HossC

A feature that the Formula 1 YouTube channel has recently introduced is a ghost car comparison of the fight for pole position. It's very interesting to see where the cars and drivers get a slight advantage over each other. You can see George Russell vs Lewis Hamilton here.

Some past Spanish grands prix have been processional, but not today. George Russell took pole in qualifying yesterday with Lewis Hamilton second and championship leader Kimi Antonelli in third. Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari in qualifying and started tenth. Despite Lewis (and Max Verstappen in fifth) starting on the soft tires, the top drivers held position at the start. Lewis was then first to take a pit stop. With a powerful undercut at this track, Mercedes had to cover off the stop by ptting race leader George. After Lewis took a second stop, he was taking 2.5 seconds out of the leaders' advantage. With Lewis closing in, Mercedes pitted both of their drivers giving Lewis the lead. Then Ferrari had a bit of luck when Fernando Alonso had to stop his Aston Martin triggereing a vitrual safety car. That gave Lewis a chance to make his final stop and stay in the lead. Toward the end, Kimi put George under a lot of pressure and eventually took second place, but it didn't last long as Kimi had his first mechanical failure of the year and had to retire. Chsrles also had to retire around the same time, but made it back to pits. That left Lewis to win by nearly 20 seconds ahead of George in second and reigning world champion Lando Norris in third. Race highlights are here. It's great to see Lewis take his first win for Ferrari after a tough 2025 when he didn't even make the podium. At 41, he's the oldest driver to win an F1 race since 1970, and it's the first all-British podium since 1968. Kimi still leads the drivers' championship, but Lewis has moved ahead of George to take second. There's two weeks until the next race in Austria.

Before the Spanish Grand Prix, a bit of news from the Monaco Grand Prix. The Alpine team have successfully appealed Pierre Gasly's pit lane speeding penalty which demoted him from third to seventh, and his original finishing position has now been reinstated. They showed that drivers could legally take a shorter route at the pit entry which reduced their time between two marker points without exceeding the speed limit. It doesn't look like the other teams affected are going to appeal their drivers' penalties.

Wings It's amazing how a single word can trigger an earworm!

Monaco isn't a great track for overtaking, but today's race definitely didn't lack drama. Unfortunately, we were deprived of the anticipated fight at the front when Max Verstappen's Red Bull had a problem at the start and retired at the end of the first lap. Luckily, all the cars behind avoided him, and the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc set off after Kimi Antonelli. Behind them, Isack Hadjar had problems with his car all afternoon, but George Russell couldn't get by. The same was true for Lando Norris who was passed by Pierre Gasly at the start and also couldn't pass. There were a lot of penalties given out today, including about a third of the field getting 5 seconds for speeding in the pit lane. There were so many that the commentators questioned the sensor accuracy. For the second race in a row, World Champion Lando Norris had to retire when his car failed. On lap 60/78, when there were only 3 or 4 cars still on the lead lap, Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin into the barrier on one of the slowest corner bringing out a safety car. Pretty much all the drivers used this as a chance to get new tires, but while Lewis served his penalty at the stop, George didn't which earned him a further drive-through penalty. The race restarted on lap 65, but was immediately back behind the safety car as Charles Leclerc hit the same barrier as Lance. After a couple more laps the race was red flagged when it was determined that the crashes may have been caused by the surface of what is a regular road breaking up. The road was swept and the race resumed after about a half hour delay. Kimi held his nerve at the restart and became the youngest winner of the Monaco Grand Prix. He wasn't even born when the race was last won by an Italian driver. Lewis held on for second, but couldn't touch Kimi's pace. George dropped out of the points serving his penalty. Despite his car troubles, Isack finished third and Oscar Piastri finished fourth. Before the race, Liam Lawson told one of the presenters that he'd be lucky if his car made the start. He finished fifth. You can see the highlights here. With five wins in a row, Kimi now leads the championship by 66 points from Lewis who has moved up to second. Only a single week to wait until the Spanish Grand Prix.

F1 is on the tight street circuit of Monaco this weekend. Ferrari were the ream to beat in the first two practice sessions, but Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, current drivers' championship leader, topped to table in the third session. The final qualifying session went down to the wire with pole position changing places a couple of times in the final seconds. In the end, Kimi took another pole from Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc, at his home race, clipped one of the barriers and got a puncture on his final attempt. The top six provide a neat mirror image being Mercedes-Red Bull-Ferrari-Ferrari-Red Bull-Mercedes, but leave George Russell wondering why he's five places behind his team mate. This is McLaren's 1,000th Grand Prix, but they could only manage seventh and eighth on the grid. You can watch the qualifying highlights here. I don't think there's any rain predicted for tomorrow's race, so it'll be interesting to see whether the new engines specs and two extra cars this year make a difference on the crowded track.

Here's another video from Girl Gone London, this time looking at British foods that are off the radar for most Americans. I have never had bubble and squeak or haggis, and have no intention of trying jellied eels, although I have enjoyed the pie, mash with liquor (a parsley sauce, not alcohol) where they're served. Of the rest, I regularly eat black pudding, marmite and sausage and mash. Toad in the hole is also good, but I haven't had it for a while.

Fanta is Fanta, right? Apparently not. Here's a quick comparison of Fanta from the US vs Fanta from the UK.

A company called WheelHouseTV is making a 5-part, 5-hour documentary called "Knight Rider: Declassified". It's set to feature interviews and behind-the-scene footage from the 1980s show, and then be released on a limited blu-ray and streaming. The weird thing is that the interviewees include John Schneider, Tom Wopat and Catherine Bach. More info here.

It may be "a legit website", but I doubt that Warner Bros are happy about them hosting their shows. Maybe because it's a French run site the laws are different to YouTube, and copyrighted material is more easy to find there, but they've been sued/fined over the years and the site has been blocked in a few countries - see here.

I checked out the end of the movie and the song does appear during the credits, but due to the credits featuring bloopers it's very difficult to hear the lyrics.

I think we've already covered kettles being a rarity in America, but here are some other gadgets that an American has noticed after living in the UK for 10 years.

IMDb lists it on the soundtrack. I'll have to dig out my DVD.

It must be a while since I watched the 2007 movie, because I don't remember this song. Then again, the 2005/2007 movies are easily forgettable!

MELANIE Vincz played Lavinia Bo was with Lucy Mae at Deak Clancy's hunting shack.