The second sprint race of the three scheduled for the 2022 season took place this Saturday morning (9) in Austria. Max Verstappen won and ensured that Sunday's pole position will be the same as the official statistics
The city of Spielberg hosted, between late morning and early afternoon this Saturday (9), the second sprint race of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship. The short race, which actually decides the starting grid for the official race on Sunday, reinforced that there is even a duel between Red Bull and Ferrari on the track that belongs to the energy company. But it is Max Verstappen who has the advantage, and it was he who won and retains pole for Sunday's start.
The truth is that Verstappen only had to defend himself at the start. When he avoided any serious threat from the red cars, he had to spend all 23 laps in control. Behind him, Carlos Sainz overtook Charles Leclerc, but the Monegasque soon recovered. Sainz attacked again several times, but without success. The two Ferrari's fought among themselves and never got close to the championship leader. Verstappen didn't need to open up much, but managed the 2s5 he built up. Under other circumstances, Verstappen might not have had such a smooth result, but that's the way things turned out.
Even without big battles in the top spots, there was movement in the sprint race. Fernando Alonso and Guanyu Zhou had problems before the start and were forced into the pits. Alonso didn't even start, while Zhou started from the pit-lane and stayed well back. Pierre Gasly collided again with a Mercedes, this time Hamilton's, at the start and got the worst of it. He came off the ground and spun. He ended up at the end of the grid.
Leclerc and Sainz closed the podium and will start right behind. George Russell had a race apart, never threatened by those behind and without pace to catch the three frontrunners Sergio Pérez rose from 13th to fifth place and can be satisfied. Esteban Ocon is sixth, followed by Kevin Magnussen, Lewis Hamilton, Mick Schumacher, and Valtteri Bottas in the top-10. The highlight is the tight fight between Hamilton and Schumacher: the seven-time champion struggled to pass.
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Check out how the sprint race went:
As anticipated by the weather forecast, the start time of the sprint race arrived with sunny skies, summer temperatures, above 20°C and nothing to show that the weekend may still receive some remnants of rain. At 11:30 am [GMT-3], everything was in place for the start.
With the starting procedures apparently ready, a yellow flag appeared jerked in the middle of the grid. What could that be? The image of the official F1 broadcast soon showed: the tires of Fernando Alonso's car were on thermal blankets. The field came out for the presentation lap, but Alpine had to put the car on the trestle and take it to the pit-lane. The team confirmed that there was no mistake: the team detected a problem with the car and preferred to leave the tires warm since they would have to retract them to try to start from the pits.
The second start attempt went wrong even before the cars stopped on the grid. This time with Guanyu Zhou. Recovering from his serious accident at Silverstone, his car died on the entry to the last corner. So, once again, another lap was needed. Zhou, like Alonso, would have to start from the pits.
The new top-10 order had Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Mick Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, and Alexander Albon.
Verstappen came out to defend Leclerc at the start and rounded turn one in the lead, while Sainz passed his teammate and took second place. A few corners later, Leclerc attacked back on the inside line and regained second place.
The most tense moment of the start came in the middle of the pack, when Lewis Hamilton touched the front of Pierre Gasly's left rear tire, something that knocked the AlphaTauri car off the ground and sent it spinning. Luckily, nothing like last week's accident happened, despite the similar origin: one of the Mercedes touching Gasly. Pierre dropped to the back of the pack that started on the track, ahead only of Zhou. Alonso didn't even start from the pit-lane and abandoned before even starting.
Who took advantage of the confusion in the middle to gain positions was Sergio Pérez, who went from 13th to eighth place - considering that the position that originally belonged to Alonso came for free. The top-10 was Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Russell, Ocon, Magnussen, Schumacher, Pérez, Valtteri Bottas, and Hamilton.
The really good fight was for second place. The two Ferrari drivers, who until England had not faced each other on the track in 2022, were repeating the dose in Austria. Sainz dived on the inside at turn three and on the outside at turn four, but Leclerc defended himself like the mature driver he has become and held the position. Verstappen opened up the front.
Besides Perez, who also started the race very well was Sebastian Vettel. The four-time champion started last and, although he received a free pass with the problems of Gasly, Zhou, and Alonso, he was already 14th. The first penalty also appeared: Albon received 5s for pushing Lando Norris off the track.
Pérez continued to impose Red Bull's strength in the middle of the pack. He took advantage of Schumacher's attack on Magnussen to overtake the German and, in the following lap, easily left the Dane behind and took sixth place. Shortly after, he would leave Ocon behind - the Frenchman tried the xis, but did not have the car for it. Hamilton also made use of his car and overtook his former teammate Bottas.
And then Vettel appeared off the track. The reason? He was overtaking Albon, when the Williams driver ignored that the Aston Martin was already in 13th place and went to the inside. The two cars touched, with Vettel ending up in the gravel and coming back 19th.