The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Verstappen dominates F1's return to Zandvoort! | 2021 Dutch GP Review | Episode 144

Episode Date: September 5, 2021

Max Verstappen was victorious at Formula 1's return to the Netherlands, followed home by Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas - the boys break down all the talking points from the race.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 Late 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 late breaking F1 podcast, presented by Sam Sage, Harry Ead and me, Ben Hocking. Dutch Grand Prix review. I mean, good news is we actually.

We've got a race this weekend, so we're already one step ahead of where we were last time out. And I think it will split opinion a bit, but I think overall, pretty solid one. Zambor, it wasn't expected to be an overtake fest, but we did get some overtakes in there. And ultimately, Max Verstappen in front of the home crowd, taking the victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtrey Bottas on the podium. Not a bad one, at least from my side, guys. What about you? Well, it was nice to see some action on track for the first time in five weeks. can be long and tough, but we finally got there, and you know what? Zanvort and the Dutch fans and Max Verstappen duly delivered.

What an atmosphere. I must admit, there are a few tracks that have been on my bucket list to go to, you know, the likes of Mons and the likes of Spa. I think Zanvort may have just put itself on that list, and, you know, it turned into being quite an exciting Grand Prix. I'm very excited to see how the new regulations spang out next season. I also love that so much of the press have never had a fruit waffle where you can get them from Aldi Lidl and Azda.

That's very English, by the way, folks. You can get them in the supermarket, a big pack for a quid, just warm them up in the microwave. They're lovely. But yeah, no, spectacular. Actually really enjoyed it. And well done to Valtry Bottas for not giving a toss about fastest laps. Yeah, we'll get on to that.

Yeah, sorry, Ben. I was just going to say, I think my biggest takeaway from this weekend is that Dutch Formula One fans will literally cheer anything. Doesn't matter. They'll cheer. Yeah, love it. someone goes in the gravel cheer

for stab and comes out of the pits cheer there's a lock up cheer just cheer all the time cheer it was absolutely yeah podcast cheer exactly if any of you are

maybe a step too far there I don't know about that yeah my favourite one was definitely Lewis Hamilton gets booed to start an interview cheer

you know that's the contrast at the start of the end of that interview. Yeah, it was an unbelievable atmosphere all weekend long. And that's going to be part of what we discussed. We've got quite a few topics to get through. We've got Sergio Perez, who didn't necessarily have a great qualifying session. We'll be discussing how he fought back in the race and how we felt he did over the course of the weekend. Antonio Jovanazzi, perhaps the opposite way around, had a great qualifying.

We'll be discussing whether that is going to play much of an impact in him and whether he gets a seat next year. at the Alpha Romeo team. But we'll start off with the race itself and as we've already mentioned, Max Vastappen, taking the victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valdry Bottas. Lewis Hamilton, keeping him honest for the most part, that gap going between 1 and 5 seconds

for the most part throughout the race, but ultimately too much for Vastappen today as he goes on to win and retake the championship lead. So looking at Mercedes perspective, they were in a two-on-one strategic scenario, couldn't capitalize on that, couldn't get the race win. Sam, from both the teams and the driver's perspectives, could they have

done anything more to prevent Vastappen from taking the win? Yeah, I think if you break this down the Masege's area into three parts, you've got the Lewis Hamilton drive, you've got the Valtry Botas drive, and you've got Masegis as the team, the strategists, those that live and work around the pit area, I think that two parts of that trio could definitely have done more. Lewis Hamilton, I think did everything he could. He pushed the car, he was saying fast as far as sectors. He was trying to get around traffic. He was moaning about literally everyone and their mother today

to make sure he can extract something out of the performance. And I think he was doing well. The Red Bull was clearly very dominant around this Dutch track. And it suits it. It suits it down to the ground. I'm setting our bold predictions in the preview podcast that Max would win by 30 seconds. He won by 21.

I know there was a pit stop in it. But it does show the level of dominance that Rebel, I think, had. And if you were to have two Maxwell for staff, happens in that Red Bull team, I think it could have been very, very convincing. Now, the issue on the other side of the fact is that Valtry Botas for the first 70 laps of the Grand Prix was essentially nowhere. Couldn't keep up. Couldn't be part of the battle. Was about eight seconds behind after the first 10, 12 laps. And then, well, it did happen that Valtry Bottas could get involved in the fight and they cheekily went, you're fighting

for the lead over the radio, which I thought was hilarious that they decided to petty him that much. You got overtaken within one stream. I've seen George Russell fight harder whilst riding on the back of an ant against Speedy Gonzalez himself, you know. Valky Bottas could surely have done a little bit more, I think. I know he's on old tires, I know it was tough for him, but come on, man, a little bit more. And then the Mercedes side of things. The strategy, I loved the ideas, I loved where they were going with it, I loved the optimism they tried to instill in the team there. But, you know, Giko Rosberg called it out correctly after the race, where he was.

was speaking to Toto Wolf and he showed him up and he said, why did you bring Hamilton after only 19 laps straight into lap traffic? Where were you going to get an undercut there from? Where was the ability around this track to pull that off? I think Mercedes definitely didn't exceed what they could have done. They didn't extract the most out of this rate that they could have. So I think that Hamilton maybe was let down a little bit by his teammate and by the Mercedes strategists. I mean, they were very close. I could say they achieved maybe 96%. they could have done. But I do think that maybe they could have challenged just a little bit more. But Vastappen was bloody awesome today. You know, he was absolutely incredible. He was on it all race

along. The man knew what he was doing from start to finish. And I have to commend him for that. He was an incredibly difficult opponent to beat. And he showed up Mercedes, I think, a little bit. I think Hamilton was any person that came even remotely close to being on that same level. So, yeah, Mercedes could have done more, but I don't think Hamilton himself could have done more without the assistance. Harry, we've seen the Mercedes duo take advantage of a two-on-one scenario before, couldn't do so today. So from your side, do you think there was anything more that the drivers or the team could do?

