F1 Sprint Race

Max Verstappen made it 4 out of 4 wins in Saturday’s Sprint race after converting pole position into victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, edging out the two McLarens with some exciting wheel-to-wheel action.

Whilst the initial race start was aborted  – it was suggested that this was as a result of photographers behind the barriers at Turn 1 posing a risk, after a second formation lap, the race eventually got underway. 

Verstappen held his lead at the very start, however McLaren’s Norris closed in and briefly took the lead with a rather bold overtake, however, this was short lived as the reigning world champion quickly reclaim his position at the lead of the race, with McLaren teammate Piastri utilising Norris’ mistake to overtake, demoting the Briton to third place in one corner.

Despite some more moments of excitement during the race, including an intense battle between McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, the top three remained the same until the chequered flag. Norris did close the gap to Piastri to within DRS range but simply could not make the overtake happen.

Up in front, Verstappen made use of the battling Papaya’s and increased his advantage to eventually cross the line in P1, some 4.6 seconds ahead of Piastri, with Norris seven-tenths back in P3.

The Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Russell held onto P4 and P6 sandwiching the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, whilst Ferrari teammate Leclerc took seventh in a small redemption drive after his poor Sprint Qualifying outing. Perez scored the final point up for grabs in eighth position.

Magnussen put on quite a display in the Haas machinery finishing ninth, followed by Stroll, and the two Alpine of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who were unable to build on their qualifying efforts and finished P11 and P12.

The RB pair of Tsunoda and Ricciardo finished 13th and 15th respectively, with the second Haas of Nico Hulkenberg separating the pair, Fernando Alonso had to settle for 16th in the second Aston Martin after a scuffle with Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 3.

Williams and Kick Sauber rounded out the grid across the line, with Sargeant leading Albon home in 17th and 18th, and Valterri Bottas beating teammate Zhou Guanyu to the flag for P19 and P20 respectively.

F1 Race

Sunday saw a drama filled race with George Russell claiming his second Grand Prix victory in his F1 win in surprising fashion. Contact between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris is a battle for the lead, saw Russell able to capitalise and claim an unexpected victory in Austria for the Mercedes team.

There was one alteration to the starting grid for Sunday’s race with Zhou Guanyu having to start from the pit-lane due to changes that had to be made to his car after Saturday’s qualifying session, although this didn’t change much for the grid as the Chinese driver for Kick Sauber was already set to start the race from 20th.

Reigning World Champion and Pole-sitter Max Verstappen made a strong getaway from the line to hold onto the lead, whilst Norris and Russell battled together for P2, with the McLaren driver ultimately keeping his position. 

The first contact of the race came at the first corner of the race, with contact between Leclerc and Piastri leaving the former with front wing damage. This ultimately caused the Monegasque driver to need pit at the end of the first lap to replace the front wing, ultimately dropping him down to almost the back of the grid. Piastri was able to continue with little-to-no damage but later had another battle, this time with Sergio Perez. The Australian was pushed wide off the track by the Red Bull and dipped a tyre into the gravel. This incident was investigated by the stewards, however no further investigation was required.

Lap 1 seemed full of drama, however it was not revealed until Lap 3 that the stewards had noted an incident between Hamilton and Sainz for leaving the track and gaining an advantage – however it was then decided that no further investigation was required , which seemed as a result of Hamilton being told through the radio to give the position back.

Magnussen and Ricciardo were the first to make a scheduled pitstop on Lap 10 to place the Hard tyres on their cars. Hulkenberg pitted a lap later and emerged back on track close to his teammate, with the Danish driver remaining in front in 14th after a brief battle.

Lap 14 saw race leader Verstappen extending his gap to Norris by over five seconds. Whereas, at the opposite end of the grid things seemed to be going from bad to worse for Leclerc, with the Ferrari seeming to have no pace and being overtaken by the Williams of Alex Albon to drop down to P19.

Perez reported sidepod damage, this came as a result of the Lap 1 incident involving Leclerc and Piastri. Leclerc’s day continued on its downward spiral, the 6 times Grand Prix winner pitted once again for medium tyres to emerge at the back of field and then seemed to be lapped by Verstappen.

The Austrian Grand Prix kept the stewards busy, with an incident involving Alonso and Zhou prompting an investigation after the Aston Martin dove up the inside of Zhou, who was already mid-way through his own battle with a different driver, causing him to be forced off the track. The investigation resulted in a 10-second time penalty for Alonso that he served on his next pit stop, much to the annoyance of the Spaniard and the pit-crew. Hamilton was also noted for crossing the white line on pit entry which earned him a five-second time penalty.

More investigations ensued, with race leader Verstappen under investigation for an unsafe release from the pits with Norris, although no further investigation was needed. Perez was also hit with a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He was running in seventh, eight seconds behind Piastri in sixth.

Another race means another Alpine in-fighting battle, although this was not as volatile as Monaco, with Ocon fighting Gasly for P11. Ocon eventually took the position. On Lap 40, the Alpine battle was still ongoing, with Gasly seemingly determined to overtake his teammate, eventually doing so going into Turn 4 and taking P8. Although they both later dropped down the order after both had to make visits to the pit.

Lap 52 saw race leader Verstappen come into the pits, closely followed by Norris, with both drivers opting for the medium tyres. A slow pit stop for Verstappen of over 6 seconds due to the left-rear tyre not wanting to come off, meant that although he emerged ahead, the gap between the top two had dropped to only two seconds.

Intense battles between the Red Bull and McLaren drivers followed, with Norris – who was already on his last track limits warning – making a late move on Lap 59 going into Turn 3 and initially getting ahead, although the Briton did run off the track, and had to ultimately give the position back. This trip off the racing track resulted in a track limits investigation for Norris, however the battle did not stop there.

Dramatic contact between the front runners occurred on Lap 64, with Verstappen moving over onto Norris and causing contact. Both drivers suffered punctures and had to limp their way back to the pits. Russell utilised this contact and took the lead ahead of Piastri, who had just overtaken Sainz for P2. Norris was handed a five-second time penalty for his track limits infraction and remained in the pits, ultimately retiring the car, citing too much damage to continue.

Stewards determined Verstappen was at fault with the incident with Norris, handing him a 10-second penalty. With a Virtual Safety Car being ordered, Russell was told the put his foot down and that it was effectively his to lose.

With Piastri trying his hardest to close the gap to the Mercedes out in front, it was all too little too late, with Russell crossing the line to take his second Grand Prix victory of his F1 career. Piastri followed him home for P2, with Sainz completing the podium in P3 ahead of Hamilton in P4. Verstappen took P5, despite his 10-second penalty, ahead of Hulkenberg in sixth.

Perez finished seventh, with Magnussen making it double points for Haas in P8, before the RB of Ricciardo and Alpine of Gasly completed the top 10, taking home the final points.

Leclerc finished 11th with Ocon following him for 12th, Stroll followed as the first Aaston MArtin home in P13. Tsunoda and Albon finished 14th and 15th respectively, with the Kick Sauber pair of Bottas and Zhou finishing 16th and 17th. Alonso crossed the line in 18th, and Logan Sargeant was the final classified finisher of the race in 19th.