Austrian Grand Prix 2019 – Formula 1 Race Preview and Prediction
Formula One Grand Prix enters the 9th race of the calendar, which is set to take place at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The event will take off on June 28th with the first practice and end on June 30th with the main race.
Red Bull Ring hopefully more entertaining than Circuit Paul Ricard
Following a rather boring race in France, the best Formula One drivers in the world travel to Austria in hopes to produce a more exciting race for themselves and fans alike. Looking back at France Grand Prix, which took place on June 23rd, we saw Hamilton win by a huge 18s margin ahead of Bottas and Leclerc at 3rd place. Moving down the standings, Verstappen finished almost 35 seconds behind, with the 5th placed Vettel ending the race 62.8s too slow. If we were to describe the French race, it would be a complete opposite of what we expect to see from F1 races, where, instead of a close race, which comes down to one-hundredth of a second, we were watching a race which was decided by seconds instead.
The upcoming race will take place at Red Bull Ring, which was founded as Österreichring and hosted F1 races for 18 consecutive years from 1970 till 1987. Later it was shortened and renamed into A1-Ring, which hosted F1 races between 1997 and 2003. Once the Formula One outgrew the A1-Ring circuit, the track was once again rebuilt and renamed into Red Bull Ring, which has hosted the Austrian Grand Prix ever since 2014. As it stands now, Mercedes are the strongest constructor at Red Bull Ring with 4 consecutive wins from 2014-2017. Their run, however, was stopped by Max Verstappen last year, when he beat Kimi Räikkönen by 1.504s.
Valtteri Bottas the man to watch out for in Austria
Valtteri Bottas will come into the 9th race of Grand Prix calendar as a 2nd placed racer, trailing only Hamilton, who is 36 points ahead of the Finn. Looking back at the French Grand Prix, Bottas did have his chance to fight for the 1st place, but in the end, failed to utilize his opportunities, which pushed him down to fight against Leclerc for the 2nd place finish, which he did get in the end. Looking back at how Bottas performed this season, he has been driving very good, however, it must pain him to see Hamilton winning 6 of the last 7 races, running away in the standings and decreasing his chances to win his first Championship in his career.
Something has to be done if Bottas wants to defeat Hamilton by the time season ends, and considering the upcoming race will take place at Red Bull Ring, this will give Bottas an excellent chance to defeat Hamilton for the 3rd time this season.
Hamilton is not known to produce strong results at Red Bull Ring, where he won only once. Looking back at 2014, Hamilton managed to recover from 9th place and finished 2nd. A year later, the British ended the race on the pole, but got defeated by Rosberg. In 2016 Hamilton did manage to win, however, he won only because he and Rosberg collided on the last lap, which left Rosberg with a badly damaged car, while Hamilton’s car was unharmed, which allowed him to get himself the controversial win. But karma got the better of him, as Hamilton had to retire from the race last year. All in all, we can conclude that Hamilton is not as dominant on the Red Bull Ring as he is elsewhere, which will give other racers, namely Bottas, a great chance to reach for the 1st place.
Prediction: Valtteri Bottas to win
Odds: 4.50 5Dimes
