Raceweek recap — Austria Race 2
We were in Austria once again for yet another race. The last race of the triple header that began in France 2 weeks earlier. This time, the tyres used were a step softer than the ones used in the last race. Track temperatures were lower than they were the previous week, meaning that while tyres got warm less quickly, tyre degradation became even less of a problem than last week, but with the softer tyres, which wear out faster, the equation balanced itself out.
Free Practice — Friday 02/07/21
Fernando Alonso did not take part in the first Free Practice session and the 2nd Alpine was driven by F2 driver Guanyu Zhou. Callum Ilott drove Kimi Raikkonen’s car and Roy Nissany was in George Russell’s Williams. There were a bunch of wheels locking up and flat spots on the tyres as a result.
Some of the drivers went out on tyres with neither white, yellow, nor red, but rather black sidewalls. These were represented as (T) on the timing sheets. These were tyres that the drivers were testing for Pirelli, similar in firmness to the C3 compound tyre.
Lance Stroll went off the track, bringing out the first yellow flag of the weekend. A couple of laps went by and he went off again, this time at the exit of the last turn and caused another yellow flag. Many had wheels lock up while braking into turn 1. Charles Leclerc had multiple lockups all over the track, possibly caused by an issue on his car.
Still, despite lockups, Leclerc was one of the top three fastest on track on Friday, along with teammate Sainz, as well as Max Verstappen, who’s been comfortably topping every session off late.
The RedBull cars were very quick in sector 3, both this weekend as well as the week before. They seemed to have some sort of magic through the final section of the track.
So it was Verstappen quickest and the Ferrari duo second and third as the chequered flag was waved for FP1.
FP2
There were some fast laps during the first half of FP2, of which the fastest two laps came from the Mercedes duo. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Mercedes 1–2 in any session off late. We finally saw raindrops falling on the track, a sight we’ve sorely missed, as it began to drizzle 28 minutes into FP2. It took some time for the rain to have an effect on the track, but eventually some drivers reported their grip reducing over the radio. The fast laps stopped coming as the teams all started to carry out “race pace simulations,” where they do longer stints of slightly slower but more consistent laps and with a heavier fuel load to simulate what their pace over a longer distance will be like.
Free Practice 3 and Qualifying — Saturday 03/07/21
FP3
While FP2 is typically race pace simulations, FP3 is used for qualifying pace simulations, where lighter fuel loads are used and the drivers try to set the fastest lap they can and don’t bother with tyre conservation or fuel management.
Verstappen was back on top of the timing charts at the end of FP3 with Bottas and Hamilton second and third, the former in half a second slower than Max despite being the second fastest on track. Gasly and Giovinazzi were fourth and fifth. They were followed by Sainz, Perez, Alonso, Leclerc and Vettel, neither of the McLaren cars breaking through to the top 10.
Qualifying
It is to note that the track temperatures on Saturday were significantly higher than they were on Friday, almost twice as high.
During the first round of qualifying, Perez and Ricciardo both had significant gaps to teammate’s times.
Ocon was another with a huge gap to his teammate. He found himself in the elimination zone while Alonso was all the way at the top, having posted the second fastest time. His time was displaced to third as Lando Norris went 0.2 seconds quicker, and was only 0.096 seconds slower than Max in P1. Daniel Ricciardo only just about made it through to round 2 of Qualifying after putting up a time good enough for 15th place.
Pierre Gasly, whose initial lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits, made it through to Q2 after a fast lap attempt towards the finishing stages of Q1.
Russell was in the elimination zone and made it out in the dying stages of Q1 while his teammate’s lap was only good enough for 18th. This meant that Russell held on to his record of always making it past Q1 in 2021.
Gio was quick in Q1 and qualified 7th while his teammate Raikkonen in 16th place, was eliminated .
Ocon abandoned his last flying lap, his last hope of making it out of Q1 and was eliminated along with Mazepin, Schumacher, Latifi and Raikkonen.
Q2
Medium tyres for Perez who went out first onto the track. It was a while before anyone else came out of their pit boxes.
The top 10 within around 0.45 seconds of each other.
Russell was contending well to occupy one of the top 10 spots. It was a chance for Williams to make it
He had medium tyres on, but still made it through to Q3 in what was a spectacular Saturday performance. He put his Williams car in P10
While Sebastian Vettel made it through, a slow moving queue of cars meant that he was in the way when Alonso was setting his fast lap, and was unfortunately eliminated in Q2.
Both Ferraris were eliminated in Q2, with Carlos and Charles in 11th and 12th respectively.
Ricciardo too was out in Q2 as was Giovinazzi. Giovinazzi had a great Q1 but his Q2 time didn’t live up to it.
Max was over 0.3 seconds ahead of his closest competitor in second.
Q3
Hamilton and Bottas were only good enough for P4 and P5 in Q3 and had to put up a much better performance on Sunday to keep up in the title fight with RedBull.
George Russell was having the qualifying session of his life. He wasn’t done advancing up the grid and finally qualified in P9, ahead of Lance Stroll. The other Aston, belonging to birthday boy Sebastian Vettel, finished qualifying in 8th place. The Alphatauris took up the two spots above him.
It was Sergio Perez P3 and Lando Norris, who drove a superb, unbelievably flawless lap in his McLaren, only 0.048 seconds behind Max in pole position. It was Lando’s first ever time starting on the front row in his time in F1.
The Grand Prix — Sunday 04/07/21
The race began and the cars streamlined from a crowd into a single file as always upon entering turn three. While it was all smooth sailing at the front, the Safety car was brought out after Ocon was sandwiched between Mick and Antonio, ending his race within 3 turns of the first lap.
