The Late Braking F1 Podcast - Verstappen wins thriller at Imola! | Emilia Romagna GP Review | Episode 113

Episode Date: April 18, 2021

Blimey, we've only just caught our breath after that one! The LB boys break down all the talking points from a rainy and chaotic Emilia Romagna GP.Tweet us at @LBrakingMake sure to SUBSCRIBE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Thank you for listening to the late-breaking F-1 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 F-1 podcast, reviewing the 2021 San Marino Grand Prix, because we're still on that. My name is Ben Hocking, Sam Sage, and Hanks. Harry Ead alongside incredibly dramatic race, so we've got plenty to unpack here today. If you listen to our podcast previewing this Grand Prix, you would have heard our very own Harry Ead come out with an incredibly bold prediction that there would be three different manufacturers on the podium, and none of them would be a Mercedes.

And it looked like it was going to happen. And then Lewis Hamilton came along. So unfortunately, wrong again. God damn you, Louis. You must be devastated, Harry. Well, especially someone tweet us as well saying, Harry, you're going to be right, so I blame them because they jinxed. Commentators curse.

We should start calling you wrong Dennis. Fine, okay, I'll take that. Yeah, what a race we had. So, as I said before, we have got plenty to run through George Russell and Valdry Bottas. They had a high-speed incident, didn't they? Of course, we know that George Russell, is essentially after Valfourte-Bortas's seat. So that came with an added bit of spice.

Lando Norris on the podium had a great recovery drive today. And we're going to be talking, of course, about Lewis Hamilton going through the gravel. And he was able to recover to P2, but it was a long road back to that point. But first of all, Max Verstappen, taking his first win of the season. So Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have been won two

at each of the first two races in each order, respectively. So Sam, what did you make of Vastappen's performance? He won by about 22 seconds in the end. Yeah, I mean, Vestappen was on a Vestappen today. The guy, when he gets, you know, the ball between the horns, which is a classic expression, and very suited to obviously the team that he's with. The man is essentially unstoppable. These conditions we've seen in the past, suit Max Vastappen brilliantly. Turkey last time out where Hamilton kind of had the upper hand, he did brilliantly. the staffen we've seen in previous ones like Germany, Brazil, where the staffen knows how to handle these awkward conditions between tire compounds.

And it is one of those things that in the long run is going to probably win the staff on a championship, whether it be this season or a couple of years time. These are those kinds of races that you need to be able to take full advantage of what's going on around you and just go off and run your own race. And Verstaffin did that perfectly for 99% of the race. The only time he didn't was at one moment where I almost dropped a little bit of unpleasantness in my trousers. When on the restart, he was nearly facing the wrong way. On the last corner, how on earth is that man still leading by the time we got down to the second corner?

I was baffled. I was like, Lecler is surely going past for Stauffin here. There's no way he's got a good run coming out of this corner. The Stapen held him off again. So even when he went through his most difficult part of the race, the Stappen still managed to comfortably get away. hold on, run that race by 20 seconds, even with a red flag and a safety car, jeopardising that victory. The Staffan does absolutely everything he needed to do to take home that victory.

And deservingly so, he was brilliant from the moment the lights turned green on that one and getting down the inside of both Perez and Hamilton. And I think that move was fair. He put Hamilton out to the side, and Hamilton killed back down of it. It was close, but it was just enough. I think the Staffman did a very good move to get the league of the race there. And it was crucial. It was crucial.

Seeing how hard it is to overtake around here and how fast. that Mercedes is in a straight line. The Staffan was absolutely on it. And I am pumped if this is what it's going to be like for the rest of the season between those two. Absolutely brilliant drivers. They are a leap ahead of the rest of the grid. What did you make of his performance out there today, Harry?

Yeah, I mean, it was almost faultless, wasn't it? Apart from that, what would have been a rather embarrassing spin if he lost the lead at the safety car restart. But yeah, he was in great form again. and we know that Red Bulls obviously a quick car I think we were not surprised because it's obviously Lewis Hamilton

but surprised when Hamilton did bang it on pole yesterday I think we expected the Red Bulls to be there I mean they were only just behind but yeah I mean Max was Max was super impressive and you know for once it was

Hamilton doing the chasing and Hamilton kind of cracking when he's trying to lap Russell so when was the last time we saw that So, yeah, I think that all, this is set up this year very nicely, indeed, I think. Because, yeah, when Hamilton and Vestappen are both on form like they are, no one else is close to them. I mean, we saw Hamilton still made it back up to P2.

And yeah, Vistappen was 20 seconds in front. But I don't think because Hamilton was really coming back to the field. So, yeah, I think this is going to be Titanic, I would like to say. Yeah, I mean, qualifying, I think, proved that. I think, you know, just to go back to Saturday before we talk about Sunday, you know, that was such an epic qualifying session. It was one of the best that I can remember in the last couple of years. Obviously, you didn't just have Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton Gunning for Poll.

You probably had about seven or eight that, you know, a few of them were outside chances. But you had the likes of Norris and Leclair getting involved. and we saw with Q2 how Carlos Sines was able to be within half a second of the fastest time and also be eliminated. So just to make that point first of all, in terms of the race, despite all of the chaos and carnage that ensued, there was one message that remained prevalent, and that is that track position matters at Imola. Regardless of the amount of incidents that are going on around, that is still the key to win at that circuit. And that's what we saw from Max Verstappen and how he was able to to clinch the lead at the start of the Grand Prix. And it was seriously impressive what he did.

