If in Imola the Red Bull desecrated the house of Ferrari, the Italian team returned the coin to the Austrian team in a circuit in which Max Verstappen seemed unbeatable. But this time there was no double due to a spectacular engine failure by Carlos Sainz in the final part of the race, when he was about to overtake the Dutchman. The image of the Spaniard abandoning the car in the middle of the flames while the security services were vague when it came to putting out the fire made the hair stand on end. Leclerc won, but with less clearance than it seemed due to a problem with the accelerator pedal in the final laps. The Monegasque is already second in the World Cup.
Tire degradation was one of the great enemies of all the drivers on the Red Bull Ring circuit. The teams had planned to go to two stops, but in the end practically all of them had to do three due to the non-consistency of the medium tyres. One of those who suffered the most was Max Verstappen, who starting from pole saw how the two Ferraris were able to overtake him in just thirteen laps. The Dutchman always had to go against it, stopping after being overtaken to go out on new tires and try to make up the distance. Meanwhile, the Ferraris, much more solid, extended the life of their wheels much more than their rivals.
The other drawback was due to the narrowness of the circuit, which caused many drivers to exceed the limits of the track and were penalized with them. Very few escaped the five-second penalty for this reason.
Mexican Sergio Pérez was soon left out of the battle for the podium due to a contact on the first lap with George Russell’s Mercedes that threw him off the track. Without his squire, with serious degradation problems, and with very fast Ferraris, Verstappen could only resign himself to third position. In fact, with 30 laps to go on the radio they warned him that he should concentrate on maintaining position with Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferraris stopped for the last time and came out very close to Verstappen. With 15 laps to go it seemed that it would not be difficult for them to overtake a Red Bull with worn tires. Leclerc did it without complications, but when it was Sainz’s turn, his engine said enough. The Spaniard went off one of the loopholes on the circuit and stopped the car on a slope. He needed to be shod in order to get out. At that moment the car began to burn due to the ineffectiveness of the assistance. Finally the Spanish driver jumped out of the burning and moving car in an image of enormous desperation.
“I was on an uphill, I saw fire in the back of the car and I tried to get out. But the car was going backwards. I called for assistance but I don’t really know why they took so long to come and I had to jump out of the car without it being stopped. We have to see what can be improved in this sense”, lamented Carlos Sainz after the race, who described as “a pity” the “many points that we are losing, a lost opportunity after the good run we had”.
At the same time as Sainz’s breakdown, Leclerc reported a problem with the accelerator pedal of his Ferrari, which kept it pressed and that made his car very difficult to drive. Suddenly, the psychosis was total in the box of the Italian team. Verstappen would try to take advantage of all this, changing tires as he benefited from the virtual safety car that ordered race direction until Sainz’s car was removed. The Dutchman tried until the end, but the Monegasque was able to handle the situation to take the victory.
After them came the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Geroge Russell, who despite not having a great pace per lap at this circuit, benefited from their less degradation to achieve a great result and score good points. They were Ocon (Alpine, Alonso’s partner finished sixth, just ahead of Mick Schumacher. The son of the five-time world champion had the best race of his life with a very competitive Haas this weekend.
For his part, Fernando Alonso, who started in nineteenth position, managed to extend the life of his hard tires and this allowed him to gain many positions right up to the virtual safety car. The Spaniard started in eighth position, but in another unexpected incident, his mechanics did not tighten the left wheel properly and he had to return to the pits. Finally, he finished in tenth position and was able to save a point.
