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Rate the race: 2019 Austrian Grand Prix

2019 Austrian Grand Prix

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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 2019 Austrian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (30%)
  • 9 (43%)
  • 8 (19%)
  • 7 (3%)
  • 6 (3%)
  • 5 (1%)
  • 4 (1%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (0%)

Total Voters: 343

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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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...

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108 comments on “Rate the race: 2019 Austrian Grand Prix”

    1. Same for me, so close to a perfect Grand prix. Proper racing throughout.

    2. 9. If only DRS wasn’t a thing. Mercedes baited Ferrari by pitting Bottas super early, another big strategic error on their part. The mercs were lifting and coasting like crazy, oversight on cooling or nursing their PU? the williams and racing points had competitive weekends so maybe not ready for 30 degrees.

  1. What a race

    9/10

  2. 10/10 oh no…

    1. 10 if Max didn’t botched his start… so a 9 from me

      1. @macleod I don’t think you quite understand how this works.

  3. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    30th June 2019, 15:37

    Absolutely epic! One of the best dry races I can think of. As long as stewards don’t ruin it. 9/10

  4. Blaize Falconberger (@)
    30th June 2019, 15:38

    8 – Excellent race – I hope all the tin-hat conspiracy brigade naysayers who were “never going to watch F1 again” enjoyed watching Love Island while that was on.

    1. Andres Satizabal
      1st July 2019, 0:42

      + 1

    2. Montréalais (@)
      1st July 2019, 4:03

      +1

  5. An exciting race. One of the better 2019 races so far.

    1. @jerejj I think you mean “the best”.

      1. @mashiat Close, but not quite. I still rate the Bahrain GP as the best of the season so far.

        1. @jerejj Perhaps so, but this race was better in my opinion. In Bahrain, it was exciting when Leclerc was charging up against Vettel, but he basically completed the move in the first time of asking then never looked back until his problems. The Vettel vs. Hamilton battle was good, but I think the Verstappen vs. Vettel and Verstappen vs. Leclerc battle in this race trumps all that. Moreover, it was unsatisfying to see someone lose a win due to a mechanical fault in Bahrain.

          1. @mashiat Valid points there as well.

  6. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
    30th June 2019, 15:38

    10/10. Beautiful by Max and Seb today, awesome race.

  7. This. Was. Brilliant. We saw amazing performances from the future stars of F1 in Verstappen, Leclerc, and Norris. We could remember this very race 10 years from now as the start of the F1 rivalry between the two best drivers of their generation.

    1. Sorry, I don’t share your feelings.
      I will definitely forget the race tomorrow.

      I don’t say it was bad, but it was nothing so special as all of you cry around here.

      1. Better find yourself another sport to watch, it is not going to get much better than this.

      2. Look, it’s a troll comment

      3. SMH. This is the first raced you’ve watched isn’t it?

        1. First race his man wasn’t on the podium.

      4. @dallein There is medication for short term memory loss, you know?

      5. @dallein why are you on here? Sad guy.

        1. Montréalais (@)
          1st July 2019, 4:05

          troll maybe

      6. @dallein: I’m gonna go as far as saying it doesn’t get ANY better than this in current f1.

  8. 9 brilliant race not F1 but all 3 motogp races were perfect way to close a weekend.

  9. Wow, best race so far this year. I just hope the result stays the same. Max was amazing, overtaking 4 very fast cars and all faster in straight line. Wonderful drive.

    1. 4 cars? He didn’t overtake hamilton, he jumped him in the pits.

      1. Technically he overtook a 4th very fast car at the initial laps:

        That said, it wasn’t driven very fast, because it was Gasly..

  10. TEN!!! WHAT A RACE!!! Max and Charles both Drivers of the Day.
    And Vettel on Hamilton.

    1. And Vettel on Hamilton.

      DRS cruised up on fresher tyres in a faster car, unimpressive as ever from Vettel.

  11. If there is a race to give a 10 to, it’s this one. We haven’t seen a better race all season and we won’t be seeing such good racing any time soon.

    Stars this race were Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris and Sainz. Phenomenal.

    1. I voted a “9”, but would change it to a “10”, if I could … killer race … McLaren comin’ along = good for F1!

    2. I disagree, we’ve seen better races, and will see.

      1. You won’t
        The rest of us will enjoy, but you will wait for ever and ever ;)

      2. Every 10 years?

    3. Kimi was pretty excellent today as well. Definitely impressed with Norris the past few races.

  12. I think I’ll wait until I hear what the stewards say before rating the race…

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      30th June 2019, 15:50

      Same. Finger hovering on the 10 button

  13. When Mercedes were not at the from, but the racing was mostly the same, hypocrites are giving this race 9-10…
    Really?

    I don’t say the race was bad, it was good, but c’mon – apart from 2 overtakes by Verstappen it was quite processional with very few other overtakings.

    1. My belief that everyone just hates Mercedes only got stronger today.
      Thank you, hypocrites.

    2. you can’t be serious…
      overtakes for the lead in the last laps of the race?
      you see that every race, right?

      Ferrari, strongest packet this weekend, Red Bull, ‘normally’ slowest of the big 3….
      I… I just don’t get you…

    3. You must be joking. I admired your posts yesterday for accepting Hamilton’s penalty (which was a bit harsh in my opinion, but still in compliance with the rules), but what does this mean…I mean have you seen what Sainz did? Well, I don’t blame you since it wasn’t shown on TV, but what about him, what about the tight gaps bewteen the leaders, VER on BOT and LEC, VET on HAM, isn’t it already more than we’ve got in the whole season?

    4. so you even succeeded in missing on of the major ovetakes..
      VER on VET
      VER of BOT
      VER on LEC
      ( HAM was passed as a result of his wing damage)
      So, maybe if you really watched you missed a lot of other nice actions ( like the defending of Rai on GAS)

      1. I think he was in tears after Hamilton’s wing change

    5. Oh dear. Your butt really hurting today.

      1. Think the padded cushion Merc and Lewis have will ease the pain on the butt.
        VER, LEC, RUS, NOR… the future of F1 and with them, F1 is in good hands (Despite the naysayers saying F1 is finished). However the present is Merc and Lewis’ time. Enjoy today folks, it was a cracking race but Lewis and Merc will be champions come years end. The chamionship is not won or lost in 1 race. Loved the Dutch support for VER today. My fellow Brits should take note! You think the Dutch fans are picking at VERs questionable fashion sense? Or his choice of friends? Or his recreational pastimes? Kudos to the Dutch fans and shame on my fellow countrymen!

    6. Unbelievable, ofc we don’t want a team to win all races, but this was one of the best races of the last years along with brazil 2018 till ocon episode, austin 2018, races like those, it was action packed.

      Canada 2018 also wasn’t bad till the penalty.

  14. Perfect really, so 10. Presuming Verstappen keeps the win…

  15. Won’t vote until the stewards have their say.

  16. If Vettel was penalised this should be. Completely wrong Vettel won Canada and Verstappen won today but it will seem double standards if Max wins this. Rules need to be changed.

  17. 10. Brilliant. Probably not a popular opinion but I’m pretty sure Max turned left through the exit of the right hander thus forcing Charles off the track. Borderline on a penalty but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if 5 seconds is added.

    1. I watched that closely on replay and he didn’t, he just opened the wheel normally as he tracked out from the apex. He also turned in through the center of the track with room outside at the apex. It was his line to take from there. I personally was cheering for Charles and gutted for him he couldn’t stay in front, but Max read the Ferrari brilliantly on where it was losing grip and made a very decisive move up the inside using the grip advantage he had. Both drivers did really well.

  18. 9. Fantastic battle between Verstappen and Leclerc.

  19. On reflection, actually, I think it might be a penalty. It was very similar to Rosberg in Hockenheim 2016. He had the chance to turn in, but purposely tried to ram Leclerc off the road. Which would have been fair enough if he was ahead, but they were alongside (with Leclerc maybe even slightly ahead). I’m still somewhat on the fence, but now am leaning towards it being a penalty.

  20. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    30th June 2019, 15:53

    9 from me. That was brilliant! Verstappen, going from 2nd to 8th, then on to win was fantastic. With a Honda engine! First since 2006! Feel sad for Leclerc, but either of them were a worthy victor. I hope nothing comes of that ‘investigation’.