You know, I was trying to think of the last time a driver from P3 was able to claim the lead essentially into turn one. I know it's turned two really, but, you know, into the first breaking zone at least. You know, it doesn't happen all that often. And it's not as if the run down to that corner is massive. I mean, it's not like it's not Russia. So, yeah, what Vastappen was able to do at the beginning of the race kind of set the tone. And I agree with what you said, Sam, in that the move was fair. It was certainly harsh, but it was fair.

And it's one of the hallmarks of all these champions that have come before Vastappen, that they will essentially give the other drivers a choice. You can crash into me if you want, or you can see the position. And more often than not, the other driver is going to take that second option. Hamilton did his absolute best to keep that car alongside, but when it got to the point of we're going to crash, Vestappen held his nerves. So it was definitely a good move.

I don't want to say in any way that Vestappen was lucky because it was an exceptional performance out there. I feel as if he got slightly fortunate in terms of the timing of the red flag because that seemed to be the worst point in Vestappen's race. Again, his race was exceptional, also it's not as if his worst point was bad, but he was definitely better suited to full-on intermediate conditions and full-on dry conditions.

And for whatever reason, he didn't quite seem to have that same advantage in that middling bit where they were still on intermediate tyres, but the track was drying very significantly. Because not only was Hamilton catching quite rapidly before he went off into the gravel, it was even like Charles LeCler was catching. Max Verstappen at one point,

I haven't got the exact, gaps in front of me but there was one point where a 20 second lead went to about 15 seconds or so between Leclair and Vastappen P1 to P3 at that point. So, you know,

it was, that was probably his worst point in the race and that was cut short because of the red flag and by the time they got back out there it was pretty much bone dry so not quite bone dry but it was enough of a dry line that it didn't really matter that it had been raining earlier in the race. So there was that element to it. Again, don't want to take anything away from

his performance. And that last stint that he put together was absolutely epic. Regardless of Hamilton having to fight back through the field, the gap that he was able to build out on Lando Norris and the rest of the field, again, considering how close they were in qualifying, that was a really epic stint from him. And he fully deserved the race win out there. And we did mention that obviously Lewis Hamilton, whilst he was chasing, I think he got to about two seconds or so when he made that error going into the hairpin, trying to overtake George Russell on the inside of the corner, went off into the gravel, hit his front wing as he was trying to get going,

did eventually get going, and then, of course, the red flag intervened very shortly after that. Not a characteristic error from him, Sam. No, no, and what was very funny was in the pre-race interviews, both Landon Norris and Max Verstappen spoke about how Lewis Hamilton is obviously their biggest challenge, regardless of who they're racing. He's a seven times world champion. You have to do a lot to become a seven times world champion. But they both said seven times world champions still do make mistakes.

They learn from them, they grow from them, and they have the ability to recover in the race from them, but they do make those mistakes. And funny enough, in that race there, Lewis Hamilton, and dives quite unnecessarily down the inside of George Russell. He rushes that move, which I don't think he needs to do with half the race left to go, gets onto a wet patch of the track, so like straight off into the gravel, very reminiscent of what happened in Germany, in Hockham, I think, 2018,

when it was very, very wet on that drag strip on the outside of the track, couldn't get going again in the gravel for a moment, did brilliantly well, to be fair, under the pressure to reverse it through the gravel, get back onto the track safely, drag the car back round to the pit, without damaging anything further and then, you know what, his teammate happened to save him

with a red flag collision with Russell because otherwise he would have been long going out of the points. He could have been a lap down. There'd be no chance at him getting back on that podium, let alone in second place. But that is the thing. Yes, you get a little bit of luck on your side,

but he still had to move past the majority of the top 10 to get himself into second place and keep himself in the league of the championship. And that's the hallmark of one of the greatest time, isn't it? You screw up, you realize you've screwed up, you apologize to your team and then in 15 laps time, you're in second place again and you're still league in the championship. That is the difference between Lewis Hamilton and a lot of drivers.

Valky Botas was being overtaken by the likes of Lance Stroll and was being caught by George Russell and Williams for 90% of his Grand Prix. Louis Hamilton winning in ninth place, and overtook seven people in front of the any person left before being maxed for Stappen. It tells you the difference. It was a silly mistake from him. He didn't need to rush that. but he recovered brilliantly. And I think second place was probably the best he was going to get out of it. There was a chance he could make a move when he was getting on the Stappen, but Red Bull had it covered.

It was a great scratchy call from there. The Stappen was on top form. I think Hamilton can be very pleased to walk away with second place a day after that silly mistake. What do you reckon, Harry, first of all, about the incident itself, but also about the fight back that he had to injure? Yeah, I mean, as I already said, it's incredibly rare to see how to make that kind of mistake. mistake. You know, I think it was just a combination of, you mentioned earlier, Ben, just happened having that quite weak middle part of that race, and he was being caught quite

quickly whilst they were trying to lap traffic, and obviously Hamilton's trying to take advantage of that and just got caught up by the damp patch going into Toza. But I think if you told him at that point, whilst he was sat in the gravel trap at Toza, he happened that you were still going to finish P2, he told you to go away, you being stupid. but yeah so I think yeah as we come to expect from Hamilton we don't expect those mistakes but we still expect him to be able to recover from them well

I think in the same way that Vastappen was fortunate with the red flag I think so was Hamilton in that respect because as Sam said it had been even nowhere but yeah he still had to go and make those moves and as we saw overtaking is still tricky a lot of drivers

got it wrong quite a lot So, yeah, it was still pretty impressive to be able to come back and claim P2 and also still have the league of the championship going into round three. So good old Hamilton. Good old Hamilton. He knows what he's doing. Yeah, I mean, I think this race was actually decided by not necessarily who made mistakes and who didn't. was more a case of when you made those mistakes and how that impacted the Grand Prix.

