Here it is then, the big return of F1 as the season heads to Austria and this will be the first race following that ugly driving from Sebastian Vettel in Azerbaijan where he deliberately rammed into Hamilton’s car. The best act of revenge that Hamilton can get over the German will be to go out and beat the German to the chequered flag at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Sunday.
It was a good day on Friday for Hamilton who was the fastest in the second practice session as he beat out Vettel. There is a bit of an atmosphere around obviously and while Hamilton has accepted Vettel’s forced apology, the British driver is rightly still annoyed that the Championship leader wasn’t penalised further than the 10 second penalty that he received during the race. Vettel still finished ahead of Hamilton in the race to extend his lead over Hamilton in the Drivers Championship to 14 points.
So this is one that Hamilton will want to score big in to close that gap again. Hamilton goes as the favourite to do that and he is the reigning champion as well with his win on the board last season. The Mercedes team has won the last three editions of the Austrian Grand Prix since it was reinstated back in 2014. So they will be expecting to find some form here but Hamilton’s team mate Bottas seemed a little off the pace on Friday during practice, finishing behind Vettel.
Hamilton would enjoy it even more if he could get Bottas between himself and Vettel as that would increase Hamilton’s chances of winning. He needs his team mate to step it up a little bit. Vettel has never won in Austria and he barely got a run last year as he had an accident on the 26th lap and retired after having started back in ninth on the grid. To be fair to Vettel, part of the reason why he hasn’t won the Austrian Grand Prix is that it wasn’t hosted when he was dominating in his Red Bull years.
So Hamilton looked pretty comfortable and could be on his way to a maximum point weekend. He needs it. The Red Bulls, after impressing a little bit more in Azerbaijan, don’t quite appear to be on the pace in Austria to challenge enough for the win, but Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fourth and fifth quickest respectively on Friday and it may be worth pushing for one of them to squeeze off a podium finish and Verstappen is 7/4 at Coral to do that, with Ricciardo, winner in Azerbaijan at 3/1 to get the win.
Austrian Grand Prix Winner Odds
Lewis Hamilton 8/13, Sebastian Vettel 3/1, Valtteri Bottas 5/1, Max Verstappen 14/1, Daniel Ricciardo 25/1, Kimi Raikkonen 25/1
Austrian Grand Prix Pole Position Odds
Lewis Hamilton 2/5, Valtteri Bottas 7/2, Sebastian Vettel 9/2, Max Verstappen 20/1, Kimi Raikkonen 28/1, Daniel Ricciardo 33/1, bar 300/1
Austrian Grand Prix Prediction
This one looks ready made for Hamilton. He is the reigning champion and Vettel doesn’t have the track record here. Bottas’s time on Friday wasn’t comparable because of not running full race simulation and Hamilton needs a big weekend from his buddy too to try and keep Vettel as lower down the order as possible. Hamilton for a pole and win double.
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