Hamilton wins as Bottas passes Verstappen for Mercedes one-two

2020 Styrian Grand Prix summary

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Lewis Hamilton took a comfortable win for Mercedes in the Styrian Grand Prix while Valtteri Bottas made a late pass on Max Verstappen to secure a one-two finish for the team.

Bottas ran a longer first stint than Verstappen, allowing him to attack the Red Bull driver with the benefit of fresher tyres later in the race. Verstappen initially staved off Bottas’s attempt to get by at turn four, but a repeat attack by Bottas aided by DRS proved impossible for Verstappen to contain.

The race began and ended with high drama, but was a largely processional affair in between. The Ferrari drivers tangled on the first lap when Charles Leclerc made an ill-considered dive down the inside of Sebastian Vettel. The resulting contact caused heavy damage to both cars, ending the team’s participation in the weekend early on in proceedings.

For the second weekend in a row at the Red Bull Ring, Alexander Albon had late-race contact with a rival, but this time he stayed on the road to finish fourth. Sergio Perez, his latest assailant, came off less well.

The Racing Point had charged through the field from 17th on the grid to get within striking distance of fourth place. But the contact broke his front wing, which partially collapsed, leaving him under threat from behind.

His team mate Lance Stroll had laboured to put a pass on Daniel Ricciardo, but finally got the job done with a wild lunge down the inside of turn two. That allowed Lando Norris to attack the pair of them, and the McLaren driver found his way past both.

On the final lap, Perez came into Norris’s view approaching the final two corners. Norris ducked past for fifth heading into the final corner, while Perez, Stroll and Ricciardo crosses the line covered by a tenth of a second. The stewards are investigating Stroll’s move on Ricciardo.

Carlos Sainz Jnr, whose race was spoiled by a slow first pit stop, claimed ninth place and the bonus point for fastest lap after pitting again for fresh tyres – despite Verstappen doing the same – and Daniil Kvyat took the final point for AlphaTauri.

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2020 Styrian Grand Prix reaction

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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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121 comments on “Hamilton wins as Bottas passes Verstappen for Mercedes one-two”

  1. Ferrari better be careful with their quit threats now. This race was fine after lap 1. F1 can survive without them!

    1. I was thinking the same thing, unless F1 need the humor?

      1. Ferrari’s quit threat has never been about how good/bad the racing would be but how big the fan draw would be without them.

        However Covid-19 kinda put paid to the fan draw aspect for everyone.

    2. Slavisa (@sylversurferr)
      12th July 2020, 17:13

      I didn’t bother to watch race, I know result even before it started. I even don’t know what you find fine in 1/2 by Mercedes every race.

      1. Agreed.

        The last lap was exciting, but another Highly predictable Mercedes 1-2 with many more to come is not fine in my eyes.

        1. Verstappen should have been 2nd, but he damaged his car.

        2. Craig, because people don’t only look at the front of the field and are capable of looking elsewhere for racing action?

      2. Totally agree, its not good racing entertainment nowadays.

      3. @sylversurferr you didn’t watch the race, so… In any case, you missed my point. What I meant was Ferrari not taking place made the race just about as good (or bad) as any other race. Mercedes dominating is another issue…

        1. @fer-no65
          I think the race was fine for you because of the Harakiri Ferrari, hence they are still important for F1.

      4. So you knew the whole race result? You knew Norris would finish fifth, you knew Ferrari would not finish at all?

        Wow, if I give you £100 will you put it on next year’s grand national? I stand to win huge amounts in you will do that for me!

      5. Bye! See you in 2022.

        1. Liberty’s shareholders have a lot to think. Mercedes will “lose” a couple of races, Toto will start to sandbag and praise competition there and there to sell headlines and provide hope to the rest of teams and return the favor of Ferrari letting Leclerc win at least once. It is more interesting to read the technical aspect of race than the boring race and Hamilton saying than no one else cares about what he believes as he does.

          1. Your opinion could be correct @Cubehead, except that the season’s calendar’s not finalized and all teams will try and grab as many points as possible within the confirmed rounds.

  2. Stroll’s gotta get a penalty for that move. Not only didn’t he leave any room in the corner, he was fully off the track. 5 seconds?

