Race Review: Styria

Max Verstappen claimed the podium in Styria today, making it a back to back win for the Dutchman. Whilst it wasn't the most exciting GP race to have ever happened, there were some great moments, all topped off with a Ver, Ham, Bot podium at the end.

The Styrian GP was the first of two races at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The circuit length is 4.318 km (2.68 miles) with 10 turns and 3 DRS zones. The drivers complete 71 laps with the fastest lap last year going to Carlos Sainz, with 1:05.619.

Free practice was fairly uneventful. FP1 saw Verstappen, Gasly and Hamilton top the time sheet, with Verstappen, Ricciardo and Ocon for FP2 and Hamilton, Verstappen Bottas at the top for FP3. However, a bizarre pit lane spin from Bottas whilst leaving his pit box during FP2, saw him receive a 3 place grid penalty and 2 points on his licence. The team were trying something new, getting him to launch in 2nd gear however, with the fresh hard tyres, it did not go to plan. It wasn’t a reckless move; however, it could have been incredibly dangerous for his and the McLaren engineers, who helped him back out. The penalty could be seen as harsh, but the FIA can’t let pit lane spins go without consequences, particularly as they are trying to crack down on pit stop safety. You can watch the spin here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_cDMg4R4Gc

Qualifying was an interesting one. With the forecast threatening rain, but none showing up, it was going to be tight on the short track. Q1 knocked out Mazepin, Schumacher, Raikkonen, Ocon and Latifi. Q2 saw Giovinazzi, Vettel, Ricciardo, Sainz and Russell (who missed out on Q3 by 0.008 seconds) out. Q3 resulted in a 3-place grid penalty for Tsunoda for not getting out of Bottas’ way safely or in time. With both his and Bottas’ penalty taken into consideration, the starting grid for the race was:

P1 Verstappen, P2 Hamilton, P3 Norris, P4 Perez, P5 Bottas, P6 Gasly, P7 Leclerc, P8 Alonso, P9 Stroll, P10 Russell, P11 Tsunoda, P12 Sainz, P13 Ricciardo, P14 Vettel, P15 Giovinazzi, P16 Latifi, P17 Ocon, P18 Raikkonen, P19 Schumacher and P20 Mazepin.

After the usual pre-race messages, national anthem and fly-over, we had lights out. It was a great getaway from Verstappen and Hamilton, with a battle for 3rd between Norris and Perez from P3 through the first few corners, Norris managed to hold onto the position. However, at T1 there was contact between Leclerc and Gasly, with Gasly getting a left-rear puncture and Leclerc doing damage to his front wing. As he was running flat, Gasly then tagged Giovinazzi and Latifi, with Giovinazzi spinning at T3. Gasly then made it back to the pits and retired due to suspension damage.

On Lap 10, both Perez and Bottas managed to take Norris, putting the Brit down into P5. He let them pass fairly easily as the McLaren’s race is with Ferrari and not with Mercedes and Red Bull, despite him being able to battle with Perez so early on. Ricciardo then had some trouble with power, dropping him back down to P13 from P8. Stroll was having a great race, up to P6 from P9 by this point.

As cars started to pit, Lap 27 saw an 18.3 second stop as his mechanics were picking debris out of the sidepod of the car. Perez was the first to pit out of the top 4, with a slow stop of 4.8s, before Bottas came in the following lap and managed to undercut Perez on the pit exit, taking P3. Russell had to pit again unfortunately due to reliability issues with the power unit but got back out on the track. The rest of the cars continued to pit changing the order as expected.

Unfortunately, Russell had to pit on Lap 39 and retired the car as his power unit problem had not been fixed. Sainz finally boxed in Lap 43 and managed to come out P7, a great stop, however, Ricciardo's pit on the same lap dropped him down to P15. Sainz then managed to overtake Alonso, who was absolutely fuming as he had lost time when letting Verstappen go passed which has allowed Sainz to catch him. Leclerc was making his way up the grid at the same time, making some great moves, however, he clipped Raikkonen's front wing in one of the moves but took P12. As the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen got bigger, Leclerc continued to overtake, going around Giovinazzi on Lap 47, before taking Vettel on Lap 51. The race continued with few order changes.

On Lap 56, Red Bull pitted Perez for new tyres in the hope of going for the fastest lap, as getting past Bottas was seeming unlikely. Leclerc took Tsunoda on the same lap for P9. Perez on his fresh tyres was flying around the circuit, taking huge chunks out of the gap between him and Bottas, the battle for P3 may not be over just yet.

