Rate the race: 2016 Austrian Grand Prix

2016 Austrian Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Austrian Grand Prix.

Since 2008, F1 Fanatic has held polls on every F1 race to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (10%)
  • 9 (32%)
  • 8 (34%)
  • 7 (15%)
  • 6 (4%)
  • 5 (2%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (1%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 545

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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130 comments on “Rate the race: 2016 Austrian Grand Prix”

  1. Easily a 10/10, it had quite literally everything!

    1. Such a shame to see it end with a collision, nonetheless a fantastic battle, with a Manor in the points too!

      1. Great drive by Werhlein, surprised he came back after kind of being done in by the SC. Though, what’s with the lack of a penalty for that improper start position and backing up on the grid?

        1. I assume he must have been told by Charlie to reverse

        2. He started from the correct spot and it turns out there actually no rules saying you can’t reverse on the grid.

          1. Interesting, could have sworn others have been punished for being in the wrong grid spot at least.

            But nevertheless, it was a great performance. He got dropped to last and spent quite a while stuck behind his teammate because of the SC, yet he ended the race harassing a Williams.

          2. If he’d still been in the incorrect grid spot once the start procedure began he would have been penalised but I think Charlie was kind and held off starting while he backed into his own.

        3. Thats just it…..there is no rule against doing what Werhlein did.

    2. Same here. There’s no 9.5 so…

      Great race. A final lap as we want it to be. Fight for P1 and a bit of drama to make the post race coverage even more interesting :)

      Next: BREXIT GP!

    3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      3rd July 2016, 15:20

      Hamilton beats Rosberg and Mercedes! Stunning victory!!! Vintage Hamilton.

    4. Agreed 10
      Screaming at the tv!!

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        4th July 2016, 3:54

        @verstappen lol, so we weren’t the only ones screaming? good to hear :-)

  2. Went with 8/10. Definitely better than average, but not a future classic.

    1. @huhhii Same, except that’s a 7 in my book.

  3. As good as it gets. Had everything. Battles all race long. Crashes. Incidents. Constant overtaking. Last lap madness. Drivers destroying their teammates. Wonderful.

  4. First half of the race was rubbish, but the second half was very good. 7/10 overall. How did Rosberg bottle that race win, and on the final lap too! That was poor.

    1. I think the soft tyres were indeed the better race tyres.
      + Rosberg had some damage to the side of his car, some tyre parts of Vettel stuck underneath

    2. come on man, how can this have been a 7/10 race? It had battles for 1st and 3rd position into the last lap, overtakes everywhere, it had a massive crash for the race leader, Button and Weirleihn in the points… Easily a 9 or maybe even a 10.

    3. Rosberg breaks were completely gone down the second straight

      1. Yeah right. Just like his brain capacity?

        1. Toto wolf in post race commentary explicitly said ” Nico’s brakes were gone , but we weren’t able to tell him that his brake by wire had failed ….” it’s very reasonable that he wasn’t actually able to stop into turn 2 and as a result he suffered. However the second maneuver was a play out of Crashnado’s playbook to send big F U to Lewis and he paid the penalty overall in points for being greedy and not ceding the position after he had lost in penultimate lap allowing to make 13 points instead of just 7 .

          Greed is will always be punished

      2. What was wrong with his steering wheel?

  5. 8. That was a nice race, with decent results for Verstappen and Button! Just a bit disappointed that the rain never came but apart from that it was really enjoyable!

    1. Pascal did a great job too. Racer of the Weekend for me.

  6. A 10 from me, the race had intrigue up and down the field, lots of passing without too much being obviously DRS, uncertain strategy calls, concerns over reliability and a last lap battle for the lead. Couldn’t ask for much more.

  7. 8/10. The race itself was average, but the end was a cracker, like in a Hollywood movie. Can’t remember taking the lead on the last lap since M. Hakkinen overtook M. Schumacher on the last lap (it was on 2000, as far as I remember).

