🚨PODIUMS IN THE LAST 5 GPs Mercedes - 7 Red Bull - 5 McLaren - 3 Ferrari - 0

That was the second-closest finish we've seen in F1 this century 🤏

What really happened after the State Dinner. The lost Xi camera roll has been found.

Mercedes: "And for my next trick… ready, set, slow." 🪄 Mercedes built their 0.8s pole margin from thinking fast AND slow. Lots of things made that lap fast: the driver, the car, the timing. But starting it slow made it faster. Silverstone: Mercedes coasted across the line to go faster. Baku: they charged across it. GIVES UP: ~9 km/h (up to 13) for 370 m = costs ~0.1s by Turn 1 GETS BACK: ~7 km/h (up to 10) for 1,540 m down the final straight = up to 0.36s back (0.15s on Leclerc). Pole by 0.837s. Start slow: out lap and into Turn 1, flat out but held in 7th, and the car stops accelerating because it's superclipping (harvesting at full throttle). 298 km/h at the line while the rivals shift to 8th and deploy: 302 to 311. Finish faster: on the final straight the rivals run dry. George doesn't. 331 km/h peak and 314 at the flag, against 302 to 309 for the others. Why it works: recharge resets at the line. At Baku the FIA allows 9.0 MJ on out laps and 8.5 MJ on a qualifying lap. So the harvesting before the line comes out of the bigger budget, on the lap that isn't timed. Every push lap in Q, 20 drivers shifted to 8th before the line. Mercedes never did (0 of 9). George first tried it in Thursday's FP2, and both cars used it on every push lap in FP3 and Q. Kimi did it too, before his crash in Q1. Could everyone do this? Don’t think so, each PU is different, code and the thing itself, so it’s not that simple to just copy past it, only McLaren and Ferrari tried the Merc PU Silverstone lift, but no other power unit has shown this one. Even the Mercedes customer teams (McLaren, Williams, Alpine) shifted to 8th like everyone else. Could a customer copy it? We don't know. Would be interested to know if there was a conversation in McLaren before P3 and Q if they spotted it if they could try it to go faster. That's the bit I love. Some teams are still chasing reliability and fixing problems. Mercedes are past that and into optimising, finding a tenth in the gaps. Is it why George got pole? It's part of the margin, not all of it. He had clean air and no tow, and he was quickest through the castle and sector 2 too. But it shows you that even at the front, with pole in the bag, F1 teams are still relentlessly pushing for extra performance. It's not a magic trick. It's maths.

I often think of this video. Being in a room full of these people is like a form of torture.

NEW: Kansas City Chiefs star DL Chris Jones says he will donate to Mississippi State’s NIL efforts to retain QB Kamario Taylor: “I’m going to donate some. We’ve got to keep this quarterback, we’ve got to keep him around.” (via @mattderrick) on3.com/news/chris-jones-ple…

Another notable item from this preliminary injunction order. Like other courts recently, the Indiana court found that “[u]nder the plain, unambiguous text of the [NCAA] Manual, Plaintiffs are eligible” b/c the text of the new eligibility bylaw doesn’t exclude the class of 2022.

Jaxson Dart, who is probably going to be out for at least a month, walked to the locker room. Caleb Williams, who might not miss a single game, cried while being carted to the locker room.

Dang, this one hurts. Even Jevon Kearse has ditched the @Titans and will be rooting for the Eagles today. From @JClarkNBCS

Setlist of The LOOP TOUR in Philadelphia, PA 🩷 — He scrambled the songs order, there were no fan requests & he added to the setlist ‘Take It Back / Superstition / Ain’t No Sunshine’, ‘Lego House’, ‘Tenerife Sea’ & ‘Supermarket Flowers’ (no B stage & new band)

The crowd raising their flashes for ‘The A Team’ tonight in Philly 🧡

Fucking nailed it 👏 well done Ed Sheeran @edsheeran

ESPN’s Alyssa Lang says ‘scary accident’ cause of Week 3 college football broadcast absence awfulannouncing.com/espn/aly…