You know, we saw nearly all of the drivers make at least some sort of misdemeanor out there today, you know, some much worse than others. But if you were to compare, you know, Hamilton's incident to say, I can't think of one off the top of my head, but this wasn't even an incident from a driver, but take Jovanazzi, for example, who had to come into the pits, wasn't expected. to adjust the car. Again, obviously not an error by Germanazzi, but because at that point, the entire grid had been bunched up, that incident was so much more costly. Actually, the Perez one is probably the best example when Perez went off after his spin. Again, at that point, the field had

been contracted so much that it was actually quite a costly incident. Compare that to the likes of Carlos Sines, who made about five mistakes, none of which lost him any position. and Lewis Hamilton significantly where he had a massive error and was, as you rightly say, Sam, very much saved by Valtrey Bottas because if that doesn't come along, I don't know what position he recovers to. It's definitely not P2. So, yeah, I think it was a case of when you make the error rather than if you make the error. Whether you believe that there is skill involved in that or not, I'll leave that up to you.

but you know Lewis Hamilton's life back I think was good I don't think it was anything special to be quite frank because you know he did what he had to do in a faster car than the guys in front you can say that Valtrey Bottas disappointed in the same car in a similar position which I think there is some merit to that

at the same time Lewis Hamilton didn't make any moves without DRS and he was stuck behind Lancher stroll for about four or five, for about four laps or so when he didn't have the DRS. As soon as he got it, he made the move. And every move thereafter, again, was using that DRS. Bottas didn't have that at his disposal midway through the race. So I think the comparison, whilst it holds some weight, it doesn't hold all the weight.

I think Lewis Hamilton did a good enough job after that point. It was an error that we aren't used to seeing from him. you know, we talk about his consistency all the time actually being his greatest trait rather than his outright pace. It's something I mentioned quite a lot. And as you say, when they were speaking to the likes of Norris on the grid before, it does prove that even these sorts of drivers will occasionally make these sorts of mistakes. How they're so good is because they limit them.

And it wouldn't surprise me at all if that's Hamilton's last mistake in about a dozen races. that's what we've become accustomed to seeing from him. So he'll be very happy that in a race where he made such a massive error, he's walked away with 19 points. That's pretty good going. And even with Verstappen taking the victory, I'm sure he's going to be very happy about that. And rightly so, I think there is going to be something niggling in the back of his mind saying,

wow, I should not have claimed a six point advantage over my rival today. That should have been way more. And whilst Max Verstappen did have a very, very good race and took the victory, he was the only Red Bull driver that scored points out there, even after being outqualified by Sergio Perez. Perez started on the front row of the grid for the first time in his career, and then it kind of derailed from there. He picked up a 10-second stop-go penalty for overtaking under the safety car after he made an error.

He then made an error later on in the Grand Prix, which docked him down outside the top 10, at which point he was stuck in a DRS train and couldn't move forward. So, Sam, what did you make of Paris this weekend? Because there were definitely pluses and minuses to it. When we finished Saturday and Perez sat there on the front row of Max Verstappen, I said out loud to the TV, as I quite often do, folks, if you watch a TV with me, I like to talk to the telly.

I'm quite annoying that way. I said to the TV, have that, Max. We've got a fight on our hands because I thought, here we go. Sergio Perez has turned up. He's got hold of the car. He's had a bigger time, he's had a race to get to grips with it, and he's good. He's good to go. We're going to start seeing those consistent performances that was so, the same as do as Hamilton.

Consistency for Sergio Perez has always been his greatest crate. He came out a little bit more of the car, a little bit longer than the guys around him. He's always able to do that. So when we came into this race today, I thought, even if Sergio Perez falls behind Max Verstappen and finishes one place behind Bastappen, great race for Perez. He's doing exactly what Red Bull needing to do. This was a shocker. And it was all brought on by Sergio Perez.

That's the problem. The problem was he went into this today and he screwed it up for himself. He dropped it under the safety cart, which is appalling to do, really. So many other drivers of younger capability, less experience, were able to keep it together quite comfortably. Then we overtook, you should know the rules. You know, he's been not in the sport long enough. You should know that that's a rule that you can't jump straight back into those places

and keep them, you know, fair and fair and square. He should have stuck behind and overtaken properly on track or waiting for a team order to swap something round from the FIA. That was silly. He got lucky it wasn't a full stop and go penalty that he just had to serve it in a pit stop.

But then again, bings it later on in the gravel under normal racing conditions when everyone else saw in different formats of tyres, different teams, different struggles are able to keep going normally finishes outside the points behind a lot of slower drivers. It's not good enough from Perez. That isn't good enough.

