[Hungarian GP] Mercedes Dominate Qualifying, As Hamilton Takes Second Pole Of The Season

Mercedes dominate the Qualify with a 1-2 and pink panthers who have a Mercedes engine and a Mercedes inspired car take P3 and P4. Williams for the first time since 2018 have both cars in Q2.

[Styrian GP] Hamilton takes an easy win as Mercedes take 1-2

Lewis Hamilton took a dominant win, as he cruised to victory. Through the entire race, he was not bothered once and fully was in control of race up until the finish line. Max Verstappen was the only driver who was about a touching distance to Hamilton, but then eventually lost P2 to Bottas.

Hamilton Puts On A Masterclass As He Takes Pole By 1.2 Seconds In The Rain

Photo by Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Bottas Takes Victory As Norris Claims His Maiden Victory

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Bottas took victory in an action-packed race at the Redbull Ring while Lando Norris became the 3rd youngest driver to take an F1 podium.

As the lights went out at the Redbull Ring and as cars dashed down to Turn1, Bottas had got a good getaway and went on to lead the pack. Max Verstappen who started P2 alongside Bottas due to Hamilton's penalty soon had the McLaren of Lando Norris for company and right behind them were the pair of Albon and Hamilton.

Everybody made through lap1 incident-free while at the front Lewis was challenging Albon to take P4, Bottas at the front started to pull away from the pack and started building up quite a lead. A bit down the order Leclerc, Sainz, and Perez were fighting it out for P6. 

As the laps went by Max who was being hunted down, had his tyre come up to the right temperatures and started coming alive, he maintained a decent gap to Bottas and kept him in his sight, out of the blue tragedy struck the Redbull driver on the Lap 11 as his car lost power and he was strutting around the track dropping down the places. He bought his car back into the pits to try and sort the issue but was unable to get going and had to retire.

Hamilton who now had some clear track in front of him and a just over 7s behind Bottas started putting in pretty fast laps he was closing down on Bottas quickly. 

Meanwhile down the midfield, there were quite a few battles going, Vettel and Ricciardo closed onto Lance Stroll who was trying to manage some engine issues. Soon Ricciardo and Stroll had to retire their car with Mechanical problems which now gave an opportunity for AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo to make it into the points.

 As lap 26 started, Magnessun and Ocon were battling for P12 when the Hass driver had a brake failure. This triggered the first safety car of the race and all the cars had pitted for some fresh rubber. Most cars put on a set of Hards while Perez put on a set of medium hoping to gain an advantage in the 3rd placed Albon after the race restart. 

As the race resumed on lap 31 we were treated to a familiar scene of Sebastian Vettel spinning around in his Ferrari as he locked his front right and tangled with Carlos Sainz at Turn 2. Vettel recovered from the spin to find himself at the back of the pack. 

As the laps progressed, Mercedes were warned to keep their cars off the Kerbs and they seemed to settle into 1-2 positions. On Lap 51 Geroge Russel who was driving brilliantly defending the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel found himself having troubles with this engine and had to retire. Russel's retirement triggered another safety car. 

As the safety car came out, the Mercedes pair decided to stay out and Perez who was P4 stayed out on his medium to gain track position. Albon was promptly called into the pits and fitted a pair of Softs. The rest of the pack mostly pitted to put on a set of mediums for the rest of the race.

As the race resumed once again Albon dispatched Perez promptly into turn 2, but another safety car triggered by Raikkonen's loose wheel allowed the Perez to make a pass back on Albon who was slowing down. However, Perez Yielded the position back to Albon before the race resumed again.

 

 Albon on the soft was looking pretty racy and had a chance of winning the race with both Mercedes having to turn down their engines and were on used hard tyres. Going into Turn 3 Albon placed his car on the outside of Hamilton's and just when about to complete the pass his rear tyre came in contact with Hamilton's car and pushing him into the gravel trap, once again a reminisce of the Brazil 2019 GP.

