@Max33Verstappen claims 42nd-career victory at the #AustrianGP. #F1

Verstappen Austrian GP Victory – Max Verstappen scored his 42^nd-career victory at the Austrian GP and ahead of Charles Leclerc who came home second for Ferrari and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who recovered to finish third.

 

 

When the 71-lap Austrian GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen got a brilliant getaway into turn one, with Leclerc getting a solid slip-stream and went to the outside of the Dutchman into turn two but could not get through.

 

Behind them Sainz came under pressure from Hamilton in the battle for third but kept his position.

 

The safety car was deployed for the debris to be cleared following the opening lap collision between Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri after jumping over the turn one kerb, hitting the right-hand side of Esteban Ocon’s A523 racer into turn one with the former damaging his front wing.

 

Tsunoda ended up in the gravel at turn four but managed to get going and make his way to the pits for a new front wing.

 

When the race returned to green on lap four, Verstappen made a comfortable lead and was over 1.275 seconds clear ahead of Leclerc with Sainz third, Hamilton fourth and McLaren’s Lando Norris completing the top five.

 

The FIA stewards declared that there was no further action for the incident at turn one.

 

On lap eight, in the fight for second place, Sainz was up close to the rear of Ferrari team-mate Leclerc as they pushed clear from Hamilton.

 

On the 10^th tour, Perez made his way passed the Mercedes of George Russell on the inside of the F1 W14 into turn three to take 11^th place.

 

On lap 12, Perez on his recovery push dived on the inside of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon into turn three to take ninth place.

 

Lap 14 saw Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg pulled off the track at turn 19 due to a loss of power and the virtual safety car was deployed.

 

On the 15^th tour, Hamilton and Norris both made the jump into the pits for a fresh set of hards and emerged in seventh and eighth respectively.

 

The following lap saw both Ferrari’s pitted with Leclerc and Sainz both stopping for a set of mediums and the former emerged in second and Sainz behind Hamilton and Norris in sixth place.

 

The VSC ended on lap 16 and Perez found his way up into third after his rivals around him pitted.

 

On lap 17, Hamilton was hit with a five-second timed penalty for exceeding track limits whilst Sainz made a move on the inside of Norris’s McLaren to take fifth place.

 

On the 19^th tour, Sainz gets passed Hamilton to move up into fourth, diving up the inside of the Briton at turn 3, which triggered a drag race to the fourth corner, and the Spaniard goes around the outside of the Mercedes to make it stick.

 

As the race reached lap 20, the yet-to-pit race leader Verstappen was 15.814 seconds clear of Leclerc with Perez third, Hamilton fourth and Norris rounding out the top five.

 

On lap 21, Sainz also made his way ahead of Perez to take third off the Red Bull.

 

Lap 25 saw race leader Verstappen pit from the lead for a fresh set of hards as Leclerc claimed P1 off the Dutchman and emerged behind Sainz in third.

 

Perez followed suit to stop on lap 26 for a set of mediums and came out in 11^th behind Ocon meanwhile Verstappen was right on the tail of Sainz in the battle for second and got ahead of the Ferrari out of turn three and into turn four and was sitting six seconds behind Leclerc.

 

On the 28^th tour, Hamilton reported a brake issue, but had no defence as Norris jumped up the inside of the Mercedes into turn four to take fourth place off his fellow British-compatriot.

 

Lap 29 saw Sainz also slapped with a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.

 

On lap 30, Leclerc was 3.353 seconds ahead of Verstappen as the gap was decreasing with Sainz third, Norris fourth and Hamilton rounding out the top five.

 

The 34^th tour saw Verstappen rapidly eating into Leclerc’s lead with the gap down to 0.508 seconds in the battle for first place.

 

Lap 35, Verstappen reclaimed the lead with DRS and by diving on the inside of Leclerc into turn three for the run out of turn four to blast clear.

 

By the 36^th lap, Verstappen was already 2.435 seconds in-front of Leclerc with Sainz third, Norris fourth and Hamilton completing the top five.

 

As the lead changed, Perez was up into seventh place, overtaking Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

 

With 31 laps remaining, Verstappen was 6.299 seconds ahead of Leclerc with Sainz a further 11.295 seconds down the road in third, Norris fourth and Hamilton fifth.

 

On the 42^nd tour, Norris pitted from fourth for a set of hards and emerged in eighth behind Gasly.

 

Hamilton followed suit on lap 43 to pit for a set of mediums, also serving his five-second time penalty and emerged in eighth place behind Norris.

