Track Torque: Back in the (red) bullring

With half the year gone, we were finally able to enjoy the first Grand Prix of the season at Spielberg, Austria despite Covid-19 and no spectators – a strange feeling!

Valtteri Bottas drove the race of his life from pole position to the chequered flag.

Charles Leclerc did very well to uplift his Ferrari and bring it home second after a very difficult weekend for the Prancing Horse team.

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The most outstanding result, however, was that of Lando Norris in his McClaren Renault who obtained his first podium position in third place.

Norris had a wonderful weekend and drove above himself throughout qualifying and the race.

The disappointments of the weekend were that of Lewis Hamilton, who got penalised in both qualifying and the race itself, the latter for punting Alexander Albon into a spin just before the end of the race, and then there was the frustration for Max Verstappen, whose engine expired very early in the race.

The event was a real race of attrition with only 11 cars out of 20 finishing. Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth in his Mercedes, followed by Carlos Sainz in the Renault and Sergio Perez in the ‘quick all weekend’ Racing Point Mercedes.

Team mate Lance Stroll in the other Racing Point, who had also been very quick, unfortunately did not finish. Pierre Gasly, in the new Alphatauri (ex Toro Rosso Honda) came home seventh with the second Renault driven by Esteban Ocon in eighth, in turn followed by Antonio Giovinazzi in his Alfa Romeo and poor Sebastian Vettel, who had tried so hard all weekend, in ninth and tenth (actually second to last).

Next weekend, we see a completely new race at the same track, the Steiermark Grand Prix, which is likely to have a very different result.

Perhaps Verstappen and Hamilton will feature much higher in the results.

Race time this Sunday is 3.10pm.

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