Max Verstappen wins the Austrian GP, whilst Lewis Hamilton is P4

Max Verstappen was imperious once more around the Red Bull Ring as he won his fifth race of the season, and his 50th career podium in Formula 1 with a dominant display. He comfortably won by over 17 seconds despite pitting twice, in comparison to the one-stop strategy opted for by the two others on the podium, Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris. Norris secured his third podium of the season, whilst it was Verstappen's first Grand Slam, of pole position, leading every lap, win the race and have the fastest lap, in F1.

Lewis Hamilton ended the race in fourth after suffering from tyre wear-out that saw him pit twice after being overtaken by both Bottas and Norris fairly late on. Behind him, Carlos Sainz finished fifth thanks to Sergio Perez's 10 second time penalty, with the Mexican, Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly and then Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10.

George Russell narrowly missed out on points for Williams after being overtaken by Alonso in the last couple of laps. 

Esteban Ocon was the only classified retiree, but Sebastian Vettel also failed to finish the race after a last lap collision.

As it happened

After a clean getaway into turn one, the run-up to turn three, where Charles Leclerc hit Pierre Gasly last week, saw no incidents, but at turn three, Esteban Ocon boxed in by Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi, and his right front tyre was hit by Giovinazzi. This caused his wheel to loosen, brought out the safety car on the opening lap, and ended his race before it had really started.

His car was then cleared away, and the safety car ended after lap three. Verstappen led them away and Lando Norrsi was immediatley under pressure from Sergio Perez into turn one and turn three, with the Brit fighting for all his worth. The Mexican then went all the way around the outside at turn four, and Norris refused to let him past, which led to Perez going into the gravel and falling down to 10th. This promoted both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas up a place, and they started hunting down the McLaren.

Norris' teammate Daniel Ricciardo jumped up to ninth after Perez went into the gravel, whilst George Russell went the other way and found himself down in 12th after starting in P8.

After seven laps, it was confirmed that Giovinazzi would be handed a five second time penalty for overtaking while the safety car was deployed. The Italian had already pitted for the hard tyres after his first lap contact with Ocon

On lap 10, Verstappen had increased his lead over Norris in P2 to 3.8 seconds, whilst the McLaren was under immense pressure from Hamilton, furiously defending against the seven-time world champion.

On lap 12, Yuki Tsunoda pitted from his soft tyres onto the hard tyres, which saw him fall all the way to the back of the pack, and suggested a two-stop strategy was the way many midfield drivers could be opting for. His AlphaTauri teammate Gasly pitted from P5 one lap later, and after a 3.7 second stop, he fell to P18. 

Charles Leclerc then managed a superb switchback move on Sergio Perez around turn four on lap 14, and moved up into P7 once Lance Stroll pitted from the softs onto the hard tyres.

Meanwhile, Verstappen was setting fastest lap after fastest lap, and the gap to Norris increased to over 7.2 seconds by the end of lap 17.

Ricciardo finally got into his groove, with the Aussie getting past Sebastian Vettel around turn four, moving up to P5, which forced the German into the pits at the end of lap 18.

On lap 20, Hamilton finally managed to get past Norris, who was handed a fairly unfair five second time penalty for forcing Perez off the track earlier in the race, by diving inside before turn four, before he praised the McLaren man on team radio, saying "such a great driver, Lando" for the world to hear.

Just like Norris, Tsunoda was also handed a five second penalty, but the AlphaTauri driver's was for crossing the white line on the pit entry.

Lap 30 saw the drivers opting for a one-stop begin entering the pits, with Ricciardo getting rid of his mediums, before Norris and Bottas followed the next lap. Norris came out ahead of Leclerc, but behind Bottas because he had the serve the aforementioned time penalty, in P4. 

Once Hamilton also pitted for the hard tyres, it triggered Verstappen to box the next lap and once that occurred, the Dutchman was 12 seconds clear of his title rival.

The undercut was once more a powerful weapon, with Perez managing to jump the Ferrari of Leclerc by way of pitting earlier. This unleashed the Mexican to start chasing back the time he'd lost thanks to the incident with Norris.

After Perez complained about Norris pushing him off around turn four, he did the same thing, if not worse, to Leclerc on lap 41, after there was contact between the two, and he was handed a five second penalty, just like Norris.

However, the Mexican was still unable to get past Ricciardo, and was under threat from Leclerc. Once Gasly dived into the pits, the Monegasque once more went into the gravel thanks to Perez's defending, and he was furious on the team radio, but Perez was handed yet another five second time penalty.

Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz finally pitted for the first time on lap 49, and on a set of mediums, he was on fresh tyres in the latter stages, meaning he was able to climb back up the standings.

Then came a huge moment. Bottas was allowed to race Hamilton, and the Finn quickly overtook the Brit, who had been complaining about his tyres. Then, Norris pulled off a great move on the inside of turn five to move back ahead of Hamilton and into the podium places.

Norris' former teammate Sainz was then allowed to pass his current teammate Leclerc and set about catching Ricciardo in P6. Whilst that happened, the battle was the final point was hotting up, with Russell desperately defending 10th place from Fernando Alonso, hoping to finally pick up a point for Williams. However, on lap 68 of 71, Alonso finally got past him into turn four, leaving Russell unable to cling onto a point. 

Behind him, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel had a late tangle on the last lap, with the pair heading into the gravel, and dropping a few places.