I'm not going to start jumping to silly drastic conclusions that, you know, Perez needs to get out the sea. He's not good enough. But this was a bad weekend in terms of final results for Sergio Perez. And if he doesn't turn it around in four, five, six races time, and we still see him making these silly mistakes. We still see these problems occurring. Then yes, I think you're fair to start asking a few questions.

But right now, this was just a bad race weekend for a driver. Let's not jump into, oh, but what about Ghazley? Oh, but what about Albon? They all had their own criticisms. We all gave them the fair amount of time. Perez still needs that time, but you have to still be critical, and this was a bad race for him. So I'm not impressed by Perez here. Hopefully you can turn around next time.

Robert Dumboss in, Harry? What do you reckon? I mean, always. I need to do, like, you know, the Twitter meme with their shaking hands, and it's like Red Bull second seat drivers and the villain of chican spinning, because that's what they seem to do. Yeah, look, it was a messy race for Checo. I think that Red Bull and I think we should take a lot of encouragement from the fact from his quality performance yesterday because, you know, that was the first time Max has been out qualified by his teammates since Danny Rick was in the team. You know, it was a really uncharacteristic race for Perez as well, but we're really used to him, you know, used to him sweeping up the points in those kind of situations. yeah look it was

not great on any any level the overtaking the cars under the safety car was like a rookie era like he's been around long enough to know you can't do that so I thought that was strange I thought it was strange they didn't tend to give the places back as well but maybe they just didn't have time I'm not sure

but yeah and they just kind of compounded from there yeah look he'll he'll want to forget today absolutely but I don't think things all bad from as a whole, I don't think this weekend is all bad. I think he's showing some really good pace,

which will encourage, yeah, like I said, will encourage Red Bull massively. It just needs to have a cleaner weekend, like a whole weekend with clean this time rather than just one good day. So next time, third time lucky for checkout, I reckon. Yeah, in terms of a result, obviously it's a negative this weekend.

In terms of, you know, what happened, sure. In terms of encouragement, though, I actually think this was an okay weekend. I think this was a good weekend in that respect. And it definitely wasn't shown in the result, but I think Red Bull need to look past that and actually look at the positives here.

It was definitely not a very good race for Sergio Perez, but I don't think it was as bad as what it looked. First of all, you know, the incident under the safety car, I'm more concerned that he overtook the cars than he did make the incident. Because, you know, we saw Alonzo Binnett on the parade lap, we saw Chau LeClaude bin it on the formation lap. So I don't actually care too much about him binning it behind the safety car in those conditions.

Obviously, it's not great, but at the same time, I don't think it's unforgivable. I don't think it's, yeah, unforgivable. But him not knowing the rules after being in Formula 1 for 10 years, that's a bit more worrying. And again, yes, surprised he wasn't told to give those spots back straight away. And then in terms of the, in terms of the incident later on in the Grand Prix, specifically that spin at the Ville Nerve Chican. Again, I do think that was an incident that was made worse due to timing. I think if that happens on lap 25 or lap 20 when he's got a 10 second advantage

or however much it was over the car behind, it's very much an incident like we saw from Carlos Sines where he spins off, he recovers and he doesn't lose a spot and no one really thinks anything of it. I do think the timing did make it look a bit worse than what it was. You know, you were much better off making those sorts of errors in the first stint than you were in the second stint. And in terms of, I think what supersedes all of that, actually, what supersedes the result, what supersedes that performance, is that qualifying show that he put on on Saturday, because, you know, Max Verstappen has technically been outqualified twice since Ricardo left, although both of those incidents were not really on pace.

He was outqualified on pace. Yes, Max Verstappen made an error on his final lap. He was a couple of attempts slower in the first sector than he would have liked to have been. I think if he pulls together a good lap, Max Verstappen is probably on poll by about three attempts or so. Even so, he made the error and Perez was there to capitalize on it. I think it was a really good showing from him. And I think the encouragement of that is actually more important than the lack of a result on a Sunday, because they'll come. I have no doubt about that.

They knew what they were getting with Perez, and I've never really rated him as a wet driver. I don't think he's one of the best in that respect. I think he's far better in dry conditions. So if you know what you're getting and you know that these sorts of races are going to come along once in a while, then you have to be prepared for a bad result or two. I wouldn't be concerned if I'm Red Bull.

Driver of the day, who have you got Sam? for me there was a lot of mistakes so it was very easy to pick a worse driver of the day of course we'll get on to that momentarily for me driver the day i have to actually for the first time it feels like in a long time agree with the formula one fan base landon norris for me is driver the day the last thing that he pulled together let's start from this just to tell a story shall we he obviously on the saturday had the issue where he delivered a fantastic lap shall I start like it's a fairy tale? He did it with that fantastic lap

and then the evil FIA smited him by removing that lap boo, says the crowd. I'll hold the card up so you can all boo. But a new dawn approached and Mando Norris our hero rode his orange steed

around the Italian countryside. Hooray! Scream the children. And the fact that he was able to carve through difficult weather he was able to that moment where the team orders were given the overseers of the McLaren industry told the Australian brother to move aside um and you saw thank you bang for the constant support in this story and Landau said I can go faster I'm being held up right now and our hero delivered a four second gap in the space of two laps is a wonderful thing over the rainbow he goes

as they had painting on their halo and to deliver that third place in front of of our two protagonists of the story. You know, Hamilton of Stappen sitting in front of him and the two evil Ferraris, the hometown favourites of the Italian countryside sat behind on those tires that have worn down and down and down, which was a fantastic ride. He delivered a fantastic ride. It was so promising from him and from McLaren. And I think Ricardo, I can't believe I'm saying this after what happened at the start.

