Max Verstappen showed an amazing performance during the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. He not only took the victory but also showed the fans one of the best track fights of F1 history.
Verstappen surpassed Sebastian Vettel during the 50th lap after the German gave him a tough time and took third place. Soon the Dutch star minimized the gap with Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, who was in the second place and it boosted the Red Bull fans and his team. During the last few laps, Verstappen took over the race leader Charles Leclerc to take his sixth victory at F1.
There was a contact between two drivers and the incident was under investigation. But the stewards in Spielberg decided no further action was required over Red Bull's late pass on Ferrari.
It should be noted that as per Spanish publication Marca the 21-year-old has a performance-based clause in his contract, which he signed two years ago. The contract states that if the Dutch driver fails to win an F1 race by the Hungarian Grand Prix then he would be allowed to speak with other teams about a possible move for next season.
It was Ferrari's first pole position at Austrian Grand Prix after 2003 when the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher took the pole as well as the victory at the Red Bull Ring. This time it was Charles Leclerc who took the pole on Saturday but unfortunately failed to defeat the home team.
The performance by the German superstar Vettel and its team of mechanics again raised concerns, as his pit stop took 6.1 seconds due to their poor strategy. For Vettel, the Austrian GP did not look like a fairy tale at all. He suffered due to car issues and stayed out of the track during the final qualifying round on Saturday while his teammate Leclerc clocked 1:03.003 to snatch the pole position.
In the first lap, the Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton, who started as a fourth grid driver after facing a penalty, did not hesitate to apply his racing skills and took over Dutch driver Max Verstappen from the right and gained the third position in initial laps.
But, during lap 30, he was asked to take a pit, as his team faced an issue with the front wing and needed to replace it. Taking this advantage, Vettel, who was running far behind the top three drivers, surpassed Hamilton and gained the third place, but he again dropped to fourth place ahead of Hamilton, who had to be satisfied with 10 points as he finished fifth.
Here is the complete result of F1 Austrian GP:
- Max VERSTAPPEN
- Charles LECLERC
- Valtteri BOTTAS
- Sebastian VETTEL
- Lewis HAMILTON
- Lando NORRIS
- Pierre GASLY
- Carlos SAINZ
- Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN
- Antonio GIOVINAZZI
- Sergio PEREZ
- Daniel RICCIARDO
- Nico HULKENBERG
- Lance STROLL
- Alexander ALBON
- Romain GROSJEAN
- Daniil KVYAT
- George RUSSELL
- Kevin MAGNUSSEN
- Robert KUBICA
