AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX (#2)

Officially referred to as the Styrian Grand Prix, it was F1's second weekend in a row at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.Which, for me, means it was the Austrian Grand Prix #2.

Last weekend's race was total chaos. The race this weekend was less insane, but was still exciting, and the weekend was invigorated by a stormy Saturday which put question marks next to what would go down on Sunday race day.

Ultimately, there were only three retirements as opposed to last weekend's nine retirements (!) by the end of the race. Penalties kept cropping up, most notably for Lando passing under a safety car during practice, and then Charles impeding Kvyat during qualifying, which I didn't see.

I couldn't watch qualifying like normal due to technology problems, but after seeing the race, I think I got the gist of it. It was probably exciting, like any rainy session, but the way that the cars have been gridding up has got me feeling even more like we're in The Twilight Zone.

After the race, I was strangely despondent. It was an exciting race which I'd watch again, but the Ferrari double retirement early in the race had me sort of checked out since the team has been in utter shambles.

Here are my notes from the weekend.

FP1

• Kubica is in this practice session for Gio

• Jack Aitkin is in for George Russell this session

• CHRISTIAN Horner confirmed that Seb will definitely not be at Red Bull next year oooooooo

• They added two more races to the 2020 season

• Latifi’s car blew and he parked it near a opening so they virtual safety car but then they threw a red flag because they panicked and couldn’t get the car through the hole and it happened right as Alex Albon was going out of the garage so they had to push him back

• they found the footage of last weekend when the wheel nut fell off Kimi’s wheel

FP2

• Lando gets a penalty for passing an Alpha Tauri under a yellow flag but I don’t know if it was in the race or the practice session. Later they said it was in FP1 when Latifi had his problem and it’s a 3 grid penalty

• Daniel has a big impact slide into the tire barrier and it calls the medical car and when he got out the car he was limping and they red flagged the session to clear the car away.

• Talking about how Seb called the car undriveable after last weekend

• Lance Stroll has had so many times deleted for track limits

• Still waiting to hear if Daniel is okay

• Alex Albon has a scary spin across the track but no damage

• Daniel is okay to race but he’s just got soreness / bruises

• Gasly is yelling over the radio because he’s mad that Kvyat is getting a toe behind him and Gasly wants the toe

• Alex spins into the gravel during his quali sim lap

FP3

• cancelled for rain

Qualifying

• went ahead but it didn’t play on our TV because it was delayed and so they didn’t have a time slot for it and my F1 TV subscription still wouldn’t let me play the qualifying replay because the site wasn’t recognizing that I had a subscription. But it was only for that one video of the Styria GP Qualifying

Race

• Charles went down the inside of Seb in a busy corner and it pushed Charles over a curb and the car jumped up and took off Seb’s back wing

• Both Ferrari’s into the pits, Charles gets tires and goes back out and Seb has to retire

• Safety car to clean up Ferrari debris

• Then Charles retires too

• It’s a shame for Ferrari because they needed this race to see if their “upgrades” work

• Daniel passes Ocon after Ocon made it difficult and held both Renault’s up

• Ocon retires because of a cooling issue

• Sainz has a 7 second stop because a back wheel won’t come off

• Red Bull is having lightning fast stops today

• Bottas had longer tire life so he caught Max in second by the end and Max gave him a good fight but he has to let him pass

• Good battles by Perez passing everybody today and almost snagging fourth place, but Lando took it at the last minute

• Great last lap action. Lando passes Perez and Stroll, while both Racing Points and Daniel's Renault go over the line together

• Hamilton in first, Bottas in second, Max in third.

Post-Race

• These podium antics are getting way beyond ridiculous. There was a smoke machine that the three podium people had to walk through and Max walked through it like it wasn't even there. But the most hilarious part was the mobile trophy carts which approached each person individually.