The 2019 Austrian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 myWorld Großer Preis von Österreich 2019) was a Formula One motor race held on 30 June 2019 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The race was the ninth round of the 2019 Formula One World Championship. The race marked the 33rd running of the Austrian Grand Prix and the 32nd time it had been held as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the series inception in . The victory of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull Racing RB15 was the first win for a Honda-powered F1 car since Jenson Button in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix and he also became the first non-Mercedes driver to win a race in 2019. The race marked the first time that Red Bull made it back-to-back wins at their home Grand Prix.
Background
Championship standings before the race Heading into the race Lewis Hamilton had a 36-point advantage over teammate Valtteri Bottas in the Drivers' Championship. In the Constructors' Championship Mercedes held a 140-point advantage over Ferrari.
Entrants
The drivers and teams entered were the same as those on the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for either the race or practice.
Penalties Prior to the start of the weekend Carlos Sainz Jr. and Alexander Albon exceeded their quotas for power unit components and were required to start from the back of the grid. Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen received five-place grid penalties for exceeding their quota for power unit components and for a gearbox change, respectively.
Free practice Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in first practice with Sebastian Vettel second. Valtteri Bottas was third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth. Second practice was eventful as Vettel spun and both Bottas and Max Verstappen crashed. Leclerc was fastest ahead of Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Hamilton. In third practice Leclerc was fastest again ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Vettel.
Qualifying Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q3116 Charles LeclercFerrari1:04.1381:03.3781:03.0031244 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:03.8181:03.8031:03.2624333 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda1:03.8071:03.8351:03.4392477 Valtteri BottasMercedes1:04.0841:03.8631:03.5373520 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1:04.7781:04.4661:04.0721064 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1:04.3611:04.2111:04.099577 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari1:04.6151:04.0561:04.1666899Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari1:04.4501:04.1941:04.1797910 Pierre GaslyRed Bull Racing-Honda1:04.4121:03.9881:04.1998105 Sebastian VettelFerrari1:04.3401:03.667No time9118 Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1:04.5521:04.490N/A111227 Nico HülkenbergRenault1:04.7331:04.516N/A151323 Alexander AlbonScuderia Toro Rosso-Honda1:04.7081:04.665N/A18143 Daniel RicciardoRenault1:04.6471:04.790N/A121555 Carlos Sainz Jr.McLaren-Renault1:04.4531:13.601N/A191611 Sergio Pérez1:04.789N/AN/A131718 Lance Stroll1:04.832N/AN/A141826 Daniil KvyatScuderia Toro Rosso-Honda1:05.324N/AN/A161963 George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1:05.904N/AN/A2088 Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1:06.206N/AN/A17107% time: 1:08.273 Source: Notes – Lewis Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kimi Räikkönen during qualifying. However, because of the way the penalties were applied, Hamilton dropped two places instead of three and he would start fourth. – Kevin Magnussen received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. – Nico Hülkenberg received a five-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota for power unit components. However, because of the way the penalties were applied, Hülkenberg dropped three places instead of five and he would start fifteenth. – Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr. were required to start from the back of the grid for exceeding their quotas for power unit components. – George Russell received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat during qualifying. Additionally, he was required to start from the pit lane for changing his front wing under parc fermé conditions.
Race Race summary Whilst Charles Leclerc started the race well from pole position, Max Verstappen encountered an issue with his anti-stall, dropping from second down to eighth place by turn 2. Lando Norris briefly battled Lewis Hamilton for third place, and Kimi Räikkönen ran as high as fourth. Räikkönen held the position until lap 7, when he was passed by Sebastian Vettel, who had started ninth. By lap 9, Verstappen had recovered after his poor start, passing Räikkönen and Norris. Kevin Magnussen pitted on lap 12, dropping him to the back, but was handed a drive-through penalty soon afterwards after the stewards found he had over-stepped his grid line at the beginning of the race and started too far forward. He would only recover one place during the race, and eventually crossed the finish line in nineteenth.
Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel pitted on lap 22, with Bottas emerging in clear air in fourth, but with Vettel stuck behind Norris, Räikkönen and Pierre Gasly in eighth after a communication issue saw his pit-stop take longer than expected. Leclerc pitted on the following lap, handing the lead of the race to Hamilton. At this stage of the race, the Mercedes cars were suffering from the high air and track temperatures. Hamilton repeatedly ran wide at turn 1, driving over the sausage kerb. This eventually caused damage to his front wing, forcing him to pit for a replacement on lap 31 and dropping him to fifth place. Verstappen inherited the lead, but pitted on the following lap; Leclerc thus regained first place.
Verstappen emerged from the pits in fourth place, and began his charge towards the front. He passed Vettel on Lap 50, on the straight after turn 2. Vettel subsequently pitted on the following lap. Verstappen then passed Bottas into turn 2 on lap 56. Finally, he caught up with Leclerc at the front, passing him into turn 2 with three laps to go. On lap 69, Verstappen took a wide line through the corner on the inside of Leclerc, making contact and resulting in Leclerc leaving the track and driving over the kerb. Verstappen held on to his lead until the chequered flag, and the stewards later deemed his overtake legal. Vettel passed Hamilton on the final lap to take fourth place.
Verstappen's victory marked the first win for a Honda-powered F1 car since Jenson Button in the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. The race was also the first race in the season not to be won by a Mercedes driver, as Valtteri Bottas finished in third and Lewis Hamilton fifth. Antonio Giovinazzi scored his first ever career points in Formula One by finishing tenth place. This also marked the first race in which every driver saw the chequered flag since the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix.
Race classification DriverConstructorTime/RetiredPoints133 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda711:22:01.822226216 Charles LeclercFerrari71 +2.724118377 Valtteri BottasMercedes71+18.96031545 Sebastian VettelFerrari71+19.610912544 Lewis HamiltonMercedes71+22.80541064 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault70 +1 lap 58710 Pierre GaslyRed Bull Racing-Honda70 +1 lap 86855 Carlos Sainz Jr.McLaren-Renault70 +1 lap 19497 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari70 +1 lap 621099Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari70 +1 lap 711111 Sergio Pérez70 +1 lap13 123 Daniel RicciardoRenault70 +1 lap 121327 Nico HülkenbergRenault70 +1 lap 151418 Lance Stroll70 +1 lap 141523 Alexander AlbonScuderia Toro Rosso-Honda70 +1 lap 18168 Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari70 +1 lap111726 Daniil KvyatScuderia Toro Rosso-Honda70 +1 lap161863 George RussellWilliams-Mercedes69 +2 laps1920 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari69 +2 laps102088 Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes68 +3 laps17Fastest lap: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing-Honda) - 1:07.475 (lap 60) Source: Notes – Includes one point for fastest lap.
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 Lewis Hamilton197 2 Valtteri Bottas166 1 3 Max Verstappen126 1 4 Sebastian Vettel123 5 Charles Leclerc105Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Mercedes363 2 Ferrari228 3 Red Bull Racing-Honda169 4 McLaren-Renault52 5 Renault32Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also 2019 Spielberg Formula 2 round 2019 Spielberg Formula 3 round
References
External links
Official event website