    1. Two weeks ago I would have said ‘fair encoungh, little harm done, let them race @jimfromus, but yes, 5 seconds seems not unfair, wonder whether that’s partly why he kept Perez ahead, so RIC wouldn’t be past them both (team message? Or maybe just overthinking it here)

  3. Well, Leclerc did excuse the poor qualifying session yesterday saying they’d gone for an aggressive setup. Proved true :P
    Ferrari seem demoralized. Maybe FIA should quietly let them use their engine trick again, it’s all a bit too sad.

  4. Albon with 0 pace this race. He is lucky Perez started close to the back of the grid. Yes, he finished 10 seconds behind Verstappen because he had to push to defend from Perez. However, you cannot be 30 seconds behind your teammate after 20-25 laps. Unless he had an issue, because it seemed like on the second stint, he was fairing better, this needs to be fixed. It’s Verstappen his teammate, but he’s been almost at least 0.5 slower than Verstappen today. If he keeps this up, demotion will come his way and fast.

    1. Yea really disappointing

      1. Albon, was indeed a disappointment. Completely unnoticed until his touch with Perez. Where’s the pace he showed last week? Is Verstappen his kryptonite that makes him weaker when around?

        1. We can think of many possibilities to Albon’s lack of pace. I am wondering if the presence of Verstappen just puts an enormous pressure to the other driver. I am also thinking, just like a comment below on this article, if Red Bull are making their car suited to Verstappen, thereby giving the other driver more problems, because Mercedes have been doing their best to make their car favorable towards both of their drivers.

          A fast car is not fast if the driver cannot drive it, and even more if the driver cannot adapt to its behaviour. This is the way I believe whenever it comes to driving these cars.

          1. That’s exactly what Red Bull used to do in the Vettel era.
            That’s the magic behind Vettel winning 13 races and Webber none.

            I always remember the races of China and Bahrein 2012. Vettel struggled badly on the first, at odds with the car, while Webber was more confortable and faster.

            Right on the next race Vettel obliterates the field and wins easily.
            Well, it worked back then, they’re probably trying to do it again now, with Max.

          2. You know that is a setup for, If Albon can’t setup his car then he is in the wrong team. Albon should setup his car better but you guys forget he was also slower then his own performance last race before this one.
            Albon (and Max) got aero upgrades which didn’t work very well it seems.

    2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      12th July 2020, 16:09

      Vettel intensifies

      1. @fullcoursecaution I fear they can’t go outside the Red Bull programme for political reasons. Dr Marko can’t stop making little digs at others about how they don’t develop and promote their own talent! Technically Vettel satisfies this requirement but not good optics from his perspective if he went there.

        1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          12th July 2020, 16:37

          Fair point @chimaera2003 but personally I can’t see Marko saving face being the deciding factor.
          We’ve seen them call up ex Red Bull drivers before in Hartley and Albon, and they would have taken Danny Ric back in a heartbeat.
          The rumours suggest Mateschitz prefers taking Vettel back, and he pays the bills at the end of the day. We saw them talking before the race, and if Alex starts to fall into a Gasly style slump I think Seb becomes the primary candidate

          1. They could try to give Kyvat or Gasly a chance again. I would not mind Vettel at Red Bull. We will wait until Hungary to see where the performance of the teams is, because at the moment, it appears to be Mercedes or Red Bull that can fight for wins. The field for 5th places and below is the closest we have seen since most likely 2012. He should be easily finishing 4th at lowest, but not with that gap, and certainly not at the track with the shortest lap time of all. I will wait to see in Hungary where the teams stand first…

      2. Vettel is the only option that makes sense (I’d say alonso would have made more sense). Vettel is still quick and even if he is error prone he still gets the job done more often than not. And he has the pace to occasionally even beat verstappen on pace. Even if that is once per season it would still be more than albon can dream of. Albon has never been even close to max. Not one session. Albon was nowhere in the last race except one half of a lap or so with new softs. This race, a gain nowhere.

        The way it is now mercedes is clear first. Red bull is clear second. Ferrari is nowhere so red bull has the positions 3-4 easily covered for this season + easy p2 in manufacturers’. So albon is not costing money nor points for them. He’ll be in 4th in every race probably. Doesn’t change anything if he is 5 seconds from max or 35 seconds. 4th is 4th. So red bull has time to wait and see if he magically improves almost 1s per lap. But even then red bull is lacking strategical options in every race when albon is nowhere. In this race he was even too far back to be in front of bottas after his pit stop. Red bull has max there all alone and mercedes can easily plan and drive around him. Had red bull had two cars up there in this race it would have made it a lot harder for bottas. But more important it would have made it a lot better for red bull. Red bull might have had a second place had they had second car in the fight.

