him for that because up until that point he'd driven a stellar weekend, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, very nearly pole position converted into a race win in a McLaren, which, you know, if that comes through, what an achievement that is. This is tough because I think we, the intermediate tires versus the slick tires, it's almost not a gradual curve. It's like,

it's a cliff. You get to that point of where it's so wet that the slicks just can't cope. And I can, again, can completely understand what Lando Norris is thinking there, because first and foremost, when it was starting to get a bit of damp, but it was still fine enough for slick tires, Lando Norris had the edge on Lewis Hamilton. You know, Lewis Hamilton was able to close up to about one second, got inside the R.S. range when it was still. it was dry. And then the rain started. And actually, in those slippery conditions, Lando Norris was able to extend that gap out to about two, two and a half seconds. So he was looking comfortable in that sort of situation. But then he has to make the decision as to whether

to go on to intermediate tyres or not. And I can completely understand the rationale of, well, there are four laps left in this Grand Prix. It takes, let's say, 24 seconds to have a pit stop. If Hamilton comes into the pits, he has to be. six seconds a lap faster than me to even catch up on that last lap, let alone pass me. So you can completely understand why he's there thinking, well, it doesn't matter if I'm a few seconds slower than Hamilton for the rest of this race. He still won't get me. And that mindset is, is again, completely understandable. The problem is, and I say this again, it's just a cliff where you very rarely have a situation where the slick tires are slightly worse than the intermediate

tires, it's either the slick tires are slightly better than the intermediate tires or they're unusable, which is what LeCler definitely found. And Lando Norris did find on that last lap of his to the point where you can't keep within four or five seconds, you can barely keep it on track. And Lando Norris doesn't have the access to the data that the team have, but that's why you should trust them. That's why you have to listen to them. There is a reason that all of those drivers out there are plugged into the radio for the guys back on the pit wall and back in the, back in the likes of Brackley for Mercedes and such. There's a reason they're all there crunching the numbers, looking at all the data, and that's because it works and it pays off.

And Lando Norris decided to, actually, I'm going to pin this more on McLaren actually, because McLaren were not, in my view, decisive enough over the team radio. They went over the radio. They did not say, we're switching for intermediate tyres. They did not. not say box for intermediate tires. They came over the radio and said, what are your thoughts on intermediate tires? And Lando Norris said no, which is a perfectly acceptable response

because he doesn't have a view of what the track's going to look like in three, five minutes time. All he's got a view on is how the track is coping in that moment. And Lando Norris, in that moment, was fine on the dry tires. So he gave the answer

to the question that he was asked in the most accurate way possible. It's McLaren on the. the pit wall who have the view as to what it's going to do in just a couple of minutes time. And it should have been on them to say, look, you might think the slick tires are fine now. Rain is coming, it's coming heavy, you're going to want to be on intermediate tires. If you're more forceful over the team radio, you probably convince him to pit and he probably wins. Lando Norris can only do his job.

McIran have to do his job. Honestly, I think it's more on McIron here. They weren't forceful enough over the team radio. And the team and Landon Norris will learn from this. You know, you can say McLaren have won for decades, and that's true. But in terms of the group that they have at the moment, they're not used to these situations like Mercedes are. So from Landon Norris's perspective,

I don't actually blame him too much for the decision that he took, but a really hard one to take nonetheless. Just a final kind of visual, which is very interesting to see. Maybe it should have been a tale more so for McLaren to bring the hammer down. because Lando definitely could have saved a podium at this point. You know, he was following up ahead that even by missing that one lap, he still had a lap to get round that was acceptable on pace, you know, the lap after Hamilton Pitted.

But when you see the likes of Nikita Mazepin and Juvanasi, you know, you lap them, you come round the corner, and they're immediately driving back past you again, and then you're having to lap them again, and then they're driving back past you again. At that point, as a driver, you need to look at this and go, we know the conditions aren't improving. Lando, you need to come in now,

otherwise you're going to throw away a top two, top three, top four, and we're going now, because of how bad the condition's got, he's going to throw away, most likely anyway, a total points finish regardless. So it's gone from absolute... I'm going to quote Paul de Rester here, because he said it 43 times this race weekend. It is a nightmare situation for Lando Norris.

And this is the only time that it's appropriate to say the word, nightmare situation, because that inquires, it is a terrible situation to be in, which it was for Lando. But I do think that, like you said, Ben, yes, it was a bad call from Lando, but Lando can't see the weather radar. McLaren need to do exactly what Mercedes is getting and go,

you need to come in, it's going to get worse, otherwise you're going to be in trouble, and they need to hammer that home. And I do think Lando probably could have walked away with P3, if not P4, had it all gone to plan, and they pitied to just go out later.

Well, bear in mind that, and this kind of moves on to the next point about Lando Norris, bear in mind that Lando Norris was well over a pit stop clear of everyone else apart from Lewis Hamilton. I can't remember the exact gap at one point, but I think it was well in the 40s. It might have even been like 50 seconds or so. I think it was clear of P3. So he had a massive gap.

With that in mind, he had to put a lot of work in to get that gap in the first place. So Sam, do you think that this has in any way cemented him as a future world champion? All in all, it's been a very impressive season, but this might just be the best of the lot thus far. Lano Norris has been possibly the driver of the season this season. You know, he's elevated that McLaren team. He has, you know, it's almost a shame that he doesn't have that win to his name. Ricardo managed to pick it up at Monza.

He was obviously, he lost it here, which is a real shame. The fact that he's gone two races in a row in a McLaren, which is not the second best car even, and he's come achingly close to a victory twice in a row, is a real credit to where he is now. I do think he's got a bit to learn, as we can see. It's the same with what Lewis Hamilton had the first couple of years he was in Formula One. You have a lot to learn, and look what you can become.

And if Landon Norris is on a similar trajectory to Lewis Hamilton, well, there's a lot worse trajectories to be on, in my opinion, especially when it comes to Formula One. Norris is scoring points regularly. Norris is able to pull the most out of that car. He is the heart of a core team in Formula One. Everyone loves him in that team. The car is built around him. Unless someone comes in with a big money move, he will be there a long time. And I'm hoping that the Sages can carry on to use that weight that they've got.

that leverage that they've got to throw themselves around the paddock to make sure they're always a very competitive team. I think they'll need a slightly lucky break against the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes, maybe Ferrari and they get things back on board. But yeah, I can definitely see Landon Norris picking up one, two, maybe three world championships if, I think the Domino's going to fall the right way for him.

