Verstappen wins in Austria, Vettel in lead
MAX Verstappen made the most of a rare Mercedes double retirement on Sunday by claiming his first win this year, and Red Bull’s first at “home”, in an incident-packed Austr i a n Grand Prix.
The Dutch tyro grabbed victory after both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas pulled up with power and gearbox failures respectively as their team’s run of four straight Austrian wins came to an abrupt end at the Red Bull Ring where the track temperature was 48 Celsius degrees (118 Fahrenheit).
“It’s amazing to win in a Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring,” said Verstappen, who was supported by an “Orange army” of more than 20,000 fans.
“Very hard to manage the tyres, lot of blistering, but we managed to hang on,” he said. “It was amazing to win here with so many Dutch fans.”
The double-retirement was a first for McLaren since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, which Verstappen won on his Red Bull debut after Hamilton collided with teammate Nico Rosberg on the opening lap.
Hamilton was unhappy before his late retirement complaining to his team that “we’ve just thrown away a win,” by bungling the timing of a tyre change.
It was also Verstappen’s fourth career victory as he came home 1.504 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel, who regained the lead in the drivers championship ahead of Hamilton by a single point.
Romain Grosjean was fourth ahead of his Ferrari-powered Haas teammate Kevin Magnus- sen, Esteban Ocon and his Force India teammate Sergio Perez.
Two-time champion Fernando Alonso came home eighth for McLaren ahead of Monaco’s rising star Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari-powered Sauber teammate Marcus Ericsson.
Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Australian Daniel Ricciardo was also forced to retire on his 29th birthday.
Vettel leads the title race with 146 points ahead of Hamilton on 145, Raikkonen on 101 and Ricciardo on 96.