Having crucially kept the lead from main title rival Lewis Hamilton at the start, Verstappen pulled clear and was unc🌳hallenged as he converted pole posit🌠ion into a routine home win for Red Bull.

A fourth win from the op𒆙ening eight races of the season sees Verstappဣen extend his championship lead over Hamilton to 18 points.

Seven-time wor༒ld champion Hamilton briefly closed the gap to V🐼erstappen early in the second stint, but he ultimately had no answer to the Dutchman’s pace advantage and had to settle for a distant second place.

A rather dejected Hamilton once again highlighted Red Bull’🐟s straight-line speed advantage - which Mercedes believes is worth up to 0.250s - during the race as he fell away from Verstappen in the closing stages having struggled with blistering.

Hamilton made an extra stop with two laps to go to snatch the fastest lap bonus point on the final tour to red𒁃uce the damage of his latest defꦐeat to Verstappen.

There was late drama in the battle for the final spot on the podium as Valtteri Bottas🌱 benefitted from the undercut to leapfrog Red Bull’s Se🐈rgio Perez, who made an extra stop and hunted Bottas down, but ultimately fell just 0.527s short of the rostrum.

Verstappen’s 🃏win was Red Bull’s fourth in a row, mark𒈔ing the first time in the V6 hybrid era that Mercedes has gone four races without a victory.

With a second race in Austria to come next weekend, Hamilton and Mercedes appear to be fa🔯cing an uphill battle if they are to strike back in the championship rac🦩e and prevent Red Bull and Verstappen from scampering further clear.

McLaren’s Lando Norris continued his stunning start to 2021 with an excellent drive to fifth, ahead of the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who brilliantly recoꦦvered from a poor start to charge to seventh.

Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda completed the points-paying positions for Aston Martin, Alpine and AlphaTauri respectivel💮y.

Despite produc൲ing a brilliant performance, George Russell’s hopes of sealing a first points finish for Williams were cruelly ended by an engin🍃e issue.

The Briton, who has his eyes on Bottas’ Mercedes seat for 2𝓀022, had been running in a comfortable P8 before✤ his power unit problem struck, forcing him to retire on Lap 39.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was the only other driver who failed to fi🍰nish, with the Frenchman suffering a puncture and race-ending suspension damage after a clash with Leclerc on the run to Turn 3 on the opening lap.

Click here for full race results from the 2021 F1 Styrian Grand Prix.