Loser: Alexander Albon
Wow, how could this happen again? With fewer than 20 laps remaining in the race Alex Albon saw a gap on the outside of Lewis Hamilton and a chance to grab 2nd place from the defending world champion. He seemed to get around Hamilton cleanly but at the last second Hamilton attempted to regain track position and the drivers touched tires and Albon spun. It was not an exact repeat of Brazil 2019 (there Hamilton trailed 2nd placed Albon and the drivers made contact when Hamilton attempted a slightly desperate overtake) but it was only a very slight variation. Mark Twain once said “history doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes” and it certainly rhymed today.
Winner: Lando Norris
In another slight variation of 2019 Brazil Albon and Hamilton’s contact led to Albon spinning out of contention and a steward’s penalty for Hamilton allowing a normally mid-pack McLaren to sneak onto the podium. This time it was the young Lando Norris who put down an incredible final lap to just barely get within five seconds of Hamilton (whose five second penaly meant he fell from 2nd to 4th behind Charles Leclerc as well as Norris). Overall it was an exceptional race from the Brit; he held off his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., made a great pass on Sergio Perez, and got the fastest lap to boot. Getting the fastest lap results in one extra World Championship point for driver and team and in a year like this, with and unknown number of races, every extra point is extremely valuable.
Loser: Three-and-a-half months of extra engineering preparations
I considered making this a winner for the Red Bull ring because if it was trying to beat the stuffing out of the racecars it certainly succeeded. Out the 20 cars on the starting grid only eleven finished the race, not to mention that the Mercedes team were constantly reminding their drivers that if they kept hitting the curbs, they would shake their cars to pieces. However, I am going to place the blame with the engineers who had months of extra preparation time and yet made cars which seem to be even less reliable then usual. This was especially problematic for team Red Bull, who usually perform very well here, but could not get either car to even finish the race. Admittedly Albon had to retire only a few laps after his contact with Hamilton, although it is currently unclear if they are related, but Max Verstappen barely made it ten laps before his car stopped working.
Winner: Valtteri Bottas
Obligatory winner of this race in the winners’ section of this column. However, Bottas genuinely put together a very good race. He led wire to wire, holding off Hamilton while driving conservatively enough to keep his car from breaking down on the harsh Austrian circuit. He was especially good on the three yellow flag restarts, each time he was able to gain separation form Hamilton and the rest of the pack.
Other Thoughts:
Mixed bag for Ferrari. They looked positively mediocre in qualifying but showed better pace during the race itself. Leclerc slowly moved himself from 7th forward, certainly benefiting from Verstappen’s retirement and Hamilton’s contact with Albon, but it’s better to be lucky than good and today Leclerc was both. Sebastian Vettel was not lucky or good however, spinning has car and himself out of the race going for an overtake and finishing in 10th.
Weird moment when Norris attempted to pass Perez late in the race. Perez had been issued a five second penalty for speeding in the pitlane so either way he would finish behind Norris and had little reason to defend his track position. And Perez did not defend it until Norris was pretty much past him when he belatedly tried to close the door on the young Brit. The tires bumped but fortunately neither car spun or was damaged.
I feel kind of bad for Nicholas Latifi, the only driver to finish the race but not get any World Championship points (10th place or better). On the other hand, I am sure 11th place feels a lot better than DNFing.
Lance Stroll was one of today’s many DNFs because although daddy can buy you a race team, he can’t buy you a working racecar apparently.
What happened to the awesome looking Renault? During preseason testing team Renault may not have had the fastest car but they certainly had the coolest looking one. It was all black nose to tail, it looked like a cross between an F-117 and Darth Vader’s helmet. But come this weekend Mercedes is in all black and Renault has slapped a giant swath of yellow on the top of their car. What on earth for? Did the FIA rule there could be only one all black car? This seems unlikely since the Red Bulls were nearly identical to the Toro Rossos for years. Perhaps Mercedes simply paid off Renault for the sole use of the all-black look. I hope the payment was worth it because now the Renaults are both slow and dull looking.
Race Results:
DNFs
· Max Verstappen-Red Bull-Retired lap 12
· Daniel Ricciardo-Renault-Retired lap 18
· Lance Stroll-Racing Point-Retired lap 21
· Kevin Magnussen-Hass-Retired lap 25
· Romain Grosjean-Haas-Retired lap 50
· George Russell-Williams-Retired lap 50
· Kimi Raikkonen-Alfa Romeo-Retired lap 54
· Alexander Albon-Red Bull-Retired lap 68
· Daniil Kvyat-Alpha Tauri-Retired lap 68
Finished
· Nicholas Latifi-Williams-11th
Finished in the Points
· Sebastian Vettel-Ferrari-10th
· Antonio Giovinazzi-Alfa Romeo-9th
· Esteban Ocon-Renault-8th
· Pierre Gasly-Alpha Tauri-7th
· Sergio Perez-Racing Point-6th
· Carlos Sainz Jr.-McLaren-5th
· Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes-4th
Finished on the Podium
· Lando Norris-McLaren-3rd
· Charles Leclerc-Ferrari-2nd
· Valtteri Bottas-Mercedes-1st