Max Verstappen did not hesitate and in Saturday’s sprint in Austin he confirmed his role as the biggest favorite of the weekend. Even though both qualifications brought an extremely even course, Saturday’s sprint took the wind out of our sails a little. Not only was it not the most exciting race of the season, but it also showed that Red Bull will probably dominate the race pace again.
The start of the sprint was relatively calm. Charles Leclerc made an excellent comeback to try to grab the lead from Max Verstappen, but instead lost second at the first corner to Lewis Hamilton, who appeared to be off the track, but the stewards ultimately did not address the incident. Carlos Sainz, who was the only one to choose soft tires, also performed very well and moved to fourth place ahead of the McLaren pilots.
After the riders from the Woking stable, a train lined up in no time, and especially Sergio Pérez and George Russell led the offensive when they both overtook Oscar Piastri in the third round. However, the Brit overtook his opponent behind the white line and the commissioners gave him a five-second penalty. Meanwhile, at the front, Lewis Hamilton showed an unprecedented pace with Mercedes and held on to Verstappen like a pincer, but after a few laps, Red Bull’s superiority was still evident.
In the fifth lap, Pierre Gasly penetrated into the top eight, who also overtook Piastri, and Lando Norris was also in an offensive mood, trying to overtake Carlos Sainz. However, the Spaniard defended himself well and helped his teammate in front of him, who gradually increased his lead. Norris delivered an overtaking maneuver “up” in the tenth lap out of nineteen in total. By this stage, the sprint was going fairly smoothly and Sainz’s struggles on the soft tires were pretty much the only exciting element.
That started Sainz’s slump. The Ferrari driver was unable to stay within DRS range behind Norris and was also overtaken by Sergio Pérez on the eleventh lap. It was George Russell’s turn, but he had a penalty on his account, so he needed not only to overtake Carlos, but also to build a lead of more than five seconds.
The sprint stalled at this point and we saw almost nothing in its second half. Alex Albon in ninth place at the very end tried his best to catch up with George Russell, who was stuck behind Sainz with a five-second penalty. Apart from that, practically nothing has changed in the top eight since the middle of the sprint.
Max Verstappen thus walked to a comfortable victory in the sprint. Lewis Hamilton finished second. Although it initially looked like he might challenge Red Bull, it ultimately failed. Charles Leclerc finished third, to whom the fourth Lando Norris came dangerously close at the end. Sergio Pérez, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly and George Russell completed the top eight. Imagine that Alex Albona missed the last point by a scant three tenths of a second at the end.
As the Sky commentator put it Martin Brundle: “We’ve had some good sprints, but this one is not one of them.” That probably best describes Saturday’s events in Austin.
2023-10-21 22:52:30
#Red #Bull #find #challenger #sprint #Verstappen #finish #Magazine #F1online.sk
