Formula 1 news - Max Verstappen unstoppable at Styrian Grand Prix to go 18 points clear of Lewis Hamilton

ByCoral Barry

Updated 27/06/2021 at 15:13 GMT

Max Verstappen cruised to victory at the Styrian Grand Prix to extend his lead at the top of the drivers championship. The Red Bull driver finished 35 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and is now 18 points ahead of his closest rival. Verstappen is unstoppable at the moment and said: ""It's looking really good, we just have to keep on going. I'm confident we can do another good job again."

Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant win at the Styrian Grand Prix to extend his lead at the top of the driver’s championship to 18 points.

The Red Bull driver hardly put a foot wrong in a powerful and clinical performance, with Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton struggling to keep pace.

Hamilton finished second some 35 seconds behind Verstappen, with Valtteri Bottas capping off an excellent weekend by taking third place. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and McLaren driver Lando Norris made up fourth and fifth place respectively.

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Verstappen’s lightning quick pace means Red Bull are 40 points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors rankings in what will go down as another hugely frustrating grand prix for the defending champions.

Hamilton said he needed to bring his A-game to have any hope of beating Verstappen, who said he immediately felt like the race was his.

"Straight away I felt a good balance in the car," he said. "It was good to manage the tyres from the start. It felt to the end that I had tyres left.

We kept on trying to hit our lap times. That worked really well today.

"We have to show it again next week. We'll look at what we can do better and I'm looking forward to next week.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda during the F1 Grand Prix of Styria at Red Bull Ring on June 27, 2021 in Spielberg, Austria.

Image credit: Getty Images

"It's looking really good, we just have to keep on going. I'm confident we can do another good job again."

Hamilton, who posted the second fastest lap of the day, and Mercedes will have to regroup again and try and come up with a solution to try and peg back Red Bull’s emerging dominance.

"It was a bit of a lonely race,” the Brit said after the race.

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“I was trying to keep up but the speed they have, they've obviously made some big improvements over the last couple of races and it's impossible to keep up.

"I don't know where we're losing all the time but I think their long run looks to be a bit better. We lose a lot down the straights.

"We got good points as a team today and we need to keep pushing.

"I try not to concern myself (with Red Bull's momentum). They're just faster. I've got to do my best job I can each weekend and we need to find some performance. We need an upgrade of some sort. We need to find some performance from somewhere."

Elsewhere in the race, British driver George Russell was forced to retire in the 39th lap after a promising start.

Russell was confident of picking up his first points with Williams this weekend and was in pole position to do so, but was the 23-year-old refused to blame his team over the radio.

“No need to apologise, we’re in this together,” he said. “We go again next week – we’ll get the points next week.”

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