After Lewis Hamilton dominated the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard to reclaim the Driver’s Championship lead, round nine of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Red Bull Ring this weekend in Spielberg, Austria for the Formula 1 Eyetime Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2018, the second part of the first triple header in the sport’s history. This will be the 32^nd running of the Austrian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the sport began in 1950.

 

 

A look at the Red Bull Ring

 

 

The Red Bull Ring (Formerly A1-Ring) is a permanent racing facility in Spielberg, Styria, Austria.

 

The race circuit was founded as Österreichring and hosted the Formula One Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from 1970 to 1987. It was later shortened, rebuilt and renamed the A1-Ring, it hosted the Austrian Grand Prix again from 1997 to 2003. When Formula One outgrew the circuit, a plan was drawn up to extend the layout. Parts of the circuit, including the pits and main grandstand, were demolished, but construction work was stopped, and the circuit remained unusable for a few years before it was purchased by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and rebuilt. It was renamed the Red Bull Ring and the track was reopened on 15 May 2011 and hosted a round of the 2011 DTM Season and a round of the 2011 F2 Championship.

 

The old Österreichring was often referred to as being located at Zeltweg, which is bigger and better known. However, the circuit was only modified and never relocated.

 

In addition, the one-off 1964 Austrian Grand Prix was held at Zeltweg Airfield, so the name was already known.

 

The Red Bull Ring is a medium downforce circuit featuring fast straights and slow and medium-speed corners with historically just the first three taken in low gear. As such, lap times were low with sub-1:10s lap. Average speeds were high, with the 2003 race seeing Michael Schumacher win with an average speed of 213km/h.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 4.318km (2.683 miles) in length with ten corners.

 

The race distance is 306.452km with 71 laps in total.

 

Four-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton holds the fastest lap record of the circuit set last year with a 1:07.441 in his Mercedes F1 W08 EQ Power+.

 

Four-time World Champion Alain Prost has the record for most wins in Austria with three.

 

McLaren are the most successful constructor in Austria with six victories.

 

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2017: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2015: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1. 2014: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1. 2013-2004: Not held. 2003: Michael Schumacher, Scuderia Ferrari.

 

Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing to Austria this weekend, the yellow-marked Softs, red-branded Super-Softs and the purple side-walled Ultra-Soft rubber along with the green-marked Intermediates and blue-branded Full Wet compounds in-case of rain.

 

Ferrari has gone with a slightly more aggressive approach than rivals Mercedes and Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen taking nine sets of the ultrasoft compounds.

 

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has the most supersoft tyres available compared to the leaders with four sets, whilst team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Raikkonen and Red Bull pairing Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

 

Vettel only has two sets of supers, which leaves the German with only two sets of the yellow-branded softs, one more than team-mate Raikkonen and Bottas and the same as title-rival Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull duo.

 

Whilst Ferrari’s ultrasoft selection is slightly greater than its rivals, it is not the most aggressive approach in the field.

 

Renault and Williams are the most aggressive of the field with 10 sets of the purple-walled ultras on offer for each of their drivers.

 

This has left Carlos Sainz (Renault) and Lance Stroll (Williams) with only a set of supers and two sets of softs respectively, with their team-mates Nico Hulkenberg and Sergey Sirotkin opting for the opposite approach.

 

The only other driver in the field to have just one set of the red-branded supersoft rubber available is Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, who has three sets of the softs and nine ultrasofts.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean has selected the most supersofts with five sets, leaving the Frenchman with one set of the yellow-marked softs and seven sets of ultras, the joint-lowest on the grid alongside team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

 

DRS Zones

There will now be three DRS Zones at the Red Bull Ring. The first zone detection point is 160 metres before turn one, with the activation point 102 metres after turn one. The second zone’s detection point is 40 metres before turn three with the activation point 100 metres after turn three. The final DRS zone’s detection point is 151 metres before turn ten with the activation point 106 metres after turn ten.

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI: French GP Rewind – Hamilton dominates returning French GP at Paul Ricard

 

 

Lewis Hamilton reigned supreme at the French Grand Prix and reclaimed the championship lead after title-rival Sebastian Vettel collided with Valtteri Bottas at turn one.

 

Hamilton finished with a comfortable gap over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take a 14-point lead in the Driver’s Championship over Vettel, who hit trouble and recovered home in fifth.

 

Vettel finished ahead of Bottas, who was spun by the German at the first corner on a dramatic opening lap.

 

Vettel made a lightning run off the line and ran alongside Bottas on the rundown to turn one but backed off only to lock his front-left tyre and collided into the Mercedes.

 

That broke Vettel’s front wing in the process and gave Bottas a left-rear puncture, with both cars hobbling back to the pits to switch for the yellow-branded soft rubber, Vettel attempted to race on into turns three and four lightly touched Romain Grosjean’s Haas VF-18, although both drivers pushed on.

 

At the same corner, Pierre Gasly lost the rear of his Honda-powered Toro Rosso and went into the back of Esteban Ocon’s Force India, forcing both drivers out of their home Grand Prix on the opening lap.

 

This deployed the Safety Car, under which Hamilton held the lead from Verstappen, who took a trip through the run-off area to avoid the Bottas-Vettel tangle, and Carlos Sainz, who went around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull at turn two when the Australian ran deep into turn one.

 

When the race resumed on the fifth lap, Hamilton rapidly built a solid lead with Verstappen in a comfortable second as Ricciardo remained behind Sainz for a few laps before reclaiming third.

 

The Renault fell further back when Kimi Raikkonen recovered from an excursion into the run-off area to avoid the turn one mess.

 

The Spaniard held fifth for the next 12 laps of the race or more before Vettel, who switched to softs and charged through the pack after emerging at the back of the field behind the safety car, made his way back into the top five.

 

Vettel’s great pace on the fresher rubber briefly put him in a podium position when Ricciardo and Raikkonen stopped halfway through the Grand Prix, but with the German’s tyres degrading and a five-second time penalty inflicted after the Bottas collision – was easy pickings.

 

After six laps Ricciardo on the fresher softs, reclaimed third place by taking a tighter line through the fast-sweeping double turns 10 and 11, and another half a dozen laps later, Raikkonen on new supersofts, moved ahead of his team-mate to grab fourth.

 

The Finn used his softer and fresher tyres to his advantage to catch Ricciardo with seven laps remaining, then made a few unsuccessful attempts at overtaking around the outside of the first and third corners.

 

Raikkonen then got by the Australian after slipstreaming the Red Bull down the Mistral Straight into the turn eight chicane to take the final podium place.

 

Ricciardo finished more than half a minute ahead of Vettel, who was struggling with his tyres but was given a free pitstop when Mercedes called Bottas to stop again.

 

This relegated the Finn down the field but recovered back to seventh on fresher supersoft rubber as Kevin Magnussen kept calm under pressure to finish sixth.

 

Both drivers made their way passed Sainz’ RS18 as the Spaniard slowed with a loss of power, although he managed to hold onto eighth place and ahead of Renault team-mate Nico Hulkenberg at the team’s home Grand Prix.

 

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc who took qualifying by storm, ended the race in the final points position after running inside the top six after the first corner chaos.

 

The other Haas VF-18 of Grosjean finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who was 12^th and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who took 13^th.

 

The sole Toro Rosso in the race Brendon Hartley finished 14^th and in-front of Williams Martini Racing’s Sergey Sirotkin who was 15^th.

 

The other Williams FW41 of Lance Stroll was a late retiree from the race after his front-left tyre blew at the high-speed Signes corner, having completed 47 laps following an earlier stop under the safety car.

 

Force India’s Sergio Perez was the other casualty, having battled for the points before an engine problem stopped the Mexican in his tracks, though McLaren’s Fernando Alonso stopped on the final lap after a suspension issue hit the Spaniard whilst running at the rear. Alonso had spun earlier whilst being passed by Vettel’s Ferrari.

 

The Situation

 

 

Lewis Hamilton returns to the Red Bull Ring sitting on top of the Driver’s Championship with 145 points and a 14-point advantage over Sebastian Vettel who is second on 131 points and Daniel Ricciardo is a further 49 points behind the Briton in third on 96 points.

 

Mercedes heads to Austria leading the Constructors Championship with 237 points and a 23 point lead over nearest rivals Ferrari who are second on 214 points and Red Bull Racing are a further 73 points behind the Silver Arrows in third on 164 points.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 145 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 131 Points.
3. Daniel Ricciardo – 96 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 92 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 83 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 68 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points.
8. Fernando Alonso – 32 Points.
9. Carlos Sainz – 28 Points.
10. Kevin Magnussen – 27 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 237 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 214 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 164 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 62 Points.
5. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
6. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 28 Points.
7. Haas F1 Team – 27 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 13 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

The Formula 1 Pirelli Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2018 weekend kicks off Friday June 29 with Free Practice 1 and 2, then Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday June 30 and the 71 lap Austrian Grand Prix Sunday July 01.