Lewis Hamilton's new F1 record as Max Verstappen masters the Ring

Verstappen in his RB16B in Austria — Photo: © LAT Images

Styrian Grand Prix

Hamilton's new F1 record as Verstappen masters the Ring

All the best facts and stats from the Styrian Grand Prix

Will Gray

Monday 28 June 2021 13:37

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Max Verstappen dominated proceedings at his team’s Red Bull Ring circuit, firmly forcing Lewis Hamilton to settle for second best – but, being Hamilton, that was, of course, a record second best.

Mercedes’ slump in form was underlined as its winless run was extended to four races, while elsewhere down the grid it was a first backwards race of the year for Lando Norris, lament for Charles Leclerc and a rise for George Russell.

Verstappen master of the Ring

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described Verstappen’s weekend as “a masterclass” and it is true the Dutch driver could not have done much better in the Styrian Grand Prix as he asserted his team’s dominance over Mercedes.

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After topping FP1 and FP2, Verstappen gave the team its first pole at its own Red Bull Ring track after being second on the grid three times in a row. His three poles this season is already more than in any other year in his career.

Verstappen did the perfect job on Sunday too, leading from start to finish for the third time in the last nine races [doing so just once before in the previous 118] and ending more than 35 seconds ahead of Hamilton, albeit due to his title rival’s late stop.

Verstappen also now has four wins this season, more than in any other previous campaign.

Record second best for Hamilton

Even when he’s down, Hamilton keeps setting records, and with his second place he has now matched Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of runner-up finishes with 43.

That is, however, perhaps his and Mercedes only bright side as the reigning champions have now failed to win in any of the last four races, the team’s worst losing streak since the start of the turbo-hybrid era.

Norris goes backwards

Austria was a happy hunting ground for Norris last year as he secured his first career podium and set the fastest lap in the opening race before finishing fifth in race two.

But after starting from third on this occasion he went backwards instead of forwards.

The McLaren driver had qualified fourth but was promoted up a grid spot when Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was handed a penalty. In the race, however, he dropped to fifth, the first time he has finished lower than he started all season.

Leclerc’s lap-one lament

After a disastrous race last time out in France, Ferrari recovered some of its recent form but Charles Leclerc was out of luck, with his chances destroyed on lap one for the second time in a row in the Austrian mountains.

The Monégasque driver collided with the AlphaTauri of Frenchman Pierre Gasly, putting him into the pits at the end of the opening lap and leaving him with his own mountain to climb.

He did just that, with what he described as

one of his best races for Ferrari

to end up seventh, while team-mate Carlos Sainz finished just ahead in sixth, making it 13 points scores from his last 15 races [six for Ferrari, seven for McLaren].

Top-10 for Russell

George Russell finally achieved his first top-10 start with Williams, even though he missed out on making it into the Q3 shoot-out by an agonising eight-thousandths of a second [0.008secs].

The British driver has been coined ‘Mr Saturday’ for his impressive single-lap speed and he came closer than ever to the final part of qualifying this time [he was 0.139s off the top 10 when he qualified 11th in Portugal earlier this year].

When Yuki Tsunoda, who had qualified eighth, was handed a three-place grid penalty for blocking Bottas in the Q3 session, Russell got his 10th-place grid spot.

Sadly, his ambition of finally scoring his first points for Williams ended in a "brutal" retirement for the second time this season after running in eighth for the first third of the race.

Points run extensions

The frantic battle in the midfield this season and last year has made it very difficult for drivers to string a run of points finishes together, with only three of the 20 on the grid now scoring in three consecutive races or more.

Norris is on a streak of 13 races in the points, Sergio Perez has scored in six on the spin, while Fernando Alonso has made it three in a row. Sebastian Vettel saw his three-race run for Aston Martin come to an end after finishing 12th.