| 2020 Austrian Grand Prix | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 1 of 17[a] in the2020 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of the Red Bull Ring | ||||
| Race details[2] | ||||
| Date | 5 July 2020 | |||
| Official name | Formula 1 RolexGroßer Preis von Österreich 2020 | |||
| Location | Red Bull Ring Spielberg,Styria, Austria | |||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | |||
| Course length | 4.318 km (2.683 miles) | |||
| Distance | 71 laps, 306.452 km (190.420 miles) | |||
| Weather | Sunny | |||
| Attendance | 0[b] | |||
| Pole position | ||||
| Driver | Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:02.939 | |||
| Fastest lap | ||||
| Driver |  Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | ||
| Time | 1:07.475 on lap 71 | |||
| Podium | ||||
| First | Mercedes | |||
| Second | Ferrari | |||
| Third | McLaren-Renault | |||
Lap leaders | ||||
The2020 Austrian Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Rolex Großer Preis von Österreich 2020) was aFormula Onemotor race that was held on 5 July 2020 at theRed Bull Ring inSpielberg,Austria. The race was the opening round of the2020 Formula One World Championship, and the 34th running of theAustrian Grand Prix (the 33rd as part of the World Championship since1950) as well as the first of two consecutive races held at the Red Bull Ring, with the2020 Styrian Grand Prix taking place the week after.[4]
Lewis Hamilton entered the round as the defendingWorld Drivers' Champion and his team,Mercedes as the defendingWorld Constructors' Champion.Max Verstappen was the defending race winner, having won the2018 and2019 Austrian Grands Prix.[5][6] The race was won by Mercedes driverValtteri Bottas withCharles Leclerc in second forFerrari andLando Norris finishing third forMcLaren – his first podium in Formula One. Norris became the 3rd youngest driver to achieve a podium, which has since been surpassed byAndrea Kimi Antonelli at the2025 Canadian Grand Prix.
The originally scheduled calendar for the2020 championship was heavily affected by theCOVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the plannedopening round inAustralia was called off two days before the race was due to take place; prompting theFIA to draft a new calendar. The start of the championship was delayed until 5 July, with theRed Bull Ring hosting theAustrian Grand Prix as the opening round of the championship. Organisers of the race signed a contract to host a second round at the circuit on 12 July which was known as theStyrian Grand Prix.[7] The back-to-back Austrian races would mark the first time that a country hosted back-to-back races in the same season since1995 when Japan hosted thePacific andJapanese Grands Prix.[c] This would also mark the first time in the sport's history that the same venue and circuit layout would have hosted back-to-back World Championship races and the first time that a Formula One race weekend was heldbehind closed doors.[8]
Twenty drivers representing ten teams entered the race.[9]Scuderia AlphaTauri made their debut as a constructor, having previously competed under the nameScuderia Toro Rosso from 2006 to 2019.[10]Esteban Ocon made a return to the championship withRenault, replacing the departingNico Hülkenberg after being out of the sport since the end of the2018 season.[11]Nicholas Latifi made his competitive debut withWilliams, replacingRobert Kubica who only raced for one season with Williams after returning to F1 following a serious rally crash in 2011.[12][13]
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Mercedes changed their livery to black instead of their traditionalsilver for the 2020 season. This was in support for the ongoingBlack Lives Matter movement and a commitment to diversity and ending racism.[15] Formula One launched a "We Race as One" initiative which focused on fighting the challenges of COVID-19 and global inequality. Rainbows would be displayed across the circuit and team liveries to show appreciation to key workers and individuals affected by the COVID-19 outbreak as well as being a gesture to bringing communities together.[16]McLaren announced an updated livery for the 2020 season featuring a rainbow on thehalo, rainbow colours on the sidepod and "End Racism" messaging.[17]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C2, C3 and C4 (designated hard, medium and soft respectively) compounds of tyres for teams to use at the event.[18] These are the second, third, and fourth hardest compounds available of the five Pirelli produce. In recognition of the need to cut costs and to give Pirelli achievable targets due to the congested calendar, all drivers received identical tyre allocations getting two sets of hards, three sets of mediums and eight sets of softs.[19]
