4 winners and 1 clear loser from the Austrian Grand Prix
Yes Verstappen won another grand prix, but he was not the only winner at Red Bull Ring
Another Formula 1 grand prix.
Another week with Max Verstappen climbing to the top step of the podium following the Austrian Grand Prix.
While Verstappen’s streak of laps led was broken, albeit briefly, by Charles Leclerc, the Red Bull driver would not be denied his fifth-straight win. Verstappen now sits 81 points clear of teammate Sergio Pérez atop the Drivers’ Championship, and his third-straight title seems but a forgone conclusion.
Now, with the caveat that Verstappen was clearly a winner this Sunday at Red Bull Ring — he qualified on pole, win the race, and even secured the fastest lap at the end to pull off another sweep — here are four other winners, along with one clear loser, from the Austrian Grand Prix.
Winner: Lando Norris
There is something about Lando Norris at Red Bull Ring.
The McLaren driver enjoyed another strong week in Austria. He qualified third for the Sprint race on Saturday, and while he finished outside of the points following an early anti-stall incident, it spoke to his feel for Red Bull Ring.
Then on Sunday, starting from fourth, Norris came across the line fifth for a solid result for McLaren. That P5 was shortly changed to a P4 for Norris, following post-race penalties handed out to a multitude of drivers, including Carlos Sainz Jr., who had finished ahead of him.
“A very good day! I was a little bit surprised we had the race pace that we did, and it was great to be fighting the Ferraris and Red Bulls,” said Norris in the team’s post-race media report. “More importantly, we beat both the Astons and Mercedes, which was our main goal today. Overall, a good day and good points.”
The result also demonstrated that the team’s upgrades to the MCL60 — which were only used on Norris’s car this week — could put the team on even stronger footing heading into the British Grand Prix next weekend.
“It’s been a positive result here in Spielberg. Not just the valuable points from Lando’s P5 but also seeing the MCL60 fighting at the front,” said Team Principal Andrea Stella. “That’s good for the team and good for our fans.”
“We know this track is a bit of a ‘Lando-Special’, and he was excellent again today, but certainly some of this result is down to the upgraded aerodynamic package fitted to his car. It’s been a colossal amount of work at the factory to get this upgrade here, and a good effort at the track to get the performance out of it,” added Stella. “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people who made that happen, and I hope they’re enjoying the result because they certainly deserve it.”
Winner: Sergio Pérez
It has been a long few weeks for Sergio Pérez.
As has been documented at SB Nation and elsewhere, after closing to within seven points of Verstappen following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Pérez came into the Austrian Grand Prix not only 69 points behind Verstappen, but with his lead over Fernando Alonso down to just nine points.
While Verstappen pulled even further ahead of Pérez on Sunday, it was still a much-needed third-place finish for Pérez in the Grand Prix. That, coupled with his second-place finish in the Sprint race on Saturday saw his lead over Alonso creep up to 17 points, and stemmed the tide of a rough stretch for the Red Bull driver.
“It’s been a bit of a rough patch for me. So now hopefully we are back and we can keep that consistency now,” said Pérez trackside after the Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver elaborated in the post-race press conference.
“Yeah, it’s really nice to get back to the podium, especially at home, such a special weekend for the team and on our weekend that started overall really bad with… I don’t know how to say it, I don’t want to use a bad word… but for the track limits, I think everyone got hit by it at some point. Hopefully next year when we come back, it’s something that it can be fixed. But anyway, that meant that we started P15 for the race today and we just had to fight our way through it,” said Pérez. “We had some great pace, some great battles out there but in the end, it’s a good one, especially not been close to 100 per cent physically. But with all the adrenaline going on, you forget about everything.”
If nothing else, his strong weekend in Austria should quiet any calls for him to lose his seat.
At least for one week.
Winner: Charles Leclerc
Joining Pérez and Verstappen on the podium? That would be Leclerc, who put in a solid performance of his own for Ferrari. He started — and finished — in second and managed to lead ten laps, breaking Verstappen’s consecutive laps led streak.
“It feels good to be back on the podium, especially after what was a very difficult day yesterday. I had a really good feeling in the car on Friday. I think with the new upgrades the feeling is getting there. And we were really waiting for this race in order to confirm the good feelings we had on Friday,” said Leclerc following the race. “And it worked out. I mean, no secrets, we still need to work extremely hard to catch up Red Bull, who are still quite a lot faster on race day. But the feeling is better. And the team is pushing like I’ve never seen before in terms of bringing the upgrades much earlier than what was planned. And this is great to see.”
Those upgrades have Leclerc thinking even bigger things are possible in the weeks ahead.
“Yeah, well, I think, Friday and today we have maximised what we have really. It’s more yesterday that I was off the pace. But it’s good to be back on the podium. The upgrades that we brought to the car made me feel a little bit better in those conditions, which is looking good for the future,” said Leclerc. “The team has done an excellent job by bringing these upgrades earlier. So that’s great.”
Winners: Aston Martin ... and whoever made the call to lodge a protest
It was a strange weekend for Aston Martin.
But it ended on a bit of an upswing.
Fernando Alonso came across the line in sixth position, with teammate Lance Stroll just getting into the points with a tenth-place finish.
Shortly after the checkered flag, however, came word that the team was lodging a protest with race officials. The reasoning? Aston Martin wanted to make sure that the appropriate penalties were handed out for exceeding track limits.
The result? An additional 12 penalties were handed out well after the race came to a close, to 8 different drivers. Among them? Carlos Sainz Jr. and Pierre Gasly, who had finished ahead of Alonso and Stroll, respectively.
That bumped Alonso up to fifth from sixth, and Stroll up to ninth from tenth.
It might not seem like much, but it meant 12 points for the team from the Grand Prix, not nine. And consider this: Aston Martin trailed Mercedes by 13 points coming into the Austrian Grand Prix.
They leave Red Bull Ring just three points behind the Silver Arrows.
Could that protest pay off in a huge way at the end of the season? Only time will tell. But right now, it looks like a very smart decision.
Losers: The white lines
The biggest losers this weekend?
Track limits at Red Bull Ring, and the white lines indicating them.
As noted here and elsewhere, FIA officials admitted that they could not review all of the 1,200 potential incidents of a driver exceeding track limits during the Austrian Grand Prix. It was an issue during qualifying on Friday, and it continued throughout the weekend and into the Grand Prix.
Penalties for exceeding track limits left many drivers frustrated, and lamenting that with the configuration of the track — and visibility limitations — they simply cannot see the white lines when they are accelerating around the circuit.
The issue led both Verstappen and Team Principal Christian Horner to admit that the teams looked “amateurish” at times this weekend, and on Sunday evening FIA “renewed” their request for Red Bull Ring to install gravel pits at certain spots on the track, particularly at Turn 10.
While some drivers and teams certainly struggled, track limits — and the white lines indicating them — are perhaps the biggest losers of the weekend.