Ben, you are completely correct in this. Riccani is to be a little bit worried. Lano Norris is on it this season. We only had two races, but that was a brilliant. performance from the young Brit and I hope he does that for the rest of the season because I loved it so Norris driver of the day who was your driver of the day Harry I actually agree with Sam but for the sake of some variety I'll give it to I'll give it to max a stab yeah like I said it wasn't quite faultless but it was it was near as damn it and yeah and

yeah I don't you see much more much more you know one won the race by a big margin in the end. So, yeah, I'll give it to Max, but yeah, noises out there too. Yeah, for me, there were three contenders, and you've already said two of them. You know, Max Verstappen was exceptional. The 22-second win speaks for itself, especially considering that was essentially zero seconds or very close to zero seconds after the red flag period, which was halfway through the race.

So it's a massive lead accumulated over, I think, about 29. lapse or so. Really impressive. Lando Norris did a great job. We'll speak more about this in a little bit, so I won't talk too much on him, but the pace advantage he had on Ricardo was scary after he was allowed to overtake Ricardo when they switch positions. Not for the sake of variety, but for the sake of actually me thinking it, I'm going to go with God LeClair on this one. Let's just, I know, hypothesize a moment. Let's just say that the, the red flag doesn't happen. Leclair finishes second by an absolute mile.

Leclair probably finishes second by a pit stop over P3, which would have been Lando Norris. And I don't want to take away what happened in Lando Norris' final stint because it was really impressive. The only way that could have happened was with a red flag, whereas Charles LeClair was P2 on merit on that first stint. He did such a good job. So I want to reward that here with the driver of the day.

I will also say as well, in terms of the setup and in terms of the Mercedes power unit, unless Lando Norris made an error in that final stint, Leclero signs was not getting passed. As fast as, you know, that Ferrari was in the final sector particularly, that McLaren had such an advantage down the straight that unless the Ferrari was within about two or three tenths, I don't think that, I think at that point the DRS might have been enough.

but other than that, I don't think there was any chance. Compare that to say Hamilton when he got past Norris. I think it was about seven and a half, possibly eight tenths at the start of that DRS zone. Charler-Claude was in that sort of range plenty of times, but he didn't have that same straight line speed. So again, you have to give Norris a credit for taking the position straight away, and I think it was a good strategic call from McLaren to actually put him on the soft tires to allow him to do that.

But yeah, I think this was... Those three were head and shoulders above the rest. For me, though, God, Leclair, but in a great performance, really unlucky not to get on the podium. I'm really unlucky to not have my bold prediction come true. Sorry, mate. Anyway, worst driver of the day. Who have you got for this one, Sam?

There are an array of drivers that were poor, and Valtrey Blotas will cheer his lucky stars off. He's once again for the second racing a row this season, just scraped out of not being called the worst driving the day because, I know, it was shocking. It was bad from Valtrey Bottas. I expect a lot more from him, and that's two races in a row, where he's grossly disappointed. I feel bad for saying it. I'm going to give it to Latifi.

The guy does well on Saturday. It looks really promising. Williams, like, if things go their way, they could get a double point score at this point here. You know, we've seen DNFs happen around Imola before. last time out we had some problems there is every chance that if you are on the cusp of those points you can move up due to other drivers mistakes and at the start of that grand prix with those weather conditions i bet williams were sat there going we keep it together we are in with a chance of scoring some points here look at some of the drivers that did

make it into there after the races that they had um i think both russell and latifi we'll talk about the rossil crash on the podcast folks if you're interested um but for me Latifi, he had that first spin initially, which put him in the gravel trap in the middle of the second sector, and then just to come back on the track with the way he did, which is ridiculously dangerous. He didn't get check his mirrors properly. There was a car. It was Mazepin who got an initial blame for him. I can't believe I'm defending Mazepin.

But he got the initial blame for it because Mazapin was there. And Mazapin did spin in the race on his own. It was just towards the end. He kept it for a little bit of flavour. And Latifi just keeps pulling over the track. just keeps pulling over like nothing's there. Like when you're coming up to a bus lane in a merge area, the bus just keeps coming over.

You've got to hit the brakes because the bus hasn't looked. Latifi is the bus in this situation. And Mazurping is like grass or crash. So it was a crash. And it was all Latifi's fault. And it was silly, silly, silly, silly, silly, silly, silly. It was a really, really rookie era. And I'm quite disappointing him.

And I think he killed down a lot more there. And it was a silly mistake for Williams, which is a real shame. I think they came back a lot more from this weekend. So for me, Latifi, Worst driver's day. The Latifie Bus Company. Look out for that one coming soon. Harry, worst driver in the day.

I mean, just to say, it was a real missed opportunity for team willing today, wasn't it? Could both have points. Anyway, I'm not going to go for Latifie. I'm struggling to choose between the second seeps of Mercedes and Red Bull. I might have to give it to Checo. Botas, you've been saved again. Unbelievable. Oh, two for two.

