Austrian Sprint dominated by Verstappen as Ferrari trail Red Bull

Max Verstappen will start first for the Austrian Grand Prix after a dominant performance in Formula 1’s fifth Sprint event.

F1 Sprint took another nation by storm in F1’s Qualifying skake-up, with the 23-lap race setting the grid for the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen leading the pack at the Red Bull Ring.

Fernando Alonso was left stranded on the grid after his Alpine mechanics failed to remove the tyre blankets from the Spaniard’s car as the formation lap began, ultimately not starting the Sprint after retiring to the garage.

The start was then abandoned while Zhou Guanyu’s Ferrari engine cut out following the final corner, before restarting his engine and heading to the pits to start the Sprint.

As the lights went out, Carlos Sainz would jump his teammate into the first corner after Charles Leclerc was forced wide by Verstappen before the Monegasque took back the position later in the lap.

Further behind, Pierre Gasly would fall away from the pack after spinning at the first corner. The Frenchman made contact with Lewis Hamilton, who was forced into the middle of the pack following a crash in Qualifying.

Verstappen pulled ahead while both Ferraris struggled to keep up with the Dutchman. However, the two prancing horses were too busy fighting each other, with the two F1-75’s almost coming together on lap eight.

On lap 11, Sebastian Vettel would head off of the track and into the gravel trap following contact with Alex Albon, destroying a strong comeback drive to fall back down to the back of the pack for tomorrow’s race.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez made his way into fifth on lap 12, overtaking Esteban Ocon as he eyed up the Mercedes of George Russell. The Mexican started 13th, following a lap time deletion after Qualifying for exceeding track limits.

After being stuck behind the Haas duo for some time, Hamilton would eventually break past Mick Schumacher on lap 21 to promote himself into the points-paying positions.

Come the 23rd lap, it was Verstappen who cruised to the line to take pole position for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix, followed by Leclerc and Sainz with Russell fourth.

However, Leclerc was quick to tell his engineers not to lose hope following Verstappen’s easy victory.

“Yeah, yeah. We are quick, we’ll get them tomorrow.”

The Austrian Grand Prix gets underway at 2pm BST tomorrow afternoon.

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