SPIELBERG, Austria (AP) – Charles Leclerc had continued to put on a brave face when success eluded him and tensions rose at Ferrari in a five-match F1 race without a podium spot for the driver. After winning the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, Leclerc’s radiant smile returned.
Leclerc faced a major challenge in the final laps, as his accelerator did not work properly, making it difficult to control his speed on the turns.
It was a different story for his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., whose hopes of a second-place finish in Austria ended drastically when his engine jumped as he took on the Red Bull of Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen. Sainz came out as the flames licked his race suit. Unharmed, he sat down on the grass to contemplate his bad luck.
Sainz won last weekend at the British GP, where Leclerc dropped from first to fourth. After losing there, Leclerc bounced back to hold on to Verstappen in Austria for 1.5 seconds to secure a third win this season.
It was Leclerc’s first victory since the Australian GP in April. After finishing second in the U.S. GP in May, Leclerc’s five races included two DNFs, two fourth-place finishes and a fifth.
“I continued to be optimistic, but obviously hard races after hard races, it seemed to me that everything was against me,” said Leclerc, who also won the Bahrain GP. “We’ve finally made great progress and it’s very good to win again.”
Leclerc said it was “very stressful” as the throttle problem persisted.
“I definitely needed this win, the last five races have been incredibly tough,” the Monaco driver said. “It’s great that we finally have a normal career by my side.”
A relieved Leclerc sang while the anthem sounded on the podium, then took part in a champagne fair with Verstappen. Leclerc has also not forgotten Ferrari racing director Laurent Mekies, who dragged him with bubbles.
Mutual respect between Verstappen and Leclerc, both 24-year-olds and former fierce karting rivals, is growing.
“You were very fast today,” Verstappen said in the post-race cooling room.
“Yes, we were very fast,” Leclerc replied.
Leclerc climbed to second place overall, but is still 38 points behind Verstappen – 208 to 170 – with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez falling to third. He retired after 26 of the 71 laps after being hit on the first lap when he tried to overtake George Russell’s Mercedes.
Verstappen got an extra point for the fastest lap to finish with the eight points he won in winning Saturday’s speed race.
Lewis Hamilton finished third for Mercedes and finished third on the podium. Russell received a five-second penalty for the Perez incident, but finished fourth. Even more impressive as Mercedes had to repair both cars after a late crash in qualifying in Friday’s sprint.
“Those are big points,” Hamilton said. “Thank you so much to the team for working so hard.”
After cutting himself on lap 58, Sainz’s car was on fire and began sliding back into the gravel as a marshal rushed toward him with a fire extinguisher.
“I saw the car catching fire and at the same time trying to push the brake,” Sainz said. “I was calling the commissioners to put something on the tires to keep the car from rolling down. At some point, there was so much fire that I just had to put it out.
He thinks things could have been done faster.
“It’s something we could look at,” Sainz said. “It wasn’t the easiest situation.”
The incident caused a virtual safety car to come out, causing Leclerc and Verstappen to change new tires in case a real safety car came out.
Leclerc’s fifth win of his career was one of his best. He was also very welcome after much confusion about the team’s decisions.
Leclerc was exasperated at the British GP when his team kept him off track instead of facing new tires during a late safety car, which led to Sainz’s first victory and the discussion about the team divisions in Ferrari.
This time Sainz was left with a bitter taste.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he repeated without believing when his engine started.
Seconds later he had more urgent issues as the flames increased.
Verstappen never seemed to get his seventh win of the season and his fifth overall at the Spielberg Red Bull Ring, where legions of orange-clad fans roared him in his team’s home race.
“It’s a shame I couldn’t win them today,” he said. “We suffered with the tires. Still, second place is a good result.”
Esteban Ocon culminated his 100th F1 race with fifth place for Alpine ahead of Mick Schumacher, who is well on his way with Haas after securing his first points of his career with eighth place at Silverstone.
Lando Norris (McLaren), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Daniel Ricciardo (Mclaren) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) completed the top 10.
Leclerc had already advanced twice to Verstappen with clean passes to control the race. But with about 20 laps to go, Verstappen took the lead again after Ferrari faced Leclerc and Sainz in quick succession.
But with only a small advantage, Verstappen could not hold out long and Leclerc advanced smoothly.
Verstappen had come out of the pole ahead of Leclerc and Sainz. They almost collided as they chased each other on Saturday’s sprint. Late on Sunday afternoon, Sainz was being comforted in the team’s garage.
Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri hit Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin on the gravel and received a five-second penalty. After coming out unscathed from a terror crash at the British GP, Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu finished 14th for Alfa Romeo.
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