F1 made history in Austria as for consecutive weekends, a race was held at the same venue, the Red Bull Ring. Despite arguments over social media hashtags, the 'Styrian' Grand Prix offered the unique opportunity for the teams and drivers to apply what they learned from Round 1.
A chaotic weather forecast spilled into Saturday and we were treated to a blockbuster qualifying session. Delayed sessions along with a potential cancellation, it teetered on the edge of disappointment but the stewards rightly deemed the conditions safe enough for track action. After all, these are 20 of the best drivers in the world.
Having impressed once again in practice, Racing Point and Sergio Perez especially, were unable to find similar pace in the wet. Ferrari had yet more issues as this time it was Vettel who knocked Leclerc out of Q2, with Q3 only rewarding the remaining Ferrari with a lowly 10th. Carlos Sainz stole an unexpected 3rd for McLaren, Esteban Ocon superbly placed his Renault into 5th while George Russell impressed for Williams.
The undoubted star of the show was Lewis Hamilton. He mastered the treacherous conditions to dominate the field, 1.2 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen in 2nd. His lap has got to be up there with his very best, comparable with his pole in Singapore a few years ago. Regardless of what machinery each driver had at their disposal, no-one could get close to Hamilton.
Sunday's race wasn't as exciting as qualifying, the Mercedes had excellent pace and seemed to have overcome its sensor issues that hampered its drivers last time out. Ferrari were in disarray (again) as Leclerc overcooked it into Turn 3 on the opening lap, spearing into Vettel and ripping his rear wing off, resulting in a shock double retirement. Verstappen stayed comfortably in 2nd for most of the race and fought brilliantly against Bottas, going back around the outside through Turns 5 and 6. Eventually the Finn's speed was enough to pass Max for the first Mercedes 1-2 of 2020. Albon drove a decent race but cut adrift from his teammate, finishing 4th. The Racing Point's vastly improved in dry conditions with both drivers fighting against Renault and McLaren. These tussles went back and forth throughout the 71 laps, but Lando Norris excellently delivered to finish best of the rest.
Perez had great race pace and was fighting Albon for 4th until contact coming out of Turn 4 severely damaged the Racing Point's front wing. The damage progressively worsened and the train of Ricciardo/Stroll/Norris behind, sniffed a P5. Stroll divebombed past Ricciardo at Turn 3, allowing Norris to catch up and get amongst them. Pushing on the final few laps, just as he did the previous week, Norris stormed to snatch 5th on Lap 71 from a slowing Perez just before Turn 10. A photo-finish on the line determined Perez collected 6th, with Stroll and Ricciardo just behind. Hamilton taking a convincing victory demonstrated he was back with a vengeance after his Round 1 disappointment.
Only time will tell if there will be any consequences of Renault's post-race protest over the legality of Racing Point's cars. Until now it had seemed that a protest would be unlikely, but Renault raised the question around the 'Pink Mercedes' brakes - potentially suggesting they are identical to those on the 2019 Mercedes. The FIA deemed the protest admissible so it will be interesting to see what the outcome will be.
Another exciting finish to a Grand Prix and now with two races under our belts, the 2020 season is fully up and running. Valtteri Bottas comes away from Austria with a 6 point lead in the championship, Lando Norris still notably sitting pretty in 3rd while McLaren are staking their claim for 3rd in the championship, currently best of the rest behind Mercedes. Looking ahead to the final instalment of the season's first triple-header, Hungary will host Round 3 and we seem set for another midfield spectacle and hopefully a close fight between Mercedes and Red Bull.
Matt
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