Valtteri completed a solid drive to take second place and maximise the points on offer for the second consecutive weekend. Lewis suffered damage at the Turn 10 kerbs and nursed the car home well for 30 laps lacking significant downforce.
At the start of the race, Lewis and Valtteri had moved up to P3 and P4 respectively after a safety car restart on lap 4 saw Perez drop 10 places when jostling with Norris for P2.
Norris defended P2 well for 15 laps before Lewis could make the overtake. Valtteri then passed Norris at the pit stops and the team occupied P2 and P3 until Lewis suffered the effects of kerb damage at Turn 10, losing downforce. He was passed by Valtteri and Norris on lap 53.
Lewis pitted soon after for fresh tyres and a wing adjustment to try and re-balance the car for the lost downforce but was forced to settle for P4.
Max Verstappen (182 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 32 points from Lewis (150) and Sergio Perez in P3 (104), with Valtteri (92) in P5. Red Bull (286 points) lead the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (242 points) by 44 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Toto Wolff: I think the result probably looks worse in terms of pace than the reality. We were stuck behind the McLaren which cost us a lot of time, otherwise our pace was good, maybe not enough to win the race but right up there at the front which is a step forward. Lewis picked up some damage at turn 10 - I don't think he was running particularly hard over the kerb, it was just a piece that fell away so we need to understand what happened. Overall, not a bad damage limitation weekend. Morale in the team is good, we could see the improvement in race pace was from last weekend so we are making progress and eventually we will be competing for the win again. We are one DNF away from being right there in the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships so this is far from over.
Andrew Shovlin: A solid day for Valtteri starting fifth and finishing second but a disappointing one for Lewis after he lost a lot of downforce with some bodywork damage before the stop. Our task today was made harder by our poor qualifying but second and third was realistically our best result and around half distance it looked like we were on track to achieve that. Lando's five second penalty gave Valtteri a good opportunity to pass in the pits so we decided to follow him in. Lewis took a lot out of his tyres trying to pass in the first stint but once he'd got through on lap 20, Max was too far up the road for us to mount a challenge so we were just looking for any opportunities with safety cars.
It looks like the bodywork damage for Lewis was at the end of lap 29 just before we came in. The downforce loss was around six or seven tenths but as it was all from the rear, the balance become difficult and we were damaging the rears with sliding. That dropped Lewis from second to fourth but at least we had Valtteri up there to pick up the position. We know we've not been strong enough at this track over a range of conditions so we need to go away and work hard to understand that. For the British Grand Prix we'll bring an update package and it's also a track that has suited our car in recent years. We really missed the fans in 2020 but we'll be working hard over the next few days to recover our form and hopefully can give them something to cheer about on race day.
Christian Horner: "Max had another fantastic race today and a second victory at the Red Bull Ring is a great way for the Team to sign off the triple header. It was another impeccable drive from Max and he didn't put a wheel wrong. To achieve pole position, fastest lap, lead every lap and become the first driver to win all three races in a triple-header is just phenomenal and shows the calibre of driver he is and the effort the Team are putting in every single weekend. Checo was unlucky to have a racing incident with Lando, but for me that's hard racing, just like the similar incidents later in the race but he came back strong and we could all see how hungry he was to get a result. We've now won the last five races, a first for us in the hybrid era, but we cannot get complacent and need to keep that momentum going. There's a long way to go in this championship, we don't take anything for granted and we have to keep doing what we're doing, session by session, race by race. Silverstone will be a big challenge and it's been a Mercedes stronghold for the last seven years but there's going to be a big crowd there and we have brilliant fans, so I can't wait to put on another show for everyone who comes out to support us."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "What a performance today from Lando, Daniel and the entire team. P3 and P7 is an excellent result and continues the strong run we've had all the way through this triple-header. Everybody has contributed. A big thank you to every single member of the team here at the track, back home at the factory and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP for making this happen.
"After a strong race here last week it was great to see that we could increase our performance again and be in a position to battle the top cars with Lando. I'm just as happy with Daniel's performance today - he scrapped it out with the Ferraris, did a great job and scored more important points in our Constructors' Championship battle.
"The team is looking forward to a bit of a rest now after an intense triple-header. We'll reset and get ready to go again at Silverstone. We're already looking forward to our home race, with our fans and many of the team cheering us on from the grandstands."
