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MALAYSIA
“Plenty of traffic out there, considering there’s only ten cars on track.”

“I’m doing radio, sadly, instead of television at the moment, ‘cause we’re watching the wrong car.”

“There’s gonna be some interesting tyre choices going on. I’d love to just take the [tyre] cover off that Ferrari if they weren’t gonna disassemble me limb by limb.”

“He’s just putting his skidlid on.”
(meaning he’s putting his helmet on. I think this is very good as he is using slang to interest people on a boring bit of someone putting a helmet on.) Submitted by Felix Morris-Duffin (aged 12).

“They must have thirty or forty devices on the exterior of those cars, developed in a wind tunnel, and then as soon as you put another car in front of it, they don’t work properly. The car doesn’t handle. They’ve gotta get rid of all that lot if they want a Formula 1 car to follow another closely.”

James: “Give us a little insight into what it feels like at the end of a Grand Prix when that tiredness starts to creep in.”
Martin: “You just want the guy behind you to go away.”

Driver of the Day
“It’s a tremendous victory for Fernando Alonso, but the way Hamilton overtook the two Ferraris in the first corner and then held on, it’s gotta be Lewis Hamilton.”


AUSTRALIA
James: “Must be impossible to be a racing driver’s wife when it’s not going well.”
Martin: “I don’t know – I don’t have any experience of that! But you do tend to take it out on the one who’s closest to you and probably your biggest supporter. I do have experience of dishing some of that out, that’s for sure.”

(Martin drove a new Super Aguri earlier in the year.)
“They are absolutely beautiful, and they’re just an extension of your mind, really. You think, ‘I wanna go over there,’ and the car goes. Let’s be honest, at the time it wasn’t the fastest Formula 1 car around, so quite how magnificent a McLaren or Ferrari must feel ... I worry they’re almost too good because the limitation of how far you can go is more your neck, and just believing the car will stick.”

“Button – in the exit of Turn 4 – is in the car park.”

“Welcome to the grid. Happy Mother’s Day if it’s appropriate to you, especially my mum, of course.”

Martin: “I’ve never seen so many people on the grid.”
Bernie: “I know. I don’t know how they get here, to be honest with you. We’ll have to get rid of them, won’t we?”
Martin: “Well, we need a few of them.”
Bernie: “No, we’ll get rid of the mechanics!”

Martin: “You’re talking about a night race. Is that for real?”
Bernie: “That’s gonna happen.”
Martin: “So, what, I’m gonna be going round with a torch, am I, looking for you?”

(Looking for Nick Heidfeld) “I’m looking for a man with a bit of a seventies beard on.”

“(Hamilton’s) obviously getting a big chat there from The Ron.”

(Bernie mutters in Martin’s ear something about a Prime Minister in a nearby group.)
(A little reluctantly) “Right, we’ll talk to the Prime Minister. (He goes over to the group while Bernie steps back and leaves him to it.) Where? Which one? Who do I need to talk to? Who is the Prime Minister? (He desperately looks round for Bernie.) Bernie, you’ve sent me over here – now you’ve left me high and dry! Who am I talking to?! (He briefly talks with the right man, apparently clueless as to which country he’s the Prime Minister of, then glances despairing at the camera as he walks away.) Right, well, that was very good, wasn’t it?!”

“Right now (Jenson’s) behind the Williams, which he’s effectively sponsoring because he had to pay off not going to Williams; he’s behind a Super Aguri, last year’s car; he’s behind his team mate, so it’s all the wrong things for Jenson.”

(On the pronounciation of ‘Kubica’)
“Kewbitza’s going well ... Koobicka. He likes to be called, apparently, Koobicka because he thinks it sounds faster. It should probably be Koobitza but I’m going with Koobicka. What are you going with?”
James: “I think you and I are gonna trip over each other on this all season!”

(Jenson gets a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.)
“At least the Honda’s fast down the pitlane today.”

“If you go out with (Raikkonen) he’s fascinating company, he never stops talking! That’s the amusing thing – you’re like, ‘Shut up, Kimi, let somebody else say something’!”

“It’s a funny thing – you’re driving like a lunatic and have a brilliant pitstop and suddenly [your team mate’s] car is in front of you and you think, ‘How did that happen? That doesn’t seem possible. I’ve just lost a place.’ You can spend the next half lap trying to understand.”

(Watching replays of Coulthard’s car flying over Wurz’s head.)
“Every time I see that, I get a little bit more scared for both of them.”

Driver of the Day
“I think Rosberg did an extraordinary job today but if you look at the whole weekend and the race in general and the fact that it’s Lewis’ debut, you have to give him Driver of the Day.”