But when they do, I definitely think he's capable of making the most of it to become a world champion. Up until the dreaded rain fell, Harry, what did you make of Lando Norris' weekend to that point, not just the girl break. I mean, yeah, I've already said it. It was a stellar weekend for him. It's a second time now we've seen Lando having to hold off Lewis Hamilton

and, you know, I think I read that he's younger than Hamilton was and Hamilton got his first race, win. And both times, Lando has not cracked, has he? I know he succumbed to Hamilton in the end in Imola. But again, today, until the rain came,

Lando was still holding him off I know Hamilton was getting edging closer and closer but he didn't put a foot wrong in terms of he didn't lock a break he didn't go too wide or anything only when the rain came did that happen but even then when it was a bit slippery

he started to pull away so yeah he I think we already suspected it but he's got to be future like Russell I think he's future world champion material it's got a full right as Sam says because if he hasn't got the car

there's nothing he can do but I think he has have if he has a competitive car as we've seen with the mcclough on occasions this year he can do some some good stuff um yeah i think maybe it's slightly underrated how how difficult must be to hold up lewis hamilton the man who just won his hundredth race that's that's quite a mean feat and maybe it's that's you know lando's been so impressive already that maybe it's it goes overlooked i think yeah that's the second time this year as i said that's happened and he's not really put a foot wrong So apart from not coming for inters, but, you know, we'll give him a break on that.

Silly boy. Yeah, he's got to be a future world championship for Lando coming up, I imagine. Yeah, I mean, if you go back to practice sessions, obviously we only had two of them this weekend rather than the usual three due to the rain on Saturday morning. But McLaren didn't look that great. They really didn't look that great in. in dry running, which prompted a lot of people to think that after qualifying very well on Saturday, obviously getting pole position, that it might just be a case of falling back if Landon,

if Lewis Hamilton could get a good start, maybe if Perez can get a good star. And ultimately, he proved all of them wrong. So, I mean, the pole position was fantastic, first and foremost. Yes, he managed to get it right in terms of going on to the intermediate tires, but so did Carlos Sines. And he still needed to do the job, which he did. And he was looking strong throughout regardless of whether that rain came or not. And, you know, sorry, if the rain stopped wrong way around for the qualifying session. And in the race itself, he gives up.

Well, he doesn't give up, but Carlos Sines makes his way past into turn one and then down into turn two. I think Lando Norris himself said on Saturday, after. qualifying that this is probably the one circuit where he doesn't want pole position. And that comment was sounded a bit weird, but it was almost vindicated by what happened with Carlos Sines getting passed. He didn't panic. He stuck behind Carlos Sines for a bit, made the move stick at really the first proper time of asking. He was on the back of him for a couple of laps, but was pretty clinical when he needed to get

passed. And then from there, he dictated it. He was so impressive. He stormed away. from the likes of signs. He didn't panic in terms of pitting early on, which the likes of signs and stroll and

and Russell possibly, they might well have regretted that how early they came into the pits. Lando Norris, the lap times that Lando Norris was doing on those old medium tyres was so impressive. So impressive how he was able to, the consistency, I think

again, Paul de Rester read it out at one point, 140, 140.1, 140. He was just doing exactly what he needed to do on those tires, not putting too much pressure on his hard tire stint, and ultimately him and Hamilton were so far clear of everyone else. It was just an ungodly race. It was so good from him. And yes, I already thought he was going to be a future champion in all honesty, but this certainly doesn't hurt his cause at all, at all. Moving on to Hamilton of Vastappen, of course, the championship battle rages on.

Once again, it's switched hands. So Max Vastappen went in with a five-point lead. He's left with a two-point lead, although Max Vastappen did start this race from the back of the grid. And with Lewis Hamilton winning, perhaps two points isn't the end of the world. Sam, if you're Vestappen, if you're Hamilton, who's happier coming out of this weekend? I think, I think Lewis actually put it very fairly when he, when he, when he's, you know, he's, had his interview with Damon Hill after the, after the race, you know, Damon said to him,

you've managed to get there, you have almost a bit of a stigma, a, a, a troll hanging over your head of when are you ever going to get this 100th Grand Prix? And I wonder if it hampered him. And he's cleared that boundary now. So I wonder if we're going to see a slightly more loosey-goosey, Lewis Hamilton, in the next few races. Now, he hasn't got a worry about hitting the goal. But as much as Lewis Hamilton will be absolutely overjoyed to have picked up his first victory since Silverstone, you know, he's finally got the top step again. It sounds like he's never done it. The man's done it the most time is by far of everyone. But he's finally done it. He feels like he's jumped a hurdle then. I think that

Phil Hamilton with a lot of elation. He'll go into Turkey where I think the Sages are going to be strong. And I think he'll come into there with a lot of confidence. I do think that Max Vestappen is going to be the happy of the two. I think Vestappen can walk away. And we discuss this in the preview podcast where if you look at the races that are to come, you look at the previous form over the last 12 months, and you look at the fact that Vastappen now only has a two point gap, considering that when you start from last and your rival starts in the top four into the favour to win a race, you think what? I'm going to lose 15, 18 points, you know, with good damage limitation here.

It could be difficult to claw this back, and the fact that I'm only two points behind. The Stappings, you know, jump out of Sochi, kicking his heels, with a big ring on his face, because he knows, maybe apart from Turkey, we don't know about Jeddah, but you look at the likes of Austin, where Masega's are good, but so a Red Bull. You look at the likes of Brazil, where the Stappel is fantastic, you look at Abu Dhabi, where the Stapel is the most recent winner there, Mexico, where it's almost a bit of a fortress for Red Bull. You think, you know, it's swinging Red Bull's favour here,

and it looks very positive. Hamilton, I think, can have the early glory and have a nice time here, but I think in the long run, the Staphn comes out of this looking like a real favourite for the championship. And he was spectacular to game. The tyres went away a little bit early. He judged the rain absolutely brilliantly. He carved his way through way better than the rest of the guys at the back.

You're looking at you, Valdry Botas. who was saved by the rain spreading down on Soxie. Yeah, Verstappen dig absolutely everything he could have done to limit it. The only thing that he will wish, I suppose, is maybe a Lewis Hamilton back or in the rain, or a slight slip-up in the rainy conditions to maybe, maybe take that win, which could be incredible. But no, I think Verstappen leaves Sochi elated.

Hamilton will be very pleased, but I think Verstappen leave Soxie elated. And, folks, if you don't understand how bloody incredible this championship fight is, two points separating, two separate teams, with what? How many races have we got left to go now? Six, seven. This is seven, thank you.

