VERSTAPPEN BLITZES HAMILTON AS RED BULL DOMINATES AT HOME

PHOTOGRAPHY

Austria is far from flat. Indeed, the Red Bull Ring is situated in the Styrian mountains, with the first of two Formula 1 races to take place at the track in 2021 named after the state. The circuit itself is gorgeously undulating, from the peaks of the Turns 1 and 3 right-handers, sweeping around the rest of the 2.7 miles, ending with a pair of fast rights where the drivers find it so tricky to stay on the road.

But two things in the second ever Styrian Grand Prix remained firmly flat: the lap chart positions of eventual winner Max Verstappen and runner-up Lewis Hamilton (which you can see on page 27). For each of last Sunday’s 71 laps, F1’s 2021 title contenders occupied the two leading places in that order, as the championship followed something of a French GP thriller (by Paul Ricard standards at least) and an enthralling, bruising race in Baku with a much tamer affair

Not that it will have felt that way for the dominant victor or his delighted team, taking its third win on home turf from a first pole here. Even for Mercedes, the latest chapter in 2021’s close title fight might have featured a lack of action, but it also may have exposed something of a key difference in how the Black Arrows squad now fares against its rival on race days, which goes back to its most recent win – four races and seven weeks earlier at Barcelona.

When the lights went out last Sunday, Verstappen and Hamilton got away effectively