Orange Army on the March

Austria was a phenomenal win for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. And a double disaster for Mercedes.

The second race of the Formula 1 triple header proved to be one of the German team’s worst efforts. Things began to fall apart when pole sitter Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire, causing a virtual safety car to be deployed. Despite both Red Bulls and Ferraris taking the opportunity to pit, Mercedes decided to leave Lewis Hamilton out.

One setback led to another.  Hamilton’s belated pit stop resulted in the Englishman dropping to fourth place, behind his main rival Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Then Hamilton suffered a loss of power. This led to his first retirement in 34 races. The strategic and mechanical error lost the team a potential one-two finish and delivered the drivers’ championship lead right back into the hands of Vettel.

An obviously frustrated Hamilton fumed “this is definitely the worst weekend that I can remember”, and for the team boss Toto Wolff it was “the most painful”. The team will look for redemption at Silverstone but this blunder will be difficult to forget.

It wasn’t just Ferrari that reaped the rewards of Mercedes’ mistake. Haas took home fourth and fifth place, their best result of the season. Romain Grosjean picked up his first points this year by finishing one place off the podium. This was a great relief for the Frenchman, who has endured a difficult campaign. He was able to answer his critics with this excellent finish. The American team are on the up, running in fifth behind Renault in the constructor’s championship.

This was arguably Max Verstappen’s most stupendous victory. The stands were aflame with the Dutchman’s 35,000-strong orange army. The troop celebrated their hero’s fourth career win with great excitement. The lederhosen-clad Red Bull team similarly rejoiced at their first home success.

Mercedes will continue to battle Ferrari for the championship at Silverstone. But Red Bull’s flying Dutchman will not be far from the spotlight.