    1. European GP 2005. Kimi’s suspension broke on the final lap.

      1. And Canadian GP 2011, of course.

        1. Which remains my favourite race of all time. :)

      2. And Japan 2005 of course, Kimi overtook Fisi. Hakkinen’s move on MSC was on lap 40/44.

    2. Lewis Hamilton, Brazil 2008

  8. I think the soft tyres were indeed the better race tyres.
    + Rosberg had some damage to the side of his car, some tyre parts of Vettel stuck underneath

    1. Oeps, should have been a reply above ;-)

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      3rd July 2016, 16:00

      @gdewillde what does the soft tyres were indeed the better race tyres – these were the last laps of the race (low fuel) and you’re fighting for position and need to make 4-5 passes losing minimum time. If the soft tyres are the better race tyres, does that mean they are also the better quali tyre?

  9. I won’t hand a 10 out often, but there were maybe 3 laps in the entire race that I wasn’t gripped by something. A real race for the win, proper on track passing, a great result for Button, very impressive point finish for Wehrlein & Manor and another impressive race by Verstappen, can we now accept he is the real deal? The only blip is the tyre blowout for Vettel and boos on the podium.

    1. Verstappen has now outraced Ricciardo 4/5 races. If he’s not the real deal, I don’t know what is.

      1. The results say different…..Verstappen 3…..Ricciardo 2…..but its 5-0 to Ricciardo in qually.

      2. And Verstappen has crashed 4 times to Ricciardo’s 1.

  10. One of the worst races this season. Apart from possibly a last lap race winner change the rest was anti-climatic, stale and DRS driven. Bad tactics stalemate on the rain are the big culprits. 5.5

    1. Pathetic aspirations for you, then.

    2. Matija (@matijaleader)
      3rd July 2016, 16:32

      I have to agree. Last few laps were epic but that alone doesnt make it a 10… 7/10 for me.

    3. Snoozefest. If it wasn’t for the last lap action I would have given it a 5. Bumped it up one for the mild amount of interest it provoked for one corner.

  11. 9/10, ridiculous last few laps and good drama throughout. Interesting to see what happens with Vettel blow out investigation.

  12. I liked the race, it was a fantastic scrap for the win. Sad DRS ruined a lot of it: the few laps we didn’t have it enabled were great.

    Great strategic variations, a good result. 7/10 for me.

    Really annoyed by the booing and the post race interviews. The interviewer was rubbish, and the disrespectful crowd made it even more awkward.

    1. I don’t think being British helped him much this week :-(

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      3rd July 2016, 16:57

      @alanore never thought about that one – although that was a drive of a lifetime by Lewis on the last few laps. Like he said, he was there to win and like the commentators said he was driving to win, you could see that by watching the car.

  13. Great race. Especially in the end. Fight for all podium places and brilliant points from Button and Grosjean.

    1. And Werlhein ! Where did he come from !

  14. Whoever voted 1/10 clearly switched off mid-race, 9/10 for me.

  15. 9/10, will change that to 10/10 if Rosberg gets DQ’d! :P

    1. @f1bobby Why would Rosberg get DQ?

  16. From what I could see, Hamilton rejoined the track straight into the path of Rosberg, therefore causing the damage and passed him (under yellows, by the way). If he receives a penalty, Verstappen will be the winner (:o). Rosberg may be penalized for T2 clash as well. Not done and dusted yet.

    (Please don’t reply, this is just an observation. I wouldn’t read it if anyone did reply)

    1. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
      3rd July 2016, 14:54

      Hahahahaha

    2. Hamilton didn’t hit Rosberg when they rejoined as far as I could see, the sparks were from Rosberg’s front wing which was already hanging off.

    3. Hamilton didn’t cause the damage to Rosberg’s car as he re-entered the track….. Rosberg caused that damage when he crashed into Hamilton under breaking. Hamilton even took a really wide line so Rosberg is fully to blame.

