Double the race at the Red Bull Ring, double the pleasure for Max Verstappen who makes it two from two for the Austrian double header. Talking of pleasure, we hope you enjoy our 2021 Austrian Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered.
The 2021 Austrian Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 Austrian Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 0 – WOW. WOW. And more WOW. The national anthem before the race was the single greatest national anthem in any sport ever. Ever. Do yourself a favour and find it.
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen storms off the line and disappears into a cloud of orange smoke. The Mercedes and Perez jostle further back but remain as is. As does most of the top 10. Except Mr Saturday aka George Russell, who is no Mr Sunday. In a William at least. Further Esteban Ocon is the first retirement after being sandwiched on the exit of turn three by a Haas and an Alfa. That brings out a Safety Car.
ORDER – VER NOR PER HAM BOT GAS TSU STR VET LEC
Lap 4 – Race resumes. Perez and Norris nearly crash before the restart. Bottas tries to steal Lewis Hamilton’s fourth place into turn three. Perez and Norris jostling for second into turn four and Perez runs wide into the gravel and drops a pile of places. Ambitious but rubbish move as Top Gear would say. Daniel Ricciardo into the top ten. Some joy for him.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM BOT GAS TSU STR VET RIC PER
Lap 7 – For those hoping for a battle up the front, Verstappen is three seconds in front of Norris in second.
Lap 11 – Lewis Hamilton getting very close to Norris and sniffing around for an overtake. Further back and Lance Stroll, weighed down by his father’s billions has a nice train behind him. Playing into Ricciardo’s hands who’s on the better tyre.
Lap 13 – First pit stop and it is Tsunoda on the softs. The field is so tight he drops from top ten to last. Fifth placed Gasly follows a lap later. Another soft tyre runner Stroll pits a lap after that.
Lap 15 – Nice midfield racing from Stroll to Russell. Leclerc and Perez putting on a show. Perez just doesn’t seem to be very good into turn four.
ORDER – VER NOR HAM BOT VET RIC LEC PER SAIN RUS
Lap 20 – Bad lap for Lando Norris. Overtaken by Lewis Hamilton for second. And he gets a five second penalty for his battle with Perez earlier. Pretty harsh bordering on BS. F1 hates an over achiever. Read 2000-2006 Ferrari.
Lap 22 – Much less interesting is Tsunoda gets a five second penalty too. He is somewhere toward the back. Likely ahead of the Haas’.
Lap 24 – In case you’re wondering, and considering you’re reading this after the race finishes so probably not, Max Verstappen is ten seconds in front.
ORDER – VER HAM NOR BOT RIC LEC PER SAI RUS RAI
Lap 30 – Daniel Ricciardo pits from fifth. He comes out in 12th behind Gasly who is likely to be on a two stopper.
Lap 31 – Pitstops-a-kimbo. Norris in. Bottas in. Bottas takes Norris thanks to the five second penalty. Mercedes benefiting from Red Bull’s loss/gain. Lewis Hamilton is in next lap. Resumes second. Verstappen next lap. Perez after that.
ORDER – VER HAM BOT NOR LEC SAI RAI GAS RIC PER
Lap 39 – In lieu of any action at the front the Gasly-Ricciardo-Perez-Leclerc battle looks like fun. For sixth.
Lap 41 – Perez defends his place on the exit of turn four against Charles Leclerc and Leclerc runs wide in a situation that looks exactly like the one that Norris got a five second penalty defending his place from Perez. Surely five seconds if it is fair. And confirmed within the lap. And rightly so based on previous.
Lap 42 – In side interest Bottas is catching Hamilton. Sainz still hasn’t pit in fifth.
ORDER – VER HAM BOT NOR SAI GAS RIC PER LEC TSU
Lap 46 – Gasly makes his second stop, which means Ricciardo gets some clear air. But he has a battling Perez and Leclerc behind him. Perez pushes Leclerc wide again into the gravel. At least this time it is different as it was turn five and six.
Lap 48 – Hamilton has damage on his Mercedes. Bottas told via radio he can’t race Hamilton. McLaren now rubbing their hands at the prospect of picking them both off. A few laps later Bottas told he is fine to race. Hamilton does his fastest lap so far. Some Mercedes fun coming up.
