Styrian GP: Max Verstappen claims crushing win over Lewis Hamilton to increase F1 title lead
Max Verstappen stretches F1 title lead over Lewis Hamilton to 18 points after dominant drive to victory at Red Bull's own track; Bottas beats Perez to third after Red Bull pits delay; McLaren's Lando Norris fifth, while Ferrari recover with strong race pace
Sunday 27 June 2021 22:31, UK
Max Verstappen took a dominant win over F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to stretch further clear in the world championship fight with Red Bull's fourth win in a row at the Styrian GP.
Mercedes have now gone four races without a win for the first time in the eight-season hybrid-turbo era that they have dominated.
Unlike many other races this season, including last week to gripping effect in France, there was no wheel-to-wheel duel between Verstappen and Hamilton this time with the Red Bull simply too fast for the Mercedes after converting its pole position into the race lead at the start.
- Styrian Grand Prix race result
- Hamilton's stark assessment after Verstappen runaway win
- Updated F1 world championship standings
Verstappen led every lap and increased his title advantage to 18 points after eight races.
Hamilton was 17 seconds behind when he made a second stop with three to go for a fresh set of tyres and a shot at the bonus point for fastest lap, which at the time was held by Sergio Perez's fourth-placed Red Bull.
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That proved successful, meaning Verstappen increased his title lead by one less point than would have otherwise been the case, but it was still a sobering afternoon for F1's world champion driver and team.
"I was trying to keep up but the speed they have, they've obviously made some big improvements over the last couple of races and it's impossible to keep up," conceded Hamilton. "I've got to do my best job I can each weekend and we need to find some performance. We need an upgrade of some sort.
"We need to find some performance from somewhere."
Red Bull boss Christian Horner declared: "That is the most dominant win we've had so far this year."
In a further boost for Red Bull, who now lead the Constructors' Championship by 40 points, F1 stays in Austria for a race on the same circuit next week.
Styrian GP Result: Top 10
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
4) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
5) Lando Norris, McLaren
6) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
7) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
8) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
9) Fernando Alonso, Alpine
10) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
Bottas beats Perez, while Ferrari surge after Ricard woe
One comfort for Mercedes was that Valtteri Bottas beat Sergio Perez to the final podium berth after rare delays at a Red Bull pit stop for the Mexican driver. Both drivers had overtaken McLaren's Lando Norris, who had started third, in the first stint.
Perez made his extra pit stop for fresh tyres on lap 54 and quickly raced back to Bottas' tail, but could not find a late way past the Mercedes and so stayed fourth.
Although he was shuffled back by two positions inside 11 laps, Norris was comfortable thereafter in fifth place and extends the grid's only 100 per cent points-finishing record in 2021. The McLaren driver also moves back into fourth in the Drivers' Championship.
But Ferrari still outscored McLaren overall after a race-day for the Scuderia that was in stark contrast to their woes at Paul Ricard last week.
Carlos Sainz performed brilliantly on a long first stint to jump a host of cars and then secure sixth, while Charles Leclerc raced back well to seventh after being forced into an emergency pit stop on lap one after contact with Pierre Gasly.
The two cars made contact on the hill out of Turn One, with Ferrari sustaining front-wing damage and AlphaTauri more substantial left-rear suspension damage that forced its retirement at the end of the opening lap.
And there was fresh heartache for George Russell.
Running well in eighth place and appearing on course for his first points for Williams, the Briton's car ran into power unit problems and, after several pit stops in quick succession, he was forced into retirement.
Lance Stroll was eighth for Aston Martin after a strong weekend relative to team-mate Sebastian Vettel, with Alpine's Fernando Alonso just beating Yuki Tsunoda's AlphaTauri to ninth place.
When's the next race?
F1 stays in Austria for seven more days with the Red Bull Ring, like last year, hosting consecutive races. Next week it's the Austrian GP itself, with live track coverage starting on Friday morning on Sky Sports F1. Next Sunday's race is at 2pm.