Yeah, I mean, I think firstly, and as Sam alluded to it at the end there, I think Vestappa won the race rather than Mercedes lost it. I think Mercedes are quite, they threw almost everything at it to beat him. But, yeah, he was pretty difficult to stop. I think the couple of issues for Mercedes were, again Sam has pointed out, Bottas was just too slow for that strategy to work as effectively as they'd hoped. You know, he dropped quite far back to start with, which obviously they then used him for that one-stop blockade tactic against Verstappen,

but the blockade lasted for about a lap because, you know, Bottas' tyres were gone and he didn't have the pace anyway. so that you know that didn't really work in their favor i think of what has to been a bit quicker than they could have you know it puts it puts more pressure onto vestaplan and red bull and yeah they're dropping it they're just in a title fight and messalese is still absolutely brilliant but you we have seen a couple of times this year they don't they don't they've never to be used to it there's a couple of little little cracks that come in terms of strategy wise and yeah they they kind of like teed it up for the statured

to try and have Botas within Verstappen's pit window. That didn't look like it was happening because, you know, Verstappen turned the wick up. And as soon as that happened, they just pit Hamilton. It was almost a slight panic pit to try and get an undercut. But, you know, they've got the data to see where these other cars are on the track. It was clear he was going to come out. If it was clear he was going to come up behind Ricardo and Russell, I think it was,

then why do they do it? If anyone was watching Nico Rosberg on Sky, I hear that's what he was gritting Toto about. So, yeah, there's a couple of slight, one error, one problem they couldn't really deal with on that one. But, you know, I think Mercedes probably would have fancied their chances strategically going into this race. And somehow it's not worked out. And the kerfuffle at the end was the fastest lap. I don't quite understand why they brought Botas in anyway. I know it was to get

maybe him out of Hamilton's pit window but they even held him in the pit a bit longer I think to give Hamilton more of a gap but yeah I mean in the Botas's defence he must have been like well this is for the fastest lap obviously and then they're like nah no it's not it's not for you mate

and you just Hamilton already had the fastest stuff and I think but Stephan was going to go for it anyway why do they need to do that it just seemed to create a bit of unnecessary confusion and tension that they don't need to do that.

So yeah, like I said, I think it was of a step and won this rather than Mercedes lost it, but there are a couple of things in there they didn't really help themselves with. Yeah, and we'll discuss the Bottas incident at the end of the race in a bit more depth in just a moment or two. But yeah, looking at what Mercedes could have potentially done, because it's the ideal scenario, well, not the ideal scenario, but they want to have these two-on-one scenarios. Of course, they want it to be first and second versus third to start the race, rather than first versus second and third.

But ultimately the two-on-one scenario definitely goes in Mercedes favour. And it's been a problem for Red Bull for a long time now. They still haven't quite been able to nail this second driver down where they are consistently backing up Max Verstappen. So they had a sniff of an opportunity here. Max Verstappen did everything he needed to do in the first instance.

Off the line, no problems at all, didn't get bogged down, went into the first corner in the lead. that was a big check, you know, against his name and he could go on from there. To look at Hamilton's race in the first point, what I'll do is very similar to what Sam's done here. You know, separate it out into three different elements, the Mercedes strategy, Bottas's race and Hamilton's race. Hamilton, yeah, he did everything he could do there. I don't think he could realistically do much more. The only thing this might be nitpicking is that he could have stuck on the back of Vastappen in that first stint a little bit more.

Outside of that, really don't think there was much he could have done there. From Bottas' side, it was disappointing. Now, I will, I'll get the positive in here because there needs to be some form of positive to outweigh the negativity coming from Sam Sage, but unfortunately, most of it is justified. Sorry. Regardless of what Bottas did, it was a darn sight better than what Perez did. So from a Mercedes versus Red Bull perspective, you know, it's looking good from that side of things. And we'll get on to Perez as well in a bit.

But just looking at Bottas, his race in isolation, it could have worked because Mercedes did what they needed to do from a strategic standpoint. You know, they made that blunder, and I'll talk about that blunder in a minute. But in terms of the overall strategy, two-stop one driver, one stop the other driver, make one go long, potentially playing to a safety car, making the overtake happen on circuit rather than in the pit, they did what they needed to do, but Bottas just did not have the pace in order to execute it.

He was, what was it, like 10 seconds behind when Vestappen came into the pits for the first time. That's not acceptable. It's got to be less than that. It's got to be five seconds. You've got to make him work for that overtake. And if that doesn't work, then so be it. But you've got to make him work for the overtake.

When they did meet each other on track, which was far earlier than what it should have been, Valtry Bottas makes that error going into the chican towards the end of the second sector. Again, I'm not sure. Vestappen might well have got passed anyway going into term one. I'm not too sure, but it made it a lot easier for him. That error basically put Vastappen one or two temps behind Bottas.

Thank you very much. Up the inside and that's it. If he had not made that error into the chican, then maybe Vestappen has to work a little bit more. Maybe he has to make that overtake in the breaking zone. at which point you're asking questions of him. It didn't work out for him. And ultimately, it's never a good sign when your teammate can pit for a second time when you've only pit once and he still comes out ahead of you. That's never a good sign. So Bottas's pace just

wasn't, it just wasn't on it. And it's disappointing as well because in terms of practice, Lewis Hamilton didn't even do FP2, but in terms of the other practice sessions, Bottas looked fairly good. Qualifying he didn't hook up that last last. but until that point, he wasn't far off Hamilton as well. I mean, he was ahead of Hamilton after the first runs in Q3. So it's not as if the pace from the previous sessions showed that this was going to happen. But on the day, even when he was on like 10 lap fresher tires when he came in for his later pit stop, he was essentially just matching the times of Verstapp.

And he wasn't eating into the gap in the same way that Verstappen did to Bottas when the roles were reversed. From a strategic standpoint, therefore, I think Mercedes, one bluntly, a side, did a pretty good job. You know, they, I think overall, the only thing I would question them on is, why did they pit him on that specific lap, putting him into two cars in terms of traffic? Realistically, leave it one or two more laps, get ahead of those guys, and fine. I don't actually have a problem with them pulling him in early, because when you're in that position that he was in, you have to be the one to make it happen.

They had to be the ones to say, okay, we're taking the initiative here. Because, let's face it, if they didn't do that, we would all be sitting here saying, well, they didn't risk it. Why didn't they risk it? They had nothing to lose. They just didn't pick the right lap to do it. They should have just waited another couple laps, which, yeah, I think there's a blunder on their part,

and you're right in what you say. When things are closer, the strategic, you know, the strategic rigidity of Mercedes that seems unbreakable. Suddenly, they are making errors this season. So I think they, Overall, apart from Bottas' pace, did about as good as what they could do out there, and Vastappen did do a wonderful job.

Sam, from your side, looking at that Valtrey Bottas late pit stop, quote-on-quote, not going for the fastest lap, purple sector, purple sector, slowed down in the final sector, but not by enough to prevent him to get that fastest lap. Hamilton, of course, took it back, but what did you make of this? Did you make of it as he's got nothing to lose? the decision is made that he's gone.

Do you think this was petty? What do you think was going through the mind of Voucher Bottas? I think over that course of a one minute 12 lap time that Bottas put in, you can almost see his mental state changing as from leaving the pit laying and doing his out lap to starting the fastest lap to then slowing down in that final sector of that lap. He kind of left the pit laying and was going, well, this is for the fastest lap attempt, right? You know, yeah, that makes total sense. The team are behind me here.

Cool, he's got the acceptance stage. He's moving on, good stuff. And then he started to put his foot down on the outlap to get the tires into the right condition and get the battery charge. And the team have come on the radio and gone, no, Valtry, this is just for safety reasons. This is not fastest lap.

Don't go for the fastest lap. And he's gone, hang on a minute. I'm gonna make any sink. So I'm angry now, and then you see the double purple sector, and that's the angry purple sector phase of Bottas' period. And then he crossed that second sector time, and on the mini-sector, you start to see yellow, yellow, yellow,

of Bottas trying to slow the car down. I didn't really try hard enough, did he hang whole sector to get the time back under wraps. And he still managed to get it. I think at that point he had panicked and gone, hang on a minute, is that my Mercedes drive over? Have I just annoyed the last few people in the team that might like me?

Which then, of course, forced Lewis Hamilton, the man who was two seconds behind into another pit stop. And he openly said in the pit lane, come on guys, I need that extra point. And he does. Bottas is so far out the fight, unfortunately, He needs that extra point, and it was silly as a team overall, to take that away from him. Bottas is, once again, as we saw in Spain, I think it was, doing too little too late when it comes to him,

these momentary whims of, I'm going to now take the fight to the team, I'm going to be the one that is going to be selfish in trying own this, and it doesn't really pay off, it doesn't really work for him. And I think in the background of the podium shops, I could definitely see one of the Mesegis' mechanics carrying the cardboard cutout and the artwork of George Russell from the Williams down to the Mesaig's end of the garage, just roll over the top of Bottas's face on the pit garage because unfortunately Bottas, regardless of what you were doing there, that performance wasn't good enough. You were randomly on it, but they're not on it.

You didn't listen to the team, but they did listen to the team. It's not what the saying is needing. I do wonder that if they had a fully motivated George Russell who was willing to play second fiddle to Hamilton this season, as I was a part of a contract as a commitment, would they be closer, would they be able to execute the strategy more cleanly? Botas for the whole race was not with it and then on that fastest I would send that pit stop

it was a mess, it was bizarre I don't really know why they did it They should have just kept it easy Bottas had such a gap It was very confusing And then in the interview afterwards After we all heard the radio And he knows we've all heard the radio

He goes Yeah the fast slap I did go for it But then Lewis took it anyway That's how that should go down It was all very very strange From a you know This many time world champion

level team to make this kind of blunder in the public eye. So, yeah, I feel a little bit for Bottas, but he also hasn't helped himself. He just has not been good enough, and unfortunately this can fuffle, this confusion, which looks bad on him again, I think, has not gone his way. So sorry, Bottas, I think that might

be curtained. I wouldn't be surprised if by Monza, we have the announcement. Such a love affair, you and Bottas, isn't it? I genuinely love the guy. Just don't love him in that car. I just, you know, he's a bloody lovely person. He's just not doing what he needs to do.

I love him. He says basically stabbing him in the neck. I love you, Boutrey. Career over. Harry, what do you think that was going on in Bortas' mind here? How do you think he played it? I think the curtains have already been drawn.

I think that was part of the reason for this weird, scenario we saw in the last race, so in the last few laps, sorry. Yeah, like I said earlier, I don't really understand why they did it, because Hamilton already had the fastest lap. Didn't look like Max was going to go for it anyway or be able to, you know, Hampton set that fastest slap straight out of the pits, and Max was on some fairly worn hot tires, and so I don't see how I would have done it anyway.

Yeah, I think the whole thing for me is it illustrates what could potentially become a longer term but for the rest of the season an issue for Mercedes if you if you have a botas who but he knows where he's not there next year I think I think that's from all the conversations we've heard over the weekend I think it's fairly clear that the announcement's coming this week or in the lead up to Monza so they now face the risk of a demotivated botas who's not that prepared to play the team game like he's playing it a little bit here like he did you know when they kept him out and as soon as matt's got past he let hamilton through immediately um so he obviously played the team game there but when it came to that fastest

lap there was almost like something something slightly snapped in his head and he was like nah i'm still doing his fastest lap anyway even if he did slow down on that final sector he still he still nailed it so um yeah i just i just wonder if that will become a potential problem for mercedes as we get as we draw to the end of the championship if botas is the is just fighting for himself. And to be honest, if they have, you know, if that is the case that they've dumped him, why not? Why wouldn't he do that?

So I guess that's always the risk for when you do that decision that, uh, the botas would not turn against you, but just be less prepared to play the, uh, play the team game. But, um, yeah, very bizarre, very bizarre situation. And, yeah, just kind of indicates there's a slight bit of tension, maybe between Botas and Mercedes and Mercedes management somewhat.

So there's a lot of banter though. I enjoyed it. It was quite a funny last couple of laps. It's sizable on the banter scale that doesn't yet exist, but maybe it should. We'll make one. Yeah, I think we probably should. I'll say from the pit stop

because it was a little confusing in the first instance why Valtry Bottas even came into the pits and they said ultimately it was due to vibrations on the tyres. I believe them when they say that because there isn't really any value to pitting him other than to just secure the third place. Mercedes don't want him taking that fastest lap so there's no point giving in the ammo to do so.

So I think their reason for pitting him was genuine. I will say this for Valtry Bottas slightly in his defence here because given he was on, I don't know if they were completely fresh, but not far off fresh, maybe, because he was on those soft tires. I think it would have been genuinely difficult for him not to set purple sectors, because he was going up against Lewis Hamilton's fastest lap, which was on not even brand new, medium tyres. So I don't even think he would have needed to go for a fastest lap to get purple sectors. I think he was in such a strategic advantage in terms of tires at that point.

So whether he's set off on a fastest lap or not, I don't know. He might not have genuinely set off on a fastest lap and still got purple sectors. However, however, in the final sector he slowed down. And he slowed down in order to not get the fastest lap, we think, right? And I would believe that. I would believe that it was a misjudgment from Valtry Bottas that he didn't get it because, oh, it's just a 10th. It's just a 10th of a second.

Problem is, it was an attempt of the second. He misjudged it by six tenths of a second, which is way too much to be a misjudgment. Come on. Six tenths. You can't say, oh, I slowed down for the final sector, nearly slowed down. No, you didn't.

