In Pictures: Austria 2022
The Hills are Alive with the Sound of F1… A week after an extraordinary Grand Prix at Silverstone, Formula One arrived at the Red Bull Ring, the second shortest track of the season, for the second Sprint weekend of the season. This was the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix!
FRIDAY
PRACTICE:
At 13:30 local time, the very important Practice 1 started. Teams and drivers only had these 60 minutes to prepare for the Sprint Race qualifying later that same day.
The Red Bulls, especially, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull have been very strong here, and as expected he went fastest early on.
20 minutes into the session, Lando Norris stopped his McLaren on track, bringing out a red flag. "I'm on fire I need to stop... there's smoke from under my seat so I'd rather get out alright” shouted Norris to his team. He was told to immediately get out of the stranded MCL36.
The, with 22 minutes left in the session, a red flag was shown as there was some debris on track at turn 6. It took about four minutes to clear it and practice resumed.
Practice resumed, and in the end, it was Max Verstappen the fastest, followed by Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Sergio Pérez, and Lewis Hamilton.
QUALIFYING
Q1
Lots of action for the first leg of qualifying. Many drivers having times deleted for ignoring track limit, especially at turn 10 (last turn at the Red Bull Ring). And Ricciardo, Stroll, Zhou, Latifi, and Vettel were knocked out of qualifying.
Q2
Ten of the 15 cars came out immediately to get as much track time as possible. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest time early on.
Exciting last two minutes, with all 15 drivers trying to get into Q3. In the end, Gasly, Albon, Bottas, Tsunoda, and Norris did not make to the next stage.
Q3
The Top-Ten shootout started with the same drivers fighting to be on top. Verstappen winning round 1. Then, Red Flag, Lewis Hamilton crashed heavily at turn 7, destroying his Mercedes. 5:29 left on the clock.
Q3 resumed, And George Russel crashed heavily at turn 10, bringing out another Red Flag. 2:31 left on the clock.
Once again, Q3 resumed, the remaining eight cars came out for a last dash to claim Pole Position at Austria. Fantastic last laps from all of them; what a qualifying session with the top three cars separated by just 0.082 seconds, but it was Max Verstappen setting the fastest lap, a 1:04. 984. Leclerc was second, only 0.029 seconds behind, and Sainz third. Then came Perez, Russell, Ocon, Magnussen, Schumacher, Alonso, and Hamilton.
Later the same day, the stewards penalized Sergio Perez for exceeding track limits during Q2 and deleted all timed laps on Q3, demoting the Mexican from P4 to P13 on the grid for the Sprint race next day.
SATURDAY
PRACTICE
Because of the Sprint race, there were only two one-hour sessions, so teams were eager to test the necessary setups for both races, the Sprint and the Grand Prix.
Cars came out for their respective installation laps, with some doing timed laps right away, and after twenty minutes, only the Alpines of Alonso and Ocon, and the Mercedes of Hamilton hadn’t posted timed laps. After thirty minutes, only Hamilton hadn’t posted a timed lap as his mechanics were working feverishly to repair the W13 after Hamilton’s crash the day before. With fourteen minutes left in the session, Hamilton came out, to the smiles of his delighted fans.
In the end, it was Carlos Sainz the fastest, followed by Leclerc, Verstappen, Alonso, and Ocon the Top-Five.
SPRINT RACE
The formation lap started, and Fernando Alonso did not move as his Alpine was still jacked up and the tire blankets still on. So, after the rest of the grid had passed him, the team mechanics took him to the pits. Then, Zhou’s Alfa Romeo stopped on track a few meters from the grid. He reported his engine just stopped. He restarted his car but was unable to take his position so started from the pitlane as well. Meanwhile, there was another formation lap, and the Sprint was shortened by one lap. Alonso retired from the Sprint race with electrical issues.
Finally, the race started and what a fantastic start, lots of action everywhere. Especially in the back with Hamilton getting sandwiched and touching Gasly’s rear left tire sending him to the air and spinning at the same time. His AlphaTauri ok.
On lap 11 of 23, Vettel was overtaking Albon and was touched in the rear left, sending him off-road at turn 6, but was able to get back, albeit last. Up ahead, Sergio Perez was on a roll, passing everyone in front of his RB18. A bit back, magnificent battle between Hamilton and Schumacher for 8th. Finally on lap 22, Hamilton was able to pass Schumacher. What a show these two gave us.
In the end, it was Max Verstappen winning the Sprint race, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished second and third respectively. Behind them were Russell, Perez, Ocon, Magnussen, Hamilton, Schumacher, and Valtteri Bottas the Top-Ten.
