Tim Wright: Safety cars saved a boring Austrian GP
OPINION: As feared, Mercedes proved the class of the field as F1 resumed in Austria, but ironically problems for others requiring safety car interruptions helped to keep them in range. Despite the exciting finish, omens point to a similar result next week
The delayed F1 season finally got underway after a 217-day wait in Austria, but I wasn't particularly impressed. Amid all the hype, this would have been such a boring race had it not been spiced up by safety cars. The two Black Arrows would have disappeared into the distance and the rest scrapped amongst themselves in varying degrees.
Behind Mercedes, Red Bull were predictably the best of the rest until Max Verstappen's retirement, but they were not even close on laptimes and one doubts that repeating the ploy of starting on the medium tyres that worked so well last year would have given him a chance of another win. However, it was a shame that electrical gremlins didn't give him a chance to show what he could do.
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