The Styrian hills will be alive with the sound of hybrid horsepower, for the eighth round of the 2015 Formula One world championship.
Join me for live race updates from around 9:30pm AEST.
The 4.3 kilometre Red Bull Ring (formerly known as the A1 Ring) will see a total of 71 laps contested, in its second year on the calendar after its revival by the energy drinks giant.
Mercedes AMG’s Lewis Hamilton head into the Austrian Grand Prix as the favourite, following his seamless waltz to victory last time out in Canada, elevating his tally of wins for the season to four.
He also claimed pole position in a fairly anti-climactic qualifying last night, which
saw him repeat his spin at Turn 1 from the previous year on his final flying lap.
More dumbfounding though was his teammate Nico Rosberg’s brake lock into Turn 8 too on his final lap, which arguably cost him the pole.
Nevertheless with Mercedes AMG locking out the front-row, it will once again be an affair between the Silver Arrows.
Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel showed positive pace on the Friday and again during the third practice session on the Saturday prior to the rain, however it remains to be seen how that translates into the race.
If that pace is anything to go by, the four-time world champion has the chance to split the leading cars.
Pirelli for the third race running have brought the soft and super-soft compounds to the event, indicating that we may be in for a one-stop affair come the race – certainly this seems the case by extended runs conducted on the super-soft tyre.
This being the home race for the Red Bull organisation, it is already evident that it will be a tough race to negotiate. Both the Red Bull Racing drivers including Aussie
Daniel Ricciardo have penalties to contend with, following the changes made to their respective power-units.
The only glimmer of hope for the energy drinks giant and the disillusioned Dietrich Mateschitz appears to be Max Verstappen – who qualified his Toro Rosso seventh.
But again, it’ll be a tough affair for the Renault and Honda powered chassis’ considering the power deficiency.
Look towards the Mercedes-Benz powered Williams’, Lotus’ and Force Indias to potentially fill out the top ten.
Join me on The Roar at 9:30pm AEST for a further preview ahead of the race, before the Austrian Grand Prix kicks into gear.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Anyway, thank you all for joining me this evening on The Roar for the Austrian Grand Prix live blog. It was an absolute pleasure to call the race for you guys. The Roar will return in a fortnight's time for the British Grand Prix; a race that Hamilton will certainly eye redemption. Good night.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
It will be interesting to see how this investigation into the first lap incident pans out. Alonso in his interview with Sky Sports F1 claims that after his good start, 'Kimi lost control of the car on the exit of Turn 2'. So judging from what the McLaren driver has said, it seems as if Räikkönen had unintentionally rounded up Alonso after losing traction in his Ferrari. Despite the severity of the crash, it should be passed off as a racing incident - any penalty on Räikkönen would be pretty harsh.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
-------- DRIVERS' -------- 169 - Lewis Hamilton 159 - Nico Rosberg 120 - Sebastian Vettel 72 -- Kimi Räikkönen 67 -- Valtteri Bottas 62 -- Felipe Massa 36 -- Daniel Ricciardo 19 -- Daniil Kvyat 18 -- Nico Hulkenberg 17 -- Romain Grosjean 16 -- Felipe Nasr 13 -- Sergio Perez 12 -- Pastor Maldonado 10 -- Max Verstappen 9 --- Carlos Sainz 5 --- Marcus Ericsson 4 --- Jenson Button 0 --- Roberto Merhi 0 --- Will Stevens 0 --- Fernando Alonso
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
----- CONSTRUCTORS' ----- 328 - Mercedes AMG 192 - Scuderia Ferrari 129 - Williams Mercedes 55 -- Red Bull Racing 31 -- Force India Mercedes 29 -- Lotus Mercedes 21 -- Sauber Ferrari 19 -- Scuderia Toro Rosso 4 --- McLaren Honda 0 --- Manor Ferrari
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Before concluding this evening's proceedings, I will endeavour to deliver the championship standings to you, as soon as they are updated. But it can be said that Rosberg has cut Hamilton's lead in the standings to just 10 points. Williams with their third and fifth place finishes would have also gained a chunk of points on Ferrari in the constructors' standings too. Considering Räikkönen was a non-finisher with his first lap crash.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
A shout out also to Ricciardo for in the end claiming one championship point in what was a pretty torrid weekend for the Red Bull camp. It is outstanding though that young Verstappen was the top driver in the Red Bull family with his eighth place. With all the action on track today, this was far from a processional race! And I hope there is some agreement on that. Congratulations to Massa too on claiming his first podium of the season. That's two races in a row that Williams have taken the podium and that's two races in a row that Ferrari have had troubles that have cost them the podium.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
PODIUM INTERVIEWS: No holding back there on choice of words by the interviewer and former driver Gerhard Berger! ROSBERG - "Happy to see the gap open up to Lewis. Perfect day today." HAMILTON - "I had a bad start, but I was pushing as much as I could." MASSA - "Fantastic race today. I just managed to keep the line to stay ahead."
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
The results then following the 71 lap Austrian Grand Prix. Podium interviews will follow. 1 N. Rosberg 2 L. Hamilton 3 F. Massa 4 S. Vettel 5 V. Bottas 6 N. Hulkenberg 7 P. Maldonado 8 M. Verstappen 9 S. Perez 10 D. Ricciardo 11 F. Nasr 12 D. Kvyat 13 M. Ericsson 14 R. Merhi RET R. Grosjean RET C. Sainz RET J. Button RET W. Stevens RET K. Räikkönen RET F. Alonso
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 71/71: IT'S NICO ROSBERG who redeems his qualifying blue to claim victory at the Austrian Grand Prix! That's back-to-back wins for Rosberg at the Red Bull Ring. Lewis Hamilton will hold on to finish second and his advantage over third place means his penalty is void. And what about Felipe Massa? He holds on to complete the podium then after fighting admirably against Sebastian Vettel.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 70/71: Maldonado spectacularly has a moment on the pit-straight as he tries to get past Verstappen! The Lotus takes the position from the Toro Rosso as Verstappen's tyres seem to be going away from him.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 69/71: Massa; the ex-Ferrari driver is doing a great job to hold off current Ferrari driver Vettel. Three laps to go!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 68/71: Vettel loses a bit of time trying to lap Merhi in the Manor-Marussia going into the final corner. Rosberg does sound very concerned now about his vibrating front tyre... "ALL EYES ON THAT NOW," he tells his engineer.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 67/71: FIVE LAPS TO GO Vettel now absolutely on the exhaust of Massa, but the Williams is doing an admirable job not to yield.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 66/71: Rosberg now reports vibrations on the right-front tyre. Vettel now within half a second of Massa!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 65/71: All except good vibrations for Perez in P9. Could there be a problem with the Force India? Maldonado gets a little crossed up on the exit of Turn 1 in his pursuit of Verstappen.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 64/71: Oooh, this will be interesting to see! Mercedes-Benz vs Ferrari power as Vettel continues to close all the time. Eight tenths now between the Williams and Ferrari.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 63/71: Vettel now within a second of Massa! Verstappen and Maldonado continue to duel for P7.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 61/71: Ricciardo and Nasr go wheel-to-wheel! With the Aussie prevailing with the point paying position for now. Crucially for him will be trying not to lose too much time to Massa and Vettel who aim to get past with the blue flags.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 60/71: At this point, Hamilton should be concerned about his second place. With a 15 second lead over Massa, minus 5 seconds on the penalty - Massa/Vettel could very well steal that position with the pace they have.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Lap 59/71: Ricciardo is currently 2.7 seconds behind Nasr who sits tenth. At the moment, the Aussie is lapping two seconds faster than his combatant in the Sauber.