Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has taken a comfortable victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Dutch driver lead from lights to flag to take a dominating win on Red Bull’s home turf, even being able to pit towards the end of the race to go for fastest lap. Mercedes Valtteri Bottas took second place, with McLaren’s Lando Norris close behind taking the final podium spot.
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Verstappen was able to keep his lead off the line and managed to fend off Norris into Turn 1. Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull and the two Mercedes drivers of Bottas and Lewis Hamilton held station on the opening lap.
However, the Safety Car was brought out to deal with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who had an incident with Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa Romeo. The resulting damage for Ocon saw him retire from the race.
Once the race resumed, Perez tried to pass Norris around the outside of Turn 4. However, Perez ran out of road causing the Mexican to skim across the gravel and drop down in tenth. The stewards immediately but the pair under investigation which resulting in Norris getting a five second time penalty for forcing Perez off the track.
When Hamilton passed Bottas for third the Briton set about catching Norris. After a brave fight, the McLaren driver had to concede the last podium spot with a move around the outside of Turn 4. Hamilton had an 11 second gap to close once he got past the fellow countryman.
The Mercedes driver had picked up damage and was unable to challenge the Dutchman up front. Teammate Bottas was forced to overtake the seven-time world champion in a move that looked deliberate. When Norris managed to catch and overtake Hamilton, the Mercedes driver came into the pits for fresh hard tyres. Hamilton finished down in fourth after vying with Verstappen for fastest lap.
Perez had managed to recover up to fifth place after his off, but in a battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, picked up two time penalties for forcing the Monegasque driver off the track. It was a similar situation the Mexican found himself in with Norris and Perez ended the race in sixth, behind a charging Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari.
The Spanish driver started the race on the hard tyre and was looking quick on the softer medium compounds towards the end of the race. As a result, the Ferrari driver managed to catch and overtake both his teammate Leclerc and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo to finish a strong fifth.
Ricciardo had a stronger race than in recent times and finished in seventh. It could have been higher had the battle with Sainz not forced him out of the ten second window needed to finish ahead of Perez.
Pierre Gasly finished in ninth for AlphaTauri with Fernando Alonso taking the final points positions for Alpine. The Spaniard had a hard fought battle with Williams driver George Russell who dropped out of the points at the end of the race. The Briton finished in 11th place.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda finished in 12th place, despite gaining two separate time penalties for crossing the white line at the pitlane entry. The Japanese driver would have finished lower had Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel had not collided with each other on the last lap. The Incident between the two ex-world champions will be investigated after the race.
Lance Stroll in the other Aston martin finished in 13th, with a recovering Antonio Giovinazzi finishing down in 14th. Williams Nicholas Latifi finished in 15th place with Raikkonen and Vettel in 16th and 17th respectively.
The two Haas drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin were the last of the classified finishers.
