What Verstappen's victory tells us about F1's future
In the three hours between Max Verstappen finishing and stewards confirming him as the Austria winner, the prospect of him being penalised was real. That he wasn't, after a scrap that hinted at the next big rivalry, made this a great day for Formula 1
The first 30 seconds of Max Verstappen's Austrian Grand Prix could not have gone much worse. He bogged down at the start, later suggesting it was because the clutch was set too aggressively, so the anti-stall kicked in and he dropped to seventh. That became eighth when he was boxed in behind Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari at Turn 2 and his Red Bull team-mate Pierre Gasly drove around the outside of him.
Verstappen then locked up the front-right tyre going into Turn 4, giving him a vibration that would remain throughout the first stint. But just over 80 minutes later, he took the chequered flag to win on home soil for Red Bull - and take the landmark first victory of Honda's fourth stint in Formula 1.
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