 

On the 46^th lap, Sainz pitted from third to serve his five-second penalty and take on a fresh set of hards and came out behind Norris in fifth place.

 

Sainz tucked right behind Norris on the rundown into turn four and made a move on the outside of the MCL60 and passed the Briton into the sweeping left-hand turn five to reclaim fourth.

 

Leclerc stopped on lap 48 for a fresh set of hards and emerged in third behind Perez.

 

On the 50^th tour, race leader Verstappen pitted for a fresh set of mediums and came out comfortable 5.8 seconds clear of team-mate Perez.

 

Perez stopped a lap later for a set of hards and emerged in fifth place to chase down Norris and the two Ferrari’s until the end of the Grand Prix.

 

On lap 55, Verstappen increased his gap to 16.868 over second-placed Leclerc with Sainz third, Norris fourth and Perez hunting down the McLaren in fifth.

 

On the 56^th tour, Perez made his way by Norris’s MCL60 racer on the inside into turn four to grab fourth place.

 

The following tour, Perez’s next target was third-placed Sainz, and the former had a look on the rundown into turn four, but the Ferrari covered the Mexican’s tracks.

 

Lap 59, Perez was much closer to the SF-23 and made his move on the outside of Sainz into turn three, but the Spaniard covered the Red Bull. Perez tried to perform the switchback on Sainz out of turn 3, but the Ferrari driver was lucky to gain DRS off the lapped Magnussen to keep Perez at bay.

 

On lap 62, Perez finally made the move on Sainz, the former remained behind at the DRS line into turn three and that gave the Red Bull driver DRS assistance on the straight into turn four and flew past into the final podium place.

 

With seven laps left, Verstappen was over a pit-stop clear in the lead over Leclerc with Perez now in third, Sainz fourth and Norris completing the top five.

 

Verstappen pitted with two tours remaining for a fresh set of softs to push for the bonus fastest lap point and came out 3.723 seconds ahead of Leclerc.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to claim victory at the Austrian GP to extend his championship lead to 81 points and 5.155 seconds ahead of Leclerc who came home second to give the Scuderia it’s 800^th podium in Formula 1 and Perez took the final podium place after a solid recovery drive.

 

The other Ferrari SF-23 entry of Sainz finished fourth and in-front of Norris who was fifth, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who ended the Grand Prix sixth and the two Mercedes of Hamilton and George Russell who were seventh and eighth respectively.

 

Alpine’s Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top ten.

 

Williams Racing’s Albon and Logan Sargeant came home in 11^th and 13^th respectively with Ocon splitting the pairing in 12^th place.

 

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas finished in 14^th and 16^th with AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries sandwiched in-between the C43’s in 15^th.

 

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was 17^th and in-front of Tsunoda and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who brought up the rear.

 

*** See note below under race classification for results update due to post-race penalties.***

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2023 Austrian GP – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Austrian GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – RBPT-Honda, RB19:

“I don’t like to think about that yet, I am just enjoying driving this car and racing for this team. The sprint weekend can be very stressful so I’m just glad it all went to plan.”

 

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +5.155:

“We have maximised what we have, it was just yesterday I was off it a bit. The upgrades have worked as expected but there is still a lot of work to do to catch Red Bull.”

 

3^rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing – RBPT-Honda, RB19, +17.188:

“It has been a bit of a rough patch for me so hopefully we are back, and we can keep that consistency now.”

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Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2023 Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	71	1:25:33.607	26
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	71	+5.155s	18
3	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	71	+17.188s	15
4	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	71	+26.327s	12
5	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	71	+30.317s	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	71	+31.377s	8
7	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	71	+48.403s	6
8	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	71	+49.196s	4
9	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	71	+59.043s	2
10	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	71	+67.667s	1
11	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	71	+79.767s	0
12	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	70	+1 lap	0
13	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	70	+1 lap	0
14	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	70	+1 lap	0
15	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	70	+1 lap	0
16	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	70	+1 lap	0
17	21	Nyck De Vries	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	70	+1 lap	0
18	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	70	+1 lap	0
19	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	70	+1 lap	0
NC	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	12	DNF	0

Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. De Vries received a five-second time penalty for forcing another driver off track. Sargeant, Magnussen, Ocon (x2), De Vries and Tsunoda received five-second time penalties for exceeding track limits. Tsunoda, Sainz, Hamilton, Gasly, Albon, Ocon (x2) and De Vries received 10-second time penalties for exceeding track limits.

 

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1213/austria/race-result.html

Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

Round 11 of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the historic Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom next weekend for the Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix 2023 from Friday July 07-Sunday July 09.

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