Free Practice...
FP1:
We started the action of the weekend in a swelteringly hot Austria; despite rain being predicted, the skies were sunny and track temperatures were very hot. A beautiful way to start the weekend.
We were missing a certain iceman in FP1, Kimi had given up his car for the first hour to Alfa Romeo reserve driver Robert Kubica. Not that Kimi was missing much, under various names, Kimi had driven this track in 12 Grand Prix, so he certainly has the experience. Unfortunately for Kubica, things were not all smooth sailing; he spun coming up to Turn 2 on cold tyres and limped back to the pits. He did manage to get out on track again and ended the session in P19, ahead of the one and only Nikita Mazepin.
Carlos Sainz sounded slightly concerned on an out lap when the throttle seemed to be stuck (which if you watch Indycar and Felix Rosenquist’s crash, it can be very dangerous), luckily for the Spaniard, it seemed to sort itself out and he completed a flying lap with no issues. In an unrelated spin, Carlos was found facing the wrong way at Turn 1 after leaving the pit-lane with his car stuck in “false neutral”, which from my understanding is what the Marshalls use to move a car after a crash. Despite the issues, Carlos was able to end the session one place behind his teammate in P11.
The main issue with such a short circuit is that traffic becomes a bit of a problem, which was brought to our attention by Max Verstappen, who was frustrated by being blocked on fast laps. The main culprits for him being Gasly and Latifi who did try to get out of the way, but found it difficult in some corners.
Everyone's favourite subject up next - track limits! (Hope you can sense the sarcasm there). As always, track limits were proving to be a nightmare for some drivers as they tested the limits of the circuit. Lando Norris got a lot of grief from track limits, having 3 fast laps in a row deleted - which demoted him down to P16 at the end of the session.
FP2:
Friday's action continued in FP2 - where the threat of rain was prominent, resulting in drivers coming out immediately to get some dry running in.
Pierre Gasly’s power unit was under investigation by the Honda technicians, so he did not take part in FP2. Carlos Sainz was a casualty of the kerbs at Turn 4 again and spun on the track, luckily he recovered enough to get it back to the pits. Speaking of spinning, Nikita Mazepin had an adventure into the gravel trap and completely destroyed a set of tyres.
Onto some pit-lane drama next. In a rather scary accident; laying down some rubber in his pit-box, Valtteri Bottas exited the pit in 2nd gear (as instructed by his team) however, the cold tyres caused him to spin in the pit lane - into the path of the Mclaren garage. Luckily, no one was hurt or in the path of the spinning car, the McLaren mechanics helped him to point the Mercedes in the correct direction. The McLaren sporting director talked to Michael Masi about how dangerous this was for them and Bottas was eventually handed a 3 place grid drop for “dangerous driving” in the pitlane.
Aston Martin and Alpine both had a great day with all drivers placing in the top 10 in both of Fridays sessions.
FP3:
We opened the session with Nikita Mazepin going for a spin onto the grass. Interestingly, he lost the rear before he even touched the outside of the track - the Haas rear end seems to keep on causing him issues. Incidents occurred within the pit lane again; the pit-lane was busy all session, which increases the chances of an unsafe release. There were a few incidents, one where Charles Leclerc was brought out directly in the path of Lance Stroll. Leclerc slammed on the brakes to let Stroll past.
The top 2 in the championship, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, traded fastest times all session. However, Lewis did a lot more running than Max, so Lewis topping the session wasn’t surprising.
The Alpha Tauri duo had a great session finishing P5 and P6, while their midfield rivals McLaren, struggled with Daniel Ricciardo in P17 and Lando Norris in P19 (although track limits had played a part in where they were classified). This was a worrying sign for many McLaren fans after promising signs earlier in FP1 and FP2.
Qualifying...
Claiming pole position has proven to be a fruitful challenge in ascending to the top step of the podium on Sunday - in 2020, both the Austrian and Styrian Grand Prix were won from pole position by both Mercedes drivers. That being said, Max Verstappen stole wins both two and three years before, winning from a P5 and P3. His form this season and pace in FP1 and FP2 certainly suggested he could grab his first pole position at the Red Bull Ring. Tyre management and the avoidance of punishing mistakes would be essential for qualifying, with a couple of drivers dipping into the gravel and cutting their laps short in Free Practice.
Q1:
Whilst Pierre Gasly burst out of the pitlane early at his home race last time around, it was the backmarkers who took to the track first: Latifi sporting the soft compound, as is traditional in Q1 and Williams’ best bet at making Q2; both Haas cars; then the pair of Alfa Romeos. Many other teams appeared reluctant to creep out of their garages, but with 18 minutes supplied for the session, there weren’t any major worries.
Lando Norris showed his qualifying pace early on, reassuring any McLaren fans that the team’s FP3 results weren’t reflective of their true performance. There were questions and speculations when Norris’ fantastic first lap of 1:04.584 (making him purple in every sector) was compared with Daniel Ricciardo’s lap time - about a second behind his teammate. People wondered if Lando may have pulled a one-off stunner out of the bag or even cut it close with track limits, Max Verstappen was only a tenth faster than Norris too - indicating the Brit did indeed have good pace. Though Bottas did manage second place after everybody’s initial runs, Verstappen’s championship rival Hamilton only managed fourth place behind his old team McLaren. Worries in the Red Bull garage started to form as Perez was a lowly and dangerous eleventh. With a couple of normally secure drivers on the edge of the elimination zone, and track evolution always improving laps - it seemed that those under pressure may have to sacrifice another set of soft tyres. There were no such concerns for the top four as Verstappen, Bottas, Norris, and Hamilton felt confident enough to remain in the pits and save a set of fresh softs in the battle for pole position.
Raikkonen was the first of the 20 drivers to have a notable incident, wobbling in the gravel at Turn 4 and although he didn’t spin, the “rookie error” certainly ruined his tyres and a chance for him to leap out of the danger zone. As the remaining drivers at risk grappled for track position before commencing their final laps, things were unusual at Williams with Latifi sitting in an incredibly healthy P9 whilst Mr Saturday himself (George Russell), was written in red down in P17. Other drivers in trouble included Daniel Ricciardo, who unlike his teammate, looked to be unable to escape the troubles of FP3, and Perez, who Red Bull desperately needed up front in order to support Verstappen’s championship lead and provide Mercedes with another strategy headache. The both of them managed to improve to a safe spot - Perez leaping from P15 to P5 - but Latifi, who looked relatively comfortable to make a great Q2 appearance alongside Russell, just missed out in P16. Vettel saved himself, but ultimately upset Ocon, who would line up in front of Raikkonen, Schumacher and Mazepin on Sunday.
Q2:
To the commentators’ confusion and resulting speculation, Bottas was the first to emerge onto the track in this session on a set of medium tyres. Though the dizzyingly high track temperatures gave good cause for the mediums, alongside the fact the tyre qualified on to get into Q3 would be used for the race start, the top teams aren’t normally the first cars out on track. Giovinazzi, the lone Alfa Romeo, also followed the sleek black car out on the mediums with Hamilton and Verstappen soon following suit. Suggestions of a Red Bull strategy play were evident when Perez drove onto the track with soft tyres, which may have given Mercedes some thinking to do. Consequently, Bottas was sent a probing message over the radio - his time was “not safe”, so he’ll have to go again. Verstappen then set the pace ahead of Bottas on the timing screens, with his teammate Perez on the usually quicker soft tyre beating his time, though the gap was minimal. Like his teammate, Hamilton didn’t have a good first attempt after locking up into Turn 3, and ending up behind George Russell on the leaderboard. Later on, he did improve to third, but that lap would mean sitting on the grid wearing five lap old tyres.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of surprises moving away from the top battle. Sainz improves his lap but remains P11, meaning his qualifying is over, and Ricciardo heads out the door too in P14 (though a lap time deletion ahead of him elevates him to P13). There is however, a moment of excitement for Williams and George Russell, who last made the top ten in qualifying with Lance Stroll back in 2018 at Monza. For a few blissful moments, Russell is P10, before being bumped down by Alonso and missing out on his first Q3 with the team by a mere 0.008 of a second. That was some more heartbreak for F1 Twitter - but also a sign of good things for the future, and an achievement the whole team could be proud of. In the end, Russell (so close!), Sainz, Ricciardo, Vettel and Giovinazzi (who chose the medium tyres, so that result isn’t very surprising) were eliminated.
The top finishers would provide more strategy mind-games for the race on Sunday, with Perez and Norris at the top of the timing sheets both on softs, whilst the Mercedes pair and Verstappen chose the mediums.
Q3:
As always, the optimum tyre and obvious choice for Q3 was the softs, and Hamilton would sport fresh ones (even better) for his first lap. The initial signs for Mercedes weren’t good when Verstappen went quickest in Sector 1 and 2 to top the leaderboard again. Yet Perez, a driver Red Bull have relied heavily on to cause Mercedes issues, was behind Norris and Bottas after his first run - leaving him with limited time to compose himself for his next run. Despite this, Verstappen continued to look strong and had provisional pole when Hamilton completed a second lap and still couldn’t best his title rival.
Compared to the rest of the field, the Mercedes cars decided on quicker out-laps, suspected to be due to a struggle with front-tyre temperatures. This decision was hampered by their last runs with lots of traffic, Hamilton breaking the unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” by overtaking multiple cars in the last sector - including his teammate Bottas. His position didn’t aid him in any way, with his final lap not an improvement - he would not claim pole. Behind, Bottas would leapfrog Hamilton into second, though this would not affect Hamilton’s chances too much with Bottas’ three-place grid penalty. Neither Mercedes would start ahead of Verstappen, and it would be down to the other two possible challengers, Norris and Perez, to see if they could take the spot away from the championship leader. Norris would only improve to fourth, and Perez would wind up behind the young Brit with three cars between him and Verstappen.
