Austrian Grand Prix Preview / FVL F1 Podium Winners Competition

Walking the Austrian Red Bull Ring, courtesy of Sahara Force India

Austria is back on the Formula 1 schedule. A relatively short, twisting, high-speed circuit that has been not seen F1 racing since 2003 – and a ‘home race’ for the Austrian-backed Red Bull team, whose owner happens to own the Spielberg racing circuit.

As with every Grand Prix this year, you can enter our FVL F1 Podium Winners Competition to win £50 of vouchers if you correctly guess the podium. Click here to enter by adding your prediction – full terms and conditions here.

Red Bull will hope to capitalise on their success from Montreal, although Mercedes will be keen to eradicate the problems that saw both cars drop 160bhp when their energy recovery systems overheated and failed. But second place in a car that’s 160 break horse power down is still an impressive achievement.

McLaren will be bringing a major aerodynamic upgrade this weekend for the MP4-29, which could boost their performance, and in practice, the car was turning in well on corners that were causing other cars, especially the Ferraris, to understeer horribly.

“I think it’s great that we’re going back to Austria,” say McLaren’s Jenson Button. “I think it’s a great venue, a fantastic location for a Grand Prix. From my previous visits, I remember the racing line for Turn 1 would lead us far out over the exit kerbs and on to the run-off – it was crazy! It’ll be interesting to see what has changed in the intervening 10 years – I hear that the track has been left largely unchanged, but that the pits and paddock have been renovated. I think that’s a good call – the track is simple but great. A mini-classic.”

Practice performance

Practice Sessions, as ever, only give an outline of underlying performance for qualifying and the race, but alway shows the handling limitations of particular cars. The last turn, into the main straight, has been causing almost everyone big problems running wide, and then drifting due to the lack of grip on the astroturf that surrounds the corner. Tyre wear was also problematic, with graining and degradation a noticeable issue for all teams.

The weather was overcast but relatively warm, with air temperature about 10 degrees below the track temperature of 28 degrees. Rain closed in towards the end of the second practice session, but the forecast for the race on Sunday is for dry weather.

Live timing courtesy of Formula1.com

We’ll update you after qualifying on Saturday, and look forward to seeing your Podium Winner entries.

Qualifying Results for Austrian Grand Prix

Williams grab the front row! Hamilton has a problem.

Live timing courtesy of < a href=”http://formula1.com”>Formula1.com

Enter our free FVL F1 Podium Winners Competition to win a £50 Voucher

As with every Formula 1 race this year, we are holding the FVL F1 Podium Winners Competition – just guess the correct 1-2-3 on the podium by entering your prediction at least an hour before the race starts, to win.

The prize for a correct entry is the winner’s choice of a £50 value of either an iTunes Gift Card, a Google Play Gift Card or an Amazon Gift Card. A winner will be drawn at random if more than one entrant correctly posts the winning 1-2-3. Full Competition Terms and Conditions are here but in essence, you have to be UK resident, and aged 18+. We won’t add you to any mailing lists, or share your details.

Add your 1-2-3 prediction in a comment below – at least an hour before the race starts, please! For example, you might enter –

1. Kvyat
2. Perez
3. Hulkenberg
   by John Oldman, Bristol

• Please use the hashtags #f1fvl and #myfvl if you share your entry socially, and do join FVL socially online. Good luck!