Max Verstappen dominated the Styrian Grand Prix from start to finish and the Red Bull driver extends his lead in the championship. Rival Lewis Hamilton had to settle with second while Mercedes Valtteri Bottas finished in third position, just ahead of Sergio Perez.
At the start, Verstappen and Hamilton leapt off the line together, with the Red Bull driver coming across to cover the inside line into Turn 1.
As the leading duo raced clear up front, Sergio Perez put Lando Norris under huge pressure for third position through the opening corners, but the McLaren driver was able to resist the Red Bull and even had a look around the outside of Hamilton at the downhill long right of Turn 4.
Verstappen raced to a 0.9-second lead at the end of the first lap and the next time by was already out of DRS range from Hamilton behind, with the Max’s advantage reaching nearly three seconds by the end of the first ten laps of 71.
The top two quickly pulled well clear of Norris, who initially kept Perez and the chasing Valtteri Bottas at bay with good straightline speed through the Red Bull Ring’s three DRS zones.
But on lap ten Perez dived to Lando’s inside at the tight uphill right of Turn 3 and moved into third as the McLaren driver offered little defence against the move, which Bottas essentially copied on the following lap.
By the end of the race’s first 15 laps, with Perez 15s off the lead in third, Verstappen edges over the three second mark ahead of Hamilton, as he was regularly able to lap in the high one minute, 09 seconds bracket as the chasing world champion swung between matching Verstappen and logging times in the low one minute, 10 seconds.
Over the next 13 laps Verstappen gradually worked his lead up to nearly six seconds before the pitstop phase kicked off.
Perez was the first of the leading four cars to pit when he came in at the end of lap 26, to switch his starting softs for hards, but was delayed by a slow left-rear change.
That allowed Bottas to jump ahead into third when he came in at the end of following tour to go from the mediums to hards, which Hamilton did as well one tour later at the end of lap 28.
Red Bull duly brought Verstappen in to make his own switch to the hards one lap after Hamilton and he easily retained the lead, albeit with his advantaged reduced to 4.4 seconds by the time the stops had shaken out.
Mercedes instructed Hamilton to push to close the gap, which came down to 4.0 seconds as he set a then fastest lap at the end of lap 34, before Verstappen was able to edge his lead out again over the next part of the race as the leaders made their way through traffic.
Verstappen’s lead was back to nearly six seconds at the end of lap 46, with Bottas nearly 30 seconds adrift in third as the final phase of the race approached.
The only problem Verstappen encountered from there was what he called a “random” brake pedal issue Red Bull advised was being caused by him braking on the Turn 9 exit kerbs ahead of the final corner.
His margin of victory at the finish was 35.7 seconds, with Hamilton reporting he spotted his right-front tyre blistering in the closing stages, as although the weather clouded over in the final ten laps, the rain stayed away.
Behind the top two, Bottas held on to finish third, but only just ahead of Perez after Red Bull called him for a surprise second stop on lap 55.
Perez had a near 20 seconds gap to close, having been running just behind Bottas for the opening phase of the Mercedes driver’s second stint, and he quickly scythed into that advantage – sometimes taking over two seconds a lap back.
But as they also negotiated the traffic the leaders had already passed and Perez’s new mediums began to wear, the gap came down at slower rate, with Bottas eventually taking the final spot of the podium by just 0.5 seconds, with Perez unable to get close enough to make a move in time.
Norris came home in a solid, if lonely, fifth place, ahead of the Ferrari duo led by Carlos Sainz.
Sainz’s progress from P12 on the grid came via running deep into the race on the medium tyres and overcutting a big group of cars that had run ahead of him in the early stages, then moving up to sixth by passing Lance Stroll shortly after his pitstop by using DRS to blast by on the inside out of Turn 3 on lap 45.
Charles Leclerc’s race to seventh behind his teammate was rather more adventurous, as he had to stop at the end of the first lap after clouting Pierre Gasly on the run up to Turn 3 on the opening lap, which gave the AlphaTauri a left-rear puncture and damaged the right side of the Ferrari’s front wing.
