Zoom Zoom: Austria GP 2025. A neat and tidy Quali. A messy pre-race start, then a chaotic GP start leads to an exciting race, and redemption for one driver! F1 Movie premiere snaps as well.

Welcome back Zoomies! We start our next triple-header in Europe, starting with the 11th and shortest track race (hence the 71 laps for the GP) on the circuit, (and only 10 corners!) the Austrian Grand Prix, also known as Red Bull's home race as they own the track and it's their "home race". We also finally have the opening weekend for the much anticipated "F1" movie, starring Brad Pitt (Megan 2.0 also opens, so we know where most of "da gays" will be!). I will be posting some of the red carpet fashion looks from the New York premiere for you discerning fashionistas.

I can also report that Kimi has completed exams and is done with schooling for now, and can concentrate on racing! Just Announced: Austria GP will be on the F1 Circuit calendar till 2041!!! Plenty of time to plan ahead!

Red Bull played host to a drivers dinner- the seating chart was both easy (Carlos and Lando) and tricky, but it looks like a good time was had by all!)

How many of the drivers can you identify?

Paddock Buzz: Max Verstappen needs to not be Mad Max this weekend or he will be banned from next race, if he is a good boy, 2 points will drop from his license.

The other big news is that Carlos Sainz Sr. has opted not to stand against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem in the election for next president of the FIA, motor racing's governing body. Sulayem at least for the upcoming year, has tightened his grip on the FIA and F1, much to the chagrin of fans and drivers and teams of F1. <sigh>

Onto your driver/team grid. Switch Lawson and Tsunoda. Last week's eye candy Franco Colapinto in Doohan's seat. (No, I havent seen an updated driver grid list graphic yet).

Oh, why not? Here is a group rooftop photo from the New York F1 movie premiere: Not shown: Both Aston-Martin drivers, Lewis (he missed this group), Oscar (??) and Max, which was an easy one...movie premiere in NYC or back home to care for newborn baby?

The boys spiffed up for NYC F1 movie premiere!

P1: 60 minutes. 73 degrees and humid in gorgeous Spielberg, Austria. We have a couple of drivers from F2 taking some laps for this P1; Alex Dunne (He's Irish!) will be driving Lando Norris' car for McLaren, while Dino Beganovic will be driving Charles LeClerc's car for Ferrari. Both Ferrari cars in the garage, with Dino's car having floor problems, and Lewis Hamilton's car having gearbox problems. Kimi's Mercedes car had some porpoising issues on the track, but he hasn't thrown in the towel, and continues on his practice laps. No incidents, so on to P2. Will note that F2 driver Alex Dunne placed 4th, and was first in regard to high-speed turns. The pundits and experts were impressed! (I was also!).

P2: 60 minutes: Cloudy with a chance of drizzle. Winds have picked up, and tailwind is causing a bit of a problem on Turn 3. No incidents, so on to Saturday for P3 and Quali! (Though Alpine's Pierre Fasly feels something is very wrong with his car.). Lance Stroll had a quietly very good 4th position, and Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto finished in the top 10.

P3: 60 minutes. Repeat on P1, weather-wise. Partly cloudy, 73 degrees, mild humidity and light winds. Note: Turn 3 has one of the highest elevations on the circuit, and where some drivers have had difficulties. Issak Hadjar's Sugar-Free Red Bull, and both Red Bull drivers, Yuki Tsunoda and Max, all did basically harmless 360 pirouettes, but other wise no incidents.

Onto Qualis and Pole position!

Esteban Ocon styling in his tux, while his Haas teammate goes for contemporary casual at F1 Movie premiere in New York.

Q1: 18 minutes. Heat has spiked, now 88 degrees, and winds are up to 10mph. The main aggravation for drivers to get their fastest laps in will be what we can all identify with: Traffic! No incidents, so your bottom 5/back of the GP grid are: Hulkenberg/Sauber, Tsunoda/Red Bull, Stroll/Aston-Martin, Ocon/Haas, and for the third time in a row, failing to get out of Q1, Carlos Sainz/Williams. Q2: 15 minutes. Clock stops at 5:42 left as a RED FLAG comes out for a skid grass fire breakout on Turn 10. Few minutes later, green flag out and Quali resumes. No further incidents, so next bottom 5 are: Alonso/Aston-Martin, Bearman/Haas, Colopinto/Alpine, Hadjar/Sugar-Free RB, and Albon/Williams. Of note here is Bortoleto getting into the top 5 and first time into Q3! Excellent weekend for Gabriel so far!

Q3: 12 minutes. No incidents until the final minute, when Gasly's Alpine spun out into the grass, the gravel, and the track before righting himself, but all that commotion brought out a quick Yellow Flag, and slowed up Piastri and Verstappen on their final lap behind Gasly. After all that, your pole position for the GP Sunday is McLaren's Lando Norris, followed by LeClerc/Ferrari, Piastri/McLaren, Hamilton/Ferrari, Russell/Mercedes, Lawson/Sugar-Free RB (!!!), Verstappen/Red Bull in 7th (his streak of five Austrian poles ends), the Brazilian, Bortoleto/Sauber, 8th, Antonelli/Mercedes, 9th, and rounding out the top ten starting grid, Gasly/Alpine. Lando will be very happy with this after a difficult weekend in Montreal!

F1 movie co-producer Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles LeClerc vying for Best Dressed at F! Movie Premiere in New York City.

EXTRA NOTE: This incident happened tween P3 and Quali during F2 Quali. All I can say I thank goodness these F1 race cars have the "Halo" as part of their safety feature, cuz this crash literally saved lives and serious injury! You'll want to watch it a couple of times aftr you get over your initial gasp.

