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Radio check, Gary. Loud and clear, Nico. Eight minutes till we go. So this time, after fire-up, when the car goes down, no by-point find? No by-point find. Just turn on the pit limiter after we fire-up.

Copy.

And then I reset the EB and the PED, but you can put it where you want it. So right now it's in 6 and 6.

Four minutes till we go. Four minutes.

OK, Nico. Two and a half minutes till we go. Everyone's on soft. Basically all the car ahead is on used soft and everyone behind the rest is on new soft. OK. When we fire up, we'll put you on the deck. We'll put the pit limiter on. Keep the pit limiter until the line. And then on the formation lap, we'll reset the big adjuster and you go back to mode RS for the start.

Two minutes to go.

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Damaged. Front wing is damaged. Copy that, Nico.

What's happening?

Yeah, copy that. So go to mode push and we'll box into this lap, Nico. I assume the damage is bad, yeah? Yeah, it feels pretty severe. I think the front wing is completely broken. Yeah, copy that. So we'll box into this lap, Nico.

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OK, Nico, we'll just go as long as we can on this one and see what we can make of the race. So give us a good introduction here.

What did you do on aerobalance? Yes, the same. We put on the amount we planned for the hard, so it's a little bit on.

OK, let's probably go forward on brake balance.

OK, tyres coming in well. This is a good introduction.

Ok Nico, so we're 34 behind the pack. The people at the back are doing like 38.4.

34 seconds behind, now 33.33. Jesus Christ, a safety car. Anyways, let's hope for that. Otherwise we're fucked. Yeah, we need one. But let's go as long as we can. We'll make it work.

Very good introduction. Gap ahead is 31.0. Lifting coast is good.

The gap ahead is 30 and those people are doing like a 1 minute 40 now on the soft.

The soft is still usable for late in the race, no? Yeah, that's correct. It's ready.

OK, Nico, we'd like to reduce lift in coast to try and build more temp for this tyre stint to get the fronts up a bit.

The tech is very good, Nico. How is the balance? It's different. The wind is quite different now compared to the other days.

Confused, maybe smiling on the nose for, you know, this early in the stage. But not bad.

Copy that, Nico. I think it's also because of the different wind directions.

Copy that, Nico.

Nico, it's a yellow turn 4. Sargeant is off at turn 4. Yellow turn 4.

So that's Zhou and Stroll ahead. They both just boxed on the hard.

Okay, track is clear. Sargeant going again. So Stroll 6 ahead on new hard outlap.

Front's don't respond so much.

Yeah, copy that, Nico. We're just discussing Ocon out of pit ahead in the hard.

OK, Nico, we can push a bit more in 6-7 to try and put more energy in the front, so if you want to try that for a bit.

Okay, Kevin just pitted. He's coming out behind Stroll ahead of Ocon. Gear 4.8 behind Ocon.

It's okay to push more in 6 for more tyre energy. It's too slidy. It's generating temperature.

Understood. Gasly and Bottas behind. 2.5 behind. Outlap on hard. Gasly outlap hard behind.

I'd say air balance is probably a bit too much. Need to back it up a bit. Understood, Nico.

Okay, Ricciardo ahead. Hard outlap.

The front temps are looking better now. At least they're stable. Valtas 1.5 behind. He's doing a 37.2.

Last corner feels very bad. Can't get the front in. Understood.

Any suggestions how to improve the routine?

We suggest to try left toggle turn 14.

Nico, we can go brake balance 1% rearward.

So last lap, Bottas, 37.7. Copy on deck.

Rear is attacking off quite a bit now. Copy.

We'd like to go eight more laps. What do you think? Not possible?

Very hard, but also at very slow pace, obviously. Copy, understood.

Minimum down 1.5 percent. Next one probably 1.4.

Copy that, Nico.

I think we need to stop more aggressive. Do a little. Pull the others a bit too.

We're kind of out of sync, so I don't think they'll react.

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I think the soft at the end might last longer, though, it lets you have better track.

We're going to be taking some risks now. It is what it is.

Mode T4.

Box now, Nico. Box now. Remember, hold brake pressure mode RS.

Down 0.7, 0.8 at once.

Okay, the flap adjust was done like you asked. You can go to mode push.

Okay, bring it in again. We'll have the lift and coast initially just to keep our fuel on target too.

Brake feels kind of dead enough at the rate of 11. There is a split.

Okay, good lap, Nico. So we're going to do like 20 laps on this tyre, and then we'll see.

Okay, we're okay on tyre side and fuel side, so we don't need lift and coast for either of those.

OK, I'll reduce a bit, but it does feel quite efficient. Yep, go with your feeling.

These are good laps. Gasly is 16 ahead doing 38.4 on a hard.

Albe loves it to this day.

We are six laps into this stint, so like 15 or 16 to go.

I think we should have taken off even before our balance.

OK, understood. How about for the soft at the end then?

