Max Verstappen has secured pole position after leading every lap of the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver looked to control the race from the very start pulling ahead to finish ahead of Charles Leclerc by a second and a half to further extend his championship lead to forty-four points.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman fended off strong attempts from the Ferrari drivers in the opening laps a Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz started scrapping over second when the sprint started. Leclerc enjoyed the best start of the top three going to the inside on the second start after an aborted first start, but Verstappen came back and swept around the outside at Castrol Edge.<\/p>\n
Sainz then tried to dive past Verstappen in the braking zone at Remus but as the Ferrari\u2019s started to squabble it allowed Verstappen to pull away and open a second lead by the end of the opening lap. The Spaniard showed more pace than his teammate on the open lap, but then he was squeezed towards the gravel when he locked up.<\/p>\n
Once he had cleared the Ferrari\u2019s Verstappen was able to gain time and pull ahead. Sainz meanwhile would have another go, but his teammate was faster and though he managed to pass Leclerc it didn\u2019t last longer than a corner, as the Monacan retook the place on the exit of the next corner.<\/p>\n
The top four all stayed in position in Saturday’s mini race, despite Carlos Sainz’s best efforts to pass Leclerc – with the Monegasque having aggressively forced his team-mate wide early on at Turn Four.<\/p>\n
As the Ferrari\u2019s continued their battle Sainz looked to try again, this time being squeezed into the gravel, this allowed Verstappen at this stage in the sprint to open a two-second lead. He then continued to grow that lead briefly, with Verstappen\u2019s final winning margin being 1.6 seconds, with Sainz nearly three further seconds off.<\/p>\n
Hope for Ferrari comes in the fact that Leclerc was gaining on Verstappen massively towards the end of the Sprint – although Red Bull says the Dutchman was managing the pace – while they also could and should have been closer if their drivers hadn’t squabbled for positions early on.<\/p>\n
Verstappen said the tyres were “tricky”, but he was able to manage them and hold on. The world champion said: “We had good pace at the beginning and after that, we were very closely matched, it was as a sprint should go, it was quite flat out. I do expect tomorrow is going to be a very interesting battle again.”<\/p>\n
Leclerc, who finished just 1.6 seconds behind Verstappen, told his team over the radio afterwards: “We are quick. We can get them tomorrow.” But he was more circumspect in his television interview afterwards.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cIt was tricky. The first part of the race was all about managing. Max was pushing and I was just trying to look after my tyres. I had a small fight with Carlos and then I started to push towards the end and could close in a bit but it was very close.”<\/p>\n
George Russell finish the sprint near seven seconds behind following his heavy crash in Friday\u2019s qualifying session, on what was another lonely afternoon for the Mercedes driver. Mercedes looked as if they may struggle in tomorrow\u2019s race, but it was another consistent drive by the Englishman.<\/p>\n
However the concern may be that the collision at the start may have dropped Hamilton out of position and puts them in the midfield, the seven-time champion is also concerned that they are ninth fastest on the straight. The encouragement for Mercedes was that Russell only lost a second and a half to Perez in the closing stages.<\/p>\n
The top four finishing where they started despite Sainz\u2019s best efforts to try and find a way past his teammate, who had aggressively tried to force him off early on at Turn Four.<\/p>\n
After receiving several penalties overnight for track limits, Sergio Perez recovered from thirteenth to finish fifth.\u00a0 \u00a0His impressive climb was aided by a first-corner collision that involved Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri being lifted into the air and spun around, a solid recovery for the Mexican.<\/p>\n
Gasly had also made contact with Hamilton which sparked him being flung into the air briefly though he was able to continue but finished the sprint in fifteenth. Hamilton meanwhile dropped to eleventh before being stuck behind Mick Schumacher for several laps. But he did find a way past on the penultimate lap to take eighth from the Haas with Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten, the Finn deciding not fight with the German.<\/p>\n
Further underlining some of the progress Haas has made this season, Schumacher could have fought with the Mercedes and at one stage there was even contact as the Haas attempted to find a way past.<\/p>\n
Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo made up places following their difficult qualifying, despite Ricciardo asking to be let by at one stage the Australian was over a second behind when the race finished. They will start tomorrow’s race eleventh and twelfth on the grid.<\/p>\n
Guanyu Zhou started from the pit lane after stalling his Alfa Romeo on the first start causing it to be aborted, but he gained places thanks to Alex Albon gaining a five second penalty for forcing Norris wide. Gasly was only able to recover to fifteenth, two-tenths ahead of Alex Albon.<\/p>\n
Albon also made contact with Sebastian Vettel, the Aston Martin retiring with two laps to go after going into the gravel. Vettel dropped to nineteenth behind Yuki Tsunoda and Nicolas Latifi.<\/p>\n
Austrian GP- Qualifying Result<\/a> F1 Today \u2013 Austrian Prixview \u2013 07\/07\/2022<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAUSTRIAN GP \u2013 Max Verstappen Beats Both Ferrari\u2019s For Sprint Pole By Two-Hundredths Of A Second<\/a><\/p>\n