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A double blow for Ferrari and Hamilton's fist of solidarity: Winners and losers from the Styrian GP

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Sebastian Vettel retiring from the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix (F1 / Twitter)
Sebastian Vettel retiring from the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix (F1 / Twitter)

• Hamilton won the Styrian GP, the 85th win of his career.

• Lando Norris scored a brilliant fifth-place finish.

• Ferrari's fortunes went from bad to worse after both drivers retired from the race.

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While the second race of the season had fewer exciting moments than the first, it still provided ample talking points for us to chew on. The race, won by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, began with a literal bang, and towards the end, it had everyone on the edge of their seats.

Here are some of the winners and losers from the first Styrian Grand Prix in Austria.

styrian grand prix,f1,formula 1

2020 Styrian Grand Prix (F1 / Twitter)

Winners:

Lewis Hamilton

After a bad start at the same venue just a week ago, Hamilton turned the tides to take his first victory of the season. He led from start to finish to take a commanding 13-second win over team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton, engulfed with social battles both in- and outside of F1, had to win to put more emphasis on the Black Lives Matter movement. In the end, the driver could raise a fist in victory.

READ: Hamilton raises a fist after his first win of the season

To add further fuel to the celebratory fire, Hamilton became the first driver in F1 history to have won a race in 14 consecutive seasons. On 85 wins, he is six short of equaling Michael Schumacher's record of F1 race victories. The win also gave him his 151st podium finish in the sport, four shy of the record held by Schumacher.

In the 2020 championship standing, Hamilton trails Bottas 37 points to 43.

Lando Norris

Norris began his F1 career with McLaren at the start of 2019, and in 2020 he has grown in leaps and bounds. In the first race of the season, he finished on the podium in third place. Yesterday, in the second race, he followed it up with a fifth-place finish. Now, a fifth-place may seem insignificant, but keep in mind that he finished behind both Mercedes and Red Bull drivers - the two top teams in F1 right now.

And if that still does not get him your nod of approval, he passed three drivers on the final two laps of the race! Lando Norris is a star of the future. And with McLaren clearly on the up, keep an eye on both parties' showing throughout 2020.

Losers:

Ferrari

Having been the benchmark team in the sport for so long, Ferrari's been on a downward spiral for the last 15 years. And just when it seems that things are looking up and making a turn for the better, something goes wrong. But 2020… well, it's going to be a challenging year for them.

Two races into the season, the team has gone backwards and is trailing both Mercedes and Red Bull by a considerable margin. In fact, it's believed that Ferrari is the fifth-fastest team, lagging behind McLaren and Racing Point, too!

READ: 'I am sorry': Leclerc after nightmare start causes double Ferrari retirement

This past Sunday, things went from worse to terrible for Ferrari when, on the opening lap, Charles Leclerc drove into his team mate Sebastian Vettel on Turn 3. The shunt sent Vettel out of the race almost immediately, with Leclerc retiring a lap later.

It is doubtful that Ferrari will turn the tide around, but if they are not careful, they could become obsolete in the fight for the championship.

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