Max Verstappen wins Austrian F1 GP sprint race from Leclerc and Sainz | Formula One

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Max Verstappen won the sprint race for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. The victory secures the Red Bull driver pole for Sunday’s grand prix. He beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third over the 24-lap race that decides the grid for the GP. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were fourth and eighth for Mercedes.

The battle at the top of the championship remains between Verstappen, Sergio Pérez and Leclerc. With eight points for the win the Dutchman now leads his Mexican teammate, who was fifth, by 38 points and the Ferrari man by 44.

Verstappen has another chance on Sunday to extend his title lead further from pole. It is not counted as having taken pole position with that honor going to the quickest driver in Friday’s qualifying and in this instance where Verstappen did indeed also claim pole.

Hamilton and Russell both crashed out of qualifying on Friday and Mercedes had to make significant repairs. They returned well after their team worked furiously to ensure they made the race. Hamilton had his chassis swapped to the spare because of the damage and both cars had new gearboxes fitted, but using existing units without penalty. The floors and wings of both cars were also repaired.

Mechanics were working on Hamilton’s car right through most of the third practice and he emerged with only 15 minutes to go.

This is Verstappen’s third sprint race victory after he won at the British Grand Prix last year and at Imola earlier this season. It is another strong statement of intent from the Dutchman and his Red Bull team at their home race and with a strong record here of four wins here he is in every position to take another.

The reigning champion has been in exemplary form this season and after managing only seventh at the last round in Silverstone, having taken damage to the floor from debris, he will be expectant of a clean shot at the win from the front of the grid. His race pace has been formidable but Ferrari will be optimism that their upgrades at this race will enable them to compete on Sunday. Their pace here in the dash suggests they can still challenge in the main event, as Leclerc noted after the race.

Verstappen held his lead from pole on the short dash into turn one, while Sainz passed Leclerc to take second. However the Monegasque came back swiftly to reclaim the place up the inside of turn four.

Hamilton dropped two places on the opening lap to 11th but Verstappen was already stretching his leg, two seconds clear by lap three. Behind him Leclerc and Sainz were in an absolute dogfight, the latter clearly quicker, and the two vied for position and exchanged places but Leclerc just held his place.

Their battle allowed Verstappen to move further ahead, with a three-second lead, while Hamilton came back to ninth and entered a fight with Mick Schumacher’s Haas, who was driving well enough to deny the seven-time champion an obvious chance.

By the midway stage of the race Verstappen looked entirely in control, managing the gap to Leclerc. Pérez drove well, as he had at Silverstone, to move through the field from 13th on the grid to fifth by lap 18.

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Schumacher defended stoutly from Hamilton, with the British driver believing the German was exceeding track limits in his defense, but the seven-time champion finally made it stick on lap 22 at turn four.

He pursued Kevin Magnussen but ran out of laps as Verstappen cruised to a solid win in what had been somewhat lacklustre affair but the Dutchman had the maximum eight points and the front of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Esteban Ocon was in sixth for Alpine, Magnussen seventh for Haas, Schumacher ninth and Valtteri Bottas 10th for Alfa Romeo.

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