Max Verstappenraised in the home of Red Bull, has scored the victory in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint racethe eleventh round of the 2024 Formula 1 calendar. The Dutch driver, the clear leader of the World Championship, has made the most of his advantage from pole position, setting the pace whenever and wherever he wanted, to the impotence of the McLarens, who this time have not had any chance. Carlos Sainz has had to settle for the ‘top five’, better than his teammate Leclerc (7th), while Fernando Alonso has confirmed the ‘drama’ of Aston Martin and has ended up relegated to sixteenth position.
Following an aborted start due to a technical failure in the starting system, the race was shortened from 24 to 23 laps. Verstappen defended his pole position well against the attacking McLarens, with Piastri close to beating his teammate Norris.
Carlos Sainz has successfully completed his overtaking of Russell, taking fourth place from the Mercedes driver, while Fernando Alonso has come out on the losing end of the fratricidal tussle between Aston Martin. Stroll has climbed two positions (10th) and the Asturian, who yesterday admitted that he has problems with the engine of his AMR24, has fallen to fourteenth place and after an error in the final section, caused by a manoeuvre by Hülkenberg, he has been overtaken by two other rivals to drop to 16th place.
No respite
The McLarens did not give the world championship leader a break, with Piastri pushing hard and ahead of Norris. Russell, for his part, has returned the blow to Sainz to get in the wake of the ‘papaya’ cars with his Mercedes.
At the halfway point of the race, Verstappen, relentless, changed the pace to break it definitively. The McLaren They paid for their intensity in the first laps and dropped in performance. Piastri, without DRS, was sinking hopelessly and Norris was trying to catch up with his teammate so as not to lose sight of Max, who was already more than two seconds ahead.
If in Barcelona last week, Norris said goodbye with the feeling of having ‘given’ the victory to Verstappen due to the greater speed of his car, this time the Englishman has assumed the superiority of Red Bull in Spielberg and has finally given up attacking to Piastri, escorting him to the finish line to preserve McLaren’s double podium.
The sprint racethird of the six scheduled this season in F1, has served as an appetizer to what awaits this afternoon (4:00 p.m.) in the qualification for the main race that will be held this Sunday and in which, given what has been seen, a second round of the fight between Verstappen is expected and the McLarens. “This has been an opportunity to learn for tomorrow,” said Max.
2024-06-29 11:00:54
#Verstappen #unstoppable #Austrian #sprint #race #Fernando #Alonso #sinks
