Iconic Formula 1 commentator Martin Brundle has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at US rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s bodyguards, after an awkward moment during his pre-race grid walk at yesterday’s United States Grand Prix.
Brundle, who has made an artform of interviewing drivers and celebrities on the grid for more than two decades, attempted to get a word with the 26-year-old, only to find his path initially blocked by a bodyguard.
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“That’s a very big bloke in front of her,” Brundle said.
“Megan, Martin Brundle from British television, how are you?
“Megan Thee Stallion, you’re a freestyle rapper,” he continued, as the bodyguard attempted to brush him off.
Megan, however, seemed happy to talk, indicating the bodyguard should back off.
“OK boss,” Brundle said to the bodyguard.
“You’re a freestyle rapper, have you got any raps for us today on Formula 1?”
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Megan laughed loudly, happy to play along.
“I have no rap today, I’m sorry,” she said.
At that point a second member of her entourage intervened, apparently telling Brundle, “you can’t do that.”
“I can do that, because I did,” Brundle replied as Megan was whisked away.
The former F1 driver, who raced from 1984-1996, posted a message to Twitter this morning, taking a swipe at Megan’s handlers.
“I have felt under pressure on the grid before but by people called Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Mansell, Piquet and so on,” he wrote.
“Bodyguards visiting the grid for the first time don’t bother me, everyone’s got a job to do, but they could maybe learn some manners and respect on our patch.”
https://twitter.com/MBrundleF1/status/1452665203598974979?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Brundle was also brushed by tennis star Serena Williams, although golf champion Rory McIlroy was happy to chat.
The grid walk has taken on a life of its own since it debuted at the 1997 British Grand Prix. Red Bull boss Christian Horner, himself a former driver in the lower categories, once remarked that it was a shame Brundle was too old to have driven at the Singapore circuit.
“It’s a shame you weren’t fast enough to get to Formula 1,” Brundle shot back with a smile.
Speaking to the Press Association earlier this year, Brundle recalled his favourite grid walk moment.
“Ozzy Osbourne in Montreal,” he explained.
“He wasn’t fully with it, shall we say. I asked him a question and he gave me a very long, incomprehensible answer.
“I said to him ‘I’ll try and think of a question to that, but in the meantime how are the dogs?’ And he said ‘they are at home s—ing on the carpets’.
“It went out live to millions of people and I got in trouble because I was supposed to have known he would swear if I asked that question.
“It’s nine minutes of unscripted, unrehearsed, car-crash television. I turn into this person I don’t recognise, butting in and interrupting. In 24 years, I don’t think I’ve ever watched one back.”
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