The 2020 Styrian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Pirelli Großer Preis der Steiermark 2020) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 12 July 2020 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. It was the second round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship. It was the first running of the Styrian Grand Prix, and was held exactly one week after the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix on the same track, due to the rescheduling of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the race, Lewis Hamilton won from pole position, ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. The result saw Hamilton close to within 6 points of the championship leader, Bottas, and Mercedes extend their lead in the Constructors' Championship to 41 points.
Background Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The originally scheduled calendar for the championship was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the planned opening round in Australia was called off two days before the race was due to take place, prompting the FIA to draft a new calendar. The start of the championship was delayed until 5 July, with the Red Bull Ring hosting the Austrian Grand Prix as the opening round of the championship. Organisers of the race signed a contract with Liberty Media, the sport's commercial rights holder, to host a second round at the circuit on 12 July (a week after the first race) to be known as the "Styrian Grand Prix". The race was named for Styria, the state of Austria that the Red Bull Ring is located in. The back-to-back Austrian races marked the first time that a country hosted back-to-back races in the same season since 1995 when Japan hosted the Pacific and Japanese Grands Prix. The race was also the first time in the sport's history that the same venue and circuit layout hosted back-to-back World Championship races.
Car upgrades Ferrari brought and introduced a wide range of updates to the Ferrari SF1000. The upgrades were originally scheduled for the but were brought forward after a poor performance at the . Mercedes trialed a reliability upgrade by testing new gearbox components designed to solve the electrical problems at the first race of the season. McLaren used a new chin spoiler design.
Championship standings before the race After the first round at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas led the championship by 7 points from Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari with Lando Norris of McLaren a further 2 points behind in third place. Defending Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the standings, 13 points off the championship lead. In the Constructors' Championship, defending champions Mercedes led the championship with 37 points, McLaren was in second with 26 points with Ferrari placed third with 19 points.
Entrants
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race. Jack Aitken and Robert Kubica drove in the first practice session for Williams and Alfa Romeo Racing respectively. Aitken replaced George Russell, while Kubica replaced Antonio Giovinazzi.
Tyres
The medium hardness selection of C2, C3 and C4 tyre compounds were made available for teams to use by Pirelli, the same compound selections used at the Austrian Grand Prix on the same circuit the week before.
Practice The first practice session ended with Sergio Pérez fastest for Racing Point ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes's Valtteri Bottas. Lando Norris was given a three-place grid penalty after overtaking another car under yellow flag conditions, which came after Nicholas Latifi was forced to pull over to the side of the track with gearbox issues. Kevin Magnussen was unable to set a lap time during the session due to battery problems.
The second practice session ended with Verstappen fastest, followed by Bottas and Pérez. Daniel Ricciardo's session ended early when his Renault R.S.20 left the track at turn nine and crashed heavily into the barriers at the exit of the corner, bringing out the red flags. Ricciardo confirmed over the radio that he was fine and was taken to the circuit's medical centre where he was declared fit to race. Lewis Hamilton finished the session in sixth, seven-tenths adrift of teammate Bottas. Alexander Albon recovered from a spin at turn three to record the seventh-fastest time, and complained about a "snappy" Red Bull RB16 – which then led to another spin into the gravel going through the turn 7–8 chicane with 15 minutes of the session to go. Lando Norris cited chest and back pain as the reason for doing fewer laps in practice than teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., however his condition had improved by the following morning.
The third practice session was cancelled due to heavy rain.
Qualifying Q1 and Q2 The first qualifying session began at 15:46 local time, forty-six minutes after the session was originally scheduled to start. All drivers started on the wet compound tyres, and all would continue to use it for the entirety of qualifying. The track was extremely wet, with the cars prone to aquaplaning. The only major incident of the session came towards the end, when Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of his Alfa Romeo after turn seven; his car slid onto the grass and collided gently with a barrier, scattering some debris. Giovinazzi kept the engine running, but soon stopped at turn four, leading to the session being red-flagged with 13 seconds remaining. Giovinazzi was eliminated from Q1 along with Kimi Räikkönen, Sergio Pérez, Nicholas Latifi and Romain Grosjean, who had not set a lap due to an issue with his energy recovery system. George Russell reached Q2 for the first time in his career, the first time a Williams driver had achieved this since the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The rain intensity increased during Q2 however the session proceeded without incident. Those eliminated were Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lance Stroll, Daniil Kvyat, and Kevin Magnussen.
