Rate the race - Round 9 Austria

That had a bit of everything really, was some excellent wheel to wheel racing. Badly needed a good race and we got one, 8 for me.

9 for me.

Everything F1 should be. Slight lull for 15 laps or so around lap 45 or so but otherwise was excellent.

Harika wrote: »

God knows the last time the winner overtakes the 3rd,2nd and 1st to win a race in legit overtaking against top teams.
I think the last time this happened was jenson in Canada.

Ricciardo China 2018 maybe?

8/10 from me.

What a great race. The final quarter of the race was spectacular.
The orange army getting behind Max on his quest for victory really sucked me (and I’m assuming) everyone else in. You could feel the passion reverberating off them through the TV.
Also loved seb doing the two stopper and then chasing down Hamilton to get his spot.
Sure the overtakes were contrived with DRS, but there were still some epic moves.

Just what the doctor ordered after the snore fest last weekend.

A strong 7 from me. The beginning and middle sections weren't incredible, my god the final third of the race delivered. There's nothing like an underdog charging through the field, it's nail biting stuff. Brilliant, but required patience before the pay-off.

Guys, without DRS there would have been next to zero overtakes. I understand the fact that it feels unfair how the driver ahead has no ability to fight back in any way and that is definitely the one drawback of DRS, but again - this race would not have been possible at all without it. All you need to do is go back and watch some pre-DRS races to see how drivers simply got stuck behind slower cars, even on supposedly "slipstreaming-fest" tracks like Monza (the 1997 race was particularly interesting in these regards - the first 6 pretty much within 1.5s of each other the whole race and no overtakes on track). Or go check the "Force India trains" that were so common a decade ago.

I've given it a 9 because in the age of supercomputers, dedicated strategy teams, simulator-borne setups, off-shore teams running scenarios through software on the other side of the planet and feeding the info back to the garages, well, this is as unpredictable / uncertain a race can possibly be without external factors influencing it (rain, uncharacteristic mechanical attrition due to weather, track invasion by lunatic Irish priests etc.).

Not 10, as that'd mean there's no room for improvement, although I'd be 100% honest and admit that I'd have been more inclined to give it full marks if Leclerc had won it. As we are, poor Charles reminds me more and more of Jean Alesi...he needs to break the curse ASAP.

Inquitus wrote: »

I gave it an 8 as it was head and shoulders the best race we have had in a good while, probably not an 8 when compared with GP's over history, but with the turgid affairs we have become used to I may have given it a bonus mark or 2!

That's the thing . In a good year this race would be 5 to 6 . This year being so terrible makes it look amazing.