Yeah, I just think, we've already mentioned it. Chekko just had a horrendous day. I guess if it's a weekend overall, I'd probably give it to Bottas because he wasn't very good in quality, and then he wasn't very good in the race either, but based on today, I'll give it to Perez,

because at least Bottas was still fighting for some points before Mega Crash. Mega Crash, indeed. I think those three names are probably the three that spring to mind here. You know, Bottas, I think what you said, Harry, if it was across an entire weekend, I'd probably give it to Bottas. But because it's the race, and only the race, I'm going to give it to Nicholas Latifi like you have some. And probably the most frustrating thing is it was maybe, in terms of practice and qualifying,

Latifie's best weekend in a Williams car thus far. You know, he was seriously on it in terms of the pace. in practice in particular he was really on it in qualifying he makes it through to q2 um you know george russell claims the advantage in q2 as we would expect but he he really showed something there and then they get to the race and he makes two errors inside 30 seconds in the first lap and that's done and dust it and when you are in a williams where you know points are very much at a premium it's been a long time since williams have scored any points whatsoever i mean you you'd have to go back to Robert Kubitser at the 2019 German Grand Prix.

It's been that long. And these sorts of races are perfect for the likes of Williams to take advantage of it. And they were in a position to do so with George Russell, and they probably would have been in a position to do so with Latifie if he stuck around and limited his mistakes. But the first mistake is okay. The second mistake is a bit less figureable because, yeah, he has done. the bus treatment to Mazapin. So, yeah,

Latifi for me. And then moment of the race, Sam, who have you got? Or what have you got, I should say? Moment the race is tough because there were so many moments of this race. The George Russell bunk on Valtry Bottas's head while he was being giving the finger was quite symbolic.

Symbolic because that is a moment that is like Russell wants Bottas's seeing, has done now for two or three seasons. And that was almost them who physically coming together to be like, bonk, get out of my seat. So that was quite momentous and that changed the entire face

of that Grand Prix. The other one, of course, being Hamilton coming off. So I think I'm going to give it to the, as Harry captioned it, the mega crash that happened between those two. That kind of really showed you what kind of chaos we're having at this Grand Prix.

I can really change the face of it. So yes, Mega Crash Bonk from Russell for me is moment of the race. Moment of the race for you, Harry. I'll go for Hamilton sliding into the gravel trap of Toza

because when does that ever happen? Never. We never see Hamilton sliding through a gravel trap in a race. So yeah, I'll go for that. I think actually the bigger moment, as Sam said, the more poignant one was actually the Bottas Russell Crash just for the context of it all. I mean Netflix are going to have a bloody field date

with that one so can't wait to watch that next year but yeah for me i'll go for hamilton sliding off the red at tozer yeah i mean i'm going to go for the start of the race because you have Sergio peres first ever front row start louis hamilton's just claimed it's 99th pole position it's it's Mercedes against red bull on the front row who's going to get into the lead into you know into the first corner and then all of a sudden it's like it's like rush hour and you've got two people going up sort of the elevator and then suddenly someone has just managed to get in between the both of them. It's Max Verstappen. What's he doing? And he's managed to get both of them his turn one. So I think it was such a defining moment for the entire race, but the move itself

was great as well. So I'll go with that one. All right, let's move on to the mega crash, as Harry has already coined it. I'm sure that's what everyone is going to be referring to this as now. George Russell and Valdry Bottas, no doubt both are going to be interested in a Mercedes seat for next season. Maybe they'll both be there. Maybe, or more likely, it'll only be one of them.

Had a crash going into term one. George Russell, on the outside, looking to make the overtake, didn't have much room to work with, and we're going to discuss how much room should have been left and how much was left, and it resulted in a high-speed crash,

both of them out of the race on the spot. So Sam, what did you make of the incident, do you put blame at the feet of either of the drivers here? I'm going to say something a little bit controversial to start with when it comes to crashing in motorsport. I love a bloody big crash, okay? I do. I get a real kick out of it.

It sounds awful. As long as the drivers walk away completely fine, as they did, I find it quite incredible to watch how that can happen in our sport. It really is a breathtaking moment. Horrific, scary. When they get out and walk away, bloody amazing to see the, technological advances to make sure the cars are still so incredibly safe that that can happen. We can see that spectacle and they can get out, have a fist fight and walk off to the pit lane.

It is bloody incredible. So once again, hats off to the safety changes that occur in Formula One. Secondly, who to lay blame with? I completely think this is a racing incident. Now, Bottas did slightly jink to the right. Yes, he did. Russell slightly overreacted and of course imitated the move that Bottas did to give himself the sound like of room

and jinxed to the right which then put one tire on the grass you heard the revs go through the bloody ceiling and the collision ensued straight into the barrier awful crash 200 miles an hour pretty damn scary with the multiple camera angles that we've seen of it though Botas is quite firmly in the middle of the track even after the jink there's still room comfortably between Bottas and Russell Russell doesn't need to move he has the space there

Whatas has left in the right amount of space. And we saw it with the Hamilton-Vostappen incident at the start of the race. Vastappen left Hamilton less room and gone had any problem with that. Now, just because this ended up in a really awful incident, where fortunately both walked away from it, doesn't mean that actually anything wrong occurred here. I think that this was just slightly sensitive, we're in slightly damp conditions going 200 miles an hour,

and it resulted in an absolute spectacle of two drivers coming together. And you could tell the emotion of them both. They were heated. They both thought it was each other's fault. You know, Bottas flips Russell the bird. Russell gives Bottas the bongk on the head. And we all sit there and think, you're wrong, no, you're wrong.

