STYRIA, AUSTRIA (REUTERS) – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria from pole position on Sunday (June 27) to go 18 points clear of Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One championship battle.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton finished second at Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring, but took a bonus point for fastest lap, as his Mercedes team went four races in a row without a win for the first time since 2013.
Valtteri Bottas was third for Mercedes, followed by Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez.
It was Verstappen’s fourth win of the season and he said: “You never know how it is going to end up but straight away I felt a good balance in the car.
“It was good to manage the tyres from the start. They pitted one lap earlier than us, we reacted to that and we just kept on going, trying to hit our lap times – that worked really well today.
“That’s really positive but we have to show it again next week. We’ll definitely have a look as to what we can do better. I’m looking forward to next week.
“It’s looking really good [for Red Bull]. We just have to keep pushing really hard and I’m confident we can do a really good job again.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner was thrilled at the result and told his driver on the team radio after he collected the chequered flag: “Unbelievable Max. Keep turning that screw!”
Hamilton cut a deflated figure afterwards. He said: “It was a bit of a lonely race really. I was trying to keep up with those guys but, the speed they have – they’ve obviously made some big improvements. Impossible to keep up.
“Their long runs seem to be a bit better, they continue to keep pulling out those laps – and on the straights we lose a lot. Nonetheless, we got good points as a team today and we’ve just got to keep pushing.
“They’re faster, they’re just faster. There’s not a lot I can do in that respect. I’ve just got to keep trying to do the best I can do each weekend.
“We need to find some performance, we need an upgrade of some sort, we need to push. I don’t know whether it’s just the rear wing or whether it’s the upgrade in the engine, but we’ve got to find some performance from somewhere.”