Max Verstappen will start Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix from pole position after a comfortable win in Saturday’s sprint race.
Red Bull passed qualifying for the first time in Friday’s sprint, and after a brief challenge from Carlos Sainz Jr. on lap 1, the Dutch delighted fans at the Red Bull Ring.
The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Sainz Jr. finished second and third after being involved in a brief battle from the start.
Austria was like Verstappen’s second home race, with thousands of “orange troops” landing at Spielberg, armed with guns, and the 24-year-old thanking his fans after the sprint.
“I’m glad I met the fans. There was a lot of smoke at the end!” he said.
“It was good, it was a decent race, it was good pace at the beginning and I think it was very close after that, so it was good. The sprint process is pretty flat.
“There was a little gap, and then the pace was similar. [with Ferrari]Tomorrow’s race will be longer so it will be quite difficult on the tyres, so I think tomorrow will be an interesting battle.
“The car is good. There are some adjustments, but in general, it is very competitive this weekend.”
The sprint format was introduced last year and is the second event of the season, with qualifying on Friday and a grid of short “sprint” races on Saturday, which will determine the starting order for the main event on Sunday.
However, this sprint didn’t change the grid position much, and there was a big change when Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez took a penalty in qualifying and recovered from 13th to 5th.
The sprint was intended to add entertainment to the F1 weekend, but there were few memorable moments in Saturday’s race except for the duel between Sir Lewis Hamilton and Mick Schumacher.
Hamilton started behind a young Haas driver after the Mercedes accident on Friday. The Haas drivers bravely battled against seven world champions for most of the race, finishing eighth in the closing laps.
In addition to deciding the order of the main event on Sunday, points will be awarded to the top 8 drivers. In other words, Verstappen is 38 points ahead of Perez and Leclerc is a further 6 points behind.
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Source: Metro
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