MOTORSPORT: Red letter day, but not for Dan

Max Verstappen, still three months short of 21, did most of the celebrating on Daniel Ricciardo’s 29th birthday, winning the Austrian Grand Prix as the Australian was denied a likely second place by tyre wear and then a cracked exhaust that may have damaged his gearbox.

Ricciardo was “obviously disappointed” to drop out 18 laps short of the finish while Verstappen triumphed in front of a sea of orange – an estimated 20,000 Dutch fans who made the pilgrimage to watch him at the Red Bull Ring.

Carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo dropped a spot in the Formula 1 drivers’ world championship to fourth, with Verstappen now just three points behind him (96-93).

Paddock pundits were almost certain over the weekend that 20-year-old rookie Charles Leclerc is going to be at Ferrari next season rather than Ricciardo.

Neither Mercedes factory entry finished for the first time since the infamous Nico Rosberg-Lewis Hamilton collision in Spain more than two years ago – the day Verstappen scored the first of his four GP wins (as many as Eddie Irvine and the late Bruce McLaren).

Last night also was the first time Mercedes had both its factory cars drop out with mechanical issues since its return to F1 in 2010 – indeed, for the first time in a GP since 1955, although it skipped more than half a century in the sport.

Having shared the front row of the grid, Valtteri Bottas’ Merc was out with a hydraulic problem after just 13 laps, while Hamilton retired eight laps from the finish with a lack of fuel pressure.

What looked like being a cruisy victory for Hamilton was squandered when the team did not pit him under a virtual safety car after Bottas’ retirement and the reigning world champion then had trouble with his tyres blistering.

The Ferraris finished second and third, the Italian stable not imposing team orders as Kimi Raikkonen led home Sebastian Vettel, who nonetheless regained the championship lead from Hamilton by one point.

All six Ferrari-powered cars finished in the top 10.

The Haas team’s Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were in the top five, albeit a lap down but giving the American outfit its best finish in 50 GPs and just its third season.

The Saubers driven by Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson were ninth and 10th – the first double points finish for the Swiss-based team since the 2015 Chinese GP.

Leclerc has now been in the top 10 at five of the past six GPs, with only Vettel in the points at all six.

The Mercedes-powered Force Indias were sixth and seventh last night, Esteban Ocon ahead of Sergio Perez, while the mercurial Fernando Alonso was eighth in his McLaren, with Renault power like the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo, after starting from the pitlane.

Ferrari has taken a 10-point lead in the constructors’ championship from Mercedes (247-237) while Raikkonen is now third in the drivers’ championship after his fifth podium in a season many expect to be his last.

Raikkonen, who made a blinding start from the second row to get between the Mercs before the first turn and set the fastest lap at the end of the race, has 101 points to Ricciardo’s 96, Verstappen’s 93 and the unlucky Bottas’ 92.

Hamilton said the race in the Styrian mountains near Spielberg was “the worst I can remember in a very, very long time”. His race engineer apologised to him over the radio for the pitstop strategy error.

Hamilton’s DNF ended his streak of 33 races in the points.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said it had been “a tremendously painful day”.

“We were one and two on the grid, Lewis had a fantastic first lap (getting ahead of pole man Bottas) and then DNF-ing twice – and obviously losing the race under the virtual safety car. It doesn’t get any more cruel for us,” Wolff said.

Merc’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “We weren’t reliable enough, we didn’t make the right strategy call, our starts weren’t good enough and we didn’t manage the tyres as well as we could have done. We have to improve by Silverstone (next weekend’s British GP) and we need to put all our focus into remedying our weaknesses.”

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner praised Verstappen for driving a “very mature, very controlled race, managing a very tricky situation with the tyres” in the hotter-than-expected temperatures.

“Max absolutely nailed it and it was a great shame not to have Daniel up on the podium as well after running for many laps in second place,” Horner said.

But he said the victory belonged particularly to ‘Mr Red Bull’, Dietrich Mateschitz, “who has given so much to modern F1”.

Mateschitz was at the race and is thought to have encouraged Ricciardo, perhaps with his cheque book, to stick with Red Bull next season when it switches to Honda power.