Styria – Race: Hamilton’s revenge ahead of Bottas and Verstappen, a disaster for Ferrari!

The second Grand Prix of the 2020 season was won by Lewis Hamilton! The six-time world champion dominated from start to finish on the Red Bull Ring circuit, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. Double retirement for Ferrari, with the collision between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel on the first lap!

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It was under dry weather and on a new track, “cleaned” by Saturday’s rain, that the second Grand Prix of the 2020 season took place, still in Austria, but under the label Grand Prix of Styria, named after the region of the Red Bull Ring circuit.

All starting on the tires of their choice, 14 drivers had opted for a start on soft rubber, with a red stripe. Among them, the top six on the grid, namely Hamilton-Verstappen-Sainz-Bottas-Ocon-Albon, in that order.

Among the drivers who started on soft yellow-banded tires, Ricciardo (9th) and Vettel (10th)

Starting from the pits in a car reworked by his mechanics (with the Parc Fermé rule broken), Romain Grosjean began in last place, behind the chaos at the start between the two Ferrari drivers!

Leclerc scuttles Vettel and Ferrari!

Despite a side-by-side battle between Verstappen and Sainz at the first corner, the top three drivers maintained their positions at the start. Ocon conceded to Albon, Ricciardo climbed to 7th place ahead of Gasly, but it was just behind where the attention focused, in the third corner.

CATASTROPHE for Scuderia Ferrari: on the inside, Charles Leclerc collided with his front wing… the rear wing of his teammate Sebastian Vettel.

The Italian team was losing everything: the German driver returned to the pit and retired at the end of the first lap following the intervention of the Safety Car, which came to clean up his debris.

Right in front of him, Leclerc’s mechanics were repairing his wing. Attempting in vain to continue, the Monegasque retired shortly after the restart, at the end of the 5th lap.

Another loser: George Russell, who had gone straight into the gravel trap at turn 7 with his Williams, from the very first lap. The young Briton dropped from a promising 11th place at the start to the last on the track, behind Latifi’s Williams.

Upon resumption, from the 6th lap, the surprises from the qualifiers fell back in line: Bottas easily passed Sainz… Albon did the same on the 9th lap.

Poorly qualified, the two Racing Point cars returned to the points by the 14th lap. A decidedly team race: Ocon in 5th ahead of Ricciardo in 6th, the two Renaults squabbled for three laps, but the Australian eventually passed the Frenchman on the 20th lap.

Ocon’s resistance was actually pointless: with smoking brakes, the former Mercedes test driver returned to his pit box to retire on the 26th lap, a victim of a cooling issue on his R.S. 20, just like Ricciardo last week.

Verstappen tries but cannot catch up with Hamilton.

In the top 3, it was Max Verstappen who initiated the pit stop battle! On the 25th lap, the Dutchman swapped his soft tires for mediums. An aggressive strategy that didn’t impress Mercedes: neither Hamilton nor Bottas.

Still leading, the six-time world champion stopped on the 28th lap: he rejoined 5 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

A smooth stop, unlike Sainz, who lost precious seconds due to his mechanics struggling to fix his wheel.

Hamilton in any case left the lead to Valtteri Bottas until the 35th lap. The Finn pitted on the 35th lap: he rejoined 8 seconds behind Verstappen.

The race was progressing without major incidents: an ideal configuration for Racing Point, with Stroll climbing to 6th place, ahead of Pérez, who passed Sainz on lap 42 after a nice maneuver. The Mexican easily overtook Ricciardo on lap 48 for 5th place.

Now in 6th, Ricciardo was defending as best he could against Stroll. Behind them, the duo of Sainz and Norris were in 8th and 9th places, ahead of Daniil Kvyat, who benefited from Pierre Gasly’s misfortunes, as the Frenchman dropped out of the top 10 after pitting for a second time.

A new big move at the end of the race for Norris!

Three battles enlivened an otherwise calm end to the race: Bottas was gradually closing in on the 2nd place occupied by Verstappen, who was driving a Red Bull with damage to the right side of the front wing. Pérez had meanwhile caught up to Albon’s tailpipes, with 10 laps to go.

Still 6th, Ricciardo held off Stroll.

Complaining of a lack of support, Verstappen still resisted Bottas’s first attack on the 66th lap. The Finn reconsidered before launching another attack.

In the lead, Lewis Hamilton reached the finish of the second Grand Prix of the season without difficulty: far from his chaotic race last Sunday, the six-time world champion wins the Styrian Grand Prix!

A good move for the Briton, who thus wins a race in a Formula 1 world championship for the 14th consecutive season. 85th victory for Hamilton, closing in six wins on the record held by Michael Schumacher.

Deprived of the fastest lap at the end, by Carlos Sainz, driver #44 also doesn’t take the lead in the drivers’ standings! Valtteri Bottas took advantage of Verstappen’s pit stop on the 69th lap to take second position. The Finn thus totals 43 points in the overall standings, 37 points for Hamilton.

Behind the podium, an animated end to the race among the underdogs as Albon resisted Pérez. The Red Bull driver held onto 4th place, while the Racing Point #11 broke its front wing. Pérez saw a trio of furious drivers catching up in the final lap. Jackpot for Norris, who went from 8th to 5th place!

On the line, and with his damaged car, Pérez took 6th place, one-tenth ahead of Stroll and Ricciardo. 9th and 10th, Sainz and Kyvat completed the top 10. No French drivers in the points: Romain Grosjean finished the second race of the season in 13th place behind Kevin Magnussen (12th), his teammate at Haas. Pierre Gasly dropped to a modest 15th place!

Here is the full ranking of the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix!

Driver Team Times Gap Laps
1
Hamilton Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
71
2
Bottas Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport +13.719
71
3
Verstappen Aston Martin Red Bull Racing +33.698
71
4
Albon Aston Martin Red Bull Racing +44.400
71
5
Norris McLaren F1 Team +1:01.470
71
6
Perez SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team +1:02.387
71
7
Stroll SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team +1:02.453
71
8
Ricciardo Renault F1 Team +1:02.591
71
9
Sainz Jr. McLaren F1 Team +1 lap
70
10
Kvyat Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda +1 lap
70
11
Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing +1 lap
70
12
Magnussen Haas F1 Team +1 lap
70
13
Grosjean Haas F1 Team +1 lap
70
14
Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing +1 lap
70
15
Gasly Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda +1 lap
70
16
Russell Williams Racing +2 laps
69
17
Latifi Williams Racing +2 laps
69
18
Ocon Renault F1 Team DNF
19
Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow DNF
20
Vettel Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow DNF
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