Formula 1 2018 Austrian Grand Prix

The Renault has shown a tendency to be hard on its tyres this year, and while others also hit blistering problems in the Austria race, Sainz suffered more than anyone else.The VSC allowed him to offload his ultrasofts after 15 laps, but after just 19 laps on softs he was back in the pits for an unscheduled stop, before running supersofts to the flag. He eventually finished ...

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Vettel retook the F1 championship lead from Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by one point with third place behind Raikkonen on a day when both Mercedes retired.Having been as low as eighth thanks to a grid penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz and then two first-lap errors, Vettel came back through the field and was closing on Raikkonen in the final part of the race as both chased race winner Max ...

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Having been run on the second-last weekend of March for the past two years, AGP organisers have locked down the March 14-17 slot for next year – subject to ratification by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.That weekend would give the Albert Park race some clean air in what is the busy month for Melbourne, sitting in between the popular Moomba Festival the weekend before, and the start ...

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Bottas beat teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole in qualifying but dropped to fourth after a poor start led to him getting crowded out at Turn 1.He regained second by passing Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen on the outside down to Turn 3, but retired during the opening stint with a loss of hydraulic pressure.Bottas said: "The luck I'm having this year feels like a bit of a bad joke at ...

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Blistering was not a talking point earlier in the weekend, when the focus was on graining, but higher temperatures on Sunday tipped the tyres over the edge, especially the soft.Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo both had to make unplanned extra pitstops, while race winner Max Verstappen was able to successfully manage the situation, and the Ferrari drivers also suffered less.Pirelli ...

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Lewis HamiltonRating: 8He was beaten by Bottas in qualifying, albeit by the narrowest of margins, and before being derailed first by a strategy blunder and then a loss of fuel pressure he had the race under control. Perhaps he could have dealt better with, and done more to manage, the blistering rear tyres and kept Vettel behind him, but even so Hamilton wasn't at fault for the race ...

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With the FIA continuing its push to try to improve overtaking opportunities, a third DRS zone will be added along the start-finish straight at Silverstone this weekend.Its location is especially intriguing because, with the first Abbey right-hander and the following Farm left hander both being flat out on low fuel, it means drivers will have the option of keeping their DRS open ...

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Hamilton was the only frontrunner not to pit when his teammate Valtteri Bottas triggered the VSC.His race engineer Peter Bonnington had to come on the radio and tell Hamilton that he would have to make up eight seconds of race time.Vowles subsequently twice spoke to Hamilton directly, apologising for the mistake and trying to motivate him, saying "Give us what you can," and later ...

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At ten past three on Sunday afternoon, Mercedes looked set for a scenic stroll to a one-two having annexed the front row with a car featuring a heavily revised aerodynamic package on top of the engine upgrade introduced at the previous weekend's French Grand Prix. Seventy minutes later, Mercedes had thrown away the lead and parked both cars while Max Verstappen took a wonderfully ...

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Both Ocon and Perez struggled for pace in the run-up to the race, with neither drivers qualifying inside the top-10 and Perez even failing to progress beyond Q1.However, the Indian-owned squad capitalised on the retirements of three top-tier drivers to bag 14 points from the weekend.Starting from 11th on the grid, Ocon pitted under the safety car on lap 15 and managed to nurse his ...

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If you missed any of the news or action, here is your Debrief from all that happened at the Red Bull Ring.Austrian GP Start actionPhoto by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT ImagesIT’S VERSTAPPEN-INGMax Verstappen ...

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TRACK INTERVIEWS(Conducted by Mark Webber) Q: Max Verstappen, your fourth grand prix victory. It felt like your first win, with Kimi Räikkönen closing you down, maximum pressure. A Red Bull victory here on the Red Bull Ring. Massive amounts of Dutch fans, it must feel amazing?Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was amazing. It was very hard to manage the tyres as well. We really had to look ...

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The time penalty meant that Stroll traded 13th place with his Williams teammate Sergey Sirotkin, who had been behind him on the road.Stroll made a pitstop for fresh tyres with just four laps of the race to run, and came out ahead of Perez.The team told him to try and remain unlapped by the Force India driver, and by attempting to do so he ignored the blue flag signals."Lance went ...

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The virtual safety car was triggered by a mechanical failure for Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas, and saw all frontrunners except Hamilton pit.Hamilton lost out massively – the team told him that he would have to make up eight seconds on the track – but later it became academic as he retired with a loss of fuel pressure.Team boss Wolff admitted that Mercedes had simply thought ...

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Verstappen claimed the team's first home race win at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday after an aggressive pass on Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap put him in control when both Mercedes retired.His teammate Ricciardo retired with an exhaust problem and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted that prompted concerns over Verstappen's car."We were quite concerned that there might ...

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The Toro Rosso and McLaren drivers made contact at the apex of Turn 3 on the opening lap, resulting in damage for both cars.Gasly lost part of his car's floor and his suspension was bent, which meant he nearly "went out 20 times" during the race.Despite the damage, Gasly finished in 11th position, but admitted it had been a very tough day."Honestly for me it was one of the toughest ...

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Raikkonen had challenged the two Mercedes cars for the lead into Turn 1, but was soon back down to third – and came under attack from Verstappen after exiting Turn 6.The Red Bull driver got a run on the Finn and committed down the inside at the fast Turn 7 left-hander, his right front making contact with Raikkonen's left rear and forcing the Finn wide."The Red Bull hit me on the ...

