Mercedes explains how they disarmed Verstappen: "Force him into stopping"

"We only had three days to understand the problem and produce parts in time for free practice, but we seem to be in a good place now which is a huge relief. That certainly helped us have a much smoother race today," said Shovlin in the review of Mercedes Sunday night.

Mercedes about Verstappen

The Mercedes performed well at the Red Bull Ring. "The car was pretty strong, and we were able to do what we needed in stint one. Lewis built a gap to Max and Valtteri got through the traffic so that we were in position to undercut or force him into stopping."

Three laps after Verstappen got new tires, it was the turn of the race leader. "We'd wanted to run a bit longer with Lewis on the first stint but we were approaching backmarkers so we decided to bring him in and bank the position. Valtteri stayed out to create an off-set tyre strategy to Max but again we decided to box as we approached some backmarkers at the end of the opening stint." the Brit concluded.