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| Photo from Motor Sport Magazine |
The Monegasque was in control of the race after the Dutchman dropped from second on the grid down to seventh, due to his anti-stall kicking in for a reason the team couldn't identify.
But before 10 laps had gone by, Verstappen passed McLaren's Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen to climb to fifth, behind only the two Mercedes, sandwiched by the Ferraris.
Sebastian Vettel and Bottas both pitted on lap 21, followed by Leclerc on the next lap, with Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen racing on medium tyres with the intention of gaining an advantage later on.
But damage to his front wing meant that Hamilton stopped on lap 30, and Verstappen rejoined the race 3.5 seconds behind Vettel after the Dutchman's stop on lap 31 - with Bottas five seconds ahead, and Leclerc four seconds ahead of the Finn.
German Vettel lost time on his pit stop when his tyres weren't ready, while Verstappen drove to protect his tyres early on before his pass on Vettel on lap 50.
He subsequently dispatched of Bottas on lap 56 and set after Leclerc.
Lando Norris drove superbly in the McLaren to be best of the rest in sixth, holding off the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly for much of the way.
Carlos Sainz made it a good day for McLaren with an excellent drive from the back of the grid as a result of engine penalties to take eighth, ahead of the Alfa Romeos of Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi - who won his first ever point in Formula One.
It would be easy to forget that Verstappen's triumph brings to an end Mercedes' stranglehold over the top podium position this season - their run actually extends to 10 races including the final two Grand Prixs last year.
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| Photo from BBC Sport |
After preventing the first overtake on the previous lap, the Red Bull got inside the Ferrari at Turn Three before Leclerc powered around the outisde and led into Turn Four.
But on the next lap, with two to go, Verstappen once again dived inside but this time he ran Leclerc off the road exiting the corner.
Verstappen got onto the radio immediately after the incident, saying to his team: "He turned into me."
His engineer Gianpiero Lambiase replied: "There was nothing wrong with that, mate."
Leclerc said to his team: "What the hell was that?"
Speaking after the race, Verstappen said: "It's hard racing or we have to stay home. If those things are not allowed in racing then we have to stay home."
Leclerc said: "The race was good. At the end I had a bit more [tyre] degradation than I thought so Max came back. On the incident, I will let the stewards decide. I was on the outside, like the lap before - which was perfectly fine, he left a car space - but he didn't on that lap and he pushed me wide so I didn't have the chance to fight back. It's a shame."
The FIA eventually confirmed the result would stand, after a delay longer than the whole of the race itself.
A statement read: "In the totality of the circumstances, we did not consider that either driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident. We consider that this is a racing incident."
This all comes just two races after Vettel was cost victory in Canada after being found guilty of dangerous driving against Hamilton, with a five-second penalty gifting the Englishman the win.
While the incidents were not the same - Vettel was rejoining after going off the track, while Verstappen was passing for the lead - it will raise questions over the procedure for dealing with such conflicts on the track.
It's hard to see why there was such a delay - you can only watch the incident so many times.
2019 Austrian Grand Prix Results
| # | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | 1:22:01.822 | 26 | |
| 2 | +2.724s | 18 | |
| 3 | +18.960s | 15 | |
| 4 | +19.610s | 12 | |
| 5 | +22.805s | 10 | |
| 6 | +1 lap | 8 | |
| 7 | +1 lap | 6 | |
| 8 | +1 lap | 4 | |
| 9 | +1 lap | 2 | |
| 10 | +1 lap | 1 | |
| 11 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 12 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 13 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 14 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 15 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 16 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 17 | +1 lap | 0 | |
| 18 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| 19 | +2 laps | 0 | |
| 20 | +3 laps | 0 |
#/Driver/Team/Points/Wins/Podiums
1/L Hamilton/Mercedes/197/6/8
2/V Bottas/Mercedes/166/2/8
3/M Verstappen/Red Bull/126/1/3
4/S Vettel/Ferrari/123/0/4
5/C Leclerc/Ferrari/105/0/4
6/P Gasly/Red Bull/43/0/0
7/C Sainz Jr./McLaren/30/0/0
8/L Norris/McLaren/22/0/0
9/K Räikkönen/Alfa Romeo/21/0/0
10/D Ricciardo/Renault/16/0/0
11/N Hülkenberg/Renault/16/0/0
12/K Magnussen/Haas/14/0/0
13/S Pérez/Racing Point/13/0/0
14/D Kvyat/Toro Rosso/10/0/0
15/A Albon/Toro Rosso/7/0/0
16/L Stroll/Racing Point/6/0/0
17/R Grosjean/Haas/2/0/0
18/A Giovinazzi/Alfa Romeo/1/0/0
19/G Russell/Williams/0/0/0
20/R Kubica/Williams/0/0/0
2019 Races and Results
Australian Grand Prix
Melbourne, 15-17 March
1. Bottas, 2. Hamilton, 3. Verstappen
Bahrain Grand Prix
Sakhir, 29-31 March
1. Hamilton, 2. Bottas, 3. Leclerc
Chinese Grand Prix
Shanghai, 12-14 April
1. Hamilton, 2. Bottas, 3. Vettel
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Baku, 26-28 April
1. Bottas, 2. Hamilton, 3. Vettel
Spanish Grand Prix
Barcelona, 10-12 May
1. Hamilton, 2. Bottas, 3. Verstappen
Monaco Grand Prix
Monte Carlo, 23, 25-26 May
1. Hamilton, 2. Vettel, 3. Bottas
Canadian Grand Prix
Montreal, 7-9 June
1. Hamilton, 2. Vettel, 3. Leclerc
French Grand Prix
Le Castellet, 21-23 June
1. Hamilton, 2. Bottas, 3. Leclerc
Austrian Grand Prix
Spielberg, 28-30 June
1. Verstappen, 2. Leclerc, 3. Bottas
British Grand Prix
Silverstone, 12-14 July
German Grand Prix
Hockenheim, 26-28 July
Hungarian Grand Prix
Budapest, 2-4 August
Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, 30 August-1 September
Italian Grand Prix
Monza, 6-8 September
Singapore Grand Prix
Marina Bay, 20-22 September
Russian Grand Prix
Sochi, 27-29 September
Japanese Grand Prix
Suzuka, 11-13 October
Mexican Grand Prix
Mexico City, 25-27 October
United States Grand Prix
Austin, 1-3 November
Brazilian Grand Prix
Sao Paulo, 15-17 November
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Yas Marina, 29 November-1 December
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