Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Von Österreich 2021 Preview

This weekend sees the F1 travel to Austria in the third of the sports triple header, having raced at France and Styria (Austria) back-to-back with the second of the Austrian races taking place at the Red Bull Ring, which locates in the state of Styria near Knittelfeld at Spielberg, which is a mountainous and forested location near the city of Graz.

The first race here this season saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominate the Grand Prix at his team’s home GP, beating Mercedes Lewis Hamilton by 35.7 seconds due to the Brit’s pitstop in order to get the fastest lap of the race to reduce the gap to Verstappen by one point. The Stevenage born driver currently trails the Dutchman by 18 points and runs the risk of going over a race worth of points behind the Driver’s Championship leader.

Valtteri Bottas put in a strong display to finish in third having qualified in fifth due to a grid penalty for spinning in the pitlane during practice as the Finn narrowly edged out Sergio Perez, whilst there were more impressive displays from McLaren’s Lando Norris, Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles LeClerc, as well as Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda in the Aston Martin, Alpine and AlphaTauri who all completed the top 10 in the race standings.

In qualifying last week Verstappen was on another level to the rest of the grid, with the 23-year-old being the only driver to post a time in the one minute and three seconds mark, with a time of 1:03.841 seconds, nearly two tenths quicker than Bottas and Hamilton in the Mercedes.

Norris showed good pace in the McLaren as he nearly matched Hamilton’s time, as did Perez who will be hoping to improve on his qualifying time this weekend having seen his teammate qualify in first place and having missed out on the podium by just over half a second last time out.

A driver who will be desperate to show better pace this weekend is McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who was able to deliver times of a similar level to his teammate Norris, but, could only go 13th fastest in Q2, leading to the Australian’s elimination. Esteban Ocon will also be under pressure to do better this time out in the Alpine, considering his teammate Alonso ninth on the grid compared to the Frenchman’s 17th.

Pole position: Verstappen – 2/5. 2. Hamilton – 3/1. 3. Bottas – 8/1. 4. Perez – 16/1.

This weekend’s race should be fairly predictable in terms of who finishes in the top four unless one of the McLaren’s can challenge as Norris did last weekend and when he managed his first podium in F1 in the previous Austrian GP last season.

If Mercedes are to stand any chance at all of beating Verstappen this weekend then they will likely have to either find the pace to outqualify the Red Bull man or overtake him at the start of the race and show good pace as well as a good strategy, as they were unable to get close to Verstappen last time out.

This track is one that has tended to suit Bottas down the years so in terms of the battle of the second drivers in these two teams, the Finn is likely to have the advantage over Perez who showed inconsistency in terms of pace at times last weekend, hence why he was just short of being able to overtake Bottas on the fresh medium tyres at the end of the GP.

1. Verstappen – 4/7. 2. Hamilton – 9/4. 3. Bottas – 10/1. 4. Perez – 12/1.

Other drivers to look out for will be the likes of Mclaren’s Norris as mentioned above. The 21-year-old Brit still remains as the only driver to score points in every single GP so far this season following his fifth-place finish at Spielberg last weekend, tallying 86 points in eight races this campaign, including two podiums at Imola and Monaco and will be looking to take the fight to the likes of Perez this weekend.

Norris’ teammate Ricciardo will be desperate to impress having finished in 13th place despite getting himself into a points scoring position last time out, but for power issues. The Australian isn’t expected to be on the podium as he was back in 2017 for Red Bull, but, he will be looking to at least be close to matching the pace of his in-form teammate Norris.

Former McLaren driver Sainz bounced back from a disappointing race in France to come out as sixth in the GP despite initially qualifying in 12th place behind the likes of George Russell in the Williams. Fellow Tifosi teammate LeClerc’s race was compromised by a collision with Pierre Gasly but battled away with an incredible drive to finish in seventh place having qualified there.

Red Bull’s sister team Alphatauri will also be desperate to impress once again in what is effectively their second home despite being an Italian team by trade. Gasly had good pace last time out in qualifying, starting sixth on the grid, but as mentioned above, a collision which saw LeClerc puncture the Frenchman’s tyre with his front wing and further contact at the top of the hill at turn two finished his race. Gasly will be hoping to further prove his pace once again this season and add to his impressive points tally of 37.

Yuki Tsunoda answered some critics last time out with a 10th placed finish, the Japanese driver actually qualified in eighth place, but following appeals from Bottas about the Japanese driver blocking his path in qualifying, the 21-year-old was given a three-place grid penalty and started in P11.

Alpine's Alonso who is a two time World Champion from 2005 and 2006 when they were formerly known as Renault also found good pace last weekend, having qualified ninth and finished in ninth in what has been a fairly underwhelming year for his team in terms of car development, nevertheless, the experienced Spaniard has still managed to score 14 points in his last three races doing so at Styria, France and Azerbaijan.

Finally, a driver which we’ll also give a shoutout to is Russell of Williams, the 23-year-old King’s Lynn born driver is one who we know the capabilities of a future world champion, but is yet to score a point in the sport with Williams due to a series of unfortunate events, hence for his nickname ‘MR Saturday’. He did finish in 9th at Sakhir last year for Mercedes in Hamilton’s absence where the German constructors botched pitstop denied the Brit what would’ve been a clear victory and he looks in line to take Bottas’ seat at the end of the season.