F1 Styrian GP 2020: Qualifying Results

Saturday's Styrian Grand Prix of F1 was disrupted by rain. Yesterday, I reported that weather radars indicated a high probability of rain due to the storms hitting this area of ​​Austria where the Red Bull Ring is located. Remember that Styria is simply the new name given to the second race of the Austrian Grand Prix due to the unusual circumstances caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Well, as I was saying, the rain arrived, and due to its intensity, Free Practice 3 was cancelled.

Qualifying did take place . Otherwise, you know it would have been postponed until tomorrow morning, just before the race. That wasn't necessary, and the rain let up somewhat. However, it did rain during the qualifying sessions, leaving the track wet. This made for an entertaining qualifying session, with the cars all mixed up and a much more chaotic grid than usual, with a few surprises…

By the way, Valtteri Bottas is earning his contract renewal with Mercedes through sheer hard work. Last year he already showed some very good moments, outqualifying and outperforming Lewis Hamilton in both the race. But it didn't do him much good because of team orders that favored Hamilton, who was the one fighting for the championship. This year the Finn has also started very strongly and is leaving a very good impression, at least making things more difficult for Hamilton than in some previous years (even though he had some problems today, which Hamilton was able to exploit to qualify P3, his best starting position in F1). It's nothing like the lackluster Bottas we've seen in other seasons.

Ferrari continues to struggle , even though they've been testing some new front wing and floor components. They're still dealing with top speed issues and other related problems. They barely improved today, and even with new tires, they were struggling. While the rain didn't help, it wasn't the only issue. This doesn't bode well for their season, and it certainly doesn't bode well for next year (especially considering Carlos Sainz's potential return to Ferrari). There doesn't seem to be an easy solution, and if they can't finish this season strong, especially considering they'll be using virtually the same cars next year with limited development, they could potentially ruin this season too.

Incidentally, that's pretty much what Fernando Alonso has asked Renault for . He'd rather struggle in F1 2021 and not have them invest too much time and resources in developing the car so they can focus on F1 2022, when the technical regulations will change and they'll have a better chance of achieving more. Therefore, I wouldn't worry if Renault is at the back next year, but I would be worried if, despite that, they don't achieve anything good in 2022… I hope what Renault said last year, that the new technical regulations favor them more, is true. Alonso isn't young enough to come back and spend year after year without a good car.

Terrible performance from both Racing Point drivers . They have a car that was champion last year (or a carbon copy of it), they showed great strength in preseason testing, they had podium pace in the last race, and yet today they fell far short of the car's true potential. Lance Stroll has accustomed us to these poor performances, but today Pérez also failed again.

Verstappen also had problems , losing his fastest lap in Q3 after spinning out. It's a shame because he seemed to be the only one today who could take pole position from him…

Free practice results 3

Classification Results

The race is tomorrow . Let's hope this Styrian GP is as interesting as last week's Austrian GP. That race was amazing.