For the second time in as many weeks, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen enjoyed a serene drive to victory at the Red Bull Ring, leading every lap of the 2021 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix from pole position – much to the delight of the thousands of orange-clad fans who flocked to cheer him to a third victory in a row.
In contrast to the Styrian Grand Prix, Verstappen faced no real threat from behind, even having enough time to take an extra pit stop with 10 laps to go to ensure an extra point for fastest lap – and a first ever ‘grand slam weekend’, with pole, fastest lap and victory, having led every lap.
Behind him, championship rival Lewis Hamilton worked his way up to the second place from P4 on the grid before aerodynamic damage, picked up by running over exit kerbs, slowed his progress, allowing both Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren’s Lando Norris to get past.
Despite heavy pressure from Norris, who was awarded Driver Of The Day honours, Bottas held on for P2, with the McLaren driver taking a third podium finish of the season in P3. Hamilton held on for fourth but slipped from 18 to 32 points behind Verstappen in the championship standings.
Red Bull might have had an even better day, had Sergio Perez not had such an eventful race from third on the grid. After an early safety car, called on Lap 1 when Esteban Ocon was forced to park his Alpine with damage sustained bumping Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo at Turn 3, Perez attacked Norris for P3 at Turn 3.
Going around the outside, Perez was forced off track, with Norris given a five-second penalty as a result. However, Perez would later ease Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari off the road at exactly the same place and pick up an identical penalty, before doing the same thing to Leclerc at Turn 6 and getting one further time penalty.
That meant that while Perez crossed the line in P5, he was classified in P6, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz – who propelled himself up the order with a brilliant late charge after running a long opening stint – taking fifth.
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Leclerc, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, the latter taking the final points-paying position from George Russell on the penultimate lap, denying the Briton the first point with Williams.
Further back there was drama on the last lap as Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen collided with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel as they disputed P12. But for the majority of fans around the track, it was all about the man who finished in P1…
Mario Isola – Head of F1 and car racing at Pirelli commented:
We are happy that our decision to vary the nominations for Austria resulted in two distinct races, with the second Grand Prix having a very fast pace and character compared to the first one. The track temperatures today were considerably cooler than they had been during qualifying, which obviously had an effect on tyre wear and degradation, favouring the softer compounds and prolonging the stints. As a result, we saw a good mix of one and two stop strategies; with a one-stopper still requiring some degree of tyre management to maintain performance over the length of each stint, while a two-stopper was the winning strategy.
Congratulations to Max Verstappen and Red Bull for a perfect strategic race today, where their pace allowed them to stop twice without ever losing the lead. Now we remain at the Red Bull Ring for a third week to continue the 2022 18-inch tyre testing programme for two days with AlphaTauri on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
2021 Formula 1 Austrian GP Race Results
| Pos | No | Driver | Country | Team | Time | Points | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 33 | Max Verstappen | Netherlands | Red Bull Racing | 1:23:54.543 | 26 | 182 |
| 2. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Finland | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +17.973s | 18 | 92 |
| 3. | 4 | Lando Norris | Great Britain | Mclaren Racing | +20.019s | 15 | 101 |
| 4. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Great Britain | Mercedes-AMG Petronas | +46.452s | 12 | 150 |
| 5. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Spain | Scuderia Ferrari | +57.144s | 10 | 60 |
| 6. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Red Bull Racing Honda | +57.915s | 8 | 104 |
| 7. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Australia | McLaren Racing | +60.395s | 6 | 40 |
| 8. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Monaco | Scuderia Ferrari | +61.195s | 4 | 62 |
| 9. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | France | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +61.844s | 2 | 39 |
| 10. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Alpine F1 Team | +1 lap | 1 | 20 |
| 11. | 63 | George Russell | Great Britain | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 12. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Japan | Scuderia AlphaTauri | +1 lap | 0 | 9 |
| 13. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Canada | Aston Martin F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 14 |
| 14. | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Italy | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 1 |
| 15. | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Finland | Alfa Romeo F1 Team | +1 lap | 0 | 1 |
| 16. | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Canada | Williams Racing | +1 lap | 0 | 0 |
| 17. | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Germany | Aston Martin F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 30 |
| 18. | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Germany | Haas F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 0 |
| 19. | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Russia | Haas F1 Team | +2 laps | 0 | 0 |
| 20. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | France | Alpine F1 Team | DNF | 0 | 12 |
Here are the team-by-team highlights:
Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen produced a scintillating display at the Austrian Grand Prix to make it three victories in succession and extend his 2021 title lead over Lewis Hamilton to 32 points.