    4. Hamilton didn’t even touch Rosberg when he joined. See the replay.

      1. Thank you. Not a good observation, then.

        -_-

  17. Good action on track, we had good and bad stategies, and it sets up things nicely for the next couple of races too!

  18. 7, above average but other than the last lap, not memorable.

    The beginning was interesting as was the end, but the middle of the race didn’t offer too much. Whoever handled the production of the race did a good job showing things that were going on throughout the field.

  19. Great race, the crash was, I think a lot less malicious than the commentators where saying.

    Only thing that was really distasteful was the booing, I don’t care what happened, that’s, just disgusting. I am ashamed that the fans did that to Lewis.

    1. Traverse (@hellotraverse)
      3rd July 2016, 15:03

      Indeed, very distasteful behaviour. I expect F1 fans to behave better than a bunch of football louts.

  20. Great race, Tyre strategy definitely made it a more interesting race. Verstappen and Button had great performances today, the last lap was certainly embarrassing for Mercedes.

  21. Nico, once again, crashes into his teammate like and idiot, and once again it costs the team. Mercedes has to be pretty upset with Nico right now.

  22. A bit boring race. Hope they will restore the old circuit next year.

  23. Many will say 10/10 because of final lap but I think an 8 is more fair. I thought we are in for a rather boring second half but thankfully it wasn’t to be. It was also fun seeing Raikkonen battle with the Red Bulls. There was of course a lot of strategy going on, maybe a bit too much sometimes, but I think it haven’t had a bad impact on the race. Though it wasn’t looking great when Mercedes stretched their legs in the second stint. They are still clearly ahead.

  24. 9, kind of crazy race. Especially at the end.

  25. 9/10 Great racing, DRS wasn’t too effective here which was a good thing, Hard racing on the last lap for the win and a Manor in the points. can’t complain about that race

  26. 8/10. An easily enjoyable race, with some good results from Verstappen, Button and Wehrlein. The Merc collision didn’t surprise me in those last few laps, however, I think it was morely Hamilton’s fault because he was on the outside and drove straight into his teammate even though Rosberg probably understeered hugely.

    Ferrari are being so inconsistent, though I did like Kimi’s little charge at the end there.

    Looking forward to Britain!

    1. Watch the replay, please. It wasn’t Hamilton’s fault since he was on the OUTSIDE. He had to turn in at some point and he left a lot of room for Rosberg. This was anything but Hamilton’s fault.

  27. Wow! What a climax :)

  28. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    3rd July 2016, 15:09

    I’m happy to see Button do so well. Driver of the weekend for me.

    Confused at the 8/9/10 ratings though. Sure it was good, pretty decent but it wasn’t worth more than a 6 – maybe a 7… each to their own though.

  29. Its a 9 for me…..lots going on…tyre wear issues. Button driving out of his skin…Manor scoring a point..and the last lap
    Rosberg being caught out by the inboard camera, showing how he forgot to turn the wheel……and the girl with the shortest skirt gets to do the podium interviews…..she was total rubbish…
    Roll on Silverstone

  30. I’m surprised some people didn’t enjoy it, I was trying to decide between 8 and 9/10 even before the last lap.

    DRS was pretty much perfect as far as I’m concerned, it let people catch up on the s/f straight enough to have a go into t2 (without DRS), then if they managed to put their opponent off-line there they had another chance into t3.

  31. Hamilton winnining ruined the race for me 😢😢. Had anyone else won atleast 9/10.

    But now i give it a 1/10. Is there an option for 0/10??

    I hate to see unfair driving and Lewis should be penalised for that. But he wont since the FIA/officials/stewards are biased towards him.

