Austria’s Red Bull Ring brings Verstappen fans from Holland and Belgium
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued his imperious march towards a third world title with a dominant victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman’s fifth win in a row moves him 81 points clear of team-mate Sergio Perez in the championship.
Behind him, excitement was provided by a battle for the podium positions between Perez and the Ferraris.
Leclerc won it, thanks partly to stalwart defence from team-mate Carlos Sainz before Perez took third.
Sainz held back Perez, charging back through the field from 15th on the grid for four crucial laps, which gave Leclerc the breathing space he needed to hold on ahead of the Red Bull to the end of the race.
The two battled frantically through Turns Three and Four for several laps, with Sainz once brilliantly repassing the Red Bull around the outside of Turn Four after Perez appeared to have taken the place, before the Mexican ultimately prevailed.
Sainz’s defence meant Leclerc was 12.9 seconds ahead of Perez with nine laps to go and the Red Bull made no inroads into that gap before the chequered flag.
Sainz finished fourth on the road but he was one of several victims of a post-race investigation into track limits offences that had not been spotted during the race.
Track limits investigation
Nearly half the field was given penalties for exceeding track limits during the race, but after the race the FIA realised there had been a number of other incidents that had not yet been penalised – they said there were more than 1,200 track limits offences in total during the grand prix.
Aston Martin protested the result because they believed they had seen more, but the FIA said the investigation was already under way before that.
The order behind Sainz crossing the line had been McLaren’s Lando Norris, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
But five hours after the race, 10-second penalties for Sainz, Hamilton and Gasly moved Norris and Alonso up to fourth and fifth, Sainz down to sixth, Russell up to seventh, Hamilton down to eighth, Stroll up to ninth and Gasly down to 10th.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Williams drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, and Alpha Tauri drivers Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda were also given post-race penalties, but were already all out of the points positions.
An imperious performance
Verstappen was unchallenged throughout – collecting his seventh win in nine races this season – after converting his pole position into a lead at the first corner.
He did have to pass both Ferraris in the course of his middle stint between two pit stops, as a result of a later first stop that put him out of sync with the red cars.
But he did so without trouble and cruised off again into the distance for another untroubled win, the field helpless to do anything about it.
In the closing laps, Verstappen argued against his team’s request to cool tyres – effectively a demand to back off and cruise to the end – in favour of a pit stop for fresh tyres to allow him to take the fastest lap, previously held by Perez.
It’s been a sea of orange as fans gear up for Sunday’s race
Small comfort for Ferrari
The race did, though, provide some encouragement for Ferrari, whose car appears to have improved in race pace and tyre usage following a series of upgrades in the last three races.
Leclerc drove extremely well after a stunning qualifying lap on Friday had put him second on the grid and deserved his second place, even if he did owe Sainz some thanks.
In the first part of the race, Sainz tracked Leclerc closely, even asking the team if they would let him by so he could have a go at challenging Verstappen.
But after the first pit stops Leclerc edged clear of his team-mate, whose hopes were dashed with a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
The overall result of the race is being reviewed after a protest by Aston Martin about unpenalised track limits offences, which was upheld.
Organisers said: “An unprecedented situation arose which resulted in all potential infringements not being able to be reviewed during the race. Prior to the submission of a Protest against the result, we had already begun a full review of the track limits infringements, which is ongoing.
“The results will be updated once the review of those which were not able to be reviewed during the race is complete.”
Sainz was one of nine drivers – almost half the field – to be penalised in this way during the race, and this number included Lewis Hamilton, who had a dispiriting race for Mercedes and could manage only seventh place before his later penalty for yet more transgressions.
Hamilton was reduced to asking his team whether anyone else had penalties, and had to be told by team boss Toto Wolff: “Lewis, we know the car is slow. Please just drive it.”
Hamilton was also beaten by McLaren’s Lando Norris and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, whose edged further ahead of Hamilton in their battle for third in the championship.
Norris’ fifth place, just four seconds or so behind Sainz at the end of the race and promoted ahead of him afterwards, was encouragement for McLaren after they introduced a major upgrade to his car for this race weekend.
It is the first of a series of developments that will be used over the coming races and seemed not only to improve the McLaren’s pace, but also another of its biggest weaknesses, its tyre wear.
Behind Hamilton, George Russell moved up to eighth place from 11th on the grid, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completing the points positions after a race that featured many hectic scraps involving the midfield runners.