It was six tenths of a second. That was intentional, man. Come on. Yeah, like I say, if it was a 10th, I would be maybe, foolish, but I would believe him. I would say he genuinely just misjudged at the end how much he needed to slow down. But it was six steps of a second. Come on, man. Ultimately, Hamilton actually destroyed that lap time anyway by about a second and a half. I think it was at the end. So it all worked itself

out for them. Whether this was a bit of a middle finger in the face of Mercedes, I don't know, whether this was Bottas being bored. I don't know. But for whatever reason, it ended up being that way. He might have been. I mean, he was going around for about 70 laps and didn't do much. But I don't know. Like I say, Sixthempts is far too big of a margin for it to be a,

just a small misjudgment on Valtrey's part. Come on, man. We're smarter than that. Also, just before we move on, if Formula One can have an overtake award sponsored by cryptocurrency, or whatever it is, which I hate, then what I don't hate is the idea of if you are a brand or someone with a lot of money

and you want to sponsor a banter meter, late-breaking banter meter sponsored by your name here, then do get in touch on our email or our Discord or Twitter or Instagram and we will hear you out for Petty Cash. Thank you. Genuinely, you would have to pay us like 10p a week and we'd do it. I mean, Fanta, this is a golden opportunity for you guys. guys to a...

Yeah. The Fanta Banta meter is waiting right there. Come on. Come on. And we do know that the good folks at Fanta are big fans of this podcast, so they are going to be listening. You've got a green one as well, so we can send us green fantas and we'll only drink those on the cameras that people can't see. Get ready for the unsponsored banter.com award next week. Definitely will be unsponsored. Driver of the day

Sergio Perez got this one according to the fans Sam I'm interested to know whether you agree with this I'm just going to help Oh God folks stop giving people

Driver the Day just because they have the best car and they drive from the back of the grid Okay they're literally doing the bare essentials here If Perez had stayed in 19th place You'd all go That is terrible He's so bad.

What is he doing? Get him out of that car. So he overtook some horses and some Williams cars and the Astor Martins, which were nowhere. The hardest thing he had to overtake was on McLaren, which was also bloody struggling for the entire race. Sergio Perez does not deserve driving the day. He bloody locked up his tyres for four years. He's been doing it since 2017 and had to come in immediately for another pit stop, which isn't to help his race either. He'd probably been much further up the grid if that wasn't the case.

So, no. Sergio Perez has not deserved. driver of the day. If anything, Sergio Perez has put massive doubts in my mind as to whether he signed that contract a little too soon

and maybe we'll get on to that. My actual drive of the day is maybe the person that should be taking his seat and that is Pierre Gasley. When your teammate is sat all the way down in what, 14th, 15th place had crashed and then retires

and you're there 10 seconds clear of Ferrari's and you're the only possible threat if something goes wrong in the top three. The Gazman has absolutely smashed it. Another fourth place. He matches his best finish in Formula One again in that fourth place.

He's just making that car sing. And I am so impressed with what the Gazman is doing. Max Verstappling is a very, very, very, very, very, very close second. I just think that, you know, Mustafa just had to drive really well, and he did. Whereas the Gazman, I think, really extracted performance out of a car that maybe shouldn't have been there. And then Hamilton as well, he deserves a bit of a pat on the back.

And also, for that start so filthy, that I had to go and bat after the first lap because I've never seen such dirtiness like it from the Big Fernando the two-time World Champ but yeah, Pierre Gasley

just takes driving the day. Hashtag, sausage is out for Gasly. Yes, get them out lags, butchers everywhere. Sales have just gone through the roof. You know it. Harry, you've got driver of the day.

I agree with the Gazley there. I think he has... He was great all weekend, but I'll give it to Vistap because that's a I think it's perhaps overlooked what sort of pressure he was under for the entirety of this weekend because he had 70,000 completely nuts Dutch fans just looking at him the entirety of the weekend cheering for anything as we've already mentioned yeah and he and he kept us cool he had that and then also the

Hamilton behind him for most of the race which is again I think we we just get used to this those two being near each other and battling but that's still quite a feat. So yeah, to not be overwhelmed by that pressure, I think it was fairly impressive and he was calm throughout the whole whole of the race, to be honest. So I'll give it to him,

but I agree with what Sam said as well about Gassel. Yeah, three contenders for me, and you've named them all, and none of them are named Sergio Perez. Yeah, Pierre Gassley, Philando Alonzo, Max Verstappan, those three for me stand above everyone else. I'm going to give it to Pierre Gassley, but I also want to just mention Fernando Alonzo's race.

Jensen Button picked this up as describing him as, you know, a thinking driver. And it was such a tactically brilliant race from Fernando Alonzo again, because it's not the first time this season where it's not necessarily been outright pace that has dictated his final result, but it's just his overall strategy. We were talking about this before we started recording, but the outside line was proving brilliant in, in quite, qualifying and in practice. And then on that point, everyone was like, nope, going to go to the inside.

And Fernando Alonzo is like, okay, then I'll go on the outside and overtake like three of you. But it wasn't just the start as well. Let's not just box this just to the start of this race. Because he executed that brilliant overtake on Carlos Sines on the last lap that we all got to see because the camera direction was fantastic this weekend. Thank you very much. No sarcasm at all. actually know that happened. Thank you.

Didn't actually realise he got the move done. So, cheers. There you go. Yeah. And ultimately, even though he seemed to be the only one that was able to grasp the fact that the tyres had to go longer than like two laps because he was pretty slow in the first half of his stints. In the second half of his stints, he just pulled away from Ocon, pulled away from his teammates. Sorry, pulled away from the other drivers around him.

And you can see what it did versus his teammate because Ocon finished in ninth. Alonzo finished sixth, despite being almost. you know, wheel to wheel for a lot of the race. So brilliant strategy from Alonso, but I will say he was pit by Gatsley. And I mentioned this just after the race because there was nothing he could do about the top three. It's a different class of cars in the top three.

So realistically, even though he might not see it, Gassley's got a look at that as a race win because he couldn't do any more than what he did out there. He should see that as a race win from what he was capable of. So well done to him. Worst driver of the day. Is it Valtibottas?

Yes. Oh, come on. Hashtag, no more bodies, please. Livzong for another race weekend. He was woeful. I know Perez was not good, but apart from the one lockup that Perez made, he had a good race, like, it was fine.

He did as much as he could have done around the track that was, you know, incredibly narrow and tough. There were no incidents to bring out a, proper red flag or a safety car. So Perez did all right. He got himself back into the point, so he did all right.

