#Formula1 MyWorld Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2019 Preview – #F1 #AustrianGP

After Lewis Hamilton cruised to a dominant victory at the Circuit Paul Ricard to extend his title-lead to 36 points, round nine of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Red Bull Ring this weekend in Spielberg, Austria for the Formula 1 MyWorld Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2019. This will be the 33^rd 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.

 

2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen holds the fastest lap record of the circuit set last year with a 1:06.957 in his Scuderia Ferrari SF71H.

 

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.

 

Onboard pole lap of the Red Bull Ring

 

 

Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Red Bull Ring from last year’s event set by Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W09 EQ Power+. The Finn posted a blistering 1:03.130, which you can watch right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJuJ53P6QQY

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2018: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 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.

 

Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing to Austria this weekend, the wide side-walled C2 Hards, the yellow-branded C3 Mediums and the red-marked C4 Soft rubber along with the green-marked Intermediates and blue-branded Full Wet compounds in-case of rain.

 

Ferrari have gone the most conservative with their tyre allocations compared to its rivals with the Maranello-based outfit opting for seven sets of the red-branded C4 softs for Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc whilst Racing Point also went with seven sets of the quicker rubber at their disposal.

 

Reigning Champions Mercedes along with Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly will have nine sets of the C4 soft tyres, while Max Verstappen – the defending Austrian Grand Prix winner, has one set less of the red side-walled compound than his team-mate.

 

McLaren chose eight sets of the softs while the rest of the field have favoured Pirelli’s soft rubber over the other two options the sole-tyre supplier are bringing to the Red Bull Ring.

 

Ferrari’s lack of softs for the race weekend means Leclerc will have more mediums than the whole field, with five sets of the yellow-branded C3 tyre, while Vettel has one set less in favour for an extra set of C2 hards.

 

McLaren and Racing Point are the only teams on the grid to give their respective driver identical tyre allocations for the weekend, while Red Bull are the only team to vary the number of softs their two drivers will be bringing to Austria.

 

DRS Zones

 

There will 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 takes dominant French GP victory

 

 

Lewis Hamilton extended his lead at the top of the Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship after cruising to a dominant French Grand Prix victory at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

 

Hamilton comfortably out-paced Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc rounded out the podium and Sebastian Vettel fell to 76 points behind the Briton after finishing fifth.

 

Vettel was unable to make much progress from starting seventh on the grid, although the German claimed the bonus fastest lap point on the final lap after making a late stop for fresher rubber.

 

Pole-sitter Hamilton kept the lead at the start and only managed to make a small margin over the initial stint.

 

However, the drivers who remained out longer on the medium compounds saw Hamilton’s gap grow bigger.

 

The Briton was eight seconds clear of team-mate Bottas when the latter made a stop on lap 23 for the C2 white side-walled hard tyres.

 

Hamilton remained out for an extra lap with the Silver Arrows extending their driver’s stints to ensure they were enough ahead of Vettel’s Ferrari, which continued on longer.

 

After the pitstop window, Hamilton’s advantage continued to build and after switching fastest lap times with team-mate Bottas, the lead built to 18.056 seconds right to the finish line as the Briton extended his points lead to 36 over the Finn.

 

Bottas claimed second place for the first time in three Grands Prix, although Hamilton’s fourth successive victory could be a huge hit in the Finn’s title quest.

 

Behind the two Mercedes F1 W10 EQ Power+ racers, Leclerc held onto the tail of Bottas and the lead Ferrari put the Finn under intense pressure right to the chequered flag, even though he was a few seconds behind in the closing stages as the young-Monegasque driver scored his second podium in a row.

 

Leclerc had to face a hard opening-lap fight with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen as the two ran wheel-to-wheel on the run to turn three.

 

Leclerc was squashed in by Bottas into the second corner, which gave Verstappen a good run around the outside before the former moved clear as they approached the next corner.

 

After that, Verstappen’s attention towards the other Ferrari of Vettel.

 

Vettel cut the gap to just three seconds in the initial stint, but after making his stop, he emerged 5.9 seconds behind the Dutchman and dropped further behind.

 

That gave Verstappen, who was dealing with throttle lag issues earlier on, comfortable space and Vettel had too much time to close down the margin with the German starting to close in again during the closing stages.

 

Ferrari then opted to pit Vettel for a fresh set of softer rubber with two laps remaining to attempt to claim the bonus fastest lap point.

 

Vettel posted a blistering 1:32.740 lap record and snatched the fastest lap point from Grand Prix winner Hamilton by 0.024 seconds after the latter also set a quick time on the final lap.

 

Behind Vettel, McLaren was the best of the rest with Carlos Sainz crossing the line in sixth place.

 

Sainz jumped passed team-mate Lando Norris at the start when the latter had nowhere to go into the first corner and had to back out, giving the former the upper hand and the place.

 

Norris managed to do well despite his hydraulics problem that continued to get worse as the race continued on with braking and steering issues also hampering the young Briton as he fell behind Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg in the other R.S.19 Renault.

 

Ricciardo pushed Norris on the outside of the chicane but ran too deep, so Norris hit the throttle and attempted to pass him through the second part of the corner, but the Briton went too wide after being squeezed out by Ricciardo and took a trip into the run-off area.

 

That caused multiple cars to run wheel-to-wheel as Raikkonen and Hulkenberg joined in the battle, with Ricciardo originally taking seventh ahead of Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and the problem-hit Norris.

 

Ricciardo however, was demoted to 11th place following a stewards post-race investigation with the incident involving Norris after the Australian was deemed to re-join and “unsafely force another driver off” and thus was handed two five-second timed penalties to his result and two points off his superlicence.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly finished outside the top ten in 11^th place at his home Grand Prix and in-front of the two Racing Point RP19’s of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll who were 12^th and 13^th respectively.

 

The two Honda-powered STR14’s of Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon followed in 14^th and 15^th respectively, finishing ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who was 16^th.

 

The sole VF-19 Haas of Kevin Magnussen finished in-front of the two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica who brought up the rear and two laps down.

 

The other Haas of Romain Grosjean was the only retirement of the race with the Frenchman forced to retire from his home Grand Prix on lap 44.

 

The Situation

 

 

Lewis Hamilton comes to the Red Bull Ring on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 187 points and a 36 point-advantage over Valtteri Bottas who is second on 151 points while Sebastian Vettel is a further 76 behind the Briton in third on 111 points.

 

Mercedes returns to Austria sitting comfortably on top of the Constructors Championship standings with 338 points and a 140-point lead over nearest rivals Ferrari who are second on 198 points while Red Bull Racing are in third and a further 201 behind the Silver Arrows on 137 points.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

 

1. Lewis Hamilton – 187 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 151 Points.
3. Sebastian Vettel – 111 Points.
4. Max Verstappen – 100 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 87 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 37 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 26 Points.
8. Kimi Raikkonen – 19 Points.
9. Daniel Ricciardo – 16 Points.
10. Nico Hulkenberg – 16 Points.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

 

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 338 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 198 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 137 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
5. Renault F1 Team – 32 Points.
6. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 19 Points.
7. Alfa Romeo Racing – 19 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 17 Points.
9. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 16 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 0 Points.

 

The Formula 1 MyWorld Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2019 weekend kicks off Friday June 28 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday June 29 and the 71 lap Austrian Grand Prix Sunday June 30.