Round two at Spielberg, Austria saw different weather conditions to the those of the season-opener. The heavens had opened already on Saturday morning, which caused the FP3 to be cancelled. At the scheduled start of the qualifying it was still pouring with rain, and there were puddles of water all over Red Bull Ring. After a 50-minute delay the qualifying finally got underway in extreme conditions.
Performance-wise nothing really changed in the wet conditions. Mercedes showed strong pace in the wet, and expectedly, Red Bull's Verstappen shone in the slippery conditions. Ferrari had brought some upgrades to this race already, including an updated front wing, but unfortunately the upgrades didn't convert into pace on track. The qualifying result was as poor as last weekend; Sebastian made it into decisive Q3 as the last driver, whilst teammate Charles was knocked out of the last session! Only tables had turned in terms of the red-suited drivers, but otherwise nothing else had changed from last week.
At first it seemed, that the shootout for pole was going to be extremely thrilling. Throughout the last session the name on top of the standings kept changing rapidly. First it was Verstappen, who set the fastest lap time. However, the Dutchman was briefly robbed of the top spot by storming Hamilton. With 6 minutes remaining, teammate Bottas stormed into the lead. Then Hamilton stroke again, making it on top of the timetable! Verstappen gave his answer by banging the fastest lap time. But the reigning world champion always seemed to have room for improvement. In the last minute Verstappen was driving an extremely competitive lap, but got surprised by the slippery conditions and span. At the end of the day there was only one king at soaking-wet Red Bull Ring, and that was Lewis Hamilton. He improved his lap time on his last flyer, which made the Briton 1.2s faster than anyone else, Red Bull's Verstappen being his closest rival. McLaren's Sainz was a surprise third, leaving last week's pole-setter Bottas fourth. Ocon qualified fifth for Renault and Norris sixth in his sister McLaren. However, the Briton had been given a 3-place grid penalty for overtaking under the yellow flags in FP1, which dropped Lando down to P9. Sebastian was unable to make it any higher than P10, which was a major disappointment. Seeing him 2.3s off the pole-setter's pace broke my heart.
Due to the wet qualifying session everyone had a free choice of tyres for the race. Every top driver, except for Ricciardo in P6 and Sebastian in P10, opted for the red-walled soft rubber. The two above-mentioned relied on the yellow-marked medium compound. What had made Ferrari's situation even worse, was the grid penalty handed to Charles after impeding AlphaTauri's Kvyat in the qualifying. The Monegasque had been dropped three places down to P14. In the end, pouring rain had turned into clear skies and dry track.
Hamilton took a controlled start, holding on to his lead. Sainz in his orange McLaren put immense pressure on Verstappen, challenging him for P2. Bottas was in solid P4. But Turn 3 on the opening lap saw a terrific turn. Sebastian was fighting two cars, going into that corner. Teammate Charles, who had been dropped further down due to his penalty, was desperate to gain ground as soon as possible. He saw space in the inside of Sebastian and dived in. However, there was no room there, and Charles ended up crashing into Sebastian's SF1000! The impact ripped off Sebastian's rear wing and caused severe damage to the floor of Charles' SF1000. Sebastian had no choice but to pit and retire the race! Charles pitted for a new front wing, but due to the massive damage to his floor he had to retire a few laps later. What a nightmare start to the race for the Red Team! I was absolutely shocked! This was the last thing, that the team needed, as they were in overwhelming trouble with their car performance already. The red cars' collision brought out the safety car. However, the debris from the Ferraris was rapidly cleaned off, and the race was resumed.
Although McLaren had showed excellent pace in the qualifying, their race pace turned out to be a different story. Bottas made his way past struggling Sainz, moving 3rd in the race. A moment later Albon, too attacked the Spaniard, dropping him down to P5 already. The top three drivers were in a league of their own. Albon in P4 was massive 20 seconds down on Bottas.
After the pit stop roulette Hamilton was in a firm lead, followed by Verstappen and Bottas, who had had a longer first stint. Their tyre strategy was identical, as they had all switched to the medium compound. After the pit stops the driver to stand out from the crowd was Racing Point's Perez, who was absolutely on flames in spite of their modest pace in the qualifying. With 15 laps to go, the Mexican had hunted down Albon, whose pace was more modest than that of his teammate's. There was going to be an intense battle for P4. Meanwhile, Bottas had also started to close the gap to Verstappen, who was struggling with his rear tyres. Max also had a small damage to an end plate of his front wing. It was obvious, that the Finn was going to challenge the flying Dutchman for P2 by the end of the race.
The race really came alive towards the closing laps of the race. Norris, whose pace had left a lot to hope for in the beginning, now made a stunning overtaking move on his teammate, moving 8th. By lap 66 Bottas, on the other hand, had made it within striking distance from the Red Bull ace. Thanks to the DRS, Bottas made it ahead of the stubborn Dutchman, but no way Max would surrender volunteeringly to the Finn. Max attacked back like a rattle snake, taking his position back. But Bottas kept his head cool and attacked again a lap later. In the end, there was nothing Max could do to prevent Bottas from moving ahead. Hats off for Valtteri for that move, as Max is probably the most difficult driver to overtake at the moment! After losing the position, Max pitted for a fresh set of soft Pirellis and rejoined the track in secured P3.
In spite of having been in the striking distance for several laps already, Perez had been unable to get past Albon. On the second last lap the Mexican made a venturous move on the Thai driver, which led into contact between the two. Perez's front wing got damage, which ended the fight for the Mexican. And there was a threat coming from behind as well, as there was a bunch of drivers battling for P6. Ricciardo, Stroll and Norris all wanted to score those 8 valuable points. It was absolutely amazing, how Norris came alive on those closing laps. The young Briton first attacked Stroll and then Ricciardo, making classy overtaking moves on both rivals. On the penultimate lap Lando forced his way past Perez, snatching valuable P5! The wheel-banging overtaking move on Albon proved costly for Perez, who could only barely hold on to his 6th place.
Hamilton cruised to victory for the 85th time in his career. Bottas finished the runner-up, securing the first 1-2 of the season for the Silver Arrows. Verstappen, who proved unable to take the fight to Mercedes, completed the podium. Teammate Albon finished 4th, completing a good day for Red Bull, who finally managed to bring both cars to the chequered flag. Norris' fantastic P5 converted into P3 in the drivers' championship standings.
Ferrari are facing black times at the moment. After two races they have 19 points in their bag only, whereas last year they had scored 48 points in two races. 19 points entitle the Scuderia to modest P5 in the constructors' standings. Sebastian has scored one point only, making him 14th in the standings. Thanks to Charles' excellent P2 in the opening race, the Monegasque is currently in P4. The team will find a way through this, although there won't be any shortcuts. Disappointments and setbacks tend to form a negative circle, which cannot be turned around easily. One thing I know for sure: this is the time to give the team more support than ever! Support is the word, not judgement! Forza Ferrari!
Passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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