Round 8 brought the F1 caravan to the venue, where Covid19-hit last season was finally kicked off -Spielberg, Austria. Red Bull Ring is the circuit with least corners (only 10) on the calendar. The scenery around the circuit is absolutely breathtaking with high mountains, green forests and significant elevation changes.
Due to a 1-minute lap time, there were only few drivers, who could afford to opt for the medium tyre in qualifying. Both Mercedes drivers came out on the more durable rubber, as did Red Bull's Verstappen. On the other hand, Perez in the sister Red Bull had been a bit lost with his performance in the free practice sessions, and the Mexican had to play it safe and opt for the soft tyre. The battle to get into the top ten was extremely tight. Williams' Russell proved to be the first driver to miss out on Q3, but by eight thousandths of a second only! Unfortunately Ferrari hadn't been able to solve the mystery of their missing pace in France last week. Sainz proved unable to make it within the top ten, and the Spaniard had to settle for P12.
There was no doubt, who was the king of Red Bull Ring. Home hero Verstappen laid his hands on provisional pole by over three tenths to Hamilton. After the first runs McLaren's Norris was third and Bottas fourth, leaving Perez fifth. Hamilton managed to improve his lap time on the last flyer, but still the gap to Verstappen remained in two tenths. Bottas delivered at the end, but the Finn, either wasn't able to take the fight to Verstappen. However, P2 was going to turn into P5 on the starting grid, as the Finn had been handed a 3-place grid penalty for the race due to spinning on the pit lane on Friday. This promoted Hamilton on the front row alongside his arch rival Verstappen, Norris third and Perez fourth. AlphaTauri's Gasly and Ferrari's Leclerc locked down the third row.
Although the weather forecast had predicted even thunder storms for the race day, the conditions were perfect at the time of lights out. It was cloudy and the temperature was +26 degrees Celsius, making the track temperature rise up to over 50 degrees. Verstappen took a perfect start from pole, accelerating into the lead. Hamilton held on to his second place. Perez, who started to the race on the red-walled soft tyres, challenged Norris for the third place, depriving the place of the Briton momentarily. However, Norris managed to claim his place back. In terms of the top five the start was clean, but there was drama for Charles on the opening lap, as for AlphaTauri's Gasly. Also Williams' Latifi and Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi were involved. Charles got his front wing damaged, and Gasly had severe damage to his rear left tyre. The damage proved so severe, that the Frenchman's car was pushed into the pit garage, ending the race for Pierre. After pitting for a new front wing, Charles rejoined the track at the back of the pack.
From the start it was obvious, that Hamilton wasn't able to match Verstappen's pace. Norris in third also had a lot to hope for in terms of McLaren's race pace. After ten laps the young Briton was in trouble with storming Perez coming from behind. On the sequential laps, both Perez and Bottas made it past Norris, dropping the McLaren pilot down to P5. Perez opened the pit stop roulette on lap 27, but unfortunately it was a delayed pit stop for the Mexican. Mercedes changed their strategy right away and called Valtteri in on the sequential lap. It paid off, and Bottas managed to rejoin the track ahead of Perez. The pit stops of the top two didn't change the pecking order; Verstappen's lead was never jeopardised. In terms of tyre strategy the top two teams' choices were identical; all four drivers opted for hard Pirellis. Meanwhile George Russell, the rising star of Williams, who was driving in outstanding P8, had to retire from the race due to reliability issues, which was a huge shame after such a promising start to the race.
In the halfway point of the race Verstappen's lead to Hamilton was 4.5 seconds. On the other hand, the gap between Bottas and Perez remained around three seconds. So no excitement in terms of the top drivers. Luckily the midfield drivers offered plenty of close wheel-to-wheel battles. After pitting for the second time, Charles started to move up in the pack. He had an intense battle with Alfa Romeo's Räikkönen, which even took a piece off from Kimi's front wing. After claiming the Iceman's sculp, the flying Monegasque attacked first Kimi's teammate Giovinazzi and then his last year's teammate Vettel, moving up to P10 already. Meanwhile, also Carlos made a classy move on Aston Martin's Stroll, jumping sixth.
Perez was called in on lap 55 for the second time, as his fourth place was secured. The Mexican opted for another set of medium tyres. Red Bull clearly aimed for repeating the strategy used in France, to use the two-stop strategy against Mercedes' one-stopper. Perez's gap to Bottas was now 20 seconds. Meanwhile, Charles continued his impressive overtaking show by passing both AlphaTauri's Tsunoda and Alpine's Alonso. Charles' pace was absolutely convincing, which was delightful to see.
Perez's pace on the medium tyres was totally on a different level compared to Bottas, who had 30 laps on his hard tyres already. With three laps to go, the Mexican had decreased the gap into just 3.5 seconds. It was going to be extremely tight between the two on the final lap. On the penultimate lap, Hamilton pitted for a fresh set of soft tyres to nail the fastest lap time in the end. Starting the final lap, Perez had made it within DRS distance from the Finn. Verstappen cruised to the chequered flag as the race winner for the fourth time this season. This was the fourth win in a row for Red Bull Racing, which anticipated the change of the reigning team this year. Last time Red Bull have taken four wins in a row happened in 2013, when Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber drove for the energy drink team. The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas completed the podium, leaving Perez closely fourth. Norris finished fifth for McLaren, followed by the Scuderia duo of Sainz and Leclerc, who brought valuable points for the Red Team. Charles was voted as the Driver of the Day, which was well-deserved indeed. Hamilton did nail the fastest lap time on the very final lap, so the extra point went to the reigning world champion.
Verstappen now extended his lead into 19 points in the championship standings. Red Bull, on the other hand, have now a 40-point lead in the constructors' standings. And the battle is on this week already, as it's time for the sequel of the double-header in Austria. Bring it on!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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