Verstappen wins Austrian GP as Hamilton fails to finish
Max Verstappen won Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix yesterday, while Lewis Hamilton suffered his first race retirement since 2016 and lost the Formula One championship lead to Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
The victory was the 20-year-old Dutch driver's first of the season, fourth of his career, and came in front of an army of orange-shirted fans packing the grandstands and then flooding onto the track at the finish.
Kimi Raikkonen was a close second, with teammate Vettel third to claw back the overall lead by a single point from Hamilton, their Mercedes rival whose record run of 33 successive scoring finishes came to an end.
"It was amazing, very hard to manage the tyres, lot of blistering, but we managed to hang on," said Verstappen.
"It was amazing to win at the Red Bull Ring with so many Dutch fans here."
Hamilton was on the back foot before he stopped on lap 64, his car suffering lost fuel pressure while he was fourth, after a glaring strategy error by Mercedes had cost him the lead.
On a bleak outing for the champions, who had not been beaten at the Red Bull Ring since Austria returned to the calendar in 2014, Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas retired with a mechanical failure.
Verstappen took the lead after Mercedes kept Hamilton out during a virtual safety car period that followed Bottas' retirement on lap 14, with all the others behind the Briton pitting for fresh tyres.
Mercedes' chief strategist James Vowles came on the radio as the bearer of bad news, admitting his error as Hamilton struggled to comprehend what had happened.
"I'm fourth now," exclaimed the driver.
"I'm not going to be able to pass anyone. We have thrown away the win," Hamilton added a while later.
"This is James, I have thrown away the win today," replied Vowles. "Passing is possible. I'm sorry." - REUTERS
AUSTRIAN GP RESULTS (Top 5)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:21:56.024
- Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) +1.504
- Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) +3.181
- Romain Grosjean (Haas) +1 lap
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas) +1 lap
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