F1: Ferrari And Leclerc Outpace Verstappen’s Red Bull In Austria

Max Verstappen may have gotten the better of Ferrari and Charles Leclerc at Red Bull’s home race in Austria on Friday and Saturday during the qualifying and sprint sessions, but that was not to continue during the main Austrian GP. Ferrari proved it had a better race pace as Leclerc overtook Verstappen in the first half of the race as his teammate Carlos Sainz closed in on the reigning world champion. The Dutchman had tyre degradation issues which resulted in earlier stops as the Red Bull struggled to keep the Ferrari behind. His teammate Perez was involved in a first-lap incident with George Russell in the Mercedes which eventually resulted in him retiring. 

But things for Ferrari were also not great during the fag end of the race after the second of pit stops Carlos Sainz Jr had his engine blow up just as he was about to overtake Verstappen. Sainz will likely get grid penalties later on in the season as he will likely need a new engine as his car was in flames by the time he got out of it. This also triggered a virtual safety car which balanced the Ferrari tyre advantage as both Leclerc and Verstappen took a free pit stop. 

Leclerc found himself to be slower and had more issues related to the throttle which allowed the Red Bull to catch up, but thankfully for the Monegasque, he managed to hold on to the win. This means that the Monegasque is 38 points behind Verstappen in the world championship in P2 ahead of Perez.

With the dramas surrounding the Red Bull and Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton crept up to P3 on a weekend when he struggled for pace during the sprint race and crashed during qualifying. George Russell also in the second Mercedes managed P4 despite a 5-second penalty for the crash with Perez. 

Esteban Ocon in the Alpine managed P5 while Mick Schumacher in the Haas had a career-best P6 marking his second points finish after his first one last weekend. He managed to not only beat his teammate Kevin Magnussen who managed P8 but also Lando Norris in the McLaren who came P7. Ricciardo in the other McLaren managed P9 and Fernando Alonso managed P10 after starting the race from the back of the grid.

Bottas finished just outside of the points in P11 for the Alfa ahead of his teammate Guanyu Zhou who managed P14. Alex Albon managed P12 in the Williams while his teammate Nicholas Latifi retired from the race. Lance Stroll managed P13 for Aston Martin while his teammate 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel finished P17, basically coming last after sustaining damage during the race. Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri managed P15 and P16.

2022 F1 Round 11 Austrian Grand Prix Race Result: