I wasn’t expecting it to be like this: Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver notched his second consecutive win after clinching the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is a happy man after winning his second consecutive race in the Formula 1 Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Starting from pole, he took the win ahead of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

“I am super happy to win here and doing it at home at the Red Bull Ring is always so special. I had a really enjoyable race. The car was working well and I always enjoy driving on this track," he said after the race.

“I just focused on my own race, concentrating on hitting the apexes in the places I wanted to, looking after the tyres and it worked out well. You never know how competitive or how close it’s going to be on a Sunday. To be honest, I really wasn’t expecting it to be like it was as the long run pace between the two teams was very closely matched all weekend. Overall, we’ve had a really positive weekend and of course it’s not going to be completely the same next week," he added.

Dutchman Verstappen had won the previous race in France, but had crashed out from the lead in the race before that in Azerbaijan.

Verstappen leads the drivers’ world championship with 156 points, while Hamilton is on 138. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez is third with 96 and McLaren’s Lando Norris is fourth on 86. Bottas is fifth on 74 points.

Hamilton seemed dejected in saying: “It was a bit of a lonely race for me. I was trying to keep up with the Red Bull but with the speed they have, they have obviously made some big improvements over the last couple of races and it was impossible to keep up.

“I don't know where we are losing all the time. I think their long runs seem to be a bit better, plus on the straight it feels like we lose a lot. It's a serious challenge and we need to figure out what we can do to elevate the package and give us more performance. But it was a really good result to get second and third. We got good points as a team and we have just got to keep pushing," he added.

Bottas said: “From where I started, I think we maximised the race. Starting from fifth and finishing third was a decent result. There was not much left in my tyres at the end and it was more like rallying in Finnish Lapland than F1 in Austria! The Red Bulls seem two-tenths quicker than us each lap at the moment and it is quite a lot. We managed to beat one of them which was good but we need to improve the car moving forward to compete for the win.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "We fought with everything we had but it wasn't enough. Red Bull clearly had the quicker package this weekend. We will need to analyse the race, see what more we could have squeezed out of the package, and keep on chipping away each weekend. We can see that Red Bull are still developing strongly, while our focus is now primarily on 2022, but that doesn't mean the championship is over - far from it. We will be fighting with every weapon we have, and the battle is still full on."