Martin Brundle surprised viewers with a sudden announcement in the build-up show on Sunday ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. The former racer and broadcasting favourite was speaking in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports F1 when he passed on some information that he had learned from talking to one of the drivers.
The racer in question was Liam Lawson, who had spent some of his weekend with Sky as they completed a video feature looking at his lifestyle as a Monaco resident. But as they returned to the live feed from the pit lane the mood was brought down when Brundle revealed that things were not looking good for the Racing Bulls driver.
Brundle told viewers: “I have some breaking news: he’s not going to make the race. I was just talking to him. He said, ‘Best case scenario, I’ll start in the pit lane’. The car has got some gremlins, he was just telling me. Presumably, it’s in bits. Yeah, it’s still up on the jacks. What a shame.”
The camera then moved around Brundle and his Sky colleagues, presenter Simon Lazenby and fellow analyst Jenson Button, to show that Lawson’s car was indeed in pieces with his mechanics working on it. This was less than an hour before the start of the Grand Prix and only around 20 minutes before the pit lane was due to open, pitting the Racing Bulls mechanics in a serious race against time to get Lawson’s car ready.
If Lawson was indeed forced to start from the pit lane or miss the Grand Prix altogether, it would have been a real shame for the New Zealander who enjoyed a strong day on Saturday. He qualified well, reaching Q3 and securing 10th place on the grid, putting him in a good position to score points in the race.
And the good news for the Kiwi was that he was able to head out on track for a reconnaissance lap, albeit a few minutes later than most of his fellow racers. Brundle, luckily, was proven to be wrong with his statement that Lawson would not be able to compete.
Kimi Antonelli took pole position, edging out Max Verstappen with his final effort of the session to spark whoops and cheers of jubilation from the Mercedes garage. With overtaking always difficult in Monaco, the 19-year-old is well-positioned to secure what would be a fifth consecutive Grand Prix victory and heap further misery on his team-mate and title rival George Russell.
While the teenager was able to set a time quicker than everyone else around the Monte Carlo street circuit, Russell struggled to get performance out of his Mercedes. He ended the day only sixth on the timesheets and four-tenths of a second slower than Antonelli, after which he admitted to reporters that he was baffled by his lack of pace.
The Brit said: “If I knew [where the pace is], I’d be able to not be in that position. This is where I am right now, I don’t really know [why]. Kimi and I do have different driving styles, it was clear last year and it’s clear this year. But, obviously, last year it suited me just fine and this year it suits him perfectly well. So I need to adjust to this, and I’m doing my best to do that, but it still doesn’t answer why the start of the year was such a breeze. I don’t know. I’m a bit bamboozled right now.”
