Max Verstappen: I was clinging on to the tyres at the end

The race was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The 28-year-old Hartley had left himself with plenty to do when he began the race from the back of the grid in 19th position.

It is the second time this season Hamilton has relinquished the lead of the race after a misjudged strategic call, having lost out at the opening round in Australia. “I’ve got no time left on these tyres”.

“I’m not going to be able to pass anyone”.

“To feel the improvement on the auto and for us be ahead of the Ferraris is obviously quite a privilege to be in that position”. I feel fine about it.

‘We have to come back strong and the hard days are the ones where you learn the most but you have to stay positive’.

Often criticised for taking his aggressive race style too far, Verstappen judged his race perfectly.

Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull Formula 1 team-mate Max Verstappen did not play “fair” in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix after refusing to give him a slipstream.

Vettel leads the title race with 146 points ahead of Hamilton on 145, Raikkonen on 101 and Ricciardo on 96.

“The only ones who didn’t have the tyre problems were the Ferraris, but all others suffered from heavy blistering and that was definitely not something that we expected”, said Wolff. I couldn’t see where they were so in those circumstances you have to rely fully on the guy who’s on the pit wall. His fourth place finish in the Austrian Grand Prix is his best finish driving for Haas, and it is his best finish since he finished in third place in the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix when he drove for Lotus. “It can be very, very cruel and I think we had all the cruelty go against us today”. He retook the lead in the driver standings by one point over Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton.

Missing out on his fourth pole of the season, which would have been his 50th for Mercedes and 76th overall, Hamilton still felt upbeat as he recovered in his final lap under pressure.

“We have got to understand how we went wrong”, Hamilton said. “We were the quickest”.

Once Verstappen took the lead of the race, he held on for the entire race, even when his tyres were not 100%.

Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas was second in both, at 0.127 and 0.176 slower respectively.

“That’s what I did in Paul Ricard, so of course it’s Daniel’s turn here”. “Red Bull Ring, Red Bull auto and Max driving an unbelievable race”.

When Hamilton eventually pitted outside fo the safety auto period, he came out in fourth place between the two Ferrari’s.

Raikkonen closed in on Verstappen in the closing laps and set the fastest lap on the final lap of the race, but fell 1.5 seconds short at the checkered flag.

His exit brought out the virtual safety auto, slowing down the pace and disallowing overtaking.

Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari filled the top six places on the timesheets in both sessions, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen sixth in both. When the defending champion made his stop 10 laps later, he dropped to fourth. Returns to the track in fifth place, just behind Ricciardo.