Carlos Sainz was third and must, like Leclerc, find a plus for Sunday’s race
Problems at Alpine prevented Alonso from running this sprint
MADRID, 9 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the sprint race of the Austrian Grand Prix this Saturday, at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, once again beating the resigned Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, strong but not strong enough to knock down the ‘orange’ at his team’s home.
Verstappen already has 8 points in this weekend that opens strong, waiting for the usual race this Sunday. But, in the second sprint weekend of the three planned in the championship, the Dutchman was able to confirm his previous dominance in free practice and qualifying and outstrip his rivals in the World Championship.
Despite the fact that Carlos Sainz came out very strong and overtook his teammate Leclerc, the Madrid native’s ambition in trying to pass Verstappen at the first change meant that, in the following action, the Monegasque regained his second place on the grid. And there were no more changes in the top positions.
Thus, Leclerc and Sainz – winner of the last round at Silverstone, the first of his career – will have to find something else, some extra, in their Ferraris to further disturb a Verstappen who has one-lap pace and race pace , as he demonstrated in this sprint of, finally, 23 laps. Of course, there seems to be freedom of struggle between Leclerc and Sainz at Ferrari.
His teammate, the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez, also gave an exhibition by finishing fifth (behind George Russell, from Mercedes) despite leaving, after being penalized in the ‘qualy’, thirteenth. Great comeback for Pérez to score points and come out better for Sunday’s race.
And it is that the positions of this sprint race configure the grid of the long race – which will be like the Sunday races of a Grand Prix to use -. In addition, this sprint awarded points to the top 8 finishers, 8 for the winner Verstappen, 7 for Leclerc, 6 for Sainz and so on until the eighth, which was Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) to add 1 point.
Fernando Alonso (Alpine), for his part, was unable to start the formation lap as his mechanics did not remove the tire covers or the stand. Despite having some time to solve the problem –the car didn’t start even with a battery change– they couldn’t solve it and finally the Spaniard stayed in the pits, unable to fight the sprint or score. Something completely unusual, surely frustrating for Alonso.
The Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) also had problems with his engine, which stopped, and led to a second formation lap before opening the race to sprint, which he started from the pit lane unlike the Spaniard.