Aussies In Austria

Tonight we will know.

We will know where Daniel Ricciardo fits onto the grand prix grid for 2020, we will know if sitting on pole position is the best that Valtteri Bottas can do against Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes continues to dominate Formula One, and we will know if Oscar Piastri and Alex Peroni are future superstars on the fast track to F1.

The first day of the Austrian Grand Prix was a triumph for Piastri and Peroni, as they finished first and third in the Formula Three curtain raiser for the delayed start of F1 in 2020.

Piastri avoided a first-corner tangle to score a dominant F3 win and Peroni was just as solid as he raced home ahead of some big names, including Jack Doohan and David Schumacher, to claim third place and a podium.

“What an incredible Formula 3 debut for Oscar. It’s been challenging times for everybody over the past few months, so this is a special moment for him,” was the word from Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber.

“I’m so happy to be on the podium and set the fastest race lap for the first time in FIA Formula 3, and in the first race of the 2020 season,” says Peroni.

“It feels good, but it’s only the first race of the season and we have a lot of racing to come.”

QUESTIONS FROM THE COUCH

• Where will Piastri and Peroni finish in the second F3 race, where the starting grid is inverted for the top 10 finishers?
• What can Ricciardo do from 10th on the grid in Austria, and how will he go in the crucial head-to-head with his highly-rated team mate, Esteban Ocon.
• Is Bottas hoping to mug Hamilton to set up a genuine in-house fight for the 2020 title?
• Why did Seb Vettel and Red Bull boss Christian Horner talk in public when there is speculation about a renewal of their four-title partnership in 2021?
• Will Vettel be penalised for talking to Horner, who is outside the Ferrari COVID ‘bubble’ in Austria, without a protective mask?
• Can Kiwi Saxon Evans, an adopted Aussie after his success here in Carrera Cup, turn pole position into a Porsche Supercup win?
• Will Ferrari race as badly as it qualified, and what does that mean for the rest of the 2020 campaign?
• Is the ‘Pink Mercedes’, as the latest Racing Point car is nicknamed, genuinely a contender for ‘best of the rest’?
• Why are all the Ferrari-powered cars – Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo – so slow in Austria?

AUSTRIAN GP 2020
STARTING GRID