With the third Formula 1 victory in two weeks, Max Verstappen brought the Orange Party in Spielberg to boil over. In front of tens of thousands of Dutch people in the stands, the Red Bull driver outpaced the competition for permanent world champion Lewis Hamilton for miles in the one-sided Austria race on Sunday and is fully on course for the title with the world championship lead that has grown to 32 points. Just like a week before in the same place, the 23-year-old drove an effortless start-to-finish victory. Hamilton was only fourth behind team mate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren young star Lando Norris with a lame Mercedes.
For Verstappen it was already the fifth victory in the ninth round of the season. Title rival Hamilton, who had just signed a new two-year contract with the Silver Arrows, now has to put his hopes in a turn at the home game at Silverstone in two weeks. Sebastian Vettel experienced another arduous race with a bitter end one day after his 34th birthday. Starting in eleventh, the veteran in the Aston Martin was stuck deep in midfield and retired in 13th after a crash with Kimi Raikkonen on the last lap. As so often, newcomer Mick Schumacher left his Haas colleague Nikita Masepin behind as 18th.
Orange Bengalo smoke lay over the whole weekend in the tranquil Murtal.
For the first time since the end of 2019, large crowds were again admitted to the stands.
Crowds of Dutch turned the Red Bull Ring into a Verstappen arena.
The organizers counted 132,000 spectators over the three Grand Prix days in Styria.
And the fan community of the World Cup leader had a lot of reason to celebrate.
Verstappen drove his extremely strong company car to pole position for the third time in a row and maintained first place even after the start of the race.
McLaren driver Norris, who was able to start somewhat surprisingly from second place, initially kept Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez and the Mercedes duo behind.
Shortly afterwards, Alpine driver Esteban Ocon had to park his car due to a collision.
The safety car moved out briefly.
After the restart, Verstappen quickly pulled away.
Norris fought a tough duel with Perez before the Mexican got into the gravel and fell back.
The judges later sentenced the British to a controversial five-second penalty.
From this skirmish, in turn, Vettel benefited.
The Hessian had been downgraded three places to eleventh at the start because he unintentionally hindered Fernando Alonso in qualifying.
In the first few laps, the four-time world champion regained positions, also because Perez had to line up behind him for the time being.
On the 19th lap, Vettel turned off to change tires, and was the last to come back on the track and start his hunt again.
In the front, Verstappen dominated almost at will, while Norris and Hamilton dueled behind.
"More power", Hamilton asked his engineers at the pits by radio to crank the engine even more.
After 21 laps, the series champion finally made it past Norris, when Verstappen was already ten seconds behind.
Now the time of the strategists and the pit stops began.
Verstappen's pursuers first came for fresh rubber rollers, then the front runner could also roll to the garage in a relaxed manner.
Even after that, the Dutchman's lead kept growing.
The reason for this was also damage to Hamilton's car.
Teammate Bottas was allowed to overtake the Briton on lap 52 after a radio message, Norris soon passed by.
For the defending champion it was only about damage limitation with fresh tires.
On the other hand, thanks to its upholstery, Verstappen could even afford to pit again and secure the fastest race lap with new tires. His fourth win at the team's home game at the Red Bull Ring was a demonstration of his current superiority. For Mercedes and Hamilton, the day was humiliated at the end.