Ferrari President Sergio Marchionne has once again criticised Kimi Raikkonen's performance after the Finn only finished fifth at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Amid a close battle with Mercedes for the Constructors' Championship, the lack of standout results has been noticeable for the veteran with just two podium positions in the first nine races.

Compare to that seven for team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who added another second on Sunday finishing just six-tenths behind race winner Valtteri Bottas, and it's not surprising to see the German has more than double the points of Raikkonen and Mercedes holding a 33-point advantage in the teams' standings, despite Vettel leading the Drivers' Championship by 20 points.

Valtteri Bottas is maintaining aspirations of fighting for the 2017 Formula 1 title after claiming his second victory of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Finn held off a late charge from current championship leader Sebastian Vettel, crossing the finish line just six tenths clear of the Ferrari, and in doing so reduced the gap between himself and the German to 35 points in the standings.

Reflecting on the race, Bottas admitted the similarities between Spielberg and his first win in Sochi back in April, explaining why he struggled more despite pitting seven laps later than Vettel.

“I had a bit of a déjà vu in the end with what happened in Russia," he said "He was catching up. The problem in the last stint, I had a massive blister on the rear left since lap five of that stint, so that made it quite tricky.

"In the beginning, I could control the pace, but in the end, the backmarkers made it quite tricky."

The victory continued a pattern from recent races for the Mercedes driver, having finished fourth, third and second in the three races before Austria.

“[I’m] really happy, it's only my second win in my career. Thank you guys for the support, massive thank you to the team for making this possible, so thank you guys," he added.

Looking ahead to the remainder of the season, Bottas certainly would be the third favourite for the title, but with Hamilton and Vettel getting so much attention and with a heightened tension within their rivalry, that could open the door for the former GP3 champion to challenge under the radar.

“We're not even in the halfway of the year, so definitely I believe and the team believes," Bottas said of his title chances. “[There is] still a long year ahead. Like I said, we are still developing. I'm just loving every moment and it's going to be good."

Lewis Hamilton was able to produce a decent comeback to finish fourth the Austrian Grand Prix, but missing the podium was a "disappointment" he admits.

Hamilton had to work to do after Mercedes was forced to change his gearbox after Baku, handing him a five-place grid penalty for the race at the Red Bull Ring.

Starting eighth, he would recover to fifth early on and was clear of Kimi Raikkonen to take fourth after undercutting the Ferrari during the pit-stop phase. A late charge on the usually faster ultra-soft tyres to pass Daniel Ricciardo for third would not end successfully, however, as the Australian rebuffed his only attack to maintain third.

“Daniel’s pace was fantastic today. For whatever reason they were very, very fast in the race,” Hamilton commented. “They've obviously improved somewhere. I was giving it hell and wasn't closing massively on him.

“It was down to a mistake of his at the end that really opened up the window. I think that's good, those kind of things are good to see because I guess it shows where opportunities can be once you've put pressure on someone for a period of time. So yeah.”

“But if they can pull that out in qualifying, I think that's going to be great for the rest of the season. We've got a third team that is going to be battling it out with us.”

To have a podium so tantalising close, as well as the opportunity to restrict the points loss to title rival Sebastian Vettel to just three was a negative for Hamilton, but the Briton remained positive after overcoming the odds with a smooth drive.

“I was thinking maybe I could have [overtaken Ricciardo], but he was in my blind spot so I didn’t know,” he said of their battle at Turn 4.

“So naturally when I was doing the interviews that was what I was disappointed in. I worked so hard to close that gap and get into that window, he made a mistake which enabled me to be there and to drive all those laps so well and then still come out with the same place that I was in is definitely difficult.”

“But actually it was a really good race, I didn’t have any problems with my tyres,” he concluded.

Finally, he praised his team-mate for an excellent performance to claim a second win of 2017, believing Valtteri Bottas can very much have a say in the battle for the F1 championship.

"Valtteri did a fantastic job today and yesterday, so he thoroughly deserved to win,” he said.

“When you look at the results, he's also had a DNF as well. He's generally had a better season I would say so far. But yeah, there was never a point that he was never in the fight. I think it was only you guys who potentially suggested that he was never in the battle.

“I always assumed he still was, and that just shows he still is.”

Valtteri Bottas would take his second Formula 1 win of the season, surviving a nail-biting finish to the Austrian Grand Prix to hold off Sebastian Vettel.

The Finn was under investigation over a potential jump start but his reaction time of 0.2s was deemed acceptable as he pulled out a near eight-second advantage over the Ferrari at one stage.

