Verstappen knocked Hamilton off the starting line and built a healthy lead. Despite some braking problems, he took his fourth win of the season and ended up well ahead of Hamilton, who pitted late to get the point for the fastest lap.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez overtook Lando Norris ‘McLaren in third on 10 laps but lost his podium to Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas during the pit stop sequence when his left rear tire took too long to remove. Perez switched to a two-stop to reclaim the place, but had to be content with fourth place.
Results of the F1 Grand Prix of Styria 2021
This is how the Grand Prix of Styria went
From pole position, Verstappen was leading Hamilton when Perez overtook Norris in third on Turn 3, but Norris caught him back on the next turn.
Further back, Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri came into contact with Charles Leclerc at the exit of Turn 1, damaged the Ferrari’s front wing and forced him into the pits. Gasly’s injured car then spun Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo at Turn 3 and also cut off Nicholas Latifis Williams, giving him a puncture. Gasly was pushed left with a damaged rear suspension.
Verstappen pulled away from Hamilton at the top and led after 10 laps by almost 3 seconds. At this point, Perez made a move stick on Norris at Turn 3 for third place and Bottas passed Norris in a similar fashion one lap later. But they were already well over 10 seconds behind their respective team leaders.
Hamilton, who reported “small vibrations” from his tires, which almost spun at Turn 4 after a big moment on lap 25, which allowed Verstappen to extend his lead to over 5 seconds. Perez was the first of the leaders to pit but suffered a slow shift from left to back as he switched from soft to hard tires. This enabled Bottas to pit one lap later.
Hamilton stopped on lap 29, Red Bull reacted a lap later and Verstappen resumed with a 5 second lead. Despite complaining of some braking issues related to the use of the curbs in the final corners of the lap, Verstappen scored his fourth win of the season.
In the battle for third place, Perez pitted again with 16 laps to go, which meant he gave Hamilton the point for the fastest lap. In the closing stages he closed the gap to Bottas, but it wasn’t enough to fight for the final podium – half a second was missing. Behind them, Norris took a lonely fifth place.
Hamilton made a late stop to regain his point for the fastest lap, which meant Verstappen won by over 30 seconds.
From 12th on the grid, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. drove a nice long first stint on Medium, overtaking Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin to secure sixth place on lap 45, with some fantastic overtaking maneuvers as he got back into the top 10 preceded. His comeback ended with Stroll finishing seventh with 11 laps to go.
Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) completed the top 10 positions. George Russell ran up to eighth for Williams until he made several pit stops as the team had to refill its pneumatic system. He was forced shortly after half the distance.
