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Verstappen ends Mercedes run as stewards probe
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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix for the second year in a row yesterday, subject to a stewards’ investigation, while champion Mercedes lost for the first time this season.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, starting on pole, finished second after defending hard against Verstappen with the two youngsters banging wheels as the Dutchman forced his way past three laps from the end.
Both at 21, the pair were the youngest top two finishers in Formula One history.
Verstappen took the checkered flag, at a scenic circuit owned by Red Bull in Spielberg, and with thousands of orange-shirted Dutch fans cheering him on, but still faces an anxious wait for confirmation.
Valtteri Bottas finished third for Mercedes with championship-leading teammate Lewis Hamilton, winner of the previous four races, fifth and behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Five-time world champion Hamilton of Britain remains well in front in the standings, 31 clear of Finland’s Bottas after nine of 21 races.
The victory was the first for a Honda-powered car since Briton Jenson Button won in Hungary in 2006 for the Japanese manufacturer’s own team, and a welcome antidote to last weekend’s dull French Grand Prix.
It also ended Mercedes’s run of 10 wins in a row, and eight this season.
“For Honda to win again here is incredible,” said Verstappen.
“It’s hard racing, otherwise we have to stay at home. If those things are not allowed in racing, then what’s the point of being in F1,” he added when asked about the summons to the stewards for the overtake on Leclerc.
The Monegasque, forced wide, said that he would let the stewards decide.
“For me it was clear I was on the outside, he left a car width, we touched and I went wide and it’s a shame,” he said after losing out on his first win for the second time this season.
British rookie Lando Norris was an excellent sixth for McLaren ahead of Pierre Gasly in the second Red Bull, Carlos Sainz, who finished eighth in the second McLaren after starting from the back of the grid, Kimi Raikkonen and his Alfa Romeo teammate Antionio Giovinazzi.
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