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Formula 1
Austrian GP
F1 Austrian GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race day
Updates on the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring
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The Austrian GP has seen the return of the sprint race weekend format this weekend.
Max Verstappen claimed pole position and won the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, after he had his lead in the F1 world drivers’ championship trimmed in a dramatic British GP last time out.
Verstappen is joined on the front row for the Austrian GP by Charles Leclerc, with Carlos Sainz third in front of George Russell, as Sergio Perez recovered from a grid penalty in qualifying to charge from 13th to fifth in the sprint race.
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Leclerc is, again, all over Verstappen. Verstappen holds the inside line for Turn 3, but Leclerc cannons past on the exit and holds the place - and regains the lead.
Hamilton gets the medium tyre on, hoping to make up some ground at the final stages of the race.
Gasly is in trouble here - he has failed to serve his penalty (or penalties?) in his pitstop which is a big no-no.
Leclerc takes well over a second out of Verstappen this time, finding plenty of pace on the new rubber. Meanwhile, Hamilton pits for a second time.
Mechanical problem
Latifi is the Austrian GP's second race retirement, as he pits into the Williams garage.
Pit stop
Sainz also follows suit, boxing for a second time to grab new hard tyres. Like clockwork, and he comes back out in third.
Pit stop
Stroll pits to go back on to sequence, coming out in 15th place.
Leclerc's doing a second stop now, he'll drop behind Verstappen but the Red Bull's pace has begun to stall out relative to the Ferraris.
Stroll gets double Haas'd, as Schumacher and Magnussen fly by on the run to Turn 3. The Aston Martin was harvesting its battery so was down on push up the hill. Schumacher is eighth, Magnussen is ninth and Stroll is 10th.
Norris is staging his own mini-recovery from his track limits penalty as he gets by Tsunoda and is now in 11th.
Russell's charge continues as he gains two places in half a lap; first on Schumacher at Turn 3 and then a side-by-side tussle with Stroll up until Turn 8 before making it stick. Russell is up to seventh now.
Pit stop
Ocon and Ricciardo also make stops, the latter dropping out of the top six.
Pit stop
Norris pits and serves his track limits penalty, the result of which drops him down to 14th place
Pit stop
Schumacher comes in for stop number two, taking fresh hard tyres. Norris follows him in.
Pit stop
Norris gets by Magnussen for seventh place at Turn 3, but later in the lap the Haas driver pits so he wasn't set to fight for that place too hard at this stage of the race.
Hamilton's now got his own black-and-white flag to contend with - at the end of the day, I think they'll all end up cancelling each other out.
Penalty
Yeah, slam dunk that, as Gasly gets a five-second penalty for bashing into Vettel, to go with his earlier five-second penalty for track limits.
Crash
Vettel is pinged into a spin and into the gravel by Gasly at Turn 4 in a carbon-copy clash of Perez vs Russell at the start of the race. Vettel gets going again, in 17th place, race ruined.
Verstappen is told to match Hamilton's times in the 1m10s, perhaps suggesting that he's the main race today. Not that he's sticking to that, mind you.
Penalty
You get a five-second penalty! You get a five-second penalty! You all get a five-second penalty! Zhou is the next to fall foul of the track limits.
The Alonso vs Tsunoda incident was very briefly noted by the stewards but it won't be investigated. So, as you were, with Alonso in 16th but still needs to pit again having gone hard-hard tyre strategy so far.
Zhou is the latest to get the black and white flag for you-know-what. The TV graphics department might need to create a new sign to state who has and hasn't been shown that flag.
Pit stop
Verstappen comes in for a second stop - he's going to have do a whole half-a-race on a new hard set. He rejoins in third.
Blimey! Alonso pulls alongside Tsunoda at the exit of Turn 3 and has to put two wheels on the grass as he is squeezed. Alonso, who still gets the move done into Turn 4, wags a finger at Tsunoda for his actions.
Sainz is next to get a black and white flag, as he closes down Verstappen. He's going to have to be on his absolute best behaviour now.
Penalty
Ah, that didn't last long - Norris has been given a five-second penalty for track limits. This was a theme in the support races earlier today, so there was a fear this could happen.
Leclerc then gets the draft into Turn 3, going down the inside and clears Verstappen with relative ease. "The car is so unpredictable," Verstappen moans.
Norris is the next to be shown the black and white flag for track limits, so he is treading a tightrope for the rest of this race.
Penalty
Gasly, who had been shown the black and white flag for track limits earlier in the race, has now been given a five-second penalty for going over track limits again.
Leclerc has now pretty much eroded away at Verstappen's lead, making the most of those fresher tyres. Nothing separates them at the start of lap 33...
Hamilton meanwhile passes Ocon for fourth, nipping past at Turn 3.
Pit stop
Stroll is the final driver to pit for the first time in this race and comes out in 15th place on fresh hards, a couple of seconds behind team-mate Vettel.
Stopwatch
Now it's a 1m08.984s and a 1m09.553s for Leclerc on the last two laps, which brings him to within 2.5s of Verstappen ahead.
Russell continues to climb up the running order, moving ahead of Ricciardo to take 10th place on lap 29.
Hamilton had a slight delay on his front right, which puts him behind Ocon and Stroll. He looks like he'll clear them in short order, however.
Stopwatch
Leclerc immediately states his intent with a 1m09.479s, over a second quicker than Verstappen. Hamilton meanwhile pits from third, moving Sainz up a position.
Schumacher, using DRS, gets alongside Norris and takes the eighth place under braking at Turn 3. Norris feels he got squeezed under braking and reported it over team radio.
Pit stop
Sainz now pits too, ditching the mediums for hard tyres. He comes out in fourth, behind Hamilton who's yet to pit.
Pit stop
Leclerc pits from the lead, collecting the hard tyre. Verstappen clears Leclerc, but on considerably older tyres. Sainz assumes the lead.
Mechanical problem
It is afternoon over for Perez, as he retires on lap 26 carrying too much damage. That's the first retirement of the race.
By: autosport.com
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