Actually, it's just a bit silly and unfortunate, really. And it's creating a bit of a bloody spectacle. Russell was having a bloody good Grand Prix. Bottas was having a really bad grand prix. And unfortunately, they both walked away from it and not got anything out of it, which is a real shame. But I think this is also just, like luck. Unfortunately, they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

they both slightly overreacted, and it's caused a big racing. So I don't think anyone is particularly to blame for this, if I'm totally honest. A racing incident or someone to blame, Harry. I'm going to agree with Sam and say racing incident. And just to pick up on your first point about the crash and obviously they walked away, and then I've nicked this stat from Sean Virgil Stamile on Twitter. But that's the first red flag. We've had an immolus since 1994 for a crash at the same corner.

And they both walked away. So obviously a testament to safety in F1 now. But yeah, I think it's easy to slow it down and, you know, take freeze frames of how much room Botas left. Russell, I've seen someone say, you know, it was enough room and Russell's gone too wide. But they're making this decision at like 200 miles an hour. Like it's so difficult for them to do it.

So, yeah, I'm. I don't think either one is, I think it's 50-50, basically. Yeah, Bottas shouldn't have perhaps pinched him quite so much. George overreacted and then ended up on the wet line grass, and that was kind of it. And that's why it was such an airplane shunt of a crash. But yeah, I just think it was not fisticuffs afterwards, but the war of words afterwards, the bonk on the head, as Sam said.

um it's kind of you know adrenaline adrenaline is high where you just had that kind of crash i think um yeah and botas was annoyed because he was out of the race and george was annoyed because he looked like he was going to get some points again so uh yeah racing incident they'll look out again when they see each if they ever see each other on the track i mean to have a williams fight of mercedes in the first place is a bit bizarre but um yeah just overall happy they're okay racing incident. Yeah, I think for me, if we need to attach blame to one party or the other, there are two questions here.

Firstly, did George Russell have more than one car's width room? And I think the answer to that is yes. And then the other question is, did Valtry Botas dangerously weave over the track to stop George Russell overtaking? And I believe the answer to that is no. So because of both of those answers, if I have to say whose fault it was, naturally I'm going to say George Russell, and I don't think Valtrie Botas did anything wrong. However, I do side with you on this, Harry, and say that it was a racing incident,

and I would not like to see anything like that punished, because it is the split-second decisions that you would rather just trust the drivers and let them get on with it. I think the stewards definitely have a place in Formula One to enforce the rules where necessary and to make sure that we have a safe and fair sport. But I think when you've got situations like that where, you know, you've got two drivers who are at the top of their profession making split second decisions. And yeah, you can slow it down in real time. You can take these freeze frames and analyze the space. They don't get that opportunity.

I think naturally in that position, it's just much, much fairer to say it was a racing incident. And these things do happen when you put 20 cars on a track and tell them to go to. 250 miles an hour, I don't care who you are, there are going to be incidents. And sometimes you can't necessarily attach full blame to one or the other. I think racing incident is fine. But if you, I don't think there should be any blame whatsoever attached to Valtrey Bottas on this one. George Russell, I think it was his error. It was an understandable one.

But I think it was his error if you need to play it one way or the other. And there is the whole point of that you've already said, Harry. It was a Williams versus Mercedes for track position. That in itself is fairly encouraging for one party and fairly worrying for the other. I'll let you decide which one's which. Move on to our final topic of today, which is looking at Lando Norris because he was back on the podium again. He was driver of the day as voted by the fans. He was behind Daniel Ricardo in qualifying, mainly because, well, only because of his invalidated lap at the end of Q3.

Ricardo maintained the advantage early on in the Grand Prix. Ricardo was asked to let Lando Norris go by. Lando Norris sped off into the distance and obviously claimed the podium. So, Sam, what did you make of Lando Norris' performance versus Daniel Ricardo? Does Daniel Ricardo have something to worry about here? Lando Norris was absolutely brilliant. All race long. I think he made the least mistakes out of everyone on the grid pretty much, which is a funny thing to say, right?

When you say you made the least mistakes, usually we expect pure perfection from 90% of the grid. but I feel like Norris didn't put a tire on for the majority of it. And when pressuring Daniel Ricardo, of all people, this isn't a rookie, this isn't someone that hasn't won races. Daniel Ricardo is a race winner. He is someone who is challenged time and time again for top spots. We've said that if he got into the right car, he could be a world champion. And yet, Lano Norris cruises up to the back of him and then goes, let me through.

They let him through. And he's got a full second gap after two laps. On Daniel Ricardo, that is astonishing. I think we have to give Daniel Ricardo the grace of what's going on at the moment. he's just moved to a new team. There's still another, what, 21 races to go in the season. It takes a little bit of time to adjust. And Ricardo still put in a very good performance over all this race weekend.