It wasn't great, wasn't brilliant, but it wasn't bad. Bottas, on the other hand, there is, during the, I would argue, the second best car this season, your teammate is able to hang on two seconds behind the championship leader for the entire race weekend,

and you are being, you know, there's so much faster than you that they're able to stop for one extra time than you and come out in front of you is not good enough. He's demotivating,

and this was a real chance to show off that, you know, you were taking me on next season this is what I could do and he just didn't bring it he didn't bring it at all so for me Botas was by far

the worst driver of the day if I was saying Geo he had a puncture God darn it he wasn't that bad okay he was just mildly bad so yeah go

Botas was the worst drive of the day well I'm glad we got that out of the way of Harry who are you going for say it go on say it no I'm not going to say it um

I'm going to give it to a little yuki sonoda because I know he retired with a mechanical issue so that's obviously not his fault but when uh and again caveat this with and we've said it before he I think he's very year too early so not necessarily all his fault but my gazes is up in P4 and you're

in the bottom half of the midfield um it just it's not it's not a great look and I feel sorry for him because like I said I don't think he should be there this year probably needs another year in F2 so yeah it's just it's that form maybe it was a different driver in Bahrain and now it's actually yuki snowed I don't know it just seems like a world away that race does so um yeah they're just thinking he needs a clean weekend it just seems to keep having spins and backing it into barriers which is unfortunate but I'm going to give it to little yuki snowder sorry mate

I'm trying to imagine if that first race wasn't Yuki Sonoda like a proper Scooby-Doo scenario of pulling off the face mask ends up being Danny Kaviyah, like, it was Kavilla! I've got away for it too if it wasn't for you, Rot on Helmut Marcos. It'll probably turn out that, yeah, Yuki had COVID for the first race. They're like, oh, Danny, can you just come back for one more race? And he's like, oh yeah, sure.

They're like, yeah, but can you wear a Yuki Sanoda face mask and be him? and he's like, oh. And please, can you crouch down all of the time? He might not score off there. Oh, I miss Danny Kavir. I'm not going to give worse driver the day to Danny Kavir, though. He'll be glad to hear. Would have been a bit harsh on me to give it to him.

I don't think Valtrey Bottas had a great race. However, he wasn't the only driver that was like a pit stop behind his teammate. Carlos Sines was as well, although I think he had a good enough race that it should. be him. I'm actually going to agree with you, Harry. I'm going to go with Yuki Sonoda. I think Sergio Perez would be in contention for this if it was, we do this on the day. We don't do this on the weekend. But if it was the weekend, then it might well have been Sergio Perez. But when your teammate is in fourth place and fourth place for pretty much the entire

Grand Prix, he qualified there, finished there, only in the pit stops was he in a different spot. So really there was no excuse for Yuki Sonoda to not be at least in the top 10. You know, even in the bottom parts of the top 10, it wouldn't be great compared to Gasly, but it would be something. He didn't look at any point like he was going to get points. I know he retired early, but I don't think that would have, I don't think it would have mattered much. I don't think he was looking to do much in the last 20 laps or so. So again, it's a really, it's a really poor spell from Sonoda. You're writing what you say. He's, he's there a year too early. But with,

these rookie drivers, we've mentioned this before, you want to see the improvement throughout the year. And this is partly where, not relating to a rookie driver, but partly where my concern is for Perez as well, is that there isn't the improvement there. It's not getting better as the year goes on. Arguably for Yuki Sonoda, it's gone literally the opposite way in that his best race might will have been his first race of the season, which as a rookie driver, you don't want, you want that progression. You don't want to go in the other way. So yeah, Sonoda was nowhere. So I'm going to give it to him. Moment of the race, Sam.

I think I'm going to steal it early and I'm going to give it to Fianando Alon start and then Ocon moaning over the radio about how slow Alon is going. It was just all brilliant because you know how Alonzo's mind works. You know that he came back over the radio and was like, yeah, I'm doing this on purpose. I'm not just really slow, by the way. I just think that is pure, I can't swear, Poo-Hauser, from Fernando and then he goes

and nails a P6. It's just so Fernando. It's so two-time World Champ and it was brilliant. He was so great to watch. I feel like we are, we're not seeing, you know, 2012, Fernando Alonkso,

but we are seeing great Fernando Alonkso and I'm loving that he's back. It's really enjoyable. Alonzo effectively said over Team Radio, can you tell my zero-time world champion teammate that I'm not actually that slow? I can't drive the car

at a normal pace. Thank you, Okon. Karma, as Alonzo might well say. Moment of the race, Harry. I don't care of Stam. Stam. Sam was stolen it first. I'm going to give it to the absolute sick filth. There was that turn three overtake to Fernando Alon, but Fernando Alonzo did.

Yeah, I mean, on that point about O'Hon having a whinge over the radio, about being slow, I'm very glad that Alping didn't react to it and swap them around because, you know, they could have lost themselves as P6. I mean, fair play to them for listening to the two-town world champ, obviously. But yeah, my moment of the race has got to be, it's got to be that because it was just, it was just very Fernando Alonzo.

It's like everyone else is doing something different, and he's like, well, I'll do the opposite, and it's better, and it just works. Man's spatial awareness is insane. Yeah. hard to argue with that one really i will throw in two more incidents though firstly when max vastappen crossed the line to win the grand prix that was that was pretty special the world it's not only for the hundred million orange fireworks but um also just the crowd's reaction to it was was insane so

i'll say that much the other one that i will give is a slight cheating that it didn't happen during the race but ted cravitz is uh enthusiasm pre-race was absolutely incredible and there was one moment where he the camera just panned in on one random guy and ted was just like it's richard and it was great oh oh kong was getting into the car pre-race and ted just get your lanky legs into the car estabang like ted doesn't not have any barriers he will just say things and i love it because ten kravitz must have been must be must be this job or a similar F1 job for how long has it been now?

It must be like 15 or 20 years. No, he's got, he was doing it in the 90s. Yeah, he was in the ITV when ITV took over, it's like 97, so that's a easy bit. Yeah, it's 25 years. Yeah, and he still

comes across as a as a kid. It's great. Yeah, I love it. I love it. If you haven't seen it, there is a video going around, folks, that Harry sent to me. and Ben about where Ted finally managed to stand in some sand that he'd been trying to find all weekend.

He means the Zand. He called it the Zand of Zanvort. Yeah, and he picks them up. Exclight, like, yeah, he's sand. And then he dropped something. It went on his shoes. And he went, oh, my shoes!

And he was quite devastated by sand, touching his shoes while he stood in the sand. Oh, it's brilliant. It is brilliant. Ted. And a quick review of some bold predictions. So my bold prediction was that Max Verstappen would not have a lap in the top two. Well, hang on.

Yeah, the opposite came true. He didn't spend a lap outside the top two. Sam's Max Verstappen bold prediction was not correct, but it was far closer to being correct. He didn't finish 30 seconds clear of the next card, but it was like 20 seconds. So in reality, it probably should have been like two weeks. all three, but whatever.

