Verstappen beats Hamilton to take crushing win in Austria

Max Verstappen has taken victory at the Styrian Grand Prix, winning a second consecutive race for Red Bull Racing. The Dutch driver led the race from pole from start to finish, seeing off the challenge of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen held his lead into Turn 1 ahead of Hamilton and set about building a gap over his championship rival. Quickly building a gap of three seconds, Hamilton seemed unable to respond and fell further away to 4.5 seconds by the time the pit stops rolled around.

The pit stops, which saw Verstappen and Hamilton both swap their used mediums for fresh hards, didn't result in any change of the gap, and the Dutch driver spent the rest of the race slowly easing away from Hamilton to claim a crushing win and to make it four races in a row that Mercedes haven't won.

Hamilton pitted at the end of Lap 69 to take on a fresh set of softs, taking the extra point for fastest lap on the final lap as a result.

With Hamilton finishing a distant second, the leading pair finished miles clear of their respective teammates. Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who led Bottas on track in the first stint, had a slow pit stop that resulted in him coming out behind the Finn. Closing back up behind Bottas, Perez pitted for a second time 15 laps from the end and used the two stop strategy to come back at the Finn to set up a thrilling showdown to the chequered flag.

However, Perez wasn't quite able to catch Bottas in time before the chequered flag and had to settle for fourth, with the Finn claiming the final podium spot.

McLaren's Lando Norris, who started from third place, had a great start to the race to run in third and hold off the attentions of Perez and Bottas but was overtaken early in the first stint. Having a quiet race from there, the British driver came home a lonely fifth and a lap down, as Verstappen lapped most of the field.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz finished in sixth place, with teammate Charles Leclerc finishing in seventh after having had to recover from the back of the field. The Monegasque was involved in a first lap collision with AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly that resulted in a left rear puncture and suspension damage that forced Gasly out of the race, while Leclerc pitted for repairs and was able to spend the rest of the race recovering.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll finished in eighth place, just beating Alpine's Fernando Alonso by less than a second, while AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda finished in 10th as the final points scorer.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in 11th for Alfa Romeo, just missing out on the points after being an early wild card due to being the only driver to start on the hard compound. Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel finished in 12th, with McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo finishing in 13th.

The Australian had run strongly in the points at the start of the race after a great start, but fell back down the order as he began struggling with an issue on the MCL35M.

Alpine's Esteban Ocon was 14th, with Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi in 15th after being spun around at Turn 3 on the opening lap.

Haas' Mick Schumacher was 16th, with Williams' Nicholas Latifi in 17th, and Haas' Nikita Mazepin in 18th as the final classified driver.

Williams' George Russell joined Pierre Gasly on the sidelines, with the British driver forced to retire due to a power unit issue that ruined any chance of points as Russell ran in seventh at the time of his pit stop.