F1 Austrian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen Takes 7th Season Win with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc second in Austria

Max Verstappen had yet another dominant performance to give Red Bull the Austrian Grand Prix victory. After overtaking Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the two time world Champion  had to grind for his seventh win in nine races this season. But after getting the better of both Ferrari drivers, Verstappen sped away, much to the joy of the Dutch fans who had travelled to see him compete. Five seconds after Verstappen's Thrilling wrap up, Leclerc crossed the line, and Sergio Perez, starting from the back of the grid in 15th, fought back to take third. After a close race, the Mexican finally overtook Sainz with 10 laps to go. Sainz finished fourth but later was demoted to sixth due to penalties. Both the Spaniard and Lewis Hamilton were among the six drivers penalised by race director Niels Wittich. While Hamilton finished a disappointing seventh, Lando Norris earned the greatest performance of a rough season for the struggling McLaren squad by finishing fifth and later promoted to forth due to Sainz being penalised. 

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F1 Austrian Grand Prix: Race Result 

When the British Grand Prix takes place next weekend, Verstappen will have a lead over Perez in the standings of 81 points, which is more than three wins. While leading the first lap, Verstappen had to fight off a spirited challenge from Leclerc. However, as the Ferrari drivers pitted for tyres during the Virtual Safety Car period, Verstappen dropped to third. As a result, Verstappen's streak of leading the race for 249 straight laps came to an end. 

It took the Dutchman just 11 laps to regain the lead. Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin finished in fifth, behind Norris. In the end, George Russell finished in eighth place, a significant improvement from his initial position of eleventh.

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F1 Austrian Grand Prix: In Race Penalties

In a dramatic race, in which Lewis Hamilton and many other drivers received penalties for repeatedly breaching track boundaries, Max Verstappen easily glided to victory. While several drivers made mistakes within the 71-lap race's white lines, none were more frustrated as Hamilton after his early penalty. The British driver finally finished seventh because Mercedes was so much slower than rivals like Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Several of the race weekend's frontrunners have voiced their displeasure with the track limitations after several lap times were deleted during Saturday's qualification and Sprint races.

Five-second time penalties have been handed out to many drivers, including Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari, and Esteban Ocon of Alpine. 

In the second part of the Grand Prix, Alex Albon of Williams, Pierre Gasly of Alpine, and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin are all on black and white flags, signifying they will be punished if they breach track limits again. Separately, following a scuffle with Haas' Kevin Magnussen, Nyck de Vries was handed a five-second penalty for pushing another vehicle off the course.

Haas also felt the wrath of Race Control for exceeding track restrictions, with Kevin Magnussen, their last driver left in the race, receiving a five-second penalty. Haas's social media team chose to poke fun at a problem that's making Twitter less enjoyable for many people.