Three months after Australia, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc is back on top of the podium at the Austrian GP. World championship leader Max Verstappen safely takes second place. Mick Schumacher has arrived in Formula 1 and is scoring points again. Not Carlos Sainz, his Ferrari is on fire.
Charles Leclerc has silenced the Orange Army and bounced back with a dominant win over Max Verstappen in the Formula 1 title race. After exactly three months of frustration and breakdowns, the Ferrari driver was finally back on top of the podium in Spielberg – of all places, in the lion’s den, at the home game of Verstappen’s Red Bull team, he practically led the Dutchman with three overtaking maneuvers.
More than 100,000 fans came and they also saw a great performance by Mick Schumacher. Just a week after his first top 10 result, he was racing into the points again in the remarkably fast Haas. Sixth place at the Austrian Grand Prix was the best result of his young career, with Schumacher showing some strong overtaking maneuvers.
Verstappen, hero of the thousands of fans in orange, only finished second ahead of record world champion Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz coasted to a halt late in the race with his engine on fire. The weekend was a big disappointment for Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel, who also ended the Grand Prix at the end of the field after poor qualifying and a weak sprint on Saturday.
“It was a really good race,” said Leclerc, adding with a view to his long dry spell: “I really needed this win. We showed that we have the pace in the car. Now we have to continue like this.” Verstappen explained: “It was a difficult day. We had some problems with the tires. Second place is a good result for us under the circumstances.”
Verstappen, on the other hand, had won the sprint on Saturday, but overall his lead in Austria melted slightly. He is now 38 World Cup points ahead of Leclerc, who is second overall again. He last won in Australia on April 10, followed by numerous setbacks through no fault of his own.
And on Sunday everything was actually ready for the next big Verstappen appearance. The grandstands were filled to the last seat, the already popular Austrian Grand Prix celebrated a record crowd this year – and the color orange dominated almost everywhere.
However, the impressive setting offered a huge flaw: Reports of sexist incidents and sexual harassment around the racetrack increased over the course of the weekend, and countless women spoke up via social media. On Sunday, Formula 1 then announced an investigation into the “unacceptable” incidents.
On the race track, Verstappen initially held his lead in front of the Ferrari duo at the start, the trio completed the first laps through orange clouds of smoke – behind them Schumacher was again in focus. The 23-year-old had already fought a remarkable duel with Hamilton in the sprint on Saturday, and again he put great pressure on the record world champion. Schumacher passed after five laps, and the Mercedes star regained position ten laps later.
Up front, Leclerc caused anxious moments among Verstappen fans early on. The Monegasse was significantly faster, “I can’t stop him much longer,” the world champion radioed to his pits. And that’s how it was, after just 12 laps Leclerc took the lead.
Red Bull then chose a new strategy, brought Verstappen early to change tires. He dropped back, but was now significantly faster than the two Ferraris in front in third place. When Leclerc and Sainz also stopped shortly before the halfway point in the race, Verstappen initially passed them.
However, Leclerc was able to rely on the speed of his Ferrari, passed quite quickly, and the process was repeated after the second stop. Verstappen was not at all happy with his car and complained about fluctuating grip. In view of the engine damage at Sainz, it was another anxious final phase for Ferrari, and Leclerc also complained about problems with the accelerator towards the end.
