Austria: post-race analysis 2021
Well, it wasn’t a classic at the sharp end, but, as predicted, that meant Verstappen won by a large margin, even doing a late second stop to guarantee the extra point for the fastest lap. There were some good on-track battles, often involving Perez, and too many penalties for decent racing.
Off the line it was formation flying at the front, with Russell slipping at the back and Ricciardo doing well. Ocon was unlucky to be the filling in a sandwich, and got tagged by Giovinazzi which destroyed his front right suspension and ended his race on lap one. Cue the safety car.
Positions stayed pretty much unchanged when it came in, and Verstappen duly drove off into the sunset. Perez got was very close to Norris and had a crack at passing but the Briton held the racing line and the Mexican didn’t bail, which put him into the gravel. Even Christian Horner (Red Bull team principal) described it as one of those things (a racing incident) but, bizarrely, the race stewards disagreed and slapped Norris with a 5s time penalty.
Perez dropped down to around 10th and found himself trapped behind Ricciardo, whose McLaren was tasty in a straight line, and with Leclerc right behind him (until the Monegasque cunningly passed him).
The speed of the McLaren proved altogether handier for Red Bull at the front, as Hamilton simply could not get past Norris. Well, not for a dozen or so laps, by which time Verstappen was about 10s up the road. But even when the British pair had changed places, Hamilton couldn’t make a dent on the Dutchman.
Come the pit stops, Verstappen just waited until Hamilton pitted then did likewise, and resumed his effortless drive to a crushingly dominant victory.
Hamilton, meanwhile, appeared to have some rear left damage caused by driving over sausage kerbs and had to switch places with Bottas as Norris, who had served his unwarranted penalty, was catching up. Norris passed Hamilton, who pitted, but even with fresh rubber he couldn’t even narrow the gap to Bottas and Norris. (Bottas held onto 2nd, but Norris is likely quite pleased with 3rd).
Further back, Sainz had run long, having started on the hard tyre and switched to the medium, and Ferrari duly had Leclerc let him by (having tried and failed to get past Ricciardo for some time). Sainz managed to pass Ricciardo with just a lap or so to go. Sainz ends up 5th by less than a second because Perez got a pair of 5s penalties for running Leclerc wide just as Norris had done to the Mexican earlier in the race. Ricciardo is 7th, behind Perez. Leclerc was 8th, within a second of Ricciardo.
Gasly got 9th which may be disappointing for AlphaTauri given their pace this weekend. But Alonso will be happy with 10th after spending many a lap tussling with Russell, who defended well but was outdone by the two-time world champion, and finished 11th.
Verstappen’s winning margin was 17.9s, with one stop extra than those behind him. It was absolutely crushing. But not unexpected given what happened just a week ago. However, if this is the new benchmark then the titles will be Red Bull’s, as they extended their leads in both.
Verstappen is now 32 points ahead of Hamilton (182 and 150 respectively). And clear favourite for the title, although there are still many races to go. Perez is on 104, Norris 101, Bottas 92.
McLaren are on 141 points, Ferrari 122. Still a close contest, but it’s advantage McLaren, I feel. Ricciardo isn’t on Norris’ level, but the Briton’s driving so well he’s a huge asset for the team. Red Bull are on 286, Mercedes 242. Now that Perez has settled in this may be tricky for Mercedes.
So, some decent on-track action, but not for the win which was Verstappen’s all day long.
We actually have a week off, and Hungary is in a fortnight.
Morris Dancer
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