Harry, what was your bowl prediction? There's a lot of Hobartakes or something going on with yours. Sure, it's wrong. If I'd said it about the midfield, then I'm not going to right, but I said it about the top three. I mean, Botas led for a bit. Does that count? Yeah, and I'm just up and overtick him?

Kind of, yeah, I'm far off. It happened. Yeah, he'll need another whole overtake. And then another one. Yeah, and he needed three different times. You're a third of the way there. You're a third of the way there. Well done, mate.

I've had worse. I've had ones that are more far off than that. Oh, you've had far worse. Don't worry about that. Yeah. It's not a bad effort. Not a bad effort overall. We've already spoken about Sergio Perez,

but we'll have a bit more of a conversation about him. Of course, he had a bit of a recovery job to do on Sunday. Not the first. time he's had to do that across the course of his career, went from the pit lane into the points, got driver of the day, at least from the fans as a result of that. But Sam, what did you think? What did you make of the drive? Did you think he did as much as he possibly could have done on the Sunday at least? No, I don't. I don't think that. I don't think it was amazing. There's a reason why he didn't come close to my drive of the day. These recovery drives for me don't warrant

driver of the day, unless you go from the last to maybe getting it on the podium. track like Zangvort, which yes, would have been quite impressive. The worst part is for Sergio Perez is that car should have been on the podium. It should have been on Red Bull 1-2. Max Verstappen was so calm up front that the other car should be there to back him up. And once again, Verstappen's on his own and the two Mercedes are attacking him. And the whole point of signing Sergio Perez was to stop this happening. He's got the best car that any second driver at Red Bull has had in the last few years. Since Vetter was the lead driver essentially

and since that year where Vettel and Ricardo clashed and Ricardo beat Vettel like the year before that that was when Red Bull were this good last time and Perez is losing my confidence race after race after race

I yeah he made some good overtakes yes he got a bit of a bashing from Landon Norris who I think closed you know he didn't all of the time leave of the space in Landon Norris and Perez had to drive a bit further with some damage which kind of sucks but no I think

you know he locked up early on He had to have another early pit stop. He then had to drag tyres out longer than he should have done. I think he could have easily have beat the Alpine, should it all gone to plan. And he didn't. I don't think he maximised it. And I'm nervous.

Like you said, Ben, earlier, I'm nervous that he's not showing the improvement that we expected from such a seasoned, experienced, experienced driver that is Sergio Perez. I really thought he'd be up there fighting the front three now. And it's still the front three. It should be the front four. I think he's still behind Norris in the points tally,

which is not really good enough. Even Bossassas managed to get over that hurdle now. So no. Perez needs to be doing more. He didn't do enough this race weekend for me. It simply wasn't good enough. We should be having the panic either as well on the qualifying. I know that wasn't what you asked,

but we shouldn't be having that panic. The car is good enough. So, yeah, no, I'm not filled with optimism. I love him, but he doesn't need to step it up. Otherwise, I think question marks should be put over his head. Just giant one. That's just a massive question mark. Yeah.

Harry, would you also put a massive question mark over the head of Sergio Perez? That seems slightly unfair. But yeah, look, I think if he hadn't had that, he haven't flat spotted that first set of tyres trying to get past Mazepin, this race might have actually seemed a bit better. I think he probably had, he might have got,

maybe not Charlie, maybe not declared, but he was probably going to nab that P6. but as I'm said, unraveled in Q1 yesterday when it absolutely shouldn't have done, he should have done, obviously he should have nailed the lap the first time round, shouldn't have had to go out the second time, obviously he didn't even get that lap because of traffic, etc. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know whether I'm getting worried,

because I think there are some circumstances that have gone against him. but that being said it doesn't take all the blame off of him but yeah I just think he needs a few clean weekends just to string together a couple of clean weekends when he's up there in the top four where Red Bull need him

because he had a couple earlier on in the year I just think that'll well you know where we've said Max and Lewis aren't momentum drivers I think Sergio definitely is so yeah i'm not i'm not too concerned yet and he's got the you know the he's saved the knowledge that he has a contract for next year so um it should be fine but yeah he i think just needs a few few more clean weekends yeah i think looking at qualifying in the first instance i would agree

with you completely it wasn't great of a red bull strategy to um essentially not get a second lap in for him but nail the first lap that's where you need to focus on because he shouldn't have even needed to do that lap. So that's where I would put my focus on Saturday. We know that Perez has become well known really for these drives through the field in his previous days, but the point is that he could get away with it in his previous days because the expectation wasn't for him to do much more than that. In his racing point and force India days, his tire preservation going along on the first stint, it's something he's done a lot of, you know, extended those medium tires a lot today. But it's all right in a Force India or a racing point where you're expected to finish eighth or seventh.

It's not the same when you're in a Red Bull where your teammate is winning race after race. So he shouldn't have been in that spot to begin with. I think overall, I agree. I think he probably maximized his race from the point where he came into the pits after that first stint on those hard tires. It was his own fault that he had to pit that early. I think after that point, he probably gob out as much as he possibly could have done out of the race, but he should have gone way longer on that first stint. And it's very surprising to see someone like Perez who is so good at tyre preservation to be in that spot.

And I'm not saying for a second that Valtrey Bottas should escape criticism because of the poor performances of Perez. I'm not saying that at all, but you have to put things in perspective. And that is that Valtry Bottas, for all his flaws, was third place in this race. Sergio Perez was not on the lead lap. He lost a lot of points for the team. And ultimately, whereas Bottas' teammate is not winning the championship, Bottas is 15 points, a whole podium clear of Sergio Perez and the points tallies now, it is somewhat concerning.

And I think it would be wrong for Red Bull to completely dismiss this as something they should not be worried about. They should absolutely be concerned. I'm not saying they should go back on a contract or put the panic stations out, but it needs to be addressed because it's not right. Antonio Giovannazzi. Didn't all right job in qualifying, didn't he? I don't know where it came from, but he stuck at seventh, and he was pretty close to the Ferraris in front of him.

Obviously it unraveled in the race, didn't get a very good start. I think he lost three positions off the start, then got a puncture, and his race was pretty much run at that point. Sam, do you think that this will have done him any good in his fight to keep that Alphar? Romeo's seat with DeVries rumours, Bottas rumours floating around? I've said throughout the season that I think

Giovanni's been a little bit underrated this season. When I say that, I don't mean that he's been so underrated that so far basically this was the final tipping point as to keeping his contract. Fortunately, I think Giovanni has been having a good season for Giovanni. I don't think he's having a good season in comparison to maybe what a better driver could do in that car. that qualifying was very good yeah well done giovinazzi you did very well

we couldn't compare it against your team mate because robert cubitzer had to come in and do a job and i think bobby k did fine considering he hasn't driven an f1 car for god goes how long now and cars change and it's a difficult track but he's not got practice on either so you can't compare it to someone in the same machinery like we have done with kimi riking previously um also interesting that a lot of other cars that usually were being in front of him clearly weren't working for both drivers, you know, McLaren were both struggling. They weren't really shoving it far up the grid, whereas we've seen Lando and Ricardo was just in front of him. Both the Ashton Martins are usually higher up as well. Yuki Sankoda, he was out of the top 10 where his teammate was in Frung.

