Max Verstappen eased to yet another victory at the Red Bull Ring in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, completing a triumphant triple-header in front of home support.
The Red Bull superstar and Formula One season leader won for the third week running to stretch his drivers' championship advantage to 32 points over Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen had become the first F1 driver to win three times at this circuit in the previous week's Styrian Grand Prix and led from start to finish again after claiming pole.
Hamilton's hopes of reeling in Verstappen – dismissed as "out of the question" after qualifying – were hindered by another fine drive from Lando Norris, with the Mercedes great starting where he finished in fourth.
Valtteri Bottas was the big mover, up from fifth to second, benefiting from keeping clear of controversy as numerous drivers – notably including Norris and Sergio Perez – tangled in costly fashion.
Verstappen displayed his superior straight-line speed from the outset to disappear into the distance, only to find his early progress checked by Esteban Ocon's crash that prompted a safety car.
The Dutchman – backed by swathes of orange-clad supporters – pulled clear again from the restart but team-mate Perez had more difficulty as he doggedly pursued Norris.
Norris' determination forced Perez off the track in an incident that was subsequently investigated.
Even Red Bull team principal Christian Horner dismissed the clash as "one of those things", but a five-second penalty for Norris was confirmed just as Hamilton passed him, having been held up for 20 laps – already around 10 seconds shy of Verstappen.
Perez's attempts to recover from his early setback saw the Mexican twice earn five-second penalties of his own for nudging Charles Leclerc out of his path.
However, Norris regained his composure in far more impressive fashion, serving his penalty and falling behind Bottas but then attacking Hamilton, getting ahead of the seven-time champion amid Mercedes tyre trouble for a third podium of the year.
MAX MAKING MOST OF HOME COMFORTS
Verstappen now has four wins, six podiums and 139 points at the Red Bull Ring, his best returns at any circuit.
Saturday's pole had seen him make Spielberg – Red Bull's home grand prix – the first track at which he has qualified first twice, following on from last week's effort.
Five victories and four poles have made this is his best season to date, but Verstappen has bigger fish to fry with the title in his sights.
UNLUCKY LANDO STILL THE BREAKOUT STAR
It was hard not to feel for Norris, who so bravely battled against Hamilton and then learned of his penalty for essentially holding his line.
Informed of the punishment, he first replied: "What for?"
Norris added: "What did the guy expect running around the outside?"
Regardless, he had built enough of a buffer to only fall to fourth and recovered to make the podium, meaning the McLaren man has now collected points in 14 consecutive races – his longest streak and the best ongoing run in the series.
Fernando Alonso, in the first 14 races of 2007, was the last McLaren driver to enjoy such a stretch of points returns.
IN THE POINTS
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) +17.973s
3. Lando Norris (McLaren) +20.019s
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +46.452s
5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +57.144s
6. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) +57.915s
7. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) +60.395s
8. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +61.195s
9. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) +61.844s
10. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) +1 lap
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Drivers
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 182
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 150
3. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) – 104
4. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 101
5. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 92
Constructors
1. Red Bull – 286
2. Mercedes – 242
3. McLaren – 141
4. Ferrari – 122
5. AlphaTauri – 48
Norris anticipates eight-car battle for Hungarian pole
Lando Norris believes there will be an eight-car challenge for pole during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Brit set the pace at practice on Friday, just edging Max Verstappen to the top of the pile as they prepare to continue their rivalry at the top of the drivers' standings.
Carlos Sainz finished third on a day when the action was interrupted following Charles Leclerc's crash, where he spun into the barriers on Turn 4.
Norris, who finished third in the British Grand Prix last time out, is aiming to get his second win of the season and admits it is tough to call who will come out on top in qualifying, especially after Mercedes' recent success.
Asked about his chances of taking pole after practice, Norris said: "From today, pretty reasonable. It was a nice lap. Today, we could get a good amount of it, but tomorrow's another day.
"I think it's close between us, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull. I feel like we have eight cars here who are going to be fighting for a pole, and even some other cars that looked very quick, like the Haas even.
"A good first day but definitely a little bit more work to do if we want to be a bit more comfortable."
Mercedes have won the last two Grand Prix, with George Russell claiming an unexpected win in Austria before Lewis Hamilton ended a three-year wait for victory with a triumph at Silverstone.
However, Hamilton, who finished seventh in the second practice session behind team-mate George Russell in fifth, was not optimistic about his chances following practice, explaining his car was struggling to cope with the heat in Budapest.
"[It] felt just as bad as it does normally when it's hot," Hamilton said. "Today's not been a good day, really.
"The car hasn't felt good setup-wise, but we think we have an idea why, and we'll just work overnight. It's not the best prep so far.
"[We made] little tweaks [in between sessions] but the car was pretty much the same. There's a particular thing that we left - that we're changing into this weekend - that we probably need to go back on.
"It's all relatively close otherwise. We couldn't do the pace that the other guys did today, but the long run, pace was pretty decent at the end."
Alexander Zverev booked his place in the Hamburg Open semi-finals with a straight-sets victory over Zhizhen Zhang.
The top seed - and reigning champion - kept his title defence very much on track, prevailing 6-4 6-3 after 66 minutes on Center Court.
Zverev dominated on serve during the opening set, dropping just three points, while a break in game five paved the way for him to move halfway towards victory.
The home favourite made another statement of intent when he broke in the opening game of the second set.
Another break followed at 5-3 to secure victory and send the Italian Open champion through to his seventh ATP semi-final of the season - and third on clay, having also reached the French Open final.
There, he will play Pedro Martinez after the Spaniard beat fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo in three sets.
Data Debrief: Statement of intent from Zverev
The German demonstrated his desire to maintain his hold on the trophy he won in front of his home crowd last season, and become only the third player this century to successfully defend the crown after Roger Federer and Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Indeed, Zverev hit 10 aces and won 29 of 33 points on first serve (88%), while converting three of his four break-point opportunities.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will play Matteo Berrettini in the Swiss Open semi-finals, after seeing off Fabio Fognini in straight sets on Friday.
The two-time major finalist, who is making his first appearance in Gstaad, took 66 minutes to wrap up a 6-4 6-3 victory over the Italian on Roy Emerson Court.
Though he relinquished an early break in the opening set, Tsitsipas claimed a crucial one at 5-4 to edge his nose in front.
Despite seeing another early break cancelled out in the second set, the Greek managed to earn another, and eventually progressed to the last four in comfortable fashion.
"My returns worked pretty well, I was very consistent with them," he said. "I insisted on staying back throughout the match and giving it a bit of a loop, trying to get the angles from the very beginning. It worked pretty well.
"I'm happy with how I started serving towards the end of the match. In the beginning, I was still trying to figure out how I was going to open up the court and create opportunities on my serve. It took me a while to figure out. I unlocked the code towards the end."
Another Italian lies in wait for Tsitsipas in Berrettini, who overcame Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-2).
The former Wimbledon finalist is seeking his second clay-court title of the season, having also triumphed in Marrakech, while he was runner-up to Jack Draper in Stuttgart last month.
Data Debrief: Another Italian Job well done by Tsitsipas
Reigning Monte-Carlo Masters champion Tsitsipas is through to his fourth ATP semi-final of the season, with three of those coming on clay, while recording his fifth straight victory in as many meetings with Fognini.
The Greek now boasts an impressive 14-1 record against Italian opponents on surface - his only such defeat coming against Jannik Sinner in Rome four years ago.
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