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Hamilton took the lead from teammate Bottas off the line but was left vulnerable when his rivals all pitted during the early virtual safety car period, while he stayed out on track.He subsequently pitted and rejoined in fourth, which is where he ran when he lost fuel pressure late on and was forced to retire.Teammate Bottas had exited the race earlier with a hydraulic problem ...

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The Dutchman faced a challenging time in managing blistering of his rear tyres after the early change to softs, but was able to hold on for a win ahead of Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.Speaking after the race, Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed how Verstappen changed his approach to the sequence of corners at the end of the lap once it became clear he needed ...

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Verstappen headed the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, who stole the championship lead from Lewis Hamilton by one point after Mercedes turned a one-two in qualifying into a double DNF.Poleman Valtteri Bottas retired with a gearbox problem while a strategy error under the ensuing virtual safety car ruined Hamilton's race and a loss of fuel pressure consigned him to a ...

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Verstappen has been in no shortage of support this weekend in Austria, given all the orange on the grandstands around the Red Bull Ring. A large chunk of the Dutch crowd has been staying in the Max Verstappen Village, so Motorsport.com went along to sample the atmosphere.An estimated 18,000 Verstappen fans have travelled to Austria, and around 5,000 of them have been staying at his ...

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The McLaren driver, who had qualified in 13th position at the Red Bull Ring, has had a different spec front wing fitted following yesterday's qualifying.Alonso broke his front wing at the end of Q2, when he ran over the yellow kerbs at the penultimate corner that have caused damage to several cars this weekend.When asked after qualifying if he had enough front wings, he said: "For me ...

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Vettel was penalised three grid positions for impeding Carlos Sainz, and while the stewards noted that he had not been properly kept informed by the Ferrari pit wall, they also observed that he had erred by running slowly on the racing line.The grid penalty comes just a week after Vettel collided with Valtteri Bottas on the first lap in France, costing himself vital points.“I think ...

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Hartley's STR13 has been fitted with its fifth internal combustion engine of the season, as well as its fifth MGU-H and turbocharger, and the fourth examples of its MGU-K, energy store and control electronics.This translates to a 35-spot grid penalty for the second weekend in a row for the Kiwi, which automatically becomes a last-place start.Honda said the change of engine components ...

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Ocon missed Q3 in 11th place, while Perez was caught in traffic in Q1 and could not better 17th, before gaining a spot when Charles Leclerc was penalised."We are lacking a bit of pace, to be honest," said Ocon. "First run was quite good for me luckily, because we got traffic in the second one, and I couldn't improve there."That's how Sergio got squeezed out, because of traffic. We ...

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Grosjean will start Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring in fifth place, having initially beaten Daniel Ricciardo to a third-row start and lapped just 0.052s slower than Max Verstappen before also benefitting from Sebastian Vettel's grid penalty.Kevin Magnussen backed up Grosjean in eighth place as Haas enjoyed a 0.8s gap to the next-best team Renault.The same gap covered the best cars ...

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The Sauber driver had looked set for another strong showing in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, but was handed some bad news after final practice when it was discovered his gearbox had broken.With his car having stopped on track at the end of the session, Sauber discovered that the gearbox failure had been caused by a problem with the rear wishbones.Asked by Motorsport.com about ...

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The new mode was tested in France last week and Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul said it was "great news" that it would be "making an impact for the first time" at the Red Bull Ring.After filling the fifth row of the grid, well beaten by the Haas team, drivers Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg said it made little difference to their qualifying performance.Hulkenberg lapped three tenths ...

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Q: Sebastian it was a tough first lap for you. You’re on the second row. How did it go for you?Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, as you said, it’s not easy to put it together. I had a mistake on the first lap. I know I need to put a banker in to make safe that I qualify in a proper position, so I think there was a little bit left but arguably not enough to really pip Valtteri for pole, so well ...

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The German had qualified in third but will be demoted to sixth on the grid, behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and the Haas car of Romain Grosjean.Sainz was starting a last-ditch push lap in Q2 when he came up on the cruising Ferrari of Vettel on the exit of Turn 1, the Spaniard forced to move sharply to the left and go over the kerbs to avoid contact. ...

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Ricciardo slowed on track and tried to get Verstappen to overtake him in Q3 as he felt it was unfair that he did not get the benefit of a tow on any of the team's three runs.Red Bull alternates which driver runs ahead in qualifying from race to race, and Austria was Ricciardo's turn.Asked if he felt he had been 'stitched up' by the team, Ricciardo replied: "During the heat of it all ...

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Valtteri Bottas headed a one-two for Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring, where the Finn and teammate Lewis Hamilton have use of a major aerodynamic upgrade.The significant car update follows Mercedes' introduction of its 'Spec 2.1' engine in France last week, and Vettel ended up qualifying three tenths off the pace in third.Asked where Ferrari is losing out to Mercedes, Vettel said: "It's ...

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Ricciardo was unhappy after the session after feeling that the team lost out the chance to lock out the third row of the grid because his teammate had declined to help offer him a slipstream.Horner insisted that his team's policy had always been that one driver would be designated to run in front of the other on set weekends - and there was never a suggestion that the plan would be ...

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Ricciardo was upset after suggesting that Red Bull could have had both cars further up the grid if he had been helped to a slipstream.Red Bull then suggested Verstappen move past Ricciardo as the Aussie slowed (see radio exchange below), but the Dutch driver did not agree to overtake.In the end, Verstappen qualified fifth, with Ricciardo two places further back, beaten also by the ...

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