    Gasly looked worse than usual today. Norris was very impressive though, as was Vettel’s charge – despite Ferrari messing up.

  21. It was a good race, not great because of the DRS passes. All those passes looked too easy and the drivers in front were helpless.

    1. It sucks, but come on, it’s been 90% of the overtakes since it’s introduction. We are just going to have to except thats the way it’s going to be. No amount rule changes is going to get us back to the 80’s.

      So with that in mind, I’m going to except DRS overtakes is better than no overtakes. Otherwise…..France 2019

      1. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
        30th June 2019, 22:07

        @invisiblekid – Whilst I often feel that the majority of the DRS passes are too effective, I found the DRS gave us the race we had today. Yes some of the overtakes were made a bit too easy (like VET on HAM, and VER on VET) but without it I think it wouldn’t have been as exciting. VER probably would’ve been stuck behind VET for a lot longer as without DRS the Ferrari would’ve been too fast in the straights. And VER’s 2 major attacks on LEC (1 successful) most likely wouldn’t have happened without the momentum from the DRS.

        1. I agree re Vet v Ham but Ver v Vet was owing to Ver’s much better run through t2 than Vet.

  22. Josh (@canadianjosh)
    30th June 2019, 15:55

    9 almost 10, best race of the year. The contact was racing and the result needs to stay the same. This is exactly what I watch F1 for, days like this. France was boring but the next race was amazing and this is always the way F1 has been. Take the good with the bad.

  23. 10 out of 10
    What a win!

  24. I wait with voting for the steward decision

  25. I am not gonna wait for the stewards, either VER or LEC gets the win, the race got a 10 from me.

    1. Agreed, but bad stewarding will stain the result and will have some consequences for the “funfactor”.

  26. 10/10. Best race since Bahrain.

    Wanted Leclerc to take a deserved win but Verstappen was on rails. What a drive.

  27. 8.

    Great race. Best thing in my opinion is that is not another Mercedes win so, kinda doesn’t even matter anymore who won it.

    More than sure all these armchair experts who saw Ferrari running with it didn’t see coming this finish order. RBR obviously was the best car in race trim, VER would have finished at least 10-15sec ahead of LEC if it wasn’t for that bad start. It was VER race to lose all the way, not LEC’s. I knew it won’t be a walk in the park for LEC, although he took PP. It just happened to be a walk in the park most of the race because VER had a bad start and HAM was behind BOT in the 1st stint. Otherwise, the race would have been kinda different. Now he have no doubt Ferrari is worse in race trim, be it hot or cold temps.

  28. F1 was supposed to be a broken sport 1 week ago, amazing that Liberty managed to fix it that quickly!

    1. It wasn´t Liberty, it was Austrias Red-bull boss Mateschitz!

  29. 10. Best race of the season, battles all over the place

  30. 9, regardless of whatever the stewards say.

    A fantastic recovery drive and validation for Honda. I feel for Leclerc, but I’m not sure he wants to win his first Gran Prix based on an after-race decision.

  31. Almost perfect. Overtaking, leadership battle, drama, and broke the Mercedes/Hamilton stranglehold on the season. Gave it 9 but actually wish I’d gone the full 10

    Please don’t let the stewards ruin this one

  32. Its a 7 from me instead of a 10. I am pretty sure the Golden Boy will escape it as always. I really dont get it because he was the best in the race really and by sending out of track Leclerc ruined it for me. He was fastest and i really dont get the point to do that.I am an F1 fan mainly and i dont like this kind of moves from anyone even if he is called Senna or Schumacher.

  33. Neil (@neilosjames)
    30th June 2019, 16:26

    Gave it a 10 as it was always exciting, the DRS was just right and really made the attacking driver work for the overtake, there were some great drives and some very good moves.

    And perhaps, +1 for coming after such a dismally uninteresting race in France.

