Max Verstappen goes in hard to pass Charles Leclerc during the F1 race in Austria on Sunday.
Max Verstappen put an end to Mercedes’ run of wins by taking victory in the Austrian Grand Prix for a second year running, but the key pass of the race was one that called for a stewards’ inquiry. Verstappen was later cleared of wrongdoing and declared the winner.
As dull as the race was last weekend in France, the Austrian Grand Prix more than made up for it as Verstappen took a sixth career victory to send the “Orange Army” into raptures. Making the worst start he could have imagined, Verstappen dropped five places at the start to seventh place and was at one point 14 seconds off the lead.
Making his way through the field in impressive, bold fashion, Verstappen was pitted 10 laps later than any of the drivers he was racing at the time.
This advantage allowed him to catch and pass Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and, eventually, Charles Leclerc.
“Wow,” said Verstappen. “After that start I thought the race was over, but we just kept pushing hard. Quite quickly I saw the pace was not that bad but I had got a bad flat spot on my first tire and after the pit stop we were flying.
“You could see that on the straight we had good pace as well so we could make the pass on him (Leclerc).
“Of course, I’m extremely happy for the whole team and also for Honda. We just started working together this year, but to win here is incredible.”
Asked about the pass on Leclerc which was under investigation for the contact made and possibly running Leclerc off the track in the aftermath, Verstappen added, “It’s hard racing, or else we have to stay home.
“If those things aren’t allowed in racing, then what’s the point of being in Formula 1.”
Dominant throughout the weekend, in qualifying and for the majority of the race, Leclerc had no answer for Verstappen’s late pace. On tires 10 laps older than the Dutchman’s, Leclerc put up a valiant defence of the lead, but the Ferrari driver kept tight-lipped over the eventual race-winning pass.
“Overall, the race was good,” said Leclerc. “At the end I had a bit more degradation than I thought (I would) so Max came back. On the incident, I will let the stewards decide before me. It was pretty clear from the car. I don’t know how it looked from the outside so yeah.”
Pushed on the matter, Leclerc added only, “I was on the outside, just like the lap before. Actually, the lap before was completely fine. He left the space for a car width on the exit of the corner but he didn’t on the other lap so we touched and I had to go wide and then obviously, I didn’t have any chance to pass back.”
Provisional Race Results
Pos.
Driver
Constructor
Race Time
Points
1
Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
1:22:01.822
25 (+1)
2
Charles Leclerc
Scuderia Ferrari
+2.724
18
3
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
+18.960
15
4
Sebastian Vettel
Scuderia Ferrari
+19.610
12
5
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
+22.805
10
6
Lando Norris
McLaren F1 Team
+1 Lap
8
7
Pierre Gasly
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
+1 Lap
6
8
Carlos Sainz
McLaren F1 Team
+1 Lap
4
9
Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Racing
+1 Lap
2
10
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Racing
+1 Lap
1
11
Sergio Perez
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
+1 Lap
12
Daniel Ricciardo
Renault F1 Team
+1 Lap
13
Nico Hulkenberg
Renault F1 Team
+1 Lap
14
Lance Stroll
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
+1 Lap
15
Alexander Albon
Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
+1 Lap
16
Romain Grosjean
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
+1 Lap
17
Daniil Kvyat
Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
+1 Lap
18
George Russell
ROKiT Williams Racing
+2 Laps
19
Kevin Magnussen
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
+2 Laps
20
Robert Kubica
ROKiT Williams Racing
+3 Laps
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