    1. if you think this was his fault than you are biased, big Time… and i don’t like Lewis or rosberg, buT i really dont like their ignorant fanatic die hard Fans. …

      1. Sviatoslav (@)
        3rd July 2016, 15:34

        This was completely Hamilton’s fault.
        Rosberg had issues with the brake-by-wire, plus his brakes were overheated. He simply couldn’t brake normally.
        Rosberg started to turn earlier, than Hamilton, but Lewis decided to turn right into his team mate.
        Hamilton can’t fight properly. He crashed into Webber in Singapore in 2010. He crashed into Kobayashi in Belgium in the same style. Simply because “I have no glasses! I can’t see anything! I am the only one on the track!”

        1. yeah He had break issues and He knew it, He should have started breaking earlier, even lauda admitted it was nicos fault! He didn’t even tried turning, and lewis eventually had to start turning to stay on track

          1. Thts cuz Lauda is in love with Lewis

        2. Watch the replay. Hamilton left as much room as possible. Rosberg couldn’t stop in time. How would Hamilton know that Rosberg had BBW issues? Not fair to blame Hamilton for this.

          1. thank you for some common Sense!

        3. Kobayashi did better though he had Hamilton in the wall. If you are going to do it do it properly…think Senna v Prost Japan 1990. Worth the reprimand and fine and maintain 24 point gap. He had a brake problem so great excuse to drive straight on and stick Hamilton hard into the wall.

      2. +1. Clearly Rosberg was way off line

    2. @fish123 Enjoying the drugs eh? Rosberg probably was having some too when he decided not to turn for the corner.

    3. Yeah the last lap collision was all on Rosberg. But I too am bored with Lewis winning. 6/10.

      1. Actually, I’m bored with Mercedes winning. I want to see someone else challenge for the championship. I am pulling for Vettel although I’m neither a Ferrari fan nor particularly a Vettel fan, I just want someone else to beat the silver cars. Unfortunately it would seem that the Ferrari strategists are not Ferrari fans either.

  32. A solid 8 for me. Battle for the top three positions in the last 7 or 8 laps. Winner not decided until the last lap with Rosberg colliding with Lewis. Overall a great race with not so unexpected winner. Though Rosberg easily could have gotten P2 had he managed to stop the car in time. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Mercedes debrief room. Great drives from Jenson, Verstappen and Wehrlein. Bring on Silverstone.

  33. Sviatoslav (@)
    3rd July 2016, 15:30

    2 points, no more. Only for the intrigue on the last lap.
    I just cannot give more than 5 to any race featuring DRS and Pirelli tyres.

  34. So many times we bemoan the fact that a race “was great except for no battles upfront”. Or we might get a tease for a lead battle that goes nowhere once dirty air gets factored in (see VES-RAI in Spain). For once we not only got that tease but did it ever deliver…a genuine last lap battle! Plus it turns the HAM-ROS rivalry up yet another notch…no complaints here!

    Throw in the “VES on very old tires”, “Overachieving McLaren/Haas”, and “Points for Manor!?” stories and I was thoroughly entertained. 9.5/10

