Formula One: Max Verstappen cruises to victory at Styrian Grand Prix


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Max Verstappen dominated the Styrian Grand Prix from start to finish on Sunday, extending his lead at the top of the title race.

The Dutchman led every lap at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg to take the chequered flag 35 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes, with the Briton's teammate Valtteri Botas third.

Hamilton never threatened to challenge as Verstappen secured his second win in a week and fourth of the year, extending his lead in the drivers' championship from 12 points to 18 with Hamilton managing to secure a bonus point for fastest lap.

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez came in fourth while British driver Lando Norris was fifth for McLaren.

"You never know how it is going to end up but straight away I felt a good balance in the car," said Verstappen.

"It was good to manage the tyres from the start. They pitted one lap earlier than us, we reacted to that and we just kept on going, trying to hit our lap times – that worked really well today.

"That's really positive but we have to show it again next week. We'll definitely have a look as to what we can do better. I'm looking forward to next week.

"It's looking really good [for Red Bull]. We just have to keep pushing really hard and I'm confident we can do a really good job again."

Reigning world champion Hamilton admitted it was a mission impossible attempting to overtake the flying Red Bull after spending much of the race expressing frustration on his inability to cut into Verstappen's lead.

"It was a bit of a lonely race really," he said. "I was trying to keep up with those guys but, the speed they have – they've obviously made some big improvements. [It was] Impossible to keep up.

"They're faster, they're just faster. There's not a lot I can do in that respect. I've just got to keep trying to do the best I can do each weekend.

"We need to find some performance, we need an upgrade of some sort, we need to push. I don't know whether it's just the rear wing or whether it's the upgrade in the engine, but we've got to find some performance from somewhere."

Mercedes boss Toto Wollf insisted he was looking forward to analysing the race and finding a way for Hamilton to close the gap between him and Verstappen.

"It's been the first race in eight years where we were lacking pace," he said. "We have stopped developing for this year and we have to put our heads together and get the best out of that power unit.

"We are totally fired up. We were lacking pace but we will be doing the best we can and fighting back. We just didn't have the tools today to win – but the fight is not over."

After what has been a tense season of tight battles between Verstappen and Hamilton so far, there was very little to get the pulse racing in this race.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, though, did show tremendous fighting qualities to battle his way from last to a highly credible seventh-place finish, just behind teammate Carlos Sainz.

The Monegasque driver dropped to the back after damaging his front wing on the opening lap but produced a stirring attacking performance to work his way back through the crowd.

Completing the top 10 were Aston Martin's Lance Stroll in eighth, Fernando Alonso and Alpine taking ninth, one place ahead of AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda.

Major honours

ARSENAL

  • FA Cup - 2005

BARCELONA

  • La Liga - 2013
  • Copa del Rey - 2012
  • Fifa Club World Cup - 2011

CHELSEA

  • Premier League - 2015, 2017
  • FA Cup - 2018
  • League Cup - 2015

SPAIN

  • World Cup - 2010
  • European Championship - 2008, 2012
The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

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Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

The President's Cake

Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem 

Rating: 4/5

'Young girls thinking of big ideas'

Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.

“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”

In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.

“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”

Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.

“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”

rpennington@thenational.ae

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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D 
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India

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