With the Austrian Grand Prix in the books let us take a look at who were the winners and losers for this weekend.
Biggest Winner:
Valtteri Bottas:
Bottas was able to grab his second win this season and of his Formula 1 career. The Finn produced an excellent lap on Saturday to claim pole and took charge of the race in the first half before keeping his cool to take the chequered flag, leading 70 of the 71 laps in the process.
More importantly, the Finn has put his name back in the middle of the title battle after reducing the gap to championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 19 points in three races.
Winners:
Sebastian Vettel:
Speaking of the German, he is surely one of the biggest winners. Although, a win was in reach following the battle towards the end of the race, the Ferrari driver will enjoy this result after increasing his lead at the top to 20 points over Lewis Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo:
Another podium for the smiling Australian making it five in a row, Ricciardo seems to be on a good run making use of the chaos around the grid while completing solid drives. Quietly, the Red Bul driver is now fourth in the world championship after his slow start of the season.
Romain Grosjean:
After his unstable start of the season and the constant brake problems he has faced, Grosjean enjoyed a close to perfect weekend making it into Q3 and grabbing some well-deserved points for Haas.
Williams:
Following a disastrous start to their weekend, and a double Q1 elimination at the circuit they claimed a one-two at just three years ago, Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll took full advantage of the first lap drama, gaining eight positions each and grabbing valuable points in ninth and 10th to keep some pressure on their rivals at Force India.
Biggest Loser:
Max Verstappen:
Another failure to finish means Verstappen is no doubt the biggest loser. While his team-mate is enjoying an excellent run of results, a clutch problem at the start before being caught up in the crash between Fernando Alonso and Daniil Kvyat at Turn 1 forced the Dutchman to retire for the fifth time in seven races and this one came in front of a huge number of fans from his homeland.
Losers:
Lewis Hamilton:
Although Hamilton was able to minimize the losses following his five-place grid penalty, the triple world champion lost valuable points to his title rival and to his team-mate who is starting to close the gap between them adding pressure on the Briton’s bid for a fourth world championship.
Kimi Raikkonen:
The Finn had another poor weekend, easily off his team-mate’s pace in all sessions. Dropping behind Hamilton to fifth in the race also adds fuel to thoughts the 2007 world champion could be the reason Ferrari lose to Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship. The 37-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season and will need better results if he is willing to remain at Maranello next season.
Kevin Magnussen:
After such a positive Friday and Saturday morning, including his first Q1 run in qualifying, luck simply deserted the Dane when it mattered. Magnussen was forced to sit out of Q2 after a somewhat freak suspension failure. Then, hopeful of a recovery on Sunday with the good pace he showed prior, it was cut out short with suspected hydraulic problems. The result of his team-mate Grosjean in sixth meant the former McLaren driver would likely have had guaranteed some points perhaps, however, he leaves Austria disappointed and empty handed.