The 23-year-old Dutchman dominated from the start to the finish at the Red Bull Ring to secure his fifth victory of the season and delight the fans at the home of Red Bull Racing Honda, while Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez finished in sixth place.
Max Verstappen
To win again at home at the Red Bull Ring is just incredible. I expected it to be good, but not this good, and the car was on rails. It was really nice to drive and the pace was incredible on both tyre compounds. I could push and also look after the tyres which are exactly how you want them to be and I could extend my gap lap after lap. Just like everyone else we learnt from last weekend and we optimised the car even more by improving the set-up. It’s actually hard to put into words because it was so enjoyable to drive and the weekend was the best it could be, so let’s hope we can carry on in the same way. It’s a great reward for everyone in the Team and it was also very nice to have Honda represented on the podium by Tanabe.
The fans were also incredible all weekend, so much orange in the grandstands and it’s just great to see people back and enjoying Formula One at the track. There are of course a lot of difficult races coming up and Silverstone will be interesting with the Sprint Race to mix things up. But for now, I’m really happy with the way the whole race went and you don’t often get this type of race, so we all have to enjoy it.
Sergio Perez
I’m obviously not very happy with my race today. On the fourth lap, I had the position and I out-braked Lando but he pushed me off the track which pretty much ended my race. As for the other incidents with Charles, I still have to review the situations and look at the incidents because I thought that I was ahead in both of them, especially the second one but it’s hard to say right now. I braked as late as possible, we were in dirty air and we had very old tyres so I lost the rear on the second one into Turn 6.
I’m very sorry for Charles and how I affected his race because that’s not the way I like to race. I don’t feel happy with myself for compromising the race for another driver. But I am very happy for Max and the rest of the Team, it was great that we could get more points today at our home race at the Red Bull Ring. We move on and I’m looking forward to the next race at Silverstone.
Christian Horner – Team Principal
Max had another fantastic race today and a second victory at the Red Bull Ring is a great way for the Team to sign off the triple header. It was another impeccable drive from Max and he didn’t put a wheel wrong. To achieve pole position, fastest lap, lead every lap and become the first driver to win all three races in a triple-header is just phenomenal and shows the calibre of driver he is and the effort the Team are putting in every single weekend.
Checo was unlucky to have a racing incident with Lando, but for me, that’s hard racing, just like the similar incidents later in the race but he came back strong and we could all see how hungry he was to get a result. We’ve now won the last five races, a first for us in the hybrid era, but we cannot get complacent and need to keep that momentum going.
There’s a long way to go in this championship, we don’t take anything for granted and we have to keep doing what we’re doing, session by session, race by race. Silverstone will be a big challenge and it’s been a Mercedes stronghold for the last seven years but there’s going to be a big crowd there and we have brilliant fans, so I can’t wait to put on another show for everyone who comes out to support us.
Red Bull Racing Honda best pictures:
Valtteri completed a solid drive to take second place and maximise the points on offer for the second consecutive weekend. Lewis suffered damage at the Turn 10 kerbs and nursed the car home well for 30 laps lacking significant downforce. At the start of the race, Lewis and Valtteri had moved up to P3 and P4 respectively after a safety car restart on lap 4 saw PER drop 10 places when jostling with NOR for P2.
Lewis Hamilton
It’s not the result I wanted but it’s still some decent points. I sustained some damage just before I overtook Lando – the rear of the car started to feel strange and it just got worse throughout the race. Otherwise, it would have been a straightforward second place for me. Max is clear out front at the moment so we need to improve our car and start performing better each weekend. The team are working incredibly hard and we need to continue that so we can find performance.
Valtteri Bottas
For me personally, P2 one place better than last week and I started from fifth so not a bad afternoon. I think as a team we got some decent points considering the gap we have to Red Bull in terms of pure pace. For me, it’s nice to be on the podium again in second place and I think we really maximised what we could get today. The tyres held on pretty well today which was a surprise. The next two weeks of hard work and learning then Silverstone, it will be great to see the fans there and I hope we can pick up our pace to give it a real fight there.
