Martin Brundle was left red-faced after making an embarrassing blunder while interviewing Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois during his grid walk at the Monaco Grand Prix.
As ever, Brundle took the Sky Sports cameras down the grid before the start of the race on Sunday to see which celebrities were around. After speaking with Kylie Minogue and Orlando Bloom, the reporter spotted the imposing figure of Courtois in Monaco so went over for a brief chat.
It did not go to plan, with Brundle starting off his question with a glaring mistake. Addressing the Belgian, he said: "As a Spaniard, you've got Fernando Alonso and the lovely Carlos Sainz.”
To his credit, Courtois looked irritated but decided to brush off the error, avoiding embarrassment for Brundle. He replied: "Yes, indeed. In Spain, we are rooting a lot for this victory of Fernando. He's in a good starting position today so let's see what can happen."
Brundle continued on his way down the grid shortly after and soon realised his gaffe. Speaking to the camera, he said: "And of course he's Belgian, not Spanish."
Courtois had a much more straightforward conversation with a reporter from DAZN. "I come here with a lot of desire and I hope to see the 33rd race win for Fernando,” he said. “Qualifying yesterday was a shame, in the second sector I thought it was for Fernando".
There were some classic Brundle moments with other interviewees, with Hollywood actor Bloom using his screen time to advertise his upcoming film.
"This is Archie Madekwe who is the star of this movie, we star together in a movie called Gran Turismo," Bloom said. "It's a Sony title. Basically, Darren [Cox] came up with this idea of putting Playstation kids off their couches and into cars onto tracks. It's a crazy idea, but it worked."
Brundle was quick to crack a joke, replying with: "Great stuff, that's the advert out of the way…”
Minogue revealed she was in Monaco on her 55th birthday to support Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. And it was an incident-packed broadcast for Brundle, who was forced to apologise to viewers for an X-rated incident with a Red Bull employee.
Brundle was trying to speak with Red Bull chief Christian Horner when an official blocked his path. "You've got to go this way... I'm sorry,” Brundle said.
A Red Bull employee then lost his cool and said: "No... I'm going to get in f****** s*** dude!"
A Sky Sports official then informed the Red Bull employee they were broadcasting live before Brundle said: "Sorry for the language."
Brundle did eventually manage to get his interview with Horner, as well as singer Beverley Knight and television chef Tom Kerridge.
