© Getty ImagesHome Race Heroics For Max At Red Bull RingMax claims his first back-to-back wins of his career and our third in Austria.
MaxdroveaflawlessracetowintheStyrianGrandPrixandtakeabrilliantthirdcareerwinattheRedBullRingaheadofMercedes’LewisHamilton,asCheconarrowlymissedoutonclaimingathirdpodiumfinishinarowafterlosingP3toValtteriBottas.
Heading Into Turn One At The Start© Getty Images
At the start of the race, Max made the perfect getaway and he took the lead ahead of Hamilton, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Checo as the field streamed through turn one.
Behind them AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly tangled with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in turn one and as the pair re-joined Leclerc’s front wing tagged the left rear of Gasly’s car. The Frenchman sustained a puncture. Then in turn three he lost control and hit Antonio Giovinazzi's Alfa Romeo. The collisions left Gasly with heavy damage at the left rear corner of his car and he limped back to the pits to retire as Leclerc also pitted for repairs.
By lap 10 of the short and fast Red Bull Ring, Max had managed to eke out a three-second gap to Hamilton, while behind him Checo was closing on Norris. The Mexican got the job done in turn three of the same lap, diving down the inside of the McLaren driver to steal the podium place. Bottas pulled off a similar move on the McLaren, but Checo’s pace was strong and by lap 15 he had already extended the gap to the Finn to 3.5 seconds.
Bulls Off To A Strong First Lap In Styria© Getty Images
Checo was the first of the leaders to make a pit stop. The Mexican headed for the pits on lap 27, but when he stopped on his marks there was a problem with the rear left wheel and he spent 4.8 seconds stationary before being released with a set of new hard tyres.
The delay prompted Mercedes to pit Bottas at the end of the next lap and after a clean switch to hard tyres the Finn re-joined in P3 ahead of Checo.
Hamilton was the next of the leaders to pit and he too made a good stop of 2.2s as he sought to undercut Max. The Team responded, however, and after a brilliant stop of two seconds, the Dutchman re-joined in the lead, over four seconds clear of his championship rival.
Checo then began to chip away at the gap to Bottas and by lap 42 he was just 2.8s behind the Finn. At the front Max was managing the pace well and the gap to Hamilton remained stable at 4.4s.
Max Starts Strong On The Mediums© Getty Images
At the front, Max slowly but surely began to pull away from Hamilton and on lap 48 the gap had stretched to 6.5 seconds. Checo, meanwhile, was still trying to find a way past Bottas. He was closing down on the Finn’s advantage and on lap 49 was just 1.6s behind the Mercedes man.
He could find no way past, however, and at the end of lap 55 the Team brought the Mexican into the pits for a new set of medium tyres.
He quickly began to set purple laps and with 10 laps to go had turned a 20s deficit to the Finn to a gap of just 11 seconds. Five laps later and the gap was under six seconds.
Checo Comes In For A Second Stop© Getty Images
With just a few laps remaining, the race to overhaul Bottas was always going to be close and despite a heroic effort in the end Checo missed out by a tiny margin, crossing the line in fourth place, just 0.5s behind the Finn.
Max though, was in cruise control at the front of the pack. With 15 seconds in hand over Hamilton in the final stages, Mercedes went into damage limitation mode. On the penultimate lap Hamilton headed for the pits and took on a set of soft tyres. He claimed the fastest lap on the final lap of the race and reduced the damage caused by Max to seven points.
After crossing the line 35s ahead of Hamilton to claim Red Bull’s third victory at its home track after Austrian Grand Prix wins in 2018 and 2019, Max now leads the Drivers’ championship on 156 points, 18 ahead of Hamilton. Sergio, in third place, now has 96 points, 10 ahead of Norris.
In the battle for the Constructors’ championship crown we now have 156 points, 40 ahead of Mercedes.
Styrian Grand Prix 2021: Race
A Simply Lovely Win In Styria© Getty Images
Holding His Home Trophy High© Getty Images
Lights Out And Away We Go In Styria© Getty Images
Ready And Waiting For Action© Getty Images
Checo Starts Of On Softs© Getty Images
Checo Leads Bottas In P3 Early On© Getty Images
A Strong First Stint For Sergio© Getty Images
Nothing Like A Home Race Win© Getty Images
Parking Up In P1 For Max's Fourth Win Of 2021© Getty Images
All Out Into Turn One© Getty Images
In Control At The Front© Getty Images
Final Checks For The Pole Sitter© Getty Images
Max Sets Off On Mediums© Getty Images
I am super happy to win here and doing it at home at the Red Bull Ring is always so special.
“I am super happy to win here and doing it at home at the Red Bull Ring is always so special. I had a really enjoyable race, the car was working well and I always enjoy driving on this track. I just focused on my own race, concentrating on hitting the apexes in the places I wanted to, looking after the tyres and it worked out well. You never know how competitive or how close it’s going to be on a Sunday and to be honest I really wasn’t expecting it to be like it was today as the long run pace between the two teams was very closely matched all weekend.
It’s a whole Team effort so thank you very much to everyone here and back at the factory for another great win today. "Overall, we’ve had a really positive weekend and of course it’s not going to be completely the same next week. Everyone else will also learn from this race so we will of course try and do even better and keep improving ourselves so we can stay ahead. It’s a whole Team effort so thank you very much to everyone here and back at the factory for another great win today.”
“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out today and it’s a shame to miss out on the double podium. We just needed one more lap and we could have done it, that’s all it would have taken. I think the soft tyre was slightly worse than expected this race and that hurt us towards the end of the first stint, we also had a slow stop that impacted the race as we gave the position to Bottas.
"The Team tried something different with the two-stop strategy but we got caught out by traffic, but that’s how it is sometimes and we had to try something. I’m really happy for the Team today though because Max won, he did a great job and I know we have a strong package. I look forward to next weekend where we will try again to step up on the podium together.”
It was a clinical drive from Max who managed the race out front so well.
“It’s been a great day and to win at our home track, secure four back-to-back wins and a 10th victory with Honda is a real achievement. It was a clinical drive from Max who managed the race out front so well. I believe it has been our strongest race of the season so far and for the first time this year Max managed to open out a bit of a gap to Lewis and put some fresh air between them.
We pulled the trigger on a two-stop and Checo did a great job to hunt Valtteri down in the closing stages. "It was a real shame for Checo as he deserved a podium today but losing a small amount of time in the pit stop unfortunately put him out just behind Bottas. We pulled the trigger on a two-stop and Checo did a great job to hunt Valtteri down in the closing stages but needed just one more lap to finish the job.
The motivation is sky high in Milton Keynes and the Team is performing at an incredible level. "The motivation is sky high in Milton Keynes and the Team is performing at an incredible level, particularly given the difficulties everyone has faced during the pandemic. We are now seeing the culmination of that hard work on the chassis and power unit side and the great harmony we have within the Team and our driver pairing.”
Home Celebrations In Styria© Getty Images
| Position | Driver | Team | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Max Verstappen | Lewis Hamilton | Valtteri Bottas | Sergio Pérez | Lando Norris | Carlos Sainz | Charles Leclerc | Lance Stroll | Fernando Alonso | Yuki Tsunoda |
| Red Bull Racing Honda | Mercedes | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | McLaren | Ferrari | Ferrari | Aston Martin | Alpine | AlphaTauri |