Leclerc made two stops on his way back up the order, showing strong pace and making a series of bold overtakes – twice going down the inside of Antonio Giovinazzi and Turn 3 and passing Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso around the outside at Turn 4 – with the former pass occurring at the turn-in point for the corner and with the Alfa Romeo’s front wing picking up a bit of damage as the cars briefly came together.
A final stint charge helped Leclerc recover to surpass Stroll for seventh, with Alonso finishing just behind and himself only just ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who took the final points-paying place in P10.
Raikkonen was 11th ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, who had made an excellent start to run in the top ten early on before falling back dramatically on lap seven, when he reported he had “low power”.
Although Ricciardo’s power level returned, he ran in the pack from there and ended up P13 ahead of Esteban Ocon in the Alpine.
Gasly retired as a result of the puncture he picked up on lap one, with the Frenchman also making contact with Giovinazzi – spinning the Alfa at Turn 3 just a few moments after his clash with Leclerc – as he fought to control his damaged car.
In the runoff beyond Turn 3, Gasly also touched Nicholas Latifi (who eventually finished P17 between the two Haas drivers) and gave the Williams a puncture before limping back to the pits with his left-rear destroyed.
The other DNF was George Russell, who was running strongly behind Alonso in the early stages as they headed a train of cars looking to take seventh place, boosted up the order by Leclerc and Gasly’s clash.
But Russell was warned of a reliability problem ahead of his stop, where he was stationary for nearly 20 seconds as Williams had to top up the pneumatic pressure in his power unit, and he then had to come in again immediately for the process to be repeated.
Although Russell returned to run at the rear of the pack for a while, he was called in and retired on lap 39.
So congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning at the Red Bull Ring. That’s his fourth victory of the season and he extends his lead in the championship over Lewis Hamilton. The next race is at the same track. Can Mercedes strike back?
Styrian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1:22:18.925
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 35.743
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 46.907
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda 47.434
5 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
6 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari +1 lap
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1 lap
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes +1 lap
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault +1 lap
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda +1 lap
11 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari +1 lap
12 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes +1 lap
13 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault +1 lap
15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari +1 lap
16 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari +2 laps
17 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes +3 laps
18 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari +3 laps
– George Russell Williams-Mercedes DNF
– Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda DNF
Styrian Grand Prix race review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen claimed a second win in seven days with victory at the Styrian Grand Prix, enjoying a dominant lights-to-flag performance at the Red Bull Ring over the Mercedes of title rival Lewis Hamilton, as Valtteri Bottas claimed third ahead of Sergio Perez.
Following on from his win in the French Grand Prix, Verstappen led away from pole position at a dry Red Bull Ring, leading every lap of the race to claim his 14th career win, and his third at his team’s Red Bull Ring home track.
The Dutchman duly stretched his lead over Hamilton to 18 points in the drivers’ standings, after the Mercedes driver was unable to offer any serious answer to Verstappen’s pace on race day, although he was at least able to limit the damage after taking the bonus point for fastest lap thanks to a late pit stop.
Having started P5 after his grid drop for spinning in the pit lane on Friday, Bottas was able to claim third, holding off a late charge by the second Red Bull of Perez for the Finn’s first podium since the Spanish Grand Prix.
Behind, a fine race from McLaren’s Lando Norris saw him follow up his P5 from last year’s Styrian Grand Prix with the same result this weekend, having not been able to lap on the pace of the Red Bulls and Mercedes on Sunday. He was ahead of the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who after a nightmare, point-less French Grand Prix, had a much better race in Austria.
Lance Stroll finished eighth for Aston Martin, while Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10. Kimi Raikkonen took 11th, ahead of the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel and the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo – who’d climbed up the order on Lap 1 but fell back to his starting position after losing power briefly – while Esteban Ocon took P14.
