The Dutch driver dominates from the start to the finish line and takes flight at the head of the World Championship. Ferrari in clear recovery with the Spaniard and the Monegasque.
Amazing start of summer for Max Verstappen who wins the GP of Styria, second consecutive personal success and fourth in a row for Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton he takes a “blunt” Mercedes in second place and third with Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull fourth with Sergio Perez while McLaren is fifth with Lando Norris in front of the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and an amazing Charles Leclerc, seventh in comeback after returning immediately to the pits for a puncture a few seconds after the start.
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The first of two consecutive Grands Prix on the home track marks the world turning point. Max Verstappen’s fourth success of the season throws the Dutchman to 156 points in the general classification against Lewis Hamilton’s 138: eighteen points ahead for Max who underpins his (already very solid) candidacy to interrupt the reign of his rival with a performance without shadows without uncertainties. In command from the red light to the checkered flag, vainly pursued by the Black King , whose only chance (immediately vanished) was – perhaps – to jump the opponent at the start.
On Verstappen’s triumphal Sunday, accompanied on the podium by Hamilton and Bottas (which on the last lap keeps Sergio Perez’s other Red Bull at a distance), they carve out a role as co-protagonists Lando Norris and … Ferrari. The McLaren driver (third in the World Championship at the Red Bull Ring last year) completes a regular and effective race, keeping out of all the hottest challenges. As already other times in the past, In fact, Lando juggles in a sort of “no man’s land” between those who fight for the victory and the podium and those who go hunting for world championship points. Like Ferrari.
For the Scuderia di Maranello, after disappointing and sacrificed qualifications to the resolution of the race pace problems that emerged in France, a rather promising Styrian GP. Carlos Sainz he makes his way from the sixth row of the grid to the identical position at the finish. But the real exploit bears the signature of Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque damaged the front wing in the uphill stretch between turns one and two of the first lap touching the rear left of Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri which is immediately forced to retire with a destroyed tire and damage to the suspension. Leclerc returns to the pits. replaces wing and tires and launches in a furious and inexorable comeback, all overtaking which – after a nasty pit stop at the 38th of the 71 laps scheduled, takes him to the seventh place finish. An encouraging team result for the Prancing Horse (without forgetting the dubbing by the winner), especially in view of the Austrian encore scheduled at the Red Bull Ring next weekend. Maranello is also budgeting a partial of 14 points to 10 on McLaren (Daniel Ricciardo finished 13th), reducing the gap from the English team in the Constructors’ Championship to twelve points: 120 points to 108.
Behind the two Ferrari drivers, the top ten continues (and ends) with the eighth place of Lance Stroll with Aston Martin, the ninth of Fernando Alonso with the Alpine and the tenth of Yuki Tsunoda with the only Alpha Tauri at the finish line, after Gasly’s abandonment at the end of the first lap due to a close encounter with Leclerc’s SF21 … The Frenchman is one of only two unclassified drivers. The other is George Russell but – in general opinion – it was with Verstappen and with Leclerc himself one of the three drivers who showed the best numbers at the Red Bull Ring. George in fact snatched an amazing eleventh time in qualifying with the mediocre Williams, started tenth thanks to the penalty of Tsunoda (guilty of having hindered Bottas in qualifying), and he even hoisted himself up to eighth place in the first third of the race, before being the protagonist (or rather, the victim) of an “eternal” pit stop for eighteen seconds, he caused a problem with the hydraulic system of his FW43B, only to abandon on lap 38.
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