Mercedes Dominates F1 While Jehan Almost Scores Points In F2 And More: Weekly Motorsport Roundup

Formula 1 

Formula One returned to the Red Bull Ring for the Styrian Grand Prix which turned out to be a calmer affair compared to the season opener a week earlier. A wet qualifying saw Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton take pole with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen second and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz lining up third ahead of championship leader  Valtteri Bottas. 

The race saw the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel collide with each other and retire early on whereas Lewis Hamilton looked unchallenged all race long and took the win. His teammate Valtteri Bottas made it a Mercedes 1-2 after a close battle with Verstappen in the closing stages. The battle for 5th turned out to be a last lap showdown as McLaren’s Lando Norris snatched 5th away from Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who sustained damage battling the Red Bull of Alex Albon, closely followed by Lance Stroll and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo. 

Bottas continues to hold on to his lead at the drivers standings over Lewis Hamilton with Lando Norris’ consistent performance keeping him 3rd in the standings. It already looks like Mercedes is set for the constructors’ championship with its latest 1-2 finish with McLaren 2nd and Red Bull catching up in 3rd place.

Formula 2

While the results don’t necessarily tell the whole story, round 2 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship was a cleaner weekend for Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala. Starting 7th for the wet feature race, the Indian driver did have a difficult finish to 12th for the feature race. He bagged a a better result in the following sprint race. In a close battle for 6th, he wound up 9th, and just one place away from a points paying position in 8th. 

MotoGP

With the 2020 MotoGP season just around the corner, plenty of action has kicked off in the rider market for 2021. Honda has officially announced Pol Espargaro will join Marc Marquez till the end of the 2022 season with Alex Marquez heading towards the LCR Honda squad with factory backing. Alex Marquez will be taking the seat of Cal Crutchlow who’s MotoGP future is uncertain. Another piece of the puzzle solved in the rider market is at the Petronas Yamaha SRT squad has extended Franco Morbidelli’s contract till the end of the 2022 season. And it looks like the second Yamaha SRT seat is all but confirmed to go to Valentino Rossi who will essentially be swapping rides with Fabio Quartararo for 2021. 

Aside from this there was some bad news for the current season as the US GP slated for November has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

WRC

Preparations for reigning WRC champion Ott Tänak and Hyundai for the upcoming  Rally Estonia looks to be going well with a win at the Viru Rally. The rally based in north of Estonia offered similar roads to the course that will be used for the WRC round. Driving the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC, Tänak dominated proceedings with a margin of 1m43s over the seven stage event. The 2020 WRC season will resume on the weekend of September 4-6 at Rally Estonia.

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