Red Bull’s Max Verstappen wins 2021 Styrian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton in P2 and Valtteri Bottas in P3.
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 home track, Red Bull Ring .
Max delighted with his car performance today, after the race he said: “Straight away I felt a good balance on the car. We have to show it again next week. I’m looking forward to it. I’m confident we can do a really good job again”.
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.
Even though P2 is becoming a norm for Mercedes and Lewis in last couple of races, The Brit is more than happy to bring back good points home for team, he said : “It was a bit of a lonely race! I was trying to keep up with those guys [Red Bull] but they’ve made some big improvements over the last couple of races .We got good points as a team today, and we’ve got to keep pushing”
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.
The Fin felt P3 was max he could achieve after a harsh penalty, He said: “From where I started I think P3 was the maximum today. I’m glad I could defend against Perez. It’s good that we get to do this all again next week”.
Behind top-4, 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.
But importantly he was ahead of the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in P6 & P7 respectively.
After a nightmare, point-less French Grand Prix, Ferrari had a much better race in Austria, especially driver of the day winner Charles Leclerc’s race pace to climb up the field after losing positions in the opening lap due to scuffle with Pierre Gasly is very impressive.
Lance Stroll finished eighth for Aston Martin, another strong race from Canadian, 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.
The Aussie gained four places on Lap 1 but fell back to his starting position after losing power briefly – while Esteban Ocon took P14 in Alpine.
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.
[…] Due to the continuing effect of the global pandemic on the F1 calendar, the Styrian Grand Prix was shoehorned into the schedule last weekend as Max Verstappen made it four consecutive Red Bull victories. […]