- Max Verstappen dominated the Austrian Grand Prix to win in Spielberg
- Championship rival Lewis Hamilton could only finish fourth after suffering damage during the race
- Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas took second place with Britain’s Lando Norris was an impressive third
- Result means Verstappen now has a points lead greater than a race victory over Hamilton in the standings
Max Verstappen wins Austrian Grand Prix and extends his lead over Lewis Hamilton to thirty two points.
Verstappen cruised to victory in front of 132,000 spectators in Spielberg as he extended his lead over defending champion Hamilton.
The Mercedes driver finished a disappointing fourth and now trails the Red Bull man by 32 points with nine of the 23 rounds completed.
That is a concerning margin for Hamilton, who struggled all afternoon and finally had to pit a second time as he wrestled with his possibly damaged Mercedes.
As for Verstappen, he started on pole and led throughout. He also set the fastest lap. Valtteri Bottas finished second for Mercedes, a dot in the victor’s mirrors, with McLaren’s 21-year-old Lando Norris a brilliant third on the Bottas’s tail.
Now the Verstappen’s record over Hamilton reads: five wins to three and four poles to three. This was also the Dutchman’s third consecutive win and Red Bull’s fourth.
Momentum is with the Milton Keynes-based team heading into a full-capacity British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 18.