        Next season things might be different. If red bull falls backwards they have the tough and unpredictable mid field to worry about. Verstappen can lead that group but albon can’t and will be lucky to finish in points. If red bull takes a step ahead albon can’t take that step. It will be 2 mercs vs verstappen. Max also needs a tougher team mate. He is still improving and he needs the toughest yardstick that can push him. There is nothing he can learn or be afraid from albon. There is no learning, no pressure, no support.

        Red bull needs a better driver and the best option is not one of their 3 drivers. Kvyat and gasly are not good enough and neither is albon. I don’t rate vettel really high. He has totally lost his racecraft. He is trying way too hard and makes a ton of mistakes. But he still has that raw speed and that alone will give red bull chance for wins. Unless albon can improve and occasionally match max on pace in some of the later races it will be a slam dunk to make the switch. Gasly+albon at alphatauri, max+vettel at red bull.

        1. I do not want to imagine in 2022, if the field gets closer and Albon is still with Red Bull, that I see him fighting for 6th or even lower. For next year, we’ll still be using this year’s chassis. Mclaren will be using Mercedes engines next year. I believe that should make them better, but we will see, as it does not necessarily mean an improvement. I have said that any mistakes or poor performances from Mercedes and Red Bull can be even more critical this year because of Racing Point. Even worse now, because Mclaren is not that far behind them.

        2. Seb buckled under the pressure of Leclerc, who is a much nicer team mate than the savagery of Max. No way in hell is anyone in the RBR camp considering Seb…

          They need someone like Kimi to parter Max – a driver who isn’t phased by intra-team politics, doesn’t care where he is compared to his team mate, and is dependable and reliable.

          1. Kimi was dependably much slower than Vettel, and now barely at Giovinazzi’s level, so why would he be a better option?

          2. Vettel didn’t buckle. He made mistakes and in the end in the points leclerc had 264 to vettel’s 240 points. Sure it does look less good when one factors in it was leclerc’s first season at ferrari and second in f1. And vettel was supposed to be a champion with experience. Meanwhile albon had less points than kvyat at toro rosso and then less points than verstappen at red bull. At no point did he show he could hang on to max even in one session.

            At least to me it was obvious albon got the job at red bull for the one single reason that he was the only option available and that’s it. Red bull had no one else. They still don’t. In the end it is not about vettel vs leclerc or vettel vs verstappen. It is about albon vs vettel and in that fight albon will come 2nd everytime, every lap, every session.

    3. @krichelle At least he wasn’t lapped like Gasly was last year (and Verstappen was behind Gasly for part of the race), on that basis he is the most deserving of the seat unless you look outside the Red Bull programme.

      1. Not getting lapped is a positive. I just wonder if Red Bull are thinking that some other driver could extract more and be at least closer to Verstappen because if Albon was closer to Bottas, then I’d think he could have helped, at least, Verstappen in his race for 2nd place.

        It’s one race, but this cannot be over a series of races. Not for Red Bull.

        1. @krichelle I fundamentally agree with your analysis as a whole, if you are basically 0.5s slower than your teammate then questions should be asked. They say the difference between a good and great driver is 0.2s a lap so 0.5s should raise questions.

          The issue that Red Bull have is that they have basically boxed themselves in by refusing to look outside the programme for drivers. My point being that based on their self-imposed rules, there is no-one better than Albon available. They could always change this but they would look like hypocrites.

    4. @krichelle it was worse than that – at times Albon was closer to 1s off the pace of the leading trio and basically only as fast as the midfield pack behind him (the gap between himself and Sainz in the opening stages was about 2.5-3.0s for most of the first stint).

      His pace was really weird in that race – nowhere for most of it and only really picking up his pace when Perez started attacking, when he suddenly sped up to closer to the pace of the leading trio. All in all, I do feel that he really underperformed – to be around 40s down on Verstappen at times was shocking.

    5. So Albon made up 20 sec because he was being chased by Perez? Hahaha. Max made a free pitstop to try and get fastest lap.

