Start, Red Bull Ring, 2018

Rate the race: 2018 Austrian Grand Prix

2018 Austrian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Austrian Grand Prix.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (9%)
  • 9 (29%)
  • 8 (39%)
  • 7 (15%)
  • 6 (3%)
  • 5 (2%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (1%)
  • 2 (1%)
  • 1 (0%)

Total Voters: 337

Loading ... Loading ...

1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

A RaceFans account is required to vote. You can register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.

View more Rate the Race results:

See the results for past seasons here:

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

75 comments on “Rate the race: 2018 Austrian Grand Prix”

  1. A rather exciting race overall.

  2. 10. No spectacular incidents but it was brilliantly unpredictable with quality overtakes a different top 5 and a great atmosphere.

  3. Brilliant! 10/10. I loved this race. It had everything: an unexpected winner, great battles all over the field, plenty of overtaking (maybe a bit artificial), unpredictability, tension, surprising retirements, and championship significance…just great!

  4. 9. Who can blame Mercedes on delivering cars which have been extremely reliable. The only blame they can have was on the VSC. Whether Lewis would not have had that failure had he been leading, who knows.

    Nicely done by Ferrari and Max.

  5. Absolute bonkers of a race. The championship is now wide open.

  6. Another overtaking joke. Three DRS zones, and clearly faster cars can’t get close to the ones in front UNLESS the car in front has issues or gets blocked. This is a track known for overtaking too.

    1. This track is not known for overtaking. I actually thought the overtaking in this race was pretty good. There weren’t a lot of excessive undeserved DRS fly by overtakes. Drivers really had to work for them.. and there were some superb overtakes during the race.

      1. The track is, I don’t know what races you’ve been watching then. All we had was a succession of DRS trains.

        1. We’ve had a slump on non-overtaking races from Monaco onwards, and of course, we finally had a race weekend with some overtakes (although it took 3 DRS zones to get the job done).

          That doesn’t change the fact that the track layout is actually less overtaking friendly than many most circuits on the calendar. Technically, Canada is a ore overtaking friendly track .. even though we didn’t get enough overtakes this year.

    2. Well, there was overtaking though, but yeah, that third DRS seeminly helped in keeping people on the tail so they can then overtake in the corners.

  7. 10! Best race of the year so far, highly unpredictable, quality overtakes, expert driving with no mistakes, the top 3 teams all swapping and fighting, really built to an exciting final few laps. Fighting response from Kimi given recent career media discussion.

    Hamilton throwing his toys out the pram +1

  8. So much for Ferrari team orders and Ferrari Assistance tripe. Good day.

  9. This race proved one thing as far as i’m concerned & that’s that creating tyres to artificially degrade at a faster race as seen since 2011 isn’t what generates good racing…… It’s when the tyres do things that nobody was expecting which can generate a bit of extra excitement.

    When the tyres are designed to degrade faster than normal & everybody knows that then everybody knows how to deal with it & drivers go into the race knowing how to manage them & drive accordingly.

    When the tyres are expected to be more durable but then suffer unexpected problems be it more wear than expected (Montreal 2010 for instance) or blistering like today, Nobody really knows how to deal with it so go in pushing fairly hard but then end up having to run the race adapting on the fly. That’s what made Montreal 2010 as good as it was & that is a part of what contributed to today’s race been rather good.

    1. @stefmeister In that case maybe Pirelli should remove the markings on the tyres so the teams don’t know which compound they’re putting on. That would certainly make them unpredictable ;)

    2. Ferrari was fine on the tyres. Funny, the harder the compound, worse for them. Didn’t remember somebody blaming the tyres when they blew their tyres at Silverstone.

  10. Best race for a while no doubt.
    Just a shame it wasn’t 3 or 4 laps longer, would have been good to see Kimi have a go at Max.

    1. Pretty well agree, JohnNik. Anyone who made serious predictions
      about today’s race outcome would have been very embarrassed.

      However……

      We need more outcomes as utterly unpredictable as today, but I
      think serious F1 watchers will soon grow very disenchanted with
      these thoroughly predictable tyre degradations Pirelli persist in
      producing. Surely it should be a competition of all a drivers skills,
      not just tyre management ?

      1. @loen You do realise that having a lot of unexpected outcomes does not work don’t you? Having them occur very rarely is what makes them unexpected

        1. Well, @mrboerns,

          …..that was rather the point made in my second paragraph,
          or was my intention to indicate. Introducing antificial forms
          of tyre degradation is tantamount to modifying results in
          my view, though others may not share that opinion.

