Verstappen leads battling Ferraris for Sprint victory and P1 grid spot for the Austrian GP

Max Verstappen won the F1 Sprint at the Red Bull Ring, beating the duelling Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, as he cruised to victory and secured a P1 start for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen aced qualifying on Friday evening, in a session that saw both Mercedes crash out in Q3, after which Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez was bumped down to P13 on the grid for this Sprint. This new-for-2022 Sprint format awards points to the top eight instead of the top three.

Yellow flags came out on the formation lap when Fernando Alonso’s Alpine failed to get off the grid – forcing him out of the Sprint – before Zhou Guanyu’s brief stoppage at the final corner approaching the grid prompted a second formation lap and forced the Alfa Romeo driver to start from the pits. The other 18 cars navigated a haze of orange smoke to finally commence a Sprint of 23 laps rather than 24.

The top 10 began on medium tyres, only four drivers having opted for softs. From pole, Verstappen enjoyed a rapid start and shut the door on Leclerc, who attempted a pass down his right-hand side – briefly giving Sainz P2 at his team mate’s expense before the Monegasque hit back.

Sainz and Leclerc went at it again on Lap 6 while Verstappen stretched his lead to well over two seconds, Sainz'z attempts to pass at Turns 2 and 3 on the following lap closed off by Leclerc’s dogged defending. The British GP winner dropped back and soon Leclerc built a gap to his team mate.

Verstappen would continue to lead comfortably and eventually won by 1.6 seconds over Leclerc, who began to close in at the very end.

George Russell started and finished fourth for Mercedes, while Perez battled from 13th to fifth, the Mexican gaining five spots in the opening six laps, the next two off the Haas drivers by Lap 10 and another off Alpine's Esteban Ocon on Lap 12 – though Russell proved too far away to catch.

With the Haas pair keeping Lewis Hamilton at bay for much of the Sprint, Ocon ended up a comfortable sixth. Hamilton, who was squeezed into Turn 1 and tapped the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly (P15) into a spin, worked his way back into the top 10 and spent the second half of the encounter stalking the Haas pair, his attempts to pass yielding no results until he finally got the better of Mick Schumacher at Turn 4 on Lap 22.

The seven-time champion couldn't catch Kevin Magnussen, the Dane finishing seventh and ahead of the Silver Arrow.

Valtteri Bottas was passed for P9 by Hamilton early on and caught up when the Haas drivers stalled the Mercedes' progress, but ended up 10th overall for Alfa Romeo behind Schumacher.

After a tough qualifying session, McLaren's Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo inched towards the top 10 in the Sprint, the Briton finishing ahead of his Australian team mate despite running wide in an earlier attempt to pass Alex Albon.

The Williams driver was given a five-second penalty for forcing Norris off track on Lap 4, finishing 13th at the flag but being bumped down to P16 to the benefit of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll (P13) and Zhou (P14) in the Alfa Romeo.

Gasly finished behind Albon but was promoted to P15 at the flag, with Yuki Tsunoda ending up P17 on a difficult day for AlphaTauri.

Sebastian Vettel was the second retiree having been tapped into a spin by Albon at Turn 6, which left him last – Aston Martin bringing him into the pits to exit late on with car damage.

With Sprint victory, Verstappen starts P1 for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix as he hopes to sweep the weekend and keep the raucous Red Bull Ring crowd on their feet.

Key quote

"It was great to see [the fans] – quite a lot of smoke at the end there with all the orange, but it was alright. I think a decent race, we had good pace from the beginning and I think after that we were very closely matched. So it was good. It was like a Sprint should go. Quite flat-out!" said Sprint winner Verstappen.

"Of course [the Ferraris] were also fighting a little bit, so I had a bit of a gap, and then after that, we were quite similar in pace. So I do expect tomorrow, it’s going to be a very interesting battle again. Of course the race tomorrow is going to be a lot longer, so it’s going to be tricky on tyres."

Key moment

Sergio Perez’s stunning start was the key moment as, from 13th on the grid, he starts fifth for the Sprint and now has a chance to help team mate Max Verstappen at the front – or perhaps even pry the lead off his team mate…

Biggest movers

Alonso was set to start eighth for the Sprint but his DNF – a DNS, really – puts him 20th for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Albon and Gasly lost six places apiece on a tough Saturday.

Ricciardo and Norris made up four places each but Perez made up the most places, eight, as he shot from his P13 grid slot (P12 after Alonso had been withdrawn) to P5 at the flag.

What's next?

The Austrian Grand Prix begins at 1500 local time on Sunday, Verstappen set to lead away after taking P1 in the Sprint and extending his advantage in the drivers' championship. Visit our RACE HUB to see when and where you can watch Sunday's action.

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