Key occasions
Is that this Valtteri Bottas’s last race?
“I’m not performed but,” the Sauber driver tells Brundle.
“That’s good to listen to,” replies the interviewer.
Brundle then says he noticed Bottas popping into the pits earlier – was he wishing his former teammate Hamilton all the very best, as he departs Mercedes?
“No,” Bottas replies. “I used the bathroom, really.”
Brundle suggests to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc it is likely to be “enjoyable” to attempt to battle by the sphere from nineteenth.
“It might have been extra enjoyable in entrance,” says the Frenchman. “I’ll do the whole lot I can to make the miracle occur. That’s what we want in the present day, a miracle.”
“It’s a dream come true … I’ve been in search of you all weekend,” Michael McIntyre tells Brundle.
“It’s a bit tense … it’s the primary time I’ve actually missed a [Tottenham] recreation [to be at this race].
“My plan was to disregard you [Brundle], as a result of all of the folks do. However I’ve simply come over and hugged you and it’s fully backfired.
“I’m type of a visitor of Mercedes and Crimson Bull … which can be a little bit of against the law. I’m right here to dealer peace.
“It’s fully and totally wild [on the grid]. I’m an enormous fan of yours.”
“Thanks, I’m an enormous fan of you too,” insists Brundle.
“I’m working actually laborious for it. Hopefully I’ll get there someday,” Felipe Drugovich, the 2022 Method 2 champion, tells Brundle of his F1 dream.
The actor Terry Crews, smiling, speaks to Brundle on the grid: “F1 is wonderful. That is my fourth race. It gained’t be my final.”
“Your power is wonderful,” counters Brundle.
Crimson Bull’s Christian Horner speaks: “It’s a bit like a cup last for us. We’ve bought nothing to lose. Go for it, attempt to end the season on a excessive notice.
They’ve bought their very own races to run. They might must be a bit conservative … There shall be alternatives and Max isn’t shy of getting a go.”
GRID WALK TIME! Let’s go, Martin.
Brad Pitt is having a chat with Ted Kravitz in regards to the F1 movie he’s been engaged on for the previous 18 months.
“I’ve bought a lot respect for these guys,” Pitt says. “What the drivers can do, what the automobiles can do. It’s off the charts. I’ve been having the time of my life. I want I used to be going one other 12 months [of filming] … I’d even shed a tear, you may see a grown man cry [when it ends after the race].”
On the finish of the dwell phase Pitt jokingly gives Kravitz a cameo within the movie.
“Would you like in?” asks Pitt.
“No, I’m comfortable doing what I’m doing,” a bashful-looking Kravitz replies. Awkward.
Enjoyable reality: I rode one among Lotto Soudal’s bicycles across the Yas Marina Circuit a couple of years in the past. So I do know the racing line.
Giles Richards
The Crimson Bull crew principal, Christian Horner, has defended his driver Max Verstappen on this planet champion’s more and more ill-tempered feud with Mercedes’ George Russell and dismissed their very public falling-out as a part of an end-of-year “pantomime season” earlier than this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Effectively performed if you happen to noticed me mixing up Mercedes and McLaren down there. Foolish me.
I didn’t get any emails about it but, nevertheless it’s not too late.
All F1-related emails shall be thought of for publication.
“These automobiles are so quick in the present day. You don’t see it on telly,” Mercedes’s Toto Wolff tells Brundle, in a dwell interview from the pit lane in Abu Dhabi.
“Lewis was tremendous fast [in qualifying]. We bought it incorrect. We must always have despatched him out earlier … after which the bollard. He was fast in P3, he may have been on the entrance.”
On this being Hamilton’s last race with Mercedes: “It’s excessive feelings. It’s compartmentalised now. However in two hours, it will likely be laborious.
“If we are able to’t win, we’ll cheer for him.”
And on the relative lack of success in latest seasons: “It is advisable to see all the nice successes we had … there isn’t a longer, extra profitable crew and driver relationship. That is what we have to have a good time and look again to.
“I might find it irresistible if he got here by the pack in the present day. That’s the reason I used to be so upset yesterday [with the qualifying], I wished to provide him a send-off with a podium.”
This can be a cool characteristic from Sky. Brundle chasing Hamilton round Silverstone, each driving Mercedes.
“Take a look at the pace! Take a look at the boldness,” Brundle says of the way in which Hamilton is dealing with his automobile.
“I actually didn’t need to are available. That was mega,” says Hamilton.
To mark Hamilton’s departure, Martin Brundle has been out driving the Mercedes, with Lewis available to provide him some ideas. Apparently Brundle has pushed 70 totally different automobiles throughout his personal racing profession plus 28 years in broadcasting.
Giles Richards
Bidding farewell with a flourish was the optimistic hope for Lewis Hamilton as he entered his last assembly with Mercedes on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix however even fortune, it appears, wouldn’t favour the British driver for his swansong the place he completed 18th in qualifying.
Preamble
Max Verstappen has already wrapped up his fourth title, the drivers are falling out with one another, and the groups are irritated with the FIA. Enterprise as regular in Method One, however in the present day’s season-concluding race nonetheless comes loaded with potential drama.
McLaren are effectively positioned to seal their first constructor’s championship since 1998, with Lando Norris in pole place, and his teammate Oscar Piastri second. Ferrari are second within the standings, 21 factors down, however Charles Leclerc languishes in nineteenth on the Yas Marina grid after a 10-place penalty for taking a brand new battery unit, plus the deletion of his last fast lap in qualifying for exceeding monitor limits. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz tucks in behind the McLarens in third on the grid, however the Scuderia face what appears to be like an virtually inconceivable job.
Along with the constructor’s title denouement this shall be a poignant event for British followers, it being Lewis Hamilton’s last race for Mercedes. The singularly gifted seven-times world champion will be part of Ferrari subsequent 12 months, however after what Toto Wolff known as an ‘idiotic’ mistake by the crew in qualifying, he begins in 18th place. It is going to be an emotional day for Hamilton and his crew as they rightfully honour their previous glories, whereas McLaren try to wrap up that constructors’ crown.
Lights out: 1pm UK time.
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