Austrian Grand Prix: 71 laps, 10 turns, Turn 3 a high elevation and drop into turn 4. It's a lovely but very hot day, temps in the 80's , and easily over 100 degrees on the track itself (F2 race ran earlier, so that should help a bit with the track. The first nine drivers starting with Medium tyres, while the rest is a mix of Medium and Soft (they will pit early). Drivers line up for the formation lap and off they go.....except for Carlos Sainz' car, which has absolutely stalled (due to brakes). Chaos ensues as 30 seconds pass, and Lando and Charles and the rest of the drivers are coming back to line up on the grid, while Williams engineers in the garage and mechanics on the track try to figure out the meaning of life, at least the life of this Williams car, when all of a sudden, off Carlos goes down the track, all the free clean air in the world ((Spielberg, Austria race track, to be specific) a driver could dream of, and since this has all been under a YELLOW FLAG, off into the pit lane he goes to start the race from the pit lane exit. That would be fine, except now we notice that BOTH Carlos rear brakes ARE ON FIRE, mechanics go to put those out. During this time, all the other 19 cars on the grid are being tended to by the mechanics to keep the car and tyres cooled down (dry ice!), as this 10+ minute delay was not calculated into todays race strategy. Bless Georgie's heart, as he radioed to make sure the mechanics have water ready for them as they are getting toasted out there on the grid as we wait to restart the formation lap, which is now a 70 lap race. Oh, as you might've guessed, William's radioed in to Carlos, "Game Over", and Carlos day is over even before it began. 19 cars on the grid now. A DNS (Did Not Start) for Carlos. Take 2 on formation start, which goes smoothly, so that means it's time to say...

LIGHTS OUT, and Lando holds off Charles on Turn 1, but gets a challenge from his teammate Oscar heading out of Turn 2 going into Turn 3, where chaos erupts, as Kimi sees an opening, launches into it, but his brakes lock up, and takes himself AND Max out of this GP, as Kimi clips Max's car, and both find the gravel in their banged up cars- both drivers okay, but a DNF for the day for both of them. Safety Car deployed (meaning drivers slow down and hold position as the marshals clear the track. First time in 31 races Max hasn't completed a race! Safety Car pacing ending, and after 3 adventurous laps, the McLaren's of Lando and Oscar lead, with both Ferrari's , Charles and Lewis behind them, Georgie holding 5th, Alpine's Gasly and William's Albon cars jumping up 4 and 5 places, Bortoleto holding in 8th, Liam dropped 3 to 9th, and Alonso up one place in 10th. (That's what we call a reset- also several of those drivers near the Max/Kimi collision were VERY lucky to be able to continue racing!).

We get into a nice race rhythm for several laps, with some outstanding racing being done by Papaya teammates Lando and Oscar for the lead! Gasly finally pits to get those soft tyres off, after being overtaken a few times. Lap 17 has Albon retire his Williams car due to engine issues - another DNF for poor Alex, now with three consecutive DNFs! Lap 21 sees Lando pit first for Hard tyres, and comes out in 4th. Lap 24 Oscar pits for Hard tyres , as does Charles and Lewis for Ferrari for Hards. Lap 31 finds Yuki clipping Franco Colapinto, causing Franco to do a 3360 through the gravel, but is able to maintain and get literally back on track. That little scuffle though, cost Yuki and Red Bull dearly, as Yuki has to pit to get his front wing switched out (11 second pit stop).Yuki DOES get a 10-second PENALTY for that collision with Franco! Lap 42 finds Lando leading Oscar, but both of them have caught up with the back of the pack, so traffic problems, especially with other teams/drivers fighting for the remaining eight spots. At one point, Franco, who is in the back of the back, bumped Oscar who is in 2nd, off the track, no damage, and no affect on Oscars 2nd place, but Franco got hit with a 5-second PENALTY for that move (drivers who are being overlapped by the leaders have to get out of their way!). Liam and Fernando having a good scrap for 6th, and Isack trying to fight off Haas drivers Esteban and Ollie. In the final laps, its a doozy of a scrap as Fernando is using every trick in his veteran book to hold off the Brazilian rookie Bortoleto for 7th. In the end though, it is a bit of a redemption day for Lando Norris, who WINS the Austrian Grand Prix! His McLaren teammate (who still leads in Driver Championship points), Oscar Piastri, comes in 2nd; this is the first time since 2000 that McLaren has gone 1-2 at this track! Charles and Lewis of Ferrari finish 3rd and 4th, Georgie and his Mercedes finished in 5th, Liam gets his highest F1 race finish in 6th, Fernando and his Aston-Martin hold on to 7th, Gabriel finishes a great weekend in 8th, with his Sauber teammate Nico in 9th, and Esteban get Haas the final point in 10th!

Lando center-1st place, Oscar, right, 2nd place, Charles left, 3rd place

Good Day: Team Papaya- Not only did they grab the top two podium spots, but McLaren fans got to see good, clean racing between Lando and Oscar (this is what makes this sport fun for me!)

Sauber, especially Gabriel Bortoleto, who not only got his first F1 points, but was named Driver of the Day by the fan vote! Also Sauber again finishing in the points! and Nico going from last to 9th!

Liam Lawson: He been needing a finish like this for a while- congrats! Bad Day: Max's Orange Army fans, who turned out in force only to see their guy get knocked out of the race early. Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon: See above GP recap.

Williams Racing: See above GP recap- both cars out of this race. Red Bull: See above GP recap. (there's a trend here!).

Kimi Antonelli: The crash with Max had the stewards slap a three place grid penalty on Kimi for next week's race in Silverstone. That means if Kimi finishes 2nd in Quali, he will start 5th on the grid.

Next week, it's on to Silverstone for the UK GP! Was going to go this year, but life had other plans, so you're welcome to those who got my cancelled reservations! :)

I just had to! The pic was calling to me!