Verstappen dominates Austria sprint as Ferraris squabble

Max Verstappen dominated the second Formula 1 sprint race of the season of the 2022 season beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who squabbled with each other early in the Austria race.

Verstappen led from the sprint race pole but was harried by his chief title rival Leclerc on the run to Turn 1.

Leclerc’s look to the inside of Verstappen at Turn 1 allowed his Ferrari team-mate Sainz to sweep around the outside of him and into second place.

The duo would fight all the way to the Turn 4 right-hander, where Leclerc had the inside to reclaim the position.

Sainz didn’t give up though and while Verstappen bolted clear at the front, Sainz stayed within DRS range of Leclerc and made a couple of attempts before eventually conceding.

Leclerc couldn’t make an impression on Verstappen and couldn’t stop the reigning F1 champion from scooping his third sprint race win in two years.

Leclerc and Sainz completed the sprint race podium ahead of qualifying crasher George Russell, who started and finished in fourth place.

Sergio Perez was able to recover to within one place of where he originally qualified before he was stripped of his fastest Q2 time and all of his Q3 laps for track limits abuse in Q2.

LAP 9 & 10/23

Perez gets past Schumacher at Turn 3, and then sweeps past Magnussen a lap later.

Checo is up to P6 #AustrianGP #F1Sprint pic.twitter.com/GhPz1YVrlK

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 9, 2022

The Red Bull driver took fifth place ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who claimed sixth place and benefitted from the Haas drivers fending off the recovering Lewis Hamilton.

There was drama after the race for Ocon, though, as he stopped on track on the slowdown lap.

Ocon reported he had a problem and was instructed by his Alpine team to stop the car and switch it off on the run from Turn 1 up to Turn 3.

Hamilton began his fightback from the ninth place that his qualifying crash left him in with contact with Pierre Gasly into Turn 1.

His slow start dropped him to 11th, but he was able to recover to ninth with moves on Alex Albon on lap four into Turn 1 and his old team-mate Valtteri Bottas four laps later at Turn 3.

But he then became stuck behind Mick Schumacher, who was receiving DRS assistance from his Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

When Schumacher dropped out of Magnussen’s DRS on the second to last lap, Hamilton was finally able to pounce and claimed eighth place.

But he didn’t have enough time to stop Magnussen picking up seventh place and two valuable points for Haas, ahead of Hamilton, Schumacher and Bottas who rounded out the top 10.

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo progressed from 15th and 16th on the grid to 11th and 12th.

There was drama before the start of the sprint race as eighth place starter Fernando Alonso had to be wheeled off the starting grid with a problem aboard his Alpine.

An extra formation lap was then required when Zhou Guanyu’s engine briefly cut out and he had to stop his Alfa Romeo just short of the starting grid.

Zhou recovered to 14th place when an Albon penalty for pushing Norris off the track at Turn 3 was applied.

Albon is also under investigation for tipping Sebastian Vettel into the gravel through the Turn 6 left-hander.

His penalty left him 16th while Vettel retired with damage shortly before the chequered flag.

Sprint Qualifying Results