Valtteri took his second career victory today edging Vettel's Ferrari by 0.6s across the line. Lewis battled back from P8 to claim P4, just 1.4s behind Ricciardo's Red Bull. Lewis (151) trails Vettel (171) by 20 points in the Drivers' Championship, with Valtteri a further 15 points back in P3. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (287) leads the Constructors' Championship by 33 points from Ferrari (254) in P2. Michael Harre, Chief Engineer Trackside Mercedes-AMG HPP, accepted the Constructors' trophy on the team's behalf.
Toto Wolff: That was a perfect day for Valtteri. He made a sensational start - although we had a few nervous moments when we heard it was under investigation. But after that he showed great pace in the first stint, then was able to manage a blistered tyre to the finish in the perfect way on his second stint. It was the perfect result for him and also for Lewis, to score maximum points. As for Lewis, he had a glimpse of P3 on the final laps but today it wasn't quite meant to be. It was an afternoon of damage limitation for him and, in the final result, these are 12 points won and not six lost to Sebastian. He has had a tough run with the headrest problem in Baku and then the gearbox penalty here but he is still right in the fight. It's not even half time in the championship and there are 275 points still to be won. Our target will be to let him fight back in the best possible way in Silverstone.
James Allison, Technical Director: It was a brilliant day for Valtteri whose pace in the first stint was absolutely mighty. 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.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "A fantastic race from Daniel after making a good start, including a good passing move on the fast starting Haas of Romain Grosjean. He then drove a very disciplined race; consistently and competitively. He came under serious challenge from Lewis in the closing laps but defended firmly and fairly and it was great to see him on the podium at our home grand prix, for his fifth consecutive podium. Max's car unfortunately went into anti-stall on the grid which caused a slow getaway. He was out of positon and then got collected after an incident between Daniil Kvyat and Fernando Alonso which turned him round at the first corner and thereafter had an issue which looks like the clutch. We'll have to get the car back to understand if it was a result of the incident or what happened off the start line. It's been great to see such a strong crowd at the Red Bull Ring supporting the Austrian Grand Prix, it looks like it's been a really enjoyable weekend for all of the fans."
Maurizio Arrivabene: It was a very close race, which, once again showed that Ferrari is on the pace. 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.
Sahara Force India scored ten points in today's Austrian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez raced to seventh place ahead of Esteban Ocon in eighth place.
Robert Fernley: "Another double points finish is just what we needed today. The team did an excellent job to convert our strong qualifying into solid points and we leave Austria feeling pretty satisfied with our performance. It was a relatively calm race from the pit wall with no significant dramas. Both drivers kept out of trouble on lap one and as the race settled down we were able to hold station with competitive race pace. These ten points consolidate our fourth place in the championship as we approach the midway point of the season."
Felipe Massa finished ninth and Lance Stroll tenth at the Austrian Grand Prix, securing three championship points. Both drivers had impressive starts to the race, managing to avoid a number of incidents on the opening corners. In the opening lap, Felipe gained seven places up to P10 and Lance moved up seven places into P11. By lap 48, both Lance and Felipe had come in for ultrasoft tyres with 2.3-second pitstops. Lance moves up to 11th in the Drivers' Championship, while Felipe remains 10th. The team holds fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 40 points.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: A double-points finish is a great achievement for us today. Congratulations to Felipe and Lance for producing that result, especially given the fact that they started in 17th and 18th. It was a pretty eventful opening lap, which put us immediately into 10th and 11th. From there, we managed to pick up more places in overtakes and move up to ninth and 10th. Our strategy was to run for longer on the harder tyres and then finish with a shorter stint on the ultrasoft, which meant we were able to attack Esteban Ocon at the end, but we were unfortunately unable to make the position. Equally, Lance defended really well against Magnussen and Palmer to take his third points finish in a row. So overall, we certainly ended the weekend on a much better note than it felt like we would yesterday.
Stoffel Vandoorne finished 12th in this afternoon's Austrian Grand Prix - the sole McLaren Honda to make the finish after Fernando Alonso was shunted heavily from behind at the first corner and was forced to abandon the race on lap one.
All weekend, Stoffel had been pleased with his car's pace and driveability, but was unable to capitalise on its performance this afternoon after spending much of the race running in dirty air and unable to pass the car in front. He earned a late-race drive-through penalty - for ignoring blue flags - which didn't affect his overall position.
With a broken floor, Fernando's car was too heavily damaged to allow him to continue.
Eric Boullier: "There are always highs and lows in motor racing. Let's start by looking at the positives: Stoffel showed very solid pace all weekend, and he and his team looked to have made demonstrable progress in every session. His race was solid, although he couldn't really show the car's true potential after spending the entire race running in dirty air. We'll take his drive-through penalty on the chin - he was pushing at the time to try and have a go at [Jolyon] Palmer, and it was just an unfortunate consequence of that.
"In terms of the negatives, Fernando's race was one to forget - albeit through no fault of his own. We accept that racing is racing, but these sorts of silly incidents aren't really acceptable at this level. To be walking away with a substantially damaged car after just one lap is a bitter pill for us to swallow.
"Let's finally look to the positives again: we're set for an incredible week in the UK as we head to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in front of our home crowd. As always, we'll be doing our very best not to disappoint them."
Yusuke Hasegawa: "After a positive start to our Austrian grand prix weekend, I'm very disappointed with the outcome of the race today.
"Despite having some issues, the atmosphere within the team has been much more positive this weekend, and we felt we were in a strong position to score points. Both drivers qualified well and were starting the race from competitive positions, and we were happy with our set-up.
