F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen commands sprint race win
9th July 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen put in a stellar performance to secure yet another sprint race win to put himself on pole for the Grand Prix, on Sunday.
How the sprint unfolded…
The chaos had begun even before the Sprint had gotten underway. The Alpine of Fernando Alonso was left on his jacks, with his tyre blankets on. While Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou stopped at the back of the grid, as his engine cut out, while the rest of the field slotted into their grid slots.
However, Alonso’s mechanics couldn’t get the car working and forced Alonso to retire from the race while Zhou was forced to start from the pit lane.
When the race finally got underway, Verstappen blocked off the advance of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and managed to lead into the first corner while Leclerc was forced to filter in behind his teammate, Carlos Sainz.
Further back down the field, Hamilton was pinched between Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri and the Williams of Alexander Albon. As a result of the squeeze, Hamilton’s front right tyre made contact with the Frenchman’s rear-left. This contact launched Gasly into the air and into the run off.
Fortunately, the Frenchman was able to continue on.
Before the lap had even finished, the Ferrari’s found themselves in a canny scrap. As the duo raced down the back straight, Leclerc went down the inside, into turn three, to regain his second-place from Sainz.
By the end of the first lap, the order remained unchanged with Verstappen in the lead, followed by Leclerc and Sainz respectively.
As the fighting continued, between the two Ferrari’s, in the following laps, it allowed Verstappen to establish a healthy two-second gap out in front.
Albon was given a five-second time penalty as the London-born Thai driver forced McLaren’s Lando Norris off the track, at turn three, early on in the race.
Despite this penalty, Albon made contact with the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, on lap 11, which brought out a yellow flag as the #5 Aston Martin spun out onto the gravel trap. Fortunately, the four-time world champion was able to reverse out of the gravel and continue on his way – albeit at the back of the field.
Despite his best efforts, Hamilton wasn’t able to get past the Haas of Mick Schumacher as easily as Perez had, a handful of laps prior. However, on lap 22, the seven-time world champion was able to run up alongside the Haas driver into turn three and get past into turn four.
Top three:
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
That’s it for the article: F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen commands sprint race win! What was your favourite moment of the sprint? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here!
- POLL: Sergio Perez recieves nine-place grid penalty for sprint
- F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen secures pole as both Mercedes crash out
- F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen hits ground running in Spielberg
- F1 British GP: Carlos Sainz takes maiden win
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
