Austrian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen beats Sergio Perez to sprint win
- Published
The Austrian Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport website
Max Verstappen took a dominant win in the sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix after a first-lap squabble with team-mate Sergio Perez.
In wet conditions, Perez took the lead from Verstappen at the first corner and then edged the world champion onto the grass after the corner.
But Verstappen made a pass stick out of Turn Four and proceeded to motor away to another win.
Perez led Ferrari's Carlos Sainz home in second place.
There were frantic battles down the field in a race that started on a wet track and proceeded to dry throughout.
Verstappen expressed his annoyance with Perez to the team after the race, saying his move out of Turn One was "really not OK" and they "had to have a chat about it".
After doing so, Verstappen said: "When the moment happens, you don't know why. But after the race we talked about it and it's all good."
He added: "We don't have to make this a big story. It happened, we talked about it. You don't have to write a whole article about it. Or maybe you can, for the clicks."
Perez said he did not know Verstappen was partly alongside him, and that he moved to give him more room once he did.
Lance Stroll led home Aston Martin team-mate Fernando Alonso for fourth place, after saying over the radio to the team that they "shouldn't lose too much time fighting".
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg benefited from the fight between the Red Bulls on the first lap to move into second for the first few laps of the race and then drove well after switching to intermediates at two-thirds distance and charged back up to finish sixth.
Esteban Ocon held on with his fading intermediate tyres on the Alpine ahead of a George Russell, who had switched to slicks on his Mercedes a lap before Hulkenberg and flew back up from the back of the field to take the final point in eighth.
Hulkenberg impressed throughout the race, initially building a lead over Perez when the track was at its wettest before the Red Bull came back at him.
The Haas' high tyre wear eventually began to have its effect and Hulkenberg fell back, losing places to Perez and Sainz in quick succession, and not long afterwards also to the Aston Martins.
But after Russell had switched to slicks, Hulkenberg followed him in a lap later and set about recovering positions, climbing back up from 10th after his stop to a strong sixth-place finish.
Lando Norris chose to stay on intermediates and finished ninth in the McLaren, after losing ground on the first lap when he became tangled up in the Red Bull battle at Turn Three.
Lewis Hamilton switched to slicks, but could fight back up only to 10th place.