Murray : "McLaren - if they can keep going of course - are going to close up on Ferarri in the Constructors Championship, a bit, becuase....."
Martin : "Problem!"
Murray : "Into the pitlane comes the race leader Mika Hakkinen." (to retire).
Murray: "Look up there!! That's the sky!!!"
From the British Grand Prix 2000:
Jim R.: "[It's over to] the big Easter Bunny of Formula 1, Murray Walker."
Murray: "I don't know about the big Easter Bunny, Jim. I used to go to the Bunny Club in Park Lane quite a lot, but my wife's watching the programme so enough of that!"
"Jenson Button is in the top ten, in eleventh position."
Spain 2000:
"Aaaand look at this..."
"The man who is going against the grain, literally, in terms of tyre choice is Michael Schumacher."
"...and Barrichello goes through - wow! Fantastic, fantastic! Barrichello takes both of them, Michael goes down to 5th place and Ralf Schumacher goes to 4th!" (some real racing gets Murray going on full throttle)
"I remember in Imola, I went up to three Union Jack-wrapped chaps after Nigel Mansell had won a race, and said 'That wasn't bad, was it?', and they said 'Che?' - they were all Italians!"
"So while we wait for them to come on to the podium, and I'll interrupt myself when they do..."
Nurburgring 2000:
Murray: "It would be wonderful for David Coulthard, for McLaren and for Britain if he could get Pole Position, because he has yet to get one this year, and I have seldom been anything like as much impressed as I was by his dignity and fortitude in the face of enormous adversity at the British Grand Prix meeting two weeks ago."
Martin: "I was in Spain a few weeks ago, Murray. I think we were both there."
Murray: "Just making sure you were awake there, Martin. Glad you were."
"So let's assume that Michael Schumacher wins this race, whoa!" (Schuey slides on a white line just as Murray talks about him)
Monaco 2000:
"And in front of David Coulthard, the scarlet McLaren of four-times Monaco Grand Prix winner, Michael Schumacher."
James: "Situations like this, Murray, sometimes give rise to the funniest little things. There's one portable toilet at the end of the pit-lane. Michael Schumacher decided immediately upon rejoining the grid he wanted to go to it. And shortly afterwards Mika Hakkinen and Ralf Schumacher arrived and had to stand in an orderly queue while Michael spent a penny, and they all came back out again."
Murray: "So the Germans got to the loo first of all."
Canada 2000:
"Ron Dennis may have got the CBE - and he richly deserves it - but having successfully overcome the combined efforts of two very determined security men to prevent me getting into the commentary box, I think I deserve one too!" [You'll just have to make do with your OBE then Murray!]
"Coulthard is the only man who is holding a candle to Michael Schumacher, and that candle is under the Ferrari's rear wing, because Coulthard is now within half a second of Schumacher's Ferrari."
Germany 2000:
"There's three Germans here at Hockenheim in the race tomorrow, if they all qualify. Four Germans - the Schumacher brothers, and Frenzten and Heidfeld." (Murray does Python)
"When you walk round the Hockenheimring, it's quite a spooky feeling, because you've just got these enormous, dark, satanic pine trees all around you, and it's as quiet as a mouse."
"This is, very literally, the calm before the storm."
"I have to say it again - in Formula 1 anything can happen, and it usually does. And everything has happened in this quite amazing motor race."
"Frentzen attack! attack! attack!"
"If you believe in Ferrari get down and pray, because Rubens Barrichello is on his last lap on what is looking like his first victory."
Hungary 2000:
"Totally unpredictable, what is going to happen in this race. All that you can say at the present moment is that the two fastest men this year in Hungary are up at the front on the grid."
"Two lights on, three lights on, four lights on, five laps on..."
"McLaren and Ferrari have won six races each this year. Mika Hakkinen has won three, David Coulthard has won three, Michael Schumacher has won five and Rubens Barrichello has won five."
Belgium 2000:
Murray is interviewing Jenson Button in the Williams hospitality area. From where he is sitting and with the angle of the camera, part of the signage is obscured so now reads "MW.WilliamsF1Team". (Murray finally lives his dream!)
"Replay through the Bus Stop of Jarno Trulli. And those kerbs with their saw teeth - s-a-w - really do give the car and the driver a shaking."
Murray: "...5th is Jenson Button, terrific stuff.." Martin: "Third, now!" Murray: "AAAND LOOK AT THAT! THIS YOUNG MAN IS INCREDIBLE!"
Murray: "Button into the right hander and out of it, and the gap between him and Mika Hakkinen IS A MERE THREE TENTHS OF A SECOND. IF HE KEEPS THIS UP HE'S GOING TO GO UP TO THE SECOND PLACE ON THE GRID, BECAUSE JARNO TRULLI'S TIME WAS 7-TENTHS OF A SECOND SLOWER THAN THAT OF MIKA HAKKINEN. LOOKING SMOOTH, LOOKING CLEAN, LOOKING TOTALLY IN CONTROL OF THINGS. INTO THE BUS STOP, OUT OF THE BUS STOP, OVER THE LINE WILL GO JENSON BUTTON AND HE IS IN
. . . . . . . . . . . ."
Martin: "Stays third."
(Murray sounds totally crest-fallen, or maybe just out of breath!)
"Yes! Jean Alesi has just gone round in 2 minutes and 2 seconds, so that's three seconds faster in the Prost than Alesi in the McLaren."
Italy 2000:
"Mazzacane competed in Touring Cars and the obligatory kart racing and in Formula 3 for a couple of years before he went to the inevitable Formula 3000. Although it's not so inevitable these days - Jenson Button has avoided it and so has Luciano Burti."
"But Jarno Trulli is not having a nightmare as he comes down to the Barrichello for what will be the last time..." (unfortunately for Murray, the Italians have not yet named a chicane after the Brazilian!)
"Ferrari are having a bit of a renaissance here in Italy."
Indy:
"and the rain came down and washed the circuit dry"
"........and Schumacher has just completed lap 77 out of 73."
Hope you enjoyed as usual!!!!!
