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Formula 1
Austrian GP
F1 Austrian GP Live Commentary and Updates – Race
Minute-by-minute updates for the 2023 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen starts on pole position, fresh from victory in the Austrian sprint race on Saturday. The Dutch driver dominated the sprint after seeing off Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in a heated opening-lap battle.
Verstappen leads the F1 drivers’ standings by 70 points from Perez going into the Austrian GP, with the Mexican facing a tough task starting the grand prix down in 15th place.
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Verstappen has DRS on Leclerc and you can probably guess how this will pan out...
Penalty
And there is Albon's penalty! Five seconds for everyone, it would appear!
Gasly has had another lap deleted. I think you see where this is about to go, given he has already been shown the black-and-white flag.
On lap 35 Verstappen regains the lead with DRS, up the inside into Turn 3, and retains DRS for the run to Turn 4 to blast clear.
As the lead changes, Perez climbs to P7, overtaking Gasly.
Magnussen and De Vries come together for the second time this year as the latter is forced off the track and onto the gravel by the AlphaTauri driver. At present, there is no sign of an investigation on that one.
Verstappen is clearing off into the distance, as at the end of lap 37 his lead stands at 3.3s over Leclerc. Further back, Hamilton in fifth is out of DRS range of Norris ahead of him.
From P12, Stroll stops for the second time and puts on a fresh set of hard tyres. That will be a stretch to get to the end of the race from lap 38 of 71.
The incident between Magnussen and De Vries is now under investigation.
Penalty
Seemingly inevitably, de Vries has a five-second penalty for forcing Magnussen off the track.
Quote
"Has anyone else got penalties yet?" Hamilton asks. "They are all going to get penalties ahead of you," Wolff responds, with very much a keep calm and carry on message. The boss has spoken.
Norris has dropped to 10s off Sainz after an off-track moment at Turn 3, and that's reeling in Hamilton, Alonso and Perez on to him.
Ocon serves his penalty during his latest stop and returns to the track in P14.
Pit stop
Norris makes his second pitstop and comes out in in eighth place. At the same time Perez overtakes Alonso at Turn 3 for fifth place.
Penalty
Gasly is under investigation for track limits, and...there's the penalty!
Pit stop
Hamilton pits next time around to respond to Norris, but as he has to serve his five-second penalty, it means he's powerless to stop the McLaren overtaking him. Hamilton comes out in eighth.
Norris uses his fresher tyres to overtake Gasly to move up to sixth place.
Sargeant enjoyed his time in the top 10 but drops from P9 to P11 with his stop. A quiet but impressive performance so far for the American.
Pit stop
Alonso, who has a near-miss with Bottas on his in-lap, pits from fifth and comes out in sixth - behind Norris but ahead of Hamilton.
Pit stop
Sainz pits, serves his penalty, and comes out just behind Norris and into fifth. But not for long, as Sainz powers around the outside of his former team-mate at Turn 4 on his out-lap. Sainz back up to fourth.
Pit stop
Leclerc pits from second, for the second time in this race. He takes on fresh hards and comes back out in third behind Perez by 8.4s.
Pit stop
We've not spoken about the leader in a while, but that's because it is all going serenely for Verstappen. He pits for the second time in the race, taking on fresh mediums, and retains his lead.
Russell is dropping back from Hamilton and falls over 10 seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate. The pair are currently P7 and P8.
Stroll has recovered from his poorly timed stop during an early VSC and is now P9.
Pit stop
Perez pits from second, it is a mega quick 2.4s stop, and he comes out in fifth place to chase after McLaren's Norris and the two Ferraris until the end of the race.
Stopwatch
Verstappen puts the hammer down to notch up a new fastest lap of the race of 1m08.150s - and his lead is up to 14.7s.
Penalty
A 10-second penalty for Tsunoda for track limits. He already has an investigation hanging over him for failing to correctly serve his first penalty.
Quote
Hamilton is venting his frustration again and Wolff comes over the radio to act as peacemaker: "Lewis, the car is bad. We know it. Please drive it."
Stopwatch
Perez, who puts in a new fastest lap of 1m08.111s, is gaining on Norris who is benefitting from DRS off Sainz ahead of him.
Pit stop
Stroll stops for the third time for fresh medium tyres. He returns to the track in P12 but will have huge pace to close down a point or two!
On lap 56 Norris locks up at Turn 3 and that gives Perez the invite to attack into Turn 4. The Mexican duly takes it and moves up to fourth.
Perez tries to perform the switchback on Sainz out of Turn 3, but the Ferrari driver was lucky to gain DRS off the lapped Magnussen to keep Perez at bay.
Next time around Perez looks to get the move done into Turn 3, but as he was ahead of Sainz before the DRS line, it gave Sainz DRS towards Turn 4 and he is able to fight back to keep third place. Stunning action.
On lap 62, Perez gets the move done on Sainz. He learns to stay behind at the DRS line into Turn 3 and that gives him DRS on the straight to Turn 4 and he blasts by into third place.
That battle has given Leclerc a 12.6s gap over Perez to defend to keep hold of second place for the final eight laps of the race.
On his alternate three-stop strategy, Stroll is now just one second behind Albon. This won't be a simple pass for a point, given the extreme straight-line pace of the Williams.
Quote
"The stewards should have a look at that. He was intimidating me a lot," Sainz says over team radio about that battle with Perez. It was fierce but largely fair in our eyes.
A late move at Turn 4 and Stroll dives past Albon. That proved us wrong there! Into the points with P10 for the Aston Martin driver.
Verstappen? Oh yeah. He leads by 22.6s from Leclerc and is probably checking in for his plane home already.
After registering complaint after complaint and being told to 'just drive', Hamilton is now falling back from Alonso.
With six laps remaining, his 9.9s advantage over Russell means he is safe in P7, however.
With six laps remaining, his 9.9s advantage over Russell means he is safe in P7, however.
By: Autosport Staff
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