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Styrian GP: Hamilton cruises to race win, Ferrari implodes

  • Published on 12 Jul 2020 16:38
  • 9
  • By: Fergal Walsh

Lewis Hamilton dominated the Styrian Grand Prix to take his 85th career win, as Mercedes recorded its first 1-2 finish of the season. 

Both Ferrari drivers retired from the race after Charles Leclerc collided with Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap of the race at Turn 3, only adding to its season of woe.

Leclerc accepted blame for the incident and apologised to his team, who was hoping to gather data on upgrades it brought to the race weekend. 

Max Verstappen couldn't hold off Valtteri Bottas in the final laps of the race and had to concede second position to the Mercedes driver.

Bottas stayed out longer than Hamilton and Verstappen in front during his first stint and following his one and only pit stop, he hunted down Verstappen towards the end of the race, managing to overtake him on lap 67.

Behind, Alexander Albon crossed the line in fourth place, clashing with Sergio Perez in the final laps of the grand prix, with the Mexican picking up front wing damage.

Perez then began to drop off in pace and at the final corner, found himself being overtaken by Lando Norris, who had passed Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll only moments before. 

On the penultimate lap of the race, Stroll launched an attack on Ricciardo at Turn 3 after many laps of following behind. Both drivers ran off the circuit, causing the stewards to launch an investigation.

Carlos Sainz was ninth for Ferrari after starting from third on the grid, while Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten, taking the final point for AlphaTauri.

Esteban Ocon was the only other retirement from the race besides the Ferraris, with Renault opting to retire the car with a suspected cooling problem while he was running high in the points.

F1Grand Prix Austria - Race

Red Bull Ring - 12 July 2020

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel Charles Leclerc Ferrari Mercedes

Replies (9)

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  • Kean

    Posts: 692

    Norris' team radio on the last stint: "Hey, Lando... you know we're racing right?", "Oh, you mean I'm supposed to be Driiving driving.... well alright then"

    • + 2
    • Jul 12 2020 - 17:08
  • abhidbgt

    Posts: 283

    Lando Norris, Take a bow! Like Ted said this track and last lap have a mysterious connection. What a final lap! Pathetic showing from Ferrari and at this point it doesn't surprise me at all. McLaren deserve this. Perez too was good throughout except maybe for last portion of it. Good defending from Riccardio for much of the race. Only thing that's not good for this season is that it's such a smooth sailing for Mercedes but then we always knew that. Hope Hungary also proves to be as entertainer of a circuit as this one proved.

    • + 0
    • Jul 12 2020 - 17:21
  • Snooky

    Posts: 121

    Now if McLaren can just get their heavy fuel race pace together we’ll all be laughing

    • + 0
    • Jul 12 2020 - 17:30
  • siggy74

    Posts: 194

    Top 3 for Lando, in the drivers championship ;p

    This Lad, is going to have a good year....

    • + 0
    • Jul 12 2020 - 19:35
  • Snooky

    Posts: 121

    All those overtaking moves on the outside of turn 4 this time showed just how much Hamilton was surprised and defiant Hamilton was against Albon last week. Plenty of drivers showed space can be given to those going round the outside

    • + 1
    • Jul 12 2020 - 20:43
    • Pistonhead

      Posts: 556

      Nah mate - it's was tight, yes - but plenty of F1 drivers saying that was a racing incident - it certainly looked that way.

      • + 0
      • Jul 13 2020 - 09:23
  • calle.itw

    Posts: 8,527

    Norris is again my driver of the day. Stunning show from him and McLaren. As was the case for RP, but it didn't quite last as well for them. And more points for Tauri, fancy indeed. Merc are, sadly, in a different league again. And Renault seem to have technical issues this year, as per tradition.

    • + 1
    • Jul 12 2020 - 22:40
  • essaouira311

    Posts: 158

    Lewis is getting closer and closer to being the greatest of all.

    • + 0
    • Jul 13 2020 - 08:14
  • Pistonhead

    Posts: 556

    A qualifying in the wet masterclass - again - but surely the biggest story is the total shambles Ferrari produced - again. There needs to be a total overhaul of the leadership at that team - it is incapable it seems of putting together sufficient weekends to produce a title winning team - despite having the biggest sporting budget - frustrating for all. How good is this track for racing !

    • + 1
    • Jul 13 2020 - 09:27

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