      1. Yes, Verstappen did pit for new tyres. However, I was referring to the fact that he sped up just because Perez went crazy in his last stint. Otherwise, the gap could have been at least 30-40 seconds between him and his teammate.

        Anon, you are right that he was at times a second or even more slower than Mercedes and Verstappen to the point I commented on the live chat that he might get lapped. For Hungary, if the performance of the teams remains the same, he should focus on getting P4 and getting within 10-20 seconds of Verstappen for a start. Anything else higher than that, if the performance is still the same amongst the teams, would be great for him.

  5. MY SUMMARRY

    DOD- No doubt Perez

    #Standout performers
    1. Perez- Absolutely drove that R.P brilliantly, gutted for the damage he got at the end.
    2. Hamilton- Absolute total control of the race
    3. Verstappen- One man fight against two giants
    4. Norris- Impressive last laps charge

    DISSAPOINTMENT OF THE DAY
    1. Ferrari: driver problems,car problems, race problems, management problems,nough said.
    2. Stroll,good race but really struggled to get past Ricciado underlining his weaknesses
    3. Alexander Albon- nothing really to say

    MOMENT OF THE DAY
    1. Last lap final three sectors for Norris,Stroll,Perez, Ricciado
    2. Bottas vs Verstappen- Verstappen fought though he knew he’s just delaying the inevitable, shows why he is one of the best

    TEAM OF THE DAY
    NO questions- MERCEDES.

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      12th July 2020, 16:10

      Yeah move of the day:
      Verstappen re-passing Bottas

      1. Wouldn’t it have been a better race if Bottas had been able to pit earlier, 2 sec behind Max then after pit 10 sec behind.

    2. I get a bit tired of Horner promoting him, but Verstappen really is a phenomenal driver. Unless Albon is really bad, which
      I doubt, Verstappen is regularly taking that car far beyond what it’s worth. Though in the end it’s only the difference between 3rd and 4th. With Ferrari vanished from this season, it’s the only challenge left to Mercedes. Verstappen and the occasional troublesome curb.

      1. @david-br when you looked at the live timing, Albon’s times were pretty far off Verstappen in the earlier part of the race.

        Albon did pass Sainz and then build a small lead over him, but for much of the first stint Albon’s times were no better than the midfield pack – Sainz was able to hold that gap at about 2.5s for quite a few laps. At one point, Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas were pulling away from Albon at over a second a lap, and there were times when Sainz even began to close back up on Albon.

        As an aside, if you look more closely at the race data from the first race, Albon also showed a trend in his first stint of losing pace and slipping back towards the midfield pack as the stint wore on. Whilst he was quicker in the opening laps, by the time you reach lap 15, Albon was basically lapping no quicker than Sainz, Norris or Perez – the second stint was also not great either, and again Albon wasn’t that much faster than the rest of the field.

        It’s one thing to be a bit off Verstappen’s pace, but Albon was a long way off – to the point where I think that Albon might have fallen back from Verstappen even more rapidly than Gasly did over the first stint of the 2019 Austrian GP.

        1. It’s almost looks like Albon falls in a ritme when there is no other drivers around. Only when other drivers come closer he fires up…

    3. F1oSaurus (@)
      12th July 2020, 16:27

      Oh come on Verstappen dropped the ball. He damaged his front wing and his tyre management was poor again. If Verstappen learns tyre management then what happened in Hungary 2019 and in this race could be prevented.

      Sure Verstappen had a few more laps to run on his tyres than Bottas, but it wasn’t that dramatic and Bottas had to push quite hard to make up ground.

      I guess the trick is that he pretends there was nothing he could do seeing how easy Bottas came past (or Hamilton in Hungary) after he ruined his front wing and tyres, but if you’re honest you know he could/should have managed things much better.

      1. @f1osaurus
        Ofcourse he could have managed things “ a lot better” and drive around in third the entire race around a minute adrift from Bottas. But he choose to drive his balls out , trying to keep up with a car that is miles ahead/a second per lap faster, and atleast give us, F1 fans, the illusion of competition.
        Spain 2016, Austria 2017, USA 2017 and numerous other races, have proven his tyre management is on par with Lewis.
        The only thing he has that’s way down on Lewis is his car.

