Despite heavy rain during yesterday’s qualifying race, Lewis Hamilton, the reigning champion, demonstrated his strength by securing pole position. Max Verstappen from Red Bull began in second place, while Valtteri Bottas started in fourth after Carlos Sainz of McLaren.
However, drama unfolded in the very first lap, involving Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. Their collision caused damage to both cars. Vettel retired immediately, while Leclerc managed to race a few more laps before retiring as well.
The car of Charles Leclerc damaged after the collision with Vettel.
With the advantage of starting from the first position, Lewis Hamilton quickly built a gap between him and the other racers. After 71 stable laps, Hamilton finished first with a 13.719-second lead over the second-place finisher. The battle for second place between Verstappen and Bottas then became the center of attention.
Mercedes drivers occupy the first two positions.
With a smarter pit strategy, Bottas gradually gained an advantage towards the end of the race. In the 67th lap, Bottas overtook Verstappen but quickly lost the position to the Red Bull driver. However, thanks to fresher tires, Bottas had no trouble overtaking Verstappen once again and securing the second position.
Realizing he couldn’t compete for second place with Bottas, Verstappen pitted on the 69th lap to change tires and chase the fastest lap. However, his efforts in the last two laps only earned him a strong third place behind Carlos Sainz from McLaren, who achieved it in the 68th lap.
Verstappen made great efforts but only managed to secure third place overall.
Max Verstappen finished in third place with a 33.698-second gap behind Hamilton. Right behind the Dutch driver was his teammate Albon from Thailand. Thus, Red Bull earned 27 points on their home turf in Race 2.
For McLaren, after an impressive debut in the first race, Norris and Sainz continued their efforts to earn an additional 13 points. Norris, the young driver, achieved a fifth-place finish in Race 2, adding 10 more points to his total after securing third place in the first race. In the overall standings, the British driver is behind the two Mercedes drivers with a total of 26 points.
With a first-place finish in Race 1 and a second-place finish in Race 2, Bottas remains at the top of the individual standings with 43 points. He is followed by his Mercedes teammate and reigning champion, Hamilton, with 37 points. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc dropped to fourth place with 18 points earned from Race 1.
After two consecutive races in Austria, the teams will quickly move to Hungary for Race 3, which will take place just one week later from July 17th to 19th. As a result, the first three races will occur within a span of three weeks.
Nguyen (Forum.autodaily.vn)
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