Severin

Norris is the worst starting driver on the grid. Only two drivers this season have not gained a position on the opening lap. Norris and... Franco Colapinto - who actually maintained position today and therefore arguably has a better record already.

Additionally, McLaren can clearly see that Piastri has the potential to be the stronger driver of the two both metally and skill wise. If they order him in a supporting driver role now they threaten to create a problem reversing that in the future and could cause a potential destabilsing of their biggest asset (driver wise). They've seen this problem before and given that Norris is questionable under pressure they may be thinking long term already.

Lando let Oscar passed because he was obliged to due to an agreement made pre-race. He was only ahead due to the team compromising Oscar to protect Lando, not through his own merit. If you ask any team principal they will tell you that the Constructors title is the one that matters. It's been a team sport since before there was a Constructors title. Enzo was famous for not caring which of his cars won, just that it was a Ferrari first. Nothing has really changed there for any team. It's the public that look to the driver's title more than anyone else and even then the Tifosi don't really care which driver either. With 208 points up for grabs and Red Bull struggling for pace of course he's still in it! If Max were to finish 3rd in every race, that's 128 points and it looks unlikely he'll manage that right now. Oscar is also fighting not just for the title but perhaps more importantly to assert himself over Lando, and right now he's doing it. Don't forget his races were heavily compromised by others in Miami (SC that threw Norris the race and then Sainz too), China (Alonso), GB )McLaren). The Red Bull situation is different as Perez is clearly not in any title contention, and never has been since he joined the team. Piastri has arguably been as good as or better than Norris this season but had tougher luck. And personally I remain unconvinced about Norris and his mental ability to maintain a title challenge. He appears to lack the steel required. Piastri looks the real deal to me, especially when you factor in it's only his second full season and I expect him to improve much more relative to Norris. Lando was free to challenge for the win today but was second best to Oscar all day. However, McLaren will likely make a decision soon enough

Why would he? Piastri has finished ahead of Norris in 4 of the last 6 races. He's outscoring him regularly and has every right to believe he's in a title fight himself. McLaren are confident they'll take the Constructors so they'll win anyway. Teams rarely place the same prominance on the driver's title as the drivers do.

They would have been eligible to drive for another team though. Contracts may have prevented it but they themselves weren't banned.

BAR was banned though, not the drivers

Absolutely. Enough going on and very enjoyable

Nothing beats watching a Ferrari win in Italy

I'll be interested to watch the Mercs. They have the pace but are running so low it's generating a lot of heat in the driver's backsides and I wonder if they'll change that or see if they can live with it. Norris has a chance to claim his place as McLaren's number one driver now but Piastri has outscored him in the last 5 races so if Oscar wins he can argue the same case too. or at least parity. Especially if Max doesn't get on the podium.

Love Blondie. Not fave ever bands but love the 1976-1980 stuff. Also, you left Maria off their bigget hits list

Seeing them live tonight so will hopefully get to experience this as it should be heard. Missed out on seeing them a couple of years back as they clashed with someone else on the day.

Yes but he died of an overdose in 1996 and was resuscitated. A technicality maybe but not untrue

I have a soft spot for the Nana's even though SAW ruined them and they went a bit naff thereafter. The first album is a great collection of quirky pop songs and De Niro is a gloriously dark piece of subversive Pop. Depeche Mode started fairly lightweight but once Vince left they got more interesting and much better, certainly up to the point where Dave Gahan died. After that they've not quite matched up to previous. Violator is a proper classic though. Erasure showed exactly why Vince was wrong for la Mode and Andy Bell complimented him so well. Like the Pet Shop Boys, they're bit too Pop for my own taste but I think both are very excellent, if a bit overrated in general.

viRpkxdBDWA Not sure what I think of this. It's a bit lightweight fluff on first listen but they usually win me over somehow in the end

Liam is a genuine Rock Star in the cliched use of the word. Yeah, he's also a bit of a twat but often funny with it too and not as stupid as he likes to make out. Sort of person I'd like to go down the pub with for about 4 pints but after that it's probably best to bail out before it gets out of hand.

Decline & Fall, the band's new single is released at 5pm on Aug 29th

Generally like a fair bit of both Linkin Park and Green Day and Pussycat Dolls have a few great tracks too.

