Austrian GP: Verstappen won the drama-filled race!

I had an exceptional qualifying Saturday. I was visiting my friend Erja, who is also a passionate Formula 1 fan. It was a 3-hour trip by train to Ilmajoki, where Erja lives. On Saturday we decided to make a road trip to Kankaanpää (120 km away from Ilmajoki), which is the home town of Toni Vilander, the talented Finnish GT racing driver for Ferrari, also the winner of the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans. Toni owns a motorsport-inspired restaurant named Bar & Grill Varikko, where you can eat, have a drink and watch sports on three big screens. We wanted to visit the restaurant and watch the qualifying there. The restaurant really made a huge impression on us! The food was delicious and the service was great. The helmet collection was very eye-catching; it included helmets of three successful Finnish F1 drivers: Kimi Räikkönen, Valtteri Bottas and Mika Salo. And all of a sudden Toni Vilander himself walked in through the door! What an unexpected coincidence, which really made our day! 

I was sitting on the train on Sunday, when the lights went out at the Red Bull Ring. Unfortunately the internet connection wasn't working on the train and I missed the entire race! I felt absolutely gutted. As soon as I got home, I watched the race on my cell phone. And what a race I had missed! The Finnish Mercedes ace Bottas had made it on pole, and teammate Hamilton was starting alongside the Finn. Sebastian had qualified third, but he had been handed a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Renault's Sainz in the qualifying. The penalty had dropped Sebastian down to P6. Kimi was on P3, Red Bull's Verstappen on P4 and teammate Ricciardo on P5. Both Mercedes and Red Bull started to the race on the red-walled super-soft compound, whilst the Ferrari drivers were on the purple-marked ultra-soft rubber.

And what a start it was! Kimi got the most amazing start of the top three and was challenging both Bottas and Hamilton, going into Turn 1. Hamilton managed to snatch the lead, and for a moment Kimi was second. However, the Finn ended up going wide, and Bottas managed to make it past Kimi, claiming P2. Kimi was having a hair-raising wheel-to-wheel battle with Red Bull's Verstappen, going into Turn 3. My heart jumped into my mouth, as Kimi's SF71-H went lightly sideways, and there was a moment, when Kimi's and Verstappen's wheels touched. The battle was intense but fair. Verstappen managed to make it past Kimi, who dropped down to P4. Ricciardo was right at Kimi's tail in P5. For a moment Sebastian had lost ground to the Haas duo of Grosjean and Magnussen, but soon the German managed to move back to sixth.

The Mercedes duo controlled the pace, and it seemed like an inevitable 1-2 for the Silver Arrows. But what a dramatic turn the race took on lap 14! Without a warning Bottas' car was hit with a hydraulic issue, and the unfortunate Finn's FW09 stopped on the track. Bottas' retirement brought out the virtual safety car. Hamilton stayed out on his worn super-softs, whilst all other top five drivers -Verstappen, Kimi, Ricciardo and Sebastian- pitted for a fresh set of soft Pirellis. I don't know, if the strategists at Mercedes were so shocked about Bottas' retirement that they forgot to react to the virtual safety car. However, Hamilton's gap to Verstappen was 13 seconds only, which meant trouble for the Briton. Lap 20 saw an unwanted turn for Kimi, as the Iceman made a mistake, which enabled Ricciardo to overtake the Finn, claiming P3.

Hamilton pitted on lap 25, also for a fresh set of soft Pirellis. What a tactical mistake it turned out, that Mercedes hadn't called Hamilton in during the virtual safety car! Verstappen snatched the lead, with his teammate second and Kimi third. Hamilton lost three places during his wrongly-timed pit stop! Who could have predicted to see Red Bull take a double lead in the race!?

This time tyre degradation played a major role in the race. At the halfway point of the race, Ricciardo's rear-left tyre was badly blistered, and it clearly affected the Australian's pace. Kimi smelled Ricciardo's blood immediately and attacked the vulnerable Australian. A few laps later Kimi made his move and snatched P2 from Ricciardo! Kimi's pace had gotten better throughout the race, and the Iceman was utterly on flames. "The good old Kimi" was back! On lap 39 Ricciardo had no choice but to pit for a used set of super-soft Pirellis. Meanwhile, Sebastian attacked Hamilton, climbing up to P3 already. This seemed to turn out a stunning race for the Red Team!

The situation in the lead was quite stable. Verstappen had a 7-second gap to Kimi, and Sebastian was a couple of seconds behind his teammate. Hamilton, too was struggling with his blistered rear-left tyre. To my joy Ferrari didn't seem to suffer from high tyre degradation. Hamilton had to pit a few laps later -for another set of super-soft Pirellis. Ricciardo managed to jump the Briton and move 4th, as Hamilton re-joined the track in disappointing P5.

But there were more dramatic retirements to come. On lap 54 the birthday boy Ricciardo was hit with a power unit failure, and the Australian's race was over! Towards the end of the race, Kimi was consistently decreasing the gap to the race leader Verstappen. With ten laps to go, the gap was less than four seconds. Was Kimi going to challenge the flying Dutchman for the victory? The drama continued on lap 64. Mercedes' day turned pitch-black, as Hamilton suddenly lost fuel pressure, and also the other Mercedes stopped on the track! What a nightmare for the Silver Arrows, which haven't suffered from reliability issues like this for a long long time!

Kimi got extremely close to Verstappen, but in the end, the Iceman ran out of laps. Max took the fourth career win in front of his fans, which was fantastic work from the driver, who has been under extremely high pressure during this season. I was overwhelmingly happy to see both Kimi and Sebastian on the podium. Kimi even set the fastest lap time on the very last lap, setting the new track record. Actually it was a dream podium for me, as all my favourite drivers were standing there! The Austrian GP was a very strong race from Haas, as Grosjean finished fourth and teammate Magnussen fifth. The pink Force Indias of Ocon and Perez finished 6th and 7th respectively. Alonso finished 8th for McLaren and Sauber's Leclerc continued his outstanding performances by finishing 9th.

Sebastian snatched his lead back in the drivers' championship standings. The German has once again a one-point lead to Hamilton! Thanks to the superb P2, Kimi moved third in the standings. And eye-catching is the fact, that Ferrari have superseded Mercedes from the lead in the constructors' championship standings! Ferrari is now the team to beat with 247 points to Mercedes' 237. The situation couldn't be any more exciting! And the battle is on already this week, as the F1 circus moves to Silverstone! Forza Ferrari!