Written by Hafiz Akbar, edited by Morgan Holiday
This Austrian Grand Prix witnessed a very exciting race between 19 drivers battling it out over the 71 laps that ensued. The front row saw the first-ever McLaren on the front row in over a decade, with the last time being Lewis Hamilton back when he was still driving for the Woking-based team. Just in front of him was Max Verstappen. Mercedes didn’t have the best qualifying session this round but still started the race in 4th and 5th for Hamilton and Bottas.
The race went underway as Verstappen got away very nicely from the line with Norris right up his back, followed by Sergio Perez and the two Mercedes. Coming into turn 1, no contact was made but in turn 3, Esteban Ocon was squeezed and had his front right sheared, ending his race just short of a lap in.
Norris had a tricky first stint, losing out to Hamilton after 20 laps and was slapped with a 5 second time penalty after he pushed Perez out and sent him back to 10th place. Norris went ahead and finished 3rd, having found his pace after his first pitstop. Giovinazzi and Tsunoda were also slapped with 5 second time penalties for overtaking under the safety car and crossing pitlane entry respectively. Tsunoda was slapped with another penalty for the same offence. Perez was also slapped with two 5 second penalties after pushing Charles Leclerc twice off the track.
George Russell had a magnificent qualifying session and got into Q3 for the first time in the Williams, although ended up out of the points in 11th place. This marks one of his best performances by far in his F1 career.
In the last lap of the race, Kimi Räikkönen turned into ex-teammate Sebastian Vettel, sending both off the track.
After a dominant performance from the Dutch wunderkind, Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas in second place, followed by Lando Norris in third. This extends Verstappen’s title charge advantage, although Red Bull is on the losing side this race, with Sergio Perez finishing on the lower side of the points places.
F1 will be back next week in Silverstone, with the proposed inaugural Sprint Qualifying set to take place at the same weekend.
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