F1 Styrian Grand Prix race results: Verstappen beats Hamilton

Verstappen beat Hamilton away from the startline and extended a healthy lead. Despite encountering some brake issues, he recorded his fourth victory of the season, finishing well clear of Hamilton – who pitted late on to take the point for fastest lap.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez passed the McLaren of Lando Norris for third after 10 laps but lost his podium spot to Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas during the pitstop sequence, when his left-rear tyre took too long to remove. Perez switched to a two-stop, in a bid to get the place back, but he had to settle for fourth.

2021 Styrian Grand Prix race results

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	71	1:22'18.925		1	25
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	71	1:22'54.668	35.743	2	19
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	71	1:23'05.832	11.164	1	15
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	71	1:23'06.359	0.527	2	12
5	Lando Norris	McLaren	70	1:22'24.281	1 Lap	1	10
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	70	1:22'31.243	6.962	1	8
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	70	1:22'43.757	12.514	2	6
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	70	1:22'59.121	15.364	1	4
9	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	70	1:23'00.099	0.978	1	2
10	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	70	1:23'00.774	0.675	1	1
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	70	1:23'03.208	2.434	1
12	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	70	1:23'08.210	5.002	1
13	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	70	1:23'09.506	1.296	1
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	70	1:23'10.959	1.453	1
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	70	1:23'17.947	6.988	1
16	Mick Schumacher	Haas	69	1:23'01.861	1 Lap	1
17	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	68	1:22'22.430	1 Lap	2
18	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	68	1:22'30.819	8.389	1
	George Russell	Williams	36	44'25.454	32 Laps	3
	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1	2'03.661	35 Laps	1
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How the Styrian Grand Prix unfolded

From pole position, Verstappen led Hamilton as Perez passed Norris for third at Turn 3, but Norris took it back at the following corner.

Further back, Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri made contact with Charles Leclerc on the exit of Turn 1, damaging the Ferrari’s front wing and forcing him into the pits. Gasly’s injured car then sent Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo spinning at Turn 3 and clipped Nicholas Latifi’s Williams too, giving that a puncture. Gasly was forced out with damaged left-rear suspension.

Verstappen pulled clear of Hamilton out front, leading by almost 3s after 10 laps. At that point, Perez made a move stick on Norris for third at Turn 3 and Bottas passed Norris in similar fashion a lap later. But they were well over 10s behind their respective team leaders already.

Hamilton, who reported “small vibrations” from his tyres almost spun at Turn 4 after a huge moment on Lap 25, which allowed Verstappen to extend his lead to over 5s. Perez was the first of the leaders to pit but suffered a slow left-rear change as he switched to hard tyres from softs. That allowed Bottas to get ahead when he pitted a lap later.

Hamilton stopped on Lap 29 with Red Bull responding a lap later, Verstappen resuming with a 5s lead. Although he complained of some braking issues, related to using the kerbs in the final corners of the lap, Verstappen scored his fourth victory of the season.

In the battle for third, Perez pitted again with 16 laps to go, which meant he grabbed the point for fastest lap away from Hamilton. He closed the gap to Bottas in the closing stages, but it wasn’t enough to challenge for the final spot on the podium – missing out by half a second. Behind them, Norris finished a lonely fifth.

Hamilton made a late stop to reclaim his point for fastest lap, meaning Verstappen won by over 30s.

From 12^th on the grid, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ran a fine long first stint on mediums and passed the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll to claim sixth position on Lap 45. His teammate Leclerc delivered a fantastic recovery charge on a two-stop strategy, pulling off some fantastic overtaking moves as he surged back into the top 10. His comeback concluded with taking seventh place from Stroll with 11 laps to go.

Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) rounded out the top 10 finishers. George Russell ran as high as eighth for Williams until he endured multiple pitstops as the team had to refill his pneumatic system. He was forced out just after half distance.

2021 Formula 1 Styrian Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	71	1'07.058			231.811
2	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	57	1'07.894	0.836	0.836	228.956
3	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	68	1'08.017	0.959	0.123	228.542
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.		Ferrari	64	1'08.609	1.551	0.592	226.570
5	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	43	1'08.619	1.561	0.010	226.537
6	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	64	1'08.738	1.680	0.119	226.145
7	Lando Norris		McLaren	65	1'08.903	1.845	0.165	225.604
8	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	57	1'09.128	2.070	0.225	224.869
9	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	45	1'09.305	2.247	0.177	224.295
10	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	70	1'09.576	2.518	0.271	223.421
11	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	41	1'09.650	2.592	0.074	223.184
12	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	39	1'09.723	2.665	0.073	222.950
13	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	61	1'09.749	2.691	0.026	222.867
14	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	32	1'09.787	2.729	0.038	222.746
15	Sebastian Vettel		Aston Martin	64	1'09.821	2.763	0.034	222.637
16	Mick Schumacher		Haas	57	1'10.005	2.947	0.184	222.052
17	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	34	1'10.104	3.046	0.099	221.739
18	George Russell		Williams	28	1'10.499	3.441	0.395	220.496
19	Nikita Mazepin		Haas	39	1'10.951	3.893	0.452	219.092
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2021 Formula 1 Styrian Grand Prix tyre history

Cla	Driver		Chassis	1		2		3
1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	M	34	H	42
2	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	M	32	H	41	S	5
3	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	M	30	H	44
4	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	S	29	H	28	M	17
5	Lando Norris		McLaren	S	34	H	39
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.		Ferrari	M	41	H	29
7	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	S	4	H	36	M	33
8	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	S	30	H	42
9	Fernando Alonso		Alpine	S	30	H	43
10	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	S	29	H	44
11	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	H	36	M	34
12	Sebastian Vettel		Aston Martin	M	27	H	43
13	Daniel Ricciardo		McLaren	M	41	H	29
14	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	M	36	H	34
15	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	M	23	H	47
16	Mick Schumacher		Haas	M	33	H	36
17	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	M	1	S	24	H	43
18	Nikita Mazepin		Haas	M	21	H	47
	George Russell		Williams	M	25	H	1	H	11
	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	S	4
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