Max Verstappen wins the Austrian GP while Mercedes fails to finish

SPIELBERG, Austria – Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday while the two Mercedes failed to finish . [19659004] Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel took second and third place, with Germany taking the lead in the Lewis Hamilton championship.

A dark day for Mercedes, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas withdrew from the race with mechanical problems. It was the first time that no Mercedes had reached the finish line since the GP of Spain two years ago, when Hamilton and Nico Rosberg crashed the plane. 39 one in the other.

Hamilton was in front from the start but lost his lead following a tactical error by his team, who did not place it under a virtual safety car while most other teams took the opportunity to pbad. soft tires.

After falling to fourth place, Hamilton had to park his car on lap 64, seven of the finish.

After nine races out of 21, he runs Vettel one point before the British GP next week

It was Verstappen's first win of the season and the fourth overall.

Red Bull even seemed to be heading for a doubled on their home track with Daniel Ricciardo in second place, but the Australian had to make a second stop after losing the grip of his tires, before leaving the race on the 55th lap with a gearbox problem.

Hamilton was the fastest from the start to take on the announcement that Bottas, starting from pole position, struggled to resist Raikkonen. The Ferrari driver was briefly second but was soon overtaken by Bottas again and Verstappen.

Bottas had to give up after 14 laps with a hydraulic defect to his gearbox.

Its release released the virtual safety car, slowing down

While the Red Bulls and Ferrari went into their boxes to change their tires, Mercedes surprisingly let Hamilton continue to roll. When the defending champion stopped 10 laps later, he fell to fourth place.

Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles immediately apologized to Hamilton for the misconduct. and qualify in the previous days, tire management has become complicated.

Things went from bad to worse for Hamilton, still fourth at the time, when he lost the power of his engine seven laps from the end.

The previous four races since the Austrian GP have been reinstated to the F1 calendar after a 10-year absence in 2014, with Hamilton and Bottas being the only drivers in the championship to have won the race before.

Victory from behind and addition of another win in Montreal, Vettel has recovered well after suffering a serious second setback in as many weeks Saturday. After hitting Bottas after the start of the French GP last week – and resumed his race from behind the peloton – the accident occurred this time in qualifying, Vettel receiving a penalty of three places to have embarrbaded Carlos Sainz from Renault. 19659004] Fernando Alonso's disappointing season suffered another setback even before the race. Starting from 13th, he had to leave the pit lane after McLaren modified the car on Sunday, including an adapted front fender and a new energy recovery system.

At just over 4.3 kilometers (2.7 miles), the track is the shortest on the F1 calendar. It has only nine laps and four long straight lines, with inclinations of up to 12%.