Formula 1 2021 Styrian Grand Prix results

Mercedes revealed after its defeat in the Styrian Grand Prix that it has turned off development work on its 2021 car so it can throw all its resources on to its 2022 challenger.
With Lewis Hamilton having urged his team after the race on Sunday to try to bring some upgrades to the car, the situation appears to heavily favour Red Bull's title ambitions right now.
However, Red Bull team boss ...

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The Australian finished a lowly 13th after a good start that propelled him to ninth was negated by a glitch that forced him to let other drivers past. His teammate Lando Norris earned fifth place.
Ricciardo had already been left frustrated by an unexplained loss of performance in qualifying that left him only 13th on the grid.
He made amends a strong first lap in the race, jumping up to ...

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The Spaniard was locked in a tight fight with McLaren's Lando Norris for fifth place in the Red Bull Ring race, but their battle was interrupted when Sainz got held up when he was lapped by Hamilton.
Having been forced to let the second placed-Mercedes through after a switch to hard tyres, Sainz quickly found himself being backed up as the world champion was struggling for pace.
Unsure about ...

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Russell produced a stunning display in qualifying on Saturday to finish 11th, coming within eight-thousandths of a second of a Q3 berth, but he moved into the top 10 anyway thanks to Yuki Tsunoda?s grid penalty.
Early contact between Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc promoted Russell into eighth early on, and he held onto the position well. He was the leading midfield runner on mediums ...

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Any film that needed to cover ground as wide as Adolf Hitler being at his parents' wedding, punch-ups at fascist rallies, F1 controversies, the dishing out of $100 million fines and a News of the World sex orgy expose, couldn?t really be anything else.
Yet ?Mosley: It?s Complicated,? which is released in cinemas next month, manages to cover the life of former FIA president Max Mosley in ...

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The first race of Formula 1's Austria double-header may not have quite hit the heights of last year's thriller, but it offered up a very different result.
It was a weekend that saw Mercedes soundly beaten - perhaps in the most comprehensive fashion since the start of the V6 hybrid era - by Max Verstappen and face serious questions about its ability to stop the current Red Bull ...

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Aston Martin originally built the Adrian Newey-designed Valkyrie for the new Le Mans 24 Hours Hypercar class as a factory programme, alongside a limited road car version.
But soon after a consortium around Lawrence Stroll bought shares of the struggling British manufacturer, the Hypercar programme was shelved to shift focus on Formula 1, with Stroll's Racing Point team rebranded Aston Martin ...

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Formula 2 championship leader Zhou has conducted regular private testing in F1 cars over the past 12 months in his role with the Alpine Academy, which he joined under its previous Renault guise in 2019. He also currently serves as Alpine's official F1 test driver.
Zhou drove last year's Renault F1 car at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, but will now get a first taste of 2021 machinery when he ...

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Max Verstappen scored Red Bull?s fourth consecutive victory in Austria, as Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were left to settle for second and third place respectively.
Verstappen led every single lap and rarely looked troubled at the front of the pack, with Hamilton saying after the race that it was ?impossible? to keep up. He had fallen over 17 seconds behind ...

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Verstappen led every lap at the Red Bull Ring to score his fourth win of the year and record back-to-back victories for the first time in his F1 career.
Verstappen crossed the line 35 seconds clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton in second place, having led by more than 17 seconds prior to Hamilton's late stop to pick up the fastest lap bonus point.
The only moments of concern in Verstappen's ...

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Verstappen was in dominant form at the Red Bull Ring earlier, leading comfortably from pole position and grabbing a victory that extended his lead at the head of F1?s points standings.
As the Dutchman celebrated his victory across the line at the circuit, however, he slowed right by his Red Bull crew on the pitwall and then performed a burn out ? leaving tyre tracks on the circuit as he ...

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Verstappen beat Hamilton away from the startline and extended a healthy lead. Despite encountering some brake issues, he recorded his fourth victory of the season, finishing well clear of Hamilton ? who pitted late on to take the point for fastest lap.
Red Bull?s Sergio Perez passed the McLaren of Lando Norris for third after 10 laps but lost his podium spot to Mercedes? Valtteri Bottas ...

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The Ferrari driver had to pit early at the Red Bull Ring after damaging his front wing in a brush with AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly on the run out of the first corner.
He dropped all the way down to 17th on the road, before pulling off a series of overtaking moves to battle his way up to seventh, one place behind teammate Carlos Sainz Jr.
Buoyed by the race pace of his car, just one week from ...