Toto Wolff
I think the result probably looks worse in terms of pace than the reality. We were stuck behind the McLaren which cost us a lot of time, otherwise, our pace was good, maybe not enough to win the race but right up there at the front which is a step forward. Lewis picked up some damage at turn 10 – I don’t think he was running particularly hard over the kerb, it was just a piece that fell away so we need to understand what happened. Overall, not a bad damage limitation weekend.
Morale in the team is good, we could see the improvement in race pace was from last weekend so we are making progress and eventually we will be competing for the win again. We are one DNF away from being right there in the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships so this is far from over.
Andrew Shovlin
A solid day for Valtteri starting fifth and finishing second but a disappointing one for Lewis after he lost a lot of downforce with some bodywork damage before the stop. Our task today was made harder by our poor qualifying but second and third were realistically our best result and around half distance, it looked like we were on track to achieve that. Lando’s five-second penalty gave Valtteri a good opportunity to pass in the pits so we decided to follow him in. Lewis took a lot out of his tyres trying to pass in the first stint but once he’d got through on lap 20, Max was too far up the road for us to mount a challenge so we were just looking for any opportunities with safety cars.
It looks like the bodywork damage for Lewis was at the end of lap 29 just before we came in. The downforce loss was around six or seven-tenths but as it was all from the rear, the balance becomes difficult and we were damaging the rears with sliding. That dropped Lewis from second to fourth but at least we had Valtteri up there to pick up the position. We know we’ve not been strong enough at this track over a range of conditions so we need to go away and work hard to understand that. For the British Grand Prix, we’ll bring an update package and it’s also a track that has suited our car in recent years. We really missed the fans in 2020 but we’ll be working hard over the next few days to recover our form and hopefully can give them something to cheer about on race day.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas best pictures:
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Team Principal Andreas Seidl after the 2021 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris
A good race, quite straightforward – there wasn’t too much going on from my side, but that was also a good thing. We weren’t under too much pressure from the cars behind, and the cars in front of us were too far ahead, which we expected. We can be happy – P5 is still a very good result for us. Hopefully, we can come back and do the same again next week.
Daniel Ricciardo
The start was great, we got up to ninth, put ourselves in a really good position on the Medium tyre and the race was looking up from there, and then we lost power. We were able to fix it on the steering wheel, but everything we gained, we then lost, and we were back where we started. After that, it was difficult to make moves being in dirty air. I feel we should’ve been fifth and sixth again today as we were last week. We’ll reset over the next few days and come back again and make it happen next week – hopefully our luck turns.
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal
Today, Lando finished off a very solid weekend with a very strong and controlled drive to P5. In the initial laps, we tried to stay ahead of Checo [Perez] and Valtteri [Bottas], but then we focused on our own race, making sure we finished ahead of our championship rivals. We still end the weekend with some mixed feelings as today felt like a little bit of a missed opportunity. Daniel had a great start from P13 to P9 in the early stages, but then a temporary loss of power meant four cars overtook him, which pretty much ended his race. Daniel, sorry for that.
Thanks to the entire team here at the track and back in the factory, and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP, for giving us a competitive car and for good execution of the race weekend. Special thanks to the pit crew who pulled off two very strong pit stops. We’ll be back to have another go in five days, with a softer tyre allocation. We’ll use the next few days to understand this weekend, to take further steps and score strongly with both cars at the Austrian Grand Prix.
McLaren Racing best pictures:
Scuderia Ferrari came away from the Austrian Grand Prix with a further 14 points, courtesy of a fifth-place for Carlos Sainz and an eighth for Charles Leclerc.
The result was down to teamwork, the two drivers working together in the closing stages to secure fifth place, which on paper looked like the best result available given the performance of the SF21 at this track. The overall result could definitely have been better, but for a couple of incidents when Charles was forced off the track by another driver, which led to penalties being imposed by the stewards.
Strategy. The team went for different tyre choices for the start for the two drivers, opting for the Hard for Carlos to give him the longest first stint possible, while Charles was put on Mediums. As the race evolved, it showed that the strategy chosen for yesterday’s qualifying was the right one, given that all those who started ahead of the Ferrari drivers on the Softs, finished the race behind them.
