A Saturday of domination at "Verstappenring": Sprint and Pole Position for Max!

It was a Saturday of absolute domination that saw Max Verstappen impose himself first in the Sprint and then in the Qualifying of the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman is simply unstoppable at Red Bull Ring, so much so that - if we also consider yesterday's FP1 and Sprint Qualifying - the World Champion has finished in first position in all the sessions held so far. What can I say... The only missing session is the race!

Sprint Analysis: Max defends his victory with teeth against Norris and Piastri

The 23 laps contested in the Sprint, contrary to what one might think, weren't one-way, but saw the two McLarens putting Max Verstappen under serious pressure in the first phase. But, when the Dutchman opened the gap with Piastri over 1.0 s, thus preventing him from using the DRS, he was able to pull away even more and take the chequered flag ahead of everyone else.

Going into the details of a Sprint that was actually very easy to analyze, in the very first laps the greatest threat to Max's leadership was in the form of Lando Norris, who, bringing his teammate within his DRS distance, strongly tried to overtake the home hero. The decisive attack came on lap 5, in particular at Turn 3 (a right-hand hairpin taken at around 60 km/h): Norris braked so deeply towards Verstappen that his move compromised the line of both, but with the benefit of pushing his rival wide and getting in front of him...

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

But Verstappen, as you know, is not the type of driver to give it away so easily, and despite not having DRS on the straight from Turn 3 to Turn 4, he managed to exploit the McLaren's slipstream to make a counter-attack right at Turn 4: an extremely late braking down the inside of Lando, putting the wheels on the dirt side of the track, moreover in a downhill section with a steep slope. Predictably, Max's RB20 had a front lock, but despite this the World Champion managed to keep the situation under control, regaining the lead with 18 laps still to go.

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

The maneuver, which we could define as magic, was so unexpected for the Englishman from McLaren that he also lost his position to Oscar Piastri, who was very courageous in holding the outside line in the following Turn 5: from that moment on, due to performance or team orders (we don't really know), the positions between the two drivers of the Woking team were kept frozen, with the Australian having the task of challenging the Red Bull in P1. Unfortunately for him, once the "barrier" of 1.0 s gap that was keeping him at a short distance from Verstappen was broken, he began to lap some tenths slower than Max: his pace wasn't devastating, but an relentless one... As for the podium positions, the Sprint ended with the same situation following the fantastic duel just described.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Behind the first three drivers, we witnessed a very eventful Sprint between the two Ferraris and the two Mercedes, with the latter proving to be slightly faster than their rivals from the Maranello team. The 2 vs 2 situation was created immediately following the start, where Charles Leclerc recovered 3 positions from his P10 on the grid, to which he had been relegated due to the sudden shutdown of his Power Unit in the pitlane, during yesterday's Sprint Qualifying.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Once he grabbed seventh position, however, the comeback of the Monegasque from Ferrari was abruptly interrupted behind Hamilton's Mercedes W15, being the latter quick enough in terms of straight line speed and even with a small advantage in the (few) corners that dot the Red Bull Ring. The same - small - advantage was the factor that allowed George Russell to gain fourth position over Carlos Sainz, with an overtaking maneuver favoured by the use of DRS on the straight between Turn 3 and Turn 4, in particular on lap 8. As said for the three up front, the Sprint had little else to say for the two pairs of teams mentioned, with Hamilton performing better than Sainz but without the possibility of attacking him due to the DRS from which the Spaniard kept benefitting by remaining within close range of Russell, immediately after the overtake suffered.

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

The last point available was grabbed by Sergio Perez, who covered all the 23 laps scheduled without attacking or being attacked by his rivals around his eighth position: yet another poor performance for the Mexican, against whom there's no point in making any further criticisms... Simply, the skill gap that separates him from his teammate fluctuates around an average gap that is too large to think of finishing qualifications and races close to him, with all the implications for the Constructors' Championship.

Qualifying Analysis: a pole never in doubt for Verstappen, while McLaren wastes a P3 with Piastri. What a disaster for Leclerc!

Despite the possibility of making setup changes between Sprint and qualifying, the latter issued very similar verdicts to those of the Sprint just analyzed. In this case, before delving into the themes that emerged, here's the final classification:

The most interesting trend that we were able to observe in qualifying was, in my opinion, the flattening of performance along the entire grid, favoured by the short laptimes of the Austrian circuit, but still truly remarkable if you consider that at the end of Q1 between the first and last classified there was only a 0.798 s gap. Starting from 2006, the year in which the current qualifying format divided into Q1, Q2 and Q3 was introduced, this is an absolute record!

