F1
Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1 6y

Radio Ga Ga: Belgian Grand Prix

Formula 1, AutoRacing

A round-up of the best soundbites of the Belgian Grand Prix, where Mercedes and Ferrari engaged in another see-saw weekend and saw Kimi Raikkonen's radio channel provide the usual entertainment. 

 

"Stoffel, is the car OK?" "No it's not. What the hell was that Mercedes doing? He just pushed me on the grass."

Stoffel Vandoorne reports back to McLaren after spinning out of final practice along the Kemmel Straight having been pushed wide by the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

"OK. I didn't see him."

Having already slowed to let the orange McLaren of Fernando Alonso by, a sheepish Bottas tells Mercedes he had no idea the Spaniard's teammate had been just a few seconds down the road. Bottas

"Stop! Stop! You will scratch the floor. Basta, f---! Che cazzo fai, lift the car up for f--- sake! ... you're scratching the floor ... you're scratching the floor. LIFT THE REAR! Just lift it up and roll the car."

Sebastian Vettel rebukes his Ferrari team as they make a meal of a stoppage in the pit box during the deluge in qualifying. After being pipped to pole by Lewis Hamilton, the German driver was seen inspecting the floor of his parked Ferrari.

"YES! Well done mate. Oh that was excruciating."

Lewis Hamilton's race engineer Peter Bonnington celebrates another masterful wet-weather performance from the reigning world champion.

"Esteban, that is P3." "You're joking? You're joking? WOOO! Yes! WOO! Well done guys."

Esteban Ocon celebrates the best qualifying performance of his F1 career following a sublime performance in the rain of Q3.

"Come on! What, what ... what did he do?!"

After seeing Alonso's car vault over the top of him Sauber's Charles Leclerc is puzzled at how his race ended so early. Replays would soon show the Monaco native that fault lay with Nico Hulkenberg, who misjudged his braking point on the approach to Turn 1.

More miscommunication for Kimi

"Yeah it's impossible to drive"
"If you want we can try to box and drop the front wing?"
"Yeah, something is dragging. I cannot go anywhere like this because I'm going to spin off the circuit."

Kimi reports some damage to Ferrari after being caught up in the first corner carnage...

"OK, box Kimi, box, box ... No, Kimi. We go. Go, go, go, go, go!"

An indecisive Ferrari pit wall gives conflicting messages to Raikkonen as he approaches the pit entry...

"No, but I mean my DRS is open on the straight. I mean even if I don't push it. No wonder I have zero rear end... It's all the time open!"

Raikkonen protests, pointing out that his car is undriveable

"OK, we retire Kimi. We retire."

Having moments before been happy for Raikkonen to continue with a damaged car, Ferrari changes its mind to bring in the Finn for an early finish.

Post-race

"And P1 Sebastian, P1. Fair and square. Bravissimo."

A message to Mercedes, perhaps? Vettel's race engineer Riccardo Adami congratulates him on taking a comfortable win. 

"Grande! Grazie ragazzi. Bella gara. Red liiight ... spells danger! Ta, ta ta ta, ta, ta ta! Grazie ragazzi. Grazie! Thank you! Well done motoristi! Grazie."

Vettel gives his now-familiar post-race celebration of what sounds like a drum riff, along with heaps of praise for his team.

"Good weekend guys. Nice comeback. Well done to everyone. Amazing job. Nice start to a new era."

Sergio Perez praises Force India for its stellar weekend which had seen it rebooted as an F1 entity and start afresh following its summer takeover by Lawrence Stroll.

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