They can’t all be classics, but that doesn’t mean they can’t also be particularly significant, and Sunday’s first race in Austria might just prove to be one of the most significant of the 2021 season.
It’s not that it will be worth more points or that anyone will look back and rue a missed opportunity – well, not among the frontrunners anyway – but the Styrian Grand Prix was a textbook Mercedes race where the leader pulled away with ease, the second car scrapped for the final podium position and the main rival ended up too far adrift so rescued an extra point for fastest lap having not really been in the race for victory.
Only on this occasion, that leader was Max Verstappen in a Red Bull, and the car unable to stay in touch was a Mercedes piloted by Lewis Hamilton.
