Verstappen wins action-packed Austrian GP

The Austrian Grand Prix proved itself worthy of an extended spot on the F1 calendar in what is sure to become a highlight of the 2023 season, with Max Verstappen ending victorious for the 5th time in a row at his team’s home circuit. 

Verstappen had a solid start, avoiding the immediate threat posed by Charles Leclerc into Turn 1, and indeed throughout the entirety of the first lap. 

As for the Ferrari directly behind him, Sainz quickly felt, and fended off, the risk of Lewis Hamilton who managed to overtake Lando Norris off the line. 

Yuki Tsunoda had an eventful opening lap, striking Esteban Ocon’s Alpine on exit of  the first corner after steaming down the inside of his competitors on the main straight.

The following corner was messy for the Alpha Tauri driver, and after running in too hot, a safety car was called to clear debris and rescue his temporarily stricken car.

Tsunoda was, however, able to get back on track and return to the pits for a new front wing.

At the restart, Verstappen took advantage of his Red Bull’s dominant straight-line speed, launching earlier to distance himself from the Ferrari behind. 

Sergio Perez, forced to start from P15 after a shocking qualifying effort on Friday, began making his way through the field to achieve his hopes of a podium finish, passing Esteban Ocon for P12 on Lap 6.

Further up order, Ocon’s teammate was involved in a battle of his own, with Pierre Gasly creeping up on Lance Stroll from the SC restart.

Before Gasly could make a move stick, Stroll had capitalised on the slower Haas ahead, putting a buffer between himself and the Alpine for the time being.

With Hulkenberg his new target, Gasly moved to cruise past in a move expected by the realistic Haas pit wall, with Hulkenberg pitting straight after.

Carlos Sainz questioned his engineers about team orders coming into play to increase Ferrari’s chances of catching the race leader, with the Spaniard showing more pace than Leclerc in the opening stint of the race.

Zhou Guanyu was the first to pit, excluding the few other drivers who were either forced to make repairs during the Safety Car or capitalising on the lesser time lost.

The Battle between Perez and George Russell reached its peak on Lap 10, with the two rivals making slight wheel-to-wheel contact as the Red Bull sped down the inside at Turn 3.

Perez’s next target was Alex Albon, a move the Mexican made relatively easy, again at the third turn. 

With cameras cutting to Hulkenberg’s stationary and smoking Haas parked on the side of the track, a Virtual safety car was called. 

Hamilton and both McLarens were just some of the drivers who took advantage of the cheap stop, committing to the expected strategy of a two-stop Grand Prix. 

Ferrari were another team to call on the tactic of double-stacking, however, with two slow stops at around 5 seconds each, Sainz found himself rejoining the race in P6 behind Norris. 

After being shown the black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits, Hamilton was handed a 5-second time penalty that affected his mindset more than it did his race, with his radio exchanges quickly becoming agitated.

He wasn’t alone in being penalised, with Tsunoda and Ocon taking the same degree of penalty for different incidents, and countless ‘exceeding track limits’ calls made throughout the race.

Another exciting battle unfolded in the midfield between a Williams, Haas, Alfa Romeo and McLaren, but after a chain reaction of late braking, Oscar Piastri was forced to pit due to front wing damage from contact with Kevin Magnussen. 

At lap 25, race leader Verstappen pitted for hard tyres, rejoining behind both Ferraris. 

Despite Sainz’s valiant display of hard defence, the Dutchman made his way through into Turn 4 with his sights set on regaining the lead from Leclerc. 

After many complaints from Hamilton directed at Perez’s ability to remain within the limits of the Red Bull Ring, the Mexican was eventually hit to the same degree as Hamilton.

Sainz, after starting off as a true second-place contender, was also hit with a 5-second penalty after running beyond the white line at Turn 9.

On lap 34, Verstappen caught Leclerc and began chasing the Ferrari down to a gap below 4-tenths. 

Nyck de Vries, having started from the pit lane alongside Magnussen, forced the Haas driver into the gravel trap, and unsurprisingly added himself to the growing list of drivers with 5-second penalties.

On Lap 40, Verstappen had already managed to pull a 6-second gap on Leclerc who was leading his teammate by 5 seconds.

At lap 41, the second round of pit stops began, kickstarted by Mercedes and Alpine who had drivers in need of serving their penalties.

Sainz was the next driver to serve his penalty, immediately released into a battle with Norris in which he successfully passed him after making a bold move around the outside. 

The McLaren driver, however, didn’t lose touch with his former teammate in third, taking advantage of the DRS to remain within a second of Sainz.

The duo kept their heads down while Perez, having pitted and rejoined behind Norris, quickly made up time to engage in the battle for P3 on Lap 56.

Norris made a mistake into Turn 5 cost him fourth position, with Perez shifting to attack mode on Sainz.

In what was one of the most intense battles of the race, Perez only just managed to complete a clean overtake on Sainz.

The Mexican, after many failed attempts at taking the final podium position, made the move stick by resorting to a tactic earlier used by his teammate who relied on overtaking post-DRS detection zone to have a lasting advantage. 

Aston Martin lacked their near-dominate pace this weekend, with Lance Stroll only able to contend for the final points position against Albon on Lap 64.

The Canadian’s teammate ran a similar race, fighting cars who ran far behind him last time out in Canada to an unsuccessful end at gaining his team another podium finish. 

Down the order, the battle for P16 sparked up on Lap 67.

Bottas managed to make a move on Magnussen to hold 16th, de Vries trailing the Fin through to take P17 with Piastri concluding the train of drama in 19th.

On Lap 69, Verstappen raised the usual ‘fastest lap attempt’ conversation with his engineers. 

With a 24-second gap to Leclerc in second, Red Bull took the risk to pit to clinch the final point for fastest lap and succeeded as Verstappen punched in a time of 1:07.012 with the chequered flag waving.

Ferrari ended the Austrian Grand Prix with their best result of the season and an almost 2-3 finish. 

Leclerc crossed the line in a very welcomed second place, with Perez rounding out the final podium place despite being handed a black-and-white flag on the second last lap for exceeding track limits.

Lando Norris ended his race in P5, behind Sainz but ahead of Fernando Alonso and the two Mercedes drivers.

Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll rounded out the points finishing positions in P9 and P10, respectively.

Despite all the drama and close calls, Nico Hulkenberg was the only driver to retire from the race, the cause being put down to a power unit issue. 

After what was a hectic weekend on and off track, the grid will be heading straight to Silverstone next week for the British Grand Prix, running across July 7-9.

Austrian Grand Prix Results:

Download the full F1 Austrian Grand Prix event guide HERE with track stats and facts and a full event schedule, plus our extensive driver profiles.

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