The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) achieved his fifth victory in a row in Formula 1 this Sunday, by imposing himself forcefully in the Austrian Grand Prix, held at the Red Bull Ring circuit. The two-time champion and leader of the season started from pole position and crossed the finish line at the head of the peloton, escorted by Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and his teammate, the Mexican Sergio “Checo” Pérez.
In their own home, Red Bull recovered the laurels that Ferrari took from it last year with the success of Leclerc and strung together the tenth consecutive victory in the premier class, adding the nine races this year and the last one last season.
Verstappen showed throughout the weekend that he currently has no rivals, winning every instance of the Austrian GP, which he won for the fourth time in history. With that amount, he became the winningest driver in the history of the Austrian race after separating from Frenchman Alain Prost, crowned three times.
Strictly speaking, this was Verstappen’s fifth win at the Spielberg circuit, where he also won the Styrian GP, exceptionally added in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Dutchman is heading comfortably towards the three-time F1 championship with a wide advantage of 81 points in the general classification over “Checo” Pérez, who today starred in a meritorious comeback after starting from 15th. position.
Once the test was finished, the authorities proceeded to recharge and penalize the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), with a 10-second surcharge, for “exceeding the track limits”.
In this way, behind the components of the podium were the Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren), the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), the Spanish Sainz (Ferrari), the British George Russell (Mercedes), the Englishman Hamilton (Mercedes ), Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine) to round out the top ten in scoring positions.
The Thai Alexander Albon (Williams), the Chinese Guanjú Zhou (Alfa Romeo), the American Logan Sargeant (Williams), the French Esteban Ocon (Alpine), the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), the Australian Oscar Piastri classified further down. (McLaren), the Dutchman Nick de Vries (Alpha Tauri), the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri). The only retirement of the day was carried out by the German Niko Hulkenberg (Haas) on lap 12.
The next race will be the British Grand Prix to be held on Sunday the 9th at the Silverstone circuit, where Verstappen could never win.
World Cup standings: Verstappen (Red Bull) 229 points; Perez (Red Bull), 148; Alonso (Aston Martin), 131; Hamilton (Mercedes), 106; Sainz (Ferrari), 82; Leclerc (Ferrari) and Russell (Mercedes), 72; Stroll (Aston Martin), 44; Ocon (Alpine), 31; Norris (McLaren) 24; Gasly (Alpine) 16; Hulkenberg-Haas, 9; Albon (Williams), 7; Piastri (McLaren) and Bottas (Alfa Romeo), 5; Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 4; Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Magnussen (Haas) 2.