Lap 49 – Carlos Sainz finally pits. He might be fun later. He gets fresh mediums compared to others on more used hards.
Lap 52 – Bottas passes Hamilton with permission from his team.
Lap 54 – Norris passes Hamilton for third. Hamilton pits. Perez passes Ricciardo for fifth. But he does have some penalties to be served.
Lap 59 – Ricciardo and Leclerc racing for sixth and it is very close.
Lap 61 – Max Verstappen and Red Bull must be bored so they pit for new tyres and a likely fastest lap.
Lap 66 – Sainz gets past Leclerc. Looks and smells like team orders. He may get Ricciardo and Perez ahead on newer tyres. Alonso and Russell continue to battle over 10th. It means plenty more for one drivers than the other.
ORDER – VER BOT NOR HAM PER RIC SAI LEC GAS RUS
Lap 68 – Alonso takes Russell for 10th. A shame for Williams. A side interest is some Kimi Raikkonen radio swearing at his team.
Lap 70 – Sainz overtakes Ricciardo for 6th.
Lap 71 – Max Verstappen wins with ease and cue a large plume of orange across most of the spectator areas. Vettel and Raikkonen crash on the last lap.
FINAL ORDER – VER BOT NOR HAM SAI PER RIC LEC GAS ALO
2021 Austrian Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 7/10
Red Bull, and in particular Max Verstappen is now the fastest car. He has a sizeable lead over Lewis Hamilton in the Championship and it is hard to see how Mercedes are going to win too many more races than Red Bull before the end of the season.
ON TRACK ACTION – 8 /10
Not much at the very front with Max sailing off into the sunset, but plenty to keep one interested further back. Norris v Perez early. Perez v Leclerc .Mercedes v each other. And a midfield with a constantly changing cast. Separate Stroll and Gasly trains. Hamilton struggling added an extra element of interest. Perez involved in plenty of action, none of it great.
ENDING 5 / 10
Some good racing for lower positions would keep most F1 fans awake. Red Bull throw in a pit stop for Verstappen for fun.
OVERALL RATING 20 / 30
A good race and a decent improvement on last weekend. Austria is obviously more fun than Styria. While most of the fun was in the upper midfield it was still fun to watch. Verstappen continues to make the 2021 season his own, and Mercedes problems roll on.
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP – 23/30
French GP – 22/30
Styrian GP – 12/30
2021 Austrian Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
A sensational qualifying saw him line up second and he finished third after front running all race. Except for first though. Thrashed his team mate in qualifying and looks a genuine front runner.
THE GREAT – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Did everything a driver could do for being the great-est for the race. But just shaded by Norris who drives a slightly lesser car. But pole, win and in the running for fastest lap is as solid a weekend as you can have.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – Ran super long first stint and turned a disappointing qualifying into points. Was battling for the fastest lap late on with newer tyres. A nice late race charge saw him get as high as fifth. Gains a spot after the race thanks to Perez penalties.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – After another shit show in qualifying he salvaged some reputation in the race.
CHARLES LECLERC – Raced up a storm throughout. Forced off the track twice by Perez during the race but a decent race after qualifying outside of the top ten.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Qualified top ten in a Williams which is an outstanding effort. Jsut missed out on points again, but looked a lot better on the Sunday.
THE GRAPE-EST – YUKI TSUNODA
Qualified in the top ten. Soft tyres early on didn’t help as the strategy meant another pit stop than others. The issue there is he got a penalty after his pit stop for crossing the white line. Then didn’t learn and did it again after his second stop.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LEWIS HAMILTON – Fourth place and behind Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas is not the end result you’d be hoping for. Can probably see the championship slowly slipping away.
SERGIO PEREZ – Not a bad qualifying but a race that was full of incidents. He got pushed wide by Norris which dropped him through field, but then repeated the feat twice on Leclerc and got 2 x penalty for his troubles.
NIKITA MAZEPIN – Back of the field all weekend and was a full 30 seconds behind his team mate at the end of the race.
ESTEBAN OCON – Another first retirement. Unlucky as sandwiched on the first lap breaking his right front suspension straight away.
2021 Austrian Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix and the overall 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings leader/s.
Read our last edition from after the Styrian Grand Prix here.
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