Max Verstappen was in a class of his own as he took victory at the Styrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver held the lead from pole position at the start and didn’t look back, going on to take the win by the biggest margin of victory at any race in Spielberg.
Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second, as Valtteri Bottas held off a charging Sergio Perez on the final lap to claim third.
Race Review
Verstappen led away into Turn 1 from Hamilton at the start, as Norris held off Sergio Perez’s attempts to claim third at Turn 3 and 4.
Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly touched on the run to Turn 2, damaging the front wing on the Ferrari and giving the AlphaTauri a puncture.
The wounded Gasly had more contact at Turn 3 with Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi, as the punctured wheel became a suspension failure for the Frenchman.
Gasly suffered a puncture in the opening-lap tangles and limps back to the pits
The AlphaTauri driver is out of the race ❌#StyrianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/I6ioX5Cvfi
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 27, 2021
After holding off Perez for several laps, Norris eventually yielded to both the Red Bull and Valtteri Bottas on consecutive laps, dropping to fifth.
While in the other McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo made a strong start to get inside the top 10, only for a momentary loss of power to drop the Australian back to his starting place of 13th.
The dramas allowed George Russell to move up to P8 in the Williams. But dreams of his first points with the team were ended by pneumatic pressure issues, forcing the Briton to pit twice in consecutive laps and eventually leading to his retirement.
LAP 39/71 @GeorgeRussell63 retires after such a promising start to the race ?
Classy radio from Russell ? “No need to apologise, we’re in this together. We go again next week – we’ll get those points next week” #StyrianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/eISyCg0mH6
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 27, 2021
Perez was the first of the leaders to pit from third but a slow stop allowed Bottas to jump up ahead when he changed tyres a lap later.
Hamilton and Verstappen followed their teammates in for new tyres with the Dutchman continuing almost five seconds in the lead.
Despite solid early pace on the fresh rubber, the Mercedes had no answer to the pace of the Red Bull, with Max claiming victory by 35 seconds at the chequered flag.
Roughly half of that gap came from Hamilton pitting again to claim the fastest lap on the final lap in second, limiting the points loss to just six points to Verstappen.
Perez switched to a two-stop strategy but just ran out of time to catch Bottas in the fight for third, as the Finn held on on the final lap.
Norris ran a comfortable fifth for McLaren. The two Ferrari’s stormed through the field with Carlos Sainz making a long first stint work to take sixth and Charles Leclerc recovering from his Lap 1 incident with Gasly to claim seventh.
Leclerc is now up to P7 ?
The Ferrari driver picks off Alonso then, on Lap 60, he passes Stroll, too!#StyrianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/nYnqJsTZt7
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 27, 2021
Lance Stroll was eighth for Aston Martin, holding off Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda in the closing laps at the tail of the top 10.
Kimi Raikkonen just missed out on the points in 11th, ahead of former teammate Sebastian Vettel in 12th.
Ricciardo was unable to reclaim the positions lost by the loss of power as he came home 13th with Esteban Ocon 14th for Alpine.
Antonio Giovinazzi was 15th as he and Nicholas Latifi were compromised by the Lap 1 contact with Gasly at Turn 3.
Mick Schumacher took 16th with Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin the final finisher in 18th.
Back at the front, a commanding performance from Max Verstappen sees him claim a third win in four races since Monaco, extending his lead over Lewis Hamilton to 18 points in the Drivers’ Championship.
Even better news for the Red Bull driver, F1 does it all again in Austria in just seven days time!
Full results from the race can be seen below:
