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Before the Austrian Grand Prix, it’s time to note some winners and losers from Sprint Saturday
Wet conditions and some bold strategy calls made for an intriguing F1 Sprint race on Saturday at Red Bull Ring. While Max Verstappen was dominant yet again, surviving an early-lap incident with teammate Sergio Pérez to notch yet another win, he was not the only winner on Saturday.
Before we get rolling with the Grand Prix itself, let’s take a look back at the Sprint race with three winners — not named Verstappen — and two drivers who got hit with a bit of bad luck.
Winner: Carlos Sainz Jr.
Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images
When things got underway during the Sprint Shootout, it looked like it was going to be a long day for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was struggling in the wet conditions, and things were even worse for Carlos Sainz Jr. The Ferrari driver radioed into his team that he was having a brake issue, and needed to return to the garage as SQ1 was unfolding.
He only had time for one push lap to advance to SQ2, but he banked the lap he needed, and eventually started the Sprint race in fifth position. He was able to work his way up the field, and finish third for his first podium of the season.
“It wasn’t an easy Saturday but I’m happy to be P3 today after how hectic the start of the day had been, with a brake issue in SQ1 and having only one lap to progress to SQ2! I would have loved to have that set of new Softs in SQ3 but, considering everything, qualifying P5 wasn’t too bad,” said Sainz in the team’s post-race media report. “Then the wet Sprint race was also very challenging. The car was tricky in the high speed sections, but we managed to bring home this third place, which I think was the maximum today.”
Looking ahead to the Grand Prix, Sainz is in position for his second podium of the year as he will start the race in third, behind Verstappen and Leclerc. “Now all our focus is on tomorrow, where I hope we can confirm the good step forward we have made as a team and bring home a good result.”
Loser: Alex Albon
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Albon, who advanced to SQ3 and started the Sprint race in seventh position, but ended his Saturday without any points to show for his efforts.
Despite running in P7 for the bulk of the Sprint race, and ahead of a battle between Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, and Leclerc for P8, a decision late to pit for a set of slicks backfired, and Albon ended up finishing 13th.
“It’s a frustrating way to finish what started as a good sprint race, with a great start,” stated Albon after his finish. “I was comfortable, managing quite a lot with Ocon behind me as he was fighting with Charles, so I had margin to save my tyres with a nice buffer.”
However, the call was made to pit for a set of slicks as the team was expecting more tyre degradation. In hindsight, perhaps that was not the right move.
“We should’ve left him out on the inters but we were expecting more degradation than there actually was,” added Dave Robson, the team’s Head of Vehicle Performance.
Despite the bitter pill of a points-less finish on Saturday, Williams and Albon have a chance to salvage some points in the Grand Prix. Albon will start tenth on Sunday, and points are certainly in the offing. “We now return our attention to the Grand Prix, which looks likely to be held in dry conditions,” added Robson. “Alex qualified well on Friday and we now have another chance of a strong result.”
Winner: George Russell
Perhaps it speaks volumes about how things were shaping up for Mercedes Saturday that George Russell’s eighth-place finish — and singular point — is enough to consider him a winner.
But given how he got there, it does make him one.
With Lewis Hamilton eliminated in SQ1, Russell was the team’s sole representative in SQ2. However, he would start 15th, due to an issue with his hydraulics that saw him unable to set a time in the second session.
As the Sprint race would down, it was Mercedes and Russell who were first to roll the dice on a set of soft tyres. While that required Russell to slide all the way to the back of the field after his pit stop, he quickly charged his way back towards the points. While he eventually finished eighth, he was just 0.009 seconds behind Ocon for seventh, turning what looked like a disaster for the team into a photo finish for even more.
“Conditions today were tricky, so I’m glad we made it from P15 to P8, almost P7. I feel confident driving in these conditions, so all things considered a solid result for us. We’re still far from where we want to be, but I definitely take the positives from today’s sprint. The shootout didn’t really go our way, we were faced with hydraulics issues, which meant we couldn’t run in Q2 and had to start the sprint from the back of the grid,” said Russell after the Sprint race. “There isn’t much to lose in a sprint race but there’s obviously a high risk of damaging the car in these wet conditions we’ve seen today.”
“The focus for us was then to make up ground during the sprint and the team made a perfect call by putting George on slicks at the right time,” added Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff. “We didn’t have anything to lose really at this point, so a brilliant choice by the team to change tyres early. George fought his way back to P8 and finished just thousandths behind Ocon, so our gamble paid off.”
