BOTTAS IN

weekend heading to Silverstone, but he missed out on the podium as Bottas had enough speed to keep Vettel at bay despite a late surge.

Moving on from the controversial Azerbaijan Grand Prix a fortnight ago, Bottas put himself on the edge of the title picture by taking the chequered flag ahead of Vettel and Hamilton, whose flashpoint in Baku had made sure they hogged the headlines at the Red Bull Ring.

Bottas, now only 15 points adrift of Hamilton, was so quickly off the line that the race stewards took 26 laps to investigate if the flying Finn had jumped the start, only to deem he was in the clear and had simply timed it to perfection.

“I think that was the start of my life, I was really on it today,” the winner said on the podium.

“I’m really happy. It is only the second win in my career, a massive thank you to the team. It is still a long year ahead, we are not even halfway and it makes good for the points, but we are still developing as a team.”

Someone who had differing fortunes was the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, whose race in front of thousands of Dutch supporters would last just one corner.

He was bogged down off the start and fell back into the pack from fifth, and once Fernando Alonso’s McLaren was shunted by Daniil Kvyat, he was a sitting duck as he was hit and forced to retire for the fifth time in seven races.

Alonso was also taken out of the grand prix while Kvyat survived but the Toro Rosso driver was hit with a drive-through penalty for causing the collision.

Hamilton came through unscathed but could only make up a place on the first lap with Verstappen off at the first corner.

He soon eased past Sergio Perez on lap six and the faststarting Haas of Romain Gros-