Verstappen overcomes disastrous start to take thrilling victory in Austrian GP; Leclerc bumped to P2 after leading most of race for Ferrari; Bottas salvages P3 for flummoxed Mercedes

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had a nightmare start to the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday but, showing that he is one of the best talents of this generation of drivers, managed to fight back brilliantly to snatch victory from the leading Ferrari of Charles Leclerc late in this 71 lap contest. With the two most promising young Formula 1 competitors starting side-by-side on the front row on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, Verstappen’s car went into anti-stall mode when the lights went out to begin the contest. The Dutchman found himself swamped by the two Mercedes Silver Arrows behind him, as well as the McLaren of Lando Norris, and promptly dropped from P2 back to P7 before even one lap’s distance had been completed. Meanwhile pole-sitter Leclerc raced away from his nearest pursuer, pulling a nearly 2 seconds gap to Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by the start of Lap 3. Finally, it looked like the breaks would go Ferrari’s way after with Leclerc’s dominant start from start and the starcrossed Sebastian Vettel had even vaulted up to P6 after failing to turn a lap in Q3 on Saturday due to mechanical gremlins forced the German to start P9 on race day.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

But Verstappan and the Red Bull team kept their heads in the game and didn’t panic after their bad start. They ran the Dutch wunderkind longer than any of the other top contenders on his opening stint, going all the way to Lap 32 before switching off the Medium Pirellis in favor of the long lasting Hard compound. That gave Verstappen tires that were 9 laps fresher than Leclerc’s, who came in to swap off of his opening set of the less durable Softs for the Hards on Lap 23. The Red Bull’s tires were even one lap fresher still than those of the other Ferrari of Vettel, who had tried to cross up Bottas by pitting on the same lap, 22, to slow the Mercedes crew down. But that somewhat backfired when the Scuderia didn’t have the tires laid out properly, costing Vettel at least 3 valuable extra seconds in the pits while the crew scrambled to get things right. By Lap 48 Vertsappen was harassing Vettel and by Lap 50 the Red Bull man passed the second Ferrari easily for P3. Next on Vertsppen’s hit list was Bottas and despite complaining of a brief power loss he was able to fix this issue via resetting controls on the steering will and then blew by the overmatched Finn for P2 on Lap 56.

That left it down to the leading Leclerc and the pursuing Vertsppen for the ultimate prize of this riveting Grand Prix. It was clear that the Red Bull’s Honda engine had finally come good as lap after lap Verstappen closed down the Monegasque, who was desperate to notch his first ever F1 victory. By Lap 67 the two young guns were nose to tail, with Verstappan clearly having the tire advantage. On Lap 68 Verstappen made a move to overtake on the uphill Turn 3 bend and stayed ahead briefly but Leclerc fought back to regain the lead. On Lap 69 Verstappen was even more forceful, diving to then inside of the Ferrari and forcing the stubborn Leclerc off the track as the two touched wheels. While the stewards ominously examined the pass for quite a long time after the race it was correctly judged to be a racing incident. Young Max had the lead for good with only a lap and half remaining. He quickly gapped the apoplectic Leclerc. Verstappen rocketed away to victory to take the checkered flag in front a large contingent of jubilant Orange-clad Dutch fans for his sixth career win. Leclerc, who complained relentlessly about Verstappen’s elbows-out maneuver, nevertheless finished a strong P2 even if the quest for his first F1 win will have to continue to wait.

Bottas somewhat salvaged the day for Mercedes by holding off a hard charging Vettel to take the last step on the podium in P3. And while Vettel made the leap from a P9 start to a respectable P4 finish he also dusted the other Mercedes of Hamilton late in the game, relegating the English points leader to a disappointing P5 finish. It snapped Hamilton’s four-race win streak and he did himself no favors by repeatedly riding the harsh curbs at the outer track limits, which eventually necessitated a long pit stop for a front wing change. Truth be told, it was a subpar weekend for the Silver Arrows and they were not helped by the exceptionally hot temperatures in Spielberg, which saw track temps hit 50 degrees Celsius and forced their cars to back off during the race in order to manage brake and tire overheating issues. t

Outside of the Top 5, McLaren had another excellent points day, as their young driver Lando Norris put in another strong performance to finish P5, acquitting himself well while dicing with some of the elite drivers early in the race. Norris’s senior teammate Carlos Sainz also did very well to fight his way from the back of the grid after engine penalties, riding tire strategy and strategic patience to work his way all the way up to a valuable P8. Verstappen’s Red Bull stablemate Pierre Gasly was again no where near his team leader and finished P7, though he did help him a bit while getting lapped by Leclerc in the late going and then letting the peerless Dutchman through at an opportune moment. And the two Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi made good on their pace advantage on this short and fairly straightforward circuit with a 9-10 finish respectively. The P10 was Giovinazzi’s first ever F1 Championship point.

Top 10 finishers of the Austrian GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com

After two races in two weeks the next round is in a fortnight — the British GP from venerable Silverstone. Hope to see you then to find out if Red Bull and Verstappen can build on this impressive victory at the team’s home circuit, Ferrari can finally get a win or if Hamilton can return to his winning ways at his home track.