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Formula 1 Is Back With The Second Race of an Austrian Double-Header

It may have taken much longer than usual to start the season, but fans of Formula 1 will be delighted to see that the sport is back with its season opener taking place last weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, home of the Austrian Grand Prix.

It was the first of two races to be contested at the Austrian track over consecutive weekends with the Styrian Grand Prix scheduled to take place across the coming weekend in what has been a hastily rearranged and as yet, unfinalized 2020 season for the teams and drivers in F1.

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Let’s take a look now at how the Formula 1 season started last weekend in Austria in what was an eventful opening race of the season at the Red Bull Ring.

Austrian Grand Prix – Round Up

Qualifying

Once again Mercedes quality shone through with their two drivers, Bottas and Hamilton posting times half a second quicker than the next best driver, who was Max Verstappen. Ferrari were very disappointing with Charles Leclerc a distant seventh and Sebastian Vettel 11th on the grid after failing to qualify for the final qualification session.

However, an appeal by Red Bull saw Hamilton demoted to fifth on the grid from second after he sped under yellow flags in qualifying. That means that Verstappen started behind Bottas, with Norris starting third on the grid. It would prove to be something of a foreshadowing of how the race eventually unfolded.

The Race – Finishing Positions and Points

  1. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 25
  2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 18
  3. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 16
  4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 12
  5. Carlos Sainz (McLaren) – 10
  6. Sergio Perez (Racing Point) – 8
  7. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) – 7
  8. Esteban Ocon (Renault) – 4
  9. Antonio Giovanizzi (Alfa Romeo) – 2
  10. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) – 1

The only other finisher was Nicholas Latifi, all other drivers retired from the race. Hamilton finished the race second behind his team mate Bottas but was demoted two places after he was given a ten second time penalty for being to blae for an incident with Alex Albon. That saw him drop to fourth place and promoted both Leclerc and Lando Norris to the podium. Norris therefore became the youngest ever British F1 driver to claim a podium position at age 20, beating Lewis Hamilton’s previous record.

Styrian Grand Prix – Preview

It was pretty evident from the race last weekend that the two Mercedes cars and drivers hold a relatively big advantage over the rest of the field. They finished half a second ahead of the nearest car in qualifying and while that doesn’t sound much, in F1 racing, that is an age.

With that in mind, I do expect Mercedes drivers to dominate both qualifying and the Race this weekend too, especially given it is on the same track and over the same number of laps as last weekend, which I think will suit them.

However, I think that there will be real competition between the two team drivers. Lewis Hamilton will want to put last weekend behind him and show why he is World Number 1 and current Champion, but Bottas will know another win here will put him in a very strong position in what is likely to be a shorter than normal F1 season.

Behind those front two, I expect the next battle to be between three teams. Red Bull need to improve after a disappointing weekend last week when both their drivers failed to finish. Ferrari too, despite that second place for Leclerc, need a much improved team performance this weekend after what was a very poor show in qualifying last week.

However, for McLaren, it was a return to real competitiveness once again. With a new engine fitted, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz finished 3rd and 5th in what was the best result for McLaren for many years and they seem to have the pace to at least match the other two teams mentioned in this section.

The Woking-based team may be a little behind Mercedes at the moment, but they have made big strides and have two drivers hungry for success and I can see them being one of the successes of this season even after just one race.

Witg Ferrari said to be making a number of improvements and upgrades to their car for this coming weekend, it promises to be an interesting second week of action in Austria and here are our top tips for pole position and winner of the race and perhaps unsurprisingly we’ve gone for a Lewis Hamilton double.

  • Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton – 4/6 with bet365
  • Race Winner – Lewis Hamilton – 5/6 with bet365

Given the two penalties he incurred last weekend which robbed him of a likely victory, Hamilton will want to put that behind him and earn a win here to keep close to his team mate and rival Bottas and that is precisely what I can see him doing.

*All odds shown in this article were correct with bet365 as of Wednesday 8th July at 12.15pm.

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