Max Verstappen Romps To Styrian Grand Prix Win

Max Verstappen has romped to victory at the Styrian Grand Prix, taking back to back race wins, and his third in four races, to extend his 2021 FORMULA 1 Driver’s Championship lead over Lewis Hamilton.

While it was a great day for Verstappen, it was a case of ‘what might have been’ for his teammate Sergio Perez, after a pit stop error cost him another podium finish.

Easy Day Out For Max Verstappen

It was a relatively easy day out for Max Verstappen, who was able to pull well clear of second-place finisher Lewis Hamilton, winning by over 35 seconds in the end.

“I am super happy to win here and doing it at home at the Red Bull Ring is always so special. I had a really enjoyable race, the car was working well and I always enjoy driving on this track.  I just focused on my own race, concentrating on hitting the apexes in the places I wanted to, looking after the tyres and it worked out well. You never know how competitive or how close it’s going to be on a Sunday and to be honest I really wasn’t expecting it to be like it was today as the long run pace between the two teams was very closely matched all weekend. Overall, we’ve had a really positive weekend and of course it’s not going to be completely the same next week. Everyone else will also learn from this race so we will of course try and do even better and keep improving ourselves so we can stay ahead. It’s a whole Team effort so thank you very much to everyone here and back at the factory for another great win today,” said Verstappen.

Disappointment For Sergio Perez

There was disappointment for Sergio Perez, who narrowly missed out on scoring a podium finish, needing one more lap to haul in and pass Valtteri Bottas.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out today and it’s a shame to miss out on the double podium. We just needed one more lap and we could have done it, that’s all it would have taken. I think the soft tyre was slightly worse than expected this race and that hurt us towards the end of the first stint, we also had a slow stop that impacted the race as we gave the position to Bottas. The Team tried something different with the two-stop strategy but we got caught out by traffic, but that’s how it is sometimes and we had to try something. I’m really happy for the Team today though because Max won, he did a great job and I know we have a strong package. I look forward to next weekend where we will try again to step up on the podium together,” added Perez.

Delight For Christian Horner

With his team buzzing, and extending their lead in both the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships, Christian Horner was visibly delighted at the conclusion of the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix.

“It’s been a great day and to win at our home track, secure four back-to-back wins and a 10^th victory with Honda is a real achievement. It was a clinical drive from Max who managed the race out front so well. I believe it has been our strongest race of the season so far and for the first time this year Max managed to open out a bit of a gap to Lewis and put some fresh air between them. It was a real shame for Checo as he deserved a podium today but losing a small amount of time in the pit stop unfortunately put him out just behind Bottas. We pulled the trigger on a two-stop and Checo did a great job to hunt Valtteri down in the closing stages but needed just one more lap to finish the job. The motivation is sky high in Milton Keynes and the Team is performing at an incredible level, particularly given the difficulties everyone has faced during the pandemic. We are now seeing the culmination of that hard work on the chassis and power unit side and the great harmony we have within the Team and our driver pairing,” concluded Horner.