#F1 #StyrianGP Race Report: @LewisHamilton scores dominant victory as disaster strikes @ScuderiaFerrari.

Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant victory at the Styrian Grand Prix, beating Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, meanwhile Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc collided on the opening lap, causing race-ending damage for both.

In what was a more plain sailing race than last weekend’s drama-filled Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, Hamilton controlled its entirety, while Bottas came out on top in an intense battle with Red Bull’s Verstappen for second and retained his championship lead.

When the 71 lap Styrian Grand Prix went green, Hamilton made a comfortable getaway off the line, with Verstappen under pressure from McLaren’s Carlos Sainz on the outside of turn one.

As Hamilton moved clear, Sainz took an excursion through the first corner run-off, which cost the Spaniard momentum and allowed Verstappen to charge back on the attack as they approached the tight up-hill right of turn three.

The leaders ran through damage-free but in the pack behind, the Ferrari pairing tangled, with Leclerc bouncing off Vettel’s rear wing after a late lunge onto the inside of his team-mate, who was fighting with Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen after a slow start.

The rear wing of Vettel’s SF1000 racer was broken, and the German was forced to retire, as both Ferrari drivers came into the pits just as the safety car was deployed due to debris from their collision – the second in four races after last season’s penultimate Brazilian Grand Prix – with Leclerc being called back in the following lap to change his front wing.

The race resumed on lap four and Hamilton immediately pushed away from Verstappen, posting a series of fastest laps, whilst Bottas took until the sixth tour to overtake Sainz into turn four – where Hamilton and Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon clashed last Sunday.

Albon also passed the McLaren in the same spot two laps later.

Bottas started to chase Verstappen as Hamilton continued to increase his comfortable lead across the initial stint.

The Mercedes duo started to push intensely after the first twenty laps were in the books, which forced Red Bull to pit Verstappen on the 24^th lap to ease the threat of being jumped by an early Bottas stop – at this point Albon was too far behind to assist his team-mate.

Verstappen emerged on fresh C3 yellow-marked mediums in third, in-front of Albon and Hamilton remained in the net lead when he re-joined the track on the 27^th lap.

Bottas continued on for another seven tours before he stopped for mediums, as the Finn came out in third place and 8.2 seconds adrift of Verstappen.

Bottas at first, struggled to cut down the gap, but Mercedes told him he would have the opportunity to attack the Dutchman in the closing stages of the Grand Prix.

As Hamilton flew into bigger lead in the second stint to claim his first victory of the 2020 campaign by 13.719 seconds, Bottas rapidly began cutting the gap down to Verstappen – with the Honda-powered RB16’s front wing also sustaining damage on the right-hand endplate.

Bottas mounted an attack on the outside of the third corner on the 66^th lap and used DRS assistance to blast alongside Verstappen on the rundown to the right-hand turn four – but the Dutchman was not giving up that easy and pushed him wide into the sixth corner holding onto second place.

But it only took to the following lap for Bottas as he activated DRS to get further ahead into the fourth corner on the 67^th lap, defending on the outside to ensure second place was his.

Behind the top three was Albon, who survived a late tangle with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez at turn four – in an almost similar style incident as he had with Hamilton a week ago, although the Thai-Briton driver was on the defensive this time round – which damaged the Racing Point’s front wing.

The damage sustained outdone the Mexican’s impressive charge, who started a low 17^th on the grid, and as he limped to the line, he was jumped by McLaren’s Lando Norris – who had put in his own late push – at the penultimate corner.

Perez held on in a straight-drag to the line to beat Racing Point team-mate Lance Stroll – also having a rising from a lower grid-starting spot in 12^th – while Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was eighth as his alternate strategy starting on the mediums did not pay off.

Sainz gave McLaren team-mate Norris a place as the former opted to pit late on for a fresh set of C4 soft compounds in a bid to get the fastest lap bonus point, which Verstappen also did, with Sainz grabbing the extra point available.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten – the sole driver to make the harder rubber work, after team-mate Pierre Gasly changed his strategy to a two-stopper and went back on the softs.

Gasly was hit by Renault’s Ricciardo at turn one and lost out to the Australian as they fought for seventh place at the start, but his race unravelled with the strategy switch and wound up 15^th, just in-front of Williams Racing duo George Russell and Nicholas Latifi.

Russell got a strong start from P11 but dropped to the back at the safety car restart when he tripped in the gravel traps at turn six as he battled Magnussen (who settled for 12^th and ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean and behind 11^th-placed Alfa Romeo Racing C39 of Kimi Raikkonen).

Renault’s Esteban Ocon was the only other retiree due to a cooling issue, with his R.S.20 racer coming to a halt on the 25^th lap after he was battling with team-mate Ricciardo in the initial stint.

Formula 1 Pirelli Grosser Preis Der Steiermark (Styrian Grand Prix) 2020 Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1046/austria/race-result.html

The Top Three

Styrian Grand Prix Winner – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “It’s great to be back up here, the team did a great job with the strategy. I am so grateful to be back in first place, it feels a long time coming after the last race last year. I had to come back after a difficult weekend last weekend. I love back to backs, let’s just go back to back all year long!”

2^nd – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+: “Starting fourth, it is not too bad, good points. Not a bad first couple of races, looking forward to next week.”

3^rd – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16: “I tried, I pushed as hard as I could. When Valtteri passed me, I tried to make it difficult, but I knew he was going to get by. There is still work to do.”

Click here for the full 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship standings.

Round three of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship heads straight to the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary for the Formula 1 Aramco Magyar Nagydij (Hungarian Grand Prix) from July 17-19.

#F1 #StyrianGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton storms his @MercedesAMGF1 to pole.

#F1 #StyrianGP FP2 Report: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @ValtteriBottas.

#StyrianGP FP1 Report: @RacingPoint’s @SChecoPerez tops the time-sheets. #F1

#F1 @Rolex Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2020 Preview. #StyrianGP.