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal: "A number of factors combined to prevent us from scoring points today, despite both our drivers having done so well to get through to Q3 yesterday. That strong performance showed the underlying pace of our car, but it is possible that other teams that did not get through to Q3 were actually advantaged by that failure, since our drivers were both forced to make their first pit stops early as a result of having started the race on the Softs on which they qualified in Q3. We will have to analyse that issue carefully. Additionally, through no fault of his own, Lance was very unlucky to be slowed by debris that lodged itself in a brake duct, while Sebastian was nerfed off the track in the closing stages by [Kimi] Räikkönen. Looking on the bright side, next up is our home race, the British Grand Prix, and we will now start working through today's data to learn from and build on the positives, in order to put on as good a show as we possibly can in front of the famously passionate Silverstone crowd."
Alpine F1 Team's Fernando Alonso claimed a well-deserved point from the BWT Austrian Grand Prix after a thrilling finale in Spielberg. Team-mate Esteban Ocon retired from the race after an unfortunate incident on the opening lap.
Fernando had to dig deep to claim tenth place, passing Williams' George Russell four laps from the end after a battling duel between the pair.
On a bold one-stop, Medium to Hard strategy, Fernando was able to make the plan stick as he continued his points streak, which now spans to four consecutive races.
Esteban's afternoon ended at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the 71-lap race as he was caught up in an incident between Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi. The Frenchman was stuck in the middle of the pair and suffered front right suspension damage, which forced his retirement.
Marcin Budkowski, Executive Director: "Considering the circumstances, finishing in tenth place is a decent result as it was always going be a challenge to score points from fourteenth and seventeenth on the grid. Esteban got sandwiched at Turn 3 on the first lap and was forced to retire with a broken suspension. We executed the one-stop strategy really well with a perfectly timed pit-stop and two good stints from Fernando. His pace was strong and it's frustrating not to be able to capitalise on that today due to the outcome of yesterday's qualifying. We're looking forward to racing in Silverstone, our second home race, and returning to where we should be with both cars."
Scuderia Ferrari came away from the Austrian Grand Prix with a further 14 points, courtesy of a fifth place for Carlos Sainz and an eighth for Charles Leclerc. The result was down to teamwork, the two drivers working together in the closing stages to secure fifth place, which on paper looked like the best result available given the performance of the SF21 at this track. The overall result could definitely have been better, but for a couple of incidents when Charles was forced off the track by another driver, which led to penalties being imposed by the stewards.
The team went for different tyre choices for the start for the two drivers, opting for the Hard for Carlos to give him the longest first stint possible, while Charles was put on Mediums. As the race evolved, it showed that the strategy chosen for yesterday's qualifying was the right one, given that all those who started ahead of the Ferrari drivers on the Softs, finished the race behind them.
Mattia Binotto: This result is in line with our potential at this track. Fifth place was on the cards and the most we could aspire to. Carlos secured it with a great drive, while Charles definitely deserved better.
I think the decisions we made yesterday were shown to be the right ones, given how the race went. What I would highlight today is the spirit shown by our drivers, as Charles did not hesitate to make way for Carlos, who was on fresher and faster tyres. That meant we were able to get the best possible result for the team. It's the right spirit and it's the way to go as we continue to make progress.
Claudio Balestri (Chief Engineer - Vehicle Performance): "Today we tried our best in terms of strategy. Starting on soft tyres with both cars we decided to utilise a two-stop strategy, using the advantage of having two new sets of Hards, but at the end of the race we weren't able to stay in front of the other cars on one-stop strategies.
"Pierre showed good pace today, especially in the last stint. He was able to catch the one stoppers and finish the race just behind them, without the yellow flag in turn four on the final lap Pierre would have also tried to overtake Leclerc.
"Yuki had a more difficult race, the two penalties didn't help him and he unfortunately finished outside of the points. We cannot be fully satisfied with today because we started P6 and P7 on the grid and we finished with only one car in the points. However, we scored more points than our main competitors in the Constructors' Championship battle which is a real positive."
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN went really close to a points finish once again, only for the Austrian Grand Prix to end in frustration for the team. Kimi Raikkonen, who had been in a fight for P10 until the final lap of the race, crossed the line in 16th after a collision, while team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi was 14th after a penalty set him back in the opening stages of the afternoon.
Starting in P15 and P16 with Antonio and Kimi respectively, the race was always going one of attack. A first-lap stop for Antonio set him on a charge from the back, while Kimi, starting on hard tyres, had the opportunity to extend his first stint and make up track position.
A penalty in the early stages burdened Antonio with an extra five seconds at his second pit-stop, putting him at the back of the field and forcing him on a comeback drive for the second week running. Kimi, on the other hand, was able to close the gap to the cars in front, making the most of his medium tyres. With Russell and Alonso fighting for P10, Kimi closed the gap and lined up a move: unfortunately, contact with the Briton cost him some time, putting the Finn in the clutches of Vettel. A collision with the Aston Martin in the final lap of the race saw both leave the track, with Kimi eventually crossing the line in 16th, two places behind Antonio.
