Lewis Hamilton & Max Verstappen's Fierce Battle In Austria!

So, Hamilton and Verstappen side by side again. Turn three, a move that delights the crowd. Verstappen struggling with the brakes, Hamilton struggling with the tyres, but no matter for Verstappen, the five-time winner around here, momentarily up to second place, but Hamilton rolls by and there's the lock up to show how much Verstappen is struggling. The seven-time world champion and the four-time world champion separated by millimetres, nearly on the grass, trying to go the long way round at turn number six. Is there enough grip out there for Verstappen? And they're still continuing on, he brushes the gravel and he still won't yield. This is magical as Hamilton stays ahead. Yeah, look, it was brilliant to see them in six, seven, well, that was always going to end in a closing exit line, but ask Max to back off, no chance. If anyone tried to do the Max Verstappen move there on Max, he'd be fully in the gravel there, so he knows how to ruthlessly defend the inside line. Hamilton doing only what Max would have done there if the roles were reversed. And George Russell's lead, just like that, is up to 5.2 seconds. Hard racing between the pair of them. Late lunge and a chance and it's taken for Max Verstappen. So it was a defensive shape thrown by Hamilton, but Hamilton was unable to prevent Verstappen from going by. He gets back once again. There he is into our picture, still ahead, but Verstappen in a couple of laps, DC, able to close down the gap and send one of those dive bomb moves at turn number three. Yeah, it's sort of rinse and repeat from here. Verstappen goes again and he jumps across Hamilton and he gets by this time into turn six. Max Verstappen up to third place. Memories of the battle that we saw earlier in the Grand Prix and Max Verstappen has 3.1 seconds to close up. He is in the fight for victory for the first time this year. And it's brilliant racing as well from him. I love the aggression that he's throwing inside or outside. He knows that he needs to clear this Ferrari. Hamilton, as he did earlier on, using a little bit more energy deployment down to four, but Max just catching him unawares. It's not an easy place to throw a lunge late on the brakes at six, but he sent it in, ran offline. That doesn't matter. The move was done on the entry. It's a great pass and he's 3.2 seconds away from George Russell. So it's on still for Verstappen to keep Mercedes in check. It is. And what we're seeing this year with the opportunity to deploy in different areas is much more strategic racing.