A nice duel between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris characterized the first six laps of the Sprint race in Spielberg. Starting from pole, the Dutchman of the Red Bull-Honda seemed to have taken off, but the two McLaren-Mercedes were getting closer and closer, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in that order. Verstappen was suffering from some engine power problems, the so-called clipping, allowing the two MCL38s to take his slipstream.
With a nice move, Norris passed Verstappen on lap 5, but the three-time world champion reacted immediately at the next braking point. Norris was surprised, he could have managed it better by closing the inside, and both arrived long at the braking point. Piastri took advantage of this, passing Norris on the inside and with momentum he seemed to be able to attack Verstappen too, but he didn’t make it. After a couple of laps, Verstappen increased his pace leaving the two McLarens far away with Piastri and Norris in this position at the checkered flag.
Fourth position went to George Russell with Mercedes. On the first lap the Englishman was overtaken by Carlos Sainz, but on the eighth lap Russell overtook the Ferrari, which was in difficulty with brake temperatures. Sainz was unable to counter, but kept Lewis Hamilton behind him. Seventh Charles Leclerc, author of a good start from the tenth place. He immediately overtook the two Alpine-Renaults, then also Sergio Perez, after which he had no chance to attack Hamilton. Both Ferrari drivers said they were less than happy with the performance of their SF24s.
The last point went to Perez, sadly eighth ahead of a good Kevin Magnussen with the Haas-Ferrari and Lance Stroll with the Aston Martin-Mercedes. Little to say for the others, except at the end, an overtaking with a subsequent long run by Nico Hulkenberg on Fernando Alonso (far from his teammate Stroll) which also favored Daniel Ricciardo who shortly before had overtaken Logan Sargeant who took the satisfaction of beating both in the sprint qualifying and in the race, an embarrassing Alexander Albon as are the two Sauber-Ferraris.
Saturday 29 June 2024, sprint race
1 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda) – 23 giri
2 – Oscar Piastri (McLaren-Mercedes) – 4″616
3 – Lando Norris (McLaren-Mercedes) – 5″348
4 – George Russell (Mercedes) – 8″354
5 – Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – 9″989
6 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 11″207
7 – Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 13″424
8 – Sergio Perez (Red Bull-Honda) – 17″409
9 – Kevin Magnussen (Haas-Ferrari) – 24″067
10 – Lance Stroll (Aston Martin-Mercedes9 – 30″175
11 – Esteban Ocon (Alpine-Renault) – 30″839
12 – Pierre Gasly (Alpine-Renault) – 31″308
13 – Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls-Honda) – 35″452
14 – Nico hUlkenberg (Haas-Ferrari) – 38″423
15 – Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls-Honda) – 39″327
16 – Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin-Mercedes) – 43″155
17 – Logan Sargeant (Williams-Mercedes) – 44″076
18 – Alexander Albon (Williams-Mercedes) – 44″673
19 – Valtteri Bottas (Sauber-Ferrari) – 46″511
20 – Guan Yu Zhou (Sauber-Ferrari) – 53″143
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