Valtteri Bottas has taken his second Formula 1 victory after leading every lap of the Austrian Grand Prix. The Finn was able to turn yesterday's pole position into a win and takes 25 points home, closing the gap to teammate Lewis Hamilton in the standings.

"I had a bit of a deja vu with what happened in Russia," Bottas laughed. "I had a massive blister on the rear tyre since lap five of the second stint. The backmarkers made it quite tricky but I'm really happy.

"Massive thank you to the team. I got the start of my life. I was really on it. It's still a long year ahead, we're not even halfway. It's early days and we're still developing as a team."

Hamilton himself had an unorthodox grid position at the start, pulling into the eighth grid box on the start/finish straight. The Brit said that his race would be a case of damage limitation and managed to climb up into fourth position by the time the chequered flag waved.

The other championship protagonist Sebastian Vettel finished the race in P2, after attacking race winner Valtteri Bottas at the end. The German failed to get by and had to settle for the second step on the podium, but nevertheless extends his lead in the championship.

Daniel Ricciardo took his fourth podium of the season after holding off a fast Lewis Hamilton at the end of the race. Hamilton attacked in the last two laps but he couldn't get by the Australian, with Ricciardo hanging on to get his Red Bull inside the top 3.

Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for fifth in the other Ferrari, followed by Romain Grosjean in the Haas, matching the team's fantastic result that was achieved in Australia of 2016 when the American outfit made its debut in F1.

Points for Force India and Williams

Force India took home another handful of points as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon crossed the line seventh and eighth respectively. Both drivers managed to stay out of issues after a trouble-filled couple of races. 

No doubt Williams will be somewhat happy with its result as Felipe Massa came home in ninth place. Massa was stuck behind Ocon for the second part of the race but couldn't move past the Frenchman for eighth place. Rounding out the top ten was the second Williams car of Lance Stroll.

More bad luck for Verstappen

Valtteri Bottas sprung off the line as the lights went out, and it was so precise that the stewards looked into whether or not it was a jump start. However, it was deemed completely fine to the closest of margins and the Mercedes driver received no penalty.

Max Verstappen headed into the Austrian Grand Prix with the hope of bringing an end to his streak of bad luck, however, his race ended at the first corner when he was involved in a collision with Fernando Alonso and Daniil Kvyat.

The Dutchman's start was poor as he had a clutch problem and went into anti-stall, and started to drop down the order. At Turn 1, Kvyat looked up and hit into the rear of Alonso who, in turn, ran into Verstappen. While Kvyat was able to continue on, Verstappen and Alonso were out.

? LAP 1, TURN 1: Replays show KVY hit ALO who spun into VER ___Escaped_link_676aea4ede58a___ ?? ___Escaped_link_676aea4ede58c___ pic.twitter.com/MJfeIp1GzM

— Formula 1 (@F1) ___Escaped_link_676aea4ede58e___

Grosjean made a great start and catapulted himself up into P4. Daniel Ricciardo got his elbows out at Turn 3 to get by Kimi Raikkonen which proved decisive for the end result. 

Dangerous strategy for Hamilton

On lap 32, with over half of the race distance left to go, Hamilton pitted for the ultra soft tyres, getting rid of the super softs which started to give him trouble. It was a risky strategy for Mercedes, as Hamilton was being asked to do 40 laps of the softest compound.

On the following two laps, both Ricciardo and Vettel came into the pitlane to fit the super soft compound and ridding themselves of the ultra soft. Much of the field followed, with the likes of Grosjean, Perez and Stroll filing into the pitlane on lap 36.

Lap 44 saw leader Bottas come into the pits for his one and only stop. He was equipped with the super soft tyres, but a slow stop meant that he when he re-joined the track, he was behind Raikkonen who was yet to stop.

Ferrari saw this as an opportunity for Bottas to be held up and allow Vettel to close in on the Mercedes. However, with ageing tyres versus brand new ones, Bottas disposed of his fellow countrymen relatively quickly, causing Raikkonen to come into the pits.

Battle heats up as the race draws to a close

It wasn't plain sailing from there for Bottas though, as Vettel did begin to close in. Reminiscent of the Russian Grand Prix, Bottas was under pressure in the last couple of laps from Vettel. Bottas held on to cross the line just over half a second ahead of Vettel.

Behind them, there was another tasty battle between Ricciardo and Hamilton. Despite consistent complaints from Hamilton about his tyres, the Brit was undeniably faster than the Red Bull driver. On lap 70, Hamilton tried to pass around the outside of Turn 4 but couldn't make it stick. Ricciardo held on to take yet another podium in 2017. 

Along with the two retirements of Verstappen and Alonso, also hitting trouble was Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz. Magnussen had a gearbox problem on lap 30 and was forced to retire, rounding off a difficult weekend for the Dane. Sainz also had to return to the pitlane and switch off due to another car issue.

The champ! #AustrianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/KlVKviKfPl

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 9, 2017

Fergal Walsh

Photos Austria 2017

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