@Max33Verstappen snatches victory from @Charles_Leclerc in epic #AustrianGP. #F1

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen passed Charles Leclerc to win a classic Austrian Grand Prix and give Honda it’s first victory since returning to the sport.

 

 

Verstappen dropped the eighth after suffering anti-stall on the opening lap but came through the field and caught Leclerc in the later stages before winning a side-by-side battle to snatch the victory.

 

However, the Dutchman’s race winning move, that resulted in minor contact was investigated by the stewards for pushing Leclerc into the turn three run-off area and denying the Monegasque-youngster his maiden victory in Formula 1.

 

After a long wait the stewards deemed no further action on the incident between Verstappen and Leclerc meaning the former keeps the victory.

 

Leclerc came home second with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas rounding out the top three as the Silver Arrow’s 100%-win record since the 2019 championship season began ended.

 

Pole-sitter Leclerc lead from the start despite running a risky strategy, but the Ferrari driver managed to stay ahead of Mercedes’ Bottas at a comfortable length throughout the race.

 

He then resisted pressure from a late push by Verstappen, who dropped from second to eighth on lap one but charged back to take the Milton Keynes-based outfit’s best result of the season with Honda.

 

Leclerc kept his pole advantage, which was aided by anti-stall hampering Verstappen’s Red Bull RB15 racer and the Dutchman fell to seventh at turn one.

 

Verstappen then fell behind Red Bull team-mate Pierre Gasly as the latter passed him around the outside at turn three, but he reclaimed the position back at the penultimate corner.

 

While Leclerc started to build a small gap over Bottas at the front, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen made their way through the field.

 

Vettel started ninth after a pneumatic air-line pressure issue to the engine in qualifying but jumped up to fourth by the sixth lap and Verstappen made his way to fifth place three laps later.

 

Despite being on the white-branded C2 hard compounds that Mercedes believed would be an advantage to Leclerc’s soft rubber, Bottas was the first of the leading runners to pit on lap 21, with Vettel stopping on the same lap.

 

Vettel lost a significant amount of time due to a radio problem for Ferrari’s mechanics meant they could not receive the instruction that the German was pitting.

 

Leclerc covered Bottas’ stop one lap after his chaser, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton released into the lead as the other F1 W10 EQ Power+ racer and Verstappen extended their first stint.

 

Hamilton finally came in on lap 30 after rapidly losing a lot of time over the last couple of laps of his initial stint after suffering front wing damage that was picked up by running over the sausage kerbs at Lauda Curve.

 

The time lost in the pits after the front wing change meant the Briton emerged eight seconds behind Vettel despite the Ferrari also having a slow stop and when Verstappen pitted one lap later, the Dutchman rejoined ahead of Hamilton as well.

 

While Leclerc held a comfortable four second gap at the front, Verstappen was 12.9 seconds off the lead in fourth after stopping and began his push.

 

It took the Dutchman 17 laps to eat into Vettel’s deficit but once the Red Bull got within DRS range, he started to attack.

 

Vettel continued to struggle making the apex of the turn three right-hand corner at the top of the crest, and on the 50^th lap, Verstappen got a good run out of the corner and with DRS assistance, moved ahead of the Ferrari into the braking zone and passed Vettel on the outside into turn four.

 

After clearing the Ferrari, which immediately stopped for the second time switching to a fresh set of softs and emerged behind Hamilton, Verstappen rapidly caught Bottas.

 

The two Mercedes’ pace was reduced due to temperature management, and Verstappen flew passed Bottas on the second run to the third corner on the 56^th lap – with the Dutchman reporting a brief loss of power.

 

This released Verstappen to hunt down Leclerc, who was six seconds in-front with 15 laps remaining.

 

With five laps remaining, Verstappen was right on the Ferrari’s tail and attacked the SF90 racer on the outside of turns three and four, but Leclerc held on.

 

The following lap, Verstappen divebombed Leclerc with an excellent move into turn three, but Leclerc managed to hold on around the outside and the Ferrari’s straight-line advantage out-dragged the Honda-powered Red Bull on the rundown to turn four.

 

With three laps left, Leclerc half-covered the inside but Verstappen went right to the edge of the track, which forced the Ferrari wide – and the two touched wheels as Leclerc tried to keep wheel-to-wheel again on the outside.

 

Leclerc took to the run-off area and complained over the radio, while Verstappen accused the Monegasque-youngster of turning in on him.

 

Verstappen was told to keep pushing and came across the finish line 2.724 seconds ahead of Leclerc to give Honda it’s first victory since the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix and Bottas completed the top three.

 

Behind the top three, Vettel used his fresher softs to his advantage to catch and pass Hamilton for fourth.

 

Championship leader Hamilton had to settle for fifth but only lost five points in the title fight to Mercedes team-mate Bottas.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris put the heartbreak of last weekend’s French Grand Prix behind him to come home best of the rest in sixth place for the Woking-based squad.

 

The young Briton managed to comfortably keep the other Red Bull RB15 of Pierre Gasly at bay to take his best result of the 2019 campaign.

 

The other Renault-powered MCL34 McLaren of Carlos Sainz executed a long first stint after starting at the back of the grid to finish an impressive eighth while both Alfa Romeo Racing C38’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi completed the top ten with the latter scoring his first point of the season.

 

The Racing Point of Sergio Perez finished in 11^th and ahead of the two Renault’s of Daniel Ricciardo who were 12^th and 13^th respectively.

 

The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll was 14^th and finished in-front of Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon who took 15^th and Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who ended the Grand Prix in 16^th.

 

The second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat came home 17^th and ahead of ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell who took 18^th.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and ROKiT Williams Racing’s Robert Kubica brought up the rear.

 

You can watch the full race highlights here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3L7WzpAsjY

 

Formula 1 MyWorld Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2019 Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	71	1h22m01.822s
2	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	71	2.724s
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	71	18.960s
4	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	71	19.610s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	71	22.805s
6	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	70	1 Lap
7	Pierre Gasly	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	70	1 Lap
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	70	1 Lap
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	70	1 Lap
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	70	1 Lap
11	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	70	1 Lap
12	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	70	1 Lap
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	70	1 Lap
14	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	70	1 Lap
15	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	70	1 Lap
16	Romain Grosjean	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	70	1 Lap
17	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	70	1 Lap
18	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	69	2 Laps
19	Kevin Magnussen	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	69	2 Laps
20	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	68	3 Laps

 

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 197 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 166 Points.
3. Max Verstappen – 126 Points.
4. Sebastian Vettel – 123 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 105 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 43 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 30 Points.
8. Lando Norris – 22 Points.
9. Kimi Raikkonen – 21 Points.
10. Daniel Ricciardo – 16 Points.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 363 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 228 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 169 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 52 Points.
5. Renault F1 Team – 32 Points.
6. Alfa Romeo Racing – 22 Points.
7. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 19 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 17 Points.
9. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 16 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 0 Points.

 

Round ten of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the legendary Silverstone Circuit in England for the Formula 1 Rolex British Grand Prix from July 12-14.