Max Verstappen is victorious in Austria to make it five wins in a row
Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday in Spielberg, Stiermarken. It was the fifth consecutive victory for the reigning champion. Verstappen now has an 81-point lead at the top of the standings for the season.
Verstappen started in the pole position for the race, with the two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz, starting in second and third, respectively. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez started in 15th. Nyck de Vries began the race from the pitstop in his AlphaTauri as a punishment for the car being worked on without the permission of the government body, the FIA.
Verstappen got away quickest at the start of the race but struggled a lot more than in previous races to keep the closest challenger, Leclerc, in this case, away. A safety car was called after just two laps after damage to Yuki Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen’s cars.
The 25-year-old from Hasselt did not make the same mistake upon the restart with the safety car as he got away with ease from the Ferrari’s building up a lead. Verstappen went into the pits after 26 laps, coming out behind Leclerc and Sainz, which made it the first time in 249 laps that he wasn’t leading an F1 race.
However, it did not last long. Verstappen went past Sainz in the 28th lap before racing past Leclerc to re-take the lead after 36 laps. Nyck de Vries spent most of the race in the bottom position but made a successful comeback to finish in 15th.
Despite the race being won, Verstappen went into the pits with one lap to go to change his tires to softs and get the quickest lap of the race earning him extra points. He was successful in doing so. The fastest lap was by his teammate Perez before that point, who made a fantastic comeback to finish in third.
