Charles Leclerc won the Austrian Grand Prix Sunday afternoon in Spielberg, Austria; edging out points leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull to notch the Monégasque driver's third win of the season and fifth of his Formula 1 career.

"Every win is special, but this one feels just amazing. The last 15 laps were on the limit with the issue we had (throttle pedal), but we brought it home," said Leclerc.

In the later stages of the race Ferrari were set up for a 1-2 finish until an engine fire on Carlos Sainz's F1-75 retired the Spainard on lap 56 of 71. Sainz had to exit the car as it rolled backward but emerged unscathed.

"It's difficult to find the right words today, as it was clear that a one-two was pretty straightforward. I had strong pace today, especially on the hard tyre. Degradation was very high but we managed it well," said Sainz. "On the last stint the car felt really good on track until we obviously had the issue and we had to retire."

The W13's of Mercedes finished behind Verstappen with Lewis Hamilton in P3 - his third podium position in the last three races.

"We had decent pace at different points of the race, even if I was racing a little bit in no-man's land," said Hamilton. "It's been a bit of a rough weekend for the team - but I'm grateful we got third and fourth today. That's great points, and we have improved the car. Now we need to keep chipping away to get back to the front."

With the exception of last weekend's British Grand Prix, Mercedes driver George Russell has finished in the top five in all F1 events this season.

Alpine's Esteban Ocon, having an outstanding weekend, rounded out the top five and was the final car on the lead lap. Ocon's teammate, Fernando Alonzo, made it a double points weekend for Alpine, finishing in the final points position, P10, from a P16 start.

"Firstly, congratulations to Esteban for marking his 100th Formula 1 Grand Prix start by scoring ten points in fifth place. He thoroughly deserved that after driving so well today and executing a very good two-stop strategy," said Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine Team Principal.

"By scoring so highly, combined with yesterday's effort in the Sprint, it means the team is continuing its momentum forwards after delivering some good upgrades at recent events," added Szafnauer.

Haas Racing continued their strong pace exhibited during last weekend's British Grand Prix and finished for the second weekend in a row with both drivers in the points. Mick Schumacher finished an F1 career best sixth with teammate Kevin Magnussen finishing in eighth.

"A fantastic result for the team today with a double-points finish and back in P7 in the championship. There was one little issue with Kevin's engine, but everything went as perfect as it can be," said Guenther Steiner, Haas Team Principal.

Prior to last weekend's British Grand Prix, Haas Racing's last double-points finish was at the 2019 German Grand Prix.

McLaren racing also scored double points Sunday afternoon with Lando Norris finishing seventh and Daniel Ricciardo finishing P9.

Verstappen's Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, who was second in points coming into the weekend, retired early on Lap 24 after suffering damage from a Lap 1 collision with Mercedes driver George Russell. Russell was issued a five second penalty resulting from the contact.

At race start the conventional wisdom for tire strategy was a one stop race with teams choosing a medium-hard or a hard-medium combination. Halfway through the race it was apparent this strategy was being replaced with a two stop strategy utilizing two hard tire sets.

Pirelli's Mario Isola attributed the switch in tire strategy to a higher than expected tire degradation on the hards.

"The medium showed excellent performance, while the degradation on the hard was higher than expected today: probably because the teams didn't have time to try it out thoroughly in race conditions during free practice, due to the condensed nature of a sprint weekend," said Isola.

Due to the late Virtual Saftey Car for Carlos Sainz, the leaders, Leclerc and Verstappen, chose a medium-hard-hard-medium strategy.

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RESULTS 
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Pos	Driver		Team		Laps		Gap


1	Leclerc		Ferrari		71	1h 24:24.312
2	Verstappen	Red Bull	71	+ 0:01.532
3	Hamilton	Mercedes	71	+ 0:41.217
4	Russell		Mercedes	71	+ 0:58.972
5	Ocon		Alpine		71	+ 1:08.436
6	Schumacher	Haas		70	+ 1 Lap
7	Norris		McLaren		70	+ 1 Lap
8	Magnussen	Haas		70	+ 1 Lap
9	Ricciardo	McLaren		70	+ 1 Lap
10	Alonso		Alpine		70	+ 1 Lap
11	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	70	+ 1 Lap
12	Albon		Williams	70	+ 1 Lap
13	Stroll		Aston Martin	70	+ 1 Lap
14	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	70	+ 1 Lap
15	Gasly		AlphaTauri	70	+ 1 Lap
16	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	70	+ 1 Lap
17	Vettel		Aston Martin	70	+ 1 Lap
	Sainz		Ferrari		56	Engine
	Latifi		Williams	48	Accident Damage
	Perez		Red Bull	24	Accident Damage


Fastest Lap: Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:07.275 (Lap 62)