Formula 1: Verstappen keeps Hamilton at bay while flying over Styrian GP

We are not going to shy away from our pleasure.

This Formula 1 season is, decidedly;

more contested than ever.

While the Austrian circuit of Spielberg hosted the eighth meeting of the 2021 vintage, Max Verstappen has, once again, shown that he will have to be counted on this year, and that he seems capable of putting an end to the hegemony of the seven-time world champion.

Starting as the leader ahead of Lewis Hamilton, both on the grid and in the overall driver standings, the Dutchman has perfectly mastered his race "at home", on the Red Bull Ring of his team.

END OF RACE (LAP 71/71)

TOP 10

Verstappen 👋

Hamilton

Bottas

Perez

Norris

Sainz

Leclerc

Stroll

Alonso

Tsunoda # StyrianGP 🇦🇹 # F1 pic.twitter.com/JyqI6Ws8wR

- Formula 1 (@ F1) June 27, 2021

Winner in 2018 and 2019 at Spielberg, the 23-year-old took advantage of his third pole position of the season - the second in a row - to never let go of the race lead throughout the layout in front of the 36-year-old Briton, second. .

His teammate Valtteri Bottas completed the podium.

Forced to give up, Gasly "extremely frustrated"

Already dominant last weekend on the French Grand Prix, Verstappen has been weightless in recent weeks. He has just won his fourth race of the season, one more than Hamilton. As a result of the standings, "Mad Max" takes 16 points ahead of its rival for the title, who snatched the point for the best lap. While he had not won the slightest Grand Prix in three consecutive races for the first time since his Belgium-Italy-Singapore series in 2019, the man of all records in F1 therefore makes a fourth without success, a career first for him.

🗨️ "It will not change what happened (...)"

No fault for Pierre Gasly who already prefers to focus on the next Grand Prix despite his disappointment 💪 #StyrianGP

▶ ️ https://t.co/7plkVVV12v pic.twitter.com/VtvOZvVc73

- CANAL + F1® (@ CanalplusF1) June 27, 2021

On the French side, the first hundreds of meters were destructive. At the first corner, Charles Leclerc accidentally hit Pierre Gasly's left rear wheel with the front wing of his Ferrari. A real blow for the Frenchman, who started in the top 6 for the sixth time this season. He had to give up, his left rear axle completely destroyed, and said he was "extremely frustrated at not being able to race" at the microphone of Canal +. A big disappointment also for his team AlphaTauri, which had a potential good result there. Seventeenth at the start, Esteban Ocon (Alpine) finished fourteenth.