Austria: post-race analysis 2019
Well, tickle my
tangerines. That was quite the race. A classic, I dare say.
Off the line Verstappen
left the handbrake on, entered anti-stall and got passed by half the
grid (scarcely an exaggeration, he ended up behind his team mate).
Vettel had a good start, Norris roared up to just behind Leclerc and
Bottas (briefly).
Early on, Leclerc
simply drove away from the Mercedes with little apparent effort.
Hamilton got past Norris easily enough but wasn’t able to progress
further. Vettel and Verstappen made slightly heavy weather advancing
against Raikkonen and Norris (both of whom were driving very well)
but eventually managed to effect passes.
The Ferraris, of
course, were on the soft tyres, the Mercedes on the medium, but the
Mercedes were struggling intensely with overheating, to the extent
they had to lift and coast not for fuel preservation but to stop the
car becoming molten.
The Mercedes weren’t
so hot on their tyres so Bottas pitted at the same time as Vettel
(clever by Ferrari as Bottas had to be held momentarily, but a radio
failure meant that the tyres weren’t ready and they had a slow
stop). Leclerc also pitted in and around the same time. Hamilton
waited a bit longer and for a time had pace comparable to or even
faster than Bottas (then on the hard tyres), but he had a front wing
problem which started costing him significant time, and his tyres
weren’t great, so he emerged behind his team mate once again.
Verstappen notionally
led due to not having pitted when his rivals had. The Dutchman, whose
pace was very tasty, stayed out about 10 laps longer than the rest of
the frontrunners.
And he was very fast.
He soon caught up to Vettel, and passed him. Bottas was just a few
seconds down the road. About 12 laps left, and Verstappen passed the
Finn as well. Leclerc had about 5s advantage with 11 laps to go.
Could Verstappen
recover from his dreadful start to achieve an unlikely, thrilling
victory?
He closed up. Leclerc
was unlucky with traffic, one car costing him about a second.
Verstappen was more fortunate (including when Gasly, whom he lapped
despite being behind at the first corner of the first lap, moved over
more helpfully than when Leclerc was going through). Verstappen was
right there but only had a couple of laps.
He dove down the
inside, but Leclerc drove a perfect defence, they were side by side,
but the Monegasque managed to retain his position.
Verstappen had another
go, feinting this way and that, Leclerc defending very well. Then the
Dutchman had another dive, and this time left no room. He did take
the racing line, and that left no room for Leclerc whose choices were
to go wide (he did) or back out. The Ferrari driver was furious,
asserting he was forced off track (there was wheel-banging contact).
Verstappen was reassured by his team over the radio that there was
nothing wrong with the pass.
The Dutchman duly won,
and F1 duly announced a stewards’ inquiry into the overtake. Asked
for his view, Vettel said: “We’re not racing for the kindergarten
cup. We’re adults, some older than others, they should leave us
alone.”
Bottas got a lacklustre
3rd, barely a whisker ahead of Vettel, who had pitted late
on for soft tyres, come out behind Hamilton, passed the Briton with
only a lap or two to spare and was breathing fire down the back of
Bottas’ neck. Given he started 9th, a good result for
the German, who would’ve challenged for the victory without his
qualifying misfortune.,
Hamilton ended up 5th
in his worst performance of the year, largely due to the car
(although he was never in danger of passing his team mate, it must be
said). He was also the last man not to be lapped.
Norris’ strong
qualifying was backed up by a great race. He didn’t put a foot
wrong and finished 6th, best of the rest. Gasly followed
him, and it’s hard to imagine the Frenchman keeping his seat next
year. Sainz had a cracking race, starting from the back and finishing
8th, making this a very strong result for McLaren in their
tight midfield battle.
It was also a strong
result for Raikkonen and Giovinazzi, who went backwards a bit from
grid to flag, but still held on for 9th and 10th,
getting the Italian his first point of the season and Alfa Romeo a
valuable double points finish.
Perez finished just
outside the points, ahead of Ricciardo and Hulkenberg (the Aussie
passing his team mate late on). Not a great day for Renault, and
frustrating for the Mexican. Stroll was 14th.
Not a single car
retired, which is remarkable given the wind problems of second
practice and the high temperatures throughout the race.
I think Verstappen also
got the fastest lap.
I’m a bit tired so
we’ll see if I cocked this up, but according to my calculations,
the drivers stand thus:
Hamilton 197
Bottas 166
Verstappen 126
[assuming he keeps the win]
Vettel 123
Leclerc 105
Pretty tight for 3rd
and Bottas closed the gap a bit on Hamilton but it’s still hard to
see anything but Hamilton winning this and the Finn probably coming
2nd.
Teams:
Mercedes 363
Ferrari 228
Red Bull 169
McLaren 52
Renault 32
Alfa Romeo 22
Racing Point 19
Toro Rosso 17
Haas 16
Williams 0
Still pretty big gaps
at the top. McLaren have moved some distance ahead of Renault, who
have looked a bit up and down this year. Alfa’s double finish puts
them narrowly ahead of Racing Point, but those two, Toro Rosso, and
Haas are covered by just six points. Very competitive midfield, just
a shame Williams is so far back.
Does Verstappen deserve
a penalty?
If he gets one then the
last three races will see a boring French Grand Prix the filling in a
Stewards’ Inquiry sandwich, with both the Canadian and Austrian
races determined by stewards after the race, and two men who finished
the race first demoted.
That’s not great for
F1, and would be a bitter note to end a race weekend that saw a
modern classic.
Oh, and the Verstappen
bet came off, the Hulkenberg one did not. The greenness or redness of
the race weekend depends on the stewards.
The next race is in the
UK, in a fortnight.
Morris Dancer
Comments
Post a Comment