After the pit-stops, however, the gap was less than four seconds and the German closed to within DRS range for the final few laps, but Bottas was able to deal with the pressure, taking the chequered flag by just six-tenths of a second.

Daniel Ricciardo took advantage of a messy start to the race and made a bold move on Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap to move up to third.That allowed the Australian to maintain pace with the two leaders and also hold off a charging Lewis Hamiton in the final few laps to take the last podium place at Red Bull's home race.

That left Hamilton having to settle for fourth, after passing Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean early on, after starting eighth, before undercutting Kimi Raikkonen in the pit-stop phase. Initially is appeared the 2007 world champion could come back and fight with the British driver after his later pit-stop but that would not be the case as he claimed fifth in the second Ferrari.

Romain Grosjean ran as high as fourth after the chaotic opening few corners, which saw a slow-starting Max Verstappen and a fast-starting Fernando Alonso both be taken out by Daniil Kvyat, before the Haas drier feel down to sixth, still a great result for the Frenchman in the Haas.

The Force India duo has a drama-free race, as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon ran several seconds apart but still finished seventh and eighth.

Their closest challengers for fourth in the Constructors' Championship, Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll at Williams, were able to recover from a disastrous Saturday but making up eight places at the start and promoting both cars into the points by completing the top 10.

Jolyon Palmer did look like threatening Stroll for the final point at one stage but would slip back as he matched his best finish in 11th for Renault, comfortably clear of Stoffel Vandoorne in 12th, after the Belgian picked up a drive-through penalty and his teammate at Enstone, Nico Hulkenberg.

The Sauber drivers finished 14^th and 15^th with Pascal Wehrlein having the upper hand in the head-to-head team battle, while Daniil Kvyat completed the classified drivers with a race to forget after a bad start followed by a drive through penalty.

The incident with Alonso and Kvyat meant Verstappen's run of terrible luck continued with a fifth retirement in seven races. Kevin Magnussen's woes continued after the suspension failure in qualifying as a suspected hydraulics problem forced him to retire in the race and finally Carlos Sainz retired for the third time this year and was frustrated with the repeating problems sarcastically declaring his race as "glorious" over the radio.

Looking at the championship, Vettel now leads Hamilton by 20 points ahead of the British Grand Prix in a week's time. With his two recent positive results, Valtteri Bottas is also slowing closing back in, sitting 35 points behind the Ferrari and just 15 off his Mercedes team-mate.

Sebastian Vettel believes one extra lap was all he needed to claim the win from Valtteri Bottas at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The German seemed unable to match the Mercedes driver for the first half of the race, as the Finn pulled an eight-second gap at one stage, but after the pit-stop, the Ferrari came alive as he reeled in a near four-second margin to be within DRS range with two laps to go.

The reason for that was Bottas struggling with blisters on his super-soft tyres, Vettel tried attacking the Finn in hopes of taking the top step on the podium but ultimately couldn't get quite close enough to have a realistic chance of passing.

“It was very close and I was told he was in trouble, so I was pushing hard anyway,” the four-time champion explained.

“I felt much happier in the second stint and the second part of the race. The first part of the race I was struggling for the feel of the car but as soon as we put on the super-soft tyre the car came alive and I had really good pace and I was catching little by little but he was also struggling.

Vettel’s hopes were dashed as he finished the race just six-tenths behind the Mercedes, but much like he thought Felipe Massa had held him up while catching Bottas in Sochi, the 30-year-old believed he lost crucial time behind Sergio Perez as he lapped the Force India.

“In the last laps I had Perez to lap which cost me a bit of time but I think I needed one more lap because Bottas was really struggling to get up the hill. I wanted to win but nevertheless, it is a good result.”

Indeed, heading to the British Grand Prix in seven days time, Vettel has a 20-point lead over Lewis Hamilton, the largest advantage since Monaco.

Fernando Alonso was positive regarding the progress McLaren and Honda appear to have made, hoping it will continue after a solid qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard was 12^th fastest on Saturday, as the hope of a possible Q3 slipped away when other cars turned up their engines.

The double world champion was also forced to move back to the old engine specification after an issue on Friday, but Alonso remained confident with the performance improvements.

"I feel we did the maximum today – I'm happy with our laps, our result and our performance, in general, this weekend," he claimed.

"We had an unexpected change of engine, and I reverted back to the old spec today, so finishing P12 and feeling competitive all through quali was positive news.

"The team is working very hard to improve our situation: we bring aero updates to every race, we bring new engine specs whenever we can, and we're definitely moving forwards.

"We still need to improve our reliability, but hopefully we'll see further signs in the next couple of weeks.”

Alonso acknowledged that from his place on the grid points will be in reach and was hoping for some outside help too.

