Mercedes surprised by McLaren’s Austrian GP pace

In brief

Mercedes surprised by McLaren pace

Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin was surprised to see McLaren’s Lando Norris hounding his driver Valtteri Bottas in the second half of the Austrian Grand Prix after Bottas jumped him as they took their pit stops.

Norris had to serve a five-second penalty during his stop, which cost him a position, but he had the pace to stay within a few seconds of Bottas all the way to the end. He also out-qualified the Mercedes drivers on Saturday and came just short of taking pole.

“I think it was a surprise to see Lando in the shoot-out for pole,” said Shovlin. “He was awfully close to getting pole.”

Shovlin was convinced that the pace of the McLaren, which uses an engine supplied by Mercedes, was down to the team making progress between the two races at the Red Bull Ring.

“We know that any deficit there isn’t on the power unit side. So I think it was a bit of a surprise to see them as strong as they were, and even in the race today, we were racing them. Whereas last week they were doing their own thing and we got through them rather quickly and there was a big gap.”

More penalties handed out in FIA F3

The results of the support races in Austria were decided long after the chequered flag on Saturday, and the same happened on Sunday as a raft of post-race penalties came in.

Jenzer’s Johnathan Hoggard had 30 seconds added to his race time for repeated track limits violations, his team mate Filip Ugran, Trident’s Jack Doohan and HWA’s Oliver Rasmussen all got docked 10s, and Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi was penalised 5s for the same offence.

This shuffled up the order at the bottom of the field, as did a 10s penalty to Hitech’s Jak Crawford for colliding with Doohan and a 5s penalty for MP’s Timen van der Helm after he spun around HWA’s Rafael Villagomez.

Ferrari junior Arthur Leclerc crashed out in the middle of the race, collecting Trident’s Clement Novalak in the process. After assessing video footage of the crash, the stewards determined Leclerc was wholly to blame for the incident and handed him a three-place grid penalty for the next race he contests.

• Hauger keeps win after plank violation as F3 issues 17 penalties in one day

Newgarden relieved to end win drought

Josef Newgarden took fastest lap for the first IndyCar race in Detroit, was on pole for the second and led the most laps, then repeated that feat at Road America but came away without winning. That changed at Mid-Ohio as once again he was fastest in qualifying and led for longer than anyone else, but this time converted it into a landmark victory.

It came exactly 50 years on from his Penske team’s first win in America’s leading open-wheel series, and was the outfit’s long overdue first victory of the season.

“I’d start each stint and feel like we had everything under control,” a relieved Newgarden said.

“You get to the back end of it, and I felt like I was starting to fall apart, so it was really hard to hang on. I had my wing man, Tim [Cindric, Penske president] coaching me all the way, just making sure I knew what was up.

“This team has been doing the job. Everyone has been giving me a hard time, asking what’s up with us not winning a race. But I don’t think these people at Penske could have done anything different. We’ve been in the game almost every race, had great performance. It’s great to seal a win here finally.”

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Cars spinning sideways and more ending up in the grass.

Check out Sunday's lap 1 onboards to see who was bumped around and who made it through the smoke.#INDYCAR // #Honda200 // @Mid_Ohio pic.twitter.com/XaBP3b6f17

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 5, 2021

2020 ⏪ 2021! 🏆 @LandoNorris’ first podium in @F1 was exactly one year ago today, also in Austria!#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/OCyJ4cjClO

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 5, 2021

Lightning strikes twice! ⚡⚡

We had collisions at the front two years running at the Red Bull Ring… 😣#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 #F3 pic.twitter.com/5FPYkjSTUo

— Formula 3 (@Formula3) July 5, 2021

New tyre guy in town, he looks familiar. 👀 pic.twitter.com/A62UQCBnxU

— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) July 5, 2021

Incredible, 350,000 people in downtown ⁦@visitmusiccity⁩ last night!! Great to be back to normal, next up the Inaugural ⁦@BigMachine⁩ ⁦@MusicCityGP⁩ pic.twitter.com/JJ71saLl84

— matt crews (@MattMusicCityGP) July 5, 2021

• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Victoria cannot afford to lose F1 grand prix, Nationals warn (The Age)

"Deputy opposition Leader Peter Walsh said Victoria was already struggling to retain its mantle as Australia’s events capital after a coronavirus-hit 18 months and could surrender its grand prix rights if the event was cancelled for a second successive year."

Wimbledon wildcard with smile to rival Hamilton's brand value (The Times)

"Emma Raducanu entered the Wimbledon tennis tournament ranked 333 in the world, but the 18-year-old has already risen to 174. Marcel Knobil, founder of the Brand Council consultancy, said that she was on a fast stream to get the best sponsorship deals. Roger Federer is worth £77 million from winnings and endorsements of brands including Uniqlo and Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton is worth £39 million."

IndyCar eyeing additional ovals for 2022 (Racer)

"IndyCar is expected to hold a similar number of races in 2022, with the possible expansion from its current calendar of 16 rounds to 18."

Formula E gives spectators the green light for London races but caps crowd at around 10% capacity (City AM)

"Formula E chiefs have confirmed that spectators will be allowed to attend the London E-Prix races. But only 2,720 fans will be permitted on each of the two days of electric motor racing – around 10% of the crowd originally envisaged."

Mahindra's Sims, Lynn to wear suits designed by Driven by Design winners from India (Financial Express)

"The contest presented some outstanding design talent from all over the world. Each driver selected a race suit design to wear for their home E-Prix on 24-25 July. Both winning entries came from talented designer’s in India."

We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.

Comment of the day

Having packed grandstands at the Austrian Grand Prix certainly made for a spectacle, particularly when smoke flares were lit up all around the circuit as Max Verstappen crossed the line to win. However some flares were being fired during the race, and the smoke could have presented a safety hazard, as Kotrba pointed out.

Is it still alright to produce such amounts of (orange) smoke? At points the track (at least the view of it from by-track cameras) was quite engulfed in it. I imagine the view from some stands must have been limited. Especially the fans at the stand in the twisty middle sector were the main producers of it.

I certainly do not want this to turn into a anti-Verstappen thing, we have always had this with Ferrari at Monza – but that was once a year so it was kind of excusable/tolerable. It is that in general, I would not like to see F1 become a sort of football match with the negative atmosphere that tends to surround these. And that is the way I see it develops at the moment.
Kotrba

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to John H, Mitz1111, Sebsronnie, Elliot Horwood and Isaac Mwale!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in motorsport

• 35 years ago today Danny Sullivan won the seventh round of the CART IndyCar series for Penske at the Cleveland airport circuit, ahead of points leader Michael Andretti and father Mario.