Kimi attacked to move up to second, but ran wide at turn 3 and then was hit from behind by a Red Bull to find
himself back in fourth. Seb also had to run wide to avoid an incident at the first corner and lost ground. But he
quickly retook Magnussen to go seventh, before dealing with Grosjean with a brilliant pass.
Both Ferraris picked up the pace a bit. On lap 12, Hulkenberg’s engine let go, spraying oil onto the track at
turn 1. Kimi set the fastest lap, under the 1m 9s mark. Two laps later, Bottas parked at the side of the track
and the Virtual Safety Car came out. The team therefore called in both cars and fitted the hardest tyre (the
Softs.) Red Bull covered the move, but Kimi managed to rejoin ahead of Ricciardo.
When the race restarted, Vettel overtook Magnussen again. The two SF70Hs were now third and fifth, but
Kimi locked up under braking and Ricciardo went past. Hamilton pitted on lap 25 and emerged between Kimi
and Seb. Verstappen now led, with his four pursuers covered by 4 seconds. Kimi, following Ricciardo and
Hamilton behind the Ferrari, could use DRS, for attacking and defending.
With half the race completed, Kimi could see from the cockpit that the left rear on Ricciardo’s Red Bull was
blistered. The remote garage back in Maranello was also on the case. Meanwhile, Seb was closing on
Hamilton in the DRS zone and so began the duels: Kimi attacked on the outside of the climb and then
passed Ricciardo who pitted. On lap 39, Seb passed Hamilton!
Ferrari were now second and third. It was time to look after the tyres. The gap between Seb and Lewis moved
like an elastic band, while ahead of them, Kimi seemed comfortable. On lap 53, Hamilton had to pit again,
this time swapping the Softs for Supersofts. He rejoined behind Ricciardo, but the Red Bull immediately
parked at the side of the track on the pit straight.
The Ferraris did not drop their pace with Kimi nibbling at the gap to Verstappen. With 7 laps remaining there
was more drama as Hamilton retired. Raikkonen upped his pace, setting the fastest lap on lap 66. It was not
enough to win, but it proved that “never give up” is more than a slogan.
Maurizio Arrivabene
”The real story today is that there are six Ferrari power units in the top ten on the race result sheet. And,
apart from that, we are leading both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships. Today’s result was not
ideal, but it is definitely useful. The team did a great job, at every level, to make up for a difficult Saturday.
During the race, the handling of the car, the perfect management of the tyres, the strategy and reliability, all
made the difference. On paper, next weekend at Silverstone looks difficult for us, partly because it’s a home
race for our main rivals. But we will tackle it with our usual level headedness and determination.”
Kimi Raikkonen
”At the start I had a good getaway, but I found myself between two cars and I had to lift off to avoid them
squeezing me, while I hoped they would see me. I lost momentum, speed and the chance to challenge them
in the first corner. It’s a pity, because without that, I think I could have been in the lead. The first lap was quite
hectic, then the situation calmed down for a while. Tyre management played a big part today: it was hard to
know when to go flat out and be on the safe side at the same time. The beginning of both stints was a bit
tricky; we struggled a bit to get the grip and to make the tyres work, but then it got better and in the end we
had very good tyre. We were obviously hoping to catch Max, but by then it was perhaps a bit too late. Today
we had the speed, but there just weren’t enough laps left in the race… Of course we wanted to win, we tried
very hard, giving our best, but it was not enough. The good thing is that, as a team, we did a solid job. It was
a strong weekend.”
Sebastian Vettel
“We did a good job and a good race. I had a very solid start, but in Turn 1 things got a bit messy. I tried to
recover, but there was no room and lost some positions in Turn 3. From them on, I had to fight with Renault
and Haas and lost some time. However, the car was very good, we had a very good pace and we didn’t have
any issues with the tyres; in fact, the car was very good on them, even if I had to manage the Softs for a long
stint, which again proves we have made good progress since Barcelona. Obviously, I am happy with the
points that we’ve got and the podium, but I am not satisfied 100 per cent, because I think there would have
been more up for grabs today, if I hadn’t got the penalty. We were the only cars that could be there with the
Mercedes in terms of pace, but in the end, we proved more consistent.”
Marcus Ericsson
"It was a great race. I felt good in the car, and had strong pace right from the start of the race. Our strategy
worked very well. We also had another fast pitstop from the mechanics and I am really proud of the crew. It is
a great result for the team to have both cars finish in the points today, especially after the difficult qualifying
yesterday. We can all be proud of how we bounced back. I am really happy for the team and myself. I look
forward to Silverstone, one of my favourite tracks."
Charles Leclerc
"It was an exciting day. After advancing quite a bit at the start, I fell back after a few laps and had a tough job
ahead of me to recover enough positions to score some points. There was a lot of action during the race, and
some good overtakes, so I really enjoyed driving today. It is great for the team that both cars finished in the
top 10. This is an extra boost of motivation for all of us ahead of the upcoming races, and I look forward to
seeing what they will have in store for us."