  35. Fortunes swayed in the Austrian GP. For some teams, a race to forget and for others, a race to remember. And then there were teams with 50 percent happiness and 50 percent disappointment.
    Manor and Pascal Wherlien did a great job and was there to pick up the point when it mattered. But Williams and Force India lacked performance. Perez drove hard but could not hold on in the end. Ferrari took a gamble. They had to as they were nowhere near Mercedes and were struggling to match Red Bull. While the gamble ended in a tyre failure for Vettel, Raikonnen picked a consolation podium after the last lap incident. Max Verstappen kept his head and took a podium finish. Ricciardo lacked his usual flair. He has to go back to the garage and think of a Max strategy.
    McLaren has to be happy with Button’s performance and the points, but disappointment for Alonso.
    On Mercedes: clearly Toto Wolff’s reaction after the last lap incident shows it all. It is a recurring incident now and one that could have destroyed the race for either drivers. To look at it from Hamilton’s perspective: he did a wonderful job with the ultrasoft at the beginning. He had soft tyres in the garage. He capitalised on his team mate’s mistake and closed the gap perfectly. But he could not make a clean pass (that’s my opinion). He could have got the perfect opportunity to pass Rosberg even after that corner, and Rosberg with his destroyed tyres would have been a sitting duck. But, the commitment to overtake at that very corner was because it was the last lap. From Rosberg’s perspective: He did a storming race right from the start, had tremendous pace, overtook at all the critical places and was was there to take benefit of a somewhat slow stop of his teammate. But he could not last the ultrasoft tyres under “Hammer time” pressure from behind. His predicament in the last lap was from the fact that he did a superb race till that point and thought if he could hold on to the last few corners through aggressive placement, he could take victory. In the hindsight, second place finish would have been a better option for the championship, but at the cost of racing driver’s ego, which is perfectly reasonable.
    Mercedes have to understand the fact that this is not the first time time there was contact, and this will not be the last time. On all these occasions I wonder how a team boss like Ross Brawn would have reacted!
    I have rated the race 8/10. There was fight for the top three podium places and some bold strategies. A bit of rain would have been a good addition.

    1. @pinakghosh I have massive massive respect for Ross Brawn…. But we know Ross would have done. He would have put together a perfectly controlled show. We dont want that… We want racing.

      I congratulate Nikki and Totto for doing what they are doing….we want more of this….not a boring Team order and a parade following….. This is how it should be……

      1. “We are looking like a bunch of idiots and it’s disrespectful to 1500 people who work their nuts off to prepare the cars and this is why it needs to end.” This is Toto Wolff’s reaction on SkySports.
        Now there are two options before Mercedes:
        1. It continues to be as @tmax says this is how it should be for the fans
        2. Wolff takes the Brawn route and take circumstantial control of their ace drivers and prevent any brain-fade.
        Next stop..Britain.

  36. A good race and the last 5 laps had me standing right in front of the TV. I give this race a 9 out of 10.

  37. 8 for me. Pretty good climax but was let down by Ferrari’s lack of challenge- and also this track is kind of a big kart track- too many slow corners for me to ever rank a race here more than 8.

  38. Good race 8.
    They showed far more battles in the back then last race.
    The tire battles also make it far more interesting.

    With good tire management RBR and Ferrari can get close to Mercedes.
    Max and Kimi seem to be excellent in that.

  39. The first half of the race was OK, but the 2nd half was very exciting especially the last few laps, so overall a decent race. A lot better than last year’s race for sure.

  40. Interesting Weekend.

    1) If FIA had gone with their ridiculous Qualifying format they introduced in the beginning of the year, the Austrian GP Qualifying would have been uneventful. On the contrary, the old qualifying bought about an exciting final 10 minutes.

    2) Good Job by Hulkenburg but such a shame that the car did not finish

    3) Button showed us that he is not nervous starting in the front of the Grid.

    4) Nico and Seb both led the race even though they started with a penalty.

    5) Ricciardo is now the official Mark Webber of Red Bull… Good Job Max…..

    6) Why was Lewis Fitted with Soft Tires….. Well in the end eventually Soft tires looked faster than supersoft. Will the conspiracy theorist screamed that Nico is given advantage scream otherway now ?

    7) My hearty compliments to Totto and Nikki for letting these guys race.This is how we want guys. Please dont change anything. This is racing… You are doing it right…..

    8) TO me the last lap did not Look like a Senna Suzuka or a Schumi Jerez moment… it looked more of racing incident. Both the guys were aggressive….yeah that happens…..we love it…. trust me…..

    9) Sea Saw of fortunes for Rosberg……

    10) Leiws Gets booed on the podium. He has no clue why. Poor Lewis. Sorry for him.

    11) Last but not the least. I did not quite understand what the lady on the podium interview was speaking. Neither did Kimi…. I guess he did not even bother to understand….. he just gave a canned statement!!!!

    Way to Go Austria….

