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Verstappen Cruises To Victory In Austria As Hamilton Suffers Damage

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It was another weekend to savour for Max Verstappen, who led from start to finish in the Austrian Grand Prix, winning at the Red Bull Ring for the second weekend in a row. The Dutchman also took the point for the fastest lap, extending his lead over Lewis Hamilton in the F1 drivers’ standings to 32 points.

Hamilton started fourth, but moved up to second after Sergio Perez skidded off into the gravel on the first lap when racing Lando Norris, for which the McLaren driver received a five-second penalty. That penalty saw Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas move up to second and third, but they were already well behind Verstappen.

With Hamilton suffering some minor damage to his car, his lap times fell off in the second half of the race and Mercedes eventually instructed the reigning world champion to let Bottas through. Norris soon overtook Hamilton too, to make it a podium with three different teams and to leave his countryman in fourth place.

“Today was incredible to be honest, the car was on rails!” Verstappen said afterwards.

“It was really enjoyable to drive. You go into the weekend as the favourite, but it’s never easy to do.”

Norris was happy too, but also frustrated about his time penalty that cost him second place.

“It was a good race and it was exciting, but I’m disappointed because we should’ve been second as I thought what happened on the first lap was just racing,” he said.

Further down the grid, Williams came so close to their first point of the season as George Russell put together a solid drive. However, he was overtaken by the Alpine of Fernando Alonso with three laps to go, meaning Alonso finished 10th and took the final point.

There was also some drama in the final lap as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen collided, although neither former world champion was in the points at that stage.

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