      2. To be fair I think the Mercedes car is better than the RB by quite a distance. Verstappen is the only thing keeping it close on the track. No driver in the other RB has managed to even get close to those Mercs

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          12th July 2020, 18:34

          To be fair I don’t think that is the case. In qualy trim Mercedes have a few tenths edge yes, but on race pace Verstappen wasn’t really behind.

          He clearly had the pace to hold station between Hamilton and Bottas. Bottas was drooping back. It was only after Verstappen broke his front wing (and/or ruined his tyres) that Bottas suddenly closed the gap.

          1. It’s only Verstappen’s sheer brilliance that kept that RB in the race at the front. That Merc is absolutely dominant and you know it. Wait until the next race and it’ll be even more obvious. Your love for Hamilton is blinding you to the facts

      3. Do not let’s get fact in the way of your fiction again ;)
        @f1osaurus
        Bottas tires were 10 laps fresher.
        Bottas has the faster car ( look at Lewis_
        The tire mamagement of VER is one of the best in the field. All people who know F1 agree with that. (ai, sorry;)
        Getting the most of his car will be driving on the edge and of course all the curbs. To damage his front wing during this exercise is not planned but hardly a surprise.

        It still seems you think VER is a hype and every fiction you can think of will be used by you.
        Some hard years ahead i am afraid ;)

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          12th July 2020, 21:18

          Yeah 10 laps difference. Big deal. It’s called tyre management. ie don’t “push as hard as you can”, but make sure you reach the end. Hamilton gave Verstappen a splendid demonstration of how this is done in Monaco.

          While Verstappen keeps showing us how NOT to do this. He lost Hungary killing his tyres and he did the same today.

          Bottas is not going to be able to overtake if there isn’t a massive lap time delta.

          1. @F1oSaurus Sorry, Verstappen is one of the best out there when it comes to tyre management, as many insiders will confirm. You cant compare his car with the Mercedes, especially now that they have the DAS system which prevents degradation. You can compare him with Albon though. Hungary, which you keep referring to was strategy related. Epic strategy battle between RB and Mercedes which their teams could only execute since they knew their drivers were this good on tyres. And in the end it worked out for Lewis, but both teams acknowledged the sheer tyre mngt skills of their driver and the fact that it might have ended the other way around. At some point Lewis even underestimated himself while his team didn’t. Mercedes would have had serious trouble executing against their strategy if Bottas would have been in Lewis position.

        2. VER clearly damaged his car to the extent it was affecting his laptime – Sainz set fastest lap by over half a second from VER, both on fresh, soft tyres. Or is the McLaren quicker than the RB?

          Anyone know what lap the damage occurred and what caused it?

      4. @f1osaurus Verstappen outperformed that RBR car to quite honestly. He’s not the best in tyre management, but in other areas he gets absolutely the best of the car. Look at Albon and his other teammates for comparisons. Am not his biggest fan but give credit where it’s due

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          12th July 2020, 21:20

          @lems Nonsense. He broke his front wing and he killed his tyres. His pace suddenly dropped off and then Bottas just drove by.

          ie he made one or more mistakes for this change to happen.

          That they give Albon a bum deal is just a sad side-effect of the whole “we are fully behind Verstappen” slogan from Horner. It’s Verstappen’s car and if ALbon has issues with it, tough luck.

          1. you really need to have the last word don’t you? Pathetic.

          2. Probably best you find a different trace series to watch, because your blind hatred for Verstappen is frankly ridiculous.
            The only driver that is currently better than Max is Hamilton, and even that’s hard to quantify because the W11, like every other Mercedes F1 car since 2014, is absolutely the class of the field, and any top driver can win in it. No disrespect to Rosberg, but he is no Alonso.
            The same was true of the 2010-2013 Red Bulls: even Webber stood a chance of winning.

            Verstappen turns up every race and drives the wheels off, look at the gap between the two Mercedes, and the gap between the two Red Bulls to confirm that it’s the driver making the difference for the RBR

          3. Poor Saurus.. lots of hard years to come. Just creating his own reality when looking at VER.

  6. Also, what a team player Ocon is… last weekend he was complaining about not having a draft. Today he made it hard for Ricciardo when they were on different strategies. Not sure if Renault said anything, but man… look at the difference with McLaren.

    Maybe had Daniel got past Ocon without fighting like a world championship was on the line, he’d have stayed ahead of Lando and Stroll, and even got by Perez at the very end. He only needed a couple of seconds which surely he lost racing Ocon.

