Mighty Max cruises to second win in Austria

Max Verstappen said his "car was on rails" as he made light work of the opposition to claim his third win in a row and his second in as many weeks at the Red Bull Ring.

The championship leader led every lap again in his Red Bull car on home soil, cruising to victory by a lengthy margin to Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton picked up damage in his Mercedes and struggled in the latter stages, having been running second after an excellent battle with Lando Norris early on.

Lando Norris celebrates his third spot, but he wanted second

The McLaren man was given a penalty when he was adjudged to have forced Sergio Perez off the track on the opening lap but claimed third spot.

Verstappen, who now leads the championship by 32 points, said: "It's incredible. The car was on rails on every tyre set we used. I'm a bit amazed how today went, I didn't expect it. It's an incredible result for everyone.

"The whole package in the last two weeks has been incredible.

"It was insane to see all the fans here, it's a great motivation and especially on the last few laps, there was a lot of orange!"

Bottas said: "For me, it's an improvement from last week. We got some decent point for the team considering the gap we have to Red Bull. It's the most we could get in the end.

"We've got two weeks before Silverstone and we've got a lot of work to do."

Norris said: "It was fun, exciting but I'm disappointed because we should have got second. Sergio was a bit stupid going around the outside. I'm frustrated but happy with P3.

"I think we had good pace towards the end but not enough to get close to Bottas. It's nice to know we could be close and race the Mercedes and I hope we can make it last."

Hamilton crossed the line fourth, ahead of Perez in the other Red Bull, but after being forced off on that first lap, himself picked up 10 seconds of penalty time after twice forcing off Charles Leclerc's Ferrari.

It means Carlos Sainz claimed fifth spot, with Perez in sixth, Daniel Ricciardo in seventh, Leclerc eighth, Pierre Gasly ninth and Fernando Alonso just edged out George Russell for the final points scoring spot.