On the final few laps, Raikkonen overtook his old teammate Vettel for P11. Verstappen was so far ahead at this point that Hamilton pitted again to go for the fastest lap. As Verstappen took the chequered flag, Hamilton got the fastest lap and the battle for P3 continued, however, Perez just needed a few more corners if he was going to be able to overtake Bottas, meaning the Finn finished P3 and the Mexican P4.

The race finished: P1 Verstappen, P2 Hamilton, P3 Bottas, P4 Sainz, P5 Norris, P6 Sainz, P7 Leclerc, P8 Stroll, P9 Alonso, P10 Tsunoda, P11 Raikkonen, P12 Vettel, P13 Ricciardo, P14 Ocon, P15 Giovinazzi, P16 Schumacher, P17 Latifi, P18 Mazepin, with Gasly and Russell as DNF.

Driver Of The Day: Leclerc

If we forget about the first lap, Leclerc had a brilliant race. He boxed at the end of the first lap due to damage however worked his way back up from the bottom, with some brilliant overtaking and finished P7. A much better weekend compared to his P16 France. He called it one of his best performances in F1 when congratulated at the end of the race, but said it was bittersweet as he wanted to be further up that P7.

Biggest Crash: Leclerc and Gasly

A collision with Leclerc in Lap 1 saw Gasly and Leclerc both run wide. Upon re-joining the Ferrari clipped Gasly’s left-rear tyre, causing suspension damage to the AlphaTauri and breaking the Ferrari’s front wing. Gasly then managed to knock into Giovinazzi and Latifi at T3 after running flat, then having to retire, with Latifi having to pit. It wasn’t the most spectacular crash however the damage it caused must have been such a difficult one for Gasly who had qualified P6 and was on for a great race. Gasly commented on the situation, saying:

“I ended up on three wheels or even two wheels and some point, so definitely not what we wanted and yes, big shame because it was amazing weekend until now and yes, I’m really disappointed not to be able to fight for points and especially to score points, because we had a great package this weekend.”

You can see the damage to his car here, with the front right not even on the ground as he crawled back to pits:

Overtake Of The Day: Bottas and the undercut

There were some great overtakes in the race today, particularly from Leclerc, but one of the best was Bottas’ pit lane undercut on Perez. The Mercedes team pitted him in response to Perez pitting. After a quick stop, Bottas was coming out of the end of the pit lane as Perez was coming down the main straight. Bottas managed to get out in front of Perez, gaining a place as he was behind Perez before the two of the pitted.

Biggest Heartbreak: Russell

Having missed out on Q3 by 0.008 seconds and then being promoted to P10 with free tyre choice after Tsunoda’s grid penalty, it was looking like it was going to be a great race for Russell. He started well, working his way up to P8 before an over 18-second pit stop due to debris stuck in the sidepod meant that he had to come in again at the end of the lap, before having to retire the car due to power unit reliability issues a few laps later. The driver, who needs to impress Mercedes, was doing so well and looked like he had so much promise for this race. Everyone was hoping he would do well but it clearly was not his day. He tweeted:

“This one hurt. Every single member of the team should hold their head high today. We were up there on merit. Racing can be brutal but we keep fighting.”

Best Radio Comment: Sainz' Race Engineer

It has to go to Carlos Sainz’ race engineer who sang the song ‘baby shark’ to him when congratulating the driver for his P6 finishes. We do know the Smooth Operator loves singing over the team radio…

Takeaways

Red Bull are really starting to run ahead in the races. If you take out the extra pit from Hamilton, Verstappen was still about 15 seconds ahead. It’s going to be difficult for them to find that time in a week before the second race next weekend. Whilst Hamilton put in a great performance, it was clear from the post-race interviews that he wanted to be doing better and going faster to close the gap to Verstappen. However, he did tie the all-time record for the highest number of 2nd places in F1, equalling Michael Schumacher. Hopefully, we will see him break the record this season for most wins ever.

Ferrari were back this weekend. A brilliant driver from both Leclerc and Sainz put them P6 and P7, taking vital points in the Constructors championship, particularly as only one of the McLarens made it into the points. The battle for best of the rest is still very much alive and it will be interesting to see how it plays out for the rest of the season.

Qualifying must have been difficult for Ricciardo and Ocon. Both were at the top of the classifications for FP2, however, Ocon didn't make it out of Q1 (qualified P17) and Ricciardo didn't make it out of Q2 (qualified P13). Clearly, something isn't transferring across the who weekend for the drivers. Whilst Ocon made it back up to P14, Ricciardo stayed P13 after struggling to make his way back up the grid having pitted. Fingers crossed next weekend will be a better one for them.

We are back at the Red Bull Ring next weekend with the final race of the triple header. Will Red Bull make it a back to back victory? See you then!