This is unheard of territory in this era of Formula One. Maybe in the last seven, eight years we haven't seen something this exciting in terms of two separate teams. So sit back, relax, enjoy it because it is going to be moa caliente until the end of this season.

I am so pumped. So yeah, just like the snap of Hamilton, I am also elated at how close it is. Harry, who's happier on this one? Vastappen or Hamilton? Yeah, absolutely match Vastappen's happier. I mean, after yesterday, I'm sure Hamilton and the Sassadis are happy to have got the win after a bit of a sketchy qualifying where he ended up P4.

But, yeah, I mean, before the weekend, I think we expected Mercedes to be strong and take the win. But then obviously the news came in that Vastappan was going all the way to the back of the grid. And I think from there, and especially at the point in the race where he was struggling to get past, Ricardo got overtaken by Alonzo, I think he's looking at a load of points lost. He's going to be at least 10 points behind or something like that. So to end up in P2, yeah, you could see in the interviews afterwards how happy it was about that. Because that's a, that's a, on a track where Mercedes should have won anyway, and arguably should have been a 1-2 for Mercedes,

Vestappen started the back of the grid, and he's in second place. and yeah as Sam said without the reign Vestappen would have been second but also without the rain Votas probably wouldn't have been fifth so it swings a roundabouts for both teams there I think

but yeah Hamilton's back in front but it's only by two points and the way it's been going this year I'm sure he would have liked more of a points swing out of this race considering where his rival started and where he started so yeah it's got to be Vestappen he's the happier of the two going into

going into Turkey Yeah, I think this one's entirely dependent on perspective, to be honest, because if you went into the weekend, let's say early hours of Friday morning, you know, actually we didn't know at this point, but you know that Vestappen has a very good chance he'll be starting from the back of the grid, and you said, okay, at the end, everything said and done, Vastappen is going to take a grid penalty, you're going to win Lewis Hamilton, and Max Vastappen's going to be second place.

In that situation, yes, Max Vastappen is by far the happier at the two. because damage limitation, that's about as good as it can get, just seven points. But I think if you switch to perspective ever so slightly from Lewis Hamilton's perspective, there were barely any moments during this race weekend where it looked like Lewis Hamilton was going to win, which is a really weird thing to say. But bear in mind what happened in qualifying, hits the wall, starts fourth place, has a terrible start to the Grand Prix, where he falls behind the like. of Lance Stroll, stuck behind Daniel Ricardo for the entire first stint.

Looks like he's not going to win the race because of Lando Norris. We weren't sure early on whether it was the right call not to come in early. There were so many question marks. There's so many points in this Grand Prix where you don't think Lewis Hamilton is going to win. So actually, I think Mercedes can look at this and go, few, that looked really hairy for many moments in that Grand Prix, and we've actually come away with a win. So I think both parties are going to be fairly happy with this, but like you say, given the starting positions here,

Max Verstappen has to take this one as a win. They were targeting top five. And not only did they achieve that, they went beyond that by getting him on the podium. And even with five laps to go, it didn't look like a top five finish was going to happen. It looked like it was going to be P6 for Max Verstappen. So the weird irony, and this sounds really weird, but the rain costs Lewis Hammond. here. The rain cost him to the point where he won the Grand Prix, but he's actually lost out because he won the Grand Prix. Stay with me, folks. Lewis Hamilton has gained seven points

as a result of winning this Grand Prix rather than finishing second, but you could argue that Verstappans actually gained 10 points as a result of finishing second rather than sixth where it was looking like he was going to finish. So actually, by winning this Grand Prix, by what happened in the last few laps Lewis Hamilton has been ever so slightly hurt by this. Really weird to think of it that way but it's kind of how it's gone down. Driver of the day. Who have you got, Sam?

It comes down to three drivers for me. Mr. Lando Norris who apart from the slight call which we've already discussed was so difficult for any driver to make and rain has cost British drivers championships before by the slightest margin and I'm sure it will happen again. This is only a race win but even if you cast your mind back to 2007 with Hamilton at the Chinese Grand Prix, we've seen slippery conditions cost drivers previous moments before.

We all make those mistakes. You've got to hopefully learn and move on. So, Norris, up until that, our heart-wrenching moment is in contention. Hamilton for always being on it, closing that gap ridiculously quick, accepting the call and then delivering when he needed to is up there. But I am actually going to give it to Destappen because in terms of the championship, in terms of fighting through the field,

in terms of making the call and then maximising a very, very sensitive and tricky decision, he walks away here, I think, as the real winner of the Grand Prix. So for me, yeah, the Stappen just takes strife of the day with Lando a very close second. I think Hamilton would be third.

Who are you going for, Harry? All very valid ones, but I'll go with Norris on this. because I know the call was maybe, well, you've already said, I think it's more on the team, but he's still involved in that call, the wrong call for tyres.

But up to that point, it was a clinical, quick, looked after his tyres well. So yeah, I'm going to give it to Norris. But, yeah, Hamilton Vestappen. All very valid. Also, shout out to Reikin. I know the rain helped him,

but yeah, he was having a pretty good race out there for a man who's been, who's retiring soon, maybe. Just a hobby, mate. And he's been out of the game for two races. So, yeah, not a bad little effort for old Kimster. For me, three contenders, although surprisingly, only one of them is shared between myself and Sam. So Lando Norris would be one of my contenders.

He was brilliant. He was well over a pit stop ahead of his teammate, and indeed everyone, apart from the Mercedes-Hamilton. And he obviously got Pulper's. position coming into it. You can't ask for much more up until the point of rain. The other two contenders for me, Fernando Alonzo, was superb. You know, if it weren't for the strategy at the end of the Grand Prix not coming in, he might well have, you know, he planted a move on Max Verstappen, first and foremost,

which was incredible to witness. If we just ignore the first corner, which Alonzo did very well, actually, just from turn three onwards in this Grand Prix, Alonzo was superb, was in the top 10. On the hard tire, so that, you know, he was on a very similar pace to the likes of Perez in front of him. So I think he did very well. And the other one, I mean, the finishing position definitely won't show it. Charlerler, I think he did a really great job of coming back through the field,

similar to what Max Verstappen did. And actually, I think he did just as good a job as Max Verstappen did up until the point where intermediate tires were needed. So, and in a car that is definitely not as good as the Red Bull. And one shout out as well actually for Carlos Sines because his strategy was not the best out there today and he made it work whereas the likes of Lans Stroll

really couldn't. So, you know, I give respect to signs as well. I'm going to go Lando Norris though. He was fantastic. Lance, by the way, was having actually a really good race and then the rain started to fall and then he forgot how to be a racing driver apparently because he just crashed into everyone and everything.

