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F1 Daily round-up: Hefty penalties & Verstappen cruises in Austria

F1 Daily round-up: Hefty penalties & Verstappen cruises in Austria

05-07-2021 01:00

Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix comfortably. Apart from at the start, the Dutchman didn't come under any challenges and cruised to victory. He has widened his World Championship lead over Lewis Hamilton who finished fourth. It was also a weekend for Lando Norris who finished in third. Here is your Daily Grand Prix round-up with all the important news. 

Norris and Hamilton

During the Austrian Grand Prix, there were several incredible on-track battles, with George Russell vs Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc vs Sergio Perez two that stand out. However, another example was between Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. On team radio, he said "such a great driver, Lando" after finally getting past his compatriot, and after the race, Norris was shown this by SkySports. Click here to see his reaction. 

Power concerns? 

Red Bull Racing saw Max Verstappen take victory again at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman already won last weekend at the same circuit and came out victorious again on Sunday afternoon. The Red Bull driver experienced such an easy race that the team decided to take it easy on the car. "We told Max to reduce the engine power and stay away from the kerbs," Marko stated. Red Bull even had Verstappen come in at the end of the race to put new tyres on his car. "It wasn't a threatening cut. But when you're that far ahead, you just make another stop." Click here to read the full story

Hefty penalties

The Austrian Grand Prix was on its final lap on Sunday afternoon when a surprising moment occurred in the middle of the driver's field. Former teammates Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen collided on the exit of Turn 5, leaving the German unable to continue. Räikkönen crossed the finish line in sixteenth place.

Surprisingly, not all drivers reacted to the double yellow flag that was visible, after which race control decided to investigate the moment after the race. Eventually, several drivers were found not to have done anything wrong, but Latifi and Mazepin did receive penalties. The official website of Formula 1 reports this. Both drivers were given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, which adds 30 seconds to their race time. In addition, both drivers received three penalty points. Click here to read the full story. 

Bottas surprised

Because of his second-place, Bottas was sitting together with Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the press conference. The Finnish driver commented that in the race it was almost impossible to drive towards the Dutchman. However, he had counted on that beforehand. "Red Bull’s pace, no surprise. We saw last week that they were fast and of course, we expected them to be fast again, no doubt."

McLaren also struck a positive note with Bottas. "They were definitely putting some pressure to us in the end and it was quite surprising considering there was quite a few tenths of pace difference last week. So, I don’t know, maybe Lando can tell me later what they found from the week before and then we can improve." Click here to read the full story.