Max Verstappen has so much to spare, with a 24-second lead with three laps to go, that he allows himself the luxury of stopping, putting on the soft tires and calmly setting out to find the best race lap to score an extra point. This is the insatiable 25-year-old Dutchman, who launched towards his triple championship. At the moment, the Red Bull driver, in addition to accumulating more and more advantage – 81 points over Checo Pérez and 98 over Fernando Alonso -, continues to grow in the ranks of the myths: he is already the fifth winningest driver in history after surpassing the 41 triumphs of the legend Ayrton Senna.
The weekend at the home of his team, a Red Bull Ring dyed orange, could not have been more perfect for Verstappen. He won the four previous tests (free practice, the two classifications and the Sprint), and swept the Sunday race, with the icing on the cake of the best lap in that last move that tested the hearts of Helmut Marko, Christian Horner and the energetic garage. A bad stop, a penalty for exceeding the track limits or a mistake would have thrown the win in the trash. But Max got away with that gesture of ambition, of an enfant terrible who needs strong emotions to not get bored.
He dominated Verstappen from head to toe, from the start on pole to the checkered flag, with the only concession of 10 laps (out of 71 total) in which, after the first stop (v. 24), he hand over the lead to Charles Leclerc. It was ephemeral and circumstantial, because the Dutchman, when he returned to the track, swallowed Sainz without blinking and devoured, like a boa to a mouse, the Monegasque to regain control in the middle of the race. With a diabolical pace, Max again distanced himself enough to make the second stop without giving up the lead and allow himself the third with three seconds… An insulting dominance, as reflected by the almost half a minute that would have put Leclerc in the goal if he hadn’t stopped.
And that the Ferraris showed a step forward in rhythm that made them win the game over Aston Martin and Mercedes. Although this good feeling was tarnished by the civil war that broke out in the Scuderia following the favoritism of the Maranello bosses, who prioritized tactics for the Monegasque driver to the detriment of a very solid Carlos Sainz who was aiming for his first podium
The Madrid player played as a team, obeyed the tactics of Fred Vasseur and held back behind Leclerc. The virtual safety car on lap 14 ruined the race for Sainz. The red strategists made them stop at the same time, so Carlos ate up Leclerc’s slow stop (4.4 seconds) and his own (4.5), and was passed by Norris and Hamilton. “Guys, we should have stayed out”, complained the Spaniard, who, enraged, offered the best laps to get back: he ate Norris, Hamilton and Pérez, and regained 3rd place.
At the second stop he had to serve a 5-second penalty for exceeding the track limits, he dropped to 5th, and had to meet Pérez again. The duel they offered, with eleven turns to go, was brutal, one of the most beautiful. After a fierce resistance from the Ferrari closing the holes, the Mexican imposed the Red Bull’s strength to remove Sainz from the podium.
Five hours after the end of the test, at 9.30 p.m., race management re-arbitrated the result by admitting a protest from Aston Martin because the stewards had not penalized some drivers for exceeding the track limits. They reviewed 1,200 actions and penalized eight drivers, including Sainz with 10s, dropping from 4th to 6th (and Alonso moving up from 6th to 5th), and Hamilton with 10s (from 7th to 8th). Another sad page in the history of F-1.
