Hamilton returns to dominating form with victory in Styrian GP, Bottas strong for Mercedes 1-2; hobbled Verstappen P3; Ferraris crash each other out to complete disastrous weekend

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton didn’t have to wait long to get the bad taste of last week’s penalty-induced P4 finish put of his mouth. After grabbing pole in rain-soaked conditions yesterday, Hamilton was back to his usual championship form on race day in beautifully dry & sunny conditions for this back half of the doubleheader of races at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The English six-time F1 champ simply ran away from the field on Lap 1 of the Styrian Grand Prix, never to be seen again by any of the other top contenders and with no bothersome electrical gremlins forcing him to tame his aggression, as was required in race one. In the end, it was all rather procedural for Hamilton on this day, as he reminded everyone that he is still the man to beat in Formula 1 and made his intentions clearer than ever of tying the great Michael Schumacher’s record seven World Championships this very year.

It was also a better day for Mercedes as a team than last week, as their number two man Valtteri Bottas, who won the first Austrian race to open the season, was able to pounce on the wounded Red Bull of Max Vertsappen late in today’s contest to seize P2 and compliment Hamilton’s victory. Fighting gamely with a damaged front wing and an underpowered machine compared to the supreme Silver Arrows, Verstappen was able to re-pass the hard charging Bottas on Lap 66 but had to yield to the inevitable on Lap 67 of this 71-lap contest. It was a good recovery drive from Bottas, who started from P4 on the grid after failing to fully come to grips with Saturday’s very challenging wet qualifying conditions. Still, it must give the veteran Finn some pause that he ended up over 13.7 seconds adrift of his teammate after he had bested him so handily last week for an encouraging season-starting win. With the races now coming thick and fast after such a long postponement of the 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic it should be very interesting to see which way the balance of power within Mercedes truly swings. For now after two races at the same track and in relatively identical race day conditions it is Bottas 1, Hamilton 1.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

As good as the day and weekend wound up being for Mercedes it culminated in an utter disaster for their key rivals Ferrari. With both their drivers starting deep in the midfield after subpar wet weather qualifying efforts and a penalty to Charles Leclerc, the P11 Leclerc got prematurely racy on Lap 1 while his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, was fending off attacks and trying to better his own mediocre P10 starting position. Leclerc dove for an opening on Vettel’s right that quickly closed as the German tightened up towards the apex of Turn 3 while trying to fend off the Racing Point of Lance Stroll and a pack of other hungry cars surrounding them. The two Ferraris subsequently touched opposite rear wheels sending Leclerc bouncing up into Vettel’s rear wing and destroying it. While Vettel was forced to retire immediately Leclerc also suffered terminal floor damage and was out on Lap 5. After a somewhat lucky second place and tenth place finish for the Prancing Horses last week today’s double-DNF was a nightmare scenario for the Scuderia, with virtually no usable technical intel from their week two upgrades to be passed along for the next race. With a car that frankly looks quite pokey already compared to the Red Bulls and certainly the Mercedes, not mention perhaps on nearly equal footing with the McLarens and Racing Points, Ferrari will be absolutely desperate to have a good showing at the next race in Hungary. Fortunately for all involved that chance is only a week away, though it could be quite an uncomfortably frosty won for all concerned at Maranello.

Further back in the field, the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon and the Racing Point of Sergio Perez has a supreme, multi-lap ding dong contesting for fourth place and best of the rest honors. Perez looked to have the advantage in his near-clone of the 2019 Mercedes (in fact, after the race Renault lodged a protest against the Racing Point chassis for its extreme similarity to last year’s Merc) and it seemed a matter of time before Albon was overhauled. But on the penultimate lap Albon defended Perez’s advancement vigorously and Perez’s front wing banged into Albon’s right rear tire. Albon scooted away to secure his P4 finish and Perez was left with a damaged car, soon to be swallowed up by the two-stopping McLaren of Lando Norris on much fresher Pirellis. Norris, who drove superbly all day after starting from P9, charged home in P5 and the rapidly slowing Perez had to desperately fend off the other Racing Point of Lance Stroll (P7) and the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo (P8) for a well deserved P6 finish. The second McLaren of Carlos Sainz took P9, though he also got a bonus point for setting the race’s fastest lap after also two-stopping for fresh Soft tires, and Daniil Kvyat got the last point fir AlphaTauri in P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Styrian GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week and is actually from a different circuit and country this time — the Hungarian Grand Prix from the technical and always challenging Hungaroring, So the teams have precious little time for significant improvements to try and challenge what look to be supreme Mercedes machines yet again this year. But for Ferrari it’s certain the next race can’t come soon enough after their Syrian disaster this Sunday. Hope to see you in Hungary to see how things go in week 3!