          I do think we need more tracks that really challenge today’s
          F1 drivers and also make life very difficult for chassis engineers.
          But I do realise that not everyone wishes for that kind of
          complexity.

  11. 7.

    Pretty good race… but what farce!!! VER & FIA hits again!!! Pretty sure the jokers who keep saying FIA = Ferrari assistance and RAI is a no.2 won’t make an appearance this race. Wonder why….!! We have all kind of penalties awarded for lesser things, but when a driver manages the “perfect crime”, he’s getting away with it without a problem. Touching and pushing RAI wide and getting in front, then winning in front of the same guy by just 2sec didn’t ring a bell to any steward that was undeserved gaining!

    This race proves there’s some weird karma around VET: he messes up only in the races that he could have won. If it wasn’t for the penalty and his poor start, he should have won, he obviously had the pace to do it.

    1. @MG1982 typical anti-Ferrari sentiments around here meaning that you won’t find many supporters. Hitting your opponent and gaining a position isn’t an offence when you are Verstappen. An hollow and unethical victory.

      1. Go look at old races of Prost and Lauda and Senna etc and see how they raced

        1. Sorry, no need. Rules are not relaxed anymore, these days they could get black flagged or even banned few races.

    2. and leaving the track with an danger return is not worth a penalty? come on.. wake up, this is good for the championship.

    3. Jeroen Valkema
      1st July 2018, 17:30

      And when RAI forced VER on the grass, that’s ok tot you?

      1. That’s the definition of a really minor racing incident, nothing happened. RAI was mostly ahead anyway and fighting HAM, there’s nothing wrong there. RAI left some room there for VER, HAM left no room at all, he went from left to right then left again. Plus, RAI is not the kind of guy who uses “on the limit or beyond” tricks in order to gain positions, that’s something most guys who know him as a driver agree upon. Not the case with VER tho. Following the same logic on which VET was found guilty for crashing into BOT last weekend, VER should have pressed the brake pedal. You can also blame HAM for pushing RAI off-track RAI in the 1st and 2nd corners as they were almost completely side by side. This way we can find all of them guilty of something.

    4. But Kimi pushing Max onto the grass to keep position was ok?

  12. As a Hamilton supporter that result hurts, but as a fan of a good race and championship it was a tense and entertaining race from nearly start to finish 8/10

    1. @philipgb – it does lead to conflicting emotions, doesn’t it? I’ve had that before, as well.

  13. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    1st July 2018, 15:54

    Unexpectedly good. Raikkonen showing he’s still got good pace, Verstappen showing how good he can be with a mostly clean race and Vettel charging through with a pretty good overtake on Hamilton. Impressed with Magnussen too, his points now put him best of the rest in the championship. Bad birthday for Ricciardo and honestly can Bottas catch a break? Guy deserves better luck. Really not sure about the Mercedes strategist coming on the radio to publically apologise though… that seemed a little off to me. Like sure the guy made a mistake but that made me feel so awkward for the poor guy.

  14. Easy 8.

    I CANNOT BELIEVE that in a race which Bottas, Ricciardo and HAMILTON didn’t finish, Vettel didn’t fully capitalise. That stupid block in Q2 cost him the win.

  15. Good race, great result for Verstappen. I’m sure this space will be full of retractions by all those calling for Red Bull to sack him earlier in the season :)

  16. Gave it a 7. It was definitely an exciting race but it could have been so much better if we had a proper battle for the win. If Kimi got within DRS range of Max at the end, and if Vettel raced Kimi, it would have been a heck of a lot more exciting. The battle between Alonso, Gasly, Leclerc and Erricson at the end was pretty exciting as well.

    Although the Mercedes retirements added to the drama of the race, it would have been far more exciting to have them in the race. Similarly, with Ricciardo.

    Definitely a heck of a lot better than the last two races, but still not as good as Bahrain or China.

    1. +1 i was hoping tyres keep working after round 40….

      1. +2
        Three cars finished on the lead lap! Hmmmm..

  17. Did Kvyat get fired from his new job or something?

    Bad joke aside, darn good race with a 4th different winner in the past 4 races, probably the best race since Azerbaijan. Only thing I hated, which isn’t to do with the race, is those silly looking stars on TV you see, what is this? Mario Kart? just stop that already and I’ll be happy.

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      1st July 2018, 16:59

      Yup those CGI stars are hideous

  18. 6. Yet another boring race won in pits and with help of stewards.

    1. Stewards? I think Mercedes was sleeping but what the hell did the Stewards do?

      1. Obviously they didn’t punish Verstappen for kicking Raikkonen of the track, yet should.

        1. Kimi also pushed Max on the grass after rejoining the track when we went wide.

          It’s racing

          1. Do you really find that comparable?! Last race everybody blamed VET for crashing into BOT instead of using the brakes, how come this not applies to VER?! Funny that you mention that, but don’t mention HAM pushing RAI off-track in the 1st and 2nd corners.

    2. hahahahahah stewards are always to blame, no matter what

      1. And 24k fans on the track who probaly come knocking why that Steward is still there. Luckly Derrick is a much better steward as a ex-driver (and a good one). I hope he will be there at Spa.

    3. BS, Both Gary Connely and Derick Warwick were stewards today. If they see even the slightest chance to punish Verstappen they will. So if they let thisgo it’s 100% fair racing

  19. I gave it as 10, in post-race adrenalin rush, though I also agree with some of what @Todfod just posted – had Kimi been more like 2005 it might have been even better; To get here we needed Bottas’ VSC, and I’m not quite sure Hamilton after that could have provided much more (maybe he had some PU issues in between already?). In the end, there was genuine tension through the whole race and we saw a lot of action all through the field. Partly due to cars failing, but also a lot of great moves through corners.

    And Ferrari let Kimi keep his 2nd, deservedly. Maybe he can be motivated enough they can fight for the WCC, that has to be a good thing too. Congrats Haas, Grosjean; Sauber well done; Alonso, good job too, once again.

    1. Be kind and enlighten us when in the last 2 years Ferrari told RAI to move aside in VET favour, especially when they were on the same strategy and fighting for position. Contrary to some opinions around, Ferrari let them have a real fight whenever they were following each other. Only last week GP RAI passed VET fair and square and finished ahead. I think it’s better to get over this myth too, same as the FIA = Ferrari myth.

      1. Clearly you weren’t watching the Spanish GP this year. They didn’t need to ask Kimi to let Vettel by.. they instead, just engineer an atrocious strategy for Kimi to help Sebastian gain a position.

        1. Ah, the strategy stuff again… Sorry, that doesn’t count. That may be called very well UNDERCUT. Such thing it is possible intra-team too, not only between different teams. How come you’re so sure BOT and RIC get “equal strategy”?! In the meantime, only last year BOT was asked like 3 times to move aside although he was fighting HAM for position.

        2. Don’t forget Monaco last year

  20. Thought it was a great race with a vindicated winner. So much battling going on, shame it was impossible for the director to keep up but the midfield never stopped battling, no idea why everyone is making this all about DRS, in the end Ricciardo passed Raik due to a mistake, Verstappen passed Raik where it really wasn’t on, Raik passed Ric when his tyres were gone and Vettel had to go over the grass to pass Lewis! Are we a negative bunch or what? As 90 minutes of entertaining, top quality sport goes, that was superb. Easy 9/10, and setting up the season nicely. Astonishing to think Verstappen could have been leading this championship right now…

    1. Ryan (@ryannema17)
      1st July 2018, 17:12

      Great summary

    2. Well said. I absolutely detest DRS but it didn’t bother me that much this afternoon. The new DRS zone had the potential to make overtaking too easy but i thought it worked quite well. Always thought the second DRS zone could be shortened by 100 metres but with overtaking being a little bit harder this year it kinda worked itself out.

      Worth noting there was a tail wind into T3 (heard over team radio before the race started IIRC), so DRS wasn’t as powerful as it could be.

    3. @hahostolze I also agree well said, although I can’t buy into that Max could have been leading the Championship right now. It still remains that RBR are third in the Constructors, as things are averaging out. We can’t play woulda coulda unless we substitute a better season for others as well, like VB for example. He could have been leading by now too. So could LH. Now it’s back to SV. For now. Unreliability, mistakes, and stuff just happening (circumstances created by the actions of others) just all need to be bundled up into what is called an F1 season. It’s racing. No guarantees.

      1. @robbie I can’t deny it takes some optimism, and also that I don’t think it’s particularly likely, but without a retirement in Bahrein, without the mistake in China, the crash in Baku and the mistake in Monaco, that’s Verstappen finishing 4th, 1st, 4th and 2nd. Which would put him right up there. Having said that, this goes for most drivers.

