Team by team analysis of the Austrian Grand Prix

[July 05, 2021] 

(Reuters) - Team by team analysis of Sunday's Austrian Formula One Grand Prix at Spielberg's Red Bull Ring, round nine of the Formula One championship (listed in championship order):

RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez 6)

Verstappen's third win in a row, fifth of the season and 15th of his career. It was also his 50th podium in F1. He won from pole, led every lap and took a bonus point for fastest lap. Verstappen is now 32 points clear of Hamilton. Red Bull have won five races in a row. Perez started third in his 200th race but paid for an early tangle with Lando Norris that left him fighting back from 10th. The Mexican collected two five-second penalties for clashing with Ferrari's Leclerc.

MERCEDES (Valtteri Bottas 2, Lewis Hamilton 4)

Hamilton qualified fourth, passed Norris for second but then suffered damage on the kerbs at turn 10 and had to nurse the car home for the last 30 laps. Bottas started fifth, passed Norris in the pitstops when the McLaren driver took a five-second penalty and was then given the go-ahead to pass a struggling Hamilton on lap 53, with Norris following. Second place was the Finn's best result of the season.
 

MCLAREN (Lando Norris 3, Daniel Ricciardo 7)

Norris took his fourth career podium and third of the season. He has now finished eight of nine races in the top five and is fourth overall, three points behind Perez. Ricciardo started 13th and battled with the two Ferraris. McLaren pulled 19 points clear of Ferrari.

FERRARI (Carlos Sainz 5, Charles Leclerc 8)

Sainz started 10th and Leclerc 12th. Leclerc twice came off worst against Perez. Sainz did 48 laps on a set of hard tyres before switching to mediums. Leclerc let Sainz pass late on to give him the best chance of gaining places.

ALPHATAURI (Pierre Gasly 9, Yuki Tsunoda 12)

Gasly did two stops. Tsunoda was twice penalised for crossing the white line at the pit lane entry. The pair had started sixth and seventh.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, and McLaren's Lando Norris celebrate first and third place on the podium with Honda F1's Technical Director Toyoharu Tanabe REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

ASTON MARTIN (Lance Stroll 13, Sebastian Vettel 17)

Stroll was penalised for speeding in the pit lane and slowed when debris lodged in a brake duct. Vettel was hit by Raikkonen in the closing laps, ending their races.

ALPINE (Fernando Alonso 10, Esteban Ocon retired)

Alonso took 10th place three laps from the end, passing George Russell's Williams. He had started 14th after being impeded in qualifying by Vettel. Ocon retired at the start, triggering the safety car deployment, after contact with Giovinazzi broke his car's front right suspension.

ALFA ROMEO (Antonio Giovinazzi 14, Kimi Raikkonen 15)

Raikkonen was handed two penalty points for the collision with Vettel. Giovinazzi tangled with Ocon at the start.

WILLIAMS (George Russell 11, Nicholas Latifi 16)

Russell came agonisingly close to Williams' first point in two years after starting eighth on the grid. Latifi was handed three penalty points for not respecting waved double yellow warning flags.

HAAS (Mick Schumacher 18, Nikita Mazepin 19)

Mazepin was also given three penalty points for not respecting warning flags.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)

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