Charles Leclerc won the Austrian Grand Prix for Ferrari with a superb decisive run, soundly seeing off the challenge from his title rival, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was second at the Red Bull Ring. Lewis Hamilton was in third for Mercedes, with his team-mate George Russell in fourth, a great recovery having dropped to 18th at one point. Esteban Ocon was in fifth for Alpine.

With a genuinely competitive car Leclerc was indomitable in Austria, passing Verstappen on track three times during the race to secure the win, while his team-mate Carlos Sainz was hugely disappointed not to make it a one-two when he was forced to retire near the end. For Hamilton it was a third podium in a row as Mercedes continue to make forward strides with their car.

Leclerc’s fifth career win is his third this season, the first since the third round in Australia and just the boost to his title hopes the Monegasque driver desperately required. His joy and relief as he crossed the line was palpable. It is the Scuderia’s first win here since 2003 when Michael Schumacher took the flag.

The victory was vital in his title fight with Verstappen. Verstappen had a 44-point lead over Leclerc going into the race, which has now been reduced to 38 points.

Ferrari brought their first upgrades of the season to Barcelona and a further swathe to Silverstone and they have clearly hit the spot. Their package looks once more ominously strong, with real pace and superb execution in Austria.

Verstappen held his lead off the start in the short climb into turn one from Leclerc and Sainz, while Russell made a bold move on Pérez. The pair went wheel to wheel at turn four, touched and the Mexican spun off into the gravel and had to pit. He later retired from the race. There was concern with Hamilton’s mechanics working on the car furiously on the grid but he did make the start and swiftly showed good pace.

Verstappen could not open a gap to Leclerc, who remained in DRS range but could not quite make a pass as he harried the Dutchman, within a tenth of a second of one another for repeated laps. There was nothing to choose between them as they fought a gripping toe-to-toe scrap.

Leclerc went hard through turns three and four on lap 10 but could not make the move stick. Verstappen defended until once more Leclerc tried again on lap 11 and this time, late on the brakes up the inside in turn four he pulled off a mighty pass.

Verstappen came back at him until the Dutchman was pitted for fresh hard tyres a lap later. With the Ferrari looking quicker in race pace Red Bull went aggressive with their strategy in opting for a two-stop, while Leclerc stayed out.

Russell lost places with a five-second penalty for the incident with Pérez and had to pit for a new nose, dropping him to 18th. While with the early stops under way Hamilton stayed out and had moved up into fourth. Verstappen meanwhile charged on his fresh tyres and had found real pace to take third behind Leclerc and Sainz, with 19 of the 71 laps complete.

Verstappen’s pace was impressive and put him within 17 seconds of Leclerc, who was pitted on lap 26, 13 after Verstappen, to take hard tyres and he emerged behind the Dutchman, who would have to stop again. Hamilton pitted on lap 28 and came out in fifth but swiftly passed Esteban Ocon to recover fourth place.

Leclerc now had the new tyres and chased down Verstappen, his pace once more superior to that of the Red Bull and he positively breezed past with DRS on lap 33 at turn three. He now held all the cards, able to cover off any second stop by the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen duly stopped again on lap 36 and emerged 26 seconds back from the leader and behind Sainz. Leclerc and Ferrari maintained their cool out front, with the Monegasque driver hitting repeatedly solid times and while Verstappen had closed the gap to 18 seconds by lap 48 he was not making enough of an impression fast enough. Ferrari opted to pit their man again on lap 49 and he emerged behind Verstappen, three seconds back, with one more pass required to retake the lead.

He duly caught the Dutchman and swept past him up the inside on the exit of turn three on lap 52. A one-two for Ferrari looked on the cards only for Sainz’s Ferrari to pull off the track with flames bursting from his engine on lap 57. With a virtual safety car deployed both Leclerc and Verstappen pitted again.

Racing resumed on lap 59 with Leclerc five-seconds up. It was a tense final 10 laps as Verstappen pushed and Leclerc reported issues with his throttle but he nonetheless held his nerve to take the flag.

Leclerc had made it look easy and Verstappen had no answer. Red Bull had tried every alternative but Ferrari’s pace advantage was simply too much and after some questionable strategy decisions of late this time they managed it to perfection. — Guardian