Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas won the first race of the delayed 2020 Formula 1 season, taking victory in an epic Austrian Grand Prix from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, after Bottas' teammate Lewis Hamilton was penalised for a late-race collision with Red Bull's Alex Albon.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

Starting from pole position, Bottas led every lap at the Red Bull Ring and kept his head when many behind him were losing theirs, with the race involving three separate safety car periods and seeing no fewer than nine drivers fail to see the chequered flag.

After Mercedes had dominated qualifying, it seemed as if Bottas and Hamilton would have it all their own way in Sunday's race, despite Hamilton starting from fifth rather than second after a penalty for ignoring a yellow flag in qualifying.

However, a series of late-race safety car periods and concerns over Mercedes reliability leveled the playing field and allowed others to close on the new-look Silver Arrows, with the Brackley squad decked out in an all-new dark livery in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.