Winning Streak Halted

Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport maintained their lead in the Drivers’ Championship even as they finished third and fifth in an exciting Austrian Formula One Grand Prix held in Spielburg on Sunday.

Valterri snagged the third place, scoring his third podium in his 50th race with the company, his fastest lap clocking in at 1:08.565, despite facing overheating challenges.

Valterri remarked: “We expected this race to be tricky, but it turned out to be even more difficult than we predicted. We had to do lots of lifting and coasting and couldn’t use all engines modes to keep the engine from overheating. It made both defending and attacking very difficult.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took home the top prize, winning the Austrian Grand Prix for the second year running, halting Mercedes’ unbeaten streak this season.

The Dutchman, known for his overtaking skills, took the lead in the closing stages of the race, passing leader Charles Leclerc of Ferrari with just two of 71 laps remaining. The results were delayed for three hours as his pass was investigated, with the FIA concluding, that in the totality of the circumstances, they did not consider that either driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident.

The victory was hard earned for Honda, Red Bull’s engine supplier, making it their first win since they came back during the hybrid era.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who has had a stellar season so far, started this race off in fourth place, after receiving a penalty for impeding Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Furthermore, Hamilton’s apparent strategy to run long on medium tyres for a later-stage was uprooted by damage to his front wing on the kerb, costing him time with an early pit stop in lap 30 to replace the car’s nose.

The Brit’s machine also faced overheating issues as Spielburg experienced one of its hottest days of the season with temperatures hitting 34 degrees Celsius. This is an issue the company needs to fix quickly as Europe continues to weather a heat wave and much hotter races are on the horizon.

Hamilton said: “The other cars didn’t seem to struggle quite as much as we did, so we’ll have to look into this and try to fix it. There’s going to be more hot races coming up like Budapest, so we’ll need to get on top of this, otherwise it could be a difficult few races for us.”

Ferrari’s Vettel, who lost the last Grand Prix in Montreal to Hamilton after being found guilty of dangerous driving, got his vengeance this week as he beat Hamilton by 3.2 seconds, despite a slow pit stop where Ferrari did not have replacement tires ready for the German four-time world champion.

Austrian Formula One driver and champion Niki Lauda, who passed away earlier this year, was memorialised as Turn 1 in the Red Bull Ring was renamed the Niki Lauda Kurve, after the only Austrian to have won a Grand Prix on home soil.

Lauda’s legacy was cherished by fans and drivers, with some fans managing to place a red hat on the Mercedes badge. The three-time champion’s most overt contribution in this season’s Formula One has been his contributions to the Mercedes team, including his decision to mentor and hire Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes has had a near-perfect season so far, sitting at the top of the Constructors’ championship standings with a total of 363 points, leading Ferrari by 135 points.

They are favourites to win the upcoming British Grand Prix, which is expected to attract over 140,000 fans, but Ferrari’s engine power may bring them into play, while Mercedes addresses its engine concerns.

Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin voiced some additional concerns with AMG machine after the race. He said: “Whilst temperatures were the headline item for us today, we weren’t particularly quick even in Qualifying, so no doubt there are a few areas that we need to investigate and improve. We’re looking forward to Silverstone, the car should work better there so hopefully we can get back to fighting at the front.