Valtteri Bottas, who had a disappointing qualifying yesterday after spinning out in the pit lane and receiving a three-grid place penalty - snatching P2 in qualifying plus three places to P5 - was able to bounce back and take the third step of the podium ahead of Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez, giving the Silver Arrows a double podium.

Top work VB! 🤜🤛 Great opportunism to poach P3 today, and a perfectly managed final stint. #StyrianGP pic.twitter.com/xi9bvZhaQt

- Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@ MercedesAMGF1) June 27, 2021

During the race, Bottas passed Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez in the first round of pit stops to move up to third place, and he kept his Hard compound tires in good shape for the rest of the race, despite a late charge from Perez, who had switched to a two-stop strategy. 

As the chequred flag was waved, in the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull (252 points) leads Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (212) points by 40 points. 

Post-race, Bottas comments, "From where I started, I think we maximized the race - starting from fifth and finishing third was a decent result."

He adds, "There was not much left in my tires at the end, today was more like rallying in Finnish Lapland than F1 in Austria! The Red Bulls seems two-tenths quicker than us each lap at the moment, which is quite a lot."

He continues, "Today we managed to beat one of them [the Red Bulls] which was good but we need to improve the car moving forward to compete for the win. We need to accept that they are ahead at the moment and use it as motivation."

He concluded, "It was a pretty clean weekend for me - other than the penalty - and P2 in qualifying and a podium finish is positive and I'm looking forward to next week."

Last words from @ValtteriBottas as we wrap up our #StyrianGP 🎬 Same time, same place again next week? 👍 pic.twitter.com/9uLYr3ixS3

- Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@ MercedesAMGF1) June 27, 2021