Max Verstappen cruises to win a rather uneventful 2022 F1 Austrian GP sprint 

Max Verstappen cruised to a win in the 2022 F1 Austrian GP sprint race. There was drama even before the start of the race as Fernando Alonso suffered an electric issue which forced the team to retire the car even before the race had started. The start was aborted as Guanyu Zhou's car stopped before the race started.

Once the race started, it was clockwork for the Red Bull driver as he got the perfect launch and was never challenged thereafter. Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, fended off early advances from his teammate to secure P2. Carlos Sainz finished in P3, and George Russell, who could not put up much of a challenge to the front-runners, finished P4. Sergio Perez drove another brilliant recovery drive to finish P5 and rounded out the top five.

In case you missed the race, here's what happened!

---

2022 F1 Austrian GP Sprint: Here's what happened

#1 Ferrari teammates' early squabble lets Max Verstappen secure pole position for the F1 Austrian GP

Ferrari should have read our FP2 report! If it had, it would not have let the two Ferrari teammates fight against each other and let Max Verstappen run away with the win. But that is exactly what happened.

Verstappen had a brilliant start, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc behind him. After the first lap where Charles Leclerc had secured P2 from his teammate, instead of trying to focus on Max Verstappen getting away in front, Sainz started attacking his teammate.

Now that the Spaniard has closed the gap to his teammate to only 12 points, he is visibly rejuvinated. Gone is the Ferrari No.2 driver; now fans can see a more feisty side of the 27-year-old driver as he fights Leclerc for the same scrap of the track.

Ferrari, for its part, is trying to remain as fair as it can towards both its drivers, something that we witnessed in the British GP as well. However, in a championship where every point is crucial and Charles Leclerc has clearly shown his superiority over Carlos Sainz (he leads Sainz by 8-2 in the teammate head-to-head battle), Monegasque spent the race unnecessarily trying to fend off his teammate and lost a lot of time.

Max Verstappen, for his part, secured another pole-position start for the Austrian GP and was under virtually no pressure throughout the sprint.

#2 Sergio Perez roars through the field to finish P5

Sergio Perez was the driver of the F1 Austrian GP Sprint as the Mexican made amends for his poor starting position and roared through the field to finish P5. Most of it was secured by overtaking other cars, as the Red Bull driver had a strong start to the race and, bit by bit, plucked off one car after the other. First, it was the Haas teammates and then the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. This was damage limitation at its best.

#3 Mercedes gets a reality check with both drivers

Mercedes has made far too many tall claims since the F1 British GP. The F1 Austrian GP Sprint has been no different. The qualifying lap on which Lewis Hamilton went off track and crashed he was already 0.261 secs down on the best time. Mercedes claimed Lewis Hamilton was destined for P2 in the F1 Austrian GP qualifying, which would mean that he would have had to close the gap by almost two-tenths in the last sector. Looking at the sector times, it looked unlikely that Hamilton could set that time in the last sector.

Even for the F1 British GP last weekend, Toto Wolff claimed that Lewis Hamilton would have won the race if not for the Safety Car. When the Safety Car was brought out, Lewis Hamilton was six seconds behind Charles Leclerc with 15 laps left to go. The two were trading fastest times and Carlos Sainz's Ferrari was in between them. Once again, it was unlikely that a win was on the table for Mercedes.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. A P4 for George Russell, where the only challenge he had was from Sergio Perez in P5, who was making his way through the field, was a bit of a letdown.

An even bigger letdown was Lewis Hamilton's race. Starting from P10 and finishing P8 should be considered a disappointment. Mercedes felt it could challenge the front-runners this weekend, but once again it looked obvious that there is still a buffer that both Ferrari and Red Bull enjoy.

#4 Disaster for Fernando Alonso, points for Esteban Ocon

It doesn't rain, it pours for Alpine. Last weekend, the team lost out on a good haul of points with Esteban Ocon as he suffered a DNF from P7. This time around, it was his teammate Fernando Alonso's turn. With the promise of strong race pace and a good battle with Lewis Hamilton, the Spaniard was gearing up for a strong F1 Austrian GP Sprint, but an electric issue did not allow him to start the race.

Esteban Ocon, on the other hand, secured a P6 finish as he fended off both Haas cars, but could not do much about Sergio Perez's Red Bull.

#5 Alex Albon bumps Lando Norris and Sebastian Vettel off the track

Alex Albon was not having any of it from his fellow drivers today. The Williams driver started the F1 Austrian GP Sprint on soft tires and the choice came back to bite him in the race. After Lewis Hamilton got through relatively easily, Albon first pushed Lando Norris off the track, for which he got a five-second penalty, and then later in the race, he tagged Sebastian Vettel into the gravel. Albon might want to cut down on those Red Bulls before the race if those elbows of his keep getting wider.

Watch how things unfold at the Austrian GP on Sunday, July 10, 2022.