FIVE KEY TALKING POINTS FROM THE RED BULL RING

1.Hard driving from Max Verstappen

In the aftermath of Max Verstappen’s thrilling victory in the Austrian Grand Prix, a sea of orange-clad fans filled the startfinish straight, cheering and celebrating his first-place finish. At the time the stewards were investigating his late-race move for the lead that sent Charles Leclerc off the track, but took their time to make a decision.

They didn’t want a riot on their hands.

“It’s hard racing, otherwise we have to stay at home,” said Verstappen, immediately after he’d stepped out of his car. “If those things are not allowed, what’s the point of being in Formula 1.”

From pole, Leclerc had dominated the race and any threat from Verstappen appeared to vanish when the Red Bull driver hit anti-stall at the start and lost six places on the opening lap. But as he has proved in the past, there is no stopping the Dutchman when he’s on a charge, especially when he’s being cheered on by so many thousands of supporters. His drive through the field was beautifully measured and as soon as he had Vettel in his sights, it set up the possibility that a win was on the cards.

“After the start when he got the anti-stall, I thought we could get a podium, but he drove with such maturity, managing the tyres and the brakes,” said RBR team boss Christian Horner. “We are not the fastest on the straight, but he was so quick through Turn 1 and with the benefit of DRS, that when he started setting fastest laps at the end of the race, I thought we could do this.”

Ten laps from the flag, Verstappen was 4.2 seconds behind Leclerc on tyres that were nine laps fresher. Quickly, the gap closed. On lap 68 of 71, Verstappen dived down the inside of the Turn 3 right-hander, but Leclerc reclaimed the lead on the straight towards Turn 4.

On the following lap, he did the same again, but gave the Ferrari driver less room to mount a fightback, sending Leclerc wide as they struck wheels.

“If I feel that the [first] overtake [attempt] was done rightly, I don’t think the second one was,” said the disappointed Ferrari man.

It was the second move on lap 69 which led the stewards to investigate and they called both drivers in for evidence in the hours after the race. Commenting on the move Verstappen said: “I think the second one I braked a bit deeper into the corner. We had a little contact of course, mid-to-exit of the corner. From my side it’s racing.”

Leclerc added: “I did not expect any contact. As Max said he braked a little deeper. I don’t know if he lost it or not. But then there was the contact. I felt I was quite strong in traction on the first attempt and kept my position. On the second one I couldn’t because

I was off-track.”

In the end the result stood, giving Honda their first F1 win since Jenson Button’s victory in the 2006 Hungarian GP.