A frustrating end to another race in which we showed good pace but couldn't make the inroads we needed into the top ten: positives to build on ahead of the next race in Silverstone, work to be done to return where we deserve to be.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "Of course it is disappointing to leave Austria with no points after two races in which our pace was good. We paid the price for a poor Saturday, as starting from 15th and 16th made our lives unnecessarily hard. Both cars had pace, as Kimi showed towards the end of the race, but the job at hand was just too big in the end. We can build on the positives, of course, but we will need to address the weak points as we attempt to make the final step towards the top ten in Britain."
Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin classified 18th and 19th, respectively, at the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday.
Schumacher started from 19th position on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and escaped a slight brush with Alpine's Esteban Ocon on the opening lap to hold 16th place. Schumacher stretched his stint on medium tires until lap 35 of the 71-lap race before pitting for a fresh set of the White hard rubber, which he preserved through to the checkered flag in 18th. The result ensured Schumacher maintained his 100 percent finish record in Formula 1.
Mazepin also took the start on the medium compound and moved up one position at the expense of the retiring Ocon. In a race with little attrition ahead Mazepin maintained 19th position, thereafter running a two-stop strategy. Mazepin pitted on lap 28 to switch to hard tires and came in again on lap 46 for another set of hards - conserving them through to the line to register his eighth successive finish with 19th place.
Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen dominated proceedings up front for his fifth victory of the season, the Dutchman finishing ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, and McLaren's Lando Norris.
Uralkali Haas F1 Team will return to action at the British Grand Prix, to be held at Silverstone from July 16 to 18.
Guenther Steiner: "It's the end of our first triple-header this year - so, I think everybody's ready to go home and get a little break before we get ready for the next race. We performed well as a team throughout this series of races, and obviously we've got a few more triple-headers coming this season. We'll be well prepared, but it is tiring once you're into them. From today's race we had the result we expected. Both guys put in a solid performance, there's just not a lot more in it for us at the moment. The learning is continuous, and the drivers are getting better."
George Russell finished 11th and Nicholas Latifi 15th in the Austrian Grand Prix. George started 8th and Nicholas 18th, both on the medium Pirelli tyre.
Both drivers ran a one-stop strategy, with George pitting for the hard compound on lap 30 and Nicholas following suit on lap 33.
Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: We gave it everything today and fought hard with the midfield teams. Frustratingly, George couldn't quite hold on to 10th place, but we can be pleased with our weekend's work. The car has behaved well, and we have pushed it very hard.
After a challenging triple-header, we are looking forward to some time at home before we head to Silverstone, where we'll look to build on the work from the last couple of weekends. It will be great to be back at Silverstone in front of a home crowd as we take on the challenge of the new Sprint Qualifying format.
Max Verstappen claimed his third consecutive win and another dominant victory at the Red Bull Ring with a two-stop strategy. The Red Bull driver started on the P Zero Yellow medium tyre before switching to the P Zero White hard for his two final stints. The other two podium finishers - Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and McLaren's Lando Norris - stopped just once, from medium to hard.
The majority of drivers started the grand prix on the medium tyre, with just four drivers beginning on the P Zero Red soft tyre (both Aston Martin and both AlphaTauri) and two drivers on the hard tyre (Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen).
There was a mixture of one-stop and two-stop strategies seen throughout the race. Eight of the 19 classified finishers stopped twice, with two in the top four.
Temperatures were considerably cooler than they were yesterday, with the race starting under cloudy skies with 24 degrees centigrade ambient and 32 degrees of track temperature.
Mario Isola: "We are happy that our decision to vary the nominations for Austria resulted in two distict races, with the second grand prix having a very fast pace and character compared to the first one.
"Track temperatures today were considerably cooler than they had been during qualifying, which obviously had an effect on tyre wear and degradation, favouring the softer compounds and prolonging the stints. As a result, we saw a good mix of one and two stop strategies; with a one-stopper still requiring some degree of tyre management to maintain performance over the length of each stint, while a two-stopper was the winning strategy.
"Congratulations to Max Verstappen and Red Bull for a perfect strategic race today, where their pace allowed them to stop twice without ever losing the lead. Now we remain at the Red Bull Ring for a third week to continue the 2022 18-inch tyre testing programme for two days with AlphaTauri on Tuesday and Wednesday."
