The Austrian Grand Prix, Formula Oneās first race back from its COVID-19 hiatus, was everything the sport could have hoped for after a 200-odd-day break.
The race featured plenty of passing, clever and clumsy driving in equal measure, unpredictable unreliability and a battle for the podium that lasted until the very last lap.
Valtteri Bottas took away 25 points from a track around which heās typically been strong, and with title rival Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth and Red Bull Racing failing to score, heās stolen an early match in his fourth championship campaign with Mercedes.
Valtteri Bottas won a dramatic season-opening Austrian Grand Prix in which only 11 drivers made it to the checkered flag after three safety car interventions.
Continue reading on RACERValtteri Bottas has survived an Austrian Grand Prix of high attrition to claim the first win of the 2020 Formula One season.
The Finn led every lap, but his race was far from easy. The grand prix featured three safety car interventions and only 11 finishers at the chequered flag, and Bottas had to manage ācriticalā gearbox issues that prevented him from exploiting the full performance of his car.
He also had to absorb pressure from teammate Lewis Hamilton in the middle part of the race, though the Britonās threat faded a little past half distance after becoming afflicted with similar reliability problems.
Valtteri Bottas will lead Lewis Hamilton on an all-Mercedes front row after the Silver Arrows dominated qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Mercedes had things all its own way at Spielberg with a more than half-second advantage over Red Bull Racing, but it was Ferrariās lack of performance that shocked most after the Italian team lost Sebastian Vettel in Q2 and Charles Leclerc qualified a lowly seventh.
The battle for pole was a private affair between Bottas and Hamilton, with the Finn taking a 0.122-second upper hand after the pairās first laps.
Valtteri Bottas has claimed pole at the Austrian Grand Prix in a foreboding display of Mercedes dominance, while Sebastian Vettel failed to qualify for the top 10 in a painful afternoon for Ferrari.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of all three practice sessions, although with a reduced advantage, ahead of qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Continue reading on RACERLewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completed a Mercedes Friday practice clean sweep at the Austrian Grand Prix, but it was Sergio Perezās third-quickest time for Racing Point that grabbed the paddockās attention.
Continue reading on RACERFormula 1 may have gone more than 200 days between race weekends, but based on first practice at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, absence has done nothing to shake up the competitive order. Picking up where it left off, Mercedes dominated the laptimes.
Continue reading on RACERI preview the upcoming Austrian and Hungarian grands prix with last year’s podcast guests Luke Smith from Autosport and Chris Medland from Racer.
Formula One isnāt the first sport to resume from coronavirus-induced hiatus, but its 15-race, four-continent plan to return to business certainly makes it the most ambitious.
This weekendās Austrian Grand Prix (5 July), the first of three races in a row, will mark the beginning of a racing schedule of unprecedented intensity. Eight European races are crammed into 10 weeks, and while the sport is yet to confirm the composition of its next tranche of events, its intention is to travel to Eurasia, Asia and the Americas before concluding with three grands prix in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi in December.
F1 is existentially wed to its international footprint. Its āworld championshipā designation is dependent on the series traversing at least three continents, forcing it into a painful logistical challenge in a time of unpredictable border closures and lengthy quarantine times.