F12020:AustrianGP Review

Wow…Wow what a race,F1 is back with a bang. Three months long wait didn’t disappoint fans, F1 2020 season opener Austrian GP is Chaotic,Entertaining and unpredictable till end. Only 11 drivers are classified out of 20.

Mercedes man Valttari Bottas drove a flawless race to take victory from pole. He survived three saftey cars, continous pressure from behind in the form of Lewis Hamilton and gear box sensor issues, which is hampering both Mercedes cars.

Drama before Start of Race

In dramatic fashion, Just hours before start of race, stewards handed 3 gird place penalty to Lewis Hamilton. Stewards took U-turn on their decision after Red Bull appealed for review their decision with new video evidence. The penalty dropped six time champion to 5th place on the grid and promoting fellow Brit, Lando Norris to P3 and Red Bull pair Max Verstappen & Albon to P2, P4 respectively.

Past few weeks, due to dramatic events across the World F1 launched #WeRaceAsOne program to promote fight against racism and in-equality. World Champions Mercedes changed their livery from silver to black, to send a strong message that they are against racism.

Mercedes driver and six time World champion, Lewis Hamilton was very vocal about racism and he wants his fellow drivers to take knee in support of BLM movement before start of race.But as reports suggested,not all drivers are buying that idea,six drivers refused to take knee out of 20.

How Race unfolded?

Pole sitter Valtteri Bottas got a nice getaway ahead of Verstappen, who squeezed Norris and forcing him to use escape route, there were no collision during first lap.

Bottas had quickly pulled a solid couple of second lead over Verstappen by the start of Lap 3, but the Red Bull man was biding his time, knowing that his medium tyres ,he could stay out longer than the Finn.

Verstappen’s dream of registering Hat-trick wins on and Red Bull’s home grand prix come to an end, when his car lost drive coming out of Turn 1 on lap 11, issue forces him into early retirement.

Verstappen’s ex-teammate Daniel Ricciardo joins him in the early retirements list, when the cameras picked up Australian’s Renault limping around the track. Just a few laps after that , Racing Point’s Lance Stroll forced to retirement with a sensor issue on his RP20.

The drama kept coming, with Haas’ Romain Grosjean spinning on his own at Turn 4, a few laps later, his team mate Kevin Magnussen went straight on at Turn 3, appearing to have lost his brakes. This brought out a Safety Car on Lap 26 of 71, all top-10 drivers pitted for new set of rubber,all drivers switched to hard tires except Perez, who choose Mediums instead of long durable hard ones. Bottas retained his lead over Hamilton, Albon, Norris and Perez after first stop.

Bottas performed a perfect restart on Lap 31, gapping Hamilton nicely. Behind, though, there was a certain irony as Sebastian Vettel – having been unable to make much headway thus far in the race – looked to take advantage of Leclerc and Sainz’s scrap over P6 and sent his Ferrari up the inside of Sainz at Turn 3. But the move was never really on, the pair touched and Vettel was sent into a spin, dropping him to 15th as his replacement at Ferrari next year continued on his way.

With 30 laps to go ,the Mercedes pair was up clear 10s on Albon in third, both Bottas and Hamilton were ordered by the team to stay off the kerbs, the Mercedes pit wall sending continuous reminder to their drivers about the sensors issue on the cars’ gearboxes.

Haas enduring a second retirement when Grosjean ran off at Turn 4 with an brake issue similar to his teammate, while George Russell, having impressively managed to keep the recovering Vettel behind him in his Williams, was also forced into retirement on Lap 51, bringing out another Safety Car.

With Mercedes opting not to change tyres on Bottas and Hamilton’s cars, Red Bull rolled the dice and decided to pit Albon from third, allowing Perez up into the podium place, who decided not to pit. Albon re-joined the race in P4 on a fresh set of softs.

On Lap 55 Racing had resumed for just a few seconds,before another Safety Car was brought out, after Kimi Raikkonen’s front-left tyre scarily came off itself from his Alfa Romeo at Turn 9. Vettel was lucky to avoid the loose tire.Before the Safety was called, Albon had made it past Perez at Turn 3 to claim third place.

With Soft tires on,Red Bull looks handy for Albon. The Thai driver immediately closed on Hamilton at the restart on Lap 61. Albon made a move around the outside at Turn 4 and was narrowly ahead when the pair again touched and contact sent Red Bull man spinning into the gravel.Similar to Last year’s Brazilian GP,Hamiltom cost Albon shot at a podium, as he dropped to last place. The Thai driver, however, would retire from the race a few laps later. Red Bull ended their home grand prix with zero pints and double retirement.

Hamilton was handed a five-second time penalty for the Albon incident.The penalty opened the doors for likes of Norris ,Sainz and Charles Leclerc to push hard and take the final podium place away from Hamilton.Since switching to the medium tyre on Lap 51, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari come alive during final laps of the race,as he passed Norris for P4, before taking Perez for P3, and Ferrari man made sure to stay within 2 seconds of Hamilton to clinch second place.

As Bottas crossed the line to win on Lap 71, after surviving three Safety Car restarts, the Finn was jubilant, having produced his second season-opening win in as many years. as it appeared Hamilton will hold his podium place in the final lap because of Perez’s 5 seconds time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.

It was fellow Brit who stole the podium away from Hamilton with a fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the race, Norris finished the race just within 4.8 seconds of Hamilton’s time, that pushed down six time champion from P2 to P4.

Norris even took an extra point for fastest lap, to cap a mighty weekend from the 20-year-old, who’d also enjoyed his best ever qualifying on Saturday.

Sainz confirmed McLaren’s fine opening gambit for 2020 with fifth place, having made his own pass on Perez in the closing stages, while Pierre Gasly scored points on AlphaTauri’s ‘debut’ with seventh.His team mate Daniil Kvyat, who slid off the track with a left-rear puncture two laps from the end, one of nine drivers to fail to reach the chequered flag in a chaotic day at the Red Bull Ring.

Drivers Standings after First race

Constructors Standings Post AustrianGP