““Tricky with the tires, but it’s a win.” ”
SUNDAY
It was a bit colder than the days prior, and with a thick cloud cover around the Red Bull Ring.
Alpine has used Fernando Alonso's back row start as an opportunity to fit a new power-unit and components to his A522. And Valtteri Bottas had changes to his Alfa Romeo’s rear wing and suspension setup, thus started from the pit lane.
Just over 15 minutes to lights out, Mercedes started to work on a brake issue discovered in Hamilton’s W13. They did the adjustment, bled the brakes, and put the tires back on right on time for the formation lap.
Lots of action after the start, culminating in Perez getting clipped by Russell, sending the Mexican out of the track and into the gravel trap at turn 4. On lap 2 of 71, Perez pitted for new hards, albeit last.
On lap 7, Schumacher passed Hamilton for P7 on the run up to Turn 3. And just as had happened in the Sprint race the day before, the fight between the two drivers started. Hamilton’s problem is that everyone from Ocon in 5th, to Hamilton were within the same second, meaning they all had DRS, making it difficult to overtake within the train.
On lap 11, the stewards informed a 5-second penalty to Russell for forcing a driver (Perez) off-track. Meanwhile, up in front what a fantastic battle between Leclerc and Verstappen, up until lap 12, when the Monegasque dove to the inside taking the lead of the Grand Prix. At the same time, Russell went into the pits, paid his penalty, took a new nose, and a new set of hard tires, coming out in 19th.
On lap 14, Verstappen came into the pits for a new set of hards, coming out in 8th behind Lando Norris.
Finally, on lap 15, Hamilton overtook Schumacher. Next lap, he passed Magnussen’s Haas for fourth place. Magnussen came into the pits for his pitstop. Next lap, Ocon and Schumacher made their respective stops. Hamilton was now third, Verstappen fourth.
On lap 18, Verstappen passed Hamilton, taking third place, more than 20 seconds behind Sainz and leader Leclerc. In the meantime, some epic racing between Magnussen, Norris, Alonso, Schumacher, and Zhou.
On lap 26, Perez retired his RB18 from the race. And Leclerc pitted for new hards, coming out third, just ahead of Hamilton. Sainz follow suit next the lap. The order was Verstappen ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton, and Sainz. Hamilton stopped on lap 29, coming out behind Ocon in 6th; both behind Stroll’s Aston Martin, the only driver yet to make a pitstop. Up ahead, Leclerc was setting fastest laps one after another in his pursuit of Verstappen. On lap 33, Leclerc overtook Verstappen for the lead of the race.
It was now Sainz’s pressure on Verstappen, so on lap 37, Red Bull called Verstappen for another pitstop. He came out in third, a bit ahead of Hamilton.
Leclerc pitted once again on lap 50 for a new set of hards, coming out in third, 3.6 seconds behind Verstappen. Sainz follow suit a lap later, he was now third, behind Leclerc. In the back, Latifi retired his Williams. On lap 52, Hamilton pitted for a new set of yellow (medium) tires. Up ahead, and for the third time in the race, Leclerc passed Verstappen, taking the lead of the Grand Prix. Then, on lap 57, Sainz retired his F1-75 as his power unit let go while trying to overtake Verstappen. The Spaniard stopped but his car caught fire, a VSC was declared. Both Leclerc and Verstappen came into the pits for new yellow tires, both coming out ahead of Hamilton in third. Racing resumed on lap 60.
After a few excruciating final laps reporting throttle issues, Charles Leclerc wins the Austrian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen came in second and Lewis Hamilton in third. Then came the Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell, Ocon, finished fifth in his 100th Grand Prix, and an ecstatic Mick Schumacher in sixth.
Mick was voted Driver of the Day, and Max did the fastest lap, and thus getting the extra point. This was Ferrari’s 242nd win in Formula 1, and Charles Leclerc’s fifth.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM:
““Every win is special, but this one feel just amazing. The last 15 laps were on the limit, incredibly difficult, I had this problem with the throttle, but we brought it home. Today, we had a really strong pace and some great battles. I worked hard last night to find where I could still improve, and it made the difference today. I’m very happy.””
““We were just a bit too slow today, we were doing the best we could with the strategy, but the Ferraris were extremely fast. It was incredible to receive the support I did from the fans this weekend, but I’ve been hearing a few shocking things. It’s clearly wrong and what’s been happening is not right at all - I shouldn’t need to say this on a weekend that should be a celebration of Formula One at our home race.””
““A big thank you to the men and women in the garage who rebuilt the car. We’ve made some improvements this weekend. We just have to keep chipping away””
