Max Verstappen has won the Austrian Sprint Race in Formula 1.
It was a sunny day in Austria for the Sprint race, with trouble already at the formation lap – the car of Guanyu Zhou stopped at the end of the lap and forced the rest of the grid to do an additional lap. The Chinese started from the pit lane. For Fernando Alonso it was over before it even started – the Spaniard couldn’t race due to technical problems.
We saw drama right at the start of the race as Lewis Hamilton was sandwiched between Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon, which forced the Mercedes to make contact with the AlphaTauri, sending him briefly into the air. Gasly was able to continue though he dropped to the back, in front of Zhou.
At the top, it was Max Verstappen who led through the opening laps with Leclerc charging behind and Sainz in third. For Mercedes – Hamilton was maintaining his qualifying spot in P10 while George Russell tried to get in the mix up in P4.
Bad luck struck Sebastian Vettel as Albon made contact with his left rear tire through turn 6. The German driver was briefly stuck in the gravel but managed to get out of it by creating traction going backwards. Albon had been penalized earlier in the race for forcing Norris out of the track.
Sergio Perez was making a good recovery – the Mexican, who had started P13, placed in the fifth position 15 laps into the race, as he chased George Russell in an attempt to get in the top 4.
Hamilton maintained a race-long battle with the Haas duo for position and only gained one spot – the one of Mick Schumacher – and finished just P8.
In the end, it was Max Verstappen who took the victory in the Sprint Race, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz behind him.
