Formula 1 is finally back; the Austrian grand Prix gave us an exciting weekend of racing. A terrible start for Ferrari in FP1 as Vettel placed 12th fastest and Leclerc 10th. Ferrari were able to pick up the pace as Charles Leclerc placed 7th. Unfortunately, his team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, didn’t make it past Q2. On the other hand, racing point looked strong as both their drivers made it to Q3, Sergio Perez placing 6th and Lance Stroll 9th. A pretty good qualifying for McLaren’s Lando Norris at 3rd and Sainz 8th. Bottas ended the qualifications on a pole, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton took a 3 place grid penalty placing 5th. Both the red bull cars placed above Lewis, giving Max Verstappen a great chance of victory from 2nd.
However, disaster struck for Red Bull when Max Verstappen lost power on just the 11th lap of the race. Daniel Ricciardo of Renault was forced to retire due to cooling issues, followed by Lance Stroll who lost power in the 20th lap. Both the Haas cars were forced to retire due to brake problems and George Russel’s Williams had fuel pressure issues. Kimi Raikkonen’s wheel nut fell out causing a tyre incident. In lap 31 Carlos Sainz made contact with Vettel and spun him around causing him to fall to the back of the pack.
With both the Mercedes drivers on hard tyres set to take the podium. A safety car sent due to George Russel losing power, allowed Albon to make a switch to the faster and fresher soft tyres, followed by Leclerc who switched to the mediums. Although Albon lost a place pitting, he was behind Sergio Perez who wasn’t able to stop him, and Albon was just ahead of him before the next safety car came out. Another safety car was threatening for Mercedes, as Albon had the win in sight. After the restart, Hamilton was able to keep Albon behind for one turn after which Albon almost overtook him when they made contact and went straight into the gravel. It was like a replay of the Brazil incident of 2019. Lewis was given a 5-second penalty, and Leclerc took this opportunity to show his driving masterclass. After a miserable qualifying for Ferrari, Leclerc overtook Lando Norris and Perez to finish third behind Lewis and make it on to the podium. However, at the same time, Lando Norris was given the opportunity for his first formula one podium. An excellent overtake on Perez meant that he had to finish within 5 seconds of Hamilton. Lando Norris on his medium set of tyres finished the race with the fastest lap and made it to his first podium
Writer: Vansh Rana
09/07/2020
Comments