P15 was Antonio Giovinazzi, ahead of the Haas of Mick Schumacher, Nicholas Latifi’s Williams and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin.
One of the early stars of the race George Russell had been cruelly forced to retire with a power unit issue, having run comfortably in P8 for the majority of the Grand Prix – while Pierre Gasly was out on Lap 1, after contact with Leclerc that damaged his left-rear, and saw him spin the Alfa Romeo of Giovinazzi at Turn 3.
But at the start of a double header of Austrian races, it was Verstappen and Red Bull who fired another shot across Mercedes bows with their fourth consecutive race win.
Valtteri Bottas’ grid penalty (for his FP2 spin in the pit lane) meant that fate had once again conspired to put title protagonists Verstappen and Hamilton on the front row together for the fourth time this season at the start of the Styrian Grand Prix. And as the five lights went out at the warm, dry start, it was Verstappen who made the perfect getaway, slicing across Hamilton to retain his lead – with Hamilton then having to correct a touch of oversteer at the exit of Turn 1 as he settled into P2.
Behind, Norris was forced to take to the run off at Turn 1, before spending the first lap squabbling with Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, Perez passing around the outside of the McLaren at Turn 3 before Norris decisively took the position back – while the big mover at the start was Norris’ team mate Daniel Ricciardo, who’d climbed from P13 to P8 by the end of Lap 1.
That was in part thanks to contact between old mates Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc, Gasly bumping Leclerc off at Turn 1, with Leclerc then coming back onto the track and tagging the left-rear tyre of the Frenchman. Gasly, with a puncture, was then powerless to prevent himself careering on at Turn 3, tagging Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo into a spin, as well as nudging the Williams of Nicholas Latifi.
Gasly’s damage from the puncture forced him to retire in the pits, as Leclerc had to change a front wing. Meanwhile, all Ricciardo’s hard work to climb up from P13 was then undone a few laps later when he suffered a brief loss of power, the Australian plummeting from P8… back to P13. That provided some respite for the Williams of George Russell, the British driver now running in a lofty P8 after starting 10th.
Perez and Bottas in fourth and fifth were on the move on Lap 10, with Norris putting up little or no defence as the Red Bull and Mercedes went past. Out front, by Lap 15 Verstappen had built his gap over Hamilton to 3s – with Perez a further 12s behind Hamilton, the Mexican 3s clear of Bottas, with those two having quickly gapped Norris.
By Lap 25 of 71, the order was Verstappen, now 5s clear of Hamilton, himself 16s up from Perez, then Bottas, Norris, Lance Stroll (up from P9 to P6 at the start), Fernando Alonso, Russell holding his own excellently in eighth, with Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz rounding out the top 10. Both Verstappen and Hamilton were complaining of their tyres, though, with Hamilton coming close to losing his car at the exit of Turn 4 on Lap 25.
Of the frontrunners, it was Perez who stopped first, taking on hard tyres on Lap 26 of 71. But a slow left-rear change crucially kept him stationary for 4.8s, allowing Bottas to jump him for a net P3 when the Finn stopped a lap later. One lap after that, Hamilton was in, with Verstappen following a lap after. All of those drivers took on hard tyres, with Verstappen able to breeze back into the lead, 5s clear of Hamilton, who himself was 20s up the road from team mate Bottas.
There was heartache for Russell, however, with Williams forced to manage a power unit issue that saw him stopped in his pits for 18s on Lap 25, and forced to stop again a lap later as his pneumatic system was topped up with air – Russell dropping way down to P18, before eventually being retired on Lap 36, points for Williams still continuing to elude both the team and the Briton.
Lap 41 saw the final two non-stopped drivers in the field pit, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo coming in from P5 and P7, Sainz re-emerging in a promising P7 (which quickly became P6 as he passed Stroll, the Spaniard having a great race after starting P12), while Ricciardo was less lucky, dropping behind a train of cars to P15 – that train including Kimi Raikkonen and Leclerc, with Leclerc clipping the front wing of the Finn as he passed for P12 a few laps later.
