Valtteri Bottas , Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris . The order of the podium of the Austrian GP, the first of the 2020 World Cup, is the living image of an unusual championship that promises fabulous emotions. The dominance of Mercedes, from the start, was truncated with a penalty to Lewis Hamilton , relegated to fourth place in an anthological outcome; Ferrari's frustration, with Sebastian Vettel missing, was mitigated by Leclerc's extraordinary courage; and McLaren's patience, with an exciting heads-up between Carlos Sainzand Norris, was rewarded with the memorable last lap of the British. Her fast lap earned her to climb to the podium. The 20-year-old boy couldn't believe it. [Narration, classification and times]
A warning shook the Red Bull Ring with 20 laps to go for the checkered flag. "Valtteri, this is James. Stay off the pianos. It's a critical matter." The message, word for word, came seconds later to Hamilton's ears. Curious way to liven up this restart in the alpine valleys. Eight dropouts, a Kimi Raikkonen tire blown up and a pulse between the Mercedes frustrated by the warning on his wall and the five-second sanction on Hamilton.
The commissioners punished the hexacampeón for denying the space to Alexander Albon . Non-conforming, they repeated their opinion with Leclerc, who had been battling copper with Sainz since the start. In the last five laps an extraordinary race was to be decided, which only missed Max Verstappen, eliminated from the start due to a failure in his RB16.
A 1: 07.475 for the memory
In the moment of truth, Leclerc clenched his teeth like only a champion knows how to do it. He endured against the McLaren and surpassed with total ease a Sergio Pérez who had also made merits to toast with champagne. Sainz, on the other hand, could not deal with Norris, who had spent the entire afternoon threatening without giving. The calm of the orange cars, only truncated by a wrong decision by the Spaniard, who entered too late for his last tire change, turned into unbridled euphoria. The 1: 07.475 of Norris' last spin immediately enters the Woking team's recent gold book.
They will also be able to enjoy Mercedes with the performance of Bottas, who took advantage of his ole to spread his wings. In the second lap he had a more than appreciable advantage against Verstappen, who had to hold Norris's shoves. Bent on matters that were not his strictly incumbent, the McLaren boy soon relaxed before Albon and Hamilton, both engaged in a duel that could end fatally. A few meters behind, Sainz had poked his nose out at Leclerc, albeit much more delicately.
Everything seemed organized to enjoy Sunday with Verstappen, thanks to his bet on intermediate tires. And everything went to hell with his mechanical problem on the eleventh lap. Better not to reproduce the screams of rage of the great animator of the championship, who nodded in the passenger compartment of his RB16 as if trying to break a wall with the helmet. He was still able to complete the entire rope of the route until he reached the garage, where they even tried an emergency solution. Unsuccessful, of course.
The news fell like a bomb on the Mercedes wall, without a single threat to his double. Hamilton, fifth on the grid for his last sanction on Saturday, had presented us with the first sign of his superiority with an overtaking like a blow to Albon. Bottas continued on his way, but the hexacampeón nailed a 1: 09,000 as a first warning. He lunged like a wolf.
At that time, a safety car triggered by Kevin Magnussen put Mercedes operators on the test, who were due to receive their two cars almost immediately for the only stop in the afternoon. And they solved it without a single hesitation, as if they had been rehearsing throughout the confinement. With the hard tires, gathered behind the safety car, the two cars of Toto Wolff were going to play the victory.
Vettel Ruin
The safety was gone and the thing got serious for McLaren. His operatives had missed the Norris driveway, forced an extra effort on Perez on pit lane. Sainz suffered even more difficulties, fed up with 30 laps behind Leclerc. In the famous curve 5, where a year ago Verstappen's victory was decided, the Monegasque did close the space well against Carlos. Vettel, who was coming like a fury, was hampered by the McLaren leader. Another ruin for the world tetracampeón.
On Sunday he had to also reward Pérez, whose Racing Point was losing energy over the course of the race. He also deserved more Albon, deprived of glory for his brush with Hamilton and his haste at crucial moments. The abandonments of George Russell , Raikkonen and Daniil Kvyat reduced the number of survivors to 11. Only Nicholas Latifi's Williams was left unrated.
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