        And as to your point on the rest, I thoroughly agree. I also like to think that 12 races are enough for VB and MV to catch up if the cars allow it, but yeah across a season too many factors contribute. Just ask Vettel after last year…

  21. Any time Lewis and both mercs retire is a 10! Eriksson scores a point so thats also awesome.

  22. It seems that cars are able to follow closer on this circuit than elsewhere. Not sure why they need 3 DRS zones.
    overall a solid race, and great for the championship (also for #3 in the WDC).
    8/10

    1. @coldfly

      Actually thought the 3 DRS zones definitely made the race more exciting. Didn’t think it was Mario Kartish at all. There were genuinely good overtakes during the race.

  23. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
    1st July 2018, 17:12

    Am average race mostly. Shame about Bottas, his luck has been awful this year. Also feel for Riccardo.

    What happened to Leclerc this time round?!

    Happy that vettel was able to keep Hamilton nearby in terms of championship points, Lewis winning titles in a dominant car is becoming too boring now.

  24. Now this is what F1 should be!! Drama till the very end where the winner is unknown right till the last lap! Definetely best race of the year! Now two good races in a row…. roll on silverstone

    1. 10/10
      This race had everything! Overtaking, drama, strategy variation & much more! & above all it was unpredictable… Hope Silverstone will be as good

  25. Almost perfect! Should be ten if Kimi manage to push Verstappen on the grass in the last laps.

  26. Not sure if this was a great race, but it had the thing that has been missing from most other races this year: unpredictability. The racing itself wasn’t much better than in other races, but a few retirements and tyres acting strange livened it up a bit.

  27. Felt like an old school grand prix, fast pace and high attrition.

    9/10

  28. Good first few laps and then good to see cars running closely but no overtaking up front which is a surprise given all those DRS zones.

    Gave it a 7, would be more if the race wasn’t decided by a VSC, I’d rather be lucky than good!

  29. 8/10 for me.

    Kept my attention all through. Not at all processional and some good battles both at the front and down the field. Some quality overtaking which was not all the result of DRS. Unpredictability on strategy and tyre wear and some very unexpected retirements. When was the last time 3 of the top six cars retired!? It was like a race from the 1990’s.

    Good to see Ferrari let Raikkonen finish ahead of Vettel although I think in the circumstances, letting him past could have had unexpected consequences. Raikkonnen actually looked pretty competitive today which is refreshing.

    Result may also have key championship and significance.

  30. 8/10. A good race in a beautiful race track. Good job for many drivers: Max, Kimi, Sebartian, both Hass, both Force India and both Sauber.
    And this:
    Maurizio Arrivabene: The real story today is that there are six Ferrari power units in the top ten on the race result sheet. And, apart from that, we are leading both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships.

  31. Vettel fan 17 (@)
    1st July 2018, 23:49

    Gave it a 7, but in hindsight I should have given 8. Great race, unpredictability, various strategies, duels up front, Kimi charging after Max, Vettel battling up, heartbreak for Mercedes, midfield battles, scrapping around towards tail end of the points at the end with the Saubers, Alonso and Gasly. The list goes on. Probs on par with Bahrain for 3rd for best races so far, just behind Baku and 1st place China (Paul Ricard bring fourth since it was decent and Australia, Spain, Monaco and Canada being all utterly boring).

  32. 8 for me. Happy with the Max result and would have liked the bull double. Lousy birthday for Dan but he’s been a bit un-Dan like this race weekend. Maybe needs to decide what he’s doing and get on with it.
    The fezzas showed good pace and bad call from the Merc wall all added to a more interesting race than France for me.
    They have to show a bit more of the midfield racing and less of the in-pit shots.
    Is Toto getting more closeups than Christian?

  33. I gave the best races of this year 8, but this time, I thought about it a lot, I decided to go for a 9, this is IMO why:

    What did it lack? Rain, that’s fair for 1 mark missing from max.

    It was incredibly unpredictable for f1 standards nowadays, before qualifying I’d have expected mercedes and ferrari to fight it out and red bull a bit behind due to the straights, instead mercedes had the upper hand and red bull was disappointingly bad, almost same speed as haas, so I’d have thought they’d have NEVER been a contender in the race and that bottas would’ve walked to the flag chased by hamilton, followed by the ferraris since bottas can be strong on his best tracks.

    I’d have thought red bull would’ve had problems fending off haas, but indeed in the race they’re usually much stronger than in qualifying, I’d have never thought at some stages they’d have been as fast or faster than ferrari and mercedes!

