Checo opened our 2020 Formula 1 season with P6 in the Austrian Grand Prix, having been in contention for a podium finish until late on.

After starting P6 and holding onto that position through the opening corners, Checo quickly set about hounding the McLaren of Lando Norris ahead.

He soon cleared his rival and settled into a comfortable P5 before the first Safety Car appeared and opened the door for his only pit stop on lap 26.

Switching from softs to mediums, while his rivals all moved onto the hard compound, Checo was able to show an impressive turn of pace to keep in touch with the battle for a podium finish.

A strong move on Norris once again into Turn 4 helped Checo into P4 and kept him in touch with the top three as the second Safety Car was called – just as the Mexican began to battle wheel-to-wheel for P3.

Checo then settled into fourth – briefly rising to third as his rivals made their second pit stops – before knuckling down to conserve his long-running medium tyres against his challengers on their newer compounds.

In a chaotic finale to the race, Checo would eventually claim sixth at the flag following another late Safety Car appearance.

Despite perhaps not attaining the optimal result, Checo had underlined the strong pace of the RP20 – as had team-mate Lance early in the race.

The Canadian had held onto P9 in the opening laps and looked set to move forward, before being forced to retire after losing power.

‍The team are investigating the issue ahead of the next race at the same venue next week.

Checo: “We had to fight hard today and we had strong pace. Sixth place is a good way to start the season, but we could have finished even higher. We were unlucky with the safety cars, but it’s easy to say after the race that we should have pitted a second time.

“I had to defend from drivers on fresher tyres in the final laps, which was a challenge. However, this was a good race to learn plenty about the car and our performance.

“The main positive is that we have a competitive package and I think we can be fighting for another strong result here next week.”

Lance: “It was a good start to the race, but then I began to lose power early on. We tried to make some changes to various settings, but eventually we had to retire the car. We’ll look into the problem and come back stronger next time.

‍“The car felt good at first and I think our pace would have been strong. We could have scored a good amount of points today.”

Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: “That was a pretty busy afternoon on all fronts and I’m sure great entertainment for the fans watching on television. After such a long break from racing, it was important to start our season with a handful of points with Sergio in sixth place.

“It’s frustrating to see a podium slip away in the final few laps, but it was difficult to hold off those cars with a tyre advantage. With so many safety car interruptions, we had some difficult decisions to make and we chose to preserve track position rather than pit.

“The cars behind us effectively had free pit stops and could react to what we did – pitting when we chose to stay out. That was certainly the case with the McLarens and Leclerc.

“It was disappointing to see Lance retire early when the car started to lose power. The investigation is underway on what caused that, but ultimately, after attempting to fix the problem through mode changes failed, protecting the power unit was the priority.”