Bottas wins wild race at Spielberg

Abandons galore, Safety Cars in spades, mechanical alerts on the Mercedes, a front wheel which fails during a re-start, clashes, wheel strikes, a time penalty for Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc great days that ignores its average equipment to climb on the box. And at the end of the suspense, Lando Norris who snatches a podium with his McLaren.

In the midst of this chaos, Valtteri Bottas, imperial on a track that he particularly likes, which won the first victory of the season for Mercedes.  

Phew! This first round of the 2020 season will not have lacked excitement and twists and turns. Hostilities started even before the start when Lewis Hamilton had to move back 3 places on the grid for not slowing down under a yellow flag in qualifying.

When the lights went out, pole sitter Bottas was not worried and quickly escaped into the lead. Behind, Max Verstappen retained his 2nd place but the Dutchman had to give up on the 11th lap due to a mechanical problem on his Red Bull RB16. In the meantime, Hamilton had already erased Alexander albon (Red Bull) and Norris to move up to 2nd place behind his teammate.

At that moment, the Mercedes seemed well on their way to signing a calm double even if Toto wolff and his men must have been in a cold sweat at the idea of ​​reliving a fratricidal struggle like the time when Nico Rosberg teamed up with Hamilton.

And then everything came crashing down.

Kevin Magnussen (Haas) led to the Safety Car's first exit by crashing its Haas into the gravel. Most drivers took the opportunity to observe a pit stop. The Mercedes still had control of events but the Étoile drivers began to receive warnings from their pit wall.

The German gearbox sensors were giving signs of concern and the Mercedes-powered Racing Point de Lance stroll had already given up due to a mechanical incident.

In the 51st lap, it was another person's turn car powered by Mercedes to give up, the Williams of George Russell, following a fuel pressure problem. The Safety Car was then sent out again and most of the drivers jumped at the chance to put on fresher tires. This was not the case for the Mercedes in the lead, who opted to stay on the hard side.

The race had barely restarted when the Safety Car had to return to service. In the last sector, Kimi Räikkönen had just lost his front wheel and had parked his Alfa Romeo bruised on the start-finish straight.

On lap 61, the proceedings resumed and Albon, who had managed to overtake Sergio Pérez just before the previous Safety Car, was now on Hamilton's heels. Taking advantage of his Soft tires, the Red Bull driver attempted a first maneuver on the outside of Turn 3. He insisted on the following curve and, as in Brazil last year, there was a collision between the two men.

LAP 61/71:

Contact between Albon and Hamilton at the restart!

Albon spins and drops to P13 #AustrianGP  #F1 pic.twitter.com/5iImqmGcVR

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 5, 2020

Hamilton received the same time penalty, namely 5 seconds added to his race time. Behind, Leclerc was now in 3rd place after having made a series of strong overtakes despite a Ferrari SF1000 clearly not at the level of the best.

In the final loops, Norris and his teammate Carlos Sainz fought like rags before the British imp dove inside Pérez to steal 4th place from him. The McLaren driver then raced towards the leading trio in the hope of taking advantage of Hamilton's penalty.

He succeeded at the end of the suspense, by just a tenth, by setting the best lap in the race at the end of his ride! As at Interlagos, a penalized Mercedes leaves its place on the podium to a McLaren promoted to the Top 3. Hamilton must be content with 4th place even though he was the big favorite after the first runs.

Behind, Sainz grabbed a good 5th place by dropping Pérez at the very end of the race. Nice group shot from the French: Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) finished 6th, ahead of the returning Esteban Ocon, which brings balm to the heart of the clan Renault, who saw Daniel Ricciardo retire due to a mechanical problem.

Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) takes an unexpected 9th place given the level of the C39, while Sebastian Vettel, who spun during an overtaking attempt, completed the Top 10 for Ferrari. Nobody was able to compete with Bottas this Sunday. Like last year, the Finn took control of the Drivers' standings at the end of the first Grand Prix of the season.

Looking forward to the rest at the same Red Bull Ring in less than a week.

Discover the full report and analysis of the Austrian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondent in Spielberg, in issue 2268 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.