    His past at Racing Point wasn’t good in that sense either. Not sure how he’s going to handle having a beast like Alonso alongside him next year. It could explode before the green flag drops!

    1. AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
      12th July 2020, 16:35

      Alonso is going to take him to the cleaners next year

    2. Yeah, it doesn’t bode well. Though I got the feeling he did to make a stand because of that. Won’t lie that I enjoyed the fight anyways. =)

    3. Exactly this! Toxic team, toxic Abiteboul, toxic Ocon. And then they thought, lets add the most political driver in F1 history who has left every team with a fight. What could possibly go wrong?

  7. Hopefully the new regulations aren’t delayed further. At least a chance of change at the top. Hamilton 8 times WDC by next October.

    1. And then Alonso goes for the double whammy in 2022 and 2023 before retiring. Hey, a man can dream, can’t he?

  8. Thank God there’s VER and ALB to prevent a 1,2,3,4 for Mercedes.

    1. Underrated comment!!!

    2. It’s still early. RP are still figuring out their car. They’re not used to being in the fight at the front.

      1. The problem is Merc did not delivered the “wet setup” information. So untill then they only work in dry weather.

        1. I think that was a purely tongue-in-cheek comment by Brundle.

          1. Did not know Brundle agreed with me ..
            But there is more to it then..

    3. and at the other end all 6 Ferraris were out of the points.

    4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      12th July 2020, 20:38

      @mg1982 yeah Ferrari’s engine is absolutely terrible and the Renault only shines in the Red Bull and McLaren.

      Racing Point have made a massive lead but it’s too early in the game to be worried. Red Bull look great and their car is a match for at least 1 of the Mercedes cars but they are a 1 car team at the moment. McLaren are definitely looking great and there will be some tough battles with Racing Point.

      I view this as a massively exciting season.

  9. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    12th July 2020, 16:04

    Perhaps next year everyone should turn up with last year’s Mercedes?

    1. You know that is exactly what FIA\Liberty are trying to do with 2022 regulations – same cars, no innovation, “tight competition”.

    2. At this rate even Ferrari might try that.

      1. If the chassis design wasn’t mostly froze, you can bet Ferrari probably would be starting that now!

    3. Best idea ever

  10. Nice, really nice!

    First – it was a proper race without this SC nonsense.
    Still it had everything – perfect weather (today), drama, overtakings, another clash involving Albon.

    Second – Lewis is back to making history.
    Hypocrites will cry, but I don’t care. Feel free to leave and come back in 2022.

  11. Albon needs to get his act together also test his vision..

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      12th July 2020, 16:38

      To be honest this is the consequence of Red Bull fully focusing on Verstappen. Verstappen is fine with an inherently faster yet more unstable car. Albon isn’t and that costs him lot of time.

      You can see the same with Bottas and Hamilton. If Mercedes has an unstable car, Hamilton is way ahead of Bottas (or Rosberg). If the car is stable then the gap is almost nonexistent. In fact Rosberg and Bottas would even be faster than Hamilton in those situations.

      The difference is that Mercedes makes sure their car is good for both drivers while Red Bull really on cater to Verstappen. Much like Schumacher got preference in his days and his team mates just never got comfortable with the car.

      I doubt Vettel is the driver who could deal with that though. If anything, he’s even more sensitive to this. Perhaps Alonso could deal with the car designed the way Verstappen likes it, or Ricciardo.

      Or of course they could act like a team and design a car that both drivers can work with. That’s clearly working just fine for Mercedes.

      1. @f1osaurus
        Sure, there is no doubt that Max prefers an unstable and slower car just to beat his teammate, opposed to a stable and balanced car to win the title, right?
        Lol!

      2. Total nonsense about Lewis being behind Bottas or Rosberg with the stability of the car.

      3. And more fiction by f1saurus ;)

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          12th July 2020, 21:23

          Yeah reality must be labeled “fiction” by the Verstappen ostriches. How elese to keep the mythical status while he keeps blundering away so many races. It’s not as bad as with Vettel, but it’s way too much for a driver who is supposedly going to walk away with the WDC if he has the best car. Aprt from how he fails to do this in about half the cases where he does have the fastest car already. And today he blew a P2.