Charles Leclerc
It’s a bittersweet feeling. The incident on lap 1 put us on the back foot. It’s a shame because we lost a good opportunity to bring home an even better result.
From the second lap onwards, I would rank this as one of my best races so far in Formula 1. The car felt amazing, the pace was there, and I took every opportunity to make a strong recovery.
In terms of performance, we extracted the maximum from the car. This shows how much work has gone on behind the scenes and what an amazing job the team has done especially in the last week. We have to go over all the data to understand exactly how we achieved this step so that we can hopefully repeat it next week.
Carlos Sainz
It was a frustrating race for me, as I felt I could have got an even better result. Splitting the strategy between me and Carlos paid off for the team in the end. I was struggling to fight my way ahead of Daniel on the Hards in the closing laps of the race and so I let Carlos by to give it a shot, which worked out well for us. Anytime I saw a gap I tried to take the opportunity. There were two close ones with Checo and I think he knows he was a little bit over the limit.
We have already spoken and cleared the air and, in the end, it’s all part of the game. A 5th and 8th place is not what we want, but I think that we did a solid job today. We’ve been working extremely hard, and every step forward is important. We have to stay consistent and continue like this and hopefully, we can confirm our strong race pace in the next few races.
Mattia Binotto Team Principal
This result is in line with our potential at this track. Fifth place was on the cards and the most we could aspire to. Carlos secured it with a great drive, while Charles definitely deserved better.
I think the decisions we made yesterday were shown to be the right ones, given how the race went. What I would highlight today is the spirit shown by our drivers, as Charles did not hesitate to make way for Carlos, who was on fresher and faster tyres. That meant we were able to get the best possible result for the team. It’s the right spirit and it’s the way to go as we continue to make progress.
Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team best pictures:
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Pierre Gasly produced another strong showing as he finished in the ninth position, with rookie teammate Yuki Tsunoda finishing in 12th.
Pierre Gasly
I think today was harder than we imagined, but the good thing is we’re consistently scoring points. We thought we would benefit more from the two-stop strategy, but we struggled more than expected on the Softs at the start of the race. There are some positives to take away though and we still showed some strong pace out there. We’re continuing to battle at the top of the midfield but it’s disappointing to not be finishing further up the grid today. We’ll review all the data tonight and then look forward to Silverstone, which is a track I love
Yuki Tsunoda
It’s been a difficult day for me. I struggled with pace during the race and tyre management was really tricky. My Qualifying was good yesterday so it’s frustrating, but we need to go away and review the issues from today, so we don’t make the same mistakes again next time out in Silverstone.
Claudio Balestri – Chief Engineer, Vehicle Performance
Today we tried our best in terms of strategy. Starting on soft tyres with both cars we decided to utilise a two-stop strategy, using the advantage of having two new sets of Hards, but at the end of the race, we weren’t able to stay in front of the other cars on one-stop strategies.
Pierre showed good pace today, especially in the last stint. He was able to catch the one stoppers and finish the race just behind them, without the yellow flag, in turn, four on the final lap Pierre would have also tried to overtake Leclerc.
Yuki had a more difficult race, the two penalties didn’t help him and he unfortunately finished outside of the points. We cannot be fully satisfied with today because we started P6 and P7 on the grid and we finished with only one car in the points. However, we scored more points than our main competitors in the Constructors’ Championship battle which is a real positive.
Scuderia AlphaTauri Team best pictures:
Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team’s triple-header came to a close in a challenging 2021 BWT Austrian Grand Prix, as external factors conspired against the team’s pursuit of points.
Continuing to fight in the thick of the close midfield contest, the team will learn from the lessons of Austria ahead of a milestone home Grand Prix for Aston Martin.
Sebastian Vettel
It was not an easy race today, which ended with a trip through the gravel because of the misunderstanding with Kimi,” said Sebastian.
I guess he just did not see me in front of him. The first I knew about it was the contact I felt on the left rear.
“I had made a good exit out of Turn Four and was pulling ahead of Kimi on the right as we approached Turn Five. I do not think there was any intention from Kimi.
“It is disappointing not to score points, but we will work hard to understand where we can improve before we get to the next race at Silverstone.
Lance Stroll
When we made our first stop to get onto a set of new Hards, we came out in quite a bit of traffic, reflected Lance.
With cars on different strategies and tyres, it meant we lost time and did not take advantage of the peak of the tyre early in the second stint, which impacted our race.