Up front, though, it was most definitely a two-horse race, Verstappen and Hamilton over 20s clear of Bottas with 20 laps of the 71 to go, with Verstappen seemingly able to control the gap to Hamilton, which he’d stretched at this point to around 6.3s.
There was nervousness in both cockpits however, Verstappen complaining of brake-by-wire issues – caused, according to race engineer GianPiero Lambiase, by braking on the kerbs on Turn 10 – while Hamilton had spotted blistering starting to appear on his tyres.
Perez, unable to make inroads into Bottas, rolled the dice, coming in for a second stop on Lap 54 for new mediums and holding onto P4. Having been right at the back of the field on Lap 1, meanwhile, Leclerc had come alive in the final third of the race, the Monegasque passing Tsunoda, Alonso and Stroll in quick succession to climb to P7.
With 10 laps to go, Verstappen had eased the gap to Hamilton up to 10s, the order now the leading pair from Bottas, Perez, Norris, the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, Stroll, Alonso and Tsunoda.
The edge was still in Verstappen’s voice – but as the laps ticked down, Hamilton and Mercedes seemed resigned to their fate, confirming as much when they brought Hamilton in a few laps from the end to switch to soft tyres and go for the fastest lap bonus point, which he duly earned.
But that was of little concern to Verstappen, who crossed the line at the end of 71 well-controlled laps for his fourth win of the year, and his second in succession, as Hamilton had enough in hand to slip back into second after his stop – as behind, Bottas was able to withhold Perez, the pair crossing the line separated by just 0.527s, for Bottas’ first return to the podium since Barcelona.
Such was Norris’ pace that he was left to drive a lonely race for the main part, but still came home P5 for his seventh top-five finish in eight races this year. Behind, Ferrari will have been cheered by the race day performance of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who having had precious little race pace seven days ago in Paul Ricard, were able to battle though for P6 and P7 – Leclerc claiming Driver of the Day for his efforts.
Lance Stroll had done well to climb to P6 early on, but ultimately lacked the speed of the Ferraris on Sunday as he took P8 as the leading Aston Martin, ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.
Former Ferrari team mates Raikkonen and Vettel could do no better than 11th and 12th, while after the progress shown by his P6 in France, this was an unfortunate day for Ricciardo, who’d done so well at the start, but ultimately lacked the pace to climb higher than P13 at the flag.
He was ahead of Esteban Ocon after an off-key weekend from the Frenchman, with Giovinazzi, Schumacher, Latifi and Mazepin rounding out the Russell and Gasly-less order.
So, has the momentum in the title battle swung the way of Verstappen and Red Bull? After the team’s fourth straight win – and Verstappen’s third in four races – it certainly looks that way, as Red Bull celebrated jubilantly at their home race. They’ll be hoping for more of the same next week when we return here for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admitted it was impossible for him to keep up with Max Verstappen in ‘lonely’ Styrian Grand Prix. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Lewis Hamilton found it “impossible” to keep up with Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix, leaving him unsure where Mercedes is losing time to Red Bull.
Verstappen edged out Hamilton by two-tenths of a second in qualifying on Saturday to take pole, leaving the Mercedes driver uncertain of his chances of overtaking come race day.
Verstappen duly delivered a dominant display, leading every single lap of the race to score his fourth victory of the season and extend his lead at the top of the drivers’ championship to 18 points.
Hamilton was heard over the radio asking Mercedes if there was anything he could do to reduce the gap, which grew as large as 17 seconds before the seven-time world champion pitted late on to pick up the fastest lap bonus point.
“It was a bit of a lonely race really,” Hamilton said.
“I was trying to keep up with those guys but the speed they have, they’ve obviously made some big improvements over the last couple of races and [it was] impossible to keep up.
“I don’t know where we’re losing all the time, but I think their long run seems to be a bit better, they seem to be able to continue pulling out those laps.