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Wolff said on Saturday that Mercedes would ?continue to stick to our principle of putting our resource into 2022? with regards to its development plans despite the fierce championship fight with Red Bull.
Sunday?s Styrian Grand Prix saw Max Verstappen score a dominant win for Red Bull, leading every single lap as the team recorded its fourth consecutive victory.
Lewis Hamilton was ...

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Bottas qualified second at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday but dropped back to fifth on the grid due to a penalty for spinning in the pits in Friday practice.
Bottas moved up to fourth on lap 11 by passing McLaren?s Lando Norris, and began to catch Perez for third towards the end of the opening stint.
Red Bull looked to cover the undercut from Mercedes by bringing Perez in at the end of lap ...

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Verstappen edged out Hamilton by two-tenths of a second in qualifying on Saturday to take pole, leaving the Mercedes driver uncertain of his chances of overtaking come race day.
Verstappen duly delivered a dominant display, leading every single lap of the race to score his fourth victory of the season and extend his lead at the top of the drivers' championship to 18 points.
Hamilton was ...

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At the start, Verstappen and Hamilton leapt off the line in unison, with the Red Bull driver coming across to cover the inside line into Turn 1.
As the leading duo raced clear up front, Sergio Perez put Lando Norris under huge pressure for third place through the opening corners, but the McLaren driver was able to rebuff the second Red Bull and even had a look around the outside of Hamilton at ...

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Russell started the race 10th for Williams and moved up to eighth early on after Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly made contact on the opening lap.
The Williams driver was able to hold position, keeping the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda behind, and even closed up on Fernando Alonso for seventh towards the end of the first stint.
But after Williams informed Russell that it was ...

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Russell qualified an encouraging 11th for the Styrian GP, missing out on progressing to Q3 by just 0.008s. However an impeding penalty for Yuki Tsunoda means that he will start 10th, as the first driver with a free choice of tyres.
The Englishman showed very impressive race pace on Friday, suggesting that he could be a dark horse this afternoon given that he is not obliged to start on the ...

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With the Russian driver having experienced his fair share of spins during his rookie F1 campaign this year, Steiner personally handed over the cheeky gift on race morning in Austria.
Calling Mazepin into his office in the Haas motorhome, Steiner revealed a special gift box for the youngster - whose nickname in the team has become 'Mazespin'.
"Here's a little present for you. So you can keep ...

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The Frenchman had started the 2021 campaign strongly, with a run of Q3 performances in Imola, Portugal and Spain ? with a top five place in the latter.
However, he failed to make it out of Q2 in Monaco, Baku and France, and in Styria this weekend he had his worst qualifying performance of the season so far as he was out in Q1 to start 17th on the grid.
Ocon said that there was no ...

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Tyres have played a critical role during 2021, not least in the delicate competitive balance between Mercedes and Red Bull. Thus a change for the 10th race of the season that potentially makes a lot of valuable knowledge obsolete is not a small matter.
As of now nobody, including Pirelli and the teams, knows how the change will play out. The new tyres have not been run on track, and won't be ...

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Bottas spun his Mercedes W12 car while trying to pull away from his pit box in second gear during practice for the Styrian Grand Prix on Friday afternoon.
Mechanics from McLaren helped turn Bottas's car around so he could get out on track, but the team was quick to air its complaint to F1 race director Michael Masi via the public radio.
The stewards investigated the incident and handed ...

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Leclerc bounced back from his nightmare race in France to qualify seventh in Austria but, despite a near perfect lap, he was left frustrated by an almost "scary" gap of over 0.3s to McLaren's Lando Norris, who was fourth.
Teammate Carlos Sainz struggled with a lack of front-end grip, and had to settle for 12th on the grid.
"We're actually very happy with my lap," said Leclerc. "I put ...

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The FIA informed teams ahead of this weekend?s Styrian Grand Prix that it would be moving to slow down pitstop times on safety grounds from next month?s race in Hungary, forcing teams to remove some automated procedures.
The move was made on safety grounds and welcomed by some teams, but Red Bull - the fastest team in the pits this season - called the decision ...

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Max Verstappen will start Red Bull's home race from pole position after topping qualifying by just under two tenths of a second.
The Dutchman's main championship rival Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside him in second in the lead Mercedes, with an impressive Lando Norris (McLaren) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull) forming the second row.
Valtteri Bottas qualified second but will start fifth ...