Perez and Vessel, of course, both got out in Q1 due to traffic issues. So I do think it looks a little complimentary for Gio. I do think there could be some mitigating circumstances there. And because of all these factors coming together, I don't really think he's got enough going for him to sign another contract for a brand new set of regs. I think Alpha Romeo could take a bit of a guess here, a bit of a leap, bringing Bottas and bringing maybe a rookie or someone new, and take a bit of a risk going into a new area, you know, a new generation for Formula One and try something out. I don't think Gio has done enough in his time in Formula One.

I don't think this one qualifying session is going to convince the minds of the many at Alpha Mayo for him to stay on for another season, unfortunately. Gio is a lovely guy. I love having him on the grid, and it's bloody Anson, which isn't fair. But that does not mean that you deserve another year in a Formula 1 seat when they are so limiting and so rare, and I don't think it was enough. So, sorry, Gio.

It was great to see you in Q3, but it's just not going to be enough for me. I've just... Sorry, a slight side note here. I was interested to see how many race starts Antonio Giovannazzi has had. It's 53 for anyone who's wondering that. So I've just looked him up on Wikipedia. Do you know what his middle name is?

Is it too? Bob. It's Maria. Oh, I love that. I love that. What a great name that man has got. What Italian name that is. Yeah, I was about saying, it's the most Italian name ever.

Love it. Is it weird that his initials spell out AMG? Hey, there's a hint and a half, isn't it? Sorry, George. You're staying in Williams for another year, buddy. Ting hats, he's swapping boss for Giovanni. That's where the seat's coming. We knew it all along.

heard it here first on the late breaking. We're good for exclusives here on this podcast. Don't tell us otherwise. Harry, looking at the qualifying session, do you think this will have much impact on him retaining that seat or not? No, I don't. I think it's slightly too little too late. And Givinaxie's had actually, as Sam said,

a pretty solid year this year. But, yeah, it's in comparison to Reichen who has had less of a solid year, it must be said. so yeah look taking nothing away from that qualifying effort it was a bloody good lap to put it into P7 and to only be a few

tenths off, was it a few hundreds off the feathers is pretty mad but I think the problem is with Giamanaxie is just slightly too inconsistent and I know today went badly for him because of the puncture but as he said he did lose places off the start and probably that card didn't

deserve to be in seventh anyway so yeah I I don't think it's going to change the mind of big Freddie Vass, as Ben has now crowned him. But, yeah, it was a stellar effort this weekend. And, you know, maybe it goes well again in Monza. But, yeah, I just get the feeling I think Alfa Romeo is ready for a bit of change. A bit of change all round.

Kimmy's off and maybe they want to mix things up entirely. So, yeah, I don't think it's going to be quite enough for Giovannatsu. But it sounds like they're going to keep him around a stir driver. and be involved with the Ferrari Le Mourne program as well. So we'll seem around. Are you right? Maria. Big up to my main man,

Big Freddy Vass, by the way. What I'm going. The Vaseline! The Vaseline. Come on. Have a day off. Greasing the works of the Formula One community. Absolutely not.

Nope. So, the reason I wanted to look up how many races Jovenatzi has done, as I wanted to make the point of, he's done 53 qualifying sessions, therefore you cannot put too much of an emphasis on one individual performance. However, just looking at that performance in isolation, it was fantastic. And people came away from it saying he'd done a brilliant job. I think people are still underselling what a job he did, how impressive that qualifying session was. To put it in perspective, because sometimes people,

positions, they don't lie, but they don't tell the whole story of how good a lap is. Put it this way, he was as close to Valtry Bottas in P3 than he was to the guy behind him, Esteban Ockon in P8. Time-wise, that's how it played out. He was as close to third as he was to eighth. That's how good it was. Having said that, and yes, he had the puncher in the race, had a poor start, otherwise he probably would have been in for some good points. I don't think this is going to have much of an impact. Seems as if Valtrey Bottas is going to be there. Will it be Nick DeVries alongside him?

Not too sure. But I don't think this particular event should have too much of a swing on things. But it can't hurt. So a good effort from him. No doubt about that. Staying with Alfa Romeo for our final segment. Kimmy Reikinen is moving on. I've got to be honest, ladies and gents.

I don't believe it. He'll be there next year. Kenny Reichenen never leaves F1. It'll be there. But at least officially, he's retired at the end of this year. We promise we're not ignoring this. We're actually going to focus on this a bit more in our preview show just because we'll have a bit more time to discuss the topic at length,

which it deserves, considering the career Reikinen has had. But we will at least mention it in one form. We've got a game, which is quite possibly the worst-named game we've ever done, and those long-time fans of the podcast will know that's an achievement and a half. We're going to play a game called Kimi or Kivem. No jingle, sorry. No, I appreciate it. I'm going to say no jingle for this one.

It's terrible. I'm not singing one. I'm not singing a jingle for this. I think that's fair enough. So we're going to take a few drivers, put them against Kimmy Reichen and say in their primes, that's the most important thing. in their primes, which driver would you take? So, we'll kick off with this. Prime Kimmy Rykenen or Prime Jensen Button?

Who would you take, Sam? That's a tough question. I'm not one I expected to be troubled by, actually. I also thought that we could do the jingle to the Abba song, you know, the one that goes, Kim me, Kim you, but you said Kim then, so it's I thought you were going to go

for Kimmy Kimmy Kimmy your man That's exactly where I thought that was going Come on Sam You missed a trick there buddy I did too because that doesn't make any sense

It's going to me or you in there at all Kimmy Kimmy Kimmy Kimmy Kimmy Kim them Dancing Kimmy Come on I'm gonna go

I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with Prime JB I just think J.B's got it. I just think that Kimmy basically doesn't care after that one year he had. So, yeah, I think J.B., J.B., for me.

Harry, Prime J.B., Prime Kimi, which would you say? I love J.B. A lot, but, yeah, Prime Ribb. It's got to be Prime Kimmy for me. I think prime Kimi in my head is 2005 Kimmy Rikinen, and we've said it before. I arguably should have won that championship, but he had a few reliability issues.