“And obviously on the straights, we are losing a lot down the straights, or I feel like we are losing a lot down the straights.
“But nonetheless, we got good points as a team today and we just got to keep pushing.”
Red Bull’s straight-line speed has been a regular talking point throughout the Styrian Grand Prix race weekend, with the team putting its recent gains down to its low-drag set-up and small rear wing and not due to its change in engine at Paul Ricard.
Hamilton called on his Mercedes team to find some performance to strike back at Red Bull and reduce the straight-line speed deficit.
“We need to find some performance, we need an upgrade of some sort, we need to push,” Hamilton said.
“I don’t know whether it’s just the rear wing or whether it’s the upgrade in the engine, whatever it may be, but we’ve got to find some performance.”
The result marked Hamilton’s fourth race in a row without victory, leaving the Briton in his longest win drought since a six-race spell at the end of 2017 and in early 2018.
Asked about his feelings on the title race with Verstappen pulling further clear, Hamilton said he would “try not to concern myself with that”.
“I mean, naturally they are just faster, so there’s not a lot that I can do in that respect,” Hamilton said.
“I’ve just got to keep trying to do the best job I can each weekend.”
Williams driver George Russell rues “typical” bad luck after Styrian Grand Prix retirement. Motorsport.com has the details.
George Russell called it “typical” to hit bad luck when chasing his maiden Formula 1 points finish for Williams after a power unit issue forced him to retire in Styria.
Russell started the race 10th for Williams and moved up to eighth early on after Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly made contact on the opening lap.
The Williams driver was able to hold position, keeping the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda behind, and even closed up on Fernando Alonso for seventh towards the end of the first stint.
But after Williams informed Russell that it was switching to “plan B” for reliability reasons, the team began to take action for a power unit issue that was emerging.
Russell’s first pit stop lasted 18 seconds before he came in a second time to allow for pneumatic cooling, dropping him to the rear of the field.
Williams brought Russell in to retire the car at the end of Lap 38, leaving some of the team members with their heads in their hands in the garage after seeing the chance for a first points finish since Germany 2019 pass by.
“It’s such a shame,” Russell said on Ziggo Sport following his retirement.
“Racing is never easy. It’s never… fair is not the right word. You make your own luck, and ultimately, something went wrong today.
“But for us, we’re not here consistently, and it’s just typical. I don’t really know what to think or to say, to be honest.
“It’s such a shame for everybody in the team. They’ve worked so hard for this, and it’s been such a long time coming.
“These points today would have been massive, not just for the morale, but if I finished P8 or P7 – I think P7 was probably possible, I was quicker than Alonso – four or six points in the constructors’ would have been massive. Absolutely massive for us.”
Russell said that it was “just a technical problem” that Williams was looking into, confirming it was “something to do with the pneumatic pressure”.
Since debuting at the start of 2019, Russell’s sole points finish came during his one-race appearance for Mercedes in Sakhir last year when he finished P9.
A finish of eighth or higher would have lifted Williams to eighth in the constructors’ championship above Alfa Romeo, and have been the team’s best result since the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Race winner Max Verstappen explains brief brake issue during Styrian Grand Prix. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Max Verstappen has explained the brake issue that briefly emerged during his dominant Formula 1 victory in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen led every lap at the Red Bull Ring to score his fourth win of the year and record back-to-back victories for the first time in his F1 career.
Verstappen crossed the line 35 seconds clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton in second place, having led by more than 17 seconds prior to Hamilton’s late stop to pick up the fastest lap bonus point.
The only moments of concern in Verstappen’s race came in the second stint when he was twice heard on team radio reporting concerns about his brake pedal and messages on his dashboard about the brake-by-wire system.
Verstappen’s race engineer told him it was related to running over the kerbs at Turns 9 and 10, but Verstappen said he was not taking any kerb there.
Asked about the issue after the race, Verstappen said it was something for the team to look into during its post-race analysis.