It was bizarre. He became a literal tech pro barrier with wheels, and people were literally just bouncing off of him as he went round the corner. I think Vettel got a clangor. I think Gazleg went the wrong way round. I think he got in the way of three or four other cars. The man was like, you know what?

Just going to be annoying now. Just going to be an actual wall. It's because there's my brand. That's it. People are going to wonder, why did this happen to Lance Troll? But where there's no Brad, there's no good, Lance Strong. I think we can.

Potentially nice segue seeing how this goes. Worst driver of the day. Sam, who've you got? Can I give it to Valtry Bottas, please? You don't have to ask for permission. I feel like it's harsh, but I've gone into this season with the No More Botties, please.

I've said that he'll never win again. And I was convinced by the hype train that everyone had got on for the Russian Grand Prix. You lot, you listeners, your filthy listeners, you convicts me with your love and your optimism. You can't call our listeners filthy. You can't do that, Sam.

I can't. All the thousands of you that turn out. I'm afraid he just did, then. I did. I done it. Harry Eggetset, not you. He'd got sold the bait and switch, and I thought Bottas was going to achieve something

just once, so now it's gone, and I will be. right for the season, but just for the Russian Grand Prix, I'm a little bit crushed. It's good to know that he was just warming up, though, for being in the alpha next year. Well, he's going to be driving around in the back six drivers for the entire race.

So that's nice of him to just get some practicing, because he was rubbish. Right, stop it. Stop it. I can't deal with the hurt anymore. I thought this might be the one for Valtry. So, Sam, for the... I mean, we're on a day where Lewis Hamilton

has just... as a hundredth win. That could be the hundredth time that Sam has given worst driving the day to Valtry Bottas. Can't confirm those stats this time out.

Harry, who have you got? Yeah, I'm going to give it to Bottas because those results. Yes! That result does not reflect where he was, the entirety of that race. Yeah, I mean, and look,

to be honest, and to be fair to Valtry, I think the call to change his engine, I think he was sulky about that I know we didn't really hear it from him but I just got the impression that the way he let, he did not defend from Vastappen in the slightest

like he was just like yep go off you go son here's the apex I'll get out of the way for you yeah I think that was when I saw that this morning I was like I don't think that's a good idea because you know it's so crazy at the beginning of a race Verstappen's more likely to get past him

when they're more bunched up I know they're quite bunched up at the end, but more bunched up at the beginning than he is. They needed Valtry in that battle later on in the race, and he wasn't there because he couldn't make his way through. And yeah, he just didn't, from there on in, I think he's head dropped. He had enough.

I just don't think he wanted to be there. And then it was like with a P5, but I think it's the least deserving P5 out of that top. It did not deserve to be on that top 10 based on today. driving. Yeah, and I feel bad because I like Walter, but it just didn't deserve to be there. You know, I feel a lot of sorrow right now, but it's actually not directed to Valtry Bottas. It's directed to my comrades, Harry Ede and Sam Sage, because they can't, these morons can't understand the strategic genius that is Valtry Bottas, waiting until the intermediate tyres were

needed with five laps to go. He knew what he was doing. He was just cruising. I don't need to make these overtakes. I'm just going to wait for the rain. These two can't see that. Toto coming on the radio again. You can overtake these. We've got points.

He's like, no, no. I don't need to do that. No, no. He was like, yes, I will overtake them in about 10 laps time when the rain comes. And then when they went over the radio and said, very early on in the Grand Prix, a top five finish was on, he was like, yeah, yeah, it is. You just wait and see. In all seriousness, Bottas is probably a can.

candidate for this. I've got two other names though. I actually had Estabanoch on written down here because he had a bit of a howler, but he has been saved. And I think that this is actually happening with similar regularity to Sam's Bottas' worst driver of the day. But I'm going to go with Yuki Sanoda again. Oh, another one. Guy has a note. I'm sorry, Yuki, it's not happening for him. And I can't understand why. It's very, sorry, it's going to say, it's very weird for a rookie to come in and have their best race in their first race and then forget how to drive for the rest of the year. Sleeping Naza, looking at you, son.

I mean, can I just ask? Once Yuki Sunoda on the track today, because I literally remember him not being there the entire race. Wasn't it Sonoda the Whose Stroll turned around? Or is that Ghazley? Oh, I thought that was Ghazley. It's Ghazley. Who knows.

But, I mean, yeah, the fact that you have to ask the question, was he on track? I should tell you everything you need to know on this one. Yeah, yeah. Moment of the race, Sam. I have three moments of the race, and so I will say all three, and then you guys can have other ones. I'm going to say that for once we heard Lewis Hamilton not moaning on the radio, actually in the race, not after he's won the race. you know, this is some good pace, huh? That was fun.

Nice to hear from him for once. I enjoyed that. That was really encouraging. So, for me, that was a nice change of tone. Secondly, both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen both going, Metair's McLaren slash Red Bull Bono version on the pit wall. My tires are gone. And then simultaneously, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen

then went on to set fastest laps of the race on those sets of tires, which I thought was just comedic. but the true moment of the race is as horrible as it was watching Lando Norris slide off the track in those wet conditions and Hamilton creeping on through for the wing it was both heartbreaking but historic at the same time and that's what Formula One is

that moment is what Formula One is and that emotion, that drama, that spectacle is what we all absolutely love but hate at the same time so for me that was the moment of the race but good God Russia what a race what a race Harry will you abide by the singular moment

of the race for your one because that's the feature I've already mentioned it for me Fernando I laughed so hard when Fernando Alonzo didn't do turn one

honestly made from there on in it could have been a terrible race and I'd still have been happy because that may be so happy just him appearing in turn two, like, oh yeah, that's how fourth place is.

That's how you get a fourth place. That may erase me if there's got to be that, because it's just classic Fernando Lonso. Because they're not looking at term one. No one needs to do turn one, apparently. Steuers, I'm looking at it. Sure. Yeah.

Moment of the race for me, and they are all very strong contenders. And I'm a bit disappointed, actually, because usually this spot is taken up by the, the hat is overtaking. one another which we didn't actually get to see it. Didn't hit each other. But I do have a good one

to replace it, which is we have this build up towards the rain. You know, rain, rain's going to come at the end of the Grand Prix, the rain's going to come at some point, heavy rain expected, radio messages coming through, the commentators keep mentioning it, is it going to happen, is it not going to happen?

