Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria welcomed the F1 teams for round 11, which marked the halfway point of the 2022 season. The shortest circuit of the calendar was to host the second Sprint of the season.
In qualifying, which took place on Friday already, track limits played a significant role. Both Sainz's and Verstappen's fastest lap times were deleted at the beginning of Q1 due to exceeding the track limits in Turn 10. Ferrari stood out of other teams in terms of tyre strategy. Both drivers made their first runs on a used set of soft Pirellis both in Q1 and Q2. Mercedes were able to show improved performance also at Red Bull Ring, and all top three teams were represented within the top three of the second session. Leclerc was topping the timesheets with Verstappen second and Hamilton third. Worth noting was also the competitive performance of both Haas drivers. Both Magnussen and Schumacher were able to make it through into Q3, although Mick made it by nine thousandths of a second only. On the other hand, neither one of the McLaren drivers made it within the top ten. Perez's last flying lap in Q2 was taken into investigation by the stewards due to a suspected track limit infringement in Turn 8. However, the possible infringement was to be investigated after the qualifying.
Q3 saw unexpected drama and rarely-seen mistakes by the Mercedes drivers. After the first flyers Verstappen was topping the standings, but only by 0.091s to Leclerc. Sainz was third, Perez fourth and Russell fifth. Hamilton had aborted his first flyer having set the screens purple in sector one but having made a mistake in sector two. On his second run the 7-time world champion lost control of his W12 in Turn 7 and crashed into the tyre wall. The session was red-flagged with 5:29 in the clock. As the session was resumed, teammate Russell rushed out right away along with the Scuderia drivers. Unbelievable but true, also Russell lost control of his car on his flying lap and crashed out in Turn 10. The session was red-flagged for the second time, with only 2:31 minutes remaining. Both Leclerc and Sainz managed to improve on their last runs. In sectors one and two it seemed, that Verstappen wasn't improving, but sector three saw the flying Dutchman jump to the top of the timesheets by 0.029s to Leclerc. Teammate Sainz was third, only 0.082s off Verstappen's benchmark. Perez qualified fourth, but in the end, the Mexican had made a track limit infringement in the qualifying and was therefore dropped down to P13. This meant P4 for Russell, P5 for Ocon (Alpine), P6 for Magnussen (Haas), P7 for Schumacher (Haas), P8 for Alonso (Alpine), P9 for Hamilton and P10 for Gasly (AlphaTauri).
The Williams duo of Albon and Latifi and the Aston Martin duo of Vettel and Stroll were the only drivers to start to the Sprint on soft Pirellis. Everyone else opted for the medium compound, which was the expected choice. There was technical drama on the formation lap already; Alonso's Alpine stopped on the grid, and the mechanics had to push the car into the pits. An inevitable fact was, that Alonso was out before the start already. Also Zhou's Alfa Romeo came to a halt on the start finish straight, which caused an extra formation lap. However, the Chinese was able to start to the Sprint from the pit lane.
There was huge tension at the start. Pole-setter Verstappen made a move to the right to block Leclerc, which opened the door for Sainz. Verstappen maintained his lead, but Carlos got momentarily ahead of his teammate and took the battle to Verstappen. This, however, enabled Charles to claim back his second place. On lap 7 Carlos made another move on his teammate, making it past Charles, but locked up his wheels into Turn 3. Charles immediately claimed back his second place. I was hungry to see more thrilling battle between the Ferrari teammates, but unfortunately it didn't go on any further. Perez had taken a dream start in the sister Red Bull, having climbed up five places from P13 up to P8. By lap 12 the Mexican had made his way up to P5 already.
Further down in the pack there was intense battle between the Haas drivers and Mercedes' Hamilton for the very last point. The Briton was putting immense pressure on Schumacher, who defended his position splendidly. With only two laps to go, Hamilton finally managed to squeeze his W12 past Schumacher's Haas and lay his hands on the desired last point.
Unfortunately there was no fighting for the podium places. Verstappen cruised to victory on his playground in front of the orange army, taking 8 points under his belt. The Scuderia duo of Charles and Carlos completed the podium, with Russell 4th, Perez 5th and Ocon 6th. Magnussen in his Haas claimed two points by finishing 7th and Hamilton scored the very last point for Mercedes.
