Verstappen dominates Austrian GP as Norris snatches podium

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has won the Austrian Grand Prix in imperious form, with the Dutch driver leading from start to finish.

Holding his lead off the line, Verstappen was untouchable throughout the race. Such was his margin, Red Bull were able to pit Verstappen with ten laps to go in order to ensure that the Dutch driver was able to take the fastest lap point.

While it was calm control for Verstappen at the front, it was somewhat more chaotic behind him. Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas moved up from a fifth place grid slot to finish in second place, benefitting from problems for Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

McLaren's Lando Norris finished in third place, picking up the podium place as he overtook Hamilton midway through the race.

With Verstappen controlling the race off the line, the top five remained static on the first lap. However, an incident at the back saw Alpine's Esteban Ocon have his right front wheel damaged and the resulting Safety Car bunched the field back up again.

As the race resumed, Red Bull's Sergio Perez attempted to pass Lando Norris around the outside of Turn 4. However, a tight squeeze saw Perez skitter off into the gravel and drop down the order to tenth place. The resulting stewards investigation triggered a five second time penalty for Norris, which he served at his pit stop.

With Hamilton up to third after passing Bottas, the Mercedes driver hunted down Norris to overtake him at Turn 4. After the stops, Verstappen enjoyed a twenty second lead over Hamilton, Bottas and Norris, but Hamilton's pace on the hard tyre wasn't good.

With suspected damage, Hamilton was caught by Bottas and Norris. With Mercedes instructing their drivers to swap position, Bottas passed Hamilton before Norris also swooped past the Mercedes driver into Turn 6.

Hamilton pitted again just after Norris overtook him, taking on another set of hard tyres to get to the flag and was resigned to a fourth place finish as a result.

Perez recovered from his early troubles to finish in fifth place on track, but picked up two separate penalties during the race as a result of pushing Ferrari's Charles Leclerc off the track. The first incident saw Perez replicate the same incident as himself and Norris, this time with the Mexican being in the offending position. Leclerc tried around the outside of Turn 6 shortly after, again running out of room, with another penalty for Perez.

The resulting ten seconds of time penalties meant he finished behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard ran a one stop strategy, starting on the hard tyre, and overtook McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo on Lap 70 to put himself within the required ten seconds of Perez and take the position.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished in eighth place, furious as a result of the two failed overtake attempts on Perez, while AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly finished in ninth position.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso took the final points place, overtaking a helpless George Russell in the closing laps. With Russell consigned to 11th place, there was a strange accident on the final lap behind him as Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen collided with each other going through Turn 5. The incident will be investigated by the stewards.

That incident handed 12th place to AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda, despite the Japanese driver picking up two separate time penalties for crossing the white line at the pit entry. Aston Martin's Lance Stroll finished 13th, with Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi in 14th.

Williams' Nicholas Latifi was 15th, with the crashed Raikkonen and Vettel in 16th and 17th.

The Haas drivers of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin were the last classified finishers, with Ocon being the only retirement.