Three practice sessions were held before the race; the first two sessions were held on Friday morning at 11:00-12:30 and 15:00-16:30 local time, respectively. The third practice session was held on Saturday morning at 12:00-13:00.[20] The first session started with showers for 30 minutes, a few laps were set on the intermediate tyre before moving onto dry tyres.[21]Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the session with a 1:04.816 on soft tyres, more than three-tenths of a second quicker than teammateValtteri Bottas.[21] Hamilton also topped the drier second practice session with a time of a 1:04.304 with Bottas trailing by 0.197s.[22] The third practice session was much warmer than the previous sessions with track temperatures reaching as high as 49 °C (120 °F) compared to the peak track temperature of 36 °C (97 °F) from the day before.[23]: 125 The session also saw the first crash of the season whenNicholas Latifi hit the barriers at turn 1 just after 45 minutes.[24] Hamilton topped the session by posting a time of 1:04.130, 0.147s ahead of Bottas.[25]
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The qualifying session was held on Saturday afternoon after the third practice session and was split into three parts. The first part (Q1) ran for 18 minutes, at the end of this period the five slowest cars were eliminated. During Q1, the107% rule was in place, which required all drivers to set a time within 107% of the quickest Q1 time, in order to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying (Q2) ran for 15 minutes, after which the five slowest cars were eliminated. The third and final part of qualifying (Q3) ran for 12 minutes, after which the ten remaining cars had their grid positions set. The fastest driver of Q3 obtainedpole position.[26]
Bottas clinched pole position ahead of teammate Hamilton, despite going onto the grass on his last Q3 attempt.[27]Max Verstappen finished third in hisRed Bull RB16, half a second behind the Mercedes pair.[28]Lando Norris qualified a career best fourth in his McLaren ahead of Verstappen's Red Bull teammateAlexander Albon in fifth, withSergio Pérez of Racing Point in sixth.[27] Ferrari struggled in the session withCharles Leclerc only qualifying in seventh place, nearly one second off pole position, while his teammateSebastian Vettel finished in 11th place, failing to make it into Q3. The rest of the top ten was rounded out byCarlos Sainz in eighth for McLaren,Lance Stroll in ninth for Racing Point andDaniel Ricciardo in tenth for Renault.[28]
Earlier, in Q1, theAlfa Romeo Racing team saw both their drivers eliminated withAntonio Giovinazzi and teammateKimi Räikkönen qualifying in 18th and 19th places respectively, behind theWilliams ofGeorge Russell and only ahead of the other Williams car ofNicholas Latifi who qualified last.[29][28]
Following Qualifying, Hamilton was summoned to the stewards under allegations that he did not slow down for theyellow flags shown when Bottas went off the track on his final Q3 run.[30] He stated that he did not see any yellow flags and was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing by the stewards as "conflicting signals were shown to the driver".[31] However, prior to the race, Red Bull challenged the decision not to award Hamilton a penalty. The stewards reopened the case and decided that Hamilton had ignored yellow flags following new footage from the 360-degree onboard camera; He was then given a 3-place grid penalty for the race.[32]
The opening lap proceeded without incident, with the only change in position amongst the top ten beingSebastian Vettel claiming tenth place fromDaniel Ricciardo.[23]: 118 McLaren'sLando Norris, running in third place, was overtaken byAlexander Albon on lap three and then byLewis Hamilton soon after.[34] Hamilton later entered the podium positions by passing Albon on lap nine.[23]: 118