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal
"It was a very good race for us. Both our drivers made a great recovery after starting from quite far back on the
grid. To have two cars finish in the points today is an important achievement for the whole team, both at the
track and in the factory. This is another sign for us that we are moving in the right direction. We have to keep
our focus on continuing in this direction for the next few races to finish the first half of the season on a positive
note.” Lewis Hamilton
This is definitely the worst weekend that I can remember for a long time. Everyone in the team will be feeling
pain today, but we’v e got to take out the positives of the weekend. The car has been great all weekend, we
were quickest and we’ve had such great reliability for so many years. So as painful as it is, we have to take
the rough with the smooth. I have every confidence in my team that we will be able to bounce back. We can’t
throw away points, so we will have to find a bullet-proof method going forward. We will work on it and we will
try to re-evaluate and come back stronger.
Valtteri Bottas
The luck I’m having this year feels like a bit of a bad joke at the moment. My start was not ideal; I had quite a
bit of wheel spin and there was less grip than we expected, so I dropped a few places. Going into Turn 3, I
could recover two places and was back in second place. After that the car felt strong, we were running well,
but then I suddenly experienced a loss of hydraulic pressure. There was nothing I could have done to prevent
the DNF. We need to investigate and find the cause of the issues we had today, but I’m sure we will recover
from this result. I guess it was just not meant to be today – but one day it will be.
Toto Wolff
For me and for the team, this is the most painful day of the last six years – to lose a possible 1-2 finish in this
way, through our own mistakes and unreliability, just hurts so much. We had a spectacular first lap: a great
getaway for Lewis and Valtteri battling back into P2 under braking for Turn 4. For the first 13 laps, it looked
good, with both drivers in control and managing the pace well. The first blow was Valtteri’s retirement after
losing hydraulic pressure – this brought out the VSC. We decided to leave Lewis on track for one lap,
because we thought it would take longer to clear the car from its position, and be able to react what the cars
behind us did on the following lap. But the VSC cleared sooner than predicted; we simply made the wrong
decision. That left Lewis with an uphill battle – we pitted soon after racing resumed, put him on the soft tyre,
and he then had to try and make up the ground on track. In doing so, the rear tyres blistered, he lost position
to Sebastian, then we decided to pit again as there was nothing to lose from doing so – but, shortly after, a
loss of fuel pressure forced him to retire. A double retirement through reliability is hard to stomach but we
know from bitter experience that the difficult days are when we learn the most. We will pick ourselves up in
the next days, learn from our errors and go to Silverstone with our heads held high. It is a home race for the
many team members in Brackley and Brixworth; we will be aiming to come back strong and make amends for
our failures today.
Andrew Shovlin
We don’t have any excuses for today. We weren’t reliable enough, we didn’t make the right strategy call, our
starts weren’t good enough and we didn’t manage the tyres as well as we could have done. We have a lot to
improve by Silverstone and we need to put all our focus into remedying our weaknesses today. This is one of
the hardest days at the race track that we have faced as a team but it’s not the only difficult day that we have
ever had. We know how to fix problems and we’ve always returned stronger than before. We have a few days
to regroup and resolve these issues before Silverstone, where we will be looking to perform at the level we
know we are capable of.
Nico Hülkenberg
“Obviously it wasn’t a great afternoon for the team. I suffered a loss of power and then the car went up in
smoke and that was the end of our day. Carlos struggled as well, maybe because of the hotter temperatures
today, and that made tyres hard to keep under control with a lot of blistering. It was a tough and disappointing
afternoon, so we just refocus on Silverstone to make amends in a few days’ time.”
Carlos Sainz
“We had a lot of blistering on our tyres today and we need to investigate why. They degraded massively and a
problem in the second pit-stop didn’t helped either. We missed out on big points unfortunately. We have
another opportunity next weekend to bounce back, and there will be a lot of preparation work in the build-up
this week. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be up in the top ten again so I’m very positive for Silverstone."
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal
“Over the course of a 21 race calendar, there will always be good and bad weekends. This one is certainly in
the latter category. It was a very tough Austrian Grand Prix with a number of problems that we’ve had to face,
especially today. Nico’s retirement looks to be due to a turbo issue. We will have containment measures in
the very near future. It brought Nico’s race to a stop after a good start and he had been in the mix for what
turned out to be an eventful race. Carlos made a decent start and we thought we had made the right decision
stopping under the VSC. We were in the fight in the top ten when suddenly Carlos experienced massive
blistering from his tyres and we were left with no option but to serve an extra stop delayed by some damage
to his car. This degradation is something we hadn’t seen on Friday, and we weren’t the only team to suffer in
this manner today, probably due to very different climatic conditions. Our tough weekend was lightened by
Max Verstappen’s win, in front of so many of his and Red Bull’s fans. We must stay motivated and stay
focused. There will be plenty of opportunities to recover from today provided we react appropriately.”
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