Valtteri Bottas secured his second win of the season, and his career, when he crossed the finish line at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday a fraction of a second ahead of the Ferrari driver by Sebastian Vettel.
Valtteri made a brilliant start, so good actually that Vettel, Ricardo and the stewards thought he may have jumped the start. Vettel was even on the radio to his team asking when Valtteri was going to take his penalty. However, the start was deemed as brilliant, not illegal, with .201 response time to the lights going out. .200 and under is considered a jump start.
So, from that moment on, the Finn kept the lead and only came close to losing it in the final laps when Vettel's Ferrari seemed to get a new lease on the race and began to close the gap down all the way to .06 at the line.
What makes the win even mightier was that he drove most of the second stint with a blister on his Pirelli rubber.
While Vettel wanted the win, he seemed happy enough with second, especially as his main title rival. Lewis Hamilton, who started from P8 on the grid, only managed to fight back to fourth behind third placed Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo. However, he was not happy that Bottas was not penalized for a jump start and when told the reason why the Finn escaped penalty, he said “I don't believe that.”
“It was a brilliant day for Valtteri whose pace in the first stint was absolutely mighty,” explained James Allison, Mercedes technical Director. “The second half of his race was hampered by a blister but he drove with great poise to score his second win. Lewis came achingly close to the podium in the final laps, probably half a car length away from passing Ricciardo.”
“We are sorry about the gearbox penalty he suffered but he tackled the situation as he always does: he got his head down and made the most of it. This was a good race for our Constructors' Championship position, extending our slender advantage over Ferrari, but we need to make sure we give Lewis the equipment he needs at the next races to make sure he doesn't start Sunday afternoon on the back foot. “
Max Verstappen had yet another horrid afternoon and was out at the start after a coming together with the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, which was triggered by the Toro Rosso of Danii Kvyat. This makes it his fifth retirement from seven races, and once again he endured the pain of sitting on the sidelines while his teammate stood on the podium.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the race fifth fastest overall after losing out to Hamilton in the pitstops.
“It was a very close race, which, once again showed that Ferrari is on the pace,” said Ferrari's Maurizio Arrivabene. “Sebastian was able to fight for the win right to the very last corner, having produced a great drive. It was a shame for Kimi, who already on the opening lap, ran wide at turn 3 while fighting with Ricciardo. If not for that, with the car he had today, he too could have had a good race. The next race at Silverstone is just a few days away and as usual, we will be working flat out to prepare for it.”
He was followed home by Romain Grosjean, the two Force India's and the two Williams, with Lance Stroll tenth and picking up points for the third race in succession.
The team's will now quickly pack up and head to Silverstone for this weekend's British GP.
