(Skysports) – Max Verstappen took full advantage of a difficult Austrian GP for title rival, Lewis Hamilton, to widen his points lead beyond the equivalent of a race win with a second crushing victory at the Red Bull Ring.
Triumphing on Red Bull’s home track on successive weekends to complete a clean sweep of F1’s triple-header, Verstappen was in a class of his own and victory, combined with a fourth-placed finish for Hamilton who picked up car damage, means the Dutchman now leads the standings by 32 points.
And Norris would surely have finished ahead of Bottas but for a five-second time penalty served at his first pit stop for a lap-four clash with Sergio Perez which saw the Red Bull run into the gravel — a sanction driver and team disputed.
Hamilton, who started fourth, had moved up to second in the first stint ahead of Norris but started to struggle with his Mercedes in the second after his car picked up rear damage over the Turn 10 kerbs.

The world champion was overtaken by team-mate, Bottas, eased through on instruction by the team, and Norris in quick succession before heading for a second pit stop on lap 53. But the damage and lost performance was such that Hamilton, even on fresh tyres, was unable to make an impact from there and so stayed fourth.
“It’s obviously frustrating to lose so much downforce on the rear of the car and not be able to hold on to second place,” said Hamilton. “So a lot of points lost today.”
Bottas finished 15 seconds behind Verstappen but the gap would have been greater had the runaway Red Bull not made a late second pit stop for fresh tyres to make sure of the bonus point for fastest lap.

“Even better than last week,” said a delighted Verstappen, who secured a first career Grand Slam of pole, fastest lap and lights-to-flag win. “The car was on rails on every tyre. Incredible, guys.
“That was just amazing, let’s keep this up.”
Perez experienced a rather more tumultuous afternoon in the second Red Bull and was eventually classified in sixth.
The Mexican had dropped down to 10th place when he was forced wide by Norris as he attempted to overtake the McLaren for second around the outside of Turn Four.
But while stewards found in Perez’s favour there, handing Norris his time penalty, the Red Bull driver was later hit with two five-second sanctions of his own for running Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc off track in separate incidents at Turns Four and Six.

Perez finished fifth on the road but the combined 10s demotion dropped him behind the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who matched his result from last Sunday after another strong and strategic drive from the middle of the pack.
And while his weekend paled into comparison to the one of team-mate Norris, Daniel Ricciardo also drove strongly, recovering from qualifying 13th to secure seventh ahead of Leclerc and boost McLaren’s points haul in their constructors’ fight with Ferrari.

Pierre Gasly was ninth with AlphaTauri’s strategy not working out as hoped from row three, on a day team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, somewhat inexplicably, picked up two time penalties for cutting the line on his entries to the pit lane.
But there was late and fresh frustration for George Russell.
Having suffered a technical failure when running eighth here last Sunday, the young Briton was relegated out of what would have been his first point for Williams at the 46th attempt with three laps to go when Alpine’s Fernando Alonso overtook him for 10th place.
Russell therefore finished the wrong side of the line in 11th, with even Alonso – who has tipped the 23-year-old Englishman to be a future world champion – admitting he felt sorry to pass him.