Hamilton’s progress towards the race leader was non-existent. The Mercedes driver asked where he was losing time and told Verstappen was 0.25sec quicker down the straights in clear air. On lap 48, the gap between them was up to 6.2sec.
Behind them, Bottas was struggling on the hard compound tyres and said he’d overcooked his Pirellis trying to gap Perez following his stop. 1.4sec seperated them on track.
Leclerc moved by Vettel on lap 50 into Turn Four as the Ferrari driver’s progress continued. Two lock-ups in defence from the Aston Martin dropped him out of DRS range for good measure.
Verstappen’s lead was up to over 7sec on lap 54 when he reported more brake-by-wire warnings. The team informed him his braking at Turn 10 while on the kerbs was causing the issue but Hamilton’s front right blistering was just extending the Red Bull advantage.
While Mercedes considered a two-stop, Red Bull pulled the trigger on one. Perez was in on lap 55 for mediums having pitted from 1.5sec back off of Bottas. His rapid pace on the out lap meant Bottas couldn’t respond or he’d rejoin behind the Red Bull.
Leclerc made his way clear of Tsunoda and Alonso on back-to-back laps, he moved up to eighth on lap 57 but made more contact in the process, this time tyre face to tyre face with the Alpine. Lap 60 and he was by Stroll for seventh.
Hamilton had continued to fall away from Verstappen and on fresh tyres, Sainz unlapped himself on lap 65 against the Mercedes.
Team-mate Bottas spent a long time tucked up behind Ricciardo before getting in range of the McLaren to lap it. The gap to Perez was down to 6.2sec on lap 68.
Räikkönen made a move on Vettel as the Aston Martin struggled on its tyres to take 11th with three laps to go. Meanwhile McLaren reported to Norris that there were spots of rain beginning to fall but not to worry about any arriving weather.
Hamilton pitted on lap 70 for a fastest lap attempt on scrubbed soft tyres and achieved the feat on the final tour.
Verstappen claimed his fourth win of the season by over 38sec to Hamilton while Bottas just held onto third place after Perez got within a second on the final lap.
Norris survived a Ferrari resurgence in the second half of the race to take fifth from Sainz and Leclerc with Stroll, Alonso and Tsunoda rounding out the top 10.
2021 Styrian Grand Prix race results
Position | Driver | Team | Time | Points |
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 71 laps | 25 |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +35.743sec | 19* |
3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | +46.907sec | 15 |
4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +47.434sec | 12 |
5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +1 lap | 10 |
6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +1 lap | 8 |
7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +1 lap | 6 |
8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | +1 lap | 4 |
9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | +1 lap | 2 |
10 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +1 lap | 1 |
11 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | +1 lap | |
12 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | +1 lap | |
13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | +1 lap | |
14 | Esteban Ocon | AlphaTauri | + 1 lap | |
15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | +1 lap | |
16 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | +2 laps | |
17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | +3 laps | |
18 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | +3 laps | |
George Russell | Williams | DNF | ||
Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | DNF |
*Includes additional point for fastest lap