Verstappen’s F1 dominance continues with Austrian GP victory
Reuters – Red Bull’s Formula One leader Max Verstappen took his fifth win in a row on Sunday in an extraordinary Austrian Grand Prix that ended up with nearly half the 20-car field punished for failing to stay on track.
The Dutch driver won from pole position and with the fastest lap as the reigning champions celebrated a 10th successive victory and ninth in as many races this season.
Verstappen, who also won Saturday’s 100km sprint race and leaves Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring with a maximum haul, stretched his lead over third-placed Mexican team mate Sergio Perez to 81 points.
It was also the Dutch driver’s seventh win of a dominant campaign, accelerating him ever closer to a third Formula One crown.
Charles Leclerc was second, 5.155 adrift, for Ferrari’s milestone 800th podium while Perez battled back from 15th at the start.
“Amazing race, the car was on fire today,” said Verstappen after his 42nd career win took him above the tally of late Brazilian great Ayrton Senna.
Behind the top three, the outcome was thrown into confusion after stewards upheld a protest by Aston Martin and reviewed more than 1,200 potential track limits breaches before applying retrospective penalties. The final results saw Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz drop from fourth to sixth with McLaren’s Lando Norris and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso moving in the other direction to fourth and fifth respectively.
Mercedes seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton slid from seventh to eighth, behind team mate George Russell, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll moved up to ninth and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly fell to 10th.
Sainz, Hamilton, Gasly, Williams’ Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen were all handed penalties, some twice. The drivers had made sure stewards were kept busy by pointing out over the radio during the race whenever they saw a rival exceeding the limits.