Sebastian Vettel took the lead in the Lewis Hamilton Drivers' Championship after a podium finish at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. Vettel finished third behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen, winner of Red Bull.
Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen of the American Haas team finish respectively fourth and fifth. The two Force India drivers – Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon – as well as the two Sauber drivers – Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson – finished in the points. Fernando Alonso of McLaren finished eighth, also in points.
Valtteri Bottas, the poleman and Hamilton teammate, suffered from a gearbox problem and was the second driver to retire after Renault's Nico Hulkenberg. Bottas was fighting for the lead at that moment, while Hulkenberg was watching a finish near the edge of the dots.
Hamilton had his head to the point that Bottas came out, and a virtual security car was deployed. Mercedes missed Hamilton in the lead, and they suffered because the two Red Bull cars and the two Ferraris stacked twice in the pits, and came out about 13 seconds behind Hamilton, on cooler tires
. of a win, and he said so much on the team radio many times. Hamilton had to dig a little later, and came out just ahead of Vettel, but was soon overtaken by the Ferrari. Hamilton complained of a lack of power, while the entire grid complained of blistering on the tires due to the rising temperature of the track.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo appeared on the podium, but he was starting to have his second pit stop early in the race, and he found himself about 20 seconds behind the first four with 20 laps to do in the race. At that time, Hamilton had bad blisters, and Verstappen's garage told him that the rest of the pack was "healing something".
Verstappen's answer was that he was good and that his team was not to worry. A few laps later, Ricciardo suffered from a gearbox problem and, unfortunately, was the next player to retire from the race. A few laps later, Brendon Hartley of Toro Rosso also retired from the race with a mechanical problem.
With less than 10 laps to go, Hamilton suffered a car problem and had to retire. After the start of race 1-2, both Mercedes cars had to withdraw. Stoffel Vandoorne became the last car to retire with a ride to go. Ericsson was allowed to pass Leclerc late to chase Alonso, but the team left Leclerc in front of him just before the end of the race when Alonso finished eighth.
Below the full finish order for the Sunday race. ] Order of the Grand Prix of Austria
Position
Driver
Team
Position
Driver
Team
1
Max Verstappen
] Red Bull
2 [19659019] Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari
3
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
4
Roman Grosjean
Haas
5
Kevin Magnussen
Haas
6
Esteban Ocon
Force India
7
Sergio Perez
Force India
8
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
9
Charles Leclerc
Sauber
10
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
11
Pierre Gasly
Toro Rosso
12
Carlos Sainz Jr. [1] 9659019] Renault
13
Lance Stroll
Williams
14
Sergey Sirotkin
Williams
15
Stoffel Vandoorne [19659] 017] McLaren
16
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
17
Brendon Hartley
Toro Rosso
18
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
19
] Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
20
Nico Hulkenberg
Renault
Round 71/71 – FINAL
Leclerc is in the points after Hamilton's retirement, and he passes in front of his teammate Ericsson to get the ninth. We are aiming for a brace for Haas, Force India and Sauber. With three laps to go, Verstappen has 2.6 seconds on Raikkonen, while Vettel is 1.6 seconds behind his teammate. Grosjean is fourth with Magnussen, Perez, Ocon, Alonso, Ericsson and Leclerc, while the Saubers are trading again. It seems that Vandoorne also had to stop with a ride to go. With a gap of less than two seconds, Verstappen takes his car home for the win, ahead of Räikkönen and Vettel! Oh, it looks like Sauber told Leclerc to let Ericsson attack Alonso, and when it was clear that Alonso was safe, they let Leclerc get his head back just in the end, so he finished ninth.
Lap 65/71
Grosjean has just made a slip of the tongue, and he is fifth ahead of his team-mate Magnussen in sixth. The radio of the Ferrari team tells Raikkonen that they have "no worries" and that he can push on Verstappen. Leclerc is in the DRS range of Alonso. Oh no! Mercedes orders Hamilton to stop the car, and he is out of the race! He stops at lap 64, and is out of the race! It stops and there are yellows to two ripples, but no safety car.
Lap 60/71
This is Hartley who stops now, with an apparent hydraulic problem or perhaps a gearbox problem. He stops with 15 laps to go, and becomes the fourth person to retire from the race. Hamilton is far behind Vettel, 21 seconds behind, but is now fourth after Ricciardo's retirement. Räikkönen is 4.3 seconds behind Verstappen, while Vettel is 2.4 seconds behind his teammate. They think their tires are going to be better than those at Verstappen, but Red Bull has just set a personal best.
Lap 56/71
Hamilton has severe blisters on the left rear tire, and some on the rear right, too. He complains again to his team, and he will end up in the 53rd lap, for supersoft tires. He should join Ricciardo – and he does. Ricciardo quickly abandons the position, and it seems like he has a car problem. Ah, he came out, just after the first corner, he stops and the yellow flags are out. He is retiring from the race with what seems to be a gearbox problem! Hamilton puts a purple shortly after.
Lap 51/71
Ricciardo sets a purple lap on lap 47. Hamilton stays within one second behind the Ferrari. Grosjean is 20 seconds behind Ricciardo, who is 20 seconds behind Hamilton. Hamilton, however, complains of some tire problems with a lot of racing still to go, so he backs off a bit and falls out of Vettel's DRS range. Magnussen finally passes Ocon, on the 49th lap. The Verstappen team tells him that "everyone is healing here," and Verstappen responds that he is good.
Lap 46/71
Hamilton complains on the radio, and his team takes responsibility for "throwing" a win, but they encourage him to keep pushing. Magnussen is less than a second behind Ocon, but he does not move and keeps his tires, at least in the 41st lap. Hamilton slowly regains the upper hand over Vettel, and soon finds himself one second behind the Ferrari. Verstappen is 6.4 seconds ahead of Raikkonen. Hamilton tells his team that he'll "stay on" Vettel
Lap 40/71
Alonso overtakes Stroll, as Leclerc did a few laps earlier. Verstappen continues to widen his gap while Vettel is one second behind Hamilton, who is one second behind Raikkonen. Raikkonen tries to pass Ricciardo but he can not move the ball. But at the end of the round, Ricciardo is very slow and Raikkonen is second behind him. Ricciardo arrives on the team radio saying that his tires are really bad. And he will enter the stands. They adapt to the supersoft tire. Vettel makes a move on Hamilton! He pushes Hamilton off, and that is Verstappen, Raikkonen and Vettel for the top three!
Lap 36/71
Raikkonen says Ricciardo has a big blister on the left rear tire, and his team tells him to push. And you can see the problems with the tire, too. Raikkonen is in the DRS range and he is looking to pass. Perez passes Sainz to take the ninth place. Sainz finds himself in the pits with tire problems and will join the back of the pack after a slow stop due to cooperation problems with the right front tire.
Lap 31/71
Hamilton quickly settles in Raikkonen, and just took a half-second on the top three on the 29th lap. Hamilton arrives on the team radio and is, as expected, pretty salty about the mistake of his team. Hamilton dug a 2.5-second gap with Vettel behind him. Then Grosjean is sixth, 22 seconds behind Vettel
Lap 27/71
Hamilton arrives at the stand on the 26th lap. Verstappen, Ricciardo and Raikkonen pass, but Hamilton leads Vettel, and that is important for the Drivers' Championship. Verstappen takes the lead of the race! Hamilton claimed a pit stop, it seemed, with some tire problems. The Sky broadcast tells that Mercedes feared that Hamilton would take the lead and that the other cars would run potentially long
Lap 24/71
The gap between Hamilton and Vettel in fifth position is 22.5 seconds, right at the edge of the pit stop window. Currently, the Top 10 are Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Vettel, Magnussen, Perez, Grosjean, Ocon and Sainz.
Lap 22/71
Hamilton has put purples as the pit of Red Bull and Ferrari cars. Strange that Hamilton does not pity. We do not know why. Ricciardo makes a nice pass on Raikkonen, who closes his tires again. Ricciardo in third place, three seconds behind his teammate. The race control does not confirm any other action involving Verstappen and Raikkonen when their tires touched briefly earlier.
Lap 17/71
The virtual safety car causes a series of refueling. Red Bull has stacked twice and has done incredibly well, as usual, while the Ferrari have done the same thing, a little more slowly. Vettel joined behind Magnussen, but quickly took over the position. Hamilton failed to get into the pits under the safety car. Hamilton's lead past the pits and the safety car is 13.2 seconds, above Verstappen in second, so it will be interesting!
Lap 14/71
Hulkenberg becomes the first driver to leave his lap just after turn 8 and is the first to retire from the race. Vettel is 1.9 seconds behind Ricciardo, who lost 1.2 seconds behind Raikkonen. And a lap later, in the Tour 4 race, it's a Mercedes off the track! And it's Bottas! He came out of this race with what he said was a gearbox problem! He leaves the track and we get yellows in sector 2. And now a virtual safety car
Lap 11/71
Raikkonen complains of debris on the track just after turn 3. Another purple for Hamilton in the 8th round. He has a 2.5 second lead over Bottas, who has a 3 second lead on Verstappen from the 9th round. Ricciardo is right on the back of Raikkonen, under a second and in the DRS range. Vettel is seconds away from this battle. Raikkonen complains that a Red Bull has contacted him, and the replay confirms it
Lap 7/71
Vettel overtakes Grosjean to become sixth. Grosjean will try to maintain this seventh position as best he can after a difficult season. Vettel had a grid penalty for stopping Sainz in practice, so he was still going to pass the Haas cars. Replay shows that Vandoorne collided with a Torro Rosso. It's Hamilton who puts the purple on the 6th lap, Bottas, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Grosjean, Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Ocon.
Fair play Kimi … It was ultra brave stuff in the 1st round! The Finn is back in P4 now that Lewis sets a new fastest lap of the race! #AustrianGP
Raikkonen got off to a good start and drove Bottas off, allowing Hamilton to take the lead lead. Bottas drops to third place while Verstappen goes around the outside, and Raikkonen drops the position after going to the second round. Bottas came back strong and took second place in turn 3. Räikkönen also came back behind Verstappen, but Verstappem returned immediately and took it back! Vettel goes back to seventh place, surpassing Magnussen while Grosjean tries to move Ricciardo, but can not hold it! Charles Leclerc became tall, shooting yellow doubles around the final rounds. Stoffel Vandoorne has lost some pieces of his front wing, and he falls to the last place after digging!
Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes has pole position for the 2018 Formula 1 Austria Grand Prix of the Red Bull Ring on Sunday. He will have his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who will keep him company in the front row when the race starts at 9:00 ET on ESPN2
Online streaming of the race can be done via WatchESPN, ESPN application or F1 TV . Pro.
The second row is occupied by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and Max Verstappen of Ferrari. The top seven drivers on the grid all posted the fastest times in the range of 1:03, so less than one second covers all but three points for Sunday's action.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, second in the championship after losing his lead by one point last time, has a three-seater grid penalty for having prevented Carlos Sainz Jr. during the qualification, and will start sixth on the grid.
"Of course I did not want to block or ruin his turn," said Vettel about Sainz. "I looked in the mirror, I finished my knees, I checked my mirrors, I could not see anything."
"The problem is the mirrors," continued Vettel, "we do not see right away. It's the same for all of us. This concerns the mirrors and they are more or less in the same place for each of us. "
The big surprise is that American-owned Romain Grosjean's Haas will be fifth in the qualifying standings and his team-mate Kevin Magnussen will also start in the top 10 at 8. Grosjean trying to push both Vettel and Daniel back Red Bull Ricciardo in seventh at the start of the race should be fun to see
Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso commented on the surprising pace of Haas cars to the media after the qualifying session.
"Haas was just … I I'm shocked, in fact, because from one weekend to the next … we know that they can be so fast but that fasting is pretty awesome, "said Gasly [19659119] Charles Leclerc de Sauber, who qualified for the third qualifying session in France and was announced as the next Ferrari driver in 2019, unfortunately had a five-seater grid penalty for a gearbox change and gone 18th on the grid, he finished the Grand Prix de France in points, in the 10th overall rank.
Renault's Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg complete the top 10 on the grid.
Here is everything you need to know to watch the race on Sunday