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.