However, after Bottas’ penalty was applied, McLaren were thrilled with a promotion to P3, whilst the gap between the Dutch polesitter and his teammate Perez shrank to two positions. There were lots of things to take away from the resulting top five; how hard would the buffer of Norris make it for Perez to challenge for the win? Would Bottas regain his lost places?
More importantly: who would triumph in Styria and take away precious championship points?
“I wouldn’t say there’s many answers at the moment as to why we struggled a lot today, but we’ll try to figure it out and look forward to tomorrow. Definitely didn’t expect to be here after yesterday.” - Daniel Ricciardo
“I’m looking forward to getting started in that top ten - I’m not looking behind me and in my mirrors, I just want to go forward now, and let’s see if we can do that.” - George Russell
“I want to be optimistic and say we can have a good few laps in the beginning - I’ll try my best to try and keep up with the other guys but I don’t think that’s going to be possible.” - Lando Norris
The Race...
It was race day for the second week in a row, and the second race of a thrilling and momentus triple header in Europe. Red Bull were still the team to beat, with Mercedes trailing in their wheel tracks. 3 weekends, and no win for the German turned Brackley team!
Things are really hotting up in the midfield as well, McLaren and Ferrari claiming their spots as best of the rest, with Haas and Williams still standing at zero points in the constructor’s championship. The grid certainly threw us a few surprises this week, as well as a bit of heartbreak going around with George Russell just missing out on Q3 by just 8 thousandths of a second. A few names also got scattered around; not really where we are used to seeing them with the likes of Daniel down in P13 and Esteban Ocon in 15th. With Valtteri already being demoted 3 spots, it's anyone's game and a lot can happen in 71 laps around the ring.
And it's GO, GO, GO!
Max got off the line well with a good advantage over defending champ Lewis Hamilton. Behind, Norris and Perez had a slight scrap for P3 going into Turn 1. Further down the field, things all got a little out of shape with contact between Pierre and Charles, then with Pierre again, but this time Giovinazzi and Latifi were amongst the fallout. After having a brilliantly charged lap 1, moving from 13th to 8th - Daniel’s work was soon undone as he tumbled down the order after experiencing a temporary loss of power, and found himself in P13 again. The experienced Aussie fell behind Ocon and surprisingly or not, the Williams of Russell who had a mega start and retained 8th for most of his race - but eventually had to retire after a mechanical issue left him staggering for places and into the pits every few laps to top up air pressures.
After his contact with Gasly, Leclerc was forced into a lap 2 pitstop to repair damage to his front wing, passing the retired Frenchman on his way out due to a broken suspension track rod - leaving his tyres shredded and car with an un-raceable rear end. Perez and Bottas were in a world of their own for a while, following Norris until Mclaren radioed the young Brit confirming their race wasn't with the 2 rivals, and therefore put up no defence when the two hunted him down on lap 10. By lap 25, Max had extended his lead from Lewis to around 5s, the closest car after the reigning champion being about 16s adrift of the Dutchman. At the back of the top 10, the Alpine of Fernando Alonso was creating a DRS train behind him, with cars such as Tsunoda, Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Sainz all looking for the golden opportunity to make an overtake.
Perez was the first front-runner to pit, but a slow stop left him vulnerable to Bottas - who eventually claimed third place overall with a relatively close last lap battle. Close, but not close enough as they say. Bottas then pitted a lap later, with Hamilton and Verstappen following suit over the next 2 laps, the Dutch lion still managing to stay ahead. Behind, the scarlet Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc going long meant they cruised along in full send mode for the last 20 or so laps, with Charles passing at least 12 cars to end up P7 at the checkered flag, his teammate 1 place ahead in 6th. Norris ran a relatively lonely race, not often straying from his trusty P5, securing the consistent place by lap 71 to bring home the only points haul for the papaya team. During the latter stages of the race, I'm sure everyone in the stands took a collective breath when Max came over the radio noting a BWB issue - however, no trouble came from this with Lewis being unable to close the gap on raw pace. He did however, come in around 10 laps from the end to steal the fastest lap from Perez with a 1:04.816.
On the podium, we had the ever record breaking trio of Max, Lewis, and Valtteri - with Perez, Norris, Sainz, Leclerc, Stroll, Alonso and Tsunoda rounding out the top 10. From P11 onward, we had Raikkonen followed by Vettel, Ricciardo, Giovinazzi, Schumacher, Latifi, and Mazepin - summing up the finishers of the 2021 Styrian GP. As Max would say, “We call that simply lovely” and we’ll see you all again next week for round 2 in the hills!
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