Qualifying for the Austrian GP was once again very exciting. Max on pole, Mercedes struggling, Lando an incredible P2, and Russell an unbelievable P9 after getting into Q3 on Medium tires.
The race should be renamed the 5 second penalty grand prix. For the most part it was a snooze for 60 laps, but the finish was excellent.
Red Bull were the class of the field. Give Max Verstappen the best car, and it is frightening what he can do. In terms of pure domination, it may be the best drive of his career, and he didn't even have to push it. Perez on the other hand had a race to forget as it was a big missed opportunity. Getting pushed out into the gravel effectively ruined his race, but he wasn't able to progress forward despite being in the best car. His first penalty against Leclerc was well deserved, the second one I felt was closer to a racing incident. But by that point, this was the 3rd pushing a driver off track incident Perez was involved with, and she should have learned by then. Those 10 seconds of penalty proved costly as it dropped him to 6th.
Mercedes were not as bad as they showed today. Had the race unfolded naturally after Perez went off, I think 2nd and 3rd was very possible. Their pace was held up by Lando, otherwise the car was fast enough for podiums and to at least put some pressure on Max. Lewis got damage at some point and wasn't really in contention, while Bottas was held back to until late in the race where he was given the okay to pass Lewis. Traditionally the Red Bull Ring has not been their greatest track over the last 7 or 8 years, so this result is pretty good and I think we'll see them back to form in Silverstone.
McLaren had a very good car, and Lando drove exceptionally well. Despite what the media suggests, I completely agree with the penalty he was given. Perez was not just along side of him, but actually had a nose ahead going into the corner, and it is Norris' responsibility to leave a cars width. He didn't, he drove his car out onto the kerbs and Perez was forced off track. Ricciardo had a decent race, but was still way off the pace compared to Norris. He was the slow car leading the mid field train and if he would have been quicker in clean air, he would have benefited from Perez's 10 second penalty.
Ferrari had strong race pace. They made the right call by putting the cars on Mediums in Q2. Sainz got to start the race on Hard tires from 10th place, but unfortunately was a sitting duck in the opening laps and fell back until he was able to just focus on their strategy. Ferrari made the right call by letting Sainz through to challenge Ricciardo, which he made the pass on the last lap and then put his foot down to stay within 10 seconds of Perez to move up to 5th. Incredible. Leclerc appeared to have better race pace than Sainz, made some great moves at the start to get ahead but from there was stuck in traffic the entire race. Getting pushed off track twice certainly didn't help his race. He deserved better than 8th place, but that's how it goes.
AlphaTauri was kind of in the land of nowhere. Gasly getting points once again, but we really never saw him during the race so we don't even know if his race could have unfolded differently. Yuki Tsunoda ruined his own race by making the silly mistake of cutting over the white line on pit entry... not once but twice!
Alpine had all their pace in one driver, Fernando Alonso, who had a brilliant battle with Russell. For most of the race it appeared Alonso would be stuck out of the points, but once he caught up to the Williams, the fight was on and Alonso did everything to get the position. A great fight for just 1 point, that defines Alonso's racing mentality. Ocon simply had a miserable couple weeks in Austria and I am curious to see how he bounces back.
Williams should be proud of their performances, though it was mostly carried by the majestic talent in George Russell. Credit to the Mercedes power as they were awfully fast in a straight line and have had good results around the Red Bull Ring before. A bit of a shame they couldn't convert that amazing qualifying into points, but realistically it was a long shot to begin with. Russell couldn't have put himself into a better position in the event someone in front had issues. It just didn't happen. Latifi can only be happy his dad has money to keep his seat. He really needs to start showing a result. He's at risk of being considered the worst driver on the grid behind Mazepin.
Aston Martin really struggled. Starting on Soft tires I think is what killed their race. Track position was everything and once a car got behind another, it was stuck their. A pretty poor performance by Stroll who by all accounts should have finished ahead of Tsunoda and his 2 penalties. Vettel got caught up in the last lap crash with Raikkonen which was about as 50/50 as I have ever seen, but it didn't matter anyways.
Alfa Romeo didn't have a bad race. Raikkonen was very very good in the race and was right behind Russell and looked to be a good bit faster at the end of the race. Unfortunately his race ended in the crash, which as I just said, was completely a racing incident that was 50% both drivers fault. Giovinazzi's early pitstop didn't help him, but didn't hurt him all that badly, just didn't have the pace to make passes on track.
Haas stayed out of everyone's way when getting lapped, didn't crash or break down. So that's good. Schumacher was head and shoulders above Mazepin once again.
Driver of the Day: Max Verstappen. This was a very difficult decision as Lando deserved it just as much. Lando outperformed the McLaren and could have finished ahead of the Mercedes, but since I believe he deserved his penalty, that's a blemish that may have cost him 2nd place. Verstappen who didn't have a challenge from anyone, but his 9/10ths driving was still easily fast enough to have a nearly 30 second gap, pit for new tires, and easily open that back up to 18 seconds over a dozen or so laps. He was in the zone.
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