Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of pole positions and race wins at the Austrian Grand Prix with another dominant display in Sunday’s main event.
Max Verstappen completed a clean sweep of pole positions and race wins at the Austrian Grand Prix with another dominant display in Sunday’s main event, leading home Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez.
Despite an action-packed encounter at the Red Bull Ring that saw several drivers penalised over track limits and strategies differ – Verstappen one of few drivers to stay out during an early Virtual Safety Car period – the Red Bull driver could not be stopped en route to his fifth win on the bounce, and seventh of the season.
Leclerc briefly led the way after taking advantage of the VSC, but he fell back behind Verstappen as the pair worked through their opposing tyre plans and the Red Bull showed its raw pace – underlined by a late and successful bid for the fastest lap bonus point.
Perez delivered a fine recovery from 15th on the grid to end a difficult run and take his first podium since the Miami Grand Prix four races ago, overhauling Carlos Sainz in the closing stages and making the most of the Ferrari driver’s time penalty for track limits.
However, a post-race review by the stewards would later see Sainz handed a 10-second time penalty for track limit violations, promoting Lando Norris to P4, capping off the Briton and McLaren’s encouraging weekend with their batch of upgrades.
Sainz was far from the only driver to find themselves penalised following a post-race protest lodged by Aston Martin, however. Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries and Yuki Tsunoda would all receive additional five-second penalties, while De Vries again, plus Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly were all handed 10-second time penalties post-race. Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, was retrospectively handed a pair of five-second penalties and a pair of 10-second penalties.
That left the order behind Norris in P4 as Fernando Alonso in fifth, with Sainz sixth, followed by the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in seventh and eighth.
Lance Stroll was promoted a place from the provisional classification to claim ninth, ahead of Gasly in 10th and Albon in 11th. The penalties promoted Zhou Guanyu to 12th (up from 14th at the flag), ahead of Sargeant, Ocon, and Valtteri Bottas in P15.
Oscar Piastri, De Vries, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the order.
Haas’s strong start to the event ended with the disappointment of a retirement for Nico Hulkenberg, whose loss of power forced him to park at the side of the track, triggering a Virtual Safety Car.
“It’s been a pretty incredible weekend; it couldn’t have been any better to be honest,” said Verstappen post race. “We did everything well as a Team, from the strategy through to the pit stops. Heading into the race we all had question marks around the tires but we were all happy with how they performed compared to our competitors. I felt really comfortable in the car all weekend and we were able to do everything that we had planned. The final pit stop was a risk of course, I think the Team could hear from my voice on the radio that I wanted to pit (laughs). From the outside it might have looked crazy but I knew we could do it, I saw there was a gap and I wanted to make the most of it.”
Team Principal Christian Horner expressed similar feelings about the race results.
“This is our best run of in-season results since 2013, the Team is operating at a level not seen in our 19 year history and we’re grateful for every victory we achieve. Results like today are the work of every single department, it’s not just about the race team, it’s the activity that goes on behind the scenes back at the factory, from operations, manufacturing, research and development, aerodynamics, to our support functions in Finance, Marketing, Legal and HR, all of these need to come together and work as a team, and this is where we are so strong.”
What’s next?
The next stop on the 2023 F1 calendar will be Silverstone in the UK for the British Grand Prix weekend, which takes place from July 7 to 9.
