Round 11/24: Review of the Austrian Grand Prix Race

George Russell won his second ever grand prix at the Red Bull ring as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris crashed while fighting tooth and neck for the lead. Oscar Piastri made a beautiful pass on Carlos Sainz to match his best ever finish with P2 while Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen rounded up the top five. Norris however couldn’t finish the race as his car sustained irreparable damage on top of the puncture.

For most of the Grand Prix, it was Max Verstappen who held a commendable lead of over 7 seconds. But it all changed during the second round of pit stops at the end of lap 51 as Verstappen had a slow pit stop which meant that he had to wait for McLaren to go into the pits before he was released. Eventually, the gap of 7 seconds reduced to just over a second, and with new mediums on the McLaren while the RedBull was on used meant it was advantage McLaren and a fight to the finish for the win.

The pace advantage of the McLaren was very evident immediately as Norris got into the DRS range and started attacking immediately. Norris managed to overtake on lap 59, however went wide making the move and yielded the position back. Norris also had two track limit violations already and in lap 60 he made another error judging the track limits which eventually gave him a 5 seconds penalty. This however was not unknown until after the drivers crashed and bore no impact on the fight.

Verstappen managed to keep Norris behind until lap 63 but Norris eventually got ahead of the RedBull only for the RedBull to pass him off the track. Unlike Norris, Verstappen didn’t yield the position back and this meant Norris had to overtake once again. With Verstappen weaving and defending after Norris made his move, it was always going to be feisty between the two drivers and in lap 64, they made contact as Verstappen went for an aggressive defence. This meant that Verstappen had his rear right punctured while Norris his front right and damage to his front wing.

Behind all the drama, Russell was driving his own race for P3 while Sainz and Piastri were closely battling it out for P4. Once the top two drivers had punctures, it was Russell’s race to lose from there. The Mercedes driver however kept it calm and drove to the finish line even though the McLaren had softer tires in comparison.

Coming to the start for the race, every drive bar Zhou Guanyu chose to go on the Mediums. With a total 71 laps, a two stop strategy was the preferred route. At the start of the race, Verstappen got away well from the pack while Hamilton overtook Sainz out of the racing track and had to concede back the position. Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Piastri were involved in a scuffle at the start and Leclerc lost a bit of his front wing and had to pit. Eventually, he would end up pitting thrice and finishing just outside the points.

Nico Hulkenberg finished in P6 with a strong finish for Haas as Kevin Magnussen finished in P8 sandwiching the second RedBull of Perez. Perez had no pace whatsoever throughout the race as he finished nearly 17 seconds behind his teammate who almost ran an entire lap on three tires and then pitted for a new set of tires. Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly were the last two drivers to score points.

References

1. Image Credits: www.motorsport.com
2. Thumbnail Image Credits: www.motorsport.com
3. Timing Sheet Credits: www.formula1.com

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