F1: Max Verstappen Won His Home Race, Ferrari’s Came 2 and 3 to the Podium
- MercedesAMG experienced a 2X DNF in Austria
- After scoring points in 33 consecutive races, Lewis Hamilton had to retire his car today after he lost fuel pressure on Lap 63, ending the longest point-scoring run in F1 history
- Pole-setter Bottas experienced a retirement owing to a loss of hydraulic pressure on Lap 14
- Ferrari’s (NYSE:RACE) Sebastian Vettel (146 pts) leads the Drivers’ Championship from Mr. Hamilton (145 pts).
- Ferrari (247 pts) lead the Constructors’ Championship by 10 points from MercedesAMG (237 pts)
Sebastian Vettel took the Drivers’ Championship lead from Lewis Hamilton after a podium finish at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix Sunday.
Mr. Vettel finished 3rd, behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 2nd and race winner Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing .
Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen of the American-owned Haas team finished 4rth and 5th, respectively.
Force India’s drivers, Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, and both Sauber drivers, Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson finished in the points. Fernando Alonso of McLaren finished 8th, also in the points.
Valtteri Bottas, the Pole sitter and teammate of Mr. Hamilton’s, suffered a gearbox issue and was the 2nd driver to retire from the race after Nico Hulkenberg of Renault.
A virtual safety car was deployed.
Mercedes balked at pitting Mr. Hamilton from the lead, and they suffered from it because both Red Bull cars and both Ferraris double-stacked in the pits, and came out roughly 13 secs behind Mr. Hamilton, on fresh tires.
This move killed Mr. Hamilton’s chances of a win, and he said as much over the team radio multiple times. Hamilton had to pit a bit later, and came out just ahead of Vettel, but was soon passed by the Ferrari. Hamilton complained of lacking power, while pretty much the entire grid was complaining about blistering on the tires due to the rising track temperature.
Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing looked like he was going to finish on the Podium, but he started experiencing those tire blisters early, and he had to go through his 2nd pit stop early, and wound up about 20 seconds behind the top four with 20 laps to go in the race. Then, Mr. Hamilton had bad tire blisters, and Mr. Verstappen’s garage was telling him that the rest of the pack was “nursing something.
Mr. Verstappen’s response was that he is good, and that his team should not worry.
A few laps later, Mr. Ricciardo suffered a gearbox issue and was next to retire from the race.
With under 10 laps to go, Mr. Hamilton suffered a car issue and had to retire too. After starting the race 1-2, both MercedesAMG’s cars had to retire.
Below is the full finishing order for Sunday’s race.
Austrian Grand Prix Finishing Order
Position | Driver | Team |
---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull |
2 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari |
4 | Romain Grosjean | Haas |
5 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas |
6 | Esteban Ocon | Force India |
7 | Sergio Pérez | Force India |
8 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren |
9 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber |
10 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber |
11 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso |
12 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Renault |
13 | Lance Stroll | Williams |
14 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams |
15 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren |
16 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
17 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso |
18 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull |
19 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes |
20 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault |
Next weekend we are at Silverstone.
Have a terrific week.
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