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Austrian GP: Bottas wins from Leclerc after Hamilton penalty

Valtteri Bottas won a dramatic Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix from Charles Leclerc after a penalty for Lewis Hamilton for contact with Alex Albon dropped him to fourth.

Race winner Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 celebrates on the podium with the champagne

Race winner Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 celebrates on the podium with the champagne

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Bottas crossed the line as the winner of an attrition race 0.6-second clear of his teammate, but Hamilton was immediately demoted, which boosted Lando Norris to first F1 career podium in third.

Hamilton's incident with Albon happened after the end of the race's third safety car period and after Mercedes had had to intervene with its drivers due to critical reliability warnings.

At the start, Bottas easily held the lead off the line and blasted to a two-second lead at the end of the opening tour, as Verstappen soaked up pressure from Lando Norris after several cars – including Norris, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc shot across the runoff at the exit of Turn 1.

Bottas set about extending his lead as the race settled down, warned by his team to look after his car on the third lap, as Verstappen tracked him on his medium tyres.

But any hope Red Bull's contra-strategy would get Verstappen a third win in succession at the team's home track was crushed when Verstappen suddenly lost power approaching Turn 1 on lap 11 of 71.

He toured back to the pits attempting to reset the issue – a suspected electrical problem – but was forced to retire.

That left Hamilton chasing Bottas as the world champion had demoted Albon using DRS to blast by on the run to the Turn 4 on lap, and he began eating into the leader's advantage.

As the first stint wore on, Hamilton had lowered the gap to Bottas, but the soft-tyre run was suddenly ended on when the safety car was called out after Kevin Magnussen spun off with an apparent brake issue as he was being passed by Esteban Ocon into Turn 3.

Mercedes managed to turn its two cars around – both going onto the hard tyres – without losing any time for either one, and when the race resumed Bottas again streaked clear.

Hamilton, however, was soon putting Bottas under severe pressure and he called the team to check he would be allowed to choose his own engine mode, and was Mercedes soon planned to turn down the power units on both cars.

But as the leaders ran ever closer together, Mercedes moved to warn them about a potential gearbox sensor issue that threatened both of the continued participation of both cars.

The race engineers of both Bottas and Hamilton warned their charges to stay off the kerbs before Mercedes' chief strategist James Vowles intervened to tell them the issue was "critical".

As the leaders adapted their driving styles Hamilton began to drop back from Bottas when the race was suddenly suspended again when George Russell retired from P13 with a loss of fuel pressure.

And as the race restarted, it was suspended again almost immediately as Kimi Raikkonen, who had just stopped for fresh softs, lost his right front wheel running through penultimate corner.

When the safety car peeled off for the final time, Bottas again shot clear and on the following lap Albon – who had passed Perez just before the previous safety car was called and then gave the position back only to resume third place while the race was still neutralised – attacked Hamilton around the outside of Turn 4.

The Red Bull seemed to be ahead on the outside line but contact between Hamilton's left-front and Albon's right rear sent Albon spinning off in the gravel – echoing the contact between the pair at last year's Brazilian GP.

As Bottas raced to the flag in what was an 11 lap final sprint, Hamilton was given a five-second time addition.

That meant Leclerc, who had been having a low-key race before the safety cars turned the action around, finished second as he had stopped for fresh mediums during the Raikkonen safety car.

He demoted Sergio Perez from third on the road with a late move into Turn 3 five laps to run and was closer enough to Hamilton to move up to second after the flag.

Norris claimed the final podium spot after surviving a late scrap with his teammate Carlos Sainz and then bumping past Perez, who had tried to make a long run of mediums work earlier in the race, at Turn 3.

But Norris needed to close the gap to Hamilton rapidly and he set the race's fastest lap on the last tour to take third by 0.1s.

Sainz finished fifth with Perez sixth after his own five-second penalty was applied for speeding in the pitlane.

Pierre Gasly took sixth ahead of the returning Esteban Ocon, with Antonio Giovinazzi ninth for Alfa Romeo.

Sebastian Vettel took 10th following a spin when he misjudged his braking while running behind Sainz going into Turn 3 shortly before half distance.

Nicholas Latifi finished his F1 debut last in P11, with Albon a late retirement alongside a host of other non-finishers who suffered various mechanical problems – except Daniil Kvyat who retired late on with a blown left-rear tyre as he ran into Turn 1 with two laps to go.

Cla Driver Chassis Gap
1 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
2 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 2.700
3 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 5.491
4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 5.689
5 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren 8.903
6 Mexico Sergio Perez
Racing Point 15.092
7 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 16.682
8 France Esteban Ocon
Renault 17.456
9 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 21.146
10 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari 24.545
11 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams 31.650
12 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
AlphaTauri
13 Thailand Alex Albon
Red Bull
Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo
United Kingdom George Russell
Williams
France Romain Grosjean
Haas
Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Haas
Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point
Australia Daniel Ricciardo
Renault
Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull

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