Verstappen wins in Austria and reaches historic mark within F1

Historic

He is now the 5th most successful driver in the sport, behind only Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Prost.

Max Verstappen won this Sunday (2) his 7th victory in the Formula 1 season. The Dutchman even lost the lead to Leclerc for a few laps, but dominated the Austrian GP with extreme ease to confirm his 42nd victory in his career, overtaking three-time champion Ayrton Senna (41).

He is now the fifth most successful driver in the sport, behind only Lewis Hamilton (103), Michael Schumacher (91), Sebastian Vettel (53) and Alain Prost (51).

This was Verstappen’s fourth win at the Austrian GP. He also won in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Champion last season, Charles Leclerc, from Ferrari, finished second, with Sérgio Pérez, from Red Bull, in third place.

“It was a very good day, I really enjoyed it. I had a concern with the virtual safety car, but we managed to win here. I knew that everything was going to happen in the ideal way. It was a great weekend,” said Verstappen.

Highlight for Lando Norris, who managed to take McLaren to fifth place, one position below Carlos Sainz. Fernando Alonso, from Aston Martin, had a discreet performance and was sixth, followed by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, from Mercedes.

Attraction of the sprint race, Nico Hulkenberg was the only driver who did not complete the race. With a problem with his Haas, he abandoned the GP, which had a show of punishments for exceeding the track limit, on the 14th lap.

With the result, Verstappen leads the championship with 229 points, against 148 for teammate Sergio Pérez. The next GP will be held in Great Britain, on July 9th.

The race

Packed with the rise of Ferrari, Leclerc starred in a good dispute with Verstappen on the first lap, but saw the Dutchman close the doors and hold the lead. The fight was short-lived, as the safety car was called out because of an incident involving Yuki Tsunoda.

The efficiency in the attack on Verstappen, made Leclerc lower the pace, which generated complaints from Sainz, who insistently asked for Ferrari’s approval to overtake his teammate.

But the team did not interfere and made the mistake of calling the Ferrari cars to the pits only on the second lap of a virtual safety car, triggered by the withdrawal of Nico Hulkenberg. Sainz even dropped to sixth place and had to step on the accelerator to get back to the top positions.

Only Red Bull continued on the track and did not stop. The tactic took Sérgio Pérez to third place, but the Mexican, who had been making a recovery race, fell back on the grid after his first stop to change tires, as did Verstappen, who lost two positions to Leclerc and Sainz .

The Dutchman, however, is on a higher step compared to his opponents and overtook Sainz with extreme ease. Retaking the lead was a matter of time and it happened on the 35th lap. From then on, Verstappen started to have a solitary race, as has been happening in most GPs of the season.

The fight was for the other two positions on the podium. Charles Leclerc kept the pace and confidently confirmed second place. Sérgio Perez, who ended his run of bad luck, overtook Sainz at the end to finish third.

Before the end, Verstappen went to the pits and put on a soft tyre. On the last lap, he set the fastest lap – 1m07s012-, and secured another point in the drivers’ standings.

*With information from Metrópoles

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