Brendan Lines July 6, 2020 02:00am

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas lead from pole to the chequered flag taking first place in a drama filled Austrian Grand Prix, surprise podium finishes went to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (second) and McLaren’s Lando Norris (third).

Formula 1 fans have waited long enough to go racing and the opening round of 2020 did not disappoint to excite as multiple incidents, safety cars and penalties kept up a high rate of attrition in the Austrian Grand Prix right to the final lap — only 11 cars out of 20 starters went the full distance.

Bottas lead from the start, setting a scintillating pace to break away from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was promoted to second on the grid as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took a three-place grid penalty prior to the race.

But an electrical issue that triggered Verstappen’s Red Bull to go into anti-stall ruined the Dutchman’s day retiring on lap 13.

There was further disappointment for Australian Daniel Ricciardo who retired on lap 16 with an engine cooling issue.

Hamilton hunted his way through the pack from fifth eating into Bottas’ six second lead.

The first of three safety cars for the race came when Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had a right front brake failure and left the track at Turn 2.

Mercedes took the opportunity to pit Bottas and Hamilton in a well disciplined text book double-stack during the safety-car period.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Mercs as vibrations from hitting the unforgiving curbs of the Red Bull Ring wrecked havoc on both cars gearbox sensors to the point of being critical — both cars were ordered to take less than ideal lines to avoid the curbs.

The second safety car came on lap 51 after Williams’ Gerorge Russell retired with engine failure, bringing Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Red Bull’s Alex Albon into contention against the Mercs.

Albon pitted for soft tyres and was able to take third off Perez, just before a third safety -car period.

Albon’s gamble on the softs was paying off as his Red Bull posed a threat to Hamilton, Albon’s dive around Hamilton’s outside resulted in an incident reminiscent of Brazil 2019 — eventually Albon’s day was done when he ran foul of a similar electrical issue as teammate Vertappen and was forced to retire.

Hamilton was handed a five second penalty for causing the incident with Albon.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc turned around his slow qualifying into race pace, combining tyre strategy and opportunity to progress to third place in the closing stages. His teammate Sebastian Vettel posted a forgettable tenth that included spinning out at Turn 2 trying to avoid contact with a Racing Point.

But it was the battle for fourth between Perez and Norris that went down to the line, as Norris managed to pass Perez in the closing laps then went on to post the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.

Norris’ all-in last lap to take fourth had the added benefit of closing the gap to the leaders to be awarded third after Hamilton served his five-second penalty, which also promoted Leclerc to second.

Bottas kept clear of incident and the unpredictability behind him to remain victorious taking valuable points, an ideal start to what is for now a season that will be uncertain as to exactly how it unfolds in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Formula 1 returns to the Red Bull Ring for the Styrian Grand Prix next week.

Full results below:

Place 1	Driver Valtteri Bottas	Team Mercedes	Laps 71	Laps lead 71	Total Time 1h30m55.739s55.739s	Fastest Lap 1m07.657s	Pitstops 2	Points 25
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	71	0	+2.7s	1m07.901s	3	18
3	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	71	0	+5.491s	1m07.475s	3	16
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	0	+5.689s	1m07.712s	2	12
5	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault	71	0	+8.903s	1m07.904s	3	10
6	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point-Mercedes	71	0	+15.092s	1m08.305s	2	8
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	71	0	+16.682s	1m09.025s	2	6
8	Esteban Ocon	Renault	71	0	+17.456s	1m08.932s	2	4
9	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	71	0	+21.146s	1m08.796s	3	2
10	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	71	0	+24.545s	1m08.623s	3	1
11	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	71	0	+31.65s	1m09.662s	3	0
12	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri-Honda	69	0	+2 laps	1m09.135s	3	0
13	Alex Albon	Red Bull-Honda	69	0	+2 laps	1m08.432s	3	0
	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	53	0	DNF	1m09.031s	2	0
	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	49	0	DNF	1m09.317s	1	0
	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	48	0	DNF	1m10.228s	2	0
	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	24	0	DNF	1m10.72s	0	0
	Lance Stroll	Racing Point-Mercedes	19	0	DNF	1m10.326s	1	0
	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	16	0	DNF	1m10.61s	1	0
	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	10	0	DNF