          1. What a dinosaur stories. Hamilton and Verstappen are the best drivers on the grid. By far. Period.

          2. Please return to the Mesozoic.

  12. I was thinking of Perez as driver of the day but, because of the tangle with Albon, gotta be Hamilton who made it clean today. I can’t say I’m disappointed at Bottas because of his aero problem and 2nd place. Before that, however, I haven’t seen a strong drive anyway. 3.0.1 should be in the making already.

    It appears McLaren has a strong car at low fuel. I don’t know if Sainz had a problem early race, but the pace he and Norris had in the end was cool. Hope they fare well at Hungary too.

    1. Sainz lost a lot of time in pit due to rear right wheel not going on correctly.

      1. But apart from that, the position swap was because of different strategies, then?

        1. Possibly, Sainz also pitted 2nd time for new set of softs to set fastest lap.

    2. AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
      12th July 2020, 16:36

      Whose fault was the Albon-Perez clash? Was it Albon attempting last week’s shenanigans again?

      1. @asleepatthewheel – the replay was so fast I got the impression Perez understeered a lil bit, but I need to check the highlights to be sure.

      2. @asleepatthewheel It was fairly similar at the point of contact to the Hamilton/Albon incident last week. Albon was ahead and had the right to the line, but Perez understeered and made contact with Albon’s right rear. Just a slight difference in the contact point on both cars meant that Albon was relatively unaffected but Perez suffered front wing damage.

  13. Hard to tell if Verstappen is massively outperforming the car, or if Albon and Gasly are both average/not very good. Verstappen was something like 40+ seconds ahead of Albon at one point in that race before he damaged his front wing.

    1. I would say both.
      I don’t remember Ricciardo ever looking so bad in comparison to Verstappen like he and Gasly.

      Albon was barely any quicker than Sainz today, and Sainz was so slow a train formed behind him. Perez catched him even by coming from the back and dealing with the pack, while he was in free air.

      Red Bull is Verstappen’s team now, but these guys are so off the pace they’ll hardly be any useful if he gets an unlikely shot at the WDC.

      1. Even so Ricciardo jumped teams rather than risk being beaten by Verstappen regularly. Which suggests that even his own talent and experience at Red Bull wasn’t enough. Any newcomer in the team must face a similar fate without the head start in experience that Ricciardo had. A monumental task to keep your confidence. Maybe Vettel wouldn’t be such a bad idea, I don’t think he’d be put out so much by Verstappen’s pace. It would take a sustained drop in Albon’s performances to make that remotely likely though.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          12th July 2020, 18:36

          @david-br Ricciardo jumped ship because of how he was treated at Red Bull (partly blaming him for Baku) and how they stated that the team would be fully behind Verstappen. That meant the car would be designed 100% to Verstappen’s liking and that’s clearly a bad thing.

          Ricciardo didn;t have much problem keeping up with Verstappen. Until after he decided to leave Red Bull and suddenly his car never made it to the finish anymore.

          1. Until after he decided to leave Red Bull and suddenly his car never made it to the finish anymore.

            More fairy tails.. great stuff. You should publish it!
            Are you living in a self created reality and forget to look at the F1/FOM recordings?

          2. @f1osaurus Ricciardo was to blame for Baku! :) At least a big chunk of it. He tried to dummy Verstappen to move right before trying down the left, but really forgot to check Verstappen had bought the dummy (he hadn’t). Anyhow, sure, Red Bull backed Verstappen as the future. That’s undoubtedly true. But also what they needed to do to make sure they kept him, especially from Ferrari. Was that a good call? I guess you think not. Did they compromise Ricciardo practically (in terms of the car) as well as verbally backing Verstappen? I doubt it. Ricciardo was well liked and I think they really wanted to keep him. Just not at the cost of losing Max. Personally I think they made the right call.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            12th July 2020, 21:13

            @david-br No he wasn’t. Verstappen was weaving until he collected Ricciardo.

          4. F1oSaurus (@)
            12th July 2020, 21:24

            erikje, you might pretend it’s coincidence, but it’s fact

            Besides all those races Verstappen was going to win when he had the fastest car. Ricciardo took at least half of those. So … ehm yeah. It’s not so easy then.

          5. erikje, whether or not you believe it to be malicious or coincidental is up to the person viewing it, but Ricciardo did have a surprisingly high rate of mechanical issues in 2018 compared to Verstappen. Over the course of that season, Ricciardo had a mechanical failure rate of about 30%, with six race ending mechanical failures – Verstappen, by contrast, had a single DNF due to mechanical issues.