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Verstappen will start ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Lando Norris (McLaren) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. 
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) was second quickest in Q3, but his grid drop for spinning in the pitlane in practice demotes him to fifth.
UPDATE ...

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The Mercedes driver, who ran an offset run plan in the final part of qualifying by taking three runs compared to the two most of the rest of the top 10 completed, left the pits as the last runner to start an out-lap ahead of the final fliers at the Red Bull Ring.
Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas overtook eventual polesitter Max Verstappen early on their out-laps before passing Lando ...

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The Australian was 0.5s shy of Norris in the Q2 session, and when told by his engineer after his final lap that he hadn't made the cut he said he had no answers.
Ricciardo had been an encouraging second fastest in FP2 on Friday, which made his loss of performance all the more frustrating.



"I don't know," he said when asked what has happened. "Today is what happened, a bit of a ...

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Verstappen said after taking pole for last weekend's French GP that "you're always a tiny bit under the potential in your first [Q3] run" when drivers are tasked with getting through Q2 on the medium tyres to gain a race strategy advantage before switching back to the softs for Q3.



After he did that again in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday ? as did Mercedes' Lewis ...

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Max Verstappen scored Red Bull?s fourth win of the season in France last Sunday after passing Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap, ending Mercedes? dominant recent record at the circuit.
Hamilton made note of Red Bull?s straight-line speed throughout the Paul Ricard race weekend, while Mercedes F1 boss Wolff said after the race that the team had made ?a huge step forward with their ...

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Bottas spun his car while exiting Mercedes' pit box with 20 minutes remaining in second practice for the Styrian Grand Prix on Friday, briefly blocking the fast lane.
The nearby McLaren mechanics were quick to help turn Bottas' car around and allow him to head out on track, but the McLaren team manager swiftly lodged a complaint with FIA race director Michael Masi, calling the incident ...

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Tsunoda matched his best F1 qualifying result to date by taking eighth place in Q3 at the Red Bull Ring, reaching the final stage of the session for the second time in three races.
But the AlphaTauri driver faced a post-qualifying investigation from the stewards after Bottas felt he had been blocked during one of his Q3 hot laps, calling Tsunoda a "f**king idiot" over the ...

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Verstappen opened up a 12-point lead over Lewis Hamilton at the top of the F1 drivers' championship with victory in France last weekend, passing for the win with two laps to go.
Hamilton made regular reference to Red Bull's straight-line speed performance at Paul Ricard, saying that Mercedes could not compete.
The performance by Red Bull in France came after the introduction of a new power ...

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Hamilton entered the race weekend looking to bounce back from a late defeat to Verstappen in France last Sunday, but struggled to match his pace through practice on Friday.
Hamilton managed to top FP3 for Mercedes, only for Verstappen to hit back in qualifying as he produced two laps good enough for pole position, ultimately finishing two tenths clear of the field.
Valtteri Bottas took ...

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Verstappen will start alongside Hamilton on the front row as Bottas will take a three-place grid penalty for his FP2 pitlane spin, with the trio the only top 10 runners getting through Q3 on the medium tyres, with which they will start Sunday's race.
At the end of Q3, Verstappen set two laps that were good enough for pole, but it was his 1m03.841s time from his first run that clinched ...

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F1 is set to return to Austin in October after the COVID-19 pandemic forced last year?s race to be cancelled. The track is planning to stage its usual concert events, announcing performances from Billy Joel and Twenty One Pilots, and is braced for a bumper crowd amid F1?s surging interest levels in the United States.
COTA chairman Bobby Epstein believes this year?s United States Grand ...

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The world champion ended the session with a 0.204s advantage over his title rival, but Verstappen?s final laps were disrupted by traffic and he had a fractionally faster personal best deleted for running too wide at the final corner on his last go. 
Most of the pack remained in the pits when the one-hour session got underway, with only the Haas cars taking to the track in the early ...

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Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin have been involved in several incidents while battling this year, including in Monaco, Baku and France.
After Schumacher was forced wide by Mazepin in a move at Paul Ricard last weekend, the German said that it might be time for him to get his elbows out and be more forceful with his teammate.
But despite his drivers not seeing eye-to-eye over their ...

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The FIA issued a note earlier this week announcing a clampdown on pitstop procedures in a bid to slow them down after some teams raised safety concerns.
From the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards, F1 teams must ensure that the response of the car being lowered from its jacks and released from its pit box are based on human reaction times instead of using automated systems.
The move was welcomed ...

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