Charles Leclerc managed to get back to winning ways at the Austrian Grand Prix after displaying a dominant effort against the outpaced Red Bull of Max Verstappen at their home race.
It is now two weekends on the trot that the Prancing Horses have claimed the top step of the podium although not without some drama. Previous race winner Carlos Sainz suffered a blown engine in the closing stages of the race after hunting down Dutchman Verstappen which saw his F1-75 catch alight after a spectacular destruction on the high speed Red Bull Ring. Leclerc also enthralled viewers and the 300 000+ strong trackside fans during the closing several laps of the race after Verstappen began hunting the Monegasque driver down due to his throttle related issues.
Sainz engine catastrophe as well as Sergio Perez early retirement meant that Lewis Hamilton once again claimed the third podium position and reel some points in against his teammate George Russell who managed to recover to P4 after a time penalty for an opening lap incident with the aforementioned Red Bull Driver.
That also means that Perez was unable to increase his points tally at the Austrian Grand Prix and inevitably fell to third position in the drivers championship standings. Monagesque Leclerc is 38 points behind title rival Verstappen with 12 races of the season to go. See the full standings here.
Haas seemed to be fighting above their punching weight once again after Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen managed a double haul of points in 6th and 8th respectively. The former managed to score his best finish in Formula 1 and was also duly awarded the Driver of the Day accolate. Alpines Esteban Ocon managed 5th while Lando Norris split the two Haas cars with Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso closing the points standings.
More reliability related issues for Ferrari are becoming commonplace for the team that had good initial spirit in contending for the championship but after forgettable results over the past few races, which included a double DNF in Baku, the Maranello based team has now fallen 56 points behind their title rivals Red Bull.
The French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard will be next on the calendar, with the race taking place on the 24th of July followed directly after by the Hungarian Grand Prix.
