Max Verstappen took a shock victory at Red Bull’s home Grand Prix in Austria as both Mercedes retired in a dramatic race.

 

 

Verstappen crossed the line ahead of the two Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, who reclaimed the Driver’s Championship lead from Lewis Hamilton by a single point after Mercedes went from a high one-two in qualifying to a double-DNF.

 

Polesitter Valtteri Bottas failed to finish due to a gearbox failure while a strategy error under the virtual safety car ruined Lewis Hamilton’s day and a loss of fuel pressure forced him to retire.

 

How the Austrian GP unfolded

 

 

Hamilton and Raikkonen jumped by Bottas on the run down into the first corner, with the three running alongside each other, before Raikkonen went into Hamilton’s slipstream and attacked the Briton into turn three but locked up and ran wide.

 

This allowed Verstappen to test the Finn at the exit of the corner, but the Dutchman was pushed out aggressively and Bottas passed both around the outside of turn four.

 

Verstappen got the inside of Raikkonen at turn six and a slight touch of wheels nudged Raikkonen wide and allowed the Dutchman to get through.

 

Bottas was no threat towards team-mate Hamilton before a loss of hydraulics pressure forced the Finn to park his W09 EQ Power+ on the escape road at turn four ending his day early.

 

That deployed the virtual safety car, which saw all frontrunners stopping except for race leader Hamilton, an error which Mercedes Chief Strategist James Vowles came on the team radio to apologise for.

 

Verstappen emerged 13 seconds behind Hamilton, who ran 10 laps longer on his red-branded supersoft rubber without being able to stretch the gap further and eventually pitted.

 

The Briton fell to fourth, giving Verstappen the lead, but Hamilton’s woes continued a few laps later when championship rival Vettel forced his way past the Briton and aggressively pushed Hamilton wide on entry to turn three.

 

Hamilton gained a place back just after the midway point of the Grand Prix when Daniel Ricciardo had to make another stop to switch his tyres after struggling with a blistered left-rear.

 

The sole Silver Arrow of Hamilton started to chase down Vettel after receiving another apology from Vowles but then was forced to stop again after suffering with the same issue as Ricciardo with 19 laps remaining.

 

Hamilton’s race lasted another 12 laps before a loss of fuel pressure forced the championship leader off at turn three and retired on the left of the circuit on the run down towards turn four.

 

This ended the Briton’s run of 33 consecutive races in the points, with Hamilton’s last retirement being the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix with an engine failure.

 

His dramatic end gave the top three an untroubled run to the finish line, with Raikkonen rapidly charging within two seconds of Verstappen by the end but did not force the Dutchman under pressure and also was unchallenged by Vettel.

 

Ricciardo should have came home in fourth place following Hamilton’s exit but the Australian already retired after a gearbox issue just after the Briton’s final pitstop.

 

This meant Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean would score his first points of the 2018 season in style and the best result in the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit’s history.

 

Team-mate Kevin Magnussen fought back after losing places due to not pitting under the virtual safety car to take fifth place and secure a good haul of points for Haas, which propelled them to fifth in the Constructors.

 

The Force India pairing followed next with Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez taking sixth and seventh respectively after all the chaos.

 

Pit-lane starter Fernando Alonso finished eighth in his Renault-powered McLaren with the Spaniard running 19^th earlier on and after complaining over the radio that he would not run in that position for the entire race, he used the virtual safety car to his advantage and ran a long second stint to take the four points.

 

This included an aggressive move on Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, who snatch ninth placed back from team-mate Marcus Ericsson after the Swedish driver was allowed past his team-mate to try and hunt down Alonso on fresher rubber.

 

While that attempt wasn’t to be, Ericsson still managed to complete a double-points finish for the Hinwil-based squad after a very long stint on the softs before switching to the fresher supersofts and mounting a late charge.

 

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly came home outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of Renault’s Carlos Sainz who was 12^th and the two Williams of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin who finished two laps down in 13^th and 14^th places respectively.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley also joined the three top runners in failing to finish the race.

 

Hulkenberg suffered a spectacular engine failure early in the race while Hartley stopped after a bizarre mechanical problem forced the Kiwi off track at turn nine and parked his Honda-powered STR13 at turn two.

 

Formula 1 Eyetime Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2018 Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	71	1h21m56.024s
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	71	1.504s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	71	3.181s
4	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	70	1 Lap
5	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	70	1 Lap
6	Esteban Ocon	Sahara Force India F1 Team	70	1 Lap
7	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	70	1 Lap
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Renault	70	1 Lap
9	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	70	1 Lap
10	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	70	1 Lap
11	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	70	1 Lap
12	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	70	1 Lap
13	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	69	2 Laps
14	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	69	2 Laps
15	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	65	Not running
–	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	62	Retirement
–	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	54	Retirement
–	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	53	Retirement
–	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	13	Hydraulics
–	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	11	Power Unit

 

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Sebastian Vettel – 146 Points.
2. Lewis Hamilton – 145 Points.
3. Kimi Raikkonen – 101 Points.
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 96 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 93 Points.
6. Valtteri Bottas – 92 Points.
7. Kevin Magnussen – 37 Points.
8. Fernando Alonso – 36 Points.
9. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points.
10. Carlos Sainz – 28 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari – 247 Points.
2. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 237 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 189 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 62 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 49 Points.
6. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 44 Points.
7. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 42 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 16 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

Round 10 of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship and final part of the first triple header Grand Prix weekend in the sports history heads straight to the legendary Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain for the Formula 1 2018 Rolex British Grand Prix from July 6-8.