Six of the past seven races have ended with a Lewis Hamilton win, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas triumphing in Azerbaijan (after also winning the season opener in Australia).

Pierre Gasly needs a good weekend in Red Bull's home race but is down in eighth, while Renault had been in decent form in the past three races (Ricciardo's 11th in France came after two five-second grid penalties) but neither Renault man starts in the top 10 today.

Image source, .

Sebastian Vettel finds himself down in ninth today and will need his best overtaking moves. This will give him some encouragement though and watch as he produced a superb move to overtake Lewis Hamilton here in 2018.

A reminder of how they start...

We get going at 14:10 BST.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at the Red Bull Ring

Image source, Rex Features

Can Charles Leclerc finally get that first win under his belt, after falling short for various reasons in Bahrain and Baku earlier this year? The obvious answer is yes. Will he? Well, that’s not so clear.

Leclerc has been the main man all weekend, comfortably shading team-mate Sebastian Vettel even before the German’s reliability problems in final qualifying. But he knows the race will be long and tough.

“It’s going to be very difficult,” Leclerc said. “Physically, first, because it’s very, very warm, but also for the car, so it will be all about management of everything and hopefully a good result.”

As for Ferrari’s overall form this weekend, he said: “We are quite competitive this weekend. The start will be very important. There is a long straight after it, but normally we are quite fast on the straights so hopefully we can keep first position in the first three corners, but the pace itself looks promising.”

Leclerc is alone of the top four on the grid in choosing the soft tyres for the start, which Mercedes feel either forces him into a two-stop, or being compromised towards the end of the first stint. But Leclerc said his pace on them on Friday had been strong and Ferrari were “pretty happy” with their strategy.

Clare Long: Having Max Verstappen on the front row should give for a good start today. Obviously I want him on the podium, but that's my hope every week!

David M: Potentially a great race ahead. Personally loving Lewis' dominance but he was sanguine about the unfortunate penalty, prob due to the big points gap he has. Tyre choices clearly gonna be a factor

Bob McFeil: Race prediction: Leclerc, Ham, Ver Bottas 1.0 to reappear.

Keep your thoughts coming in, via #bbcf1

The Orange Army are out in force again this year and Max Verstappen, who delighted his supporters by winning here last year, is in with a shout of a win here.

Thanks to Ben Brookes on Twitter who has sent us these great photos from the Red Bull Ring using the hashtag #bbcf1.

In honour of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, who passed away in May, a red flag and red hat has been placed on every seat in the grandstands.

Expect to see plenty more tributes to the Austrian driver during the build-up to today's race.

Image source, Ben Brookes Twitter

Image source, Ben Brookes Twitter

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at the Red Bull Ring

It’s a glorious day in Styria. The mountains basking in hot sun, big blue skies, this famous location for motor racing looking as resplendent as it ever has. The hillsides are packed with fans, many of them wearing the orange of the Netherlands - particularly in the ‘Dutch corner’ between Turns Six and Seven.

Two of F1’s brightest new stars occupy the front row, with the Mercedes behind, and Sebastian Vettel poised to charge through from ninth on the grid, and the leaders on differing the strategies. The Austrian Grand Prix is a mouth-watering prospect.

Image source, Getty Images

No complaints from Lewis Hamilton though as he posted these message on Instagram, in reaction to his grid penalty that sees him start fourth.

Image source, Lewis Hamilton Instagram

Image source, Lewis Hamilton Instagram

For impeding Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying.

What was Kimi doing?

Looking up at the planes in the sky of course.

This weekend is only the beginning of how bizarre the Formula 1 circus can get sometimes.

George Russell also got penalised and this is why. For blocking off Daniil Kvyat, who then screamed that he had "almost killed someone".

It was not a good qualifying session for Sebastian Vettel as he did not get on track in the third part of qualifying.

Another grid penalty went to Kevin Magnussen, although he had been one of the on-track stars of qualifying as he finished fifth. Fair to say he was quite happy about it, as you can see below.

This is the incident that cost Lewis Hamilton a front-row starting spot as he gets in the way of Kimi Raikkonen.

The stewards kept us waiting, with Hamilton eventually getting a penalty.

This is how Charles Leclerc jumped on to pole for only the second time in his career - smashing the lap record on his way.

Hopefully that is the last time today we have to talk about grid penalties.

Our provisional grid therefore is 1. Leclerc, 2. Verstappen, 3. Bottas, 4. Hamilton, 5. Norris, 6. Raikkonen, 7. Giovinazzi, 8. Gasly, 9. Vettel, 10. Magnussen, 11. Grosjean, 12. Ricciardo, 13. Perez, 14. Stroll, 15. Hulkenberg, 16. Kvyat, 17. Kubica, 18. Albon, 19. Sainz, 20. Russell (starts from pits)

Let's go on to some safer ground and get some action and reaction from yesterday.

Six drivers have grid penalties today - Hamilton, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Albon, Sainz and Russell. We're only in race nine of 21 so it's going to get more confusing as the season goes on. This is how they qualified, with where they start in brackets. Only Leclerc and Grosjean keep their original positions.

Got all that? Nope, us neither.

1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes - drops to fourth)
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull - up to second)
4. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes - up to third)
5. Kevin Magnussen (Haas - drops to 10th)
6. Lando Norris (McLaren - up to fifth)
7. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo - up to sixth)
8. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo - up to seventh)
9. Pierre Gasly (Red Bull - up to eighth)
10. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari - up to ninth)
11. Romain Grosjean (Haas)
12. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault - drops to 15th)
13. Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso - drops to 18th)
14. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault - up to 12th)
15. Carlos Sainz (McLaren - drops to 19th)
16. Sergio Perez (Racing Point - up to 13th)
17. Lance Stroll (Racing Point - up to 14th)
18. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso - up to 16th)
19. George Russell (Williams - starts from pits)
20. Robert Kubica (Williams - up to 17th)