Max Verstappen Defines Dominance With F1 Austrian Grand Prix Victory

• Max Verstappen led all 71 laps at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Sunday to notch his third consecutive victory and fifth of the season.

• Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris completed the podium, as Lewis Hamilton finished fourth.

• Verstappen left Austria with a 32-point lead in the championship over Hamilton.

Orange is the new black in Formula 1.

In what is no longer a trend and now a bona fide run of dominance, Verstappen scored his first career Formula 1 Grand Slam at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on Sunday. He started on the pole, led every lap and scored the fastest lap of the race in winning the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.

The win capped a tripleheader sweep for Verstappen, who left the at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg with a 32-point lead—a cushion of more than one full race—over Hamilton in the championship with nine of 23 races in the books.

The win before 132,000 fans was the fifth of the season for Verstappen and fifth in a row for Red Bull over the black-liveried Mercedes cars. It was a capacity crowd that included Verstappen fans dressed in orange and many firing off orange smoke bombs throughout the race to celebrate their driver. Last week’s race in Austria was in front of limited attendance due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“It was insane today to see all the fans,” Verstappen said. “There was so much orange, it was just incredible. A great motivation as well.”

There was no holding off a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton—or anyone else for that matter—or tire drama late in the race in this one. Verstappen was simply dominant. The only passing Verstappen did on Sunday was the passing of backmarkers, as only eight challengers finished on the lead lap.

“I’m a bit amazed myself how today went,” Verstappen told Sky Sports. “I didn’t expect it to be like this. Incredible job by everyone to deliver something like this. Of course, when you go into the weekend and everyone sees you as the favorite, but it’s never easy to always deliver what we did today.”

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Verstappen toyed with the field from the beginning, leading from lights out to finish. He was even able to make a second pit stop with 10 laps to go in a successful bid for fastest laps. Making one more pit stop than both runner-up Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes and third-place Lando Norris of McLaren, Verstappen still scored a comfortable margin of victory of 17.9 seconds over Bottas and 20 seconds over Norris.

“I knew if I could go fast lap one, I could do my own race,” said Verstappen who jumped ahead of surprise No. 2 qualifier Norris at the start with little trouble.

Lewis Hamilton, who started fourth, finished fourth, 46.4 seconds back. Verstappen came into Sunday’s race with an 18-point lead in driver standing and now has a commanding 32-point lead on seven-time champion.

F1 Austrian Grand Prix

Results

1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 71 laps

2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, +17.9 seconds

3. Lando Norris, McLaren, +20.0

4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +46.4

5. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +57.1

6. Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +57.9

7. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, +1:00.3

8. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +1:01.1

9. Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, +1:01.8

10. Fernando Alonso, Alpine, 1 lap

11. George Russell, Williams, +1 lap

12. Yuki Tsunoda, AlfaTauri, +1 lap

13. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +1 lap

14. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, +1 lap

15. Nicholas Latifi, Williams, +1 lap

16. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, +1 lap

17. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, +1 lap

18. Mick Schumacher, Haas, +2 laps

19. Nikita Mazepin, Haas, +2 laps

20. Esteban Ocon, Alpine, +71 laps

Driver Standings

1. Max Verstappen 182

2. Lewis Hamilton 150

3. Sergio Perez 104

4. Lando Norris 101

5. Valtteri Bottas 92

6. Charles Leclerc 62

7. Carlos Sainz Jr. 60

8. Pierre Gasly 37

9. Daniel Ricciardo 34

10. Sebastian Vettel 30

11. Fernando Alonso 20

12. Lance Stroll 14

13. Esteban Ocon 12

14. Yuki Tsunoda 9

15. Kimi Raikkonen 1

16. Antonio Giovinazzi 1

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