Valtteri Bottas stayed calm in a stormy race on Sunday to claim a measured victory for Mercedes as Formula One returned with a bang in a belated, dramatic and incident-strewn 2020 season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.

Seven months after the final race of 2019, the Finn, who had started from the 12th pole position of his career, led from start to finish to come home ahead on the road of team-mate six-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton, however, had been given a five-second penalty during the race and was demoted to fourth behind Charles Leclerc, who brought his Ferrari home second and Briton Lando Norris who claimed his maiden podium for McLaren.

Hamilton, hit with a late pre-race grid penalty that dropped him from second to fifth, had clashed with Red Bull’s Alex Albon in the final laps, forcing him into a spin off track.

In a race of three Safety Car interventions, run behind closed doors at the Red Bull Ring, Ferrari-bound Carlos Sainz finished fifth in the second McLaren ahead of Sergio Perez of Racing Point.

Pierre Gasly was sixth for Alpha Tauri and Esteban Ocon eighth on his return to racing with Renault ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi of Alfa Romeo and Sebastian Vettel, the four-time champion in his final season at Ferrari, finishing 10th.

Before the race even started, there was drama when six of the 20 drivers opted against taking a knee to protest against racism.

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.

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.

Carlos Sainz of McLaren, Danil Kvyat of Alpha Tauri, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alfa Romeo team-mate Kimi Raikkonen also chose to stay on their feet.