Max Verstappen made it five on the bounce, and seven for the season, as Red Bull’s unbeaten start to 2023 continued on home turf at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hey, Guess What—Verstappen Won Again
At least this time Max Verstappen didn’t quite lead every lap of the Austrian Grand Prix, though it certainly felt like it.
Verstappen had 10 whole laps not in first place during the course of the 71-lap race at the Red Bull Ring, but only because he and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ran divergent tire strategies. By the time proceedings shook out, during the closing stages of a race that took place in front of an orange-clad army of Verstappen fans, the reigning world champion was over 20 seconds up the road and cruising home.
Verstappen had such a margin that he made another pit stop for soft tires, used the penultimate lap of the race as a preparation lap, and made a successful attempt for the fastest lap—earning the bonus point—on the final lap.
After dominating the Sprint Race on Saturday it meant Verstappen scooped all 34 points on offer for the weekend’s activities. His title lead over Sergio Perez now stands at 81 points. If he continues out-scoring his rivals at this rate (extending his advantage by nine points per event), he could wrap up the title as early as Qatar, in October, with five rounds to spare.
“It’s been a really incredible weekend, something I didn’t expect,” said Verstappen. “With the sprint format, it’s normally a bit more chaotic to get on top of everything. But I think we did everything well as a team as well, also today with the strategy, the pit stops, everything was smooth. Out there on the track, we just had a very quick car, and I felt comfortable in the car. And we could do everything we wanted like we planned it.”
Ferrari Re-emerges in Battle for Second
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was second on Sunday in Austria.
Ferrari’s difficult season received a much-needed boost in Austria with Charles Leclerc taking his and the team’s best result of the year in second, while Carlos Sainz finished a strong sixth.
Ferrari has made race pace gains with the SF-23 since its updates were introduced in Spain and, after an encouraging Sunday in Canada, built upon the display with a decent showing in Austria. Leclerc, who briefly led off-strategy, was no match for Verstappen at a circuit where he claimed his most recent victory 12 months ago, but the progress was tangible. Fourth-placed Sainz could have made it a double Ferrari podium but lost out due to the timing of an early virtual safety car period.
It means Ferrari is now only 22 points behind second-placed Mercedes in the championship and has reduced its deficit to third-placed Aston Martin to 16.
“It feels good to be back on the podium,” said Leclerc. “I had a really good feeling in the car on Friday. I think with the new upgrades, the feeling is getting there, and we were really waiting for this race in order to confirm the good feelings that we had on Friday, and it worked out. No secrets, we need to still work extremely hard to catch Red Bull, that are still quite a lot faster come race day. But the feeling is better, and the team is pushing like I’ve never seen before in terms of bringing the upgrades much earlier than what was planned. This is great to see.”
Lando Norris had a good day for McLaren.
Super Norris Grabs Fifth for McLaren
McLaren has had a difficult season but secured its best result so far with Lando Norris an excellent fourth. The Briton has regularly thrived at the Red Bull Ring—where he claimed his first podium in 2020—and he was once more in the mix towards the sharp end of the grid.
Norris’ fourth came on a weekend in which McLaren introduced the next step of upgrades to its MCL60, with the team readying to work the newer specification for teammate Oscar Piastri in Britain next weekend.
“I was a bit nervous coming into the race really, honestly, that the race pace was going to let us down a lot today but actually it was better than I was expecting, which is a good surprise,” said Norris.
The overcast conditions, which lowered the track temperature, also helped in terms of tire degradation but McLaren conveyed quiet confidence that it is heading on an upwards trajectory.
“I think we have to be prudent,” said boss Andrea Stella. “Already I would say (if it was) a sunny day, hot track, it would have been more difficult for us. We are prudent, but the comparison between the two cars, we are definitely more competitive on the new upgrades.”
Mercedes’ George Russell moved up to seventh after postrace time penalties were handed out to several drivers for track limit violations.
Mercedes Suffers Bruising Weekend
Mercedes arrived in Austria off the back of a couple of trophy-laden weekends but it was not in the mix at the Red Bull Ring. Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton struggled with the W14 and could muster only seventh and eighth in the race.
“We weren’t expecting to be as slow as we were and our performance this weekend was a surprise,” said Hamilton. “We don’t have the answer as to why just yet, but this track has highlighted several areas of improvement we need to focus on.”
Russell described the race as “really challenging” and conceded he was “hoping for a little bit more from the Grand Prix.
“I am sure we will go away and get to the bottom of our performance here. We have the same car that we had in Barcelona where we were flying so we need to understand what went wrong on our side.
“The car certainly doesn’t feel how we want it to at the moment. It’s moving around a lot, and it felt a little bit worse this weekend than at other circuits; the pace was substantially worse though, so we need to get to the bottom of that. Our performance is clearly circuit dependent now. We were nowhere here but good in Montreal and Barcelona.”
Boss Toto Wolff labelled the weekend as “bruising” and agreed with Russell that the car’s outright performance is circuit-dependent.
Mercedes is planning to introduce further updates to the W14 at Silverstone, where it believes it will be strong, and where Hamilton has an excellent record.
Results
Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 71 laps
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +5.155 seconds
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +17.188
- Lando Norris, McLaren, +26.327
- Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, +30.317
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +21.377
- George Russell, Mercedes, +48.403
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +39.196
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +59.043
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine, +57.667
- Alex Albon, Williams, +1:09.767
- Esteban Ocon, Alpine, 1 lap
- Logan Sargeant, Williams, 1 lap
- Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo, 1 lap
- Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri, 1 lap
- Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1 lap
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1 lap
- Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, 1 lap
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 1 lap
- Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, 59 laps
Updated Driver Standings
- Max Verstappen 229
- Sergio Perez 148
- Fernando Alonso 129
- Lewis Hamilton 108
- Carlos Sainz 86
- Charles Leclerc 72
- George Russell 70
- Lance Stroll 43
- Esteban Ocon 31
- Lando Norris 22
- Pierre Gasly 17
- Nico Hulkenberg 9
- Alexander Albon 7
- Oscar Piastri 5
- Valtteri Bottas 5
- Zhou Guanyu 4
- Yuki Tsunoda 2
- Kevin Magnussen 2
- Logan Sargeant 0
- Nyck de Vries 0
Constructors’ Standings
- Red Bull 377
- Mercedes 178
- Aston Martin 172
- Ferrari 158
- Alpine 48
- McLaren 27
- Haas 11
- Alfa Romeo 9
- Williams 7
- AlphaTauri 2
Read the full article here