The second leg of Formula One’s first ever triple header takes us from from France to Austria, and the home of Red Bull.

The Red Bull Ring is the host circuit, but all the talks is about Mercedes coming in and how impressive they were at Circuit Paul Ricard with Lewis Hamilton claiming the win in comfortable fashion.

But Max Verstappen was second for Red Bull and he will be spearheading their challenge on home turf this weekend, alongside team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettell lost ground on Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship and history is against the German, with Mercedes dominating at the Ring, winning every race it has hosted since returning to the calendar in 2014.

Thanks for the warm welcome Graz! ? See you at the Red Bull Ring! ?? #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/ubuteI3QvK

— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 27, 2018

Red Bull are desperate for a good showing at their home circuit and Verstappen is looking for a third straight podium, and wants to avoid crashing early as he did in 2017.

“The Austrian Grand Prix is always a special one, it is of course the home of Red Bull so we have a good following of Austrian fans and also a lot of Dutch,” said Verstappen.

“Last year ended way too soon due to contact at Turn 1 so I’ll be out to make up for that this year. The track is a fun lap, sector two is definitely my favourite part of the circuit.”

Mercedes new engines looked very good in Canada and further upgrades are expected, but Hamilton is expecting a healthy threat from all sides – but particularly Red Bull.

“It’s been a decent track for us in the past, so I don’t see why it should be any different now. I think the car should be good there. I think the Red Bulls have been particularly quick there in the past because it’s quite a good downforce circuit, so it’ll be interesting,” said Hamilton.

“As you’re seeing, it’s great that our cars are quite close in qualifying nowadays, but positioning is everything really in qualifying there because at that track you can’t really overtake… Even though you’ve got those long straights, it’s very, very difficult to overtake because you can’t follow another car through Turn One. It’s going to be about who qualifies where, isn’t it?”

We're almost ready for the Formula 1 action here at the Red Bull Ring. #AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/8537XLnGvS

— Red Bull Ring (@redbullring_) June 27, 2018

One man on the paddock looking forward to what is his home Grand Prix is Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.

“Personally, I’m looking forward to returning to Spielberg. The track holds a very special place in my heart as I did my first laps at the old Osterreichring when I was young,” he said.

“After Formula One returned to the track in 2014, it quickly became one of the favourite places of the entire F1 calendar, not the least thanks to the upgraded facilities and the excellent organisation of the event.

“We’re going to Austria leading both the constructors’ and the drivers’ championships, but we know that we will once again get every detail right if we want a chance to win the race.

“The relatively short lap in Austria makes the circuit challenging as it closes up the field in qualifying and will make the margins even tighter.

“We will aim to hit the ground running as qualifying is particularly important because overtaking has historically been tricky despite the long straights.”