The opening race of the 2020 F1 season was shaped by Safety Cars. Virtually all the pit stops occured during the three deployments.
The only driver among the top 10 who didn’t qualify on softs, Max Verstappen, was out within a dozen laps, removing a key strategic variable. He was just beginning to match race leader Valtteri Bottas’s lap times on his medium tyres when his Honda cried enough.When the first Safety Car came out 26 laps into the race, most drivers opted for hard tyres to run to the end. Curiously it was the leading driver who didn’t – Sergio Perez in the Racing Point, who opted for mediums – who did not make a further pit stop under the later Safety Car period. That left him vulnerable to his rivals who switched to soft tyres, and his five-second time penalty for speeding on his sole visit to the pits made matters worse.
Having ‘stacked’ Bottas and Lewis Hamilton during the first Safety Car period, Mercedes had little time to scramble their two drivers into the pits during the second. The team admitted it wasn’t their intention to do so anyway, but conceded that might have been a mistake, after a soft-tyres Alexander Albon launched an attack on them which could have seen the Red Bull driver win had he not tangled with Hamilton.
Without that second Safety Car period, the race would have likely been a more processional affair. Most of the significant changes of position came about due to retirements.
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2020 Austrian Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2020 Austrian Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
| Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| Charles Leclerc | 7 | 0 | 4 |
| Max Verstappen | 2 | 0 | |
| Alexander Albon | 4 | 0 | -9 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 8 | 0 | 3 |
| Lando Norris | 3 | 0 | -1 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 10 | -1 | |
| Esteban Ocon | 14 | -2 | 6 |
| Daniil Kvyat | 13 | -2 | 1 |
| Pierre Gasly | 12 | 0 | 5 |
| Sergio Perez | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Lance Stroll | 9 | 0 | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 19 | 2 | |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | 18 | 4 | 9 |
| Romain Grosjean | 15 | -3 | |
| Kevin Magnussen | 16 | 3 | |
| George Russell | 17 | -2 | |
| Nicholas Latifi | 20 | 0 | 9 |
2020 Austrian Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2020 Austrian Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’07.475 | 71 | |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’07.657 | 0.182 | 68 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’07.712 | 0.237 | 67 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’07.901 | 0.426 | 64 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’07.974 | 0.499 | 63 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’08.305 | 0.830 | 63 |
| 7 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull-Honda | 1’08.432 | 0.957 | 50 |
| 8 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’08.623 | 1.148 | 71 |
| 9 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’08.796 | 1.321 | 70 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’08.912 | 1.437 | 70 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’09.025 | 1.550 | 64 |
| 12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’09.031 | 1.556 | 48 |
| 13 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1’09.135 | 1.660 | 50 |
| 14 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1’09.317 | 1.842 | 49 |
| 15 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’09.351 | 1.876 | 5 |
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’09.662 | 2.187 | 63 |
| 17 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’10.228 | 2.753 | 46 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’10.326 | 2.851 | 4 |
| 19 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’10.610 | 3.135 | 8 |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’10.720 | 3.245 | 23 |
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2020 Austrian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valtteri Bottas | C4 (26) | C2 (45) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | C4 (26) | C2 (45) | |
| Charles Leclerc | C4 (26) | C2 (25) | C3 (5) |
| Lando Norris | C4 (26) | C2 (25) | C3 (5) |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | C4 (26) | C2 (26) | C3 (4) |
| Sergio Perez | C4 (26) | C3 (45) | |
| Pierre Gasly | C3 (26) | C2 (45) | |
| Esteban Ocon | C3 (26) | C2 (45) | |
| Antonio Giovinazzi | C3 (25) | C2 (30) | C4 (1) |
| Sebastian Vettel | C3 (26) | C2 (25) | C4 (5) |
| Nicholas Latifi | C3 (26) | C2 (25) | C4 (5) |
| Daniil Kvyat | C3 (26) | C2 (25) | C4 (5) |
| Alexander Albon | C4 (26) | C2 (25) | C4 (5) |
| Kimi Raikkonen | C3 (24) | C2 (27) | C4 (2) |
| George Russell | C3 (25) | C2 (24) | |
| Romain Grosjean | C3 (20) | C2 (29) | |
| Kevin Magnussen | C3 (24) | ||
| Lance Stroll | C4 (20) | ||
| Daniel Ricciardo | C4 (17) | ||
| Max Verstappen | C3 (11) |
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2020 Austrian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 21.279 | 26 | |
| 2 | George Russell | Williams | 21.417 | 0.138 | 25 |
| 3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 21.569 | 0.290 | 51 |
| 4 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 21.622 | 0.343 | 51 |
| 5 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 21.683 | 0.404 | 26 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 21.805 | 0.526 | 52 |
| 7 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull | 21.842 | 0.563 | 51 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21.850 | 0.571 | 26 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 21.918 | 0.639 | 51 |
| 10 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 21.921 | 0.642 | 51 |
| 11 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 21.937 | 0.658 | 26 |
| 12 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 21.972 | 0.693 | 51 |
| 13 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 22.058 | 0.779 | 26 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.231 | 0.952 | 26 |
| 15 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 22.383 | 1.104 | 26 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 22.466 | 1.187 | 26 |
| 17 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.738 | 1.459 | 51 |
| 18 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 22.756 | 1.477 | 26 |
| 19 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 22.769 | 1.490 | 26 |
| 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 22.800 | 1.521 | 55 |
| 21 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 23.229 | 1.950 | 24 |
| 22 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.280 | 2.001 | 20 |
| 23 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 23.637 | 2.358 | 26 |
| 24 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 23.659 | 2.380 | 25 |
| 25 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | 23.827 | 2.548 | 26 |
2020 Austrian Grand Prix
- FIA issues new Austrian GP results after correcting Kvyat error
- Russell sees Mercedes as only possible alternative to Williams in 2021
- Hamilton: No “bad blood” with Albon after second collision in three races
- 2020 Austrian Grand Prix interactive data: lap charts, times and tyres
- 2020 Austrian Grand Prix Star Performers
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
9th July 2020, 2:54
Wow, Bottas did slow down on the last 2 laps.
Naughty:-)
Danny (@denny)
9th July 2020, 5:33
Huge gap between Seb and Charles, from 0.5 to 1.5 sec per lap.
Seb had a big understeers after a spin but before that…
Charles really squeezed everything from a car.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
9th July 2020, 9:51
@denny
One thing was that Vettel was on slower tyres.
Another thing was that Vettel was stuck Behind Stroll. Perez and his car was fast enough to actually open a gap to Leclerc. Stroll was having issues with power which was why Vettel was glued onto him for so many laps, but it was not helping his times at all.
After Vettel’s mistake, (which was his fault, I’m not sure we can judge the pace difference fairly.
But considering the tyres and traffic, I think Vettel was decent initially and not much slower than leclerc.
My Left Eye (@blik)
9th July 2020, 14:02
Pretty sure Lando went off track with all four wheels to get up the inside of Sergio!
MattDS (@mattds)
9th July 2020, 22:42
@blik well yes, because Perez bumped him.
My Left Eye (@blik)
10th July 2020, 13:56
I don’t buy the bumping argument but…………….I now think they were using the red and white curbs as the track limit and not the usual white line, so no problem. Good to see Lando doing so well.