2023 Austrian GP: Verstappen wins, Pérez charges from 15th to 3rd

Max Verstappen won the 2023 Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring from pole, ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari. Sergio Pérez completed a strong Red Bull result in third, despite starting only from 15th on the grid. The race was decided in the strategy phase: Verstappen stayed out under the Virtual Safety Car. As a result, Leclerc led for a while, but from lap 35 the world champion was back in front. Relive the race in full in 3D on our 2023 Austrian GP race page.

Verstappen kept the lead at the start, with Leclerc following in second. The Safety Car was deployed as early as the opening lap. Yuki Tsunoda had damaged his car at Turn 1 after contact with Esteban Ocon, leaving debris on the track. The stewards looked at the Turn 1 incident but decided against a further investigation. What happened next was unusual: on lap 2, Race Control led the Safety Car and the whole field through the pit lane. Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen used the neutralisation for actual tyre changes. After lap 4 the race was back under way.

A Virtual Safety Car followed on lap 14 and lasted until lap 16. It was triggered by the retirement of Nico Hülkenberg in the Haas, who had stopped with smoke pouring from his car. Much of the field pitted, but both Red Bulls stayed out. Leclerc switched to fresh mediums on lap 15 and held on to second. Verstappen ran his first stint until lap 24 and rejoined in second. Leclerc therefore led from lap 25 to 34. From lap 35 Verstappen was back in front, and he did not give up the lead again before the chequered flag on lap 71.

Verstappen took one more risk at the end. According to grandprix.com, the team considered another stop “not worth the risk”. Verstappen pitted on lap 69 anyway, took used softs, stayed in the lead and set the fastest lap. That earned him the bonus point, giving him 26 points in total.

At first glance, the VSC stop looked like a masterstroke for Ferrari, as Leclerc took the lead shortly afterwards. But he was only ahead because Verstappen had not yet pitted. The Red Bull driver ran his mediums until lap 24 and then switched to hards. On those tyres he passed Leclerc on track, as he was leading again from lap 35. Leclerc had to run his second set of mediums until lap 47 before switching to hards. Verstappen responded two laps later with fresh mediums and was still in front three laps after his stop. Red Bull's plan worked. Verstappen gave up the cheaper stop under the VSC and in return had the fresher tyres in the middle phase and at the end.

For Carlos Sainz, the VSC stop on lap 15 backfired. Ferrari brought both cars in on the same lap. Sainz needed 26.2 seconds through the pit lane, Leclerc 23.4 seconds, and Sainz dropped from third to fifth as a result. Aston Martin fared similarly: Lance Stroll stopped on the same lap as Fernando Alonso and three laps later was no longer seventh but fifteenth. In the end he had to pit three times (laps 15, 36 and 54, not counting the drive through the pit lane behind the Safety Car on lap 2) and finished ninth.

Alonso himself was one of the few to start on hards and switched to mediums under the VSC. With two medium stints he gained two places and finished fifth. Lando Norris took a strong fourth place for McLaren with two hard stints after his VSC stop on lap 14, finishing exactly where he had started.

Pérez made the biggest leap of the day, gaining twelve places. Like Verstappen, he stayed out under the VSC and moved up to fourth. He did not pit until lap 25, dropped to ninth and then worked his way forward again on fresh mediums. Because he was one of the last to make his second stop, he was even running second before lap 50. After switching to hards he was initially fifth. Over the last 21 laps he climbed to third. After a botched qualifying, it was an important result for the Mexican: Red Bull had both cars on the podium, and Pérez consolidated his second place in the championship.

The stewards handed out ten time penalties during the race, eight of them for track limits. Five-second penalties went to Lewis Hamilton (lap 17), Tsunoda (lap 18), Sainz (lap 29), Alexander Albon (lap 34), Pierre Gasly (lap 42), Logan Sargeant (lap 65) and Magnussen (lap 67). Tsunoda also received ten seconds on lap 53 for seven offences. Race Control also looked into whether he had served a penalty correctly, but took no further action.

Two further penalties were for other reasons. Ocon received five seconds for an unsafe release in the pit lane involving Sargeant. Nyck de Vries was given five seconds on lap 39 for forcing Magnussen off the track at Turn 6. A similar battle between the two at Turn 4 on lap 8 had gone unpunished.

The penalties affected the result. At his second stop on lap 42, Hamilton needed 27.7 seconds through the pit lane, compared with 21.9 seconds at his first stop. He dropped from fourth to seventh and finished eighth. Sainz tells the same story: 28.5 seconds at his second stop, and only sixth at the flag after starting third.

There was only one retirement, and it hit Nico Hülkenberg. The Haas driver had started eighth and made his mandatory stop for hards on lap 11. Twelve laps later it was over: according to Haas, the power unit had a problem and the car lost power. Team principal Guenther Steiner spoke of “another PU failure on Nico's car”.

Winners:
- Sergio Pérez: Gaining twelve places, he made it from 15th on the grid to the podium.
- Guanyu Zhou and Logan Sargeant: Both gained five places to finish 12th and 13th. Zhou switched to hards early for Alfa Romeo, as early as lap 8.
- George Russell: He went from 11th on the grid to seventh, finishing ahead of his Mercedes teammate Hamilton.
- Lando Norris: Fourth place earned McLaren twelve points.

Losers:
- Nico Hülkenberg: He retired with a power unit failure and ended up twelve places behind his grid position.
- Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll: All three lost three places, Sainz and Hamilton partly because of their penalties.
- Oscar Piastri: Starting 13th, he finished only 16th. His extra stop on lap 22 took 29.9 seconds in the pit lane and dropped him from 15th to 19th.
- Valtteri Bottas: His stop on lap 21 took 31.7 seconds in the pit lane. He finished 15th.
- AlphaTauri: De Vries finished 17th, Tsunoda 19th. Both were penalised.

Williams came agonisingly close to points with Albon in eleventh. Alpine at least took a point with Gasly in tenth. Aston Martin, on the other hand, scored with both cars.

Verstappen leads the championship standings with 229 points. Pérez is second on 148 points, 81 behind. They are followed by Alonso on 131, Hamilton on 106 and Sainz on 82 points. After his second place, Leclerc has 72 points, the same as Russell, and moves ahead of him into sixth. Norris climbs to tenth with 24 points.

In the constructors' standings, Red Bull are well clear with 377 points. Behind them it is tight: Mercedes have 178 points, Aston Martin 175 and Ferrari 154. If you want to watch individual moments again, such as the drive through the pit lane behind the Safety Car, you can relive them in 3D on the 2023 Austrian GP race page.