"Fernando had an incredible start and made up a number of positions off the line, but was forced into an early retirement after being caught up in an incident at Turn One.
"I think Stoffel had the pace to score his first points of the season today and looked comfortable in the car, but he fought with traffic for most of the afternoon and was unable to gain positions.
"We will soon be heading back to the UK for our first home grand prix of the season. It's one of the highlights of the year, and we are looking forward to this special weekend. We expect to have many fans, colleagues and family there, so we hope that we can show them a good race."
Haas F1 Team scored a point-paying result for the fifth consecutive race as Romain Grosjean earned a sixth-place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.
The result marked the American squad's best finish so far in the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship, and the eight points Grosjean delivered significantly bolstered Haas F1 Team's seventh-place standing in the constructors ranks. With 29 total points - the same amount Haas F1 Team scored all of last year - the sophomore organization opened up an 11-point gap over eighth-place Renault and cut the deficit to sixth-place Toro Rosso to just four points.
Grosjean started sixth in the 71-lap race around the 4.318-kilometer (2.683-mile), 10-turn circuit. A good start saw him climb to fourth on the opening lap, but the faster entries of Scuderia Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton passed Grosjean within eight laps. Grosjean made his sole pit stop on lap 37 - switching from the Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tires to the Red supersoft compound. Resuming in eighth place, he was elevated back to sixth following pit stops from Force India's Esteban Ocon and Williams' Felipe Massa. Sergio Perez of Force India was in Grosjean's tracks through to the finish, but remained a consistent three to four seconds in arrears, leaving Grosjean untroubled as he took the checkered flag.
Teammate Kevin Magnussen was poised to join Grosjean with another points-paying effort, but while running 11th and just a tenth of a second shy of the 10th-place Williams of Lance Stroll, a hydraulic issue on lap 30 sent Magnussen to the garage. Magnussen had started 15th on a new set of Red supersoft tires and had yet to pit before his day ended prematurely.
Grosjean and Magnussen are now 13th and 14th, respectively, in the championship driver standings. Grosjean has 18 points and Magnussen has 11 points.
Winning the Austrian Grand Prix from the pole was Valtteri Bottas. It was the Mercedes driver's second career Formula One win, following his maiden victory in the Russian Grand Prix in April. Bottas' margin of victory was .658 of a second over Scuderia Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
There's no let-off on the Formula One schedule as the series immediately heads to the U.K. for the British Grand Prix July 14-16 at the famed Silverstone Circuit.
Guenther Steiner: "Highs and lows. The good thing here was that we showed the pace of the car and we had a good race. Unfortunately, Kevin had a hydraulic problem. We need to look into what it was, but he was racing hard. Again, we were up for having two cars in the points, but we'll get there. Fantastic from Romain - he drove a calm, solid race and it was our best result of the year. We'll have some lows after this, but we'll enjoy what we've got and keep on digging for more points."
Renault Sport Formula One Team's Jolyon Palmer finished just half a second away from the points with his third eleventh place finish of the season in the Austrian Grand Prix whilst Nico Hulkenberg finished in P13 as a consequence of a poor start off the line. Jolyon hounded P10 finisher Lance Stroll for most of the race but was unable to find a way past, whilst Nico dropped back from P11 at the start as his car's anti-stall kicked in. The team now heads to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix.
Nico started the race from P11 on a new set of Supersoft Pirelli tyres, changing to a new set of Soft tyres on lap 14. Jolyon started the race from P16 on a new set of Soft Pirelli tyres, pitting on lap 34 for a new set of Ultrasoft tyres, with which he finished the race.
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: "After Baku, the Austrian Grand Prix represents the second opportunity we missed to score points. Despite a generally good race, starting in P16 didn't give Jo the opportunity to finish in the points. Again, we need to qualify better to score on Sundays. Nico's race was very difficult - he had a bad start that needs to be investigated, in addition, we need to understand why his pace wasn't aligned with the rest of weekend. On a positive note, we see that our engine programme is heading in the right direction, allowing for a strong race pace and a new podium. We are turning the page and look forward to a quick turnaround to Silverstone. The British Grand Prix marks the beginning of a sequence of strong chassis developments. We continue to work hard to reach our targets."
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas won his second race of the season with a one-stop strategy at the Red Bull Ring, having started from pole on the ultrasoft and then switching to the supersoft.
A number of different one-stop strategies were tried, with all three nominated compounds (soft, supersoft and ultrasoft) seen on the starting grid. In particular, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton started from P8 due to a grid penalty and moved from the supersoft to the ultrasoft to make up four places by the end of the race. Both Felipe Massa, driving for Williams, and Renault's Jolyon Palmer adopted an alternative strategy by starting on soft and going onto ultrasoft, to also make up a few places from their grid positions.
With a short lap featuring very few corners and none of the expected rain, the fastest average lap speeds of the entire season so far were seen in Austria this weekend. This was one of the factors that led to some visible blistering in some moments of the race; however, this did not impact on performance as it was seen by their lap times.
Mario Isola: "With some very fast average speeds and no rain, there was a bit of blistering but this did not affect performance - with the fastest laps being set at the end of the race. Although one stop was the standard choice, there were many different variations on the one-stop strategy, with a few drivers trying something different to make up places. On the whole, the strategy options were quite aggressive throughout the field, with some long runs even on the ultrasoft. This underlines the confidence that the teams have both in the speed and durability of the tyre range."
Truthometer
Valtteri Bottas won the race using one pit stop, going from ultrasoft to supersoft on lap 42. The theoretically fastest strategy was adopted by Lewis Hamilton, who started on supersoft then moved to ultrasoft.
