“I was hoping to keep Oscar but I lost him,” Brundle said while chuckling. The Sky Sports pundit ended up getting his word in with Ocon in the end as the Frenchman thanked Brundle for his birthday message.

Brundle also managed to get a word with Max Verstappen, who failed to get out of Q2 in qualifying. Verstappen said: “We’ll try to clear some cars early. We also rely on a bit of luck throughout the race to pass cars as you need a big pace delta to pass cars round here which I don’t think we have.

“I think we will be OK but not amazing. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen. Normally our car is better in race trim but I think we are lacking a bit in general over the whole weekend. But I hope I’m positively surprised today.”