The Austrian Grand Prix is set among possibly the most beautiful of all landscapes, nestled within rich forests and rolling green hills. The Red Bull Ring (formerly the Österreichring) is the home of Red Bull Racing, and it is a fast track, with a short lap, featuring some of the best corners anywhere on the calendar. It is very easy to run wide into turn 1 (named after Austrian F1 legend Niki Lauda), whilst turn 2 is where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg banged cars on the final lap of the 2016 race. Turn 9, named another another late legend of F1, Jochen Rindt, is faster than it looks, and leads into a slightly awkward pit entrance.

The track features a trio of DRS zones, thus opening up the possibility of drivers repeatedly swapping places. The pit-straight is the first zone, followed by the run towards turn 3, which is in turn followed by the run to turn 4. It is not unusual to see cars go wheel-to-wheel through the run from turns 4 to 7. The venue, which has come and gone from the calendar down the years, has proven popular since its return in 2014.

What of this latest round of the championship? It would grace F1 with the third sprint race of the year, and it would treat the fans to a damp affair that required a great many ponchos and umbrellas. It would also show not one but two drivers take some big risks with their tyre choices…

Early conditions lead most drivers to opt for intermediate tyres, but Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc both went for full wets, gambling that conditions would get steadily worse. This decision led both of them to fall down the field at an alarming rate, and they were joined at the wrong end by George Russell, who ran wide early on at turn 4 to plummet down the field. Things did eventually get wetter, and for a brief time Perez climbed back up the order, but he would fall back again as the track dried once more.

His Red Bull teammate had no such issues. Max Verstappen took his first sprint win of the campaign, and did so largely untroubled, demonstrating yet again that wet weather is of no concern to him.

McLaren enjoyed a good sprint event, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri second and third, perhaps offering some encouraging signs for the future.

The main race proved eventful, to put it mildly. Firstly, qualifying, in mixed conditions, yet again saw the Meerkats get both cars into Q3, but the chief story went to Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda in Q2. In slippery conditions Hamilton, normally so assured in the wet, slid into a spin coming through the curve of turn 5, and then misjudged his re-entry onto the track. He got directly into the path of Tsunoda’s Racing Bull, and the two had an ugly collision.

Fortunately both men were unharmed, but both were out of qualifying, which was red-flagged whilst the track was cleared. Hamilton would receive a grid penalty for his dangerous re-entry to the track, which he accepted was an error on his part.

The Grand Prix itself started out in dry conditions, though rain had been predicted. This, as ever, lent drivers to consider what compound to start the race on, with most going for the mediums. The theory was they could last until the predicted start of the rain, so that drivers would need to make only one stop. However, this was a bit of a gamble, for the timing of the rain, and the switch in conditions, was an unknown.

What was clear was that Verstappen, who had taken yet another pole, was not getting away in the early stages, though the chief problem came not only from Norris, but also, for a brief time, Perez. However, as has proven the case throughout the season, Perez could not live with his talented teammate, and would fall back from the front two early on. Norris would however harass Verstappen, trading the lead on a track geared up to overtaking and close racing.

The Ferraris took time out of each other, grappling hard early on, depriving either of the opportunity to catch the cars in front.

Behind the leaders, the race was chaotic. There was an early collision between Theo Pourchaire and Lance Stroll, deemed to be Pourchaire’s fault, and damaging both cars. Shortly afterwards, Stroll was hit again, and once again this was into turn 3, in a carbon copy of the first incidence. This time, Russell went into the side of him, and like Pourchaire, Russell was deemed at fault. Stroll would also have a collision whilst lapping Esteban Ocon in the run towards turn 3, for which he was judged to be at fault.

It was a miserable race for Meerkat’s Pourchaire. He would clip his front wing running wide at turn 1, spin as conditions gradually got wetter, and ultimately crash out late into the race. It was a far cry from qualifying, though for newcomers Meerkat Racing, there would be a bright moment amidst the gloom. Liam Lawson took advantage of tyre opportunities in the wet, and a mechanical retirement for Leclerc, to bring his car home in 10th, and thus score a world championship point for himself and the team. It marked the second point of the season for Meerkat Racing, a potentially invaluable one at that.

In the damp conditions, Verstappen proved in imperious form. He would take a reasonably comfortable victory from Norris, and also take the fastest lap of the race, to complete a triple header in the Grand Prix, on top of his sprint victory.

So, in light of Verstappen’s dominant performance at Red Bull’s home race, where does this leave the championship?

With Leclerc scoring no points across the weekend, Verstappen has opened up an 85-point lead in the standings. Even worse for Leclerc, Norris is now only four points behind him, and Sainz is not that far further back. Verstappen’s eighth win of the season has put him in a commanding position, a margin of more than three grand prix wins from his nearest rivals, and it seems unlikely anyone is going to catch him.

In the constructor’s standings, Red Bull have moved 55 points clear of Ferrari, and McLaren have closed up in the battle for second spot. As we move towards the halfway point of the season, the pattern of 2024 has become clear: Red Bull and Verstappen remain very much in the ascendency.

Next time, F1 returns to where it all began: Silverstone, for the British Grand Prix.

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