    Way to Go Nikki & Totto + Lewis and Nico ……. We want more….

    Rated 8…. Good package overall…..

    1. Regarding 6) – I believe the used SS with Nico as he had no S left. It was just a matter of necessity.

  41. A 9 out of 10 for me. The first race I’ve seen in years where all podium places were seriously contended until the end. There was some nice overtaking and strategy differences in the start of the race, so I was kept busy all race long. The only reason for not giving a 10 is that such a race should not end with a crash.

  42. 9/10. Really good race. I’m still bitter about Vettel’s retirement, I had high expectations for his strategy. But aside from that, there was a seriously good battle for the win, last lap overtake and last lap contact. Also a lot of surprising results, many talking points, nice on track action, beautiful race track. It can’t get much better than that, in my opinion.

  43. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    3rd July 2016, 16:10

    10.

    I’m never believing the last 5 laps for months.

  44. 9/10. A very good race in a beautiful racetrack. Werhlein is the weekend racer! 10 with that car! A shame what happen to Vettel, he was to take a sure 2 if not for his retirement.

  45. 8/10. Good fun, but the last lap was stupid.

  46. Very good race 8/10. Brilliant performances by Verstappen, Button, Sainz ans Wehrlein.

  47. 9/10 – had everything. Twists, turns, unpredictability and – even without the crash – you didn’t know who was going to win until the last lap. Was on the edge of my seat.

  48. 9.
    Actually watched the TV more than live timing, for a change!

  49. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    3rd July 2016, 17:29

    Speechless about how this turned out for Hulkenberg…

  50. For excitement, 10/10.
    For greatness, 5/10.
    Final: 7.5/10.
    No doubt plenty of drama. Loved how you could see another Merc train wreck coming from the next county.
    But for a truly great race, it should be display of excellence that is present, not stupidity deciding the result. Rosberg was not racing elbow-to-elbow, he was just trying to keep that meanie HAM from punking him again, even if it meant both of them going out. He got what he deserved.
    But that wasn’t all. Vettel went out after a tire explosion which, had anyone in the Ferrari garage been watching TV, would have seen was coming. We all saw it on TV laps before: His tire was falling apart faster than a Clinton alibi.
    Then there was the decision to keep Kimi out until he would slot back in behind the Red Bulls. All the Ferrari money in the world does no good if you have a fool on the pit wall calling the shots.
    There were some good drives – the Manor fellow getting points and Verstappen on another masterful perfromance. But sad;y even these results were driven mostly by tire management, not exactly the formula for thrills.

  51. Who are the 2% of voters who said that was a 1/10? Seriously, what do you want.

    What a race, Manor scoring points, a battle for the lead and a last lap battle for the lead. Loads of strategy variety and loads of incidents. Fantastic advert for F1.

    That race is why I watch F1, just had it all.

  52. Where were the Hamilton fans when Vettel was being booed. Oh how the times have changed.

    1. Yeah! A lot of them were Mark Webber fans though, all five of them!

  53. I vote a 8, would have been a 7 if Rosberg and Hamilton did not crash into eachpther. The race had a lot, but I’ve seen more spectacular races, even on the A1/Red Bull Ring.

    Last years GP felt a little more ballsy, remember quali, Raikkonen and Alonso’s crash, and ofcourse Maldonado vs Verstappen. It had more risky overtakes.

  54. 9/10 – a battle for the lead, some good overtaking, crashes, last-lap meltdowns and a point for Manor! I had to pick my jaw up off the ground at the end there. Button, Verstappen and Rosberg (before the last lap) were great. MegaPascal was also a joy to watch.

    I found Sky’s commentary embarrassing. Croft + Kravitz bias towards Hamilton was nothing short of astonishing. No credit was given to Rosberg for his pace and ability to clear the traffic to enable him to take the lead in the first stint. All they wanted to talk about from there on in was how Rosberg was morally obliged to let Hamilton past in someway. Why? He isn’t ahead in the championship. He was slower in the first stint. And Hamilton had a go at the undercut before the second pit stops.

