Max Verstappen wins Styrian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton second

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to take a dominant victory in the Styrian Grand Prix and extend his championship lead to 18 points.

Hamilton in his Mercedes had no answer to his rival, and dropped back through a largely uneventful race.

It was bad news for the seven-time champion, with Austria’s Red Bull Ring hosting a second race next weekend.

A rare, unexciting grand prix

This season has been marked by a series of gripping races and ultra-tight battles between Verstappen and Hamilton, but this was race was notable for his lack of excitement.

There was entertainment provided by Charles Leclerc, though, as the Ferrari driver fought back up to seventh place after damaging his front wing and dropping to last on the first lap with a superb attacking drive in which he several times flirted with the limits while passing rivals.

But at the front there was little jeopardy, as Verstappen converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner and controlled the race thereafter. Verstappen was 1.4 seconds clear after two laps and calmly and slowly extended his advantage for the rest of the race.

Hamilton’s only consolation was a late pit stop to claim the point for fastest lap.

The battle for the final podium place was also a Mercedes v Red Bull affair.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez held third for the first part of the race but lost it to Bottas, who had qualified second but was given a three-place grid penalty for spinning in the pit lane in practice, with a slow pit stop.

As the second string developed, though, Bottas began to run into tyre trouble and Perez had closed to 1.5secs behind him when Red Bull decided to pit the Mexican for fresher tyres.

He dropped 20 seconds back with 15 laps to go and was 1.3secs behind Bottas at the start of the last lap but was not close enough to challenge before the flag.

Strong race from Ferrari

McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had qualified an excellent third, held off Perez and Bottas for a few laps before bowing to the inevitable and then had a lonely race to fifth place.

Behind him, the stand-out team were Ferrari.

Carlos Sainz, who had qualified 11th, ran long on medium tyres to gain ground and emerge from the pit stop period right behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, which he quickly passed to cement sixth place.

Leclerc made a mistake in damaging his front wing as he moved across on Pierre Gasly’s Alpa Tauri in the hectic lap-one battle, giving the Frenchman a puncture that ripped off his left-rear wheel, and had to pit at the end of the first lap for a new front wing.

Ferrari changed his soft tyres for hard and Leclerc set about recovering lost ground. He ran long on the tyres, stopping on lap 37, and returned to the track in 14th place.

But he soon picked off the Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen – again clipping the Finn’s wing, though without damage this time, as he went past – and Antonio Giovinazzi, then Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin, Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Stroll to take seventh at the flag.

Stroll, Alonso and Tsunoda completed the top 10.

George Russell looked on course for his first points for the Williams team as he ran strongly in eighth place in the first stint of the race.

But he was suffering with an engine problem, lost a lot of ground as his hydraulic system was topped up at his first pit stop and eventually had to retire.

“This one hurt,” said Russell. “Every single member of the team should hold their head high today. We were up there on merit. Racing can be brutal but we keep fighting.”

Driver of the day

What happens next?

Another race at the Red Bull Ring in seven days, the Austrian Grand Prix this time, and Mercedes will be spending the next few days desperately searching for ways to close the gap on an increasingly impressive looking Red Bull.