Now running with debris in a brake duct, Lance was unable to make further progress. After making his second pitstop for another set of Hard tyres on lap 46, he crossed the finish line in 13th.
“It was not the race we were hoping for today,” said Lance. “I think it is clear, with hindsight, that starting on the Softs was not ideal, although we managed to keep ourselves in the fight for points during the first phase of the race.
“It is a disappointing end to the triple-header, but I am excited to get going for our home race at Silverstone in a couple of weeks.
“It is a very different circuit and we also have a new weekend format, so it is a clean slate and a chance to bounce back.
Otmar Szafnauer
A number of factors combined to prevent us from scoring points today, despite both our drivers having done so well to get through to Q3 yesterday. That strong performance showed the underlying pace of our car, but it is possible that other teams that did not get through to Q3 were actually advantaged by that failure since our drivers were both forced to make their first pit stops early as a result of having started the race on the Softs on which they qualified in Q3.
We will have to analyse that issue carefully. Additionally, through no fault of his own, Lance was very unlucky to be slowed by debris that lodged itself in a brake duct, while Sebastian was nerfed off the track in the closing stages by [Kimi] Räikkönen. Looking on the bright side, next up is our home race, the British Grand Prix, and we will now start working through today’s data to learn from and build on the positives, in order to put on as good a show as we possibly can in front of the famously passionate Silverstone crowd.
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team best pictures:
Alpine F1 Team
Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso claimed a well-deserved point from the BWT Austrian Grand Prix after a thrilling finale in Spielberg. Team-mate Esteban Ocon retired from the race after an unfortunate incident on the opening lap.
Fernando had to dig deep to claim the tenth place, passing Williams’ George Russell four laps from the end after a battling duel between the pair.
On a bold one-stop, Medium to Hard strategy, Fernando was able to make the plan stick as he continued his points streak, which now spans to four consecutive races.
Esteban’s afternoon ended at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the 71-lap race as he was caught up in an incident between Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi. The Frenchman was stuck in the middle of the pair and suffered front right suspension damage, which forced his retirement.
Esteban Ocon
It was unfortunate for our race to end early today. There wasn’t much I could have done as I was sandwiched between Mick [Schumacher] and Antonio [Giovinazzi] at Turn 3 in a racing incident. It’s one of those things and a consequence of starting the race at the back. There’s always a chance for fights and contact and it’s easier to be caught up in trouble there. The team and I can’t seem to catch a break at the moment. We’ll reset, restart from zero and prepare for Silverstone. The only way we can go is forwards.
Fernando Alonso
It was difficult to score points today and we knew this starting from so far back. We are happy with the point, although we know we deserved more this weekend, it’s better than nothing. It was a tense and a good battle with George [Russell] on track this afternoon and in the end, we had better tyres and managed to accomplish the overtake. On a positive, we saw some good improvements from the team this weekend and the car felt good across all three days here. I feel more confident now going into Silverstone for the next race with the car and the tyres and I’m enjoying being more competitive.
Davide Brivio, Racing Director:
Considering the circumstances, finishing in tenth place is a decent result as it was always going to be a challenge to score points from the fourteenth and seventeenth on the grid. Esteban got sandwiched at Turn 3 on the first lap and was forced to retire with a broken suspension. We executed the one-stop strategy really well with a perfectly timed pit stop and two good stints from Fernando. His pace was strong and it’s frustrating not to be able to capitalise on that today due to the outcome of yesterday’s qualifying. We’re looking forward to racing in Silverstone, our second home race, and returning to where we should be with both cars.
Alpine F1 Team best pictures:
A frustrating end to another race in which we showed good pace but couldn’t make the inroads we needed into the top ten: positives to build on ahead of the next race in Silverstone, work to be done to return where we deserve to be.
Kimi Räikkönen
It was a race in which the car was pretty ok but we just lacked that little bit to be in the top ten. We had a first long stint on hards, then on mediums, we were able to catch up to the guys in front fighting for tenth. Alonso went past Russell, I went close, then had contact with Seb. We came together and that was it, in the end, it didn’t change the end result as we would have both fallen a bit short of the points.
Antonio Giovinazzi
A frustrating day: just as last week, our race was compromised on the first lap. I had contact with Esteban and had to pit: we had a good pace afterwards but everyone was pretty close and it was very difficult to recover much. I got stuck behind a Williams, then even got a penalty – a weekend to forget. Hopefully, we can have a better race in Silverstone as the performance was not bad.
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN and CEO Sauber Motorsport AG
Of course, it is disappointing to leave Austria with no points after two races in which our pace was good. We paid the price for a poor Saturday, as starting from 15th and 16th made our lives unnecessarily hard. Both cars had pace, as Kimi showed towards the end of the race, but the job at hand was just too big in the end. We can build on the positives, of course, but we will need to address the weak points as we attempt to make the final step towards the top ten in Britain.
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Team best pictures:
Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin classified 18th and 19th, respectively, at the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday.
Schumacher started from 19th position on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and escaped a slight brush with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon on the opening lap to hold 16th place. Schumacher stretched his stint on medium tires until lap 35 of the 71-lap race before pitting for a fresh set of the White hard rubber, which he preserved through to the checkered flag in 18th. The result ensured Schumacher maintained his 100 per cent finish record in Formula 1.
Mazepin also took the start on the medium compound and moved up one position at the expense of the retiring Ocon. In a race with little attrition ahead, Mazepin maintained 19th position, thereafter running a two-stop strategy. Mazepin pitted on lap 28 to switch to hard tires and came in again on lap 46 for another set of hards – conserving them through to the line to register his eighth successive finish with 19th place.
Nikita Mazepin
We went on alternative strategies – we went on two stops, which didn’t work. I think the drop off of the tires wasn’t as big as we were expecting but it was the blue flags. You’re not able to keep up your pace because you have to stop more. It was a long afternoon.
Mick Schumacher
It was challenging – the softer tires meant that we had to do a bit more managing in general. There was a part of the race where our pace was matching what Alfa Romeo and Williams were doing, so it just seems that we weren’t able to consistently do those lap times. We will have to analyze what we can do better but nonetheless, I think we managed to learn something, especially at the beginning of the race. We had a good first lap and we were able to be in the mix right away in T1 and T2, so lots learned on that side and now we’re going into Silverstone with an open mind
Guenther Steiner
It’s the end of our first triple-header this year – so, I think everybody’s ready to go home and get a little break before we get ready for the next race. We performed well as a team throughout this series of races, and obviously, we’ve got a few more triple-headers coming this season. We’ll be well prepared, but it is tiring once you’re into them. From today’s race, we had the result we expected. Both guys put in a solid performance, there’s just not a lot more in it for us at the moment. The learning is continuous, and the drivers are getting better.
Uralkali Haas F1 Team best pictures:
George Russell finished 11th and Nicholas Latifi 15th in the Austrian Grand Prix. George started 8th and Nicholas 18th, both on the medium Pirelli tyre. Both drivers ran a one-stop strategy, with George pitting for the hard compound on lap 30 and Nicholas following the suit on lap 33
George Russell
Today was so close, yet so far. I got off the line well at the start, but then Tsunoda had quite a big lock-up and cut in front of me to avoid going into his teammate, so I had to get on the brakes and lost a couple of places. That didn’t really change the outcome of our race as there were faster cars that were always going to finish ahead of us. That P10 point would feel like a race victory for us, so I was fighting with everything I had.
Of all the drivers to have behind you in this situation, Fernando wouldn’t be who you’d choose; he was flying and holding him off just wasn’t possible on my tyres. We’re all disappointed to miss out by such a small margin, but we’re making real progress and we’ll take the positives on to Silverstone.
Nicholas Latifi
It wasn’t a very eventful day from my side; we stayed out of trouble on the opening laps and then I ran on my own for most of the race. I felt like we were still lacking overall pace, but there were places where the car felt much better than last week, so we’ve clearly made some steps forward. We will go away and see what we can improve for the next time out.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance
We gave it everything today and fought hard with the midfield teams. Frustratingly, George couldn’t quite hold on to 10th place, but we can be pleased with our weekend’s work. The car has behaved well, and we have pushed it very hard.
After a challenging triple-header, we are looking forward to some time at home before we head to Silverstone, where we’ll look to build on the work from the last couple of weekends. It will be great to be back at Silverstone in front of a home crowd as we take on the challenge of the new Sprint Qualifying format.
Williams F1 Team best pictures:
