Verstappen cruises to take first Sprint victory of the year
Max Verstappen survived Lap 1 at the Red Bull Ring before he cruised home to win the Sprint by over 21 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez. Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 3.
The Best Race of the Season?
The track conditions were damp when the race got underway and that caused a whole heap of drama. Sergio Perez got a better start than his teammate before Max Verstappen forced him as close to the wall as possible. Perez then squeezed Verstappen onto the grass on the main straight before Max forced his teammate off the track at turn 3. Checo then came back at the double World Champion into turn 4, and this cost him again as it allowed Nico Hulkenberg to get past and move up into second. Whilst Verstappen then went on to win the Sprint by a mile, the rest of the field saw non-stop action and it was mostly taking place in a train which saw Alex Albon try to defend against Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and the two Mercedes. Nico Hulkenberg started to slip through the field and he eventually got past by Lance Stroll whilst George Russell had already entered the pits for slick tyres which was definitely a gamble. However, it paid off for him and the Haas of Hulkenberg also followed suit just a couple of laps later. However, this cost the likes of Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon who weren’t quite able to get their dry tyres up to temperature whilst Lance Stroll was trying to fend off his Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso. In the end, Verstappen took the victory whilst Stroll held off Alonso and George Russell just missed out on getting Esteban Ocon for P7 (the gap was only 9 thousandths of a second at the line).
The Highs and Lows of the Sprint
I’ve given out two 10’s for today’s Sprint and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen. Max is simply unstoppable right now and I fully expect him to take yet another P1 in tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix. The other driver I’ve given a 10 to is Nico Hulkenberg who is driving excellently this weekend. Haas usually drop off in the race, but the Hulk was able to finish in a very, very good P6. I also thought Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon had great Sprint races whilst Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll can be happy with their efforts.
I've only given 1 driver the worst possible grade and that driver is Valtteri Bottas. Valtteri started the race in the pitlane after driving the formation lap on a set of mediums (he pit for inters as he realised it was too wet), but he quickly caught back up to the rest of the field. However, he ended up dropping through the pack as quicker cars came past on a set of dry tyres and he ended up finishing plum last. Awful race for Bottas. I also thought Bottas’ teammate Zhou Guanyu had a pretty poor day as well as Pierre Gasly and Logan Sargeant.
Overall Sprint Race Results and My Ratings
Max Verstappen: 10
Sergio Perez: 8
Carlos Sainz: 9
Lance Stroll: 8
Fernando Alonso: 7
Nico Hulkenberg: 10
Esteban Ocon: 9
George Russell: 7
Lando Norris: 6
Lewis Hamilton: 6
Oscar Piastri: 5
Charles Leclerc: 3
Alex Albon: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 4
Pierre Gasly: 2
Yuki Tsunoda: 4
Nyck de Vries: 3
Logan Sargeant: 2
Zhou Guanyu: 2
Valtteri Bottas: 1
My Predictions for the Austrian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
Carlos Sainz
Charles Leclerc
Fernando Alonso
Lance Stroll
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