Max Verstappen brings it home, the second time around the Red Bull Ring in Austria!

For the second time, Max Verstappen enjoyed a tranquil drive to winning at the Red Bull Ring, leading every lap of the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position meeting the relish of thousands of orange clad fans who cheered him to a third victory in a row.

As compared to the Styrian Grand Prix, Verstappen faced no real threat from behind and even had enough time to make an extra pitstop with 10 laps to go in order to bag the extra point for fastest lap. This was the first ever ‘grand slam weekend’ for Max with pole, fastest lap and victory and having led every lap.

Following him, Lewis Hamilton, his championship rival worked his way up to second place from P4 on the grid before aerodynamic damage caused by running over exit kerbs. This slowed his progress and it became rather easy for team mate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren’s Lando Norris to get past.

In spite of heavy pressure from Norris, who was awarded Driver of the Day, Bottas clenched on to P2, with the McLaren driver taking the third place on the podium. Hamilton finished fourth and slipped from 18 to 32 points behind Verstappen on the championship standings.

Red Bull could have had a better day, if Sergio Perez had not had such a bustling race staring from third place on the grid. Following an early safety car, which was called on Lap 1 when Esteban Ocon was forced to halt his Alpine due to damage caused by bumping into Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo at Turn 3, Perez attacked Norris for P3 at Turn 3. Going around the outside, Perez was forced off track with Norris given a five-second time penalty as a result. However, Perez later pushed Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari off the road at exactly the same place and received an identical penalty, before doing the same thing to Leclerc at Turn 6 again, getting one more five second penalty. Although Perez crossed the line in P5, he was classified in P6, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who picked up the pace with a brilliant late charge after running a long open stint, taking fifth place.

Daniel Ricciardo for McLaren, Leclerc, Pierre Gasly for AlphaTauri and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, taking final points-giving positions from George Russell on the second last lap, denying the Briton a first point with Williams.

Further back there was drama on the last lap as Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen hurtled with Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin’s as they fought for P12. But for majority of the orange clad fans around the track, it was all about Max Verstappen clenching his third victory in a row, and having a Grand Slam weekend for Red Bull around the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

After an intense triple header, the teams and drivers now have some well-earned time off before the 2021 British Grand Prix at Silverstone circuit on July 16-18 – a historic event, with the first F1 Sprint taking place on Saturday, replacing the Qualifying session.