Charles Leclerc passed Max Verstappen for the lead three times and managed a stuck throttle in the closing laps to win the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver chased down Verstappen throughout the course of the race to eventually claim his first victory since the Australian Grand Prix in April.
Lewis Hamilton took the final podium position in third after Carlos Sainz Jnr retired with an apparent power unit failure late in the race which caused a spectacular fire on his Ferrari.
After both the Formula 3 and Formula 2 races had been held on a wet or damp track, the Red Bull Ring was fully dry as the field formed up on the grid for the start of the race. When the lights went out, Verstappen kept the lead at the start, with Leclerc in third and George Russell moving into third ahead of Sainz.
Sainz fought back to retake third from Russell, who then came under pressure from Sergio Perez. As Perez tried to pass the Mercedes around the outside of turn four, the pair touched at the apex of the corner, sending Perez spinning into the gravel and falling to the back of the field. Perez recovered from the gravel and continued, before pitting at the end of the lap. Russell would later be handed a five second time penalty for the clash.
Leclerc stuck much closer to Verstappen in the early laps than he had managed to during Saturday’s sprint race, sitting well within DRS range of the leader. Leclerc dived to the inside of Verstappen into turn three on lap ten, but Verstappen managed to hold on to the lead. Two laps later, Leclerc used DRS to tuck into the leader’s slipstream and then lunge to the inside of turn four to muscle his way into the lead.
After dropping back from the three leaders ahead, Russell pitted to serve his penalty and replace his front wing. He rejoined 19th, ahead of Perez, on the hard compound tyres. Having lost the lead, Verstappen pitted at the end of lap 13 and switched to hard tyres, rejoining in seventh place.
Hamilton passed Mick Schumacher at turn eight, then Kevin Magnussen soon after to move into fourth place. Next Hamilton was passed by Verstappen, who moved up into third, 20 seconds behind Leclerc and closing the gap on his fresher tyres.
By lap 26, Verstappen had reduced Ferrari’s lead to just 14 seconds, before Leclerc pitted for hard tyres at the end of the lap, rejoining in third place, just over six seconds behind Verstappen. Sainz inherited the lead, but only for one lap. He pitted to switch onto the hard tyres, rejoining back…
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