And then all of a sudden, the one camera shot where the umbrellas come out. And it was just, umbrails. here we go that was for me the moment of the race it's just like

it's not real until the umbrellas making a disposable rain mac on it's go time and I love that Lando Norris's radio message to him was saying

the umbrellas are coming out just like nothing technical here the umbrellas are out the brolleys are out on display can we also just have a worst moment of the race

for just the general commentary display was on show today because the amount of mistakes, the amount of Paul. Paul de Rester, I think, fell asleep at one point when Crofty asked him a question about Lando Norris and he went, well, Max Verstaffman's got a fresh set of tyres waiting for him. Right, okay, Paul. No one was talking about that whatsoever, but thanks for bringing it up. Honestly, he also said that Mercedes won the French Grand Prix, which they didn't. It was hilarious. It was a shambles, they were rubbish and if we can not have paul de rasta and crofti in the box at the same time together

that would be ideal for every other grand prix in existence thank you i mean bear in mind here that some i'm sure many people listening will have a different commentary team so um there's a quick insight if you aren't listening to um i mean the official uh commentary or the british let us know how good is your version of the commentary because ours is rubbish this is complete side note but when I was away the other day I did watch Sprint quality with the Zigo Sport and smacks for Steppen friendly

I should say I would love to watch the actual way what's Ziggas sport shock yeah anyway so quick review of bold predictions before we go on so I predicted that the winner would lap everyone apart from the top three

that didn't happen Harry predicted that there would be a late safety car and Mazapin would get a point. Not only was there not a safety car in the whole race, Mazapin also did not score a point. And Sam's was a two-parter in which he caught both parts wrong.

A red bull, no red bull in the top five and Bottas to win, which is zero out of two. So all in all, good weekend for bowl predictions. I mean, I'm happy for us all to get those wrong if we get a race like that every single time. That's fine by me. I'll be wrong every day

of my life to make sure we have a great race like that every time. That's the thing. There was a race that happened this weekend where about 250 bold things did happen and we just happened to pick the three that didn't. Sorry, folks, you can't see this, but I think Harry's showing us a gift of Kimmy writing and attempting to dance and it is terrible. It's just Alfa Romeo's post saying points, we're in party mode and Kimmy's doing a face, you know, look at it, it's on their Instagram, he's doing it, but he's literally talking at the same time going, I hate you. I hate you all. Yeah. Anyway, sorry about that. Wow, that's a bit cringe, isn't it? So, do you remember the Ferrari Christmas video they did a few years back?

Go and have a, go and have a search of that one, folks. Yeah, that one's, that's bad. Anyway, let's move on. Looking at Mercedes for a little bit longer because they did take a win. They took 35 points from this race, but goodness knows how they did, because it did not look like it was going to be anywhere near that amount for much of this Grand Prix. Valtrey Bottas, they took the decision to start him from near the back of the grid, put a new power unit in the car, seemingly completely tactical decision. Sam, based on what we saw, do you think it was a good decision from Mercedes to do that? I think the entire online presence of Formula One realized that this was a bad idea. what, what, just, why do you need to be

next to the stop and to start? You're already in front of him, but you're further in front of him. So just take more points off Red Bull. You made it closer. You make it easier. I don't, I can't actually fathom the idea. Did they hope that Valtrey Bottas was going to literally stall the car and go, you're not, no, no, Max, you're not allowed to come through actually.

I don't know what they were hoping to happen at that moment in time. it was an awful strategic call and we'll get on to the race strategic calls because they were pretty terrible as well but that is one of the most bizarre tactical decisions I've ever seen outside of an actual ongoing race. It was really bizarre

boss asked him grumpy about it which I think he was right to be so and I think that's partially why his race was ruined so much but the Staffan cleared off very very quickly and he was in No Man's Lang for a lot of the race so yeah this was shocking a shocking decision from the Sages what did you make of the decision how

do you think it was a it was a good one from them do you see the logic now oh no i uh oh i don't like it at all um no i've already said this i don't think it was a right decision in the slightest just didn't make any sense because we knew how quick that mercedes could be i know they struggled yeah well at least hamilton struggled in the in the first part to get out of that dRS train but it opened up for them once the pit stop starting and i think having bot us up there would have really helped them because at one stage hamilton was still stuck behind ricardo and Vastappen who started on the back of the grid was only like a place or two behind it. I mean, see him in his mirrors.

And you're thinking, well, if Bottas had been in that battle, at least there's another place potentially there that Vastappen hadn't already got. And as I said, it's so much more jumbled at the start of the race. I think Vastappen was always going to, it was going to be easier for Fistappen then, and it would have been later on. So, yeah, I don't think that was a good call. To be honest, their calls this weekend hadn't been amazing. I think they called it right with their first pitstop with Havent.

Hamilton, they were patient there, although whether they would have won the race without their own, you know, up for debate. But, you know, even in qualifying yesterday, I think they brought both drivers in too late for dries. And, well, Hamilton hitting the ball made it worse. But I think even then, they didn't give themselves enough time to get those laps in. We saw it took a couple, if not three laps to get a good time out of those tires. And, yeah, they, I don't know.

when when Vastappan was already at the back of the grid that should have been a 1-2 in Kuali and they messed it up so um yes a couple of bad calls the rain did help them but in fairness to them they made that call on the on the in terms of the inters and it got both cars want to win one in the top five who as we've already mentioned probably didn't deserve to be in top five so in that sense they may have made up for it a bit but they were help you know got to say there were helps by that rain. Yeah, I think this was an awful decision

to put Bottas at the back of of the grid, or at least very close to the back of the grid, and I couldn't make any sense of it when they announced it, and I don't want to be all revisionist history about this, because we know exactly how it went and it didn't work out very well, but at least going into it,

I didn't think it was a good idea either. What you need, essentially what you need Bottas to be is two things for this to work. Firstly, you need him to be an Alonzo-esque, stop it. You need him to be an Alonzo-esque defender, right? You're only doing that to keep Vastappen's progress to a minimum,

and you are looking to keep Vestappen as far back as possible whilst Hamilton does damage out of the front of the grid. That's the plan, right? So if you're putting someone in that position, here it's Valtrey-Botas, you need them to be a staunch defender, someone who will use every single inch of the racetrack to keep someone behind. So someone like Fernando Alonzo, we know that Bautry Bautas isn't that. We saw the move happen.

