Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won his first race of the season after securing victory at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen won his team’s home race at the Red Bull Ring finishing ahead of the Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. Raikkonen set a new lap record of 1:06.957 while Vettel regained the lead in the F1 championship after Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton retired.
It was a double did not finish for Mercedes after Valtteri Bottas, who qualified in pole position, lost hydraulic pressure on lap 14, the BBC reports.
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For Hamilton it was his first retirement for 34 races, says Sky Sports, and he is now one point behind Vettel in the title race.
Verstappen, who was cheered on by 18,000 Dutch fans, said after his victory: “It was amazing, very hard to manage the tyres, lot of blistering, but we managed to hang on. It was amazing to win at the Red Bull Ring with so many Dutch fans here. I needed to catch up with the points, today was a very good day for me and I hope we can continue like this.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: “A dream result, Red Bull Ring, Red Bull car, and Max driving an unbelievable race. The tyres we’re so crucial but he managed to keep those temperatures down. A very mature drive.
“The teamwork with the two fantastic pit stops and we were sharp with the virtual safety car. You have to back your boys and we have the best guys in the pit lane. It was a ballsy call and it made the difference.”
New championship leader Vettel said: “A positive day but it could’ve been better.”
How Twitter reacted to Verstappen’s victory