Yeah, not sure. Need to think about it. Yeah, we'll think about it too.

On the sliding, everything looks good, so there is some margin to push more 6-7.

Yeah, I hear you, but that comes at a cost later.

Yeah, copy that, Nico.

We suggest at 6.

It's such a big difference with the car with an S and where it is. Copy, that's 2 second gap.

OK, Zhou coming out of the pits now as well. He'll be around Stroll.

Press oil pump button.

Sargeant coming out now. He'll be ahead of Zhou.

He is blue flag, no subject. Yes, he'll have a blue for you.

Ocon and Bottas are pitting, so they'll be coming out behind, a ways behind.

Long stint for these guys. Yep.

Okay, Gasly's just boxed. We're still looking at like 10 or 11 more laps, but we're checking everything.

Okay, Kevin just did his last stop onto hard, so he's six seconds behind on his outlap on hard.

Tsunoda has just done his last stop on the hard. He's 2.6 behind, so he's 1.5 ahead of Kevin.

What are your thoughts, Flap, for the last interval? We're thinking zero or take off like point three.

OK. Yeah, depending on how low the sim will be, I think.

Mike suggests to try funk for turn 6. We have Kevin 2.5 behind now. He's past Tsunoda.

OK, Nico. So, Kevin's doing 35.5. We need to let him through when he arrives. We'll still be able to go a bit longer to get onto the soft later. Yeah, we'll help you.

Okay, can we try and let him through before turn 4 and then he's got Tsunoda 1.2 behind.

Okay, thank you, Nico. So, we'll still have a chance to try and get the Alpines and perhaps Albon and Ricciardo. Just need to go a little bit longer on this one.

Well, I don't know when it's optimum, but I think in a few laps. Well, optimal, but you know what I mean. Because we're going to lose a little lap time now the next couple of laps.

Yeah, copy that. What position is Kevin? 12, I see. Yeah, copy.

But it was rear-back on the soft, yeah? For Kevin and Verstappen.

Yeah, copy. Just getting confirmation.

So I think we'll take off 0.5.

Yes, a bit more. Copy.

Box now, Nico, box.

It's not as bad.

Copy. Copy that, Nico.

So the biggest problem is Ricciardo is catching us. We don't want to lose time with him.

I reckon one more lap and we'll be OK with him.

I think he'll catch us in the next lap, in which case we'll lose our time. So we think we need to go now. He is on par. He will struggle when he gets closer.

We need the box now, Nico. Box now, Nico. Box now. Hold brake.

Who is that Williams in front? It's Sargent.

Am I racing him or still not? He is a lap down to you, so when you catch him he'd be a blue. He's on a new soft.

The first car we're racing is Gasly, 10 ahead.

It will be 14 laps to go at the line and Gasly already has like 12 laps on his tyres, so he'll be at 26 laps by the end.

My tyre balance you took off at the end. 0.7 off. Gasly's doing 36.6.

Brake balance 1% rearward.

OK, Gasly is about to have a blue for Verstappen. We missed out the blue during our stop.

Okay, Gasly actually boxed, so the next ahead is Ocon, 12 ahead. He's on a hard, like a 13 laps old hard.

Ocon has just made a move from Verstappen. He's 8 ahead. He's doing 36.5. So one second lap quicker than him and you'll catch him.

We will have DRS catching us at the Ocon near the end, but you'll probably catch Ocon before the gap is complete.

Ten laps to go. Ocon is six ahead. His last lap was 36.9. Good laps.

Gap to Ocon is 5.

We suggest Funk 2 for turn 10.

Eight laps to go. Sergeant ahead will have a blue for you.

Really good job, Nico. Sargeant will have a blue. The next one is Albon. He's 11 ahead. A bit too far, but we'll see if we can close the gap.

So, I did it right now. Look at Alonso in his boots. How far am I from blue flag?

The gap right now is 1.7. It's gotta be 1. It should be 1.2 is when he gets the notification. And he's doing 35.6.

Again, this gap is pretty bad. It's like a wall. Yeah, that's clear. Copy that.

Four more timed.

Brake balance 1% rearward.

Okay, he has the blue now.

Next car ahead is Albon 7.5.

Soch 1, Soch 1, starting last lap, last lap.

OK, checkered flag, Nico, checkered flag.

OK, Nico, so Verstappen 1, P2 Perez, 3rd Sainz, 4th Leclerc, 5th Russell, 6th Norris, 7th Hamilton, 8th Piastri, 9th Alonso, 10th Stroll. We finished 20th Stroll, and Kevin was P12, you finished like 9.5 behind him.

Apologies for turn 1.

It sucks real bad, but I guess the positive news is that we are in the mix and everybody else is positive into the season. Definitely a much better foundation than last year. So overjoyed. Thank you, guys. Yeah, copy that, Nico. We can learn a bit more from the balance in this race, so thanks.