Valtteri Bottas dominated the Austrian Grand Prix to take his second victory of the year ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.
Courtesy of his second place, Sebastian Vettel has extended his lead of the F1 world championship to 20 points after Lewis Hamilton was unable to pass Ricciardo for the final podium position in the closing stages of the Spielberg race.
It was a dramatic beginning to the race. As Bottas made a getaway so good the stewards’ investigated a potential jump start
After Bottas beat Vettel to pole position by less than a tenth of a second, less than a second separated
their two cars when they crossed the finishing line.
Bottas had survived a lengthy investigation from the stewards over an alleged jump start.
A largely soporific race came alive in the closing laps as Vettel closed on Bottas for the lead and Hamilton did the same to Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo for the final podium place, but the Finn and the Australian both just hung on In their positions.
Kimi Raikkonen took a distant fifth in the second Ferrari, with Romain Grosjean an excellent sixth for Haas. The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were seventh and eighth, while Williams staged an impressive recovery with Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll – who started 17th and 18th respectively – completing the top ten.
Hamilton started eighth the Austrian GP after a poor qualifying performance and a five-place grid penalty, who had sounded increasingly frustrated during the race, went side-by-side with Ricciardo through Turn Three on the penultimate lap but was unable to make the move stick and prevent Ricciardo from claiming his fifth podium finish in as many races.The Mercedes driver will be keen to start eating into Vettel's advantage at the British Grand Prix next
weekend.
In stark contrast, Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen only made it to the first corner before a collision with Fernando Alonso's McLaren, triggered by Daniil Kvyat, condemned the Dutch youngster to his fifth retirement in the last seven events.
Other retirements were Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, both with technical issues.
Great race, fantastic overall pace. Praise the mental strength of Bottas
Its amazing how Vettel is leading the championship not driving the fastest car. Mercedes are definitely still the fastest cars.
Full Austrian Grand Prix race results following Round 9 of the 2017 World Championship at the Red Bull Ring.
1. Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes - Mercedes 71 laps, 1m 21m 48.527s
2. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari - Ferrari +0.658s
3. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull - TAG +6.012s
4. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes - Mercedes +7.430s
5. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari - Ferrari +20.370s
6. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari +1m 13.160s
7. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
8. Esteban Ocon FRA Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
9. Felipe Massa BRA Williams - Mercedes +1 lap
10. Lance Stroll CAN Williams - Mercedes +1 lap
11. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault - Renault +1 lap
12. Stoffel Vandoorne BEL McLaren-Honda +1 lap
13. Nico Hulkenberg GER Renault - Renault +1 lap
14. Pascal Wehrlein GER Sauber - Ferrari +1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber - Ferrari +2 laps
16. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Renault +3 laps
Did not finish
Carlos Sainz ESP Toro Rosso-Renault 44 laps completed
Kevin Magnussen DEN Haas-Ferrari 29 laps completed
Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1 lap completed
Max Verstappen NED Red Bull - TAG 0 laps completed.
Driver Standings Top 5
1. Sebastian Vettel GER. FERRARI (171)
2. Lewis Hamilton GBR. MERCEDES (151)
3. Valtteri Bottas FIN . MERCEDES (136)
4. Daniel Ricciardo AUS. FERRARI (107)
5. Kimi Räikkönen FIN. RED BULL (83)
The next race is the 2017 FORMULA 1 ROLEX BRITISH GRAND PRIX Silverstone, Fri 14 Jul – Sun 16 Jul 2017