In terms of the GP start, the front row stayed the same: Verstappen on pole and Charles alongside him. Sainz and Russell lined up on the second row, followed by Perez and Alpine's Ocon. As the lights went out, Verstappen accelerated into the lead. Russell took an impressive start from P4, and the Briton aggressively challenged Sainz for the third place. However, Perez also took the battle to Russell only a moment later, going into the outside of the Briton. Their wheels touched and Perez span on the gravel. He was able to continue but had to pit for a new nose and fresh tyres, which dropped him down to the very back of the pack. Ten laps later Russell was handed a 5-second time penalty for causing the collision.
Verstappen proved unable to pull away from Leclerc, who had no difficulties to keep up within striking distance from his rival. A couple of times the Monegasque even made it alongside Verstappen, who was just barely able to defend his lead. On lap 12, however, Charles' patience was rewarded, as he dived alongside Verstappen, making it past and taking the lead!
Although Pirelli had predicted a one-stop race, Verstappen pitted on lap 13 already. He switched to the hard compound and rejoined the track in P8. However, other drivers were to pit, too and by lap 19 Verstappen had moved up to third after overtaking Hamilton.
There was an intense and entertaining battle for the last points. Magnussen in his Haas made a classy overtaking move on McLaren's Norris, claiming P8. Behind this duo Haas teammate Schumacher made his way past Alpine's Alonso. Austrian GP definitely didn't let the fans down but offered colourful and eventful racing.
On lap 26 Perez drove into the pits, and his RB18 was pushed into the pit garage. Meanwhile both Ferrari drivers pitted on the sequential laps, which restored Verstappen in the race lead. Sainz came back out in P4 behind Hamilton, who hadn't pitted yet.
Leclerc's pace on the fresh hard tyres was flying, and by lap 32 he had chased down Verstappen, who described his car unpredictable, as on some laps there was front grip and on others there wasn't. Honestly, Verstappen proved utterly toothless against Charles' attack on lap 33. The Monegasque stormed past Max and started to pull away from the Dutchman immediately. The actions spoke louder than words; it was the second time in the race, that Charles overtook Max, and purely by driving! A few laps later Max pitted for the second time already, switching to another set of hard Pirellis.
Race leader Charles pitted on lap 49, also for the second time. Teammate Carlos pitted a lap later, which once again handed the lead to Verstappen. Once again Charles closed the gap to Verstappen in just a few laps, and on lap 53 the storming Monegasque made already his third successful overtaking move on Max, robbing the championship leader of the race lead. Carlos followed his teammate's example and started his hunt.
However, the fate had some unpleasant surprises in the cards for Sainz, who suffered a sudden engine failure, once he had chased down Verstappen and an overtaking move was just a matter of time. Carlos' SF75 caught fire, and there were big flames coming through the side pods of his car. Carlos had difficulties to get out of his car, as it was rolling down hill. But danger aside, even more pain Carlos must have felt mentally, as DNF was a big hit in terms of the championship battle.
Virtual safety car was deployed, and both Leclerc and Verstappen pitted for fresh medium tyres. As the race was back on, the gap between Charles and Max was 3.8 seconds. Charles complained on the team radio, that his throttle pedal felt weird. However, the team reported, that the issue didn't show in the lap times. On the closing laps Charles and Max drove identical lap times. Max managed to decrease the gap into two seconds, but he wasn't able to take the battle to Charles today.
Charles crossed the finish line as the race winner for the 5th time in his career. Verstappen finished the runner-up and took the extra point for the fastest lap time. Hamilton completed the podium for the fourth time this season. Russell finished fourth, also bringing valuable points for Mercedes. Schumacher brought 8 points for Haas, which is his career best result. Schumacher's superb driving didn't go unnoticed, as the German was voted as the Driver of the Day by fans. Teammate Magnussen finished in P8 behind McLaren's Norris and ahead of Ricciardo in the sister McLaren.
The DNFs of Perez and Sainz meant, that Leclerc jumped second in the drivers' championship standings. Verstappen now has 208 points to Leclerc's 170, Perez's 151 and Sainz's 133. Mercedes' Russell is only five points down on Sainz. In the constructors' standings Red Bull have a 56-point advantage over Ferrari with 11 more races to go.
Ferrari have two weeks to do their homework in terms of the reliability problems. France and Le Castellet offers a fresh chance to do things better than their rivals. Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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