Short analysis: things we learned from the Austria F1 Sprint

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Red Bull Racing finished the sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix in style, securing a one-two finish on home turf. F1Technical’s senior writer Balázs Szabó delivers a quick analysis on the Austrian F1 Sprint.

Dominant victory – Max Verstappen secured another dominant victory today, winning the Austria F1 Sprint by over 20 seconds ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez. It was the first sprint victory for the Dutchman this year as he finished third in the first 100km dash that took place in Azerbaijan. The Austria F1 Sprint was also a successful race for the Dutchman in the past as he won the 100km dash in 2022 as well.

Fastest lap – It was Nico Hulkenberg who posted the fastest lap in the F1 Sprint with a time of 1m10.180s on Pirelli’s soft tyres, beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 94 thousands of a second.

On the intermediate tyres, Max Verstappen proved to be the fastest, clocking a 1m14.292s which was seven tenths of a second quicker than what Fernando Alonso managed with the Spaniard posting the second fastest lap on the green-walled tyres. Interestingly, Sergio Perez finished second, but his quickest lap was 1.2s slower than what his team mate managed in the 100km dash.

Biggest loser – Despite his eye-watering speed in Friday’s and Saturday’s qualifying session, Lando Norris had a shocker of a start which saw him drop down to P10 at the start and he finished only a place further up the order.

Biggest position gainer – Lewis Hamilton had a miserable qualifying shootout as he only qualified P18. However, he could gain five places at the start and finished the race three places higher up in P10. However, with only eight drivers scoring points in a sprint race, he was left without a single point.

Strategy – With sprint starting on a damp surface and constant drizzle, it looked like that drivers would complete the 24-lap sprint on the intermediate Pirelli tyres. However, Mercedes rolled the dice when he pitted Russell on Lap 15. When the Briton posted fastest mini sectors on his second lap, several dirvers followed suit.

The next lap saw Oscar Piastri pit for the red-walled Pirelli tyres with Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries, Zhou Guanyu diving into the pit for slick rubber on Lap 17.

With only six laps remaining, Charles Leclerc, Alexander Albon and Yuki Tsunoda also pitted, but this three-lap difference to Russell’s stop meant that they were unable to capitalize on the higher grip level on the drying track.

Tiny margin – It was a photo finish for Esteban Ocon and George Russell, who were only separated by 0.009s on the finish line. The Frenchman completed the 24-lap race without a stop while the Briton was brave enough to pit for slick tyres on Lap 15.

Points – Max Verstappen grabbed eight points with his sprint victory with his advantage in the Drivers’ Championship growing to a whopping 70 points ahead of his team mate Sergio Perez.

Fernando Alonso collected four points which enabled him to increase his lead to 19 points from Lewis Hamilton. Nico Hulkenberg might have hoped for more after spending the first phase of the sprint in P2, but his sixth-place finish was still enough to score three points after a difficult start to the season that saw the German finish in the point-scoring position only once.

Teams – Red Bull Racing collected the maximum available points with their one-two finish, earning a total of 15 points. Aston Martin also finished in the point-scoring top eight with both cars which saw them add nine points to their tally and cut the gap to the second-placed Mercedes to just five points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Ferrari scored six points thanks to Carlos Sainz’s third-place finish with Haas-Ferrari, Alpine and Mercedes earning three, two and one point respectively.

Cooler temperatures – Charles Leclerc continued to struggle on low grip track with the Monegasque also having encountered issues in the damp-dry qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks earlier. After his eye-catching performance in yesterday’s qualifying, the five-time F1 race winner was unable to repeat the same pace in today’s more challenging conditions that saw the surface at the Red Bull Ring dry up during the sprint shootout qualifying.

Leclerc qualified only sixth, but was handed out a three-place penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri. Starting from P9, he was unable to overtake Esteban Ocon despite his seemingly greater pace, and finished down in P12 following a late switch to dry weather tyres.

The Monegasque commented: “But it’s been three races now that whenever I’m on slicks on a track that his half dry, half wet, I am nowhere. We need to understand on my side what I’m doing wrong in terms of driving.

“Obviously it seems to work on the dry, it seems to work also when it’s full wet, but when it’s in between the two I’m nowhere. Again, it’s been three races, qualifying in Barcelona where I thought there was a problem, Canada, and now here."