If adopting the sprint race format was designed to inject more drama and intrigue into all three days of a grand prix weekend, this year’s Austrian Grand Prix might be the best example of how this radical new approach can also be a double-edged sword.
A tight conclusion to qualifying on Friday offered a hint that Ferrari were evenly matched with Red Bull and championship leader Max Verstappen, with the trio separated by less than a tenth. Then there was the added interest of Mercedes threatening to be in contention too, had Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both not thrown their cars into barriers in the most important phase of qualifying.
But after a relatively uneventful sprint race – at least at the front of the field – had played out on Saturday, the same top four from Friday remained. Only now, everyone from the drivers and teams themselves to the millions watching around the world were left with very strong sense of how Sunday’s 71-lap main event would likely play out.
Having snatched pole position at the last possible moment on Friday, Verstappen had warned that his Red Bull would likely be stronger in a racing situation than it had been over a single lap. And while he may not have topped the second practice session on Saturday afternoon, his lap times on the medium tyres had been consistently quicker than what both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr had been able to manage.
In the 23-lap sprint race, with all of those at the front on the mediums, Verstappen’s early pace advantage over the Ferraris was by no means vast. In the early stages, both Sainz and Leclerc successfully matched Verstappen for pace, with Leclerc continuing to equal or beat the championship leader’s times eight times over the first 14 laps of the sprint race as Sainz began to gradually fall away. What cost Ferrari the most – and particularly Leclerc – was the laps when the pair were focused more on fighting with each other than on catching the Red Bull ahead.
Although Verstappen kept Leclerc well out of his DRS range over the remaining laps and took the chequered flag to secure pole position for Sunday, he had to concede that he had not been simply cruising around with bags of spare pace in hand while Leclerc closed in pursuit at the end of the race.
“The sprint race of course does not give you the full picture heading into the race tomorrow, but pace-wise, it’s close between us and Ferrari,” said…
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