"From 12th place, with a good start or a good strategy, we could be in a position to score points,” he said.

"There's some possible rain forecast for tomorrow – if that turns out to be correct, it'll probably open up more opportunities for us, [so] we need to be ready to take them."

Alonso’s rookie teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was also positive while enjoying the car improvement around the circuit.

Vandoorne also thinks the team is on the right track to being back in good, competitive form.

"I think it's been a pretty good weekend for us so far," said the Belgian.

"The practice sessions have gone well and qualifying was more or less what we expected.

"This afternoon's times were extremely close: it all came down to a couple of small details – with another couple of tenths, we'd have been into Q3.

"Today really shows that every improvement we bring to the car is very valuable – it all helps.

"We're definitely headed in the right direction – every new piece of performance we bring is welcome, but we need to keep pushing."

Daniil Kvyat has hinted a brake problem could have contributed to the collision he caused at the first corner of the Austrian Grand Prix, taking out Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen in the process.

The Russian driver slid into the back of the McLaren as he locked his wheels into Turn 1, that contact sent the Spaniard into the Red Bull alongside, the second such first lap incident the Dutchman has been involved in this year.

Kvyat was deemed at fault by the FIA and given a time penalty plus two points on his super-licence, but, talking to the official F1 website after the race, claimed there was little he could do.

"I think we need to look into it, because we tried to do our best in terms of brake balance for Turn 1, but I'm not sure it helped," the Toro Rosso driver said.

"It felt like I locked the rear, then locked the front - and then all four wheels slide and you're just a passenger.

"Very disappointing of course, [I] just couldn't avoid the car in front of me. Very upset, but now don't see any option other than turn the page and move on. I don't see anything else."

Whether a mechanical aspect existed or not, Alonso was highly critical of Kvyat's actions and disappointed to miss out on making the most of his fast start.

"It's a shame, but it wasn't in our hands," the double world champion said. "We did a good start again, we took the benefit from Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen having bad starts so we were already P10 and then I arrived to the first corner and the guys behind arrived too quick.

“I saw someone locking at the rear and in the mirror. They could not stop the car.

“We know that it is tricky from the middle of the pack and at the back. At the first corner of the first lap it's not necessary to gain this extra metres but the guys behind they need to sometimes prove their seats and their futures, they risk a little bit too much.”

Finally, for Verstappen, the collision was just another example of the poor luck that continues to blight his season. Five times in seven races the Red Bull driver has not seen the finish and he remains bottom of the list of drivers in terms of race laps completed so far in 2017.

It seems the contact may have just been a final blow to his very short race, however, indicating an issue with the clutch caused his initial poor start.

"I already felt on the formation lap that it was not fantastic," the 19-year-old claimed.

"And in the actual start I got a failure, so I got anti-stall, and then on the run up to Turn 1 it didn't feel great. I tried to stay out of trouble, to go wide, and I got hit on the rear tyre.”

"Because of that, the clutch over-engaged and it basically broke the bearing in the clutch. So I had no drive anymore.”

To make matters worse the result came at a race that has become a home venue of sorts with a reported 10,000 Dutch fans making the trip to Spielberg.

"Of course I'm very disappointed for the fans,” he said, “they were the best crowd I've seen so far and I couldn't even do a start or one corner for them, never mind 71 laps."

Valtteri Bottas denied thoughts of playing a team role to help teammate Lewis Hamilton after taking pole for the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Briton down in eighth.

The Finn will be joined on the front row by championship leader Sebastian Vettel, raising suspicions that he might try to support the Briton by backing the drivers up enabling him to recover the positions lost as a result of his five-place grid penalty.

However, Bottas rejected any claim that was being considered, insisting he will be going for the win for himself and his side of the Mercedes garage.

"From what I have seen in the pre-race strategy notes, that kind of plan is not on those notes," he said.

"We need to focus on trying to have a good start to the race and we need to win the race. Lewis can fight back from where he is starting. If you start playing games it gets

"If you start playing games it gets tricky, if the car behind gets DRS and the slipstream then with just one mistake they can get the win.

“It should be a good fight tomorrow; the target is not less than winning for us. Lewis has a good race ahead with a lot of time ahead to come back to get points for the team.”

Bottas also reflected on qualifying adding: “I enjoyed it today as the car was getting better and better. It was a decent lap in the end but not quite perfect but it was good enough."

When asked for his perspective on whether Mercedes could use strategy to help his recovery chances, Hamilton also rubbished the idea. 

"It makes no sense for Valtteri to slow down, so he will push as hard as he can to win the race," he claimed.

Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo are both still questioning the validity of Austrian Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas' start.

The Finn was noted after both the Ferrari and Red Bull driver's radioed in to report what they believe to be a jump start by the Mercedes driver. According to the data, however, Bottas' reaction to the lights was timed a 0.207s just over the 0.2s threshold the stewards use before penalising on the grounds of anticipation rather than reaction.

“From my point of view, he jumped the start - I was sure that he did," Vettel commented.

"It looked like it from inside the car, but it's not for me to judge at the end of the day. [My start] was quite tricky for me to keep standing still [but] it was OK, a bit of wheelspin early on."

Any decision to penalise Bottas would have given the German the victory at the Red Bull Ring, but he insisted that was not a motive for his ongoing conviction.

"When I say I don't believe, I don't believe," the four-time champion insisted.

"Normally, the reactions are 0.2s for everyone, so I don't believe everyone was slower today

“So that is why I don't believe Valtteri was so much quicker. I was a strong believer that he jumped the start, but it turns out he didn't - that is why I don't believe it.

"His start was inhuman."

His former team-mate Ricciardo did seem more content with the stewards decision, recalling his own close call in a lower formula, but did still question whether his start was reactionary or not.

"The main thing it was positive, but the lights were held for a long time, more than normal," he said of the start procedure.

"There is always a window, but it seemed longer and you are waiting, waiting and he went but the lights went out - I guess he got lucky.

"I did it in F3 once and it was on the edge, you react but at the same point the lights went out. In theory, that it is not a natural reaction.

"But I don't believe he reacted to the lights. I said it looked like Valtteri jumped - he didn't jump because it was positive - but for sure he got a bit lucky."

Unsurprisingly, Bottas didn't want to query whether his launch was legal or not but did acknowledge there was an element of predicting when the lights would go out.

"I think that was the start of my life, I was really on it today," he said. "When the car was moving, the lights were off - that is the main thing.

"[With] the start lights, there are different variations since the lights are on and go off, but the variation for a long time has not been massive," he added.

"So you know more or less the zone when it is going off, so gambling with your reaction and guessing sometimes you get a mega one, sometimes you are a bit late.

"Today was my best reaction for the lights. As long as it (the time between the car moving and lights going out) is positive, it is fine."

Valtteri Bottas grabbed his second pole both of his career and this season at the Austrian Grand Prix, just finishing ahead of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.

The tension was high going into Q3 with the leading drivers all covered by tiny margins, the Finn would lead by less than half a tenth from the German with a 1:04.251s on the first flying lap.

As they went out for the second attempt in the last minutes, however, Romain Grosjean would stop on the track causing yellow flags and forcing the drivers to abandon their last laps and giving Bottas pole position.

Lewis Hamilton was eyeing the top spot in order to minimise the pain from his five-place grid penalty. That effort was going well, even deciding to use the super-soft tyre in Q2 to change his strategy in the race, but after only claiming third on his first lap in Q3, he made two errors on his second lap meaning he will drop to eighth.

Kimi Raikkonen will move up to third as a result and will be followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the first of the Red Bulls. The Australian producing his best lap when needed to beat Max Verstappen, as the Dutchman ended qualifying by spinning off in the middle of the sweeping chicane at Turn's 7 and 8 but will still start fifth.

Romain Grosjean claimed sixth position in a good session for Haas that was sadly compromised by the problem at the end for the Frenchman and a suspension failure for Kevin Magnussen during Q1 leaving the Dane down in 15th after he had comfortably set a time in the top 10 in that first segment.

The two Force Indias were once again almost inseparable with less than a tenth between Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon. Happily, for team owner Vijay Mallya, Hamilton's penalty sees him drop between the two drivers as Perez starts seventh and the former European F3 champion ninth. Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 in his Toro Rosso.  

Nico Hulkenberg was unfortunate to miss out on Q3 in 11th with the Renault driver followed by the McLaren duo in one of their best qualifying results this year with Fernando Alonso 12th ahead of team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne in 13th.

Daniil Kvyat was down in 14th with the aforementioned Magnussen in 15th after the unfortunate failure caused by simply riding the aggressive kerbs on the exit of Turn 3.

Jolyon Palmer's poor pace continued as the Briton was eight-tenths slower than his team-mate and failed to make Q2 in 16th but most disappointing was Williams as their upgrades for this weekend appear to have disrupted the balance of the FW40 and both Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll ended well down in 17th and 18th respectively.

The Saubers completed the grid once again, as the problems at the Swiss team persist. Marcus Ericsson was again the quicker of the two drivers as he and Pascal Wehrlein appear to be becoming the clear backmarkers.