  34. Good race Verstappen deserved the win, he drove very well. I’d like to see anti-stall taken away as well as DRS .

    1. Ehh… without anti-stall Verstappen’s engine would have shut down and he would have retired from the race on lap 1.

      1. imagine how dangerous that would have been without ant-stall, 18 cars at full speed passing a car standing still… recipe for disaster

  35. I haven’t seen an unbelievable Austrian GP since 2016.

    1. Since 2018 for me!

  36. 10/10, a chase to the flag with a pass for the win doesn’t come around often! Vettel 6 tenths away from the podium, having some fun with a two stop race, we need more of those.

  37. Amazing race! Hooked the entire time!

  38. It’s funny how people gloss over the ‘boring’ temperature management through 50% of the race…

    Great race, but this story has been told in other races on other tracks and been rated a 6 or something.

  39. the real Bruno
    30th June 2019, 16:43

    Great, if justice is made and VER punished (preferably by +10s and 4 points but I can accept 5+2p)…

  40. 9 from me. I’ve got 10 reserved for a race that happens once or twice in a decade, which was Canada 2011 and Brazil 2012 for me.

  41. Solid race. 6.5/10. People voting 9 or 10 should catch up on Brazil 08 or Canada 11.

    Shame that a great fight was ruined prematurely by Max. Still hoping for an incoming penalty.

    1. Still hoping for an incoming penalty.

      well at least your not a F1 fan then.
      So nothing lost there..

    2. @dawaxor
      But this might be one of the best races since the arrival of 2017 regulations.

    3. If you give 6,5 to this hardly any race is sufficient, just look at france, to justify a 9 to austria I gave 3 to france!

  42. Tom Huckstep (@)
    30th June 2019, 19:37

    A bit processional from time to time during the first 1/2, but as soon as the pit stops began, strategies got really interesting. Last have was one of the best I can remember. 8/10

  43. It’s a 10 for me. I’m a Max fan and he firstly fell back to P9 but still won the race by overtaking almost all in front of him on the track (only Lewis in the pits)

    Also I loved the Honda happiness ok and off stage. Grown men crying of pure happiness

    Wow

    This is legendary stuff

  44. Dat racing! Gave it 10. I know it wont get better than this with current regulations, so 10 out of 10.

    F1 on a whole is however a big failure. We are now in anticipation of race result.. because of rules being so convoluted.

  45. Gave it a 9. Only the Lord can score a 10, or a F1 race where this kind of battle is possible without drivers messing up their start or had their engine fail in Q3.

  46. 9, but I was tempted to go 10.

    It’s almost as if we F1 fans love when there is uncertainty about who’s going to win, with several teams in it.

    1. Exactly, look at austria 2018, other great, unpredictable race.

  47. A blinder, 10/10. I don’t care who you support, if you love F1 that race would have had you on the edge of your seat.

    Pipe down naysayers!

  48. Wow, my first score of 10…

    The 3rd quockest car of the season overtaking a Mercedes and two Ferraris. On the track!

  49. If Verstappen would have been moved down to second, F1 would effectively had become Ladies Cup.

  50. 8/10. It was a very good race. As good as Bahrain.

    I don’t really understand people giving it a 10 but maybe they are only comparing it to the recent past. 10/10 would mean F1 can not produce anything better. I am sure it can. By 2019 standards it was very good though.

  51. Andres Satizabal
    1st July 2019, 0:46

    10/10. Brilliant and close racing from the beginning to the end. Plenty of mistakes all along, but this showed us what Formula 1 should be: race cars pushing to the limit (instead of pace control), drivers risking everything to win, multiple teams fighting for the win, and yes, great overtakes.

    Somewhat related: this race didn’t have rain, didn’t have a safety car, and is easily a top 10 race of the 2010’s era.

    Not sure how they’ll be able to replicate something even remotely close to this, but I hope this race is the yardstick for decisions about Formula 1 Regulations moving forward.

  52. Gave it 9 and I see an overwhelming majority agreeing with me, these are the totals at the time of my comment:

    1 (0%)
    2 (0%)
    3 (0%)
    4 (0%)
    5 (1%)
    6 (2%)
    7 (3%)
    8 (20%)
    9 (44%)
    10 (29%)
    Total Voters: 282

    So almost 3\4 of the voters gave 9 or 10, and around 15\16 voters gave 8-10, basically all except mercedes fans I suppose, 7, 6, 5 are either that or people who don’t watch f1 races often and expect this to be the norm excitement wise, in which case they’ll be disappointed quickly!

