MOTORSPORT: Suddenly it's F1 at its Max

Just a week after one of its dullest races, in France, Formula 1 delivered a ripper in Austria, with Max Verstappen returning Honda to the winner's circle at last.

But, as so often with Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, it was not without drama and controversy.

After fluffing his front-row start alongside polesitting fellow 21-year-old Charles Leclerc and immediately dropping to seventh, Verstappen carved his way through the field and, on the third-last lap, muscled past the second-year driver, in his first season at Ferrari, forcing him wide and making him very angry.

Although unable to catch Verstappen then, Leclerc stayed close to the Dutchman to the chequered flag, anticipating a five-second penalty on Verstappen that would have reversed the finishing order.

But the stewards declared, three hours after the finish, that neither driver was "wholly or predominantly to blame" for the turn-three clash and that it was simply a "racing incident".

While the stewards undoubtedly made their decision on the basis of all they saw from replays, they might have had trouble leaving the circuit unharmed if they had penalised Verstappen, who had an army of orange-shirted Dutch supporters at the A1 Ring.

Verstappen is now a six-time GP winner and has overtaken Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in the drivers' world championship to be third behind Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

It is the first time in nine GPs this year that Mercedes has not won.

Verstappen and Leclerc are the youngest drivers to finish one-two in F1, while Bottas was third last night, Vettel fourth after missing final qualifying and Hamilton fifth with front wing damage.

The Mercs struggled to stay cool on the short, undulating circuit, home ground for Verstappen's team and where the Dutchman also won last year, with Renault power then.

He and his Red Bull bosses defended his tactics on Leclerc as simply "hard racing".

Leclerc had left 'the door' open but Verstappen overshot the apex of the corner and ran him off the road.

"If those things are not allowed in racing then we have to stay home," Verstappen said.

"Wow! After that start I thought the race was over, but we just kept pushing. After the pitstop (10 laps after Leclerc) we were flying (on the fresher tyres)."

Leclerc's argument was that Verstappen had left him a car width when trying the move a lap earlier but that the second time he had been unable to fight back after having been pushed so wide.

While it was a bitter pill for Ferrari after the five-second penalty that cost Vettel the Canadian GP three weeks earlier, the Italian team will not appeal.

The Austrian weekend was "a struggle" for Australia's Daniel Ricciardo, the carsales.com.au global ambassador finishing only 12th -- but still ahead of Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg, after neither made it through to the third session of qualifying.

However, McLaren — using the same Renault power unit — had both its drivers finish ahead of the factory Renaults, with rookie Lando Norris sixth and Carlos Sainz Junior eighth from the back of the grid.

But the most embarrassed driver of the day had to be Pierre Gasly, who — although seventh — was lapped by Red Bull teammate Verstappen.

The French youngster's future after replacing Ricciardo there must be on shaky ground.

Meanwhile, Honda's victory in the rear of Red Bull's RB15 came in its fifth year back in F1 — the first three of them with McLaren and under constant fire from the great Spanish driver Fernando Alonso, whose hopes of a return to GP racing are probably now dashed by the performance of this year's McLaren pairing.

It was Honda's first victory since the 2006 Hungarian GP with Jenson Button and its own team.

While it is now motivated for more success, against the might of Mercedes particularly on circuits more suited to the Silver Arrows, Honda is still a long way from returning to the glory days of the late 1980s and early '90s with the McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

McLaren is now 20 points clear of Renault in this year's constructors' championship, 52-32, behind Mercedes on 363, Ferrari 228 and Red Bull 169, which would be much more if not for Gasly dragging the chain.

Hamilton still has a comfortable lead in the driver standings with 197 points to Bottas' 166, Verstappen's 166, Vettel's 123 and Leclerc's 105.

Ricciardo and Hulkenberg remain equal 10th on 16 points.

The next race is the British GP at Silverstone on July 14.