Max Verstappen Seizes Dominant 2021 Austrian Grand Prix Victory

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extended his title lead over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with a dominant victory at 2021 Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen made a clean start to lead Lando Norris and Sergio Perez as the Safety Car was deployed towards the end of the opening lap, following a right front tyre breakage for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon after being hit by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.

Once racing resumed on lap four, Verstappen sprinted away unchallenged to victory on a two-stopper as  Norris fended off Perez who drifted wide across the gravel at Turn Four to slip down the order, before then holding off Lewis Hamilton until lap 20.

Valtteri Bottas meanwhile leapfrogged Norris in the pit-stop which ultimately gave him second ahead of Norris in third, after the pair fought their way past Hamilton on laps 52 and 53 respectively with the Brit finishing fourth.

Perez recovered to finish fifth on the road but a ten second time penalty for twice forcing Charles Leclerc wide put him sixth overall, behind Carlos Sainz as Daniel Ricciardo, Leclerc, Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten.

In the driver standings, Verstappen now holds a 32 point lead over Hamilton after also picking up the point for fastest lap, as Norris cut Perez’s lead in the battle for third down to just three points after outscoring the Mexican by seven points.

Red Bull now hold a 44 point lead over Mercedes in the constructor standings as McLaren continue to head their battle for third against Ferrari by 19 points, whilst AlphaTauri pulled a four point gap over Aston Martin in their scrap for fifth.

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At lights out, Verstappen got a clean getaway as the top seven all held position but further behind the leading pack, Ocon got squeezed at Turn Three by Mick Schumacher and Giovinazzi with the latter striking Ocon’s front-right tyre to cause race-ending damage for the Frenchman.

The Safety Car consequently was deployed until the end of lap three with Verstappen successfully leading the pack back racing, despite crawling through Turns Nine and 10 before bolting away unchallenged to a third consecutive victory.

Norris meanwhile found himself in a scrap with Perez and squeezed the Mexican wide at Turn Four to send Perez sliding to tenth, with stewards deciding to hit Norris with a 5s time penalty on lap 20 just as Hamilton forced his way through down to Turn Four for second.

Bottas meanwhile was driving his own race in fourth and pitted on lap 30 like Norris which enabled the Finnish driver to jump Norris in the pit-stops, as the Brit served his time penalty with the pair eventually putting pressure on Hamilton despite Bottas initially being told to not overtake Hamilton.

Elsewhere, Perez was fighting with Leclerc when he forced the Monegasque wide at Turn Four on lap 40 as Leclerc took the outside line, before doing the same out of Turn Six just six laps later which saw two separate 5s time penalties dished out for both incidents to the Mexican.

Up front, Bottas was told on lap 51 to attack Hamilton and both Mercedes drivers switched around on the following lap with Norris then forcing his way past Hamilton on inside of Turn Six a lap later, leaving Hamilton to pit but was unsuccessful in his bid for fastest lap as he finished fourth.

Sainz meanwhile was on the alternative strategy after starting on the hard tyres which paid off as he was able to charge through to sixth after Ferrari swapped him and Leclerc around on lap 66, going on to pass Ricciardo four laps later before finishing fifth after Perez’ 10s time penalty was applied post-race.

Fernando Alonso recovered from 14th to deny George Russell his first points in a Williams car after  getting the Brit into Turn Four on lap 68 for tenth and the final point, as Russell settled for 11th after starting eighth on the grid.

Outside of the top ten, there was late drama in the battle for 12th as ex Ferrari teammates, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen tangled at Turn Six on lap 70 with only Raikkonen going on to take the flag as Vettel retired on the spot.

Post-race, Raikkonen was hit with a 20s time penalty for causing his collision with Vettel whilst Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin were slapped with 10s stop-go penalties for failing to slow sufficiently enough at the corner, which were converted into 30s post-race penalties applied to their race times.

Latifi consequently dropped to 16th behind Raikkonen whilst Mazepin remained 19th with both Latifi and Mazepin also being handed three penalty points on their licenses, which put the former on six points for the 12 month period whilst Mazepin has collected five points in just nine races.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	71	1h 23m 54.543
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	71	+ 17.973
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	71	+ 20.019
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+ 46.452
5	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	71	+ 57.144
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	71	+ 57.915
7	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	71	+ 60.395
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	71	+ 61.195
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	71	+ 61.844
10	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	70	+ 1 Lap
11	George Russell	Williams	70	+ 1 Lap
12	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	70	+ 1 Lap
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	70	+ 1 Lap
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	70	+ 1 Lap
15	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	70	+ 1 Lap
16	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	70	+ 1 Lap
17	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	69	Collision
18	Mick Schumacher	Haas	69	+ 2 Laps
19	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	69	+ 2 Laps
RET	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	0	Collision