The first incident of the race came on lap eleven when theRed Bull ofMax Verstappen, running in second place, began to slow with a suspected electrical issue. He was able to return to the pits where his mechanics attempted to correct the problem. This was unsuccessful and he was forced to retire from the race.[35] The ninth-placedRacing Point ofLance Stroll began to suffer power loss on lap 17, allowing Vettel and Ricciardo to close in.[34] Ricciardo was soon forced to pull into the pits and retire with suspected overheating issues.[23]: 118 On lap 21, Stroll entered the pits and retired from the race, having fallen behind Vettel and the twoAlphaTauris.[34] At the same time, 16th-placedRomain Grosjean spun onto the gravel at turn three. He dropped to the back of the field but was able to continue, entering the pits at the end of the lap to become the first driver to change tyres.[23]: 121
On lap 25, 11th-placedKevin Magnussen went straight on at turn two having suffered a brake failure, bringing out the firstsafety car of the race.[36] All cars still remaining, except Grosjean, entered into the pits for their first tyre changes.[23]: 121 The order of the top ten after the first round of pit stops wasValtteri Bottas, Hamilton, Albon, Norris,Sergio Pérez,Charles Leclerc,Carlos Sainz Jr, Vettel,Pierre Gasly andDaniil Kvyat.[34] The safety car period ended on lap 31. At the restart, Vettel attempted an overtake on the inside of Sainz Jr. at turn two. The cars made contact and Vettel'sFerrari was pitched into a spin, dropping him to 15th place. On lap 33 Pérez made it past Norris to take fourth place.[34]
BothMercedes drivers, running first and second, were warned by their engineers to avoid driving over the kerbs. It emerged that the vibrations were damaging the cars' gearboxes, and it was feared this would cause a failure leading to immediate retirement.[37] Running 15th, Grosjean suffered a brake failure on lap 50, but was able to make it to the pits to retire.[36] At the same time, 13th-placedGeorge Russell lost fuel pressure and pulled onto the grass on the inside of turn four, deploying the second safety car of the race.[34] Eight of the fourteen remaining drivers elected to pit for a second tyre change, including Albon who changed to soft-compound tyres, whilst the leading Mercedes cars stayed out on their hard-compound tyres.[23]: 121 [34] The order of the top ten was now Bottas, Hamilton, Pérez, Albon, Norris, Leclerc, Gasly,Esteban Ocon, Sainz andAntonio Giovinazzi.[34]
Racing resumed on lap 55. However, almost immediately after the restart, the right-front wheel ofKimi Räikkönen'sAlfa Romeo detached from the car as it was cross-threaded during his pitstop, he was forced to stop on the pit straight, bringing out a third safety car.[23]: 121 Shortly prior to the safety car deployment, Albon had passed Pérez for third place. Racing resumed on lap 61. Shortly after the restart, Albon attempted an overtake on Hamilton for second place around the outside of turn three. Hamilton's front left wheel was caught in front of Albon's rear right, causing Albon to spin into the gravel. He was able to continue but returned to the track last of the running cars in 13th place.[34] Shortly afterwards, Sainz passed both Ocon and Gasly to take sixth place.[23]: 121
Fifth-placed Leclerc began to move towards the front, overtaking Norris on lap 64 and then Pérez on lap 65 to take third place.[34] On the next lap, Hamilton received a five-second time penalty, having been judged by the stewards to have caused the earlier collision with Albon. Pérez then received the same penalty for having sped in the pit lane.[34] On lap 68, Albon pulled over at turn six with an electrical failure and Norris passed Pérez for fourth place at turn two.[23]: 122 [34] On the penultimate lap, eleventh-placed Kvyat suffered a rear puncture which damaged his suspension and had to retire, making him the ninth retirement of the race.[38] Sainz then passed Pérez for fifth place on the final lap.[23]: 122
Bottas crossed the line, having led every lap of the race, to take the eighth win of his Formula One career and his second win at theAustrian Grand Prix, having won the2017 edition. Hamilton finished second on track and Leclerc crossing the line in third. On the final lap, a late push from Norris set thefastest lap of the race and reduced his gap to Hamilton to 4.8 seconds. This meant that Hamilton's 5-second penalty dropped him to fourth, promoting Leclerc and Norris to second and third respectively. Sainz finished fifth and Pérez's sixth-place finish was unaffected by his time penalty. Gasly took points for AlphaTauri with seventh place on the team's first race since their rebranding, and Ocon finished eighth on his return to the sport after a year out. Giovinazzi and Vettel rounded out the points positions, with debutantNicholas Latifi being the only driver to finish the race outside the points in eleventh place.[39]
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