  55. I toyed between a an 8 or a 9 but gave it a 9/10 in the end. It’s quite rare these days for the first 3 to be only 3 seconds apart each with only 11 laps to go and there to be a final lap battle for the win. So I think the racer has to be seen in context of the last few seasons. If some people here are giving this a 5/6 then goodness knows what their expectations are. So it becomes my race of the season but only another day I might have give it an 8.
    I think the comments on the Rosberg v Hamilton situation on the C4 coverage were very fair. I do not usually see the Sky coverage but I did for the last race in Baku and I thought the commentators were overly biased towards Hamilton. This time though he was certainly the innocent party.

  56. sorry the ‘race’ not racer.

  57. ColdFly F1 (@)
    3rd July 2016, 23:03

    I’ve given it a 9/10.
    Not because it was the best race as far as overtaking and manoeuvres (although FOM TV guys missed a few key moves). But I gave it a high score because this race showed almost all cars being able to fight with all the others. I’ve seen Manors and Saubers attacking, and all the way through the field.
    And even the Mercs weren’t that far ahead.
    great race.

  58. I rate 7, there was some interesting part of this race.

  59. I keep seeing comments of biasedness towards Hamilton about the overall race, but Nico’s entire lead was basically handed to him by another nonsensical strategy call on the other car? Not one person could give a reasonable explanation as to why Hamilton was kept out so long, which considering his reaction when he came back out he didn’t seem to know why it was done either.

    The 2 Mercedes were the strongest this weekend, and passing isn’t a problem on this track so I really don’t understand where the claim of bias comes from? It’s not like Nico started down at the bottom of the grid and worked his way up is it? And also started with 2 cars out of position infront of him, getting passed traffic in the strongest car on the grid and overtaking in the pit lane isn’t exactly massively noteworthy no matter who the driver is..?

    1. Cos the plan for Lewis was a one-stopper. That’s why they kept him out so long. What’s difficult to understand about that? Mercedes weakness is being in dirty air of other cars and Nico was 15th after his pit stop, it wasn’t gifted to him at all. He had to work for it.

      1. @roodda One stopper when starting on used Ultra Softs that he only carry for handful laps in practice? It’s already a miracle he still posting fastest lap with it above lap 10, let alone doing competitive times for that long. When Rosberg chewing the lead with Softs at that rate, it’s a no brainer to pit Hamilton to cover him, unless you work for Mercedes it seems.

  60. Great race!

    Rubbish podium interviewer.

  61. The race stalled a bit in the middle, but was otherwise tense, intriguing and exciting. Rosberg does deserve a smack around the head though as, even if it was by accident due to a brake problem that just happened to spring up at that moment, he didn’t even try troubling the apex and seemed intent on pushing Hamilton off the track, likely in another panicked moment where he wanted to prove he wasn’t a push over.

  62. Funny how quickly everybody is getting used to having an 18-year old on the podium.

  63. 9/10 – and a special shout-out to Jenson for staying 2nd for SEVEN Laps in that mud-slow McHonda. If only Whiting would have black-flagged it on Lap 6 due to poor attendance. ;-)

    And congrats to Red Bull for blowing serious amounts of Benie Bucks to put on a race than it seems fewer and fewer want to witness live. If attendance is down at Silverstone too, fear Bernie will want to sex up the show. Fireproof Lederhosen driving suits for the entire grid?

  64. 9/10 This race has full tension all the time.

    The winners:
    – Hamilton also doing the unthinkable with pushing that Ultra-Softs on first stint and having one of his best Hammertime on last stint. Mercedes could do better 1st stop strategy and better consistency for his stops though.
    – Button again proving why he doesn’t need to retire yet. Superb drive on the McLaren, P6 on merit. Dunno why Alonso retired, considering he still on course for 10th at that moment.
    – Grosjean lucked again with safety car and free pit-stop. Another good performance for Haas.
    Wehrlein lucked with all the retired car for that final point, but he still drive strongly all weekend and earned it.

