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F1 season underway in Austria after three-month coronavirus delay

motorsport05 July 2020 13:16| © AFP
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Austria Grand Prix © Getty Images

The coronavirus-delayed Formula 1 season got underway three months late on Sunday as the Austrian GP roared off in an eerily empty Red Bull Ring amid rigid health and safety protocols.

Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton 'took a knee' as part of the Black Lives Matter protest before starting fifth on the grid after a last-minute penalty saw him drop from second behind his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

The season had been scheduled to embark in Melbourne, Australia on 15 March and nine Grands Prix would have been raced already under the original calendar.

HAMILTON LEADS MAJORITY OF DRIVERS IN TAKING KNEE

Lewis Hamilton led a majority of the 20 Formula One drivers in taking a knee in a gesture of anti-racism solidarity on the grid before the start of the belated season-opening Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton wore a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, while other drivers, who all lined up with him at the front of the grid, sported black tops saying "End racism".

Six of the 20 drivers remained standing. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Max Verstappen had confirmed a split among F1 drivers when they said they would not take a knee on the grid, but that they remained committed to fighting racism.

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