2021 Austrian Grand Prix News
Formula One returned to the Red Bull-Ring just seven days after its last visit, leaving with a familiar result and a very happy set of Dutch fans. It wasn’t all smiles for everyone though, with numerous time penalties being handed out during the race – including two drivers who received two each.
Max Verstappen dominated like he never had before, taking his first ever ‘grand slam’ – pole, win, fastest lap and led every lap. This was a Red Bull driver’s first ‘grand slam’ since Korea 2013 and only the fifth time the team has taken one – the previous four all came from Sebastian Vettel.
Verstappen scored his 50th career podium, making him the youngest driver in history to reach this milestone – the previous record holder was Vettel after the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix. Verstappen now leads Lewis Hamilton by 32 points, with momentum very much on his side in the aftermath of his third win-in-a-row.
In the other Red Bull it was a mixed bag of fortunes. Sergio Perez started from third, but two five-second time penalties – both for causing a collision - in the race left him down in a distant sixth place. Perez remains in third in the championship – as a result Red Bull only extends its own championship lead over Mercedes by four points to 44.
It was a damage limitation weekend for Mercedes, which just didn’t have the pace in answer to Verstappen. Hamilton struggled with damage in the race and finished where he started, fourth. It now means Hamilton has won exactly one-third of the races so far in 2021, finished second in one-third and finished off the podium in the other one-third. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas secured his best result of 2021 so far with second, after jumping the McLaren of Lando Norris in the pits after Norris had to serve a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Perez.
Third place means Norris has now had three podiums in 2021 – each one of them being a third placed finish. Indeed, Norris only other podium of his career was also a third place in Austria last year – Norris has scored 24% of all his career points at the Red Bull-Ring. This was Norris 14th consecutive points finish and preserves his record of being the only driver to score points in every 2021 round so far. The result means the Brit has now broken the 100 point barrier in the championship, keeping him ahead of Bottas and only three points behind Perez.
A strong sixth place from Daniel Ricciardo helped McLaren edge away from Ferrari in the constructor’s championship – the gap between the two long-standing rivals now 19 points. McLaren have now scored points for 16 consecutive races. Ferrari scored double points for the first time since Baku with fifth for Sainz and eighth for Leclerc. The Italian team has still only scored one podium in the previous 12 races.
The battle for fifth place in the constructor’s championship remains close and unpredictable, with Alpha Tauri now on 48 points compared to Aston Martin’s 44. Pierre Gasly added to Alpha Tauri’s total with a ninth place finish and two points – extending the team’s consecutive points run to an impressive 12 races. It could easily have been a double points finish, but for Yuki Tsunoda getting two separate five-second time penalties for crossing the white line at the entry to the pits .Aston Martin failed to score any points this weekend, the first time it has done so since Spain back in May.
The final point went to Alpine and Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had lost all hope of scoring points after being held up by Vettel in qualifying. It was his sixth points finish of the year and Alpine’s eighth-in-a-row.
Alonso’s joy was George Russell’s heartbreak. The British driver scored his best ever qualifying result for Williams with ninth on Saturday – which became eighth on Sunday morning after a three-place penalty was applied to Vettel. In the end he only missed out on his first points for Williams by 5.632s. Williams haven’t scored points since the 2019 German Grand Prix (36 races ago), by far its longest drought in its history.
