F1 Austrian GP: Charles Leclerc Overpowers Verstappen and Ferrari

Charles Leclerc won his third race of the year, cutting Max Verstappen's lead to 38 points, thanks to his superior race performance

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Charles Leclerc won his third race of the year, cutting Max Verstappen's lead to 38 points, thanks to his superior race performance.

Red Bull’s home race for qualifying and sprint practice in Austria saw Max Verstappen defeat Ferrari and Charles Leclerc on Friday and Sunday. But that was not the case during the main Austrian GP. Verstappen was passed by Leclerc in the early part of the race as teammate Carlos Sainz inched closer to the defending world champion, demonstrating Ferrari's superior race pace. Due to tyre degradation concerns, the Dutchman had to stop sooner than planned as the Red Bull fought to keep the Ferrari at bay. His colleague Perez finally had to retire after getting into a first-lap collision with George Russell in the Mercedes.

However, during the second of two pit stops, Carlos Sainz Jr.'s engine blew out just as he was about to pass Verstappen, which was not good for Ferrari. As his car was on fire by the time he got out of it, Sainz will probably receive grid penalties later in the season and will require a new engine. As both Leclerc and Verstappen made a free pit stop, this also led to the activation of a virtual safety car, which countered the Ferrari tyre advantage.

Fortunately for the Monegasque, Leclerc was able to cling on to the victory despite finding himself to be slower and experiencing more throttle problems than usual. According to this, Perez is ahead of the Monegasque in P2 of the world championship, 38 points ahead of Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton climbed up to P3 on a weekend where he struggled for pace during the sprint race and wrecked during qualifying because to the incidents involving the Red Bull and Ferraris. George Russell, driving the second Mercedes, finished in fourth place despite receiving a 5-second time penalty for colliding with Perez.

While Mick Schumacher in the Haas earned a career-best P6, Esteban Ocon in the Alpine managed P5, recording his second career points finish following his first one last weekend. In addition to defeating Kevin Magnussen, a teammate who finished eighth, Lando Norris, driving a McLaren, finished seventh. Fernando Alonso finished the race in P10 after starting at the rear of the grid, while Daniel Ricciardo finished P9 in the other McLaren.

For the Alfa, Bottas ended P11, just outside the points, ahead of Guanyu Zhou, who achieved P14. In the Williams, Alex Albon finished P12 while Nicholas Latifi retired from the race. For Aston Martin, Lance Stroll finished P13, while Sebastian Vettel, a 4-time world champion, finished P17, essentially last after suffering damage throughout the race. P15 and P16 were controlled by Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri.

2022 F1 Round 11 Austrian Grand Prix Race Result:

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Points
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:24:24.312	25
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+1.532s	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+41.217s	15
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	+58.972s	12
5	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine Renault	+68.436s	10
6	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+1 lap	8
7	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	+1 lap	6
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+1 lap	4
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+1 lap	2
10	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine Renault	+1 lap	1
11	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+1 lap	0
12	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	+1 lap	0
13	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+1 lap	0
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	+1 lap	0
15	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0
17	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+1 lap	0
NC	55	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	DNF	0
NC	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	DNF	0
NC	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	DNF	0

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