STYRIAN GRAND PRIX 2021

Original dates: June 25 - 27, 2021 Track: Red Bull Ring

Free Practice 1

• Sainz slides on the pit straight and ends up backwards on the pit exit but no damage, just mechanical forced neutral or something and Bottas has to wait coming out of the pits

• A lot of spins but no damage

• Planning for rain this afternoon in FP2

• Kubica in for Kimi this session

Free Practice 2

• Latifi has a huge spin but doesn’t put it in the wall

• Mazepin in the gravel

• Gasly not out in this session at all because the team is investigating a sensor issue

• Bottas spins in the pit lane and manages not to hit anyone or anything somehow and they turn him around and he goes out again

Free Practice 3

• ohhhhh Bottas was given a three place grid penalty for that pit lane spin, that’s ridiculous

• Mazepin spins

• Lots of lap times deleted for track limits

• Max gets on the radio and says Hamilton is always in the way every time and it’s so true

• Red Bull’s first pole at their home circuit

Qualifying

• A lot of track evolution so exciting at the end to see who will make it into Q1

• out in Q1: Latifi, Ocon, Kimi, Lil Schumacher, Mazepin

• Out in Q2: Russell, Sainz, Ricciardo, Vettel and Gio

• The end of Q2 is especially tough because Norris, Daniel’s teammate, places second and Daniel is out near the back

• George Russell ALMOST got into Q3! Taken away at the last second

• Max on pole!! Bot in second but he will take that three place grid penalty and then Hamilton in third but will be second and then Lando

Race

• Bot starting with his grid penalty so he is relegated down from 2nd

• Yuki got a penalty for blocking Bottas in qualifying so he starts lower and that means George Russell starts from 10th even though he only qualified 11th

• Yuki Gio and Latifi have chaos in the back during the first lap

• Max keeps the lead after the first lap!!

• Charles has a damaged from wing and Gasly has a puncture after the first lap and Charles has to pit right away.

• Turns out Gasly hit Gio after the damage to hit tire from the first turn so then Gasly has even more damage and then he takes his car into the pit looking completely mangled and finally Gasly has to retire almost right away

• It was a wild first lap for Gasly and Charles

• Charles is still able to stay in the race only he has to pit right away so he is now down in the back after starting seventh

• Lando in third allows Perez and Bottas by which is the McLaren team’s plan to let the top two teams squabble amongst themselves without involving Lando who is mainly competing against Ferrari

• George Russell comes in for a pit stop and then it’s a super slow stop to fix a side pod issue and it’s even worse watching it because George was up in the points in 8th when this technical problem arose and now he’s down in 18 and he has to pit again immediately

• Perez has a slow stop! Noooo!!

• Because of Perez’s slow stop, Bottas pits again right away and is able to jump Perez in the pits

• 39/40 Ah NOO George Russell retires after doing a great race but the issue just was not fixable

• Slow end of the race mostly

• Perez almost catches Bottas for third on the last lap but is just out of time

• MAX WINS!!! Yayyyy! It’s the fourth race in a row Mercedes is winless!!

• So they’re doing this new driver of the day interview over the radio which I saw for the first time after last race in France and this week it’s Charles who raced his way through the field TWICE this race and finished servent! And when they talk to Charles he is surprisingly verbose and has a lot to say despite driving so much