He basically just let him pass. And it's not the first time it's happened with Baudetat. It's not like you can look at that Bottas of a stab and overtake and say, wow, that's a surprise. Didn't expect Bottis to let that one go so easily. It's happened for the last few years. The second thing you need Bottas to be, if you are putting him towards the back of the grid,

is someone who makes his way through the grid very well, which again, he is not. Now, you can look at Monza and say, did an all right job there, but that's Monza. It's a completely different scenario where you're not even really making overtakes. You're essentially just relying on your power unit to slip stream another car and get past before the breaking zone. Sochi, we know it's more difficult to make the overtakes. You're going to have to put more of an effort into doing so into breaking zones, and Bottas has never been renowned for recoveries from the back of the grid. He isn't that type of clinical overtake.

like Vastappan is. So essentially you're putting Bottas in a scenario that actually works to his two main weaknesses rather than works to his strengths. And even if, even if Bottas was an excellent defender and someone who makes his way through fields very well, I still wouldn't agree with it

because you are relying on Formula One being predictable, which it is not, and it has never been. You are predicting a very, very minute scenario. You are saying, okay, Vestappen is going to be behind us, Botas is going to be quick enough to defend from him. You are asking for that exact scenario for your strategy to work.

And if it's not that exact scenario, it's completely out the window. If Vestappen gets a good start and makes his way past Bottas, that strategy is gone within the first two turns of the lap. First two corners of the race, that strategy is gone.

And you are just asking Formula One to be predictable, and 2021 has proven so far, it is anything but that. So really, once Vestappen had got past, the strategy was nothing. I know he didn't have a great starting position, Valtrey Bottas, but he could have made something work from seventh place.

We know that at the start of this Grand Prix, slip streaming down into turn two, you can gain three positions. You can lose three positions as well, but it's all up for grabs. Seventh place was not the end of the world in terms of a starting position. Let Vastappen get on with his own race.

He'll make a recovery. He's good enough to do so. Putting in a blockade, it wasn't going to work. just gain as many points out front as you can. In terms of actual in-race strategy, Sam, did you have a view on that from Mercedes' perspective? It was definitely, if you could draw a graph of Mercedes strategy calls, it was definitely on the up throughout the weekend.

It was still a bit skeptical. I think a lot of people had questions over the first round of pit stops from Hamilton's point of view. When you see the likes of Russell, stroll, Sikes coming in early, and you look at the gaps down on the, the telemetry and you think Hamilton if he pits now is going to be 10, 12 seconds behind these guys. They're taking chunks and chunks of time away.

And that's where you get paid the big money, right? Because there's us looking at the TV going, what they're doing? Why would you have undercut this to get out of the queue? Why would you not try and go early to make sure that you could put yourself in front of this group so you can fight the likes of Norris and Sykes? But they didn't. They were patient. They were calm.

And you know what? The call paid off. I mean, Hamilton still had to do the work. It came out at the garage and he still had to do the work. And he did the work, right? He brought that gap down from 12, 13 seconds to 1.2 to 1 second by the time the rain came down, which is what you expect from Lewis Hamilton. He delivered on his end.

But from Bottas, it was tough. Bottas wasn't able to overtake people. He was stacking a DRS train. It didn't look like they had a real solution. And then the rain came. And, you know, I would say 80% of the drivers called it correctly with their teams. So it wasn't hard from the same to call it 100%. but Bottas definitely made the most of that situation with Mercedes, and it worked.

And you can commend them for that right move. And we've seen some moments, I think, with Mercedes this season, where they're not used to having to make those snapshot calls against another team. And they've faltered. They've struggled a little bit here. But I think Mercedes walked away at the end of this Grand Prix, maybe due to that final strategy call going, we've come away with a lot more points and it was looking like around lap 10,

you know, than what we did at the end of the race. So we've done all right here. It still wasn't perfect. very good at the end, but across a whole weekend, it was a bit of a shambles. Yeah, I agree with what you mentioned, Harry, in terms of the qualifying strategic element. They definitely didn't get that right. They needed to be the ones pushing the matter in terms of that strategic call. And yeah, those that managed to get a couple of laps in on the dry tires, the likes of signs, Russell and Norris,

who obviously started inside the top three, they were rewarded as a result of that. And I, you know, the colliding into the pit wall was a bit embarrassing from Hamilton's perspective, and it didn't help Bottas either. But ultimately, I don't think it would have actually changed anything. I think the damage was done by the fact that they were coming in that late to begin with. So from that side of things, they definitely cost themselves. In terms of the race itself, you know, Hamilton made things difficult for himself in terms of getting that bad start. You know, you could say he was stuck behind Lando Norris in the second stage.

he was, but only because he didn't get a very good start in the first stage. If he gets a good start, Lance Stroll probably isn't on his left-hand side as he goes into turn two, and he can probably take the same line that Lance Stroll took into that corner, and he probably ends up, you know, P-3 or so, P-3, P-4, coming into going into the next set of corners. But ultimately, again, if he wasn't P-4 to start with, and he actually started where he should have done on the front row, that's not an issue. strategically i think Mercedes got it right in the race they could have very easily panicked

when stroll came in and russell came in they could have easily panicked and said okay we need to we need to make sure we don't get undercut by these guys and ultimately they stood true they knew that tyre was going to be more of an issue around russia than it usually is and they stuck to the strategy that they wanted and ultimately they were able to really benefit from that in the second half of the grand prix so i think they did get

right in the race and yeah like you say sam most teams did get the call right in terms of inters i think botas might well have been either the first or maybe the second guy onto the inters so in that sense they did lead the way but yeah it wasn't the most difficult decision in the world i'll give you that overall there are a few of these questionable ones that have come in from mercedes this season which just proves that even with a team that seems bulletproof as mercedes have done in previous years when you give them a bit of competition, suddenly questions start to be raised. So, interesting one from Mercedes perspective this week. I think, just one last thing. If, I think Mercedes are, uh, in a sense, quite lucky that A, they have Lewis Hamilton and B, they got a quite quick car most of the

time. Because if they didn't, a lot of these decisions would be really detrimental to, to, to, to, how well they do in races. Because are you, uh, some, you know, not all of the time, but sometimes the might of Hamilton makes up for mistakes they might make. So yeah, and this isn't slap. They've won seven of our titles for granted that. I'm not slamming them, but I just think it's interesting. They've maybe out of practice in terms of, or they've been so far ahead,

they've not really had to worry about if they make a mistake in strategy because they can make up for it anyway. But anyway, interesting one. I mean, if they didn't have a fast car and didn't have Lewis Hamilton, there'd be a minor upgrade on Ferrari, you could say. Size large. Sorry about that. Looking at Aston Martin, so carnage-filled race in which Ashton Martin were not able to take advantage of it,

