If the adoption of the sprint racing format was designed to inject more drama and intrigue into the three days of a grand prix weekend, this year’s Austrian Grand Prix could be the best example of how this new Radical focus can also be a double-edged sword.
A tight finish in the standings on Friday gave a clue that Ferrari was tied with Red Bull and championship leader Max Verstappen, with the trio separated by less than a tenth. Then there was the added interest that Mercedes threatened to be in the fight as well, if Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had not thrown their cars into barriers in the most important phase of the classification.
But after a relatively quiet sprint race was held on Saturday, at least at the head of the field, the first four on Friday remained the same. Only now, everyone, from the riders and teams themselves to the millions of people watching around the world, were left with a very strong idea of how the main 71-lap Sunday event would probably unfold.
After reaching pole position at the last possible moment on Friday, Verstappen had warned that his Red Bull would probably be stronger in a race situation than in a single lap. And while he may not have made it past the second training session on Saturday afternoon, his lap times with the average tires had been consistently faster than both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr had been able to handle.
Leclerc’s mirrors were filled with his teammate’s car. In the 23-lap sprint race, with everyone ahead in the media, Verstappen’s initial advantage over the Ferraris was nothing short of great. In the early stages, both Sainz and Leclerc successfully equalized Verstappen by pace, with Leclerc continuing to equal or surpass championship championship times eight times during the first 14 laps of the speed race as Sainz began to fall gradually. What cost Ferrari the most, and Leclerc in particular, were the laps when the pair focused more on fighting each other than catching Red Bull ahead.
While Verstappen kept Leclerc out of his DRS range for the remaining laps and grabbed the checkered flag to secure pole position for Sunday, he had to admit he hadn’t been simply sailing with spare pace bags in the hand while Leclerc closed in on his pursuit. at the end of the race.
“The sprint race, of course, doesn’t give you the full picture in the face of tomorrow’s race, but in terms of pace, it’s very close between us and Ferrari,” Verstappen said.
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“I still hope it’s a tough battle tomorrow. It will be very important to make good strategy calls during the race, as you never know what might happen. It won’t be easy, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Verstappen got another sprint victory. The closest Ferrari to Verstappen in the sprint race was Sainz’s unsuccessful attack on the third lap of the first lap. However, the race director, Laurent Mekies, came out of the pit wall calmer by the team’s proximity to Verstappen on the checkered flag that frustrated him because Red Bull would have beaten them.
“Today’s sprint race has confirmed that on this track there is also a lot of closeness between us and our main rivals,” Mekies explained.
“It was important to check it in race conditions and I would say that the 23 laps this afternoon have confirmed it. I think tomorrow’s race will be very competitive and anything can happen. “
Perhaps not surprisingly, having been the closest Ferrari driver to Verstappen on arrival, Leclerc was of the opinion that he and his teammate Sainz should not get bogged down in fighting each other on Sunday, so as not to risking allowing Verstappen to move away from them again.
“I think tomorrow will be a long race and tire management will be a little more important than today.” said Leclerc. “So probably tomorrow we can’t afford to do what we did today, no.”
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Having shown no hesitation in fighting for the position against his teammate when the opportunity presented itself, Sainz is pleased that Ferrari and team manager Mattia Binotto will allow them to fight for Sunday’s grand prix. , unless Ferrari chooses to tell him otherwise.
Perez far exceeded his qualifying penalty, “Mattia will decide. And the team,” Sainz said. “It’s not like we lost a lot and it didn’t seem like Max was too panicked in front of us at our pace. But we need to make sure that we are closer to the beginning of a stage and that we are closer to the end of a stage. I think that’s what we should try to do tomorrow. “
One of the benefits for Ferrari on Saturday was that there was only one Red Bull to focus on, with Sergio Perez starting from 13th on the speed race grid after a penalty. This will not be the case on Sunday after Pérez climbed to fifth place on the Grand Prix grid, almost completely canceling his qualifying penalty, putting him firmly at a distance from joining the match at the top when more it matters. But Perez knows he will have much more time on his hands during the longest race of the weekend.
“Patience will be key on Sunday,” Perez said. “I want to start well and get into the mix right away in the race.
“Today I got four places in the first lap, so I hope tomorrow is the same. We are still to unlock some potential of the car, so we can look forward to the race.”
Behind Red Bull and Ferrari, Mercedes would have felt very lucky to have Russell able to start from fourth in the speed race after falling in Q3. The team’s training pace on Friday had been encouraging, so would that translate when it came to a race situation? According to Russell’s sprint racing pace, it looks like the answer would be “not at all”.
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“The gap was more than we expected,” admitted Russell, who had to switch to a rear wing of previous specs after his crash. “We were 13 seconds behind after 23 laps, so that’s almost half a second per lap.
Russell did not lack pace in the repaired Mercedes “We have to work at night to understand why we slowed down. The little things can make a difference: the tires were not easy to manage and the different approaches to the load levels aerodynamics will play a role tomorrow. But we have no doubt we have work to do. “
Behind Russell and Pérez on the grid will be Esteban Ocon at the Alpine, pleased to have dropped just one place from his starting position in the speed race, to Pérez’s Red Bull recovery. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of his teammate Fernando Alonso, whose car seems to oppose the speed racing format so strongly that it went off before the training lap and refused to return. to turn on in time for departure.
With the Alpine starting on Sunday in the back row of the grid next to the penalized Valtteri Bottas, watching the unfortunate Alonso try to make his way across the field with a strong car under him will be one of the most interesting elements of the big price. And with Alonso finishing the second training session fourth fastest, there are many reasons to think that the oldest driver on the grid will plan to take advantage of his wealth of experience in the race.
After Friday, Pirelli predicted that the soft tire could last 24 laps of the sprint race with careful management. Although this was demonstrated by a handful of riders, none of them were close to the top 10. Looking ahead to Sunday’s 306km grand prix, Mario Isola hopes the two toughest compounds will be favored by the field.
“Today the teams have been able to get some useful long-term data on the medium during the speed race,” Isola explained. “Good information for tomorrow’s race, which looks likely to be a medium to hard one, as also confirmed by today’s tire performance.
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Leclerc is looking forward to a closer fight than this. “A two-cap is slower under normal circumstances, but the best way to do that would be to use all three compounds: medium, hard, and then soft. Here’s a reasonably high safety car probability, on a narrow track and relentless, so this could influence a double stop. “
The only element that could shake things up for Sunday is the impact of the night rain that will take away the accumulated rubber in the speed race and could leave a wet track for the start of the grand prize. Weather radars suggest that rain is not likely to affect the procedures, but if they did, it could open the battle to the front much wider than dry.
It is unlikely to baffle the pole winner, who has not been defeated in any competitive session at the Red Bull Ring in the last two years and so on. If Ferrari wants to avoid Verstappen again in front of many of their beloved fans, they will have to play smart on Sunday.
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Austrian Grand Prix 2022
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