    I’d have never thought that bottas would’ve had a DNF that soon (he’s unlucky, so could have) and that mercedes would’ve let the DNF ruin their race, since they didn’t make in time to tell hamilton to pit, thereby re-enabling non-mercedes drivers to win the race.

    I’d have never thought raikkonen would’ve started so well and also look at how aggressive he was when he attacked hamilton on the outside and went wide, he threw the race win there in hindsight, but who would’ve known.

    Lots of action in the beginning, also with verstappen and bottas, and vettel who started badly and was recovering, then the unknowns of the tyres, I’d have really expected a 1-stop race for everyone, instead ricciardo and hamilton had to box a 2nd time quite early and didn’t even make it to the end, I could’ve expected it for ricciardo but not for hamilton, even though tbh he was due a mechanical DNF, 33 races or so without one, sooner or later it has to happen unless you reach bulletproof reliability.

    And during the race the values kept changing, first mercedes were running away, then they weren’t able to get past ferrari or red bull, then red bulls were faster than ferrari, then in the end ferrari were catching red bull.

    And ofc, lots of overtakes for positions behind, fights between force indias, haas and renaults and several fights, although with less overtakes, in front, with vettel who also overtook hamilton and raikkonen who overtook ricciardo.

    It was great overall, really lots of unpredictable stuff, and I see that 29% voted 9, 10% 10, 40% 8, that’s really high, only 1\5 of voters voted 7 or less!

    1. Oh, and alonso in the first laps said, tell me what I have to do to at least go to the end of the race, and then he ends up in the points? With a mclaren that qualified 14th at best? Add that to unpredictability!

      1. Ah, also, I’m gonna download this race and keep it, it deserves it.

  34. Both Mercs out of the race. Check
    Alonso in the points. Check
    No Hamilton runaway. Check
    Max wins. Check
    Drama. Check

    Yeah, that means it’s definitely a 10!

  35. 10/10 for the #DutchGP, after that 2/10 for the #F1 race

  36. I rated it a 7, it was a good race but the main drama was more about the retirements rather than action on the track.

    For such a relatively clean start it was a very entertaining opening lap, there was some contact in the middle of the pack which required Vandoorne to make a pit stop but there wasn’t anything more significant.

    The race ended with a first win of the season for Verstappen, he may have had an error filled start to the year but the criticism of him from some has been over the top, he is still learning but if he is not a multiple world champion by the time he retires I can only think it will be because he was never at the right team at the right time.

    It was another big swing in the Championships with Vettel and Ferrari taking the lead in both after one of the worst weekends for Mercedes in quite a while, early on it looked like it would be another straight forward 1-2 for the silver arrows, but another strategy mistake lost them the lead in between a double retirement due to reliability problems.

    Hamilton’s retirement may take away some of the focus from the fact that it was another case of Mercedes throwing away a potential win due to not reacting to safety car calls whilst their rivals do.

    I think they became too reliant on having a dominant car and so they did not need to be the best with regards to strategy as they normally had the pace to make things work, a few seasons ago Hamilton would have comfortably had the pace to pull the extra gap needed to make his stop and retain the lead but not now.

    Normally every area of the team needs to perform to secure a World Championship, but when the car is the class of the field it allows other areas a bit of slack, however in a close title fight when the cars are evenly matched, as 2018 currently seems to be, the whole team needs to be at the top of their game.

    None of the leading teams have been perfect so far this season, which has kept the fight for the titles close, which from a fans point of view is a good thing. But it was also a close fight last year until the second half of the season when Hamilton and Mercedes hit form while Ferrari and Vettel made costly mistakes.

    If this strategy mistake by Mercedes was a one off it would be more understandable than if it wasn’t the third time so far this year something similar has happened. They didn’t pit under the VSC in both Australia and China when their rivals did,

    You could argue that it is easier to take a gamble with strategy when you are not in the lead as you have less to loose but generally I would have thought that if you were in your pit stop window and any sort of safety car was called the default option would be to call the driver in because the time loss is so much less.

    Although Hamilton ended up having tyre issues and had to make another stop, if he had stopped with everyone else and retained the lead, he would not have had to push his tyres so hard and would not have been in dirty air so I think it may have been possible for him to make his tyres last the distance, I say this because of the difference between the races of Verstappen and Ricciardo and what happened with their tyres.

Comments are closed.