Verstappen rules out title talk after dominant Austria win

Max Verstappen has ruled out Formula 1 title talk despite opening up an 80 point advantage over Sergio Perez after victory in the Austrian Grand Prix.

While it was not a lights-to-flag win, Verstappen still recorded the maximum 26 points following a late pitstop for fastest lap.

To go with the eight points for winning the sprint, it was a haul of 34 for the two-time champion as teammate Sergio Perez was third.

It means that after nine races, Verstappen - who has now won the last five races - looks strong favourite for a third title, but the Dutchman, who now has more wins than Ayrton Senna, ruled out such talk.

Verstappen's title talk

"I don't like to think about that yet," he explained.

"I'm just enjoying the moment driving with this car, working with the team.

"The whole weekend, we have done a really good job, the sprint weekend is always very, very hectic and a lot of things can go wrong and luckily, a lot of things went right for us this weekend.

"We opted not to box during the the Virtual Safety Car and just follow our normal strategy - it worked out really well because the tyre life was not that high around here.

"I could see already the few laps before the Virtual Safety Car came out, that we were pulling out quite a gap - so I knew that I would get [back past Charles Leclerc] eventually."