    The losers:
    – Ferrari as usual botching their strategy with Raikkonen. Very unfortunate for Vettel to end his race like that.
    – Perez which has his car break on final lap, after good recovery drive for points after his qualifying trouble.
    – Rosberg looks great until final lap incident, which then he go… stupid. Was prepared to give DotW to him too if not for the crash.
    – The biggest loser is Hulkenberg. Never showed why he start on P2, consistently looked slower than the cars around him, and even Perez who started 15th is ahead of him before he retired. Making thing worse, Perez already prove he can delivered when starting below front row and Button who has slower car is finishing P6. Well, he still have his fans at least.

    1. Forgot to add the worst part of the race is the podium interviewer which makes me very cringe to look at it and the crowd who booing Hamilton when he didn’t do anything wrong.

  65. Was thoroughly entertained the entire race, which has been happening more and more this season, despite Baku (which I didn’t even rate because I didn’t watch it live).

    I gave it an 8/10 because the first 20 laps seemed to be too reliant on promise, rather than meaningful action. The direction was kind of shoddy as well, focussing on Verstappen-Raikkonen while Rosberg-Hamilton was happening as well. They managed to miss Verstappen on Ricciardo too and there were more moments I found to be oddly directed. The shots were great, but the person deciding which we’d see wasn’t as on it.

    Ultimately, the booing and incomprehensible podium interviews reminded me of how stale this sport is outside of the track. You’ve got a ton of F1 legends there racing in the Procars, you’ve got a ton on British, American and Australian journalists and presumably some German/Austrian journalists who can speak proper English. Who do we get? Some Spanish reporter with a thin grasp on English pronunciation..

    If hip hop artists have hype-men, F1 currently has a lot of anti-hype people on board. You think you’ve just seen an exciting race involving 22 drivers, but keeping the broadcast on after the podium ceremony will quickly help you from that delusion..

  66. I gave the race an 8.

    I thought it was progressing nicely and was on course to be a good solid race, that was until to the drama on the final lap which boosted my rating.

    There seemed to be action throughout the field but the main talking point Austria without doubt is the story at Mercedes.

    I don’t know whose call it was on strategy but I thought Hamilton had lost the chance at the race win when he lost track position to Rosberg after the first round of stops.

    As I only saw the race highlights I didn’t have a good sense of how many laps had passed and the gaps but I thought Hamilton stayed out too long on his first set of tyres, as before he came in they showed a few slow-mo clips of his tyres and they didn’t look to good and in one clip you could actually see bits of rubber coming off the tyres.

    I think they were trying to go for a one stop with Hamilton and they were focusing too much on the Ferraris rather than on Rosberg, coupled with the slow stop it meant that Hamilton came out behind Rosberg.

    They then changed to a two stopper matching Rosberg, and there was a chance for Hamilton to retake the lead during the second round of stops when he stopped first but another slow stop and a mistake on his out lap resulted in him still being behind Rosberg.

    After that I thought Rosberg was going to win as we have seen Hamilton struggle to get past Rosberg sometimes even when he seems faster in the race.

    But then came the final lap with Rosberg’s tyres going off and making a mistake at turn one, I think the collision was Rosberg’s fault as he seemed like he didn’t even attempt to take the corner until Hamilton started turning in when they were nearing to the edge of the track.

    Wolff has said that Rosberg had a brake problem but in the post-race interviews Rosberg didn’t mention this and it sounded like he knew what he was doing.

    Mercedes have not singled out one driver for criticism publicly, but they have made it clear they don’t want anymore collisions, however it seems that whenever Hamilton and Rosberg have been together on track in a race this season they have touched so the rest of the season will be interesting.

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