Max Verstappen, who received a lot of pressure from his teammate at the start, won the second sprint race of the season. Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg was close to making the top three.
The second sprint race of the Formula One season turned out to be a very entertaining start at the Spielberg track in Austria. However, on a track drenched by rain, Red Bull, who is leading the World Series by far, drove to victory as usual Max Verstappen.
The start of the race was colorful. The Red Bull that started from the second frame Sergio Perez got a great start and cleared his teammate Verstappen, who left the first grid, in the next corner.
Verstappen claimed the position back at the next corner. Even after this, the teammates fought fiercely for first place.
The Red Bull drivers were also hot on the team radio.
– He pushed me off the track, Verstappen snorted.
– What’s wrong with Max, Perez wondered.
Haas, who started from the fourth grid Nico Hulkenberg benefited from the showdown between the Red Bull drivers and moved past Perez into second. However, Mexican driver Perez overtook Hülkenberg on lap 12 and Ferrari Carlos Sainz a bit later.
Hülkenberg went to get dry angel tires shortly after this and was finally sixth.
The 35-year-old Hülkenberg is one of the series’ most experienced drivers. He has a dubious record: the most race starts (189) without a podium finish.
So a win for Verstappen, Perez was second and Sainz third.
McLaren, who drove excellently in the third place in the sprint time trials Lando Norris was the biggest loser of the start and was ninth in the final results.
Alfa Romeo Valtteri Bottas was the 20th, i.e. the last.
Updated 18.23: Corrected Valtteri Bottas’ ranking.