Charles Leclerc scored the fifth grand prix victory of his career in Austria last weekend. If that seems like a surprisingly small total, that may be because he’s also had 15 pole positions.
This is the first time Leclerc has won a race without starting from pole position. It was close, though: Max Verstappen pipped him to pole position on Friday by just 0.029 seconds, and Leclerc chased him home in the sprint race.
Leclerc’s fifth win puts him level with Giuseppe Farina, Clay Regazzoni, John Watson, Michele Alboreto and Keke Rosberg. He took it in the 100th Formula 1 event he has participated in. Leclerc only started in 91 of those event, however: he did four practice sessions each for Haas and Sauber (now Alfa Romeo) as a test driver, and failed to start in Monaco last year when his engine failed.
Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, did start his 100th race, and marked it with his best finish of the season so far, taking fifth.
For the second sprint event running, Max Verstappen set pole position and won Saturday’s race. As of this year, F1 says it is officially designating the the driver who takes pole position in conventional qualifying as the weekend’s pole-winner, notwithstanding the fact that another driver could still start the grand prix from first place. This contradiction hasn’t arisen yet: Will it be third time lucky in Brazil?
Verstappen therefore had his 16th pole position by either metric, which puts him level with two drivers who unlike him never won the world championship: Stirling Moss and Felipe Massa.
When Leclerc passed Verstappen for the lead on the 12th lap, it brought to an end a remarkable run by the Red Bull driver at the head of the field at the team’s home event. Verstappen also led every lap of the sprint race and throughout both of last year’s grands prix at the Red Bull Ring: A total of 176 consecutive laps at the front of the field.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Leclerc delivered Ferrari’s first Austrian Grand Prix victory since Michael Schumacher won in 2003, which was the last F1 race at the track for 11 races. Schumacher experienced a brief fire during a refuelling stop on his way to victory; Leclerc’s team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr had a more serious, race-ending fire in his Ferrari last weekend.
Ferrari, who won the first world championship Austrian Grand Prix in 1964, the only one to take place on the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…