          6. @anon, both had a lot of mostly Renault related issues. So many Danny thought he better go to Renault ;)

        2. I think part of the reason why Ricciardo left Red Bull was not so much fear of Verstappen, but rather fear of the preferential treatment his team mate was going to get at his expense. Plus getting a seat at a works team probably also sounded like a smart move.
          Disclaimer: I am not exactly a Ricciardo fan, but these constant digs that Verstappen scared him away don’t agree with the impression I get from him as an intelligent F1 driver with plenty of driving talent and no lack of self-confidence either.

          1. Even Danny agreed there was no preferred treatment.
            That at least was not the problem. But danny wanted to become WDC and with VER in one team thats unlikely to happen.
            Like Bottas will be unlikely to become WDC.
            So danny gambled ( and lost ) on an emerging renault and now gambles (lots more chances) on McLaren.
            But i am afraid he will face the same problems with Norris as he did with VER.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            12th July 2020, 21:15

            Even Danny agreed there was no preferred treatment

            He left immediately when it started.

            And indeed he’s not going to be WDC when the team flat out says they will be fully committed to helping Verstappen win the WDC.

          3. He left immediately when it started.

            knowing he was already talking to Renault his crystal ball was top quality.
            Do you not see a reality check on your fantasy’s every time blast them away looking at the facts ;)

  14. Albon needs to improve.
    He is nowhere near Vestappen and while this was ok last year, it is not anymore. He wasn’t any better than what Gasly used to do, today. A distant worst of the best again.
    Barely quicker than a very slow Sainz for most of the race. He’s under a very serious threat from Perez on the standings this year.

    1. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that aside from Lewis Hamilton, nobody on the grid would get near Max Verstappen in the same car. I think he’s that good.

      1. @estesark Danny Ric was the only team member that gave Max a run for his money, winning races are out qualifying Max at times.

      2. I dunno, I remember Max saying Lewis had never had strong Partners ( an insult to Fernando, Rosberg, Bottas IMO), but when you look at it, Riccardo beat him over the course of a season more often than not. The final season together was the only time max won, and Riccardo had failure after failure.

        I think we’ll be able to judge Mac properly when he gets another decent partner.

        I mean, look at George Russell 22-0 in qualifying, but we wouldn’t say he’s the best qualifier yet until his in a decent with better partners (he’s bloody good though)

  15. AJ (@asleepatthewheel)
    12th July 2020, 16:38

    RB should seriously consider Vettel for 2021.

    1. @asleepatthewheel I’m not worried about Albon’s future yet. Yes, he was surprisingly slow, especially in comparison to his teammate, but at least, he managed to achieve the minimum position-wise, but still, he needs to be closer to his teammate and the Mercedes-duo.

      1. We should expect more than that from him. The only races in which he had a shot were because of safety cars and strategy that helped him to be on that situation. By pace alone, he was never even close.

        He’s still young, but Red Bull for sure expects more from him. I’d like to see Vettel there again one more time.

  16. Win 85 for Hamilton.

    Who would bet against him getting the 6 wins this season to surpass the great Shumacher’s record?
    Also does anyone know how many fastest laps, Lewis has now?

    1. Also does anyone know how many fastest laps, Lewis has now?

      From memory, no, but he didn’t get one today.

    2. 47. 30 behind Schumacher. One more than Kimi who is in third place.

      1. With the bonus point for fastest lap that’s one record Schumacher will probably hold forever.

  17. Perez was incredible today. I was thinking that if there was an SC near the end then Mercedes might even have a race on their hands against him. Even with his error at then end easily the stand out driver of the day.

    The verstappen-Bottas race shows that there is one drs zone too many here.

  18. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    12th July 2020, 20:41

    The midfield battles are amazing this year – this season might be the best of all time. Having Ferrari in the mix makes it actually more spicy as we saw Leclerc mess up the race for 4 of 6 Ferrari powered cars (Vettel, Leclerc, Raikonnen, and Grosjean). Charles must hit a lot of strikes in bowling.

    Of course, we can’t discount the battle of the titans between the top teams which are equally impressive.

  19. Racecarisracecarbackwards
    12th July 2020, 22:39

    Lucky last lap Lando :)

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