Formula One: Austrian Grand Prix race preview, best bets & when to watch

F1 tips, best bets and analysis for the Austrian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday.

Where to watch

Sky Sports F1, 2.10pm Sunday.

Best bets

Lewis Hamilton
1pt 5-4 general
Esteban Ocon points finish
1pt 6-4general

Analysis

The delayed first race of the 2020 season will start with the all-Mercedes front row many expected but with the cars in an unexpected order.

Valtteri Bottas pipped world champion Lewis Hamilton to the first pole of the campaign in Austria but the margin was just 0.012 seconds and the new-look Silver Arrows were half a second faster than their rivals.

There is still plenty of intrigue going into the opener. Bottas’s superb first run in qualifying has given punters something to think about but bookmakers have made Hamilton favourite to pull rank in the race and that looks the right decision.

The British driver led home a Mercedes one-two in all three practice sessions – and survived a post-qualifying investigation into whether he had ignored yellow flags.

If there are to be any team orders issued by Mercedes or if their pit-stop strategy favours either driver it would surely be in the direction of the man chasing a record-equalling seventh world title.

Not that Hamilton needs a helping hand, of course, as he goes in search of an 85th career victory.

Mercedes were boosted on Friday night when Red Bull’s objection to their controversial new DAS steering system was thrown out and the Anglo-Austrian team look a little too far behind on pace to win.

Verstappen had been fancied by many to get off to a fast start in the back-to-back races at Spielberg and he does have a potential tactical advantage going into the race, having set his fastest lap in second qualifying on harder tyres than his rivals, which means he can run a longer first stint.

McLaren and Racing Point – in their close copy of last season’s Mercedes – showed up well in qualifying, something that can’t be said of Ferrari, for whom Sebastian Vettel failed to qualify for Q3.

Charles Leclerc managed seventh but the Scuderia look to be well off the pace.

Renault are in the mix for the second half of the top ten, and Esteban Ocon could make his way into the points from 14th on the grid in his first race since November 2018.

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