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  Austrian GP: Sunday Results Spielberg, Austria (July 2, 2023) 
Max Verstappen easily cruised to his 21st win in the last 28 Grand Prix's at the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria on Sunday. Verstappen had a clean sweep for the weekend: winning the pole on Friday, the Sprint Race on Saturday, the Grand Prix on Sunday and being awarded the fastest lap of the race. "It's been a pretty incredible weekend; it couldn't have been any better to be honest," said Verstappen. "We did everything well as a Team, from the strategy through to the pit stops. Heading into the race we all had question marks around the tyres but we were all happy with how they performed compared to our competitors." Verstappen led second place finisher, Ferarri's Charles Leclerc, by just over 23 seconds with two laps and decided to pit, taking on softs for the last lap of the race to grab a point for the fastest lap. A team typically loses 20 seconds at Spielberg when pitting. "We decided to go for the fastest lap on the last lap despite the risk involved in an additional pitstop , but Dietrich's mantra was always 'no risk, no fun', and the mechanics have been in such incredible form that it felt relatively low risk," said Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner. Verstappen's teammate, Mexican native Sergio Perez, joined the two time World Champion on the podium in the third position. Perez started 15th. Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, finished sixth, helping Leclerc by delaying Perez's move into P3 near the trailing laps of the race. Sainz crossed the finish line in 4th but was awarded 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits The most celebrating on Sunday may been by the folks back in Woking, UK as McLaren Racing's Lando Norris took their upgraded MCL60 to the track for the first time and finished an impressive P4, the first top five finish for the team this season. "It's been a positive result here in Spielberg. Not just the valuable points from Lando's P5 but also seeing the MCL60 fighting at the front," said Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal. "That's good for the team and good for our fans. We know this track is a bit of a 'Lando-Special', and he was excellent again today, but certainly some of this result is down to the upgraded aerodynamic package fitted to his car," said Stella. "It's been a colossal amount of work at the factory to get this upgrade here, and a good effort at the track to get the performance out of it." "I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people who made that happen, and I hope they're enjoying the result because they certainly deserve it," said Stella. There were over 1200 instances where a car was reported as potentially leaving the track throughout the Grand Prix. The post-race penalties were as follows: De Vries: 5 second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track Sargeant: 5 second time penalty for exceeding track limits Magnussen: 5 second time penalty for exceeding track limits Ocon: 5 second time penalty for exceeding track limits (x 2) De Vries: 5 second time penalty for exceeding track limits Tsunoda: 5 second time penalty for exceeding track limits Tsunoda: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits Sainz: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits Hamilton: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits Gasly: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits Albon: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits Ocon: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits (x 2) De Vries: 10 second time penalties for exceeding track limits Final Results (amended) Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1 Verstappen Red Bull 71 1h 25:33.607 2 Leclerc Ferrari 71 + 0:05.155 3 Perez Red Bull 71 + 0:17.188 4 Norris McLaren 71 + 0:26.327 5 Alonso Aston Martin 71 + 0:30.317 6 Sainz Ferrari 71 + 0:31.377 7 Russell Mercedes 71 + 0:48.403 8 Hamilton Mercedes 71 + 0:49.196 9 Stroll Aston Martin 71 + 0:59.043 10 Gasly Alpine 71 + 1:07.667 11 Albon Williams 71 + 1:09.767 12 Zhou Alfa Romeo 70 + 1 Lap 13 Sargeant Williams 70 + 1 Lap 14 Ocon Alpine 70 + 1 Lap 15 Bottas Alfa Romeo 70 + 1 Lap 16 Piastri McLaren 70 + 1 Lap 17 de Vries AlphaTauri 70 + 1 Lap 18 Magnussen Haas 70 + 1 Lap 19 Tsunoda AlphaTauri 70 + 1 Lap Hulkenberg Haas 12 Power Unit Fastest Lap: Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:07.012 (Lap 71) (image provided by Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN) |