It was scorching hot at Red Bull Ring, as the cars lined up for the formation lap. Because Magnussen had been given the penalty before Hamilton, the Briton dropped down only two places instead of three. It meant, that Hamilton started to the race from P4, alongside his teammate Bottas. As the lights went out, Leclerc accelerated into the lead. Verstappen in P2, on the other hand, had a catastrophic start. His RB15 went into the anti-stall mode, which cost dearly for the Dutchman. Bottas took the second place, and was followed by teammate Hamilton. Kimi, who started to the race from P6, had an amazing start. The Iceman managed to jump two positions on the opening lap, and was in sensational P4! McLaren's Norris was 5th and Sebastian had made it from P9 to P6. Verstappen, instead, had dropped down to P7 due to his poor start.
Sebastian's race pace on the soft Pirellis proved excellent, and the German put pressure on Norris. The young Briton defended his position as well as he could, but determined Sebastian found his way past the McLaren pilot. In no time Sebastian was right at Kimi's tail. In spite of the magnificent start, Alfa Romeo's race pace was no match to Ferrari's pace, and Sebastian overtook his ex-teammate, claiming P4 already. Also Verstappen made his way through the field; having passed both Norris and Kimi, the flying Dutchman started hunting Sebastian.
Leclerc was safely controlling the race. Bottas was 3.8 seconds down on the race leader, and Hamilton was 2.4 seconds off his teammate. Sebastian was three seconds down on Hamilton, with one third of the race done. Meanwhile, further down in the pack, Kimi was having an intense battle with Red Bull's Gasly for P7. The Frenchman seemed to have more pace, but experienced Kimi was able to predict every overtaking move, defending his position skillfully.
On lap 22 both Bottas and Vettel pitted for a fresh set of hard Pirellis. The pit stop cost the Finn an extra second or two, as the team had to wait for a moment before releasing Bottas, as Sebastian drove past Bottas' pit box. But Sebastian's pit stop was far from perfect as well. The team had difficulties with attaching one of his tyres, which made the pit stop last five seconds longer than normally. Race leader Leclerc also pitted for a similar tyre strategy to his teammate. Hamilton stayed out, and was now leading the race, with Verstappen second.
However, Hamilton reported on the team radio, that he felt he was missing downforce. He asked the team to check his front wing. The team called him in on lap 30, and they changed him a new front wing. This cost the Briton ten extra seconds, which enabled Sebastian to jump ahead Hamilton during the Briton's pit stop. Verstappen pitted two laps after Hamilton, switching to the hard rubber as well. Due to Hamilton's delayed pit stop, also Max managed to move ahead of the Briton, when re-joining the track.
Around the halfway point of the race, Leclerc was leading the race by 4 seconds to Bottas. Sebastian was third, 4.5 seconds behind the Finn. Sebastian kept banging fastest lap times, rapidly closing the gap to Valtteri. At this point it seemed, that a podium finish would well be within Sebastian's reach. On the other hand, there was certain flying Dutchman sneaking behind Sebastian. Max was absolutely flying on his fresh hard tyres, and Max started to clock fastest lap times.
It was "a piece of cake" for Max to get within DRS distance from Sebastian, whose tyres were ten laps older than Max's. The pressure from Max was immense... Sebastian defended his position like a lion for many laps. However, with 20 laps to go, Max attacked into the outside of Sebastian, overtaking the German successfully. Once having got past, Max soon disappeared into the horizon. Ferrari reacted right away and called Sebastian in for the second time. Sebastian switched to the red-marked soft compound, and re-joined the track behind Hamilton. A determined chase began...
It seemed, that Max's pace got better and better towards the end of the race. The flying Red Bull ace was a second per lap faster than Bottas, who wasn't able to extract the maximum out of his W09, due to an overheating issue. Max already smelled the Finn's blood. On lap 54 Max had closed the gap to Valtteri and was right at the Finn's tail. Max attacked Valtteri many times, and on lap 56 he squeezed it past the Finn! The orange grand stands were cheering fiercely. At this point Max realized, that even victory was within his reach. It was obvious, that Max was seriously going for the victory!
Leclerc, who had stopped ten laps before Verstappen, had a 4.5-second lead. But it was only another mission to be accomplished for the wind-fast Verstappen. With six more laps to go, Max had made it right at the tail of Leclerc. Max showed himself in the Monegasque's mirrors continually, and the overtaking move seemed to be only a matter of time. It was a fierce wheel-to-wheel battle indeed. Max pushed himself into the inside of Leclerc, but the Ferrari ace managed to keep his position -just barely. Only three laps before the chequered flag, Max had decided to take the victory. He attacked Leclerc again, pushing the Ferrari ace wide, moving past Charles. There was even a light contact between the two. It was pure racing at its very best! However, Charles disagreed, and the stewards took the incident into investigation. Hopefully there won't be any result-changing penalties this time!
Behind the top two, there was intense battle between Sebastian and Hamilton for P4. Sebastian had chased down the Briton, making it into the DRS zone. And on the second last lap, Sebastian squeezed past Hamilton, claiming P4! Bottas was only a couple of seconds ahead, and Sebastian started his chase. And he managed to catch the Finn, but the laps ran out. Sensational Max took his first win of the season, which was his sixth career win. I was so happy for Max, he was simply phenomenal at the wheel of his RB15! Disappointed Charles finished the runner-up. Bottas completed the podium, with Sebastian fourth and Hamilton fifth. Once again McLaren delivered a strong race, as Norris finished 6th and teammate Sainz 8th. The McLaren duo was split by Red Bull's Gasly. Alfa Romeo showed impressive performance as well, as Kimi finished 9th and teammate Giovinazzi 10th, scoring his first point of the season.
Hamilton's championship lead shrank into 31 points, which is still a lot of points. Thanks to Max's phenomenal victory, he passed Sebastian in the championship standings, moving third. What an action-packed and entertaining race the Austrian GP turned out! This is definitely, what the fans want to see. Max and Charles marked the youngest 1-2 in the F1 history, with the average age of 21 years and 265 days. Hopefully there's more action like this coming at Silverstone in a fortnight!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti