After a near perfect albeit controversial start, Valtteri Bottas charged towards his second Formula 1 victory in the Austrian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver led throughout the race, starting on pole and fending competition from Sebastian Vettel. The Ferrari driver did attack Bottas in the final stages only to finish second by a difference of just six tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo finished third, snatching the podium from Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas is now in the championship contention with the Austrian GP win
Valtteri Bottas had just the perfect start to the Austrian GP. A bit too perfect for the other racers as Ricciardo and Vettel questioned over the radio if the Mercedes driver had jumped the start. As the race moved forward, Bottas was placed under investigation but was found to have a reaction time of just 0.201 seconds to the lights.
Meanwhile, Bottas consolidated his lead by Lap 20 with a gap of 7.6 seconds over Vettel's Ferrari. The Mercedes driver had a long stint and pitted on Lap 41 in the 71 lap race, which reduced his lead by 2.5 seconds. While Vettel's best performance was yet to come, Ricciardo's aggressive start ensured a podium finish towards the end.
Sebastian Vettel took second place with a difference of just six tenths of a second
The Red Bull driver pushed Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the opening lap with the latter running wide on Turn 3, which dropped the driver to fifth place behind Roman Grosjean. Raikkonen managed to come back to fourth, but was unable pass the now dominating Ricciardo. The top three drivers extended a comfortable lead over the rest of the pack, even as the remaining drivers showed some interest passes during the race.
The most impressive improvement came from Hamilton, who started 8th on the grid, after receiving a penalty for a gearbox swap. The Briton was quickly catching up to the leaders in the race passing Sergio Perez of Force India and Grosjean to move up to fifth by Lap 8. However, Raikkonen was in no mood of making things easier. Hamilton was one of the first of the drivers to pit on Lap 31 swapping from supersofts to ultrasofts that lasted him till the end of the race. Meanwhile, Ricciardo pitted on Lap 33, while Vettel pitted a lap later. Raikkonen pitted at the end of Lap 44 behind Hamilton and finished in the same place.
Raikkonen fend off competition from Hamilton for most of the race
The final stages however, were the most dramatic as Vettel engaged in a close battle with bottas getting within DRS range, but fell short by a small margin. This meant, Bottas took his second win of the season and his career.
Securing his career best finish was Grosjean at sixth, behind Raikkonen while the Force India teammates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished seventh and eighth respectively. Williams F1's Felipe Massa, having started from 17th made a striking rise to ninth in the closing stages, while round up the top 10 was teammate Lance Stroll, taking crucial points for the team. The 11th spot was taken by Renault's Jolyon Palmer, followed by Stoffel Vandoorne in 12th and Nico Hulkenburg finished at 13th.
Kvyat spun into Alonso, who crashed into Verstappen, securing a penalty for the former
As for the DNFs, Max Verstappen retired in his third consecutive race after a slow start caused by a clutch issue saw the Red Bull driver being caught up in between Daniil Kvyat and Fernando Alonso in the opening lap. Torro Rosso's second driver Carlos Sainz retired almost half into the race due to a suspected engine problem, while Kevin Magnussen also retired due to gearbox trouble.
While Vettel may not have won the race, the Ferrari driver continues to lead the championship standings, extending his lead over Lewis Hamilton by 22 points. Ricciardo is third on the championship standings, but Bottas is catching up having reduced the difference to just 15 points.
