The stage in Austria after the previous, frankly boring races, gave hope that this time the Grand Prix will certainly be interesting. It was especially possible to talk about this against the background of very entertaining races in the supporting series – from Formula 3 to the Porsche Super Bowl – and the sprint, frankly, did not let us down. True, in the sprint, the heavenly office intervened in what was happening on the track, and in the race on Sunday it all went to this very office that would only fool us with hints of rain and close for lunch at the most inopportune moment. . So basically it worked.
True, even without the weather before the start of the race there was enough intrigue. At the very least, one could expect big gains from the drivers who failed in qualifying: Sergio Perez and George Russell. Perez, for example, badly needed this race to support sprint starts and score as many points as possible to reduce rumors of an imminent replacement. Yes, and Russell in recent races was somewhat disappointing against Hamilton, and the future team leader should not be inferior to the multiple world champion who is approaching the twilight of his career.
Both starts – for Verstappen
Verstappen retained the lead at the start, repelling attacks from Charles Leclerc, and behind Yuki Tsunoda, he broke the front wing on Esteban Okon’s Alpin, littering the track with fragments of the front wing, and the safety car left.
At the restart, the leaders held their positions, and in the opening of the DRS, the Dutchman completely left Leclerc by a second. The race passed to a quiet stage, except that behind Sergio Pérez he continued to enter the top ten after starting from 15th position. By lap 11, Cheko had already approached the points zone, starting in 11th place.
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“Ferrari” is “Ferrari”…
On lap 14 Niko Hulkenberg stopped on track, a virtual safety car mode was announced, which some of the drivers took advantage of, running to his first pit stop of the race. In fact, everyone had a pit stop, except the Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin drivers. At Ferrari, at the end of the VSC period, they did a double pit stop, in which Sainz eventually lost two positions at once, leaving Hamilton and Norris to take the lead. Carlos dealt with Lando quickly and Hamilton retired, receiving a five-second penalty for violating track limits.
Sainz soon caught up with Pérez and easily got ahead of the Mexican, setting off in search of Leclerc. True, he was inferior to the Monegasque at that time for five seconds.
Pérez lost momentum at the end of the first third of the distance and was under fire from attacks from Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton, in turn, for the first 20 laps managed to complain about literally everything. About the speed of the car, the handling of it, arbitration and rivals, allegedly constantly violating the limits of the track.
Pérez and Verstappen went to the first pit stop. Verstappen, after stopping, let Leclair, who had stopped earlier, go ahead. Pérez, after stopping, rolled again to the area of tenth position, so it was necessary to resume the advance.
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In round 30, Sainz also chose the limit breaking limit, also receiving a five-second penalty, giving Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris a chance for a podium finish. It turns out that a little later, just a chance.
Verstappen caught up with Leclerc midway through the race, retaking the lead. At the same time, the Dutchman, having overtaken, immediately broke away from the Ferrari driver. At this point, a good half of the field was already with bookings or with penalties for the limits of the track.
On lap 45, Carlos Sainz went to the second stop. Ferrari also failed to change the tires well on the second try, so Sainz again let Norris go ahead. True, not for long – Carlos immediately regained his position.
After the latest wave of pit stops, Pérez made it into the Sainz-Norris group with 15 laps to go, driving Lando and engaging Carlos. The struggle between two Spanish-speaking pilots was hot and lasted several laps, Sainz beautifully took his wing, allowing Pérez to overtake in the third lap, but from the third period Pérez himself took DRS and moved to third position. But at that moment there was no chance of catching up with Leclerc.
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Verstappen was not enough just to win
Verstappen pitted for a smooth and fast lap one lap before the end of the race and set it up with ease. Max led the race to a landslide victory, which was his seventh of the season and 42nd of his career. Charles Leclerc came second to the finish line, third was Pérez, who rehabilitated himself due to a qualifying failure. Sainz finished fourth, Norris fifth. The top ten was closed by Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Gasley and Stroll.
The race in Austria turned out to be surprisingly militant, even if the result was somewhat predictable. Formula 1 has shown that, in principle, this series is capable of showing the fight, and not just demo racing, which was similar to some of the previous races.
F-1 is now entering the active phase of the season and will return to the UK stage in a week.
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