He still picked up very good points. I think McClan were very happy, very finished. And he was very clean, clinical and displayed great racing skill, as he always does. But Landon Norris was on a whole other level. It's like he's become so comfortable with that machine that he delivered something that I expected the likes of the Stappan or Hamilton to do if they are in that car, if they had that ability in that race setting, which they, usually do, and they showed that today. Landon Norris, for me, in terms of pace and ability,

was the next driver after those two in terms of how good that they were. I think Ricardo needs to be too worried. Ricardo still put in a very, very strong performance. I think Ricardo needs to be worried if we get another eight or nine races in, and this is still the case. If Norris can still pull out four seconds over two laps and eight races time, that's when the worrying is cassette in. We've seen Ricardo turn it around. He was so good in his second season at Renaud. I think he'll be so good by the midpoint of this season of McLaren. The guy has supreme talent. We know that.

So, no, Nora says the Hegstad, but I think Ricardo will be able to start putting that back, and we'll seem to be very, very close for the time. We've kind of reached the summer break, I think. Anything for the Honeybudget to worry about, Harry? No, I didn't think so. Not at this point. You know, we can see Lando is performing.

This is the best he's performed in his short-lived career so far. He's just on great form at the moment. And Ricardo was, I think, always, as we saw at Renault, Sam said, always going to take a little while to adjust to the McLaren team and that car. So, yeah, if it continues this way, then obviously Ricardo will start to get a bit worried. But, you know, he struggled against Holkenberg in his first year at Renault. And I'd say that Lando is performing on a higher level, sorry, Nico, on a higher level than Holkenberg was in 2019.

So it's perhaps exaggerating that a bit more. but, you know, Ricardo outqualified Norris in Bahrain, kind of more fairly than he did yesterday. But, yeah, I just think Landers on top form and Ricardo's still adjusting. I'm not particularly worried for Daniel Ricardo. We all know what, you know, what world-class driver he is. So, yeah, I think he'll be absolutely fine.

It all probably hurt for the first half of the year, but just have to suck it up, I think. Yeah, I think generally, If we're looking at all of the teams on the grid, of course, 10 teams. Let's break those down. So Mercedes, Alfa Romeo and Williams have all got the same lineups as they did last year. Alpha Tauri, of course, retained Gasly, but I've got a rookie driver in Sonoda. Hasse have got an all-rooky line-ups.

So leave those five teams to one side. You've then got Ferrari, Alpine, Aston Martin, Red Bull and McLaren, who have all got five existing drivers, joined by five new drivers who have already raced in Formula One. So you've got signs joining Leclair, Alonzo joining Ocon, Vessel joining Stroll, Perez joining Vastappen, and then Ricardo joining Lando Norris. Of all of those five partnerships, this is my opinion, but I'd be surprised if many people would disagree with this. In all five of them, Ocon and Alonzo is probably the iffy one,

but definitely not all the other four. it's the new driver that's struggling in comparison to the existing driver. Vettel's not on the pace of stroll at the moment. Perez isn't on the pace of Vastappen. Arguably, he might never be, but he's not on the pace. Ricardo is not on the pace of Norris at the moment, and, you know, and Sines isn't on the pace of Leclair. Ocon and Alonzo is a fairly close one,

but I think on today's evidence, O'Conn had the advantage. So, you know, it's not as if any of those new drivers are coming into those new seats and immediately outperforming the driver that was already there, in which case I don't think there's cause for absolutely massive concern at this point. Ricardo will need to turn it around, and I think given his experience and talent, he eventually will, at least to the point where they're level,

whether Ricardo can turn it around to the point where he's ahead. It's maybe another question, but I think he'll at least make it competitive at some point, and I don't think it will take him too long to do so. Having said that, can either of you remember a time where Daniel Ricardo was outpaced by so much on a race weekend by a teammate? Because I can't think, including his time with Stappen, I can't think of a time where he has been outclassed as much as he was today. You know, take away the result even, where obviously Lando Norris finished on the podium.

Just look at the pace. that four second gap in two laps was astonishing. He was, and in qualifying as well, Ricardo was ahead, but that was pretty much the only time he was ahead in the entirety of practice and qualifying. Norris should have been about three and a half, four tenths ahead, which at a circuit like Imala, where it's only a 75 second lap, that's pretty good going. I think all weekend long Norris held a massive advantage over Ricardo,

which is very encouraging for him. And again, I don't want to make any rash statements at this point in the season. He's got time and I think he will get it together. But for this weekend alone, looking at it in isolation, what a performance by Norris. And Ricardo was nowhere compared to him. I'm sure Ricardo will be all right. I'm sure he won't be worried too much. And he'll be back on normal Honey Badger form soon.

Pretty crazy race. We'll be back midweek for our next podcast, Sam. If you wouldn't mind until then, getting us out of here. Or you, you can do it as well, whoever the hell that was. I know, sorry, everyone. Absolute chaos over it.

It's absolutely awful. I've been interrupted by a bloody zoo in the corner. If you have enjoyed the chaos that happened in this ridiculous place that we are, could you give the subscribe, follow button and a good botas bonking, please, follow in the footsteps of Russell and then kind of slap it down

there, please, we appreciate it. Join us, of course, midweek, and for other race reviews, and then get over to YouTube if you stuck around you, you want to see some more stuff. We've always got plenty of YouTube big coming out, and follow us on Twitter at El Breaking. We always love the conversation. Come and be silly, have a laugh, do whatever, give us all your thinking, we love to hear them.

One guy called us idiots earlier. That was just fun. So thanks, appreciate that, mate. In the meantime, I've been Samuel Sage. I've been Ben Hockey. And I'm in Harry East. And remember, keep breaking late. Bye.