partly due to the two of them deciding to collide with one another, although you could argue that was definitely more on one driver than the other driver. The Lanch Stroll and Sebastian Betel incident, no points at all, it seems at least, for those two guys pending any post-raged penalties. Harry, what did you make of that? Do you think that this is the race, this is the sort of, a race typically that that team in previous guises has taken advantage of and actually got some results from yeah um i think they'll be they'll be disappointed with that i i in all honesty in the kind of carnage

in the last few laps i missed what i know they collided we saw that but kind of missed how they because vettles seem to be making up quite a few positions so i miss where that and you know what happened there that that that called to uh coming maybe was a bit too late for the pair of them but um yeah i don't think they'll be too pleased with how that panned out because like you say they're normally pretty good at making those decisions. And, yeah, I know Vettel was, I mean, Vettel was having an all right race, but Stroll was having an even better one, to be honest. I think maybe they jumped too early with the call to bring Stroll in,

because he then struggled later on. But, yeah, it's just they've not quite mastered it today, and most of the time they do in terms of strategy. We've seen some very good strategy from them this year, and, you know, Azerbaijan was a great one for both of them, until Stroll's tie failed. So, yeah, an unusual call, but I don't think helped by some of the bumper cars

that Mr. Stroll was trying to play with the rest of the Russian track. But, yeah, they'll be disappointed. It just wasn't there. You know, like I said, it's kind of hero-to-zero stuff, isn't it? They made the call too late to go into winters, and like Lando, it's cost them. Yeah, the return of Bowling Ball Stroll

was exciting. to see. Sam, I mean, if you look at the likes of Jordan in previous years, Force India, that obviously this team was before they're Aston Martin Days, regularly take advantage of races like this. They couldn't today. Is it a bit worrying from your side? Well, yeah, we saw the return of the strolling ball, as I like to call him.

You know, the man appeared once again in slightly awkward wet conditions and was just devastating to anyone that came across his path, Hurricane Stroll. When your driver has such a blinding star And he's following through the race leader On the line that he's taking And he's up in a top four position Top four, top five position You're thinking, hang on a minute

We're on the right tire Or on the right strategy We're stuck in a DRS train Where we're following a podium position here We've got the Masegis engine Which has proven to be incredibly good Around this track Strategy is a one cool shot really

Most people are going to do a one stop Until the rain comes But you can't predict when exactly that's going to happen So you assume it's still the one stop At this point, you go, we're in a good spot here. A top five or top six is surely got to be on the cars at this point, especially when Vastappen, Lecler, Bottas, are all on the back row of the grid, essentially.

You've got to think, right, now is the time to make up the points on those around us, because they're not in the fight. They're not here. We know we're not as quick as McLaren. We know we're not as quick as Mercedes and with the same level, maybe on a great day as a Ferrari that's struggling. They didn't take advantage of this. And you're right.

The previous iterations of the Aston Martin team, and I saw the highlights, actually, of the 98th Spar Grand Prix again there, which is a real flashback to what you said about taking advantage of tricky, wet, awkward race moments, which is something they've always been so good at, and actually Checoe, ironically, has displayed that previously in the team as well.

They fell apart today. They fell apart. The rain came down, and so often, if you're going to be the best of the rest, if you're going to make up those extra points, if you're going to earn that extra prize money, you need to be looking at that radar and going, right, it's going to chuck it down, and it's all or nothing at this point.

Let's take the gamble. Let's be the first people. Chuck on those intermediate tires, and let's get the jump on everyone else who's struggling. And they were so slow to react to do it. They were really poor. I don't know what Lance Stroll was doing. I can't blame the team for that. Lank Stroll was just drifting around like he was kind of being on the waltzes after a couple of pints and got off,

and he was just floating around the bloody park on his own without his mates around him, bless him. He was all over the shop. It was not a good day from Ashton Martin I think Vetter was having a solid race I think Stroll was having a good race up until they panicked I think that was the first big strike they panicked on that strategy

they followed others they tried to do what I said I thought Hamilton was going to try and do and get the undercut it didn't pay off no points for Ashton Martin to get is a big blow especially when a key rival of theirs

in Alpine have a long sewing sixth place and he's taking home eight points which is really really strong for Fernando Oloxo again. So yeah, not good enough. I expect more from Askin Martin in those situations. They are famed, well, that team anyway, the personnel are famed

for taking advantage of tricky ones. And they did them. It was a letdown. Yeah, I think it's a bit of a story of their season, to be honest, in that you think they've got the pace for points, and for whatever reason, it seems to unravel. You're right in that they have been able to take advantage in a few other occasions this year. Likes of Azerbaijan definitely spring to mind there.

but a lot of the time it feels as if, and I said this on a recent podcast, that I don't think they are slower than Alpine. And Alpine just seemed to be able to, or perhaps even more specifically, Fernando Alonso, seems to be able to extract these results where Lanchstrol and Sebastian Vessel just can't do so. I think based on pure pace, both Lanchstrol and Sebastian Vessel should have made Q3 on Saturday, as it turned out one of the two did, so not a disastrous result by any means.

but in the Grand Prix itself like Lance Drol gets his customary rocket start where he's like 20 miles an hour ahead of everyone else by two seconds into the Grand Prix you think he's got a chance to do something about it he ultimately pits far too early he's the first one in

which does prompt a few others to try and to try and perform the undercut on him but a lot of the others Daniel Ricardo Lewis Hamilton don't fall for the bait and were actually rewarded as a result of doing so And it just seemed to, the further this race got in, the worst it seemed to get. The collision between the two of them was a bit, well, it's inexcusable on Lance Strohl's part.

It just looked as if he didn't see him, which if that is the case, then there's probably not much you can do about it. It's not like, if he makes a conscious decision to cut him off knowing he's there, then you can discuss that and you can actually work that out. if you didn't see him, there's not much you can say other than, hey, try and see me next time. What else can you really say? So, and it's perhaps difficult from Sebastian Vettel's perspective as well, because in most teams, you're probably, I'm not saying that they don't have the ability to work things like this out, but it is a bit more perhaps you have to tread a bit more carefully considering Lance Stroll's position in the team relative to Laurence Stroll, obviously. and maybe he can't go about that situation the same way as he might have done with previous teammates. I don't know. But it's a really tough one.

And they need to start gaining some results towards the end of this year. Arguably, they're already focused on next year. And I think from their perspective, they better hope that they have got that right because this year just isn't turning out as well as it really should be. And a last point today, just on Sergio Perez, because we've discussed him a lot recently, quite a few poor races in a row, at least from my perspective, seems to be some more highlights from today.

