Max Verstappen was in the spotlight during the Sprint race of the Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix. At Red Bull’s home, the three-time world champion started from pole position and led for most of the race in Spielberg.
Race summary
The Sprint race started with a setback: the unsafe positioning of photographers behind the barriers at the first corner forced a second warm-up lap, which shortened the distance to 23 competition laps.
Starting from pole position, Verstappen had a strong start to maintain the lead, while Lando Norris had to defend against his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri. In the early stages, the Dutchman couldn’t isolate himself and was even the target of a strong attack from Norris on the fifth lap.The British driver briefly took the lead, but Verstappen immediately regained the position. Norris, on the other hand, widened the trajectory, allowing Piastri to overtake him. It was only on the tenth lap that Verstappen managed to build a margin that protected him from the use of DRS by the Australian.From then on, no one had the arguments to challenge Verstappen, who achieved a comfortable victory: he crossed the finish line with a 4.616s advantage. Norris was nearly two seconds behind Piastri, but he made up a lot of the gap and ended up pressuring his teammate… without success, as Piastri secured second place, leaving the #4 car in third.
George Russell (Mercedes) consistently led the chasing group and finished fourth over three seconds behind the podium, followed by Carlos Sainz in the best Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) crossed the finish line in sixth, with Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in seventh after a recovery from tenth right from the first lap and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) in eighth completing the points positions.
Results:
