Sunny. Dry. Air +28…29С, highway +43…44С
Sprinting is a kind of joke. During the qualification for the sprint, everyone takes good care of their car, because you can lose a lot more than you can win. According to the results, eight riders from the four strongest teams are still ahead.
The sprint is a reason to attract fans to the circuit early on Saturday morning, although everyone usually takes their time for qualifying and the evening concert.
The sprint is scheduled at the start of the race program on Saturday and starts around noon local time. It usually takes a few hours to get to the track, plus traffic jams, plus control, so on your legal day off you have to get up at eight o’clock to watch 26 laps of a short race at noon, and on the track stay until evening. During this time, spectators can have breakfast, lunch and dinner, drink, buy paraphernalia, watch sponsored events – spend time according to the plan of the organizers.
As for the sporting component, even winning three sprints will award the driver fewer points than for one Grand Prix victory, with the aim of not risking anyone damaging the car before the start of the weekend’s main events .
Verstappen dominated as usual in Spielberg on Friday, setting the fastest time in practice and winning qualifying.
Norris started the race with him from the front row of the grid, Piastri and Russell started from second place, Sainz and Hamilton started from third place. Williams violated the conditions of the park by changing the settings of Albon’s car, and he started from the pit lane.
Pirelli brought three ‘soft’ compounds to the podium: C3, C4 and C5 in the Hard, Medium and Soft roles. In the sprint everyone started on broken-in Mediums, while Bottas, Zhou and Albon had fresh ones.
For safety reasons it was not possible to start immediately due to the poor placement of photographers in the first corner.
The race management announced an extra formation lap, the distance for this lap was reduced. Albon was allowed to leave the pit lane and join the peloton.
At the start Verstappen maintained his lead. Sainz stayed ahead of Russell, Leclerc gained three positions.
Top Ten in Round 2: Verstappen – Norris – Piastri – Sainz – Russell – Hamilton – Leclerc – Perez – Magnussen – Stroll.
On lap 5, Norris passed Verstappen for the lead, but Max fought back straight away. Piastri took advantage of the battle and overtook his partner.
On lap 8, Russell passed Sainz for fourth place.
Top Ten in Round 10: Verstappen – Piastri – Norris – Russell – Sainz – Hamilton – Leclerc – Perez – Magnussen – Stroll.
On the eleventh lap the first four were stretched out, at the back the riders rode in different groups in “DRS trains” without fighting for position – the speed difference was not enough to attack.
On the final lap, Alonso lost two positions to Ricciardo and Hulkenberg. Nico locked his tyres in turn 3, forcing Fernando to go off the track to avoid a collision. Ricciardo also benefited from this, ahead of the Spaniard. Albon overtook Bottas for 18th.
All twenty riders reached the finish.
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In Spielberg, Max Verstappen won the Saturday sprint for the 10th time in his career. Oscar Piastri lost just under four seconds and finished second, while Lando Norris finished the race eight tenths behind him.
In a few hours, qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix will take place.
Sprint results
| Pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Pete |
| 1. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | – | – | |
| 2. O. Piastri | McLaren | +4,616 | – | |
| 3. L. Norris | McLaren | +5,348 | – | |
| 4. D. Russell | Mercedes | +8,354 | – | |
| 5. K. Sainz | Ferrari | +9,989 | – | |
| 6. L. Hamilton | Mercedes | +11.207 | – | |
| 7. S. Leclerc | Ferrari | +13,424 | – | |
| 8. C.Perez | Red Bull | +17.409 | – | |
| 9. K. Magnussen | Hare | +24.067 | – | |
| 10. L. Walk | Aston Martin | +30.175 | – | |
| 11. E.Okon | Alps | +30.839 | – | |
| 12. P. Gasly | Alps | +31.308 | – | |
| 13. Yu.Tsunoda | RB | +35.452 | – | |
| 14. N. Hulkenberg | Hare | +38.423 | – | |
| 15. D. Ricciardo | RB | +39.397 | – | |
| 16. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | +43.155 | – | |
| 17. L. Sargent | Williams | +44.076 | – | |
| 18. A. Elbon | Williams | +44.673 | – | |
| 19. V. Bottas | Sauber | +46.511 | – | |
| 20. G.Zhou | Sauber | +53.143 | – |
Best round: Lando Norris (McLaren)
Championship Position: Individual Competition
Championship Position: Constructors Championship
| Team | Engine | Glasses | |
| = | 1. Oracle Red Bull Racing | Honda RBPT | 339 |
| = | 2. Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari | 276 |
| = | 3. McLaren F1 Team | Mercedes | 250 |
| = | 4. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | Mercedes | 159 |
| = | 5. Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team | Mercedes | 58 |
| = | 6. Visa Cash App RB F1 Team | Honda RBPT | 28 |
| = | 7. BWT Alpine F1 Team | Renault | 8 |
| = | 8. MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | 7 |
| = | 9.Williams Racing | Mercedes | 2 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