“It quickly just fell a bit to the floor between Turn 9 and Turn 10 while braking, and then it would come back after Turn 10,” Verstappen said.
“So we’ll look into that. But it happened two times I think.”
Speaking on Sky Sports F1, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained that the feeling Verstappen had with the brake was due to the kerbs at the exits of the final two corners.
“I think we could see, it was what you call a bit of knock-off, where you rattle over the kerbs, the feeling the pedal goes long, and it must be a horrible feeling,” Horner said.
“But I think once he stayed off the kerb, that then managed, the system was much happier with that.
“It wasn’t too much of a drama.”
Verstappen was able to run one lap longer than Hamilton in the opening stint, and appeared to manage his tyres better after switching to the hard compound, pulling further clear towards the end of the race.
It was a sign that Red Bull had remedied its tyre management weakness that cost it against Mercedes in Spain last month, with Verstappen saying the pace advantage allowed him to look after his tyres more.
“It’s all about making sure you have the tyres to the end,” Verstappen said.
“I do think in Barcelona we just didn’t have, a bit like I think it was today, they couldn’t keep up with me in terms of pace, and if you had that little bit extra of pace, you can manage your lap times a bit more.
“That just helps these tyres a lot to the end, because they’re super sensitive in terms of sliding, locking, whatever, it overheats super quick. So it’s all about management at the end.”
Valtteri Bottas has revealed Mercedes pitted him early in Sunday’s Formula 1 Styrian Grand Prix to capitalise on Sergio Perez’s slow stop for Red Bull, helping him secure third place.
Bottas qualified second at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday but dropped back to fifth on the grid due to a penalty for spinning in the pits in Friday practice.
Bottas moved up to fourth on lap 11 by passing McLaren’s Lando Norris, and began to catch Perez for third towards the end of the opening stint.
Red Bull looked to cover the undercut from Mercedes by bringing Perez in at the end of lap 26, only for the stop to take 4.8 seconds, costing the Mexican driver ground.
Mercedes reacted one lap later by bringing Bottas in for a set of hard tyres, with the Finn emerging from the pits ahead of Perez.
Bottas kept the gap stable through the second stint before Red Bull switched Perez to a two-stop strategy in a bid to grab third place away.
But Bottas held on to take his first podium since the Spanish Grand Prix at the beginning of May, crossing the line half a second clear.
“I was pretty clear from him up until the last lap and yeah, I could see him in the mirrors,” Bottas said of Perez’s late charge.
“I think starting the last lap he was like 1.5 seconds [behind]. At the end of the lap he was like half a second.
“But you can’t really overtake here in sector 2 and 3, so once I got clear of sector 1 without any mistakes with the poor tyres I had, then I knew that I should get it.”
Bottas struggled with tyre wear in the closing stages, revealing Mercedes had not planned to bring him in so early but wanted to make the most of Red Bull’s slip up.
“As a team, we did a good job to get ahead of him,” Bottas said.
“They had a slow pit stop I think, and we were quite reactive, stopping at that point even though we were not planning to stop that early.
“That was good. At least we get some points out of them.”
Asked by Motorsport.com about Bottas’s performance in Styria, Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff praised him for delivering a “perfect first stint”.
“[He was] managing his tyre whilst being fast,” Wolff said. “He was really in a perfect situation, and you can see that without the penalty he would have been in the mix, no doubt about that.
“Having said that, Lewis [Hamilton] and Valtteri had the same armoury, and that wasn’t performing enough to beat Max [Verstappen].”
Bottas agreed that Sunday’s race made it “really clear” that Red Bull held the advantage over Mercedes in Austria.
“At least today, on this track, Red Bull is faster,” Bottas said.
“Also Checo, he was putting a lot of pressure on me. If we want to try and keep up with them, we can’t do as much tyre management.
“I definitely can feel that they are faster in the straight. I think they have a bit more efficient package overall. So yeah, we have work to do.”
Source: Motorsport.com