Sam, would you agree with that? Or were you still unimpressed with the performance? If we're going to talk about the whole weekend, you know, if we'll start on the Saturday with the qualifying, I wasn't impressed with qualifying again. Sergio Perez doesn't seem to do well at maximising tricky conditions and he wasn't close enough. We say it in the preview podcast that he needs to be the one challenging the Mercedes.

And if we're going to go through a stereotypical race weekend where Mercedes get a 1-2, you will want to hope that Perez was there in third place. But when Bottas is down the order and Hamilton can't get into the top three, you're thinking, Perez, surely, you're the man with the Red Bull here, you're the guy that's now, as we now know,

has got the car that could take it from 20th to second place. You should be qualifying higher. He hasn't, again. His qualifying pace needs to improve. In terms of the race, I was impressed. I was actually pleasantly pleased with what he was able to do. Pleasantly please, folks,

isn't he one, write that down. You know, he was able to extract a lot of the pace from that Red Bull. Yes, we saw that it was tricky to overtake, and I would say that the staff and still dig a better job at executing those clinical passes. And it's not just on back markers. We saw it happen to the likes of Bottas and the Ferraris as well, and Perez was up against similar equipment up the front.

But Perez was on the pace. He was leading those hard-tire runners at the start, which I think was great. he was hitting consecutive and consistent lap times, which was brilliant as well. And I think that actually his race ending up looking a lot worse than it should have been due to the very slow pit stop that he incurred, which I think benefiting a lot of those around him, including the likes of Hamilton, you know, who he would have been a lot closer to on those medium tyres at the end, had the pit stop gone his way.

But he lost another five, six seconds on that, which is always hard to recover when you've got traffic around a trap like Sochi. So there are some good signs from Perez. I don't think that he is out of the mud. I don't think he's clear of the woods. I think he needs to now go and do this for the next three, four races and improve that qualifying pace. But this was a good weekend for Perez.

I actually think his end result reflects him a little harshly on the efforts that he was able to put in through the race. Whereas Bottas obviously got the opposite. I think Perez was affected negatively by the situation that we saw at the end. So overall, I'm pleased. I think this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully it carries on. A step in the right direction.

from Sam from you as well Harry or do you think otherwise? Yeah, I agree his Saturday wasn't great but his Sunday was excellent from Perez. Even with the really slow stop, I think you've stood on for P3 until the rain hit and then they didn't quite get the... I'm not sure whether he pitted later than Vastappan did or he just didn't get the grip in the tricky conditions. But up until that point it was a very very pecky, excuse me, very pate. which is kind of quintessential Perez is a very patient race from him he had the harder

ties and he just kind of stayed behind held back behind Hamilton and Ricardo and that queue at the beginning of the race and until the race came to him and made those hard ties go an awful long way so yeah I don't think they were in the opposite way to Bottas or I guess in the same way the race result doesn't reflect actually how his race was going so it was a much better day for Perret in that sense and yeah i think he was unlucky to to lose out on a podium spot yeah i would say this was his most encouraging race for for a little while to be honest um i would agree with what you said in terms of qualifying it wasn't the best performance in the world i would counter that slightly with

red bull knew who they were getting in sergio peres and they knew they weren't getting a great qualifier sergeo peris has never been the best qualifier in the world he's always been far better in the races. So if they went into this season thinking that Sergio Perez was going to do a great job on Saturdays, I would argue that's more on the team than on Perez in that that's who he is. I think in the actual race itself, I think he did about as much as he could have done. Realistically, I think he did well. This race was sort of suited for Sergio Perez. It was kind of, you know, the hard tire approach, sticking behind Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricardo and a few others in front.

not pushing the tires too much early on and then letting the race come to him later on in the Grand Prix. That's kind of what Sergio Perez has done for a long time and he's kind of become an expert at it. Really, him and Lewis Hamilton might be the best two out there in that sort of a situation. And both of them did very well. They were on track, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, to convert that into a P2 and P3. Sergio Perez, of course, as a result of the decision to stay out on those. dry tires. He, you know, that was costly. If you think him, Alonzo and LeCler were in this Titanic battle over P3. And ultimately, I think that's what cost all three of them is that none of

them wanted to be the first one in to kind of give it up. They didn't want to give up the potential podium. You know, a podium would have really helped all three of those guys. So I don't think any of them were just like, okay, I'm going to be the one to give this up and go for the intermediate it's higher. It ultimately cost all three of them, although it costs the player the most. So, yeah, I think from Perez's perspective, let's ignore the result as difficult as that is to do. Just look at the performance. He did a good job. Jesus. Oh, it's a spicy one. That, what? I don't know, I've got nothing left to say on this race weekend. I can't believe that this was a Russian Grand Prix.

never underestimate it like we like we haven't we always big it up soxie always number one you know and it's once again come through for us after all after this season 2021 Spain has been good France was good Russia's been good bring on Jeddah it's going to be a belter yeah I'm for it you know what in 10 years time we'll look back on this season I don't care who wings and we're going to go should we rewatch a classic and soxie could be up there as a potential classic race. And that baffles me, but I am here for it, folks. And again, I cannot wait until next March, when Mercedes come out one and a half seconds quicker than everyone else. And we're just like, we never knew how good we had it. Yay. But fingers crossed, that doesn't happen. And even

if it does, we've got plenty of exciting races to go until the end of this year if this Grand Prix is anything to go by. But for this review podcast, Sam, if you wouldn't mind getting us out of here. Folks, we're still on the hashtag No More Botties train. That's right. The victory still hasn't come yet. Will it? Who knows? You've got some big races left to come with Turkey being one of them.

If it rains, though, Bottas might have some questions for people. Folks, thank you for joining us again for another review podcast. There's so many of you listening now. It's mad, and thank you for the support. It keeps growing. Please join us in the midweek for just a general effort. of course there's going to be no race this coming weekend, sag faces for all,

but we'll be talking about lots of stuff still. So join us big week, because there will be plenty of F1 conversations going on. If you can't wait for that moment, we've got a little link in the old description. It's our Discord. There's over 160 people talking F1 every single day from across the world in there.

They're all absolutely lovely. So get involved, why not? What have you got to lose? Give it a little look. But for now, it's been carnage, so I think we'll leave you to have a rest, and maybe a little cup of tea. In the meantime,

I've been Samuel's sake. I've been Ben Hoffing. I've been Harry E. And remember, keep breaking night. Potties! Find more great shows or join the team at sport-ssocial.com. Past is part of the Sport Social Podcast Network.