More than anything they need 3 more teams on the grid. F1 is too much of a closed shop these days. You've got somewhat ordinary drivers like Zhou, Magnussen, Stroll, Sargeant etc clogging up the seats because they're 'safe and reliable' when there's genuinely great drivers out there who could potentially do a much better job. Then there's the mid tier of Perez, Gasly, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Tsunoda et al who are occasionally great but usually boring. I'd love to see the likes of Newgarden, Dixon, Palou, Pourchaire, Drugovich, O'Ward and Herta given a shot. And yeah the F2 Champions rule isn't working as intended. Nor is the superlicense set up

Not sure of that myself. His record in F2 is worse than Sargeant's. Which is why he's a bizarre choice For reference, these are varous drivers' F2 comparisons. . - Charles Leclerc - 1 title, 22 races, 7 wins, 8 poles, 10 podiums - Win ratio = 31.81% George Russell - 1 title, 24 races, 7 wins, 5 poles, 11 podiums - Win ratio = 29.16% Oscar Piastri - 1 title, 23 races, 6 wins, 5 poles, 6 podiums - Win ratio = 26.08% Nyck De Vries - 1 title, 67 races, 12 wins, 23 podiums - Win ratio 17.91% Liam Lawson - 28 races, 4 wins, 10 podiums - Win ratio = 14.28% Oliver Bearman - 40 races, 5 wins, 3 poles, 7 podiums - Win ratio = 12.5% Yuki Tsunoda - 24 races, 3 wins, 4 poles, 7 podiums - Win ratio 12.5% Felipe Drugovich - 1 title, 73 races, 8 wins, 5 poles, 19 podiums - Win ratio = 10.95% Theo Pourchaire - 1 title, 81 races, 8 wins, 3 poles, 20 podiums - Win ratio 9.87% Nikita Mazepin - 24 races, 2 wins, 6 podiums - Win ratio = 8.33% Zhou Guanyu - 68 races, 5 wins, 3 poles, 20 podiums - Win ratio = 7.25% Mick Schumacher - 46 races - 1 title, 3 wins, 11 podiums - Win ratio = 6.52% Logan Sargeant - 31 races, 2 wins, 2 poles, 4 podiums - Win ratio = 6.45% Franco Colapinto - 18 races, 1 win, 3 podiums - Win ratio = 5.55% Obviously, there's extra context to be taken into account here but it's pretty clear that overall, the best drivers have the best records and I see nothing to suggest Colapinto has the capability to improve Williams results this year. They don't need a long term plan for this replacement, they need the 2nd car to score a few points to make sure they stay ahead of Sauber and maybe challenge Alpine. Colapinto is not looking the best available option, Schumacher is.

On closer looking at this Club Tropicana is technically their third biggest song these days, despite it not being as popular in the 80s. I'm guessing it has built up steam in the streaming era but... Last Christmas - 5x Platinum Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - 2x Platinum Club Tropicana - Platinum Everything else is Gold or lower. However, the situation is complicated in that Careless Whisper (2x Platinum) is also a factor being that it was in every way a Wham! song in terms of writing, recording and production and only released as a solo single in the UK and a few European territories. It also appears on the album Make It Big. Even at the time everyone accepted it as a Wham! release just under a different name.

Colapinto drove the Williams in practice at Silverstone. He also ran in the Abu Dhabi testing session last year. Slightly odd choice though. Toto was desperate to get Schumacher in there, he's probably a better driver now than before and can at least give you a reliable pair of hands at the wheel. Colapinto has nowhere to go next year and it's hard to be sure he'll be less accident prone than Sargeant is.

And that's me done (at least in terms of my votes). Might be a band or two I quite like left in it but I suspect few and far between now

Just under 1 in 20 of the UK population applied for tickets to Knebworth in 1996. I suspect half the country could be an underestimate for this one. Even I would quite like to see them again and, a handful of songs aside, I didn't like them all that much after the first album. Mind you I'm not paying what I expect they're going to be asking

I seem to recall Liam saying he wouldn't do it without Paul so it'll be interesting to see if it's him or Gem Archer. Could Gem switch to bass maybe?

It was very track specific - the McLaren excels in high downforce trim but that will be of no use at Monza or Baku for example. Those two circuits look like they will see Mercedes and potentially Ferrari throw a potential spanner in the works for Lando. Additionally, Red Bull tried something new with their set up and openly admitted they got it wrong went backwards with it. Also, I wouldn't place too much on that winning margin as a great leap forward - Piastri finished 21 seconds ahead of Verstappen at Hungary so the margin between the two cars at a similarly configured circuit is consistent.