It was a clean sweep of a weekend for Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who secured the pole, sprint race and Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Finishing the race over five seconds ahead of second-place running Charles Leclerc, it was a dominating day at Red Bull Ring.
The win was Verstappen’s fifth in a row, and seventh overall in nine races.
“I think the most important [thing] for me was lap 1, to stay in front,” said Verstappen. “After that we could do our own race. Of course we opted not to box during the Virtual Safety Car, and just follow our normal strategy, and I think that worked out really well. The tire [degradation] was not that high around here and our stints were perfect, so a great day – I enjoyed it a lot!”
With a Virtual Safety Car coming out due to an accident involving Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Valteri Bottas, varying strategies began to play out in the early stint of the race.
On lap 25, Verstappen pit, electing to go with the harder compound tires. Verstappen would rejoin the race behind both Ferrari’s of Leclerc and Carlos Saniz. The Ferrari’s went with a medium compound tire, putting them on a different strategy.
Verstappen made quick work of Sainz, though faced a gap of more than six seconds between himself and leader Leclerc.
The reigning world champion would not be denied the lead, however, as he caught and passed Leclerc on lap 35.
From there, Verstappen cruised to victory.
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez recovered from 15th at the start to take the final podium place in third. Saniz followed suit closely in fourth while McLaren’s Lando Norris rounded out the top five after upgrades were made prior to the weekend to his McLaren machine.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished the event in sixth, while the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell brought their entries home in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished ninth, while Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll capped off the points positions in 10th.
Haas F-1 had a dismal day, with Kevin Magnussen finishing 19th in his 150th start. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg lost power in his race car, forcing him to retire from the event in 20th, last place.