Brawn: Max a machine, Lando punching above his weight

Verstappen was immense at Red Bull Ring, powering to his team to a fifth successive victory this season, rubbing it in with a double-drubbing they handed Mercedes at Dietrich Mateschitz pet Projekt Spielberg.

It does not get sweeter for the energy drinks team, as they lead both championships for the first time in years and are favourites to deny Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton a slew of records they would set/smash they were planning to celebrate at the end of the season.

But, Brawn's Driver of the Day was Norris, McLaren's shooting star has been excellent all season (ask Daniel Ricciardo...) and this past weekend he was cosmic with a fine qualifying run that nearly stole pole and then a memorable race.

When the red lights switched off, he was fast off the line, tucked into second chasing Verstappen who zoomed off into the distance. Norris, however, was controversially penalised for what appeared to be a racing incident but kept his head down and wisely picked his battles.

He also gave a certain Mercedes a free pass when required, good forward-thinking by the 21-year-old, which got the admiration of none other than Hamilton, who had to dig deep in his battle with the lad.

In the end, Verstappen was the easy winner of the 71 lap race; Mercedes released Valtteri Bottas who did his shares no harm with second place, fending off a late charge by Norris at the end of the race.

In his regular post-race report on F1.com, Brawn said of the Englishman's drive to third place: "Based on the weekend as a whole, Lando is my driver of the day. He delivered a sensational qualifying performance and followed it up with a great race.

"Max was a machine again, but I think Lando was punching well above his weight – and that’s what makes him my Driver of the Day.

"He was highly rated when he arrived in Formula 1 – and is now consistently delivering on that expectation. The McLaren driver has been constantly evolving this year and seems to have made a major step. He’s an amazing talent."

Indeed Norris has been a revelation, his humbling of more experienced and super highly-rated Ricciardo has been cruel, without malice of course, on the Australian who simply cannot his ten year younger teammate.

While Verstappen is the benchmark driver, F1 has a next-gen talent pool ready to take control, with Norris clearly top of the pile thanks to his recent performances and constant improvement.

Brawn acknowledged: "We are blessed with the drivers we have right now. We’ve got the reference - which is Lewis, and then we’ve got Max, Lando, George, Carlos, Charles."

He spared a thought for George Russell, who again stuck the Williams in battles it has no place being in qualifying - as he did on Saturday with 8th on the grid, only to be gobbled up in the race. The Briton denied his first F1 point after a late charge by Alpine driver Fernando Alonso who stole the final point at the very end.

"There’s no doubt George will be disappointed," continued Brawn. "Missing out on his first point for Williams, but when the dust settles, he should be able to take the positives out of a weekend in which he was very, very strong.

"The other Williams has struggled but with George behind the wheel, that car is getting close to being respectable. he did a marvellous job in qualifying and a great job in the race. I was massively impressed," said the F1 chief.