Verstappen cements World Championship lead with Styria GP win

Spielberg, Jun 27 (EFE).- Red Bull’s Max Verstappen cemented his lead in the Formula One World Championship leaderboards Sunday with a first position at the Styrian Grand Prix, the eighth GP of the season, allowing the Dutch driver to widen the point gap in rankings with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who came in second place at the Red Bull Ring.

“Straight away I felt a good balance on the car, we have to show it again next week. I’m looking forward to it. I’m confident we can do a really good job again,” Verstappen told F1 media, showing optimism ahead of next week’s Austrian Grand Prix, which will be held in the same circuit.

Verstappen began the race in pole position and achieved his 14th F1 victory, the fourth of the year, boosting him up to an 18-point lead over Hamilton, with 156 points against the British driver’s 138.

“It was a bit of a lonely race. I was trying to keep up with those guys [Red Bull] but they’ve made some big improvements over the last couple of races,” said Hamilton after the contest.

Valtteri Bottas followed right behind his Mercedes teammate, achieving third place, and Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez came in fourth position.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished in fifth place, ahead of the Ferrari duo composed of Carlos Sainz (sixth) and Charles Leclerc (seventh).

Lance Stroll got eighth position driving for Aston Martin in Spielberg, followed by Fernando Alonso (Alpine) in ninth and Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) in tenth place. EFE

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