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Around the Red Bull Ring, the Styrian Grand Prix gave us many talking points with the Red Bull’s dominant once more in their home race.
Max Verstappen drove a fantastic and dominant race to win back-to-back races and claim Red Bull’s fourth consecutive victory.
The Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completed the top three as the curtain was closed on the second out of three races during the first triple-header of the F1 season.
Red Bull’s dominance continues
Another race and it was another victory for Red Bull. Verstappen led from start to finish as he crossed the line over 30 seconds ahead of second-placed Hamilton, who pitted a new set of tyres to steal a Championship point for the fastest lap of the race.
Sergio Perez started from fourth and finished in that exact position after he was compromised due to a poor pit stop from his pit crew.
The Mexican did come in for a fresh set of medium tyres in the latter stages of the Grand Prix and was over 20 seconds behind Bottas after the stop.
It just goes to prove the sheer pace of the Red Bull as Perez crossed the line narrowly behind Bottas as he was able to catch up to the back of the Mercedes driver.
Red Bull’s advantage over their rivals has been extended to 40 points in the Constructor’s Championship and the Austrian outfit continues to grow in confidence.
Mercedes on the backfoot
Hamilton and Bottas did come second and third but the two Mercedes drivers had nothing on the Red Bull of Verstappen and were fortunate to hang onto the podium after the late charge from Perez.
This is a worrying sight for the seven-time constructor’s champions and seeing them not win a race in the last four races just proves the sheer power of the Red Bull.
With that being said, the Austrian outfit has struggled with reliability issues in the past, which could hamper them in the latter stages of the season.
Hamilton was on course to pounce around Baku but failed to do so, and Red Bull’s strategy around Paul Ricard was fantastic which allowed Verstappen to win the race.
Mercedes have to get something right if they are to take steps in the right direction and start to close the game on their Championship rivals otherwise this season could be over for them.
Leclerc’s valiant fightback
Charles Leclerc put in a wonderful drive at the Styrian Grand Prix which saw him finish seventh. In hindsight, yes, he did start P7, but his troubles during the race made the points finish even sweeter.
Starting alongside Fernando Alonso on the fourth row, the Monegasque driver looked to fight for position with Pierre Gasly ahead of him in sixth.
The two tangled which saw the Ferrari driver drop down the order with front wing damage and the Frenchman later retired due to suspension failure.
Leclerc stuck the hard tyre onto his car and was able to get himself up to P9 before he had to pit again. Making moves on Yuki Tsunoda, Alonso and Lance Stroll in the dying embers, he secured a P7 finish with his teammate Carlos Sainz ahead of him in sixth.
Russell’s unfortunate retirement
George Russell missed out on Q3 by a very slim margin and you felt like “Mr Saturday’s” race could be a successful one.
Moving into 10th after Tsunoda’s penalty, the Williams driver drove fantastically throughout the course of the race which saw him fluctuate between seventh and 10th.
His first pit stop was a long one as his crew had to top up his pneumatic pressure which would allow the Brit to continue with his race.
That dropped him outside of the points, and a second stop a couple of laps later confirmed that Russell would retire from the race due to reliability issues.
His message to his engineers after his retirement proved how much he had matured. The Brit went onto say on his team radio:
“No need to apologise, we’re in this together. We go again next week – we’ll get those points next week”
That confidence is making Russell a very competitive and confident person which he should follow up with points in the not too distant future.
Gasly’s misfortunes
Qualifying inside the top 10 once more, Pierre Gasly was looking at the front of the field ahead of him with two Mercedes’, two Red Bull’s and a McLaren of Lando Norris in front of him.
He got away well and was looking behind in his wing mirrors to see a charging Leclerc on his inside as the two scrapped away for the position.
The Frenchman was ahead heading into the flat out turn two but came across quite aggressively on Leclerc which in turn saw the Monegasque get front wing damage and saw the Frenchman encounter a puncture.
Before turn three, Gasly would come together with the Williams of Nicholas Latifi which saw the Canadian also suffer from a puncture.
AlphaTauri’s main man had collided with about six drivers before the first lap had even been completed, and pitted at the end of the lap to ultimately retire from the race.
Gasly could have gone onto score some decent points in the race if he had not encountered those problems, but by not finishing the race, we’d never know where the Frenchman could have finished if he was to complete all 71 laps.
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