F1 Austrian GP: Charles Leclerc survives to victory with throttle issues
10th July 2022Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc managed to hold off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen charge to secure the Austrian Grand Prix win, despite problems with his throttle pedal.
How the race unfolded…
When the lights went out, it was a great start from Verstappen who managed to lead into the first corner ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Slightly further back, Mercedes’ George Russell slipped up to third as he took the inside line into turn one ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Sainz had to take the run-off area but he quickly rejoined the track and put Russell back under pressure.
The battle continued up to turn three but Perez had entered the fight behind both the Mercedes and the Ferrari. On the exit of turn three, Sainz was able to crawl away from the Red Bull and Mercedes which left Perez and Russell to battle it out for fourth place.
However, this battle only lasted until turn four as the two drivers made contact and Perez spun out onto the gravel trap. The Mexican was able to get out of the trap but he slowly crawled back to the pit lane, with side pod damage, to swap his yellow-ringed medium tyres for the white-ringed hards.
As the two drivers reached the braking zone, of turn four, the two drivers were wheel-to-wheel but Russell’s front-left tyre clipped the rear-right of Perez which sent the Mexican flying into the trap. Russell was soon given a five-second time penalty for causing the collision.
By the end of lap eight, Perez was already lapped by his teammate Verstappen who was in an intense battle between himself and Leclerc.
On lap 12, Russell came in to serve his time penalty, put on the hard tyres and swap his front nose over for a brand new one. At the same time, Leclerc – who had been lining up a move on Verstappen – successfully overtook the defending world champion as the Monegasque slipped down the inside into turn four.
A lap later, Verstappen was the first driver – out in front – to come in for his mandatory pit stop, in a bid to undercut the #16 Ferrari.
At the end of lap 26, Leclerc was the first driver out of both Ferrari’s to swap their worn mediums for fresh hards. A lap later, Sainz pitted for exchange his mediums for a fresh set of hard tyres. This allowed Verstappen to finally move back up into the lead but he had 13-lap old tyres compared to the Ferrari’s brand new compounds.
Despite Hamilton’s slow 4.1 second stop, as he filtered back into the race P6 behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, managed to dispatch both drivers with ease to return back up to P4. Although, Stroll didn’t put up much of a fight as he pitted for his mandatory stop.
On lap 33, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was the first driver to receive a five-second penalty for track limits. On the same lap, Leclerc had cruised up to the back of Verstappen into turn one. With assistance from his Drag Reduction System, the Monegasque made light work of Verstappen into turn three and returned to the lead.
Norris soon joined Gasly with a 5-second time penalty to his name for exceeding track limits.
Verstappen pitted once more, on lap 37, to replace his tyres for another fresh of the hard compounds. During that time, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso found himself in an interesting fight with Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda on the exit of turn three.
As the two battled, Tsunoda squeezed Alonso to the edge of the track which pushed the Spaniard onto the grass, as well as the circuit. Regardless, Alonso kept his foot in and overtook Tsunoda. The Alpine driver showcased his disapproval as he wagged his finger towards the young Japanese driver.
On lap 40, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou was another driver who found himself with a five-second time penalty for a track limit violation.
On the same lap, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel found himself in the gravel after he made contact with Gasly around turn four. The Frenchman was on the inside as the two drivers raced around the corner, but the #10 Alpha understeered into the side of Vettel and the two inevitably came together.
This incident was put under investigation and Gasly quickly picked up yet another five-second penalty for causing the collision.
As the race rolled onto its 50th lap, Leclerc came back into the pits and briefly stopped with a blistering 2.4 stop to replace his worn hard tyres for a fresh set of the same compound. As a result, of Verstappen’s earlier stop, the reigning world champion returned to the lead of the race. However, the Dutchman had 13-lap older tyres than both Ferrari’s.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi also returned to the pit lane, as the Ferrari’s conducted their second stops. But, the Canadian was pushed into his garage to become the second retirement of the race
On lap 52, Hamilton pitted for a second stop. While the rest of the front runners opted to exchange their wheels for another set of the hard tyres, the seven-time world champion had a fresh set of mediums fitted to his W13 for a fairly aggressive final stint.
A lap later, Leclerc made a move into turn three to regain the lead of the race around the outside. However, Verstappen took a very tight line into the corner and failed to get enough traction to fight back down to turn four. As a result, Leclerc was able to walk away with the race lead.
Sainz who was P3 looked to move up to P2 as he tried to get past Verstappen into turn three on Verstappen. But Sainz was seen going slowly as his engine failed on him, down into turn four. As the #55 Ferrari drove onto the run off area, his car became engulfed in flames but the Spaniard struggled to do so as the car continued to roll backwards.
Fortunately, the track marshals were able to extinguish the fire and allow Sainz to evacuate the car. As a result of the stranded Ferrari, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed.
During the VSC intervention, both Leclerc and Verstappen ventured into the pit lane for the third time to exchange their hard tyres for the medium compounds. The VSC ended soon after.
Only seven laps remained of the race and Leclerc remained ahead of Verstappen by three seconds. However, the Monegasque reported potential issues with his throttle pedal to his pit wall. His race engineer suggested there was something inside the cockpit which hindered the pedal’s movement.
This problem with Leclerc’s pedal allowed Verstappen to start to chip away at the Monegasque’s lead. As a result, the throttle had resulted in problems to the Ferrari’s downshifts. Despite all of this, the Monegasque driver managed to hold onto his race lead to seal his first with from outside pole position.
Podium:
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
That’s it for the article: F1 Austrian GP: Charles Leclerc survives to victory with throttle issues! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here!
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- F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen commands sprint race win
- POLL: Sergio Perez recieves nine-place grid penalty for sprint
- F1 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen secures pole as both Mercedes crash out
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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.
