Chris of Ballard: Dream guest list? Senna, Hamilton and Fangio. The two best of F1 history and (in my opinion) the best current driver. I think that would be an interesting dinner.

Inge: Dinner party, well,... Danny Ricciardo, naturally, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, Chris Rea and Bruce Springsteen, at the Blue Cafe.

Bob McFeil: I’d love to have lunch with Nigel Mansell - maybe even a cheeky moustache stroke.

OK, let's try to make sense of all those changes and walk you through the grid. Charles Leclerc, as mentioned earlier, has received a five-place penalty for making a gearbox change earlier than permitted - and so faces a job to secure a third successive top-10 finish.

With Alonso starting from the pit lane, Sergio Perez and Stoffel Vandoorne are pushing into the top 15, despite going out in Q1. Also out in Q1 was Marcus Ericsson, whose Grand Prix record stands at 11 points from 84 races. Sergey Sirotkin sat out first practice on Friday to allow Robert Kubica a drive in the Williams. What chance the Pole replacing the Russian next year?

Image source, BBC Sport

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

The reverberations continue for McLaren after team boss Zak Brown’s revelation in France that the team could not replicate the car’s on-track weaknesses in the wind tunnel continue, and that as a result they are having to spend a lot of time in practice sessions on R&D.

This week, racing director Eric Boullier said: “I don’t think there is a big correlation issue. There is some car attitude we cannot see at the wind tunnel, we can’t see the same data in track and wind tunnel in some car attitudes.” He added: “It has happened before. it is due to the characteristics of this car and regulation. We understand it now and we have to work out how to correct it.”

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

More pain for McLaren, for whom Fernando Alonso qualified 14th, and will start 13th. The Spaniard said it was their normal qualifying position, other than Spain and Monaco, which is true. But it’s also true that he was slightly up on Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly at the second split of his final lap before running wide at Turns Nine and 10, and Gasly qualified 12th. Alonso’s ambition of scoring points regardless has been dented somewhat by McLaren’s decision to fit a new old-spec Renault MGU-K overnight and a front wing of a different specification, which means a pit-lane start.

Image source, Getty Images

One more grid penalty to explain - and that's Fernando Alonso starting from the pit lane. Over to you, Andrew...

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

I think Sebastian Vettel's penalty is harsh. It happened in Q2 and the only thing in Q2 is to get yourself through to Q3. He blocked Sainz but Sainz still made it into Q3 so it had no impact.

It was a mistake from Vettel, but also a mistake from his engineer not telling him where Sainz was.

Niki Lauda and Jolyon Palmer in disagreement, there - who's correct?

BBC Radio 5 live

Mercedes' non-executive chairman Niki Lauda says: "I think the penalty (for Sebastian Vettel) is correct. In Paul Ricard he only got a five-second penalty for hitting Valtteri Bottas."

Sebastian Vettel - third at the end of qualifying - has dropped back three places for unfairly impeding the Renault of Carlos Sainz towards the end of the second qualifying session.

It seems the whole thing was a bit of a mix-up - Vettel was running slow after a flying lap, he hadn't seen Sainz, and Ferrari hadn't alerted him. Nonetheless, the stewards felt Vettel shouldn't have been running so slowly on a racing line regardless of what else was happening on the track.

The German, who attracted a lot of criticism over his early collision with Valtteri Bottas in France last weekend, was astute enough not to complain about his latest penalty.

Image source, Reuters

Sauber's Charles Leclerc - who was 13th in qualifying - must start five places further back after a technical issue at the end of the third practice session necessitated a gearbox change.

The penalty was imposed because the old gearbox had not been through six race weekends, as the rules demand.

A shame for Leclerc - but probably only a minor setback in an F1 career that appears to be heading upwards.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Brendon Hartley has had a difficult weekend, breaking his example of Toro Rosso’s upgraded front wing on the controversial sausage kerbs, ending up with a mix of old- and new-spec cars and qualifying 19th, more 0.35secs off team-mate Pierre Gasly in first qualifying.

And now the New Zealander starts from the back because of a tactical engine change by Honda - taking the opportunity to get one more complete engine in the usage pool with minimal penalty, as it means Hartley drops only one place.

Image source, Getty Images

Some changes to the grid to tell you about after qualifying yesterday. Sebastian Vettel has dropped from third to sixth, Charles Leclerc drops five places to 18th, Fernando Alonso starts from the pit lane and Brendon Hartley drops to the back of the grid.

Let's deal with Hartley first - Andrew Benson has more on the Toro Rosso driver.

So come on, everyone, let's cheer up Daniel Ricciardo. I want you to nominate your three dream guests at a motorsport-themed dinner party. They can be living or dead, and they can be drivers, personalities or celebrity fans.

Also, any suggestions for presents for our Daniel? We need him to feel the love.

Get in touch with us via Twitter, using the hashtag #bbcf1.

Yes - just for you, Daniel: It's your dream dinner party! Right here!

Bob Dylan wouldn't do it, I'm afraid, so I got Pat Sharp instead. Hope that's OK.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, AFP

Ricciardo is 29 today. Happy birthday, Daniel!

In January, he gave an interview to the F1 website,, external in which he was asked which three guests, living or dead, he would invite to a dinner party.

Here, without editing, was the answer he gave.

"A comedian: Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell. A pretty girl: Sophia Bush – she was in a TV series when I was younger. And a cool musician: Bob Dylan."

Well, Daniel, it is your birthday, so guess what I've done?

Still, at least Ricciardo has something to be cheerful about today.

It was a strange day in qualifying for Red Bull. Max Verstappen has ended up fourth on the grid after being bumped up one place because of Sebastian Vettel's grid penalty - of which more in a moment - while Daniel Ricciardo is back in seventh.

Ricciardo was unhappy at having to drive from the front - allowing Verstappen to pick up speed by slipstreaming him - although Red Bull boss Christian Horner pointed out afterwards that the team alternate between grands prix as to which driver goes in front during qualifying, and this time it was Ricciardo's turn.

"I’m not too impressed to be honest," said Ricciardo. "We had three runs and I was just punching a hole for everyone. I’m not that happy. That’s all."

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Lewis Hamilton has an open goal in Austria this Sunday. Not necessarily to win the race but to further build his championship advantage over Sebastian Vettel.

That was always looking a decent bet even when the Ferrari driver qualified third. But now he has been demoted to sixth, Hamilton will be wanting to make hay while the sun shines. Where can Vettel recover to?

He’ll surely get some help from Kimi Raikkonen. Max Verstappen, who's starting fourth in the Red Bull? Not so much. The pressure’s on Vettel to limit the damage.

Image source, Reuters

...and a good weekend for Hamilton can only strengthen his hand in the championship race. We're not quite at the season's halfway mark yet - this is race nine of 21 - but a good haul of points here would put him in a strong position to go about retaining his title.

Image source, .

Welcome to race day. It's been Mercedes' weekend at Red Bull Ring so far - on what has been Mercedes' track since Formula One returned here in 2013. Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton made it a front-row lock-out in qualifying, as Ferrari and Red Bull had their separate troubles. In the past four races, pole position has translated into a victory. The signs for Mercedes, are very, very good...

Is Valtteri Bottas' luck about to change? Has anyone bought Daniel Ricciardo a nice birthday present? And could those Red Bull Ring kerbs get their own horror movie?

Yep, it's the Austrian Grand Prix. Thrills and spills to come? We hope so...

Image source, Getty Images