Q3 Heavy rain continued into Q3 but gradually decreased over the course of the session. At various points, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Valtteri Bottas were on provisional pole position. In the end, Hamilton took pole with a lap time of 1:19:273, over 1.2 seconds faster than his nearest rival, Verstappen, who spun on his final attempt. Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified third, the first driver to do so for McLaren on pace alone since Jenson Button at the 2014 British Grand Prix (Sainz's teammate Lando Norris had started third at the previous race, but had been promoted to that position after Hamilton received a penalty). Hamilton's teammate Bottas qualified in fourth place, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo, and Sebastian Vettel.
Post-qualifying Norris's penalty issued during the first practice session demoted him from sixth to ninth on the grid. Three drivers were investigated for breaches of the sporting regulations after qualifying; Pérez for ignoring yellow flags during Q1, Räikkönen and Leclerc for breaches of red-flag protocol during Q1, and Leclerc again for impeding Kvyat during Q2. No action was taken regarding the first three allegations, however Leclerc was issued a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kvyat, demoting him from 11th to 14th on the grid. On the morning of the race, Giovinazzi received a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, whilst Romain Grosjean was forced to start from the pit lane due to a breach of parc fermé regulations by his team, who worked on his car for over 3 hours more than allowed by the regulations, without the presence of a scrutineer. Whilst the normal punishment in such cases is disqualification from the Grand Prix weekend, Grosjean avoided this as the team blamed an energy recovery system (ERS) water pump problem that had to be repaired in order to allow him to participate.
Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q3144 Lewis HamiltonMercedes 1:18.188 1:17.825 1:19.2731233 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda 1:18.297 1:17.938 1:20.4892355 Carlos Sainz Jr.McLaren-Renault 1:18.590 1:18.836 1:20.6713477 Valtteri BottasMercedes 1:18.791 1:18.657 1:20.7014531 Esteban OconRenault 1:19.687 1:18.764 1:20.922564 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault 1:18.504 1:18.448 1:20.9259723 Alexander AlbonRed Bull Racing-Honda 1:20.882 1:19.014 1:21.0116810 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda 1:20.192 1:18.744 1:21.028793 Daniel RicciardoRenault 1:19.662 1:19.229 1:21.1928105 Sebastian VettelFerrari 1:20.243 1:19.545 1:21.651101116 Charles LeclercFerrari 1:20.871 1:19.628N/A141263 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1:20.382 1:19.636N/A111318 Lance Stroll 1:19.697 1:19.645N/A121426 Daniil KvyatAlphaTauri-Honda 1:19.824 1:19.717N/A131520 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari 1:21.140 1:20.211N/A15167 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 1:21.372N/AN/A161711 Sergio Pérez 1:21.607N/AN/A17186 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes 1:21.759N/AN/A181999Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 1:21.831N/AN/A19208 Romain GrosjeanHaas-FerrariNo timeN/AN/A 107% time: 1:23.661 Source:
Notes – Lando Norris received a three-place grid penalty for overtaking under yellow flags during the first practice session. – Charles Leclerc received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Daniil Kvyat during qualifying. – Antonio Giovinazzi received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. – Romain Grosjean was required to start from the pit lane after his team broke parc fermé regulations. – As qualifying was held on a wet track, the 107% rule was not in force.
Race Race report Opening laps The race was run in dry conditions, in contrast to the entirely wet qualifying meaning all 20 drivers had a free choice of starting tyres as is permitted by the Sporting Regulations. Lewis Hamilton maintained his lead from pole. At turn one Sebastian Vettel fell to 12th place behind George Russell and Lance Stroll. In an attempt to overtake his teammate on the inside of turn three, Charles Leclerc collided with Vettel, breaking Vettel's rear wing. The safety car was then deployed to clear debris from the turn three incident. Both Ferraris entered the pits at the end of the opening lap and Vettel's car was retired from the race. Leclerc's car had suffered front wing and floor damage and his front wing was replaced. Racing resumed on lap four. Russell, running in 11th place, left the track at turn six and went into the gravel. He was able to continue racing but rejoined at the back of the field in 18th place. At the end of lap four, Ferrari determined that the damage to Leclerc's car was too great to continue and he entered the pits to retire from the race. By lap eight, Carlos Sainz Jr. had fallen from third to fifth having been passed by Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Albon. On lap 14, Sergio Pérez entered the points positions by passing Lando Norris for tenth place, having started 17th.
Mid-race On lap 24, second-placed Max Verstappen was the first driver to make a scheduled pit stop. On the following lap, Esteban Ocon entered the pits to retire from the race, his car suffering from a cooling issue. Race leader Hamilton pitted on lap 27, with teammate Bottas inheriting the lead. On lap 32, Sainz suffered a slow pit stop which would go on to cost him three positions, and two laps later Bottas made his first stop to hand the lead back to Hamilton. After all drivers had made their first stops, the order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Albon, Ricciardo, Stroll, Pérez, Sainz, Norris and Pierre Gasly.