Max Verstappen extended his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton to more than the value of a full race win after a comfortable victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen was completely unchallenged at the Red Bull Ring, leading every lap from pole and taking a point for fastest lap to grow his title lead to 32 points over Hamilton, who finished an ineffectual fourth.
The die was cast for Hamilton in the first 20 laps, when he struggled to pass Lando Norris, who started second on the grid and drove superbly to hold his own among the front-runners.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen will start on pole for the third race in a row after pipping surprise front row starter Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen beat a sensational Lando Norris to score a third straight pole position, while Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth on an unpredictable Saturday afternoon at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen started the hour as pole favorite after dominating last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the same circuit, and the Dutchman took provisional pole after the first runs of Q3l but his second lap was poor, and he failed to improve.
Norris, wringing the maximum from his McLaren car, was on the attack just behind the Dutchman and benefiting from the slipstream. The Briton was already second after his first pole attempt and went purple at the first split with his final flyer to project himself onto pole.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen returned Red Bull Racing to the top of the time sheet in a warm final practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman’s best time of 1m 4.591s around the Red Bull Ring beat Valtteri Bottas’s best by 0.538s to put him in the box seat for pole later today.
Lewis Hamilton was third and 0.686s off the pace after having his best lap on fresh softs deleted for exceeding track limits exiting the final corner, but even that lap would have put his Mercedes around 0.4s behind Verstappen’s benchmark, just ahead of Bottas.
The soft compound was in almost universal use through the 60-minute session ahead of qualifying. Pirelli is using its most delicate tire, the C5, as this weekend’s soft compound, and with warm weather rolling in after a mild Friday and track temperatures nudging 120 degrees F, rubber preparation for a flying lap will be key to executing a clean qualifying lap.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen topped first practice ahead of both Ferrari drivers at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman, winner of last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the same circuit, set his best time of 1m05.143s on the soft compound to go 0.266s quicker than Charles Leclerc, who was just 0.022s faster than Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz despite complaining of several right-front lock-ups.
Valtteri Bottas was 0.3s behind in the lead Mercedes, while Lewis Hamilton was more than half a second off the pace in seventh after repeatedly falling foul of track limits.
Continue reading on RACERA comfortable victory from pole, an extended championship lead and no signs of slowing down: Max Verstappen is Formula 1’s new championship favourite.
It was a race, but there was no competition: Max Verstappen was dominant in the Styrian Grand Prix, leaving Lewis Hamilton to wonder how he can get back on level terms.
Featuring Christian Menath, F1 managing editor, motorsport-magazin.com.
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Max Verstappen won a comfortable victory at the first of two races at the Red Bull Ring, and the ease with which he dominated the Styrian Grand Prix had all the hallmarks of a decisive moment in the championship fight.
Max Verstappen has clinically dispatched Lewis Hamilton to claim a dominant victory at the Styrian Grand Prix and steal a march in the championship standings.
Max Verstappen easily accounted for championship rival Lewis Hamilton with a straightforward victory at the Styrian Grand Prix to grow his points lead.
The Dutchman’s victory was effectively sealed with his perfect getaway from pole. He kept the Mercedes driver at bay into the first turn and built a 1.5s buffer in the first three laps, ensuring the Briton couldn’t use DRS to follow him away from the field.
The gap was gently stretched throughout the first stint until Hamilton made the first stop of the pair, on Lap 29, for a set of hard tires. Verstappen had no trouble covering the move, the undercut being far less effective around the short Red Bull Ring.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen took pole for the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix with a confident performance that had all the hallmarks of a title favourite.
Max Verstappen will aim for a third win in four races after claiming a comfortable pole at Austria’s Red Bull Ring for the Styrian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen blitzed qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix to put Red Bull Racing on pole at the Red Bull Ring. The Dutchman needed only his first flying lap in the top-10 shootout to set an unassailable time of 1m03.841s ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton attempted to improve with his second flyer, but congestion in the final sector of his warm-up lap left him ill prepared and the Briton could not improve.
Instead it was Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes who emerged as Verstappen’s challenger after a compromised first lap, but though the Finn set three personal best sectors, he was still 0.194s shy of the benchmark.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen swept Friday practice for Red Bull Racing, but the Dutchman benefited from Lewis Hamilton having his best lap deleted for track limits.
The Dutchman’s best time of 1m05.412s in his Red Bull was 0.077s slower than Hamilton’s fastest lap, but the Briton was found by the stewards to have run too far wide at Turn 10 and subsequently had the time erased. Hamilton’s next-best time was good enough for only fourth, 0.384s adrift.
His Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, also attracted the attention of the stewards, albeit for the far more serious transgression of spinning in the pit lane.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen opened the Austrian doubleheader with the quickest time of first practice for the Styrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen, winner of last weekend’s French Grand Prix, took his Red Bull Racing car to the top of the time sheet with a time of 1m05.910s. Pierre Gasly made the session a Red Bull-back 1-2, albeit with the sister AlphaTauri car, 0.256s further back.
Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas followed, the pair closely matched at around 0.45s off the leading Dutchman’s pace.
Continue reading on RACERRed Bull Racing breached Mercedes’s French Grand Prix fortress against the odds, breaking the title fight wide open.
The French Grand Prix delivered yet another thriller in this too-close-to-call championship fight, with Max Verstappen sensationally stripping Lewis Hamilton of the lead on the penultimate lap in a serious statement of title intent.