Max Verstappen had no problems when he won the speed race from the pole at the Austrian Grand Prix, his effort was facilitated by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.
They almost collided, and tensions seemed to have been maintained from last Sunday’s British GP, where Leclerc was unhappy with the team’s decisions and Sainz won.
Sprint positions set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix, so Verstappen starts in the lead as he aspires to a fifth win on his Formula One team’s home track in Spielberg. Surprisingly, Verstappen believes the car doesn’t have a bit of speed.
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“We’re still not amazing in the standings, we’re still a little heavy,” he said. “That’s just a limitation we have. We still have to lose weight with the car.”
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This week, Leclerc downplayed the conversation about Ferrari’s divisions after Silverstone, where, after a safety car, he was baffled by team manager Mattia Binotto’s decision to keep him out of position. track instead of switching to faster tires. He was also a leader in Monaco, when Ferrari put him ahead for new tires and finished fourth.
Leclerc was asked if he and Sainz could work together on Sunday to catch Verstappen.
“I really hope so,” he said bluntly.
He later added: “I don’t know the rules of engagement, we don’t decide. It will be Mattia ”.
Sainz insists “the team will work it out” and they can work in tandem.
“We will both make Max’s life as difficult as possible for the rest of the championship. We have to move forward because it is far ahead, ”Sainz said.
“We have to make sure we’re closer to the beginning of a stage and the end.”
Ferrari was not, with Verstappen in control.
He made a clean start and made 23 laps in the 4.3-kilometer Red Bull Ring full of orange-clad Dutch fans who sparked orange flares and cheered the Formula 1 champion.
Max Verstappen (left) was constantly faced with Lewis Hamilton during the 2021 Formula 1 season (Getty)
“It was a decent race,” said Verstappen, who has won six of the 10 races so far. “Tomorrow will be an interesting battle. The car is good.”
Verstappen’s second win of the season sprint gave him an additional eight points. Leclerc scored seven points for second place and Sainz scored six to finish third with the top eight points.
Verstappen has improved to 189 points in the overall standings and leads his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez by 38 points and Leclerc by 44.
George Russell picked up five in fourth place. Perez drove magnificently from 12th position to finish fifth and scored four points. Esteban Ocon was sixth for Alpine followed by Kevin Magnussen of Haas and Lewis Hamilton, who scored a point.
Sainz overtook Leclerc at the start, only because Leclerc overtook him quickly and regained second place.
The Ferraris touched each other when Sainz tried to make it to the sixth lap, with Leclerc holding him back. Sainz looked for it again on the next lap, going inside, but Leclerc threw himself inside again as the tension increased.
“It was a lot of fun, as it should be… Racing,” Sainz said. “They probably overheated the tires a bit, running after Charles. I had to reverse and finish the race.”
Mick Schumacher aggressively defended himself from Hamilton until the seven-time F1 champion overtook him on lap 21.
World two-time champion Fernando Alonso was eighth on the grid, but there was a problem with his alpine car and he didn’t start.
Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu’s engine was cut on the training lap and forced the Alfa Romeo driver to leave the pit lane a week after surviving an accident at the British GP.
Four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel retired when Aston Martin told him to take the car to the garage on lap 22. He was then summoned to the commissioners to leave a drivers’ meeting on Friday evening and was paid a suspended fine of 25,000 euros. ($ 37,000).
Vettel was “expressing frustration at the meeting” and then left before the end.
“Drivers can’t leave when they want to,” F1 said. “Drivers at this level are role models for all drivers in the world and, in the opinion of the commissioners, Vettel did not live up to that standard.”
Vettel later apologized unreservedly to the race director, F1 said.
Seven pilots were summoned to receive radio messages during a second round of training, as the sprint exit was slightly delayed due to problems with Alonso and Zhou. But after checking the team’s audio, no action was taken.
Earlier, Sainz led the second training ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. Russell was seventh and Hamilton ninth. Mercedes repaired the two cars after crashing into qualifying.
“It was a great team effort, so it was good to get points,” Russell said.
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