He is the king of the Sprints. With this victory, the Dutchman has three –all– this season and ten in total. Although this time he had a lot of competition and Lando Norris managed to overtake him on the fifth lap, Max knew how to manage the situation and quickly returned the pass to then impose his pace.
Oscar Piastri took advantage of the battle between them to overtake his teammate and in the end he finished second, ahead of Lando and George Russell who had a nice fight with Carlos Sainz –fifth–. Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez completed the points positions and Fernando Alonso was sixteenth.
Results
| Pos | Pilot | Time | Laps | Salt | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 26’41″389 | 23 | 1 | 8 |
| 2 | O. Piastri | + 4″616 | 23 | 3 | 7 |
| 3 | L.Norris | + 5″348 | 23 | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | G.Russell | +8″354 | 23 | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | C. Sainz | +9″989 | 23 | 5 | 4 |
After a Friday in which Max Verstappen took the lead and beat Lando Norris by 93 thousandths in SQ3, this morning it was time to directly face the Sprint. The Red Bull Ring asphalt was presented in dry conditions and at a temperature of 43 degrees. Everyone has chosen medium tires and, a priori, there were no stops on the horizon.
The start was very clean. Max Verstappen got off to a good start and the McLarens, despite battling each other, kept their positions. Carlos Sainz managed to pass George Russell at Turn 4 with a nice move on the outside and Charles Leclerc was quick to climb up to seventh place. Fernando Alonso dropped to fourteenth.
Max Verstappen tried to push at the start, but both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were able to stay in his wake. The Briton, in fact, was able to open the DRS from the second lap and tried to ‘harass’ the Dutchman. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll had a great start with an overtake on Esteban Ocon to place tenth.
Serious ‘hostilities’ have started in the fifth round. Lando Norris pounced on Max Verstappen in turn 3 with a late braking, but the Dutchman returned it in turn 4 with another aggressive braking on the inside… and this gave Oscar Piastri wings to overtake his teammate. team and place second, behind Max.
Shortly after, on the eighth lap, it became clear that Carlos Sainz did not have the pace to follow the leading trio and the Mercedes jumped on him. Furthermore, George Russell managed to exit Turn 3 with good traction and overtook the Spaniard, who was beginning to see Lewis Hamilton and also Charles Leclerc as ‘threats’.
After a first third of the race with many fights, the ‘calm’ came from the tenth lap. Max Verstappen was able to get Oscar Piastri out of the DRS zone, who did the same with Lando Norris. A little further back, George Russell was far behind and Carlos Sainz wanted to ‘hook’ his DRS to avoid being attacked by Lewis Hamilton.
Once out of DRS range, Oscar Piastri has ‘sunk’ more than two seconds behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris has started to appear in his rear-view mirrors. It now seemed practically impossible to catch up with the three-time world champion and the battle for second position was on between the drivers from the Woking team.
In the end, it was impossible to catch Verstappen, who still had no rival in the Sprints. And, to the disappointment of the fans, there was no great fight behind him in the final laps. Piastri held off Norris, while Sainz did the same with Hamilton to finish fifth. Leclerc and Perez scored the last points to be shared here.
Behind him, Nico Hulkenberg went after Fernando Alonso with a late braking at Turn 3 and left him no room, forcing the Spaniard to use the escape route. This caused Fernando to fall to sixteenth place, where he saw the chequered flag. The action will be investigated afterwards.