Russell is starting 11th in the Grand Prix, but he is hoping to put together a similar charge through the field on Sunday. And after what he did on Saturday, he might have the confidence to pull it off.
Loser: Lando Norris
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Up until the first lap of the Sprint race, it was shaping up to be a tremendous day for Lando Norris.
Then thanks to a bit of bad luck, the McLaren driver found himself in the middle of the pack, left fighting to get back into the points. Ultimately, he came up short, finishing ninth despite qualifying third.
The issue? Early in the race Norris got caught in some traffic as cars went nearly four wide, and his MCL60 went into anti-stall, which saw him slid back through the field.
“It was a tough race. I had an issue in Turn 3 where I went into anti-stall and unfortunately lost seven positions. It was difficult to make it back up from there, but we did a good job from then on out,” said the McLaren driver after the Sprint race.
Norris elaborated on the anti-stall incident speaking with Sky Sports.
“I just got a bit sideways and I just went into anti-stall, and I was revving at Turn 3. So that cost me everything. I don’t know why it happened. My Turn 3 was OK, I think, [I] obviously got close [to Verstappen and Perez] but I just went into anti-stall so I lost everything,” said the McLaren driver.
“I was basically in neutral just watching everyone drive past.”
Norris was then locked in a fascinating battle to get back into the points, and while others made the decision to pit for soft tyres, he stayed out on the intermediates. While he finished just outside the points, the McLaren driver still believes that was the right call.
“I was happy with the decision to stay out and the pace seemed good, it’s just a shame that the issue in the beginning cost me,” added Norris. “We’re starting in a good position tomorrow, so we will do what we can then.”
As he noted, Norris is starting towards the front in the Grand Prix, on the second row alongside Sainz. Perhaps Sunday will be a better day for Norris and McLaren.
Winners: Aston Martin
It was almost a quiet performance from Aston Martin on Saturday, but when all was said and done, it was a double-points finish for the team, as Lance Stroll came in fourth, with Fernando Alonso just behind him in fifth.
Those points — coupled with struggles from Hamilton and Leclerc — could be big in the long run.
“We had pretty challenging weather for the Sprint events today, but both Lance and Fernando drove faultlessly, and the team managed the conditions well to score nine important points – gaining eight on Mercedes and three on Ferrari,” noted Performance Director Tom McCullough. “The rain showers made for dramatic racing, especially when the track started to dry out, and we had to weigh up the tricky decision of whether to switch to slick tyres.”
Like the teams around them, Aston Martin struggled with the decision over whether to pit for slicks or not late in the race. Ultimately the team kept Stroll and Alonso on the track, and the decision paid off.
“We had a strong race today in Austria and I was pleased with my opening lap. The focus was on managing our tyres through the drying track conditions; the team made a good call with the strategy and judged that well,” said Stroll. “Fourth and fifth is a strong result and we’ll race hard again tomorrow.”
Winner: Sergio Pérez
Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images
It has been a long few weeks for Sergio Pérez, and his Austrian Grand Prix did not get off to the best of starts. He missed media activities on Thursday due to illness, and failed to advance to Q3 on Friday for the Grand Prix after a number of lap times were deleted due to his exceeding track limits.
Saturday, however, was a much better story.
Pérez placed second in the Sprint Shootout, starting alongside Verstappen in the Sprint. The two had a bit of a tussle on the opening lap, but eventually Verstappen charged into the lead followed by Nico Hülkenberg of Haas, sending Pérez back to third.
The Red Bull driver stayed patient — perhaps helped by a Friday night chat with Team Principal Christian Horner — and eventually moved back into second, finishing behind his teammate for his first podium since Miami.
“It was a great team result for all of us. At the beginning, Max and I got a bit closer than we should have, there was a bit of misjudgement from both sides, but we have spoken about it and it is all good,” said Pérez after the Sprint. “Later in the race, after passing Nico in the Haas, it was all about making sure that we made it until the end as the tyres were getting too hot as the circuit dried, but we got the result we wanted.”
“This is a fantastic result for us, a one-two finish at our home in Austria, with both drivers having a strong race. The golden rule we have as a team is race hard and give each other space and there was without doubt some good, hard racing on the first few corners, it was tight but fair, and both drivers settled into the race and had very good pace,” added Horner. “It’s a solid 15 points for the team and hopefully we can carry the momentum into tomorrow’s race.”
Momentum is exactly what Pérez needed after his past few grands prix. His lead over Fernando Alonso has shrunken in recent weeks, and pressure seemed to be mounting on the Red Bull driver. But this, followed up with a strong result in the Grand Prix itself, could be just what the doctor — as in Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko — ordered.
