Max Verstappen can already look down on Ayrton Senna. The two-time Dutch champion scored another victory at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the seventh of the course and the 42nd of his career, with which he surpasses the legendary three-time Brazilian champion.
The Red Bull man did not give Charles Leclerc an option and also scored the extra point of the best lap, to distance himself by 81 points from Checo Pérez and 100 from Fernando Alonso, who dropped benefits and finished sixth.
At the start, Verstappen withstood Leclerc’s initial harassment well, while Sainz matched up with his partner. The Dutchman took off quickly, with the two Ferraris behind, and Hamilton fourth after passing Norris. Alonso gained a position, 6th, by acquiring the position of his teammate Stroll (8th), and had Norris’s McLaren ahead.
The race was neutralized in the first lap with a safety-car due to a touch of Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri with an Alpine. Which meant that the train of cars was compressed again and Verstappen had the threat of Leclerc, which did not scare him.
Verstappen soon built a safety cushion of 3 seconds (in v.10/71) over Leclerc, who was squeezed by his teammate Sainz to less than half a second. “Do not attack”, they contained the man from Madrid, who had Hamilton behind 3 seconds. In turn, the Englishman from Mercedes – with three warnings for rolling outside the track limits at turn 10 – had Norris on top of him. Alonso was riding sixth, with Stroll behind squire.
The strategies changed with the virtual safety-car on lap 15. Hamilton, Norris, Gasly, Albon, Russell, Ocon took advantage of it to have a free stop. The first three did not stop, nor did Alonso, who was fourth provisionally, nor Stroll. The two Ferraris stopped a lap later, both at the same time, with 4.5 seconds to stop the man from Madrid; and then Alonso.
The move turned out fatally for Carlos, who accumulated Leclerc’s bad save (4.4) and his own, and Norris and Hamilton passed him, dropping him to provisional 6th place. “Guys, come on, we should have stayed out,” complained the man from Madrid.
Verstappen, who had not stopped, accumulated 17 seconds over Leclerc. Pérez, who did not stop either, was 3rd (he had started 15th), with Hamilton behind. Alonso was 7th with his new medium tires.
Sainz recovered by beating the two Englishmen, Norris and Hamilton, to place fourth on lap 20/71. A great overtaking on the Mercedes. And then he ate Pérez’s box, he was third, 4.9 seconds behind Leclerc. Carlos was very strong, enraged by the damage of the stop.
Red Bull stopped Verstappen on lap 25 and handed over the lead to Leclerc, with Sainz second, 6.5s behind his teammate. The man from Madrid could act as a stopper for the Dutchman, 3 tenths behind the Spaniard. He slowed it down for a couple of corners, but the Red Bull was far superior and devoured it in no time (v. 27). He had to cut 6 seconds to Leclerc, in the virtual lead.
The Monegasque adventure did not last long. Verstappen cut the 6 seconds of distance in just 8 laps; he gobbled up the Ferrari with the DRS like a boa gobbles up a mouse. The Dutchman took the lead of the race with authority. He restored order, with the two Ferraris behind. It was right in the middle of the race, v. 35/71.
Sainz’s second stop also hurt him, since he had to hand out a 5-second penalty for exceeding the track limits. The man from Madrid stopped 9.4s and gave up third position; Pérez and Norris slipped through, although the McLaren soon overtook him.
Leclerc stopped two laps later (v. 48) and handed provisional second place to Pérez. And Verstappen made his second stop (v. 50), without any risk, with more than 20 seconds of margin over his neighbor, for which he returned to the track first, with 7 seconds over the Mexican, who stopped one lap later, from so that the two Ferraris returned to their podium positions, Leclerc 13.7s behind the leader and Sainz 21s.
From behind, Norris troubled Sainz’s third place, as he was only half a second behind the Ferrari. Although the real danger was Checo Pérez, who had been thrown, he surpassed Norris and was 7 tenths behind the man from Madrid.
The fight for third place, with 11 laps to go, was brutal, one of the most beautiful of the year. After several attempts and great opposition from Ferrari, closing all the gaps for three laps, the Mexican imposed the strength of his Red Bull. He cost him God and help to overcome the Spanish (v. 62/71).
With two laps to go, Verstappen stopped to put on the soft rubber and also score the best lap of the race. He didn’t mind putting the win at risk with a bad save or some problem. He wants it all. Insatiable the Dutchman, he had 5 seconds left over Leclerc to score the fifth consecutive victory, the seventh in nine races. And surpass Ayrton Senna in the Olympus of the winners in history: 42 victories already.
