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Rate the Race and Driver of the weekend – Round 9, Red Bull Ring, Austria
Mean Reader score 4.96 Ranked 7/9 Races so far.
Compared to last year’s race (which scored 8.15 and was ranked second in the entire season) the 2017 race was a bit of a damp squib. Last year we had the battle raging between the two Mercedes for the WDC. The final lap saw them come together, Hamilton leave the track and then take off Rosberg’s front wing on re-entry, leaving him to limp home, but not before he was passed by Verstappen and Raikkonen.
Not only did Rosberg loose the race but he didn’t make it onto the podium either (AND to add insult to injury he was deemed responsible for the collision and given a 10 second penalty and two points on his licence.) Not so this year. The only thing that was blistering about this year’s race was the tyres. There was a bit of a dog fight at the start, some accusations of Bottas jumping the gun, a domino effect of Kyvat running into Alonso who in turn ran into Verstappen, causing an early retirement for both, and that was pretty much it for the next 65 laps.
The rain didn’t show up, so it was by and large a one stop race for all. Other highlights included Vandorne ignoring a blue flag, Kvyat being given a drive through penalty for said collision and Kimi strategically holding up Bottas for what may have been half a lap. Things did warm up, however, for the last five(ish) laps when Vettel was chasing down Bottas for the lead and a second battle was raging for the final podium place between Hamilton and that Aussie Guy who just happened to win out Driver of the Weekend.
Driver Of The Weekend: Daniel Ricciardo, 40.66% of Reader vote.
Well, Daniel did hid best to keep us entertained this weekend (not mentioning the ‘surprise’ retirement announcement where he did manage to suppress that stellar smile of his for the whole interview.) He cried ‘foul’ at the beginning of the race, made a very good start, putting Vettel under pressure into turn 1, passing Raikkonen (at turn 3) and kept Hamilton at bay for the last five laps, holding onto P3 so winning his fifth consecutive podium of the season. I’m not going to mention the ‘shoey’.
We can only imagine how gutting it is for his team mate Max Verstappen to have had yet another retirement. Red Bull must be looking very hard at their demoted Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat who caused the incident that ended the Dutchman’s race.
@F1TheaJ
About the last sentence;
Where the Red Bull men are having their internal battle – with Ricciardo for now ‘winning the points’ battle where Max has to make do with the ‘winning the quali / free practice sessions’ battle – both Toro Rosso drivers are having a different battle all together. Trying to beat each other in the ‘making stupid mistakes and punting other drivers off track’ battle. For now it’s a draw…
In this case Red Bull will not be looking very hard at their demoted RB racing driver, because it was RB’s tech department that was responsible for Max’s retirement.
RB have stated that Max would not have been able to finish the race even if Kvyatt had shown some brains…
Pretty sure Ricciardo was faster in quail in Austria and overall they are equal, save for a 72 point difference where it counts. As for reliability the drivers have to manage the components over multiple race weekends, Max seems fast during the race but is harder on the components. Dan has not been bested by a teammate in a championship season yet, beating Seb a reining world champ in 2014. Max is young but don’t forget his teammate is no push over and if he can’t beat Dan this year or next then I’m afraid he ain’t the god he’s made out be.
Daniel is just lucky to be picking up podiums Max would have been on if the car would not have failed him almost every race. This season Max outqualified him almost every race, and was quicker in most races until the car broke down. He is the better and faster driver no doubt.
Ricciardo beating Vettel in 2014 had to do with quite a lot of luck as well. He was only quicker in the first couple of races. Rest of the season Vettel was dealt some strange strategies and car failure.
I was not really convinced. Ricciardo also was not that much quicker than Vergne…
He is young – he has plenty of time for good stuff to happen. He is stressing because he wants it all and he wants it now.
Settle Max. There are many aspects to being a great driver and a lot of it has to do with stuff happening between your ears.
#sh!happens #suckitup
At least Max is not going to lose a championship through back luck / DNFs like Lewish last year.