Safety car period ended and it was back to racing. Sergio Perez made a move on Norris and almost made it through but Norris had the better exit out of the corner and held onto his position. Slightly behind, Bottas overtook Hamilton and took P4.
Perez made yet another move on Norris around the outside but went into the gravel and dropped to P10 by the time he was out, which was investigated by the stewards.
Tsunoda was the first to stop, entering the pits on lap 13. A 5 second penalty was given to him for crossing over the white pit entry line.
Daniel Ricciardo, who was eliminated in Q2, made up positions and was all the way up in P5 by lap 18.
Lando Norris was awarded a 5 second penalty on lap 20 for his incident with Perez for “forcing him off the track.” He was in a battle with Lewis Hamilton while he was awarded the penalty and it’s safe to assume the Mclaren crew waited for a less strenuous time to give him the news.
Hamilton made it past Lando and was in pursuit of Verstappen, who by this time was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack.
Lando Norris stopped on lap 31 and served his 5 second penalty in the pit box. Valtteri Bottas stopped with Norris and overtook him while he was serving his penalty.
Hamilton pitted after the two of them and came out in 2nd place. Max made his stop after, and after a super quick tyre change, left the pit lane still leading the race.
Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez, who were in 7th and 8th, were battling for position. Leclerc made a move on Perez but was forced onto the gravel, ironically in the very same manner and at the very same turn as Perez himself was earlier in the race. Sure enough, Perez was promptly awarded a 5 second penalty for that move.
Pierre Gasly meanwhile, chose to do a 2-stop race and went into the pits for yet another tyre change.
A few laps went by and Perez and Leclerc were fighting for position at the same curve as the incident had taken place. Leclerc tried to go around the outside of Perez but pulled out of the move before a deja vu moment took place. He waited for the next corner to make his move. Unfortunately, he chose to go around the outside again, and found himself in the very same position that he was a few laps ago. He let out his frustration through the radio but his race progress was irreversibly set back. His teammate Sainz made a pitstop on lap 49. Perez was awarded yet another 5 second penalty.
Leclerc got back onto his feet soon enough and was battling Daniel Ricciardo for position.
Further down the pack, the black and white flag, a warning similar to a yellow card in football, was waved at Nikita Mazepin for exceeding track limits.
Back in the front, Valtteri Bottas, who was ordered by the Mercedes team to stay behind Lewis Hamilton, was given permission to race and overtake him. Hamilton had taken damage earlier on and struggled to overtake Norris. Bottas, who was much quicker, was given the green light to go ahead and try to take position from Norris.
Norris was ahead of Hamilton and Mercedes naturally wanted to take home every point they could and had Bottas fight him instead.
Yet another 5 second penalty was awarded, this time to Lance Stroll 5s for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane.
Yuki Tsunoda was awarded his second 5-second penalty again for crossing the white pit entry line, the exact same offense he was penalised for last time, an incident I couldn’t help but laugh at.
Mazepin wasn’t the only one who had the black and white flag waved at him. Raikkonen too had the black and white waved at him for exceeding track limits.
There were a couple of great wheel to wheel battles in this race, the most entertaining of which, in my opinion, was between Alonso and Russell for 10th place, for just one solitary point.
George held off Fernando for a (surprisingly large) number of laps in a car that was clearly not capable of holding its own that high up the grid. We saw absolutely brilliant defences to each of Fernando’s overtaking moves. Alonso finally got past him with 3 laps to spare.
Alonso was extremely impressed with Russell’s driving skills and brilliant defending and met him after the race and swapped helmets with him.
Lando Norris too, received a few words of appreciation from Lewis Hamilton over the radio earlier in the race. A great day then, to be a young British driver.
Carlos Sainz, who was on fresher tyres, passed his teammate Leclerc on Lap 61 to take the fight to Ricciardo up ahead. Sainz and Ricciardo were battling for position soon enough and
Sainz overtook the McLaren driver on the third last lap.
Almost all the overtaking action for the race was done but, the action certainly wasn’t. On the last lap, Kimi Raikkonen, who attempted to make an overtake on Sebastian Vettel collided into the back of Vettel, which unfortunately ended Vettel’s race, and ruined his own.
It was Max Verstappen who saw the chequered flag first yet again, followed by Bottas and Norris in second and third respectively.
Austria’s winners
Max Verstappen — Literally and figuratively the winner. He started in first place and ended in first, never battling another car for position in between. He extends his championship lead over Lewis, and his team’s over Mercedes.
Lando Norris — He was top tier all weekend, just short of Max in qualifying, and was on his way to a second place finish. He picked up yet another podium to his collection and furthered McLaren’s lead over Ferrari. He’s also closing in on Sergio Perez for third place in the drivers’ championship.
Carlos Sainz — He seemed to be in form from the moment he stepped into the Ferrari. He’s had a great season so far and is on par with Leclerc, who is considered one of the best drivers on the grid. He helped in softening the blow of Lando’s podium for Ferrari and helped in taking back crucial points from McLaren by overtaking Ricciardo.
Austria’s Losers
Esteban Ocon — He had a great start to the season and was well ahead of Alonso. But ever since he signed his new contract with the team, his performances just weren’t the same anymore. He failed to get out of Q1 and he didn’t even finish the race. While the crash was not his fault, the fact that he qualified 17th was all on him.
Williams — They have such a brilliant driver on their hands but their car just doesn’t seem to work with him. Debatably the second worst car on the grid, they had a chance to score points this week as well as the last. Last week it was a car failure, while this week it was the superior Alpine in Alonso’s hands with which Russell just couldn’t keep up with in his car. It cost Russell as well as the team their first points in a while now.