Verstappen Dominates 2023 Austrian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen dominated 2023 Austrian Grand Prix to record his 42nd Grand Prix victory in F1.

Verstappen led from lights out and aside from losing the lead for nine laps after he pitted on Lap 25, but passed Charles Leclerc on Lap 36 with a race-winning overtake into Turn 3 as the Ferrari driver settled for second.

His 42nd win also moved Verstappen into fifth position alone on the all-time wins list ahead of Ayrton Senna.

Sergio Perez drove from 15th on the grid to third after overtaking Carlos Sainz on Lap 61, as Lando Norris settled for fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll.

Stewards however issued multiple time penalties to eight drivers post-race which totalled 100 seconds in total, with Sainz, Hamilton and Gasly the only drivers in the top ten affected as they fell to sixth, eighth and tenth respectively.

Norris consequently finished fourth ahead of Alonso, Sainz, Russell, Hamilton, Stroll and Gasly whilst outside of the top ten, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, Nyck De Vries and Yuki Tsunoda were also were penalised.

In the driver standings, Verstappen extended his title lead over Perez to 81 points whilst Alonso slipped 19 points behind the Mexican in third, but is 25 points clear of fourth-placed Hamilton.

Red Bull continue to lead the Constructors’ standings as they extended their lead to 199 points over Mercedes, who sit five points clear of third-placed Aston Martin.

Pre-race, it was announced that the Austrian Grand Prix would remain on the calendar until the end of 2030 season, following agreement of a three-year contract extension to a renewed deal until end of 2027 season which was signed back in March.

At lights out, Verstappen made a clean start to lead Leclerc and Sainz as Hamilton leapfrogged Norris for fourth, whilst Alonso swept round the outside of Stroll into Turn 1 for sixth.

Perez meanwhile recovered two positions from a 15th-placed grid start to 13th at the start but the Safety Car was deployed at the end of Lap 1, after Tsunoda ran deep at Turn 4 across the gravel having lost downforce due to a collision with Esteban Ocon at Turn 1.

Racing resumed on Lap 4 with Verstappen comfortably leading Leclerc whilst Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver to pit on Lap 12, but he retired a lap later at Turn 4 with a power unit failure which caused the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to be deployed for three laps.

Hamilton and Norris were the first frontrunners to pit under the VSC with Leclerc and Sainz following suit a lap later, which saw Sainz lose out as he slipped from third to sixth but he soon recovered position by the end of Lap 20.

Stewards meanwhile were trigger-happy with five-second time penalties for track limits with Hamilton, Sainz and Ocon amongst those to be slapped with time penalties throughout the race.

Up front, Verstappen stayed out under the VSC which allowed Leclerc to rapidly reel the two-time champion in until he pitted at the start of Lap 25, which brought Verstappen’s run of 249 consecutive laps in the lead to an end.

Verstappen however overturned a six-second deficit in nine laps as he caught Leclerc by Lap 35 and passed the Monegasque into Turn 3 to claim the lead, from which he sprinted away to victory as Leclerc finished second.

Perez ran a 26-lap opening stint followed by a 24-lap stint which saw him pit from second, and he was able to maximise his fresh hard tyres to pass Norris and Sainz into Turn 4 on Laps 56 and 61 respectively to take third.

Sainz and Norris settled for fourth and fifth ahead of Alonso who leapfrogged Hamilton with his second stop, after the Brit had to serve a five-second penalty for track limits during his stop.

Russell, Gasly and Stroll rounded out the top ten ahead of Alex Albon who and Ocon as Logan Sargeant finished 13th, which marked his best result since he finished 12th at the season-opening Bahrain GP.

Post-race, Aston Martin opted to appeal the result due to multiple breaches of track limits which went unpunished, of which stewards upheld their appeal and immediately undertook their own investigation to the multiple track limits breaches.

Inside the top-ten, Sainz, Hamilton and Gasly received additional 10 second time penalties which dropped them to sixth, eighth and tenth in the classification, whilst Albon stayed 11th despite too receiving a 10 second time penalty.

Ocon received a 30s time penalty in total after he was adjudged to have breached track limits on ten occasions in total, which dropped him from 12th to 14th, behind Guanyu Zhou and Logan Sargeant although Sargeant had been handed a 10 second time penalty for his own breaches of track limits.

De Vries slipped from 15th to 17th after he was hit with a 15 second time penalty with Valtteri Bottas and Oscar Piastri promoted a position each.

Tsunoda meanwhile was classified last out of the finishers behind Kevin Magnussen after he was served a five-second time penalty for a further breach of track limits on top of his penalty during the race itself.

F1 now heads to Silverstone for the 2023 British Grand Prix from 7-9 July, where Norris, Hamilton and Russell will look to deliver on home soil.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	71	1h 25m 33.607
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	71	+ 5.155
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	71	+ 17.188
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	71	+ 26.327
5	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	71	+ 30.317
6	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	71	+ 31.377
7	George Russell	Mercedes	71	+ 48.403
8	Lewis Hamilto	Mercedes	71	+ 49.196
9	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	71	+ 59.043
10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	71	+ 67.667
11	Alex Albon	Williams	71	+ 79.767
12	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	70	+ 1 Lap
13	Logan Sargeant	Williams	70	+ 1 Lap
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	70	+ 1 Lap
15	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	70	+ 1 Lap
16	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	70	+ 1 Lap
17	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri	70	+ 1 Lap
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	70	+ 1 Lap
19	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	70	+ 1 Lap
RET	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	12	Power