But he was on one that year. And I'm not sure even J.B. In 2009, 2011, might have had an answer for him. So, yeah, I'll go for Prime Kimmy. Yeah, over the course of a career, I'd go Jensen Button. But Prime, I'd say Kimmy Reikinen here. I do think in his prime, Kimmy Rykenen, very difficult to stop. Jensen Button, over the course of his career, apart from the first year,

which was a little bit dodgy, but even then he had some solid performances. Over the course of a career, Jensen Bustin would win it, but in that few years spell, Kimmy Reichenen, I think was at a higher level than at any point in Button's career.

So Prime Kimmy for me on that one. Next one is comparing him against a fellow Finn. Sam, Prime Hackan, or Prime Kimmy? You're just picking people that I don't really like. I do like them. What can't wrong with me? What has Mika done?

Well, I say don't like Mika. I like him as a person. I just, I think that he might be a little bit overly loved in the F1 world. I'm going to go Prime Mika. I think the way he stuck it to M Shui is impressive. And those two years that he did manage to take home the title were bloody magnificent. So yeah, no, I'm going to go Prime Mika. Prime Hackanen, which we have to make the point here.

We might not have seen Prime Hackanen yet because he is yet to make his returns of Formula One. But at least what we've seen so far, Prime Meeker or Prime Kivy? Which one he go for? I'm going to go for Prime Mika on this one. I think, yeah, Sam said, you know, he, 98, 99, sticking it to Michael Schumacher, that's no mean feat. And, you know, even when he, I'm not saying this is his prime. but even when he came in to the sport in 1993. Not when he came, when he joined McLaren, sorry.

He didn't qualified Senna, I think, on his first go, which that's not an easy job. So, yeah, I'm going to get for Prime Meeker on that one. But, I mean, that would be the quietest Formula One pairing ever, wouldn't it? Imagine those two in a team together. Poor PR people. You could have Bottas and Kimmy if all things go to plan next year at Alpha. Yeah.

That's amazing. Because as we know, Kimmy's not retiring. I really think this one's close. 98 Hackanon versus 2005 Rykenen. I don't think there's much in it. I'm actually going to go Prime Kimmy. I really think Kimmy in 05 was on one. To the point where I've got him over Hackinen,

just about. Not by much, though. Last one, Sam is returning with his Schumacher hat. any reason he sucks wow you got in there good one last one

we're staying with people that Sam loves actually Prime Kimi Reichenen or Prime Nico Rosberg Sam oh I thought you were going to say one Pablo Montoya then Mr Charlie

right Nico Rosberg by the way you know like you know that it's a bit of a meme online folks if you follow the Twitter's which is shudding. It's a very horrible place. Well, that graph is like angled straight up constantly.

That's my opinion of Mika Rosberg over the last 10 years. It's just like that. No, Prime Lika Rosberg, all the way. All the way. He, as much as I think reliability playing a part in it, he mind games Lewis Hamilton, who arguably is the greatest Formula One Drive we've ever seen and won a title off him.

They've got the same amount of world titles. I think Rosberg has been more consistent throughout his career. I know that's what we're talking about. And then the pinnacle of his career was, of course, that world title, which he decided to go. I can't do anything more than that. Leave me alone, bye.

So yeah, Mika Rosberg, I think, is better than Prime Kimmy Reichen. Prime Rosberg versus Prime Reichenen, Harry. Yeah, this is a tricky one. I was trying to think in my head, would 2005 Kimmy Reichen be able to beat 2016 Lewis Hamilton? And I don't know if he could. As good as 2005 Reikinen is, I don't think that would happen. So, yeah, I'm going to have to give it to Rosberg.

It's not where I saw that one going. I was about to give it to Kimmy until I thought about it a bit more. But yeah, you know, I think that's another point entirely that maybe Rosberg's slightly underrated in general. But yeah, I'm shocked at myself by going to give it to Rosberg.

Hmm, I am, again, I think it's really close. Do I think that 2005 Kimmy could be 2016 Lewis Hamilton? I'm going to give the same answer as the Jensen Button one. Over the course of a career, I'm taking Nico Rosberg. Prime, I'll take Kimmy Reichen. You think O'5. You think that Kimmy could beat Lewis Hamilton.

You're having a laugh. I mean, he literally did two years later, but 05, Kimmy Ryken. There was some issues. debut rookie Hamilton versus very experienced Kimmy Ryken. Okay, a bit different. I mean, he wasn't very... I know it feels like he's always been 45, but he wasn't 45 back then.

He's 4th, 5th year of the sport, the bloke had enough time. And in fairness to Kimi Reikinen, he nearly beat Michael Schumacher for the championship in his third year in Formula 1. So I do think... And again, over the course of a career, Niko Rosberg wins it.

Prime, I really don't think there are many drivers that could touch. 05 Reichen and if only that McLaren hadn't broken down every two minutes forcing him to start and back for every race. I would be really, really interested actually to hear, Ben, you're the only person that would have a list like this. A greatest driver of all time prime year only list. Right, I'm doing that. That is actually something I'd be curious to hear. Yeah, that's, you might be shocked to know, Sam, I haven't actually got that list already, but you won't be shocked to hear that I will work on it.

Please do. All right. Cut the week's time, folks. Maybe when we're in the gap between races, Ben will present his prime list only and we'll call it Ben's prime grid. I don't know what. I'll come up with a better title. And a theme song, of course.

I'm not doing otherwise. Nah. Okay. Okay, fine. This is the only reason I even agreed to be on this podcast, Sam, is for your singing. I've got the lyrics already actually.

I'm sure you do. Oh my God. Just wait, folks. It's coming. It's been over an hour, I'm exhausted. I'm still listening. Yeah, well, there we go. Sam, get us out of here, if you wouldn't mind.

Folks, if you've actually bothered to listen for an hour and four minutes of us yapping on, then congratulations. It's quite successful. I hope you've enjoyed the Dutch GP. It was quite a spectacle. Those fangs, a bloody orange and fun to watch. And well done to Max Mastappen for bringing it home at his home GP.

It really was a rather special moment for him. Let us know what you thought about what happened in the race. Let's know what you think about Giavanazzi and Perez. And of course, would you take a prime rib Kimmy Riking over all the other prime rib drivers? Stay tuned for that theme tune and Ben's special list. Of course, we'll be coming back in midweek for the preview for Monsor. If you want more, if you want more Fongshat though in that meantime, get over to our Discord. tell us to the Patreon if you want to help us with a little bit more,

or of course, at El Breaking it on Twitter. In the meantime, I've been Samuel, join the Discord. I've been Ben Hocking. I've been Harry Eves. And remember, keep breaking late. Join the Discord. Find more great shows, or join the team at sport-ssocial.com. Podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.