There is no better way to say it – Formula One is back and as strange as it is to have the 2020 season starting in Austria instead of Australia, it’s so good to see actual cars on track. Tune in to The Roar for a live blog of the event from 11:10pm (AEST).
The fast and bumpy 4.3km Red Bull Ring will host back-to-back races to raise curtains on the championship and poses to throw up different results to what we’re used to from the Australian Grand Prix.
A vastly different calendar brings a whole new challenge to the championship and perhaps an opportunity for others to have a crack at reigning world champions Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.
Formula One is starting off the year with two races at the Red Bull Ring, where Red Bull’s own Max Verstappen has won on the last two occasions, presenting the 22-year-old with his first chance to have a title tilt.
However, Mercedes have come to Spielberg with a chunk of upgrades, along with their controversial but innovative DAS device, which after a protest from Red Bull on Friday has been deemed legal by the FIA.
Qualifying saw Valtteri Bottas break the lap record with a 1:02.939 for the pole position, ahead by only 0.012 of his teammate and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton. With the pace seen from Mercedes this weekend, it’ll take some something special for them to beat come the 71-lap race.
Verstappen found himself third fastest and with a chance if he gets a good launch off the line, unlike his start here last year.
But there was a surprise for fourth on the grid with Lando Norris putting in a mega lap for McLaren, ahead of the favoured Pink Mercedes of Racing Point. They only managed sixth and ninth respectively for Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll.
While Ferrari publicly ruled themselves out of contention during the Austrian double-header, their plight was fully understood in qualifying, with Sebastian Vettel eliminated in Q2 and Charles Leclerc’s Q3 lap almost a second off the pole time. They’ll be in for a tough race too.
On the tyre front, Pirelli have elected to in 2020 standardise the choices for the entire season with teams and drivers no longer having choice over how many of each compound they bring to a race. eight sets of softs, three mediums sets and two sets of the hard tyres will be the supply for each driver per race.
After such a long wait, it is time to go racing. Tune in on The Roar for the first live blog of the 2020 Formula One season with what is going to be a cracking Austrian Grand Prix.
Start time: 11:10pm (AEST)
Venue: Red Bull Ring, Austria
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I support Verstappen so I support Red Bull. Soft spots for McLaren and Williams though. But Red Bull's my main team.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Oh, I didn't realise RB was your team. I'd assume you'd be a McLaren or Williams fan.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Oh shame. Take care anyway Micko and we'll hopefully see you back here soon.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Come back again Micko - as I'm sure you've seen today, we have a pretty good time and it's nice to welcome you into our little group.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Hopefully will be published in the morning. :thumbup:
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Don't remind me :laughing:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Ahhhhhhh! Just realised I'm back on Night shift next Sunday night. :thumbdown: Oh well. :crying: :unhappy:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Fair enough. I think this is the first of your race commentaries I've followed. Great job Jawad. :thumbup:
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Nah, I'll always put a short race summary at the end of the blog. Plenty to digest though for sure, so I'm sure there'll be more to say later in the week. :stoked:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Danny Ric has definitely made the right move! :stoked: :thumbup:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Yeah you too! :stoked:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Wow, 0 points for RB! :shocked: That's a huge deficit for the Constructors' title already!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Oi! That's my job!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
My pleasure mate.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Bye Jawad. Thanks for the call. We had fun today! Great to be back. Plenty of talking points to go away and discuss. Take care.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
ONE point for Seb Vettel - little bit of car's fault, little bit of driver's fault. Improvement needed all round either way.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Well what an opening race to the 2020 F1 season! We'll be back here of course in under seven days time to race at the Red Bull Ring again and after today's race, who can't wait to see what happens next time? Thanks again for tuning in here on The Roar and for this live blog of the Austrian Grand Prix. It is so good to be back and I shall join you all again for next week's Grand Prix of Steiermark. See ya'll.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Oh how good is it to see McLaren 2nd in the constructors'. Take a picture, take a picture!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Will reliability improve this time next week at the Grand Prix of Steiermark? Or will it be too short a turnaround to do so?
Micko
Roar Rookie
I thought you'd wait till tomorrow and put this in a new article Jawad? :stoked: