Max Verstappen drove a beautifully judged race to win at the Red Bull A1 ring in Spielberg, Austria last Sunday.
The short, beautiful circuit climbs up and down through the rolling hills but the sting in the tail last weekend was the track heat which caused much blistering of tyres.
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Verstappen was on a one-stop strategy and had a huge challenge nursing his rear tyres towards the end of the race.
The two closing Ferraris, who were on fresher rubber, could not get at him in time and hence it was Kimi Raikkonen just over 1.5 seconds behind in second place.
His teammate Sebastian Vettel was another one and a half seconds behind.
Verstappen had driven an extremely smooth race and looked after his tyres just well enough to win.
Without the two Mercs, which very surprisingly had both retired with mechanical problems – something which hasn’t happened to Mercedes since 1955 – it was a bit of a damp squib after third position.
Fourth and fifth were the two Haas Ferraris driven by Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen respectively, both one lap down on the podium runners.
Similarly, the Force India twins of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez were sixth and seventh.
Then came Fernando Alonso in eighth, who woke up late in the race, with a very good drive.
Next were the Sauber Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson in ninth and tenth respectively.
Now for the British Grand Prix this coming weekend.
Silverstone is a very fast circuit and should be best suited to the two Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
I don’t think that Ferrari will be far behind and could make up for it with clever tyre strategy or wet weather tactics if it rains.
Both Vettel and Raikkonen are driving at the top of their form at the moment and getting on as well together as teammates can.
They are a formidable combination.
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Although Red Bull will be a little down on power compared to the top two, their turbo-charged men, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, are capable of motoring very quickly.
There’s lots to look forward to on the local front this weekend.
There’ll be a car boot sale at the Munster Motor Museum this Saturday (7th) from 10am.
I’ll give a talk at 2pm on Jim Clark, who died 50 years ago.
The talk will be followed by British GP qualifying from 3pm on the big screen.
Entry costs R20 or R10 for pensioners and teenagers.
Again on Sunday at 3pm the full grand prix will be on the big Screen after most of us have gone to Scottburgh in the morning for their car show.
Drivers: 1 Sebastian Vettel 146; 2 Lewis Hamilton 145; 3 Kimi Raikkonen 101; 4 Daniel Ricciardo 96; 5 Max Verstappen 93.
Team: 1 Ferrari 247; 2 Mercedes 237; 3 Red Bull 189.
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