    Just like last year’s race, austria seems to produce interesting and unpredictable races lately, in this case we had for the first time in don’t know how long, a grid penalty for impeding for a mercedes driver, so justice served since they seemed to be immune to them unlike the other teams, we also had a problem in qualifying for vettel which at first annoyed me as it was yet another time where ferrari has a chance to win and already wastes half before qualifying even ends.

    Already in qualifying we had a very competitive ferrari and a good red bull too, see verstappen getting ahead of mercedes at times and pretty close to hamilton in q3, then in the race verstappen seemed to have immediately thrown away his chances with a bad start, in the earlier part of the race leclerc and vettel from 1st and 4th proved the ferrari pace was superior to the mercedes’ at least slightly, vettel and verstappen did an interesting recovery in the early part of the race, so vettel starting that far back was probably a blessing in disguise, and also verstappen’s bad start.

    In the last stint verstappen proved red bull has now at least in some track (so probably chassis improved) the best race pace and was catching up and overtaking quickly all drivers from mercedes and ferrari, jumped hamilton in the pits who had a rare wing change to do due to his outs, then overtook vettel, bottas, leclerc in the space of a few laps, incredible chase to leclerc who has almost 6 sec ahead when vers got rid of bottas and incredible battle for the lead at 3 laps to go, when leclerc was already behind but didn’t give up and came back ahead again, it was really hard racing.

    Apart from that let’s not forget the many overtakes there were further behind with protagonists like raikkonen, norris, ricciardo, sainz, gasly, magnussen, albon etc., I’ve seen really a lot.

    But indeed, gonna keep the 10 if you get a great race like this + rain and it gets even more exciting, incredibly rare races, might not happen but still that’s my idea.

    So yes, best race of the year, finally a non-mercedes win, there was barely even a mercedes on the podium, I was very dubious about vettel’s strategy to put on the red tyres at 20 laps to go as he lost position on hamilton and only overtook him at the very end, but give him 1 more lap and he’d have passed bottas too, so could’ve worked in retrospect.

    Overall red bull > ferrari > mercedes in race pace and in qualifying overall ferrari > merdedes > red bull.

    Gasly at a red bull is USELESS, get alonso, even if he doesn’t want to come!

  53. This one deserves a 10/10 despite Ferrari coming down from a 1,3 to 2,4 .

  54. After seeing Paul Ricard & Spielberg, I can only say:

    Bring back the old tracks – Brands Hatch, Imola, Dijon…!

    1. Agree @win7golf, older tracks are often more enjoyable to watch for me as well.

      Spa and Imola are among my faves.

  55. I gave it a 6 and I’ll explain myself. I’m not a Merc fanatic, I’m not a member of the tifosi, I’m not mad at the stewards decision (regardless of whether I disagree or agree), and I don’t hate Max/RBR. For whatever reason, in the past couple of years this track has not played entirely to Mercedes strengths. My guess is that it is a combo of high altitude and hot temps because Mexico similarly has gotten away from them. The result of removing Mercedes from the front row, or from the win shows us what competition actually looks like. For me that is good, but not great.

    I think few will remember this race, and it ended in a bit of a clumsy manner. Vettel pitted late for new tires to save fourth from a crippled Hamilton. And the only reason the end was as close as it was, was because Max forgot to raise the anchor at the start. His comeback was seriously impressive (especially with a Honda engine) but what it means is that without that it likely would have been a runaway. So I can see it a 6 or 7, and an 8 if I’m being very generous. But 9s and 10s, in my opinion, are for great, amazing races. Ones that do not let up.

    By all means, people should vote as they wish and clearly many feel differently than I do. But this was only a good race for me, not great. This level of competition—2 people from different teams fighting for a win—should be the baseline, not the pinnacle at which we set our sights.

  56. It might be easy to give 10/10 after the abysmal French GP, but let’s not go that far. After waiting 24 hours to vote, I still think that it was a good race that kept us entertained for most of the race, so a solid 8/10 from me.

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