Can Verstappen bounce back at the Red Bull Ring following Silverstone disaster

Max Verstappen will be hoping that he can return to form in Austria, after finishing seventh at the British Grand Prix.

The championship leader led after the first corner at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, but lost this after the red flag caused by Zhou Guanyu’s heavy crash at turn one.

Later in the race, Verstappen would re-take the lead but end up falling further behind after damage caused him to pit on lap 12, eventually finishing seventh.

Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz seized the opportunity to gain some points in the championship by winning their first race since Melbourne, but lost the chance at a 1-2 following internal squabbling.

Now, he and Red Bull Racing return to Austria, where the Red Bull Ring will host round 11 of the 2022 Formula 1 world championship.

Orange Army to spur on Verstappen once again

Verstappen is known for his abilities around the Red Bull Ring, first winning the Austrian Grand Prix in 2018 before besting Charles Leclerc in 2019 to make it two in-a-row.

After disappointment in 2020, Verstappen would resume form in 2021 by winning both races around the 4.318km circuit in dominant fashion.

Although the 24-year-old leads the championship by 34 points, he will hope that he can swing the momentum back in his favour to avoid a repeat of Hamilton’s mid-season charge last year.

If Ferrari can maintain their current form for the next part of the season, the story of last season may be seen yet again, with Silverstone possibly becoming Verstappen’s unlucky venue.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Verstappen spoke about his race following the damage, saying:

“I had just got into the lead of course, because of Carlos’ [Sainz] moment and a few corners later there was a piece of debris on the racing line.

“As soon as I arrived there, I could not drastically turn left or right because you cannot do that in that kink so I tried to hit it head on, and normally it would explode or just get pushed away.

“This time it went in my floor and it completely destroyed the whole left hand side of my floor. Within two corners I felt like the car was falling apart.

“I thought initially I had a puncture, which was not the case, but even after that the car was really a handful to drive but I think, overall, to finish seventh with that car was still a good result.”

All you need to know about the Red Bull Ring

The circuit initially made its debut on the F1 calendar in 1970, known as the Osterreichring, but was shortened for the 1996 race, then becoming known as the A1-Ring.

This venue saw many famous moments from F1’s history, from David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen’s clash in 1999 to Ferrari’s team order controversy in 2002, where Rubens Barrichello was forced to hand the win to teammate Michael Schumacher on the final lap of the Grand Prix.

Following 2003, the race would drop off of the calendar until it would return for the turbo-hybrid era in 2014, known as the Red Bull Ring after the company acquired it in 2004.

Since then, the Austrian Grand Prix has been a fan-favourite, with the race often being one of the most exciting in a season.

With 10 corners and three DRS straights, the track is fast, with drivers contending for the race win over 71 laps after lights go green at 2pm BST.

The return of Sprint

F1’s new Qualifying system, Sprint, returns once again after its last appearance at Imola earlier this season. Unlike the Italian venue, the Red Bull Ring stands a better chance at providing better racing.

With more overtaking opportunities due to the nature of the track combined with the modern cars, the Sprint may see more on track action.

With this, teams will have less time to gather data and understand their cars, as just two Practice session are set to be run, with FP2 moving to Saturday while Qualifying will go ahead on Friday.

However, the system could cause issues for Ferrari, with the Scuderia’s Qualifying advantage perhaps set to be made redundant with the third-distance race better suiting title challengers Red Bull.

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