{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","title":"Did The Baku Curse Strike Again?","description":"A race of three parts, carnage at turn one, and a podcast first — nobody scored a single prediction point!\n\nNicola Hume is joined by F1 commentary legend Ben Edwards and special guest, former BBC F1 presenter Holly Samos, to unpack a wild weekend in Azerbaijan — plus look ahead to a long-awaited return to Sepang for the Bahrain Grand Prix (in Malaysia!). And make sure you listen to Holly's amazing Kimi Antonelli story!\n\nON THE AGENDA:\n\nKimi's qualifying nightmare — into the barrier at turn one, out of the session, 16th on the grid… then a fightback to 5th. Great save, or championship wobbles creeping in?\n\nRUSSELL WATCH — at LAST a positive George story! On it from FP1, pole by over half a second, and he finally gets a slice of 2026 luck. Mr Saturday won on a Saturday! Is this the start of a Norris-style title fightback?\n\nRETURN OF THE ISACK — Hadjar comes back swinging, picking off Norris and Leclerc before hassling his own teammate for third. With Max stuck behind Piastri for 10 laps, should Red Bull have made the switch?\n\nVINTAGE VERSTAPPEN — 8th to 3rd in seven laps, rockets off both safety car restarts, and misses the win by ONE TENTH. Surely a Red Bull victory is coming before the season's out?\n\nMcLAREN MELTDOWN — upgrades, a nearly-stellar Piastri drive, then matching turn one offs and Lando wiped out in the restart carnage. Is the championship challenge officially over? No points!!\n\nMENTAL MIDFIELD BATTLE — Colapinto causes chaos at the restart, Lindblad takes out Lawson, and Haas sneak into the points. Does Colapinto deserve a ban? And has \"best of the rest\" slipped away from Alpine?\n\nUPGRADE WATCH — McLaren, Red Bull, Audi, Williams and Cadillac all brought new bits. Who leaves Baku happiest?\n\nWE NEED TO TALK ABOUT… ASTON MARTIN — Alonso barely out-qualifying a Cadillac and a double retirement. Is anything salvageable this season?\n\nHOLLY'S AMAZING KIMI ANTONELLI  STORY — the master of F1 access on what it was really like spending pre-season with Antonelli.\n\nSEPANG RETURNS! F1's first visit in nine years… and rain forecast for race day. Buckle up.\n\nTHE PREDICTION CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD — after a historic zero-point round, what do we reckon for this weekend.\n\nHit that follow button, like, and subscribe.\n\nFollow us @ESSENTIALF1 on all the socials.\n\n#F1 (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/f1) #bahraingp (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/bahraingp) #sepangcircuit (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/sepangcircuit)","author_name":"Essential F1","author_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/5148359-essential-f1","provider_name":"Audioboom","provider_url":"https://audioboom.com","width":480,"height":95,"thumbnail_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/43458036/600x600/c","thumbnail_width":600,"thumbnail_height":600,"html":""}