Brendan Lines July 13, 2020 06:45am
Lewis Hamilton backed up his amazing pole lap in the wet, easing to victory in the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, it is the reigning World Champion’s 85th career victory and his first victory for Mercedes in 2020.
It was case of deja vu as Mercedes repeated its victory from last weeks Austrian Grand Prix as Formula 1 returned to the Red Bull Ring.
But this time Hamilton dominated from the start, on a track that has not entirely been a happy hunting ground for the Brit.
Lewis Hamilton leads the field away for the start of the Styrian GP – Image: Mercedesamgf1.com
Hamilton turned around his fortunes from last week’s disappointing penalty, dropping him back to P4 and nursing his car home with gearbox issues.
“This has tended to be one of my weaker tracks, so I am over the moon to have a performance like this today – so, so happy,” Hamilton said after the race.
“This feels like a long time coming since the final race of last year and it is a great step forward to come back from a difficult first weekend.”
“The team did a fantastic job with the strategy and then it was about keeping it together, staying off the kerbs and bringing it home.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen used everything available to hold P2 for most of the day, but Bottas was able to pass the Dutchman on lap 67 to complete Mercedes’ 54th 1-2 victory, celebrating thier 200th start in Formula 1 as a works team in the best way possible.
For Ferrari there was no reason to celebrate, a first lap incident at Turn 3 caused a double DNF for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, Leclerc later apologised for letting the team down with his over-zealous move on Vettel, completing the teams implosion.
McLaren’s Lando Norris put on another stunning late charge to finish P5, although this week did not end with a podium.
A double pass on Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo followed by a last corner overtake on Sergio Perez on the closing laps secured more valuable points, with the addition of teammate Carlos Sainz’s P9, McLaren now sit second in the Constructor’s World Championship.
Norris lead the McLaren v Racing Point v Renault battle right to the finish line, ending with a photo finish as Sergio Perez just held on to P6 from Stroll and Ricciardo by +0.204s.
Norris’ double overtake of Stroll and Ricciardo was triggered by Stroll’s lunge at Ricciardo’s Renault in the closing stages.
Stewards called the lunge a racing incident, a disgruntled Renault continued their issue with Racing Point, after the race lodging an official protest to the legality of Racing Point’s RP20, which has now been deemed admissible by the FIA.
Renault’s day was a mixed bag of results with Ricciardo in P8 and Esteban Ocon’s DNF coming on lap 25, due to the same cooling issue that forced Ricciardo’s retirement the week before.
Ricciardo was deep into his opening stint on the medium tyres as he attacked Ocon’s soft-shod Renault on lap 17, Ocon wouldn’t yield to the Aussie straight away costing Ricciardo time to get on with the job of hunting down the leaders.
Racing Point gained back its speed in the dry conditions as Stroll and Perez fought their way up from P12 and P17 after a disappointing wet qualifying.
Perez who pitted on lap 39 for new medium tyres, then came out the pits ahead of Sainz who’d been slowed down in his earlier pitstop from a stuck left-rear wheel nut.
The pair drag raced down to Turn 4, but Perez got the better of Sainz with a very classy move around the outside at Turn 6.
Red Bull’s Alex Albon held onto P4 as Perez bared down on the Thai driver on lap 49, Perez’s move pushed Albon wide slightly touching, nearly causing a scene all to reminiscent of Albon’s coming together with Hamilton last week.
Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kyvat rounded out the top ten scoring his first point for his team in its new guise.
But all the arguing amongst the field was well behind Hamilton who’d amassed a +13.719s lead from Bottas to seal the 1-2 victory.
Formula 1 now heads to the Hungary for round 3 next week.
Full results:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:22:50.683 | 25 | |
| 2 | +13.719s | 18 | |
| 3 | +33.698s | 15 | |
| 4 | +44.400s | 12 | |
| 5 | +61.470s | 10 | |
| 6 | +62.387s | 8 | |
| 7 | +62.453s | 6 | |
| 8 | +62.591s | 4 | |
| 9 | +1 lap | 3 | |
| 10 | +1 lap | 1 | |
| 11 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 12 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 13 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 14 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 15 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 16 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| 17 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 | |
| NC | DNF | 0 |
* Provisional results. Note – Sainz scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
Grandprixnet.com 