Qualifying at the scorching Red Bull Ring was filled with surprises. One of them was Ferrari´s tyre strategy in Q1. The Red Team sent their drivers out on the medium compound, whilst all other top drivers opted for the soft rubber. Red Bull Ring was expected to be Mercedes' turf, so it was surprising to see, how tame their pace was, as the qualifying proceeded. Kimi's first flyer was ruined by Hamilton, who impeded the Iceman. Kimi showed "the international finger gesture" to the Briton. When asked about it after the qualifying, Kimi said, that he had only pointed out the planes. Hilarious Kimi! Nevertheless, Kimi made it into Q2 in the end.
Q2 also saw a surprising aspect in terms of tyre strategy. Like expected, the Mercedes drivers came out on the medium Pirellis, as did Red Bull's Verstappen. The Red Team, on the other hand, opted for the soft compound. Red Bull Ring seemed like home for Leclerc, who had already won there both in GP3 and GP2 series in previous years. Sebastian was two tenths down on his teammate, with Verstappen third, three tenths off the pace. Hamilton and Bottas were only fourth and fifth! Were they sandbagging? However, something worrying happened at the end of the second session. Sebastian sat in his pit garage, with handful of mechanics working all over his Lina... It didn't look good!
Unfortunately Sebastian's problems continued, as Q3 got underway. Soon it was obvious, that there was a major issue in question, something, that wasn't going to be easily fixed. So Sebastian was out of the shootout for pole! Now, that Hamilton seemed to be in trouble, it would have been critically important to qualify as high up on the grid as possible... On the other hand, teammate Leclerc was absolutely flying! He took provisional pole, and wasn't going to let Hamilton even dream about snatching it from him! Charles improved his lap time in the end, and although Hamilton found some extra pace, he was only able to make it second. Verstappen was third, Bottas fourth and Haas' Magnussen fifth.
There were penalties, which affected the grid. Magnussen had been given a 5-place grid penalty due to a gear box change, which dropped the Dane down to P10. Hamilton was handed a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Kimi in Q1, but because Magnussen had been given his penalty first, Hamilton dropped only two places instead of three. The penalties meant, that Leclerc and Verstappen formed the youngest ever front row in the history of F1! The Mercedes aces were on the second row, Bottas third and Hamilton fourth. And what an eventful and action-packed race the Austrian GP evolved!
Pole-setter Charles accelerated into the lead, as the lights went out. Verstappen, on the other hand, had a catastrophic start, as his RB15 got into the anti-stall mode. This cost the Dutchman five positions! Kimi in P6 had an amazing start, and the Iceman had made it fourth on the opening lap! McLaren's Norris was fifth, followed by Sebastian, who had impressively made his way from P9 to P6. Sebastian showed excellent race pace, making his way past both Norris and Kimi, claiming P4 already.
Bottas and Vettel opened the pit stop roulette. Sebastian's pit stop was far from perfect, as the team had difficulties with attaching one of his tyres. Those difficulties cost Sebastian five extra seconds. Hamilton had hit the yellow "sausage" kerbs quite carelessly, and the Briton reported on the team radio, that he was missing downforce. The team called him in, and he had his front wing changed. These ten extra seconds proved costly for the reigning world champion, as both Sebastian and Verstappen managed to jump ahead during his pit stop. Verstappen, by the way, pitted ten laps later than the other top drivers, as the Dutch Red Bull ace had managed his medium tyres extremely well.
I don't know, where Max's performance came from. After the halfway point of the race he was absolutely flying on the hard Pirellis, and rapidly closed the gap to Sebastian in P3. Sebastian defended his position like a lion for many laps, but after a courageous battle Max managed to make it past the German. Ferrari reacted right away and called Sebastian in for the second time. On a fresh set of soft tyres Sebastian started to chase Hamilton, who was in P4.
Towards the end of the race Max smelled his rivals' blood. He was a second per lap faster than Bottas, who couldn't extract the maximum out of his W09, due to an overheating issue. After making it within DRS distance from the Finn, Max patiently lurked for his chance to overtake, and on lap 56 the rattle snake decided to attack. The orange grand stands were cheering fiercely, as the Dutchman squeezed it past Bottas, moving second. And Max had clearly set the next target: race leader Leclerc.
4.5-second gap was nothing for the wind-fast Verstappen. With six laps to go, Max had chased down Charles, showing himself continually in the Monegasque's mirrors. It was an immense wheel-to-wheel battle indeed. Max pushed himself into the inside of Charles, but the Ferrari ace managed to keep his position -just barely. Three laps before the chequered flag, Max decided to take the victory. He attacked Charles, making him go wide, and then snatched the lead. There was even a light contact between the two. It was true racing indeed! The stewards took the incident into investigation, but luckily there were no penalties given. Racing is what fans love about the sport!
Behind the top two, Hamilton and Sebastian had an intense battle of their own. Sebastian had closed the gap to the Briton, and on the second last lap, he squeezed past Hamilton! The chase for Bottas began... Unfortunately Sebastian ran out of laps, and P4 was the best possible result this time. Phenomenal Verstappen deserved his sixth career win. The runner-up Charles was extremely disappointed with the result, as this was already the second time this season, that he had almost won the race! Bottas completed the podium, with Sebastian fourth and Hamilton fifth. "The best of the rest" was McLaren's Norris.
Hamilton's lead in the championship standings shrank into 31 points, which is still an awful lot of points. Thanks to Max's sensational victory, he passed Sebastian in the standings, jumping third. Hopefully Silverstone will offer as entertaining and thrilling race as Austria did! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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