Hamilton was now handed a 5s time penalty which now gave an opportunity to the Perez, Leclerc, Norris, and Sainz a chance at the podium. Leclerc dispatched Perez and put himself into a net P2. Norris made a brave pass on the inside of Perez to come into touching distance of a podium.  Perez's hopes of any podium quickly vanished as he was handed over a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

As the race was coming to an end, Norris was in a touching distance of a podium and had to put in a superb lap and which he did. In the last lap, Norris put in the fastest lap of the race to be with 5 seconds of Hamilton and earned himself a maiden podium.

Bottas took Victory as Leclerc inherited p2, with Norris on P3, and Hamilton with Penalty took P4. Sainz passed Perez for P5 on the last lap although it was not necessary with Perez's penality who took P6. The rest of the pack took advantage of the retirements to score some valuable points.

Gasly who drove a decent faultless race took P7, Ocon taking his first points for Renault at P8, Giovannazi taking P9, and Vettel taking the last of the points finishing place at P10.

Latifi was the last car across the finish line at P11 with Kvyat having a puncture a few laps earlier.

Austrian GP Qualifying 2020 - Bottas Takes Pole As Mercedes Dominate Qualifying

Will there a 2020 Championship? As Covid-19 Effects Catch's Up With The World's Fastest Racing Series

Image by wendy1704 from Pixabay 

             There is no running away from the effects of Covid-19 as Formula 1 makes a last hour decision to call of Australian Grand Prix. Shortly after the announcement of Aus GP being cancelled, Bahrain and Vietnam's Grand Prix have been called of. The record breaking 22 race F1 calendar year has now been reduced to 18 races while other European races hang in doubt as WHO announces Europe as the epicenter of Covid-19 Corona virus. Honestly, the chances of the European races being held seem very bleak with Italy and Spain announcing a lock-down. The realistic season stater could be the Monaco Grand Prix scheduled to start on May 21st. Apart from the Canadian Grand Prix on Jun 12, all the other European races may be held subject to a decrease of Covid-19.

Since 1950's the least number races held for Formula 1 is "7", which means the minimum number for a championship to be held could be 7 races. However the question remains will teams risk their personal and drivers to hold these races? Currently with no known treatment for corona virus, and it continuing to spread like a wildfire its difficult to hold there races. Even if these races are held how many of the fans will turn up? With fears of Corona virus spreading and F1 restricting access to the teams and drives the number could be far less.

A New Opportunity?

With lockdowns in place there is a surge in Internet traffic, the question is can Formula 1 make use of it? If the races are held, my opnion is that they should make it free to air or stream the race on Youtube. With the surge of internet activity Formula 1 may be able to win back some of its falling viewership numbers

Will 2021 Championship be affected as well?

With huge regulation changes for the upcoming 2021 season there is zero doubt that teams have already started working on the 2021 car, but with recent developments of Covid-19 there will be a certain impact on  2021 development work.
Will teams be prepared for the 2021 Championship? Will Covid-19 die down before start of next season? These are questions that will be answered in due course of time.

Will Lewis Hamilton Reach 91 Wins in 2020?

91 Wins - The number of wins by Micheal Schumacer, highest any driver has. Lewis Hamilton is a close second with 84 wins, just 7 shy of the record.

The good and the greats are generally differentiated with very few traits, its those traits that make certain drivers great. A traits that I consider is most important and one that differentiates the good and the greats is "CONSISTENCY".  The ability to consistently perform at a very high level throughout the season is what takes to win grand Prix and ultimately a formula one championship.

So, the question is can Hamilton reach 91 wins this year? My Opinion: Yes he will, but not easily.
 Hamilton needs 7 wins this year to achieve the record but its not as easy a target as his previous years. Though Hamilton has averaged around 10 wins a year, he generally had just one or two (mostly Ferrari) competitors that fought him for the wins. This year its a bit different, he has to fend of Max Vestappen in a seemingly quick Redbull car, Charles Leclerc who will want to repay the trust shown him by Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel who wants to come back strong this year to prove himself and finally the improving Valterri Bottas.
If Lewis Hamilton can keep up his consistency of delivery results week in week out like he generally does, more often than not he should find himself on the top step of the podium. Mercedes, a consistent, highly motivated and a top team paired with Lewis Hamilton has been a dominant force and this is what makes me believe that he will match or surpass Micheal Schumacer's record of 91 wins.


Hamilton's wins during the hybrid era: