Hamilton Back On Track In Styria

All the real excitement at the Styrian Grand Prix happened before the race.

Qualifying on Saturday was properly wet and it was easy to see why the Formula One stars are paid so well.

Their car control was – mostly – epic on a high-speed Austrian track where grip was minimal and visibility was awful.

There was wham-bam action through the dying minutes of every session and enough surprises and upsets for a season.
George Russell even made it into Q1, and qualified 11th overall, in the lacklustre Williams that only finished second-to-last in the race.

The cream usually rises when things get tough, and so it was no surprise when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen locked out the front row.

In the race itself, Hamilton checked-out at the front in a Mercedes that had none of the problems of the previous week in Austria and Verstappen ran tough for a long time, before inevitably Valtteri Bottas – who leads the championship – scythed past in a faster car.

The race was tough for Daniel Ricciardo who gambled on tyre strategy with his Renault, but a complete fiasco for Ferrari.

After qualifying very poorly, Charles Leclerc managed to dive-bomb his Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel in a dumb run that put both cars out of the race, but that was about all the action in the Austrian hills until Lando Norris scythed through his rivals on the last lap to come home fifth for McLaren.

“I’ve done a very bad job today. Obviously, excuses are not enough,” says Leclerc.

After back-to-back events at the Red Bull Ring, just as Supercars is about to run a double-header at Sydney Motorsport Park, the world championship continues with a third straight weekend of action in Hungary.

Stand-by for Joe Saward’s insight and analysis.

2020 Styrian Grand Prix
Final Results

Championship Standings:

1. Bottas, 43 pts; 2. Hamilton, 37; 3. Norris, 26; 4. Leclerc, 18; 5. Perez, 16; 6. Verstappen, 15; 7. Sainz, 13; 8. Albon, 12; 9. Gasly, 6; 10. Stroll, 6.3