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Starting right from this aspect, it was curious to observe how only one driver managed a clear progression from Q1 to Q3: we're obviously talking about Max Verstappen, who - despite having set his laptime with used Soft tyres in the first heat - literally made the difference against the two McLarens, with Norris and Piastri constantly being his first pursuers during the weekend in Spielberg. The laptime (1'04"314) which gave the World Champion pole position number 40 in Formula 1 (as well as the seventh consecutive on the Red Bull Ring, also counting the double events of 2021 and the Sprint Qualifying of 2023 and 2024) was 0.404 s faster than Norris' one, which on a longer track would translate into a gap of between 6 and 7 tenths of a second: simply impressive.

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Talking about McLaren, whereas for Norris we can talk about a maximization of his result, the same cannot be said for Oscar Piastri, whose laptime of 1'04"786 (which would have placed him in third position) was cancelled due to a violation of the tracks limits between Turn 5 and Turn 6. As can be seen in the picture below, we're not talking about a clear infringement, but just enough to activate the sensors responsible for detecting these situations, consequently leading to the cancellation of the laptime obtained.

Due to this unforeseen event, the Australian from McLaren will be forced to start from seventh position on the grid, by virtue of the laptime set during the first of his two attempts in Q3. Not a small setback, given that in front of him he will have the pack of the two Mercedes and the two Ferraris - probably with the idea for the strategists of both teams to compete one against each other. In this context, if the race start isn't the best for Piastri, the goal of achieving a podium could be very difficult to accomplish.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Speaking of Leclerc's qualification, the performance (and the result) obtained confirm Charles' difficult period in this mid-championship phase: here in Spielberg it immediately became clear that Carlos Sainz had found a better starting setup already in FP1, taking a further step ahead in the time window between the Sprint and the qualifying session. Charles' only flash came in his first attempt in Q3, when the Monegasque set a laptime 0.2 s faster than his teammate; however, the subsequent second attempt was absolutely disastrous, with two off-track exits in Turn 6 and Turn 9 which led the Ferrari driver to give up on his lap.

The problem for Leclerc is that following the two above-mentioned off-tracks there was (according to him) an extensive damage to the floor, which will require the team to replace the part. This is an operation permitted by the Sporting Regulations, as an exception to the Parc Fermé regime between qualifying and the race, during which the cars must not be modified in any way - except, in fact, by filing a request to the FIA ​​delegates in the case of damage.

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The top ten is closed by Perez in P8, an excellent Nico Hulkenberg on his Haas and Esteban Ocon's Alpine (in his third consecutive Q3 finish). In the second half of the classification, however, the least competitive performances came from Aston Martin and Visa CashApp RB: in particular, although Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had already been struggling for several Grands Prix, it is fair to say that at Red Bull Ring the AMR24 is showing the worst side of its technical characteristics, to the point that it suddenly becomes a single-seater barely capable of getting its drivers into Q2.

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Even further down the field, as has now been certified several times, we can find Williams and Stake: a rather depressing technical condition from a market perspective for Carlos Sainz, who has in these two teams (in addition to Alpine, for which the logic is the same) the most likely options in view of the 2025 World Championship. Even if Stake will see an increasingly greater involvement from Audi - until the actual takeover in 2026 - it's difficult to think that the current situation can be upset in a short time. And for a driver currently driving a Ferrari, this is certainly not an easy reality to digest.

What will happen in the race? The outcome for the podium seems obvious, but watch out for strategies!

The race, which will start at 3.00 pm CET, features a distance of 71 laps during which there will likely be three fundamental themes:

  • Tyre degradation, which often occurs here in the form of "blistering" and which therefore has significant repercussions on the strategies that each team will opt for;
  • The usually very high temperatures, which - combined with the altitude of the Red Bull Ring - can lead to cooling struggles, and potentially reliability issues;
  • The DRS factor, very powerful due to the layout of the track (with three rather long straights interspersed with slow hairpins or 90° corners): as seen in the Sprint, staying in the slipstream of a rival with a much better race pace here is possible, thanks to the laptime gain that DRS allows on the straight. This too can lead to unexpected race dynamics!

In linear race conditions, the fastest strategy should include two pitstops, possibly avoiding the use of Soft tyres: during the course of the only free practice session we were able to observe that it's a compound that is too soft to think of using it in a stint longer than 12 laps. In short, a very restrictive choice from a race perspective.

So see you tomorrow to comment on what will happen at the Red Bull Ring... Enjoy the race!

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