#I just wanted it on my page without checo cropped

[racingghost]

The entire Red Bull family in one pic

[meaningofmotorsport]

Austrian Grand Prix Review

It wasn’t an instant classic, yet this race gave us plenty of battles through the pack, including for the podium positions! It’s just a shame that there wasn’t really a fight for the win, as Verstappen and Red Bull are starting to dominate this season, although there is a long way to go!

The weekend did turn out to be as easy as we thought it would be for Max, as he simply drove away from the others, to comfortably take his 3rd win in a row, and maximise this tripleheader! Not much more to say about the race for him, so looking ahead to Silverstone, it is a good track for them, yet we may also see a resurgence of Mercedes, with Lewis’ home advantage, as well as some upgrades! I think it could have been a 1-2 for Red Bull, as Perez was all over Norris in the first few laps, however he made two risky moves, by trying to go around the outside at Turns 1 and 4, which didn’t end well. If he had instead set Lando up on the exit, it could have been an easy pass, and allowed him to runaway from the Mercedes! As it was though, that mistake dropped him well back, where traffic hampered him, and his anger meant he was rather aggressive with Leclerc, which gave him some penalties in the end! If he can calm down in battles, he has the pace now to really aid the team and Verstappen!

It was not a good day for Mercedes, their race pace was pretty average, which meant they were under pressure from a McLaren the whole race. Then damage for Lewis cost him a podium, and more importantly a 14 point loss in the championship! On the other hand, they got lucky, as if Checo had passed Lando cleanly, and Hamilton had still got the same damage, it could have been 4th and 5th for them, as I doubt Bottas could have passed Norris on track! It has been a humbling few weeks for the team, but they will come back strong, these next two tracks are great ones for Hamilton, so we mustn’t count him out yet!

What a drive by Norris! No one thought he could keep up with the Mercedes today, as he was so far behind them a week ago! We know that this is a better track for them, so don’t expect this for the rest of the year, however, it could crop up every once in a while! The incident with Perez was quite aggressive, yet that is simply hard racing, I have seen so many drivers say that they learn from karting onwards that when you go on the outside, unless you are comfortably ahead, you risk being pushed off track! Therefore, it was a bit of a harsh penalty, but I can see where they are coming from, comparisons to Hamilton’s penalty last year at the same corner can’t really be made, as at the point of contact, Albon was half a car ahead of him! It was still a superb day for him and the team, and gives them confidence going to their home race! Ricciardo was able to salvage a result from the weekend, and get near to where he should be, the fact that he was battling the Ferrari’s should give him hope moving forwards!

Ferrari splitting the strategies worked rather well, as Leclerc stormed through the field early on, although he got stuck behind Ricciardo for most of the race, and without the tussles with Perez could have got passed him, although we will never know! Then with Sainz on the inverse strategy, going long and making great pace in clear air, he could jump straight into the fight with fresh tyres, get past Daniel, and stay within 10 seconds of Perez, to bag 5th, which was the best they could do today! They have lost some more points to McLaren, but the gap is not massive, and if they can get over their qualifying woes at this track, they should still be in the mix to top the mid field!

It was the softs that really hurt Alpha Tauri’s day, although I think that in clear air, Ferrari was faster than them in the race! At least Gasly did all he could, making moves through the field, to get 2 points! Tsunoda continues to make little mistakes every weekend, this time he somehow went outside of the white line twice on pit entry, costing him a shot at the points! If the team can sort out his issues, they can really start to pull away from Alpine and Aston Martin in the championship!

Talking of Alpine, it was Alonso, once again doing all he can, and being rewarded with a point for it. He felt bad for taking that point from Russell, but Fernando is doing a stellar performance in a car which is not where it should be! Ocon wasn’t able to show what he could do yesterday, however I highly doubt it would have been anything to save face for him, after 3 terrible weekends for him!

I cannot believe how close George was to points, a poor first lap hurt his chances, although with the speed of the cars around him, it may not have changed much in the end! Last weekend was the better hope for them it seems to get points, due to the issues for Ricciardo and Gasly! The good thing is that they have pace when the car works, which it hopefully will do again this year, so there is still a chance of points for Williams!

Aston Martin, like Alpha Tauri, were hurt with the soft tyres, and as they were behind Gasly, couldn’t quite reach the top 10 like he did! Vettel was very close, batting for 11th on the last lap, however a clumsy crash by Kimi, sent them both into the gravel, not that it affected them much overall!

I was surprised that the softer tyres didn’t cause as many issues as we thought they would, yes, the softs were a problem, but Mercedes found the medium’s and hard’s a struggle last race, but were fine now it seems, unless it wasn’t damage that caused Hamilton’s tyre wear! Also, the FIA were dishing out penalties everywhere, some more understandable than others, although at least they were consistent!

The F1 circus has a well earnt break now, before 2 standalone races at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, where Mercedes need to win at least 1 of them, to stop the momentum of Red Bull right now!

-M

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