Verstappen faces McLaren challenge in ‘spicy’ Austrian Sprint
Separated into two key battles, the Sprint Race in Austria was a tale of Max Verstappen vs. McLaren, and Mercedes vs. Ferrari, with both duels providing a “spicy” 23-lap teaser ahead of Sunday’s main event.
The contest started at the opening corner after the cars were finally released by the five lights following an aborted start.
As Max Verstappen sped away, the two McLaren drivers found themselves almost tangling with one another.
Starting from P3, Oscar Piastri got a great jump off the line, running side by side with his teammate as they travelled up the high incline into Turn 1.
Piastri challenged Lando Norris once again into Turn 4, nearly carrying too much speed into his teammate’s rear wing before taking a patient approach across the next few laps.
On Lap 5, the temptation grew too strong for Norris, with the #4 taking a swing at Max Verstappen’s lead, leaving the door open for his trailing teammate to capitalise.
Piastri swept around the outside of Norris through Turn 6, earning himself an impressive silver medallion.
The 23-year-old was hopeful of sizing up an instant move on the Sprint leader, however, by Lap 12, had dropped out of Verstappen’s DRS range.
Instead, the margin between the papaya teammates began to shrink as tyre management came into play.
Norris was lapping quicker than the leading McLaren, setting fastest lap on fastest lap as the total ticked down, but despite having the upper hand in pace, he couldn’t manage a move past Piastri.
The #81 took the chequered flag in second place with just seven-tenths separating the teammates.
The same success story couldn’t be told for the second-running Australian on the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo finishing the Austrian outing back in P15.
Struggling on the run up to the first braking zone, Ricciardo lost out a position to Logan Sargeant.
He remained behind the Williams driver for over half of the Sprint, only managing a pass into Turn 4 on Lap 16.
After regaining his starting position, Ricciardo found himself trailing the battle between Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso.
Daniel Ricciardo races at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Image: Philip Platzer / Red Bull Ring.
Their duel came to a head in a testing manner at Turn 3 after the Haas driver locked up, forcing Alonso wide.
In the process, Ricciardo slipped past, almost having enough pace to challenge the German before settling in behind.
The moment between the #14 and #27 resulted in Hulkenberg being handed a post-race 10-second penalty dropping him from P14 to P19, promoting Ricciardo in the process.
Verstappen, despite clearing his competitors in the latter half of the Sprint, had concerns of his own in regard to battery behaviour.
The Red Bull driver said his RB20 was “clipping way too much”, meaning his battery was charging more than he would have liked, and was impacting his pace across the short lap.
Regardless of this, it was a 10th Sprint Race victory for the Dutchman in front of Red Bull’s home crowd and an overwhelming Orange Army presence at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen crossed the line 4.6 seconds clear of threat, with the same unable to be said about Sergio Perez who just scrapped by in the final points scoring positions.
Providing equally as much excitement as the battle for the Sprint podium were the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers.
Off the line, Carlos Sainz got the jump on George Russell, however, the British driver remained well within reach.
As for Charles Leclerc who started out of position in P10, the Monegasque driver put his foot to the floor making up three places by the end of the opening lap.
As a result of the fast-starting Ferrari’s efforts, the early order behind the podium was #55, #63, #44 and #16.
Sainz soon lost out to Russell after he was forced on brake cooling tactics, falling into Lewis Hamilton’s grasp by Lap 8.
Despite coming as close as five-tenths behind Sainz, Hamilton couldn’t quite rummage up enough speed to make the overtake.
He had that in common with Leclerc, with the #16 dropping off the back of the Mercedes and into a lonely place for the second half of the Sprint.
Now having had a taste of what it’s like to race around the Red Bull Ring, the 20 drivers will reset for the task of Qualifying in just a few hours’ time, looking to improve on their starting positions for tomorrow’s all-important Austrian Grand Prix.
Image: Mark Thompson/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Sprint Race Results:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26:41.389 | 8 | |
| 2 | +4.616s | 7 | |
| 3 | +5.348s | 6 | |
| 4 | +8.354s | 5 | |
| 5 | +9.989s | 4 | |
| 6 | +11.207s | 3 | |
| 7 | +13.424s | 2 | |
| 8 | +17.409s | 1 | |
| 9 | +24.067s | 0 | |
| 10 | +30.175s | 0 | |
| 11 | +30.839s | 0 | |
| 12 | +31.308s | 0 | |
| 13 | +35.452s | 0 | |
| 14 | +38.423s | 0 | |
| 15 | +39.397s | 0 | |
| 16 | +43.155s | 0 | |
| 17 | +44.076s | 0 | |
| 18 | +44.673s | 0 | |
| 19 | +46.511s | 0 | |
| 20 | +53.143s | 0 |
2024 Austrian Grand Prix Schedule:
Friday, June 28th
FP1: 20:30-21:30
Saturday, June 29th
Sprint Qualifying: 00:30-01:14
Sprint Race: 20:00-21:30
Sunday, June 30th
Qualifying: 00:00-01:00
Race: 23:00
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