Valtteri Bottas wins Austrian GP, Sebastian Vettel second

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas made a great start from pole position to win the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished just behind in second to extend his championship lead over main rival Lewis Hamilton to 20 points.

Bottas did just enough to hold off Vettel’s late charge, with the German driver crossing the line 0.6 seconds behind.

“He was catching up. I had a massive blister in the rear left (tire),” Bottas said. “I was losing more and more stability of the rear. I was happy the race ended on that lap.”

Vettel was frustrated at missing out on a 46th career win by so little.

“I was told he was in trouble, I was pushing. The car came alive and I had really good pace,” Vettel said. “I think I needed one more lap because he was really struggling up the hill.”

Vettel had never finished higher than fourth in Austria, twice retiring from races.

“I really wanted to win, so not entirely happy,” Vettel said.

Meanwhile, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo showed great ability to defend third place from Hamil- ton, who almost passed the Aus- tralian driver on the last two laps but had to settle for fourth.

Bottas, who won in Russia, clinched the second victory of his career — and both have come since he joined Mercedes from Williams this season. His first career podium was on the same Spielberg track, when he finished third for Williams in 2014.

Bottas is now only 15 points behind Hamilton in the overall standings and close to contending for the title.

“I believe and the team believes,” Bottas said. “We’re not even halfway yet.”

Hamilton started from eighth on the grid on Sunday.

The British driver had the third fastest qualifying time behind Vettel and Bottas, but was demoted five places for an unauthorized gearbox change after the last race in Azerbaijan two weeks ago, which Ricciardo won.

Ricciardo, who is fourth overall, clinched his fifth straight podium. At the start of the race, Fernando Alonso had to retire his McLaren after a collision caused by Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was slowed at the start by a clutch problem, which dropped him back in the field where he was collected by Alonso’s out-ofcontrol McLaren — the fifth time in the last seven races Verstappen has failed to finish.

Bottas got away cleanly but Vettel contested the start on his radio, saying Bottas had jumped the lights. The Finnish driver was later cleared by stewards of any wrongdoing, and defended his lightning start.

“You are gambling between your reaction and guessing,” Bottas said. “Sometimes you are a bit late and today was my best reaction to the lights.” Vettel emphatically disagreed. “I don’t want to take anything away from Valtteri, he drove an excellent race,” Vettel said. “But I had a strong belief he had jumped the start. In my point of view his reaction (time) was inhuman.”

Ricciardo backed Vettel up.

Drivers’ championship 1. Sebastian Vettel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 2. Lewis Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 3. Valtteri Bottas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 4. Daniel Ricciardo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 5. Kimi Raikkonen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 6. Sergio Perez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 7. Max Verstappen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 8. Esteban Ocon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 9. Carlos Sainz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 10. Felipe Massa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 11. Nico Hulkenberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 12. Lance Stroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 13. Kevin Magnussen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 14. Romain Grosjean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 15. Pascal Wehrlein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 16. Daniil Kvyat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 17. Fernando Alonso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Constructors’ championship 1. Mercedes AMG Petronas . . . . . . . 287 2. Scuderia Ferrari . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 3. Red Bull Racing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 4. Sahara Force India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.Williams Martini Racing . . . . . . . . . . 40 6. Scuderia Toro Rosso . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 7. Haas F1 Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 8.Renault Sport F1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 9. Sauber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 10. McLaren-Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2