F1 was at the Red Bull Ring this weekend for the first of two races to be held around this circuit. This weekend it was the FORMULA 1 BWT GROSSER PREIS DER STEIERMARK 2021, which was dominated by Verstappen with the pole position and victory. Mercedes were not able to bring the fight to Red Bull.
Max Verstappen got away well in pole position off the line and was able to cover off Lewis Hamilton into the first corner. Sergio Perez was able to get by Lando Norris in the tight turn 3, but Norris fights back and retakes P3 with a bold move around the outside of turn 4.
There was a 3-wide battle in the first corner, with Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc having to hop over kerbs. On the run up to turn 3, Leclerc clipped the left-rear wheel of the AlphaTauri, giving Gasly a puncture. The cars behind all had to avoid the slow Gasly into turn 3. Antonio Giovinazzi attempted to overtake the stricken Gasly around the outside of the corner, but the damaged Gasly spun the Alfa Romeo. Gasly also collected the Williams of Nicholas Latifi in the runoff area.
Leclerc had to pit for a new front wing, having damaged his on Gasly’s car. Latifi suffered a right-rear puncture and had to pit for a new set of tyres. Gasly was able to crawl around to the pit lane, but had to retire for heavy rear suspension damage.
The pit window opened on lap 28 and Perez was the first to pit from P3, having overtaken Norris 18 laps earlier. The pit stop was slow, as the mechanic operating the left-rear wheel gun struggled to get the tyre off. Mercedes immediately reacted to Red Bull’s slow pit stop, calling Valtteri Bottas into the pit lane, coming out ahead of Perez.
Hamilton was the first of the leading pair to pit. Verstappen pitted the following lap to prevent the undercut. Both drivers had a clean stop to maintain their running order.
George Russell had a slow pit stop, previously running P8 after his highest ever qualifying performance for Williams with a P10 start. The mechanics were performing work on the right sidepod to fix a suspected pneumatic pressure issue. His pitted again the following lap and mechanics again swarmed the sidepod to try and correct the issue. He eventually retired from the race.
In the closing half of the race, Verstappen was comfortably ahead of Hamilton, but he began to complain about brake issues. The team advised him to stop braking on the kerbs.
Being unable to make any progress on Bottas, Perez made a second pit stop on lap 55. He maintained P4 on the track. The goal was likely to steal the bonus point for fastest lap from Hamilton, but the new set of tyres also allowed Perez to chase down Bottas.
Charles Leclerc made solid progress through the field, having fell to the back of the field after his early self-inflicted pit stop for a new front wing. He had a minor tangle with Kimi Raikkonen, chopping off part of the Finn’s front wing when overtaking him. Leclerc was able to climb his way up to the points scoring positions all the way to P7.
Having to settle with second place, Hamilton pitted on the penultimate lap for a set of soft tyres to steal back the extra point for fastest lap from Perez. With lots of clean air ahead of him on the last lap, he was able to take the fastest lap.
On fresher tyres, Perez caught Bottas on the final lap. He was able to put the pressure on Bottas for the final lap, but the race was 1 lap too short for Perez to take the podium position away from Bottas.
It was Max Verstappen who was on top of the podium for the fourth time this season, strengthening his lead in the World Drivers’ Championship. Hamilton was able to reduce the damage with the bonus point for fastest lap, but he’s still 18 points behind the championship leader. Bottas kept the bottom step of the podium, having held off Perez on the final lap.
Much to the dismay of Mercedes, which appeared to be powerless against Red Bull, the teams and drivers will be doing this all over again next weekend. The cars will line up on the starting grid once again on July 4.
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| DNF | ||
| DNF |
