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Speaker 1: Right now. Liam Lawson the man in the moment. He's

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Speaker 1: completed his first practice session as a full time Red

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Speaker 1: Bull Formula One driver and he's already had a pretty

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Speaker 1: close call. He was going around the Melbourne circuit. He

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Speaker 1: slightly grazes the wall on a turn. Have a look

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Speaker 1: such a Harteous on the entry of Sin nine. I

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Speaker 1: just brushed it. Liam finished the first practice session with

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Speaker 1: the sixteenth fastest time and the espn IF one writer

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Speaker 1: in Melbourne is Nate Saunders, who joins us now for more. Nate,

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Speaker 1: good afternoon to you. Good evening from us. How's our

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Speaker 1: boy Liam looking?

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Speaker 2: Hey? How are you doing? Yeah, you're right. It was

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Speaker 2: a close call for him and I think probably a

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Speaker 2: pretty you know, standard start to his Red Bull career.

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Speaker 2: You know, he was down the order a little bit,

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Speaker 2: but when you're in a team like that, that's pretty

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Speaker 2: much pretty much the first thing you got to do

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Speaker 2: is just make sure you don't put your car in

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Speaker 2: the wall. So I think, you know, a slide starts

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Speaker 2: the weekend and we've got another practice session coming up

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Speaker 2: in a little bit as well.

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Speaker 1: Who's performing who do you need to beat? Who's performing best?

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Speaker 1: So far? Well?

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Speaker 2: Redbell are an interesting spot because I think one of

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Speaker 2: the big things we're all looking to see is where

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Speaker 2: they sit in that top four. We think McLaren pretty

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Speaker 2: much looked like the team to beat. They maybe are

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Speaker 2: a tiny bit ahead of the rest, but then that

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Speaker 2: three team gap group behind them looks super close. You've

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Speaker 2: got obviously Ferrari who ran McLaren really closed last year.

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Speaker 2: You've got Redbell in there, but Mercedes are going to

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Speaker 2: have stepped up as well. So really for Redbell, what

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Speaker 2: they're looking to do is just finish, you know, in

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Speaker 2: a competitive spot in that kind of in that three

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Speaker 2: car team. But Max look quick as he always does,

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Speaker 2: and I think Liam's job, as you know, as a

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Speaker 2: new guy in the team, I think his big thing

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Speaker 2: is just to not be kind of disgraced in that

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Speaker 2: early spell by Max, because so many teammates of maxi

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Speaker 2: Stappen start on a slow footing and just never really recover.

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Speaker 2: So if you're Liam, I think the first thing you

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Speaker 2: got to do is just make sure he's close to match.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure beating him straight out agatest, you know,

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Speaker 2: the most realistic thing, just given that he's the railing

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Speaker 2: four time world champion, But it's super tight up there,

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Speaker 2: and he should have a pretty competitive car. It just

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Speaker 2: you know, I think I think I actually spoke to

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Speaker 2: him earlier and he said that everything he's doing is

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Speaker 2: just it's just about easy himself in. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: a long, long season, twenty four races. He doesn't need

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Speaker 2: to go out and be a hero on day one

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Speaker 2: or session one, and that's quite a smart way for

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Speaker 2: him to have approached. Is what everyone's saying. He's a rookie.

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Speaker 2: It's not his He's not officially a rookie, I guess

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Speaker 2: because he's had ten races over two seasons, but it's

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Speaker 2: his first full season and Formula one, so no need

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Speaker 2: to kind of, you know, get off to some flying

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Speaker 2: start and make, you know, make some big mistake and

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Speaker 2: have all the pressure on you suddenly. So I think

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Speaker 2: he's I think he's looking pretty pretty solid and he's

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Speaker 2: taking a sensible approach.

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Speaker 1: To that, because you would be feeling, as you say,

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Speaker 1: he's done being in the seat before, but not as

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Speaker 1: a full time so you would be feeling a bit appreciation.

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Speaker 1: What's the atmosphere like that? I can hear a bit

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Speaker 1: of it behind you. What's the atmosphere like there night.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I wasn't show how much you could pick up.

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Speaker 2: It's great, honestly. I mean, obviously Australia this year is

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Speaker 2: the host event, and I think for a lot of

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Speaker 2: us who grew up watching racing in the nineties and

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Speaker 2: early two thousands, this was the opening race and it's

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Speaker 2: a good reason why it was so popular, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's just it's just so there's so many fans here,

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Speaker 2: are such a colorful and noisy place. Obviously they've got

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Speaker 2: Oscar Piasty to cheer on to the local fans. But

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Speaker 2: I've got to say I heard a massive cheer earlier

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Speaker 2: when I was walking into the circuit. They have something

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Speaker 2: called the Melbourne Mile here. It's the Melbourne Walk where

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Speaker 2: all the drivers come in and I assumed, oh, must

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Speaker 2: be Lewis or it must be must be Maxed. It

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Speaker 2: was actually Liam getting a really really big reception. I

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Speaker 2: think that, you know, maybe maybe in other sports the

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Speaker 2: Australian New Zealand River is a bit stronger, but here,

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Speaker 2: you know, it seems to be quite embraced quite well.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a great place for fans, great great

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Speaker 2: circuit and it will go back to bar Rain next year.

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Speaker 2: Which it looks a shame because I think this to

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Speaker 2: kick the season off, and especially for those of us

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Speaker 2: who used to play all the former one games growing

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Speaker 2: up as well, this is always the one you played

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Speaker 2: straight out of the gate, so it feels feels more familiar,

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Speaker 2: and I think the drivers like it as well. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: really really really good atmosphere. And actually there's a practice

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Speaker 2: session about to start, so there's a few drivers walking

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Speaker 2: past me kind of looking very serious and very intense,

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Speaker 2: so they're about to go back into their racing cards.

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Speaker 1: Sounds fantastic. We'll lead you back to at night night

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Speaker 1: Saunder's espn IF one writer with us from Melbourne. For

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Speaker 1: more from Hither Duplessyellen Drive, listen live to news talks

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Speaker 1: it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on Iheard Vidio