The 2020 Season Starts off with a Bang... Two Bangs!

Well, what can I say

We just witnessed two extraordinary back-to-back race weekends at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, which hosted the Austrian and the Styrian Grand Prix's over the past two weekends.

Now it's onto Hungary for this coming weekend, and I must say, that with all that's going on in the world, having back-to-back race weekends is very exiting...

So, what has happened to far since my last post......

Well, if you've been living underground or have decided to seclude yourself from civilization, we all know why the 2020 Formula One Season got delayed. 

I'm not going to get into it, as I feel everyone that reads my blog is intelligent enough to know what these reasons are.

Anyway, let's get back to business....

Following now will be a brief report of the two back-to-back races that took place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. It's quite surprising that the F1 management decided to give each race weekend, albeit at the same track, two different names, hence the first weekend being the usual Austrian Grand Prix and last weekend being the Styrian Grand Prix.

"Styrian Grand Prix?" I hear everyone ask. "What's the Styrian Grand Prix?" Not to worry, I've done a bit of digging and have an explanation for the naming of the Styrian Grand Prix

Let's turn to Wikipedia for help.....

The area marked in red is the state of Styria

Styria is a state (Bundesland) in the southeast of Austria. With an area of 16,401 km2 (6,332 sq mi), Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and by the Austrian states of Carinthia, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The state capital is Graz.

The Capital of Styria state, Graz

So, instead of having two Grand Prix weekends, with the same name, it was decided to give the second race weekend at the Red Bull Ring, a different name, which in itself could have caused confusion if both grans prix weekends would have been named the Austrian Grand Prix.

In my mind, it was a good move by F1 management to decide to name the two grand prix weekends differently, even though both races took place at the same circuit. Nice one FOM!

Let's start by looking into the first race weekend, the Austrian Grand Prix

Formula 1 Rolex 

Grosser Preis Von Österreich 2020

It was extremely exiting to see the return of F1 racing with the announcement of the revised 2020 calendar. And what a better way to start the season with a race at a track that I've always liked, the Red Bull Ring in Austria

Valtteri Bottas took the first win of the 2020 season for Mercedes with a drama filled race weekend. 

The Finn led away from pole, comfortably heading Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the early stages before his team mate Hamilton climbed the order – after a three-place grid penalty dropped him to fifth – to fill his mirrors as the battle for victory heated up.

A series of safety cars – as Kevin Magnussen, George Russell and Kimi Raikkonen retired – increased the tension, while Mercedes told both drivers to steer clear of the kerbs because of gearbox issues.

But Bottas remained ice cool and smoothly took his eighth career victory.

Mercedes moved to turn the engines down on both cars as it became clear they were in a league of their own, but then warnings from the team came over the radio that it was “critical” to stay off the kerbs, even the red-and-white rumble strips.

“We had to manage the car quite a lot, so I couldn’t really use all the kerbs,” says Bottas. “At some stage I was slightly worried if it was going to be OK, but I’m glad we managed to finish with both cars, we’re leading the team’s standings and that’s a very good start.”

Bottas now holds a 13-point leader over reigning champion Hamilton, who crossed the line second but finished fourth, following a five-second time penalty for making contact with Red Bull’s Alex Albon when fighting for second.

Race Results

Formula 1 Pirelli 

Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2020

Following his sensational wet weather pole position on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton secured a comfortable victory in the Styrian Grand Prix, winning out over his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen – while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc collided on Lap 1, causing race-ending damage for both.

Having been classified a disappointing P4 at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Hamilton was strong away from the start line, before spending the race managing the gap, first to Red Bull’s Verstappen then to Bottas, to secure his 85th Grand Prix win.

Despite a stern defence from Verstappen, Bottas claimed second place from the Dutchman four laps from the end, last week’s Austrian Grand Prix winner limiting the damage in the drivers’ championship, which the Finn still heads.

Behind Verstappen, an exciting finale saw the Red Bull of Alex Albon finish ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris, Norris passing the Racing Point of Sergio Perez with one corner to go in the race after the Mexican suffered front wing damage from contact with Albon.

Perez was classified sixth, ahead of team mate Lance Stroll in seventh, with Stroll having performed a late-race pass on the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo, who finished eighth. After a frustrating day, P3 starter Carlos Sainz was ninth, taking an extra point for fastest lap, while AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10.

Ferrari’s 2020 difficulties continued, meanwhile, with Charles Leclerc losing control of his SF1000 on the run up to Turn 3 on Lap 1 and slewing wildly into his team mate Vettel. Their contact wiped off